#but whatever I just have to survive tomorrow and we’re finally leaving on Saturday

[emmaspolaroid]

dads who are Annoyed they have to be parents are my mortal enemies forever and ever

[ellie-e-marcovitz]

April 1999 - New Zealand

1 April 1999

New Zealand Ministry of Magic, Wellington

It was with a ‘thud’ I arrived in the international arrivals area at the New Zealand Ministry of Magic. Pain erupted up my left leg as it met whatever was underneath the grass.

Pushing myself up the best I could, I pulled out my phone. Dead. The amount of magic it had been around probably drained the battery. Hopefully, Eileen had gotten the message I’d sent during lunch.

Finally managing to get to my feet, a quick glace told me everything had managed to stay together.

“Welcome to New Zealand!” came a far too chipper voice to my right, and I bemusedly took in the figure standing there. “I’m Brian Redpath.”

He looked more like an airplane pilot or steward than a ministry official, though the dancing figures decorating his tie more than confirmed that he was.

“How long will you be here?” He asked, settling in at his desk. I stole a glance at the calendar sitting on the desk facing out. April 1st.

“Erm…” Ii rubbed my head. “Monday afternoon at the latest, so… Four… days? Sounds about right…”

“Visiting family?” he continued, jotting down something on a piece of parchment. I nodded. “And any restricted items?” I shook my head. That I had been very careful about.

“Please fill out the rest of the form, then you’re free to go.”

Filling out the rest of the details, I scribbled down the candy I’d brought to share, before scribbling my signature at the bottom. Tapping my wand at the bottom sealed it.

Finding the exit, I took in my surroundings. The ministry appeared to be set within the grounds of the muggle parliament here, not dissimilar to London.

As I made my way towards the street, I caught sight of a familiar, red-headed figure standing next to a shiny jaguar. “Ellie!” she cheered, waving her hand. “You made it!”

I hurried over the best I could, Eileen hurrying towards me as well. “Oh, am I glad to see you!”

A teasing smile flitted across her lips. “You must be really out of it, El.” She joked, taking my suitcase. “Oof, what’s in this? Bricks?”

I snorted a laugh. “What d’you think? Plenty of books and some candy to share with the family, along with some clothes for the next few days.”

We shared a laugh before making our way over to the jaguar. I noticed a familiar Pride of Portree scarf on the front seat as I slid in.

“Andre’s been here?” I asked, picking up the scarf to move it as Eileen got in. She blushed, but said nothing on it.

“We’re going to have to portkey up to Auckland,” she said instead. “I know it’s not entirely your favourite way to go…”

“It’s not as bad if it’s the car.” I noted. “Whiplash is the only problem.”

“Then buckle up,” Eileen ordered. “Because I’m not spending eight hours on the road again.” I shuddered in response and clicked it in place.

Another gut pull and we were at a road stop near Auckland, blinking in the sunlight. Twenty or so minutes later, we pulled into the drive of her house.

“…So mum and dad should be here, either tomorrow or Saturday. Elliott said he’s coming tomorrow…”

“Which means he’s on his way here already.” I deadpanned, still feeling the extreme time difference.

Suitcase extracted, we headed inside. Stepping in, it took more than a little willpower to just leave my suitcase and not crash face first on the bed.

Instead, I recharged on the couch, before Eileen dragged me out to the local grocery store for both some snacks for me and items for Easter. There were plenty of interesting things on the shelves and, between the both of us, managed to pick out a couple.

Getting back to Eileen’s, dinner was eaten and I crashed not long after, routine be damned. There was no way I was going to be able to stay up anywhere close to my usual time.

Elliott arrived the next morning, somehow surviving the brutal time change like a champ.

It also turned out that he and our parents had coordinated their arrivals.

We had just enough time to grab something to eat, before mum and dad arrived in not much better shape than I had been. A round of hugs, and we ended up walking along the quayside area, before cramming ourselves into Eileen’s car. It was a tight fit for the four of us and what luggage was brought.

At least I’d brought Andre’s scarf inside the night before. I figured Eileen wasn’t much in the mood for questions while playing taxi driver for the rest of the family.

Of course, who should be waiting for us at Eileen’s, but Jacob and Olivia, both of whom appeared just as exhausted. We all tumbled out of the car, eager to greet the unexpected arrivals.

The rest of my time in New Zealand passed in something of a blur. We spent Saturday exploring some, mainly around Auckland, and even managing to find spots that Eileen hadn’t seen yet. Mum even managed to drag us all out on a grocery run with only minor complaints.

Easter was peaceful enough, in that, no one was outright demanding that I go. Jacob, Eileen and I all went out for a quiet breakfast instead, before finding a lone bookstore daring to be open. I would’ve liked a little extra sleep, but enjoyed the company of my siblings none the less.

Mum, dad and Elliott were all back by the time we got back to Eileen’s. Mum was in the kitchen, as was dad, bouncing between the countertops, the oven and the stove. Olivia also hovered at the edge of the kitchen, tossing a salad of some kind.

While me and Eileen had decided on a ham earlier in the week, mum had grabbed a cut of lamb during the family run on the grocery store.

Monday was far more chaotic.

Having noted that I intended to leave in the afternoon, the ministry had dispatched an owl with a reminder. Nice as you will, merely asking to not overstay too long.

I think I burned it, not before groaning and texting Charlie to expect me in the next few hours. Mum packed me a bag of leftovers, mainly the lamb and a fruit salad she’d put together, which I put in my bag.

There were rounds of “see you laters” and hugs, before Elliott appariated us down to Wellington. He was leaving later in the day, only needing to get back before Tuesday morning in Britain. He’d also frequently visited the New Zealand ministry while hiding out here.

I turned my phone off before entering the ministry, not needing it to go dead while using the portkey again. Following Elliott, I gaped at the visitor’s entrance. It looked almost like a futuristic tube station.

Completing the wand check, we passed through security and headed down to the international portkey arrivals and departures area.

Checking out, I headed over to the open area. Shoving the beach ball into the box, I pulled out the other object: an empty flour bag. Grabbing my things, I waved one last time.

“la Roumanie,” I muttered, and with a sharp tug, I was off.

Romania

[anna-justice]

like i’m gonna lose you

summary: my take on the fall out of 8x16.

read on a03 

...

“Get your hands off of me” 

Hailey stirred in her chair, her grip on Jay’s hand tightening a bit. They couldn’t bring themselves to care about appearances as they sat in the waiting room of MED, anxiously awaiting news on Kim. Hailey had dozed off on Jay’s shoulder pretty quickly, not that he minded. He was sure she had had a rough few hours, despite her vague responses. 

“You knew exactly what to expect when you came here.” 

There was a soft moan from beside him and Jay looked down to find his girlfriend’s eyebrows laced together. Her knee shook slightly, grabbing his attention. “Hailey?” He whispered, earning no response. 

“This is what it feels like.”

Hailey flinched hard in her sleep, her bottom lip beginning to quiver, Jay’s heart dropped into his stomach. She was having a nightmare. He shifted slightly, bringing his free hand to her hair and tightening his grip on her hand. “I’m here Hailes, come back to me.” He said softly in her ear as he ran his fingers through her hair. 

The movement startled her, causing her to flinch again. “I saw.” She muttered - still asleep - a stray tear falling down her cheek, “I saw-” Before Jay could react, she shot up, grabbing the attention of too many people around her. 

Jay’s hand immediately found her shoulder, “Hey, you’re good. It was just a dream, you’re safe.” He took note of the half nod she gave him, the fake smile, the way her blue eyes were clouded with tears. Hailey looked down at their intertwined hands, pulling hers close to her body. “Hailey?” He asked, a little hurt. 

She looked like she had seen a ghost, and honestly, she felt like she had. The only way to describe the feeling in the pit of her stomach was absolute terror: she was scared that Voight would walk through the sliding glass doors, she was scared of what she had become, she was scared of what Jay would think of her. She was absolutely terrified of the shell of a person he would leave behind when he finally came to his senses and walked away. “I-uh-I,” She stuttered, standing slowly, “I need some air.” She barely got the words out before running out of the building. 

Jay stood to follow her, he had always been good at giving her space, letting her handle things on her own first, but this was killing him. She was spiraling, he could see it. She had spotted it in him so many times before. He was sick of standing on the sidelines while she fought alone but she wouldn’t let him in, not this time. And as much as he wanted to be her husband, he knew the proposal was only a product of whatever the hell had happened, he just never got the chance to ask what that was. 

“I don’t want to be without you.” Hailey said, her sad eyes locked on his. He knew (or at least he thought he knew) what she was getting at. He remembered the way he felt when she was kidnapped, he remembers the panic that set in on her face when he was shot. 

Jay felt the tears forming in his own, squinting a bit. It almost wrecked him to see her like this, so scared of losing what they had. He understood, he felt the exact same way, but it was different. He knew that no one else had ever stayed for her, no one else every cared, and he was determined to be the one that did. “You’re not gonna be.” He said, because how the was he supposed to say everything that he tried to push into those 4 little words? How could he make her believe that she was it for him? 

Hailey searched his face for any sign of regret or inconsistency, but she found none. Somehow though, she still wasn’t one hundred perfect sure. She couldn’t bear to lose him, she wouldn’t survive it. How could she ever feel secure when she had so much to lose? The second the thought crossed her mind, the words tumbled from between her lips, shocking her as much as him. “Maybe we should get married.” 

Jay looked at her blankly, obviously in shock. She could see it all over his face, he couldn’t believe what she was saying, she couldn’t either. “I’m serious, let’s get married.” 

In a split second, Jay saw it all. The life they would have: the white wedding, the lazy saturdays, the holidays, the kids, the house, the dog, the years they would spend growing old together, the family trips to the cabin. He saw it all, and it was in reach. He never believed that he would could have any of it, but with Hailey, he wanted everything. He would marry her tomorrow, but not like this. Not when the love of his life was standing in front of him so broken down that the only way she thought she could keep him was through a meaningless certificate. 

Hailey watched his smile fade, causing the panic to set in. “Jay, we can elope. We don’t have to wait. We can fly to Mexico or Hawaii or anywhere. Hell let’s do it here, I just want to be with you-”

“Hailey, breathe.” He said delicately, placing his hand on her cheek to keep her grounded. He leaned in, kissing her gently before pulling away to look her in the eyes, which were focused on anything but his. “Look at me, please.” She did - reluctantly - taking a deep breath when she realized his soft smile had reappeared. “I love you. And I will love you for the rest of my life. Nothing is going to change that. All I want to do is be with you, please believe me.” 

Hailey shook her head, tears beginning to fall. “I love you so much-” 

“Baby, tell me what’s going on. I want to help. Let me help you.” He was practically begging her.

She shook her head again, “Jay,” She gasped, “I can’t. Not until you say yes. I need you-” 

Suddenly, his phone began to ring. If it was any other day, he would ignore it, but today was not any other day. “It’s Kev.” 

Jay talked quietly on the phone for a minute or two. Hailey took the time to compose herself, to prepare for the worst: the end of her relationship. By the time Jay turned back around the light in her eyes was gone and there was a fake smile on her face, one that only he could see through. “Is she okay?” Hailey asked.

“Uh yeah, he just wants us to come so that he can go switch with Adam.” Hailey nodded, grabbing her phone off the table along with her keys. He cautiously followed her to the door. “We’re gonna be okay Hailes, no matter what.” He said, knowing full and well that this conversation was far from over. 

Hailey nodded, “I know.” The left the apartment, and Hailey did her best to ignore the feeling of dread deep in her chest, but it was inescapable. No one could walk away clean from she had done, not her, not even Voight. 

Hailey leaned against the wall outside of MED, trying to catch her breath. Her heart was racing and her eyes were burning, she clenched them shut to dull the ache, but every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was a gun pointed in her face. 

“Just because your stomach can’t handle it.” 

Hailey gagged, doubling over and leaning against the concrete wall. 

“Cause you’re scared.” 

She emptied the content of her stomach into the grass, choking and coughing violently as tears continued to stream down her face. Her vision clouded again, images of Voight’s face splattered with blood as he approached her running through her head. It felt so familiar. 

Maybe it was her father’s reappearance in her life, but she felt like she was a child again. Hiding behind the couch or in her room, him screaming at her and her brothers as they ran scared. Her past was taunting her, like it was trying to prove to her that she would never be rid of it. That history would always repeat itself. 

Jay followed her, watching from the doorway as she threw up. He rushed to her, “Hailey-” His hand touched her shoulder and she gasped, pulling away quickly and facing him, her arms shielding her face. Jay took a step back, caught off guard by the terror clearly shown on her face. She was frozen, panting hard.

“I-I’m sorry-I,” She said softly, slowly bringing her hands down to her sides. Jay watched as her gaze fell to the ground, his heart dropping into his stomach. He took a cautious step forward. “I’m not, I’m not afraid of you, I-” 

Jay’s expression softened, “I know, I know. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He was hurt, sure, but this wasn’t about him. It was so much bigger than him. 

Hailey wasn’t sure what emotion was more overwhelming: the fear, the guilt or the physical pain she felt in her chest. He looked so defeated, and it was her fault. He thought she was afraid of him. 

He took another step forward, “Can I?” He motioned to his outstretched hand, holding it out to her. Hailey nodded, slipping her hand into his. He slowly pulled her into to him, her arms snaking around his waist and her cheek pressed against his chest. She took a deep breath, instantly calming her. “Hailey?” She hummed in response. “Can you please tell me what happened? You’re starting to scare me.” 

Hailey took a step back, looking him straight in the eye, memorizing the way they were looking at her, in case it was the last time they ever showed that much love. She nodded, grabbing his hand and pulling him to a bench further away from the hospital. This was the last place she wanted to tell him, but he obviously couldn’t wait any longer, he shouldn’t have to. She couldn’t be selfish with him. 

They sat down, facing each other. Hailey let her hand fall out of his, folding hers in her lap. “Voight did find a lead.” She said, shrugging. “Ruzek and I didn’t know, he gave us the legit addresses. Adam, he um, he kind of lost it so I told him to go be with Mackayla, and he did. So, I went to find Voight.” 

Jay’s eyebrows were cinched together, listening intently. “He was at some warehouse, he had Roy. I walked in and he, uh he, he pulled his gun on me.” Jay’s jaw clenched, but he kept his cool (barely), letting her continue. “He was beating information out of Roy, then you radioed that you found Kim, but-but he was going to kill him anyway. We fought.” Hailey took a breath, but continued to ramble, “I convinced him to bring him in. I wanted to do it the right way, we were going to do it the right way, like you. I wanted to do it right, like you, Jay. But then, then-then he reached for Voight’s gun and, Jay I swear he was going to shoot Voight, so I-” Hailey choked out a sob, unable to look her partner in the eye. 

Jay slid his hands in Hailey’s lap, wrapping them around hers. Hailey’s head shot up, shock written all over it, “So you shot him, to protect your Sargeant.” Jay finished for her. She risked her career to protect him even though Voight had no care for hers.

Hailey shuddered, “I promise, I tried. I told him to drop the weapon. I saw him, he had the gun in his hand. I wanted to do it right.” 

“Shhh,” Jay said, pulling her to him. “It was a good shoot Hailes, you did it right.” He held her as her tears soaked his shirt, running a hand through her hair. He was trying to soothe her, but he was seething. He couldn’t believe Voight had put her in that situation. Voight had been on the job a long time, he knew better than to come into close contact with a violent offender with an exposed weapon. 

Once he wrapped his brain around his anger, it hit him. 

“No Jay, not until you say yes.”

Hailey was scared that he would blame her, or leave her over this. He held her a little tighter, his own tears gathering in his eyes as he held her. “I love you.” He whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m not going anywhere.” 

That grabbed Hailey’s attention. She peered up at him, her blue eyes filled with tears and hope. “Really?” She asked quietly, her voice breaking. 

Jay nodded, not trusting his own voice. He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. Hailey’s eyes fluttered closed, this time, no flashbacks plaguing her mind. His hand settled on her cheek, brushing his thumb over her cheek. Jay pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. “Really,” He whispered 

There was a cough beside them, and Jay looked up first. Hank Voight was standing before them. “How’s she doing?” He asked. 

Hailey stared at him in shock. He looked like he always did. He was no longer wearing his tactical gear and his face was no longer splattered with blood. He was Voight, like nothing had happened. For a split second Hailey envied him, his ability to walk away unscathed, like it was any other Wednesday night and the only thing wrong was Kim’s life was hanging in the balance. Then she looked at Jay, whose jaw was clenched and his eyes were stuck on sergeant. He was just as strong, maybe even stronger, and he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. If he could do it, so could she. 

Jay stood, looking like a force to be reckoned with. “You need to leave.” 

Voight scoffed, quickly glancing at Hailey, “Excuse me.” 

“You heard me Sarge, leave. Now.” Jay said. His voice staying low, but intimidating nonetheless. 

“I have a right to be here Jay, to see Burgess,” Voight said, his words becoming louder as he took a step forward. 

“Then go, be the leader you’re supposed to be, but don’t you dare go near her.” Hailey’s breath caught in the back of her throat, her heart swelling at the sight in front of her. Voight glared at Jay, nodding shortly. Jay took another step forward, so that their faces were level, “And if she is brought into this, in any way, I will bury you.” He never raised his voice, or made any move to physically escalate the situation. The last thig he wanted to do was scare Hailey more than she already was. 

“Understood,” Voight said, with a trace of venom that could have been deadly. 

They parted ways, Voight entering the hospital doors and jay turning to face his girlfriend, who had been silent. “Are you okay?” He asked. 

Hailey nodded, “Yeah, I’m okay.” She met his concerned gaze. “Thank you.” 

Jay gave her a soft smile, “Of course.” She glanced between him and the hospital doors, a nervous look on her face. Jay held out his hand, which she gladly took. “Come on, we can come back in the morning.” 

Hailey sighed in relief, standing. He guided them down the sidewalk, wrapping his arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her temple. “Let’s go home Hailes.” 

“Hold on.” Hailey said, her anxiety getting the best of her again. She turned to face him, their eyes locking. She felt tears gather in eyes once again at the look in his, the one she had memorized, that she had prayed would never disappear. She smiled as he eyed her. “Ok, I’m good.” She grabbed his hand, pulling him in the direction of his truck. “Let’s go home.” 

…

A/N: I couldn’t help myself, I had to haha. I can’t believe the premieres are only a month away! Thanks for reading <3

[cosmiclatte28]

Steal My Girl (jaehyun x you)

a/n : Am I posting too much Jaehyun fic? Anyways it is February and I associate him with February (despite there are other members having Feb as their bday too! miannnn)

ALSO HAPPY JAEHYUN DAY EVERYONE!!! 

warning : none :D safe to read for all age! drink moderately and be responsible

enjoy................................

“Hey um sorry to bother you,” Mark pops his head into your room.

You turn your head to look at him, eyebrows rising to ask him why.

Mark scratches his neck and you pause the music jamming into your ears. You drag your earphone down and ask the “troubled” man on your door frame.

“Umm Jaehyun is drunk again, and he called me to pick him up.” Mark explains slowly, you nod and wait for him to continue, “Are you busy?”

You glance at the clock, it’s almost nine and tomorrow is Saturday. You don’t really have anything coming soon, you finished your work for this week already.

“Nope not busy, why?” You finally tackle Mark down to the big question mark you had in your head.

Jaehyun is drunk and yeah what does Mark needs?

“You know I still cannot drive, and Johnny is on the party too drunk. Taeyong has passed out since his first cup and I don’t know who else can I ask help for.”

You smirk and shake your head, what a silly request!

However, Mark is still your cousin and Jaehyun is the man you treasure.

“Funny how Jaehyun called you instead of me! Did he forget you cannot drive yet.” You stand up to change your clothes and Mark doesn’t need a second order to change too.

“You’re sitting beside me! I am not dealing with the drunk men!” You put on a jacket and grab the key, wallet, and phone.

You made it to the party house, Mark quickly fetching his three drunk brothers and you just stay back. You’re not coming in.

The last man to enter the car is Jaehyun. You did not know how Mark made the three big men sit on the back compartment of your car, but here we are!

“Woaah we’re suddenly in a car! Who called the cab? Why is the service so nice…” Taeyong blurs off laughs and words, “Even the driver is pretty!”

You roll your eyes, why would Tae drinks if he knows he is this bad with alcohol.

“Hey she’s (y/n)! Dummy… keep quiet Yong, or else you’ll puke.” Johnny pushes Taeyong’s head to the other side. Well Taeyong needs to sit between the two men and he’s already leaning to Johnny.

“Ah it’s you sweetie! Sorry for going out again without you…” Jaehyun reaches for your shoulder from the back seat. You’re used to this, even though you two are dating, you don’t always join him on his parties.

“Driving her boyfriend home safely, check!” Jaehyun giggles in his unconscious state.

__

“Bae, help me with this calculus homework!!” Jaehyun once knocked on your apartment you share with Mark. He barged in one evening after you and Mark finished dinner, in a messy hair and crumpled math paper.

You nicely offered him dinner and brought him to sit on the dining table. Mark served him snacks and water, while you calmly taught him how to work on the problems. Step by step, well while reviewing too, since he was on the same class as you.

After working on the homework and Jaehyun could answer ten sets of question by himself, you let him go.

“Thanks girl! You’re the perfect lover!”

Teaching and tutoring your boyfriend? Check!

__

 “Babe, sorry to disturb you again…” Jaehyun’s voice appears softer and you know he is going to ask you a favor with this tone.

You glance from your homework, sparing only an eyebrow to him and he grins “I lost some buttons on the way home.” He shows you his button up shirt that lost three buttons.

You raise your brow, “Did you fight?”

He scratches his pink hair, “Well, someone mocked Doyoung and Taeyong, so I taught them some lessons.”

Only then did you notice, he has a small bruise on his face and a ripped lip.

You quickly stand up and grab his cheeks, checking for any other scratches on his pretty face. Jaehyun giggles when he sees your worried face.

You pick up the first aid kit and sit down on the sofa with Jaehyun by your side. “You should stop fist fighting sweetie, you don’t want to end up in the police office. I don’t have enough money to bail you out.” You roll your eyes and laugh, trying to make him laugh too.

Jaehyun smirks, “Haha yeah I know that, but you will find a way.”

You press on his scar and he winces, “Stop playing around.” You snap at him.

After taking care and bandaging his wounds, you finish your homework while Jaehyun sits on the sofa compressing his body.

You clean up your stuffs and finally walk to take your sewing kit, “Do you still have your buttons?”

He shakes his head, “Gone.”

You smirk, “Sorry, the only one I have are these,” you show him a set of cute pink buttons.

Jaehyun’s mouth drop, “You want me to wear that?”

You frown, “Well you lost your buttons. That is your button up, you go buy your own buttons.”

He sighs, “Fine…”

You smile secretly, “I’ll fix it later, wash this first.” You toss it to him and he lazily walks to the laundry basket and bring his dirty laundries with him to the washing room.

He goes back to the room with a happier face, saying he met Doyoung and Taeyong doing their laundries and got treated to some coffee. You just nod and the night goes on.

Only on the next morning did Jaehyun greets you with a spin and a kiss.

“When did you fix my shirt? Gosh thanks! You really are a perfect girl! Love you!!” he kisses you happily and you just nod your head.

Well, he slept early last night and you nicely sew his three buttons back with a normal button. You have them, you just want to tease him.

“Taking care of boyfriend and sewing clothes, check!”

__

 “Sorry I am late!” Jaehyun appears wet under the rain, and you just shake your head at the boy who is stranding in the front porch of your college building drenched in rain water.

“Forgot your umbrella again?” you calmly lead him into your college hall. Well, he promised to attend the exhibition with you, but here he is drenched in rain.

“I lend it to an old lady, she was stuck in the supermarket and I passed by.” He tries his best to squeeze the water out of his shirt.

You dig into your bag and toss him your sweater, “Lucky I brought your sweater. Go change, at least you won’t fall sick.”

His pants are wonderfully wet, but that guy managed to half dry it on the toilet.

“Secretly has a back up for boyfie, check!” Jaehyun grins to himself.

--

The list goes on, the number of incidental and accidental moments pile up. But always whatever happen, you always have a solution for him. With your calm personality, you just shake your head in disbelieve and like magic, you are able to give him a solution.

“Yow Jae, tell us how are you still surviving college at this rate?” Johnny asks his friend on a Saturday boys night.

Jaehyun looks away from the TV screen and spare a glance on his friend, “Survive? What do you mean?”

Doyoung groans at his slow wit, “That slow wit, fights, constant good scores despite you sleeping in class, and many more drunk nights.”

Taeyong has already shifted his attention too from the screen to the young man in pink hair.

“Share the secret please!” Yuta chimes in.

Jaehyun thinks for awhile, trying to answer all the questions proposed to him suddenly.

“Um… I think I survived and still live today because of (Y/n).” he shrugs his shoulder.

The four men groan and sigh, “RIGHT! How can we forget your super girlfriend!”

“You’re right (y/n) is the one who takes care of me! It’s like any problem I have… she has the solution.” Jaehyun realizes.

Doyoung lets out a huff, “Where can we get one?”

“I lowkey want to steal her when she picks us up on the club at night!” Johnny winks, which earns a pout from Jaehyun

“I want her more when Jaehyun said she sew his clothes at night when he lost three buttons. Gosh Jaehyun you’re really pampered, she does everything for you!” Taeyong punches Jaehyun’s shoulder playfully.

Jaehyun stays silent, his friends’ words coming in and out of his ear like that, but his head is slowly playing all of the memories and times he asked for your help and you’re always there. You always leave everything behind and help him, but has he done the same thing for you? Doubt.

“Aigo she is perfect! Can I just steal her? I believe I can be a better man,” Yuta laughs, and the other men laugh too but that earns him a loud smack on the head from Jaehyun.

“CALM DOWN! MY HEAD! YOU PUNCHED ME FULL POWER!” Yuta rubs his pounding head and sees fire in Jaehyun’s eyes

“No one is stealing her! She is mine, and fyi you cannot find anyone else like her in this world.” Jaehyun smiles with proud, “She is one of a kind, and if you find someone else like her, she belongs to me.”

end

lol wouldn’t this be cool if there is a tiktok trend for this? 

“helping boyfie do calculus,check!”

“helping boyfie sew buttons? check!”

byee author is just out of her mind

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

A Little Bit Like Home

You moving to school has been tougher than Calum would like to admit but there are some moments that make it easier to bear, there are small moments where it’s not so bad. 

A continuation of these two blurbs (Blurb 1 and Blurb 2) Again it’s hella self indulgent. Inspired what really happened to me in my DnD campaign, see this post.  

**Contains spoilers for the Waterdeep Heist from Dungeons & Dragons if you are currently playing that module!!!**

Enjoy my masterlist!

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___________

“Can I make a perception check on the walls? See if there’s anything else funky in this room?” you ask, clicking over in your browser tab to the dice roller. The DM allows you to make that call and you click on the d20. 

“Your the only one rolling well on those things tonight,” one member of your party, playing an Orc sent out to learn magic and getting packed in with your ragtag group, notes after their failed attempt to pick the lock. You managed to pick that that too, but you chalk it up to you being a Drow Rogue and lock picking being one of your skills. 

“18,” you call out, looking back at your character sheet to make sure you’ve done the math correctly. 

“18?” The DM asks, just to be sure. You nod. “Okay, so you look around the room and there’s not really anything worth noting besides some dirt and blood. But no traps, no buttons in this room.”

“This room,” the entire party echoes laughing. The six of you have just survived barely a lightning trap. Which you still refuse to admit to setting up, but it was definitely you since as the marching order had you in front. 

“We’re going to have to go back to that mimic room,” the paladin of your group declares. Your party was warned that the room at the start of your adventure in this hell of a magic maze could be a trap and a mimic could be in the depths of it. But there was a chest still yet to be opened. However, you took the advice of your Orc and backed out of that room to avoid a fight just yet. 

Your previous encounters in other rooms leaving some of your party is better shape than others. This early in your adventure together the five of you didn’t really want to risk loosing anyone just yet. Lightening and your pirates love of ale seemed to be your only foe at the moment. 

“We should maybe just see what’s in here first,” Calum, playing as a Druid, counters. “Though it seems like if we find yet another key to a door that’s already been picked, it’s might be useless.” 

You know the tease is directed at you. “Hey, look here buddy, I will not hesitate to shoot a quiver into your ass. I see a lock I’m going to pick it,” you defend. 

“Besides,” your party’s pirate starts, “we’ve ducked a lot of rooms afraid of getting into another fight. If they pick a lock or two and we find the key later, at least we can add to the Bard’s collection.”

“Thank you,” you laugh. 

Soon your party’s able to direct their attention back on the adventure and magic maze you’ve found yourself in. You and Calum end up smashing mirrors in a room to avoid any sort of magic in them that would cause your party to fight your soul doubles. This leads to a five minute debate of how to leave said room that didn’t involve shoving the unicorn that your party was tasked with finding up someone’s ass due to a riddle unveiled, Everything you see is mine.

“Wait,” you say, laughing at the argument about who can fit the unicorn into their mouth. It was deemed to be more dignified. Your pirate waits outside the room, still naked thanks to the magic that rips all the clothes, weapons, and armor off of anyone that attempts to leave the room. “Everything you see is mine. If the mirrors are smashed, then nothing can be seen right?”

“No, shards can be face up, so technically things can be seen,” the party’s Bard counters. 

“No, no, you’re onto to something,” the pirate starts. 

“Oh my god, we’re so fucking dumb,” the orc hollers. “Someone cover their eyes. You means us. Anything we can see can’t leave the room.”

Thankfully, you’re still dressed having only attempted to leave the room and letting others continue with their naked escapades. “Holy shit,” you shriek as you direct to your DM how you cover your face with your hood and hold it tight around your eyes so you can’t see anything and step through the door. You’re able to cross completely clothed, swords, crossbow, and pack still in tact. 

“We’re so fucking STUPID,” you laugh. 

Calum’s giggle cuts through the speakers of your laptop. “How were we so prepared to just be fucking naked through the rest of this maze?” He directs to the DM that he redresses, having also attempted several times to brute force the magic door with no success. 

“We never speak of that,” the orc demands through their own laughter. “Never.”

The party comes to a stopping point about another hour later, saying goodbyes before leaving the Zoom meeting. Not even thirty seconds later after ending that call, an incoming FaceTime call comes from Calum. You answer it, wiping at the corner of your eyes. He’s grinning as the call finally connects. The weekend that Calum came up to visit, a friend in the cohort asked you if you’d be willing to going a beginner’s campaign. You had wanted to give the game a whirl but you knew it would be a time suck and asked if it was okay to bring someone else along too. 

After getting a yes from the DM you know you had to convince Calum to join in. It took less effort than you thought for him to join in and the two of you spent a couple hours the night before picking out your characters before you emailed the information back to the DM. Now every Saturday night you and Calum spend about three hours in a Zoom getting into all sorts of trouble. He settled easily on the Druid but spent forever trying to find an artist rendering of his character, Okolian, that felt right. Long black hair with streaks of white was a must along with a single braid as well, which he stole from your character’s look though your hair is all white. 

Slowly, it was decided that Okolian would have blue skin muscular, but not overly buff and refused to wear sleeves in order to wear leather arm bands around his biceps which could easily be mistaken for tattoos or markings of his people. Okolian prefers his staff but is also armed with a sickle and mace. The Calum touch of course was to add ferns rather than feathers. 

“I can’t believe you were going to let me be the one to have to figure out the unicorn,” Calum teases. 

“Hey, it was only six inches. Not that bad.”

He sputters his laughter. “Is that payback for calling you out for picking all the locks?”

“I would never do such a thing but maybe.” 

“Anything else on the agenda for tonight?”

“No not really. Whatever work there is out in the world, I’ll get to it tomorrow. What about you? The night’s still young.”  

Calum shrugs. “A friend was supposed to get back to me about drinks tonight,  but I haven’t heard anything yet. If he gets back within the hour or so, I’ll probably tag along but if not, it’s not a big deal. But you never did tell me about last night. How’d that go?”

You cover your face for a second, remember how many drinks were consumed the night previously. Calum laughs at the slightly panicked look that crosses your face. “There was two drinks too many past my usual limit and I felt it. Big time,” you answer. 

He’s glad to hear you getting out more. It’s in turned made him feel a bit better about getting back to his normal routine, getting dinner more with the guys or other friends. Missing you doesn’t hurt so bad anymore for Calum. He feels most often right before he’s going to bed, when he’d normally curl up into your side and open his arms wide for you to curl up into him. But it hurts less during the day. 

Getting used to the cohort and getting out a couple Friday’s in the month has helped you as well. You don’t feel so chained to your phone, don’t feel so beholden to being there for every text right away. It’s still hard when you start to cook dinner and almost reach out for a second plate still by habit. And in the morning when you’re fixing your cup of coffee your brain still wants to pull down a second cup. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you just give in because you need it. Need to let yourself sit with those feelings. 

“I’ll be sticking with cider after last night,” you tease. “Wine makes me myself too much. Never doing that again.”

Calum’s been privileged to see you wine drunk a couple of times and he can already imagine the type of trouble you nearly got yourself in. “Is your picture on the wall at the bar?”

“Not that bad, but close,” you giggle. 

“What am I going to do with you?” 

It’s just a joke but for a moment it makes you pause--what’s going to happen when you go back for break? Are things going to be different? Most of your clothes and things are still there though slowly more and more has been shipped to you. Is Duke going to remember you? Miss you too?

“Promise me the house isn’t too different?”

Calum furrows his brows, head titling just a little to the side. “What do you mean, baby?”

“Like without me, is it all going to be different when I come back?”

“It’s all pretty much the same here. Duke’s the king of the castle. Still have plenty of hoodies for you to steal and your side of the bed still misses you. I still miss you.”

“No, I--I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like I don’t want you to find ways to cope but I don’t know. What if it never feels right? Like so much has been missed that I just won’t ever fit in again?”

Calum shakes his head. “Babe, no. You still belong. Your shoes still have space in the closet. Your mugs still sit in the cabinets. There is so much of you still here--it’s how I get through the days.”

Maybe that’s what’s rough for you. There’s not much of Calum at your place. There’s none of his dirty laundry that’s halfway hanging of laundry baskets and there’s no bass rumbling and there’s snoring next to you at night. It’s all you, which is nice. But you wish you had a little bit of Calum too. 

“There’s none of you here,” you say softly. 

“I can fix that.” It’s a steady confidence, a nod of his head at statement. “Don’t you worry.”

You two steer the conversation to something lighter before you call it a night. And it’s harder to get up the next morning, to peel yourself out of the sheets. But you do it, you push up with a grunt and get your day started. Coffee, a quick bowl of cereal and fruit. You call Calum right before lunch to check in and then get back to work. 

As the days pass, the conversation the ache gets buried in some stress. However, you get a text about a package to get from the lockers at the front of your complex so shuffle down the path thinking it’s the new mattress pad you ordered. It shipped late last week but you hadn’t expected it to arrive this soon. 

As the door swings open to the locker you spy Calum’s handwritten on the label of the package. What the hell had be gone and done? You pick up the box and kick the door close with your foot before taking it back up to your apartment. Setting the box down on the kitchen counter, you find the scissors and cut into it. Right on top is a small envelope with your name scribbled across it. 

You said you didn’t have anything of me. So I knew I had to correct that. I hope they help. And a little thing from the old man, well not from him. But you’ll understand when you get to that. 

Love you. 

Digging into the box, you notice a few guitar pics, a couple extra t-shirt and then a long thin box. You pick it up, noticing it looks like a necklace. But with Calum you never can be sure. As you crack it open, you laugh, finding a gold chain staring up at you, attach to it is a tiny locket that as a paw print on it. You crack it open though and find a tiny picture of Calum and you inside of it and your eyes well with tears. It’s from your last vacation before you left for school, just two of you reclined on the beach and Calum kissing your temple. 

You draft a text to Calum. Tell Duke it feels like home now. 

[lost-in-time-marie]

Into the Shadows: Chapter Three

         “Okay, so what’s going on with you and James?” Natasha asked, eyeing his slim, muscular frame from our table in the middle of the mall food court.

         “What do you mean?” I replied, dumbfounded, taking a bite of my extremely messy, extremely delicious burger.

         “You guys have been inseparable since he got here weeks ago,” Natasha clarified leaning close, intrigued. I laughed. Natasha sat across from me at a plastic food court table, picking at fries. Loud voices echoed around the tall room, restaurants surrounded us, and people weaved around one another trying to reach their destinations. The mall was busy on Saturday afternoons, full of teenagers free of school for the weekend.

         “I don’t know, I guess I understand what it’s like to be the new kid in school, having moved like six thousand times myself. I didn’t want to leave him scrambling all by himself to fit in and find friends,” I replied with a shrug, stealing a fry off Natasha’s plate.

         Natasha snorted, smacking my hand away, “With a face like that he wouldn’t have had any trouble finding friends.”

         “I wanted him to have real friends; it’s my instinct to help. Besides, I was a little intrigued too,” I smiled. Natasha rolled her eyes.

         “More like you thought he was hot,” Natasha muttered around a mouth full of fries.

“Speaking of thinking people who are hot, what’s going on with you and Aleks over there?” I asked, raising a brow, and jerking my thumb behind me. Natasha’s dark eyes flitted over my shoulder and rested on the tall, thick body of Aleks standing in line for food beside James.

         Natasha looked thoughtful, then replied “James is very friendly and has a great sense of humor. He’s smart and can keep up with us easily. I hear good things about him through the information grapevine; very popular, well-liked by everyone. He’s just…very private. I know I’ve only known him for a few weeks now, but I still know almost nothing about him, not even his favorite food or color,” Natasha observed, entirely avoiding my comment about Aleks. I nodded, carefully mulling over her opinion, before drawing her back to Aleks.

         “Nice evasion, but I invented that tactic,” I grinned.

         Natasha rolled her eyes, “There is nothing going on between Aleks and I. It’d just be weird,” she hedged, not meeting my gaze.

“Yeah, and I can breathe underwater,” I retorted sarcastically, giving her a disbelieving look.

         “Okay, okay,” Natasha laughed, trying to keep down her fries, “I find him kind of, a little, extremely attractive. It’s no big deal. I just stalk him from afar and imagine a relationship with him.”

         “You are so hopeless,” I managed to utter between our uncontrollable laughter.

         “Hey guys, what’s so funny?” Aleks asked, walking up to the table with a tray in his hands and taking a seat beside Natasha, who looked quite pleased. James followed closely behind, taking a seat beside me. Everyone chatted happily and ate their lunches. Natasha and Aleks, after a while, got pulled into their own private debate, as they were accustomed to doing, so I entertained myself by interrogating James.

         “So what school did you go to before the fabulous Jefferson High?” I teased.

         “It’s a little ways South of here, you wouldn’t know it,” James half-answered, his charming smile spreading across his face. I loved that smile, it made my head swim a little, the way it made the corners of his dark eyes crinkle and seemed to radiate warmth and happiness.

         “Believe it or not, James, but that was not an actual answer to my question,” I persisted, no way he was getting off that easy. Maybe his head-swimming smile made the other girls forget he hadn’t really answered a single question since he arrived at our school, but no way I was so easily fooled.

         He chuckled, “Alright, you caught me, I was homeschooled before Jefferson High.”

         “A real answer, at last!” I joked, nudging his shoulder. He smiled again, staring down at me with those intense dark eyes. The lashes surrounding them were thick and black, enough to make any girl a little jealous. Perfect ringlets of dark brown hair fell into his eyes and I resisted the urge to brush them away.

         “So what do you want for your birthday tomorrow?” Natasha asked, pulling me back to reality.

         “Oh,” I thought turning to look at her, “You really don’t have to get me anything,” I said, having completely forgotten it was even tomorrow.

         “Not that garbage again,” Natasha complained loudly.

         “I don’t know, I really don’t need anything,” I shrugged.

         “What do you want then?” Natasha stressed. An image of a masked figure warning me to stay away from dark streets flitted through my mind without my permission. I attempted to violently clamp down on those thoughts. I didn’t like to engage my clearly delusional thinking any more than I had to. I wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t losing my mind or imaging the figure altogether, but it was too late, and my imagination took off without needing any prodding. I hadn’t seen the figure in almost a month, since the last incident. I obediently heeded the warning and didn’t go out at night. Better not test my chances three times. I wanted to see him or it or whatever it was again, I needed to know what was going on.

         “I don’t want anything either, just spending time with you guys is fun,” I smiled. “Although, I do need to go to this one store before we leave, I’ll be right back,” I announced, getting up from the table, eager to remove myself from the topic of conversation.

         “I’ll go with you,” James offered, standing up.

         “You really don’t need to come with me,” I replied, “I’ll just be a minute.”

         “I insist,” James said, flashing me his most charming smile, “Besides, I don’t think they’ll really miss my company.” He nodded his head in the direction of Aleks and Natasha, already pulled back to each other’s gravity, leaning closer to each other with every passing minute. I laughed and rolled my eyes, before looping my arm through his and strolling through the mall. I looked down to hide my smile and slight blush.

         “What do you need at this store anyways?” James asked as we wandered through the mall.

         “Somehow, Natasha convinced me going to a club in the city for my birthday would be a good idea, so now I need an outfit,” I answered, thinly veiling my slight distress. I recalled the months of begging it had taken her to convince me to go. Partying had never really been my thing, and as much as I wanted to do something fun and different for my seventeenth birthday, a club was not the first thing that came to mind. Not to mention the fact her plan involved lying to my mom and telling her I was having a sleepover at Natasha’s, another thing I was also not fond of.

         James simply raised a brow before shaking his head and chuckling, surely imagining the scene.

         “Exactly,” I said, laughing with him.

         “And what does one wear to such out of character, unplanned nights?” James asked.

         “God only knows, Natasha will probably complain no matter what I get, honestly,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

         It took another three circles around the huge mall before I finally settled on a silver sparkly tank top and black skinny jeans. James assumed the role any male plays when uncomfortably watching a girl shop, getting distracted by non-clothing related items and awkwardly standing around while I browsed. He was patient though, and cracked jokes about the various people and stores as we walked. When we reached the register to pay for the new clothes, he quickly pulled out his wallet and paid for it all before I could even react.

         “Why did you do that? I could have paid for that myself,” I complained once we exited the store into the dimly lit mall hallways.

         “Oh, don’t freak out, it was no trouble,” He smiled charmingly, his brown eyes softening, practically melting. I poorly attempted to force my head to stop swimming under his gaze.

         “But-” I started, still slightly dazed.

         “Happy birthday,” He whispered, interrupting, before handing me the bag and placing a soft kiss on my forehead.

      I jiggled my knee anxiously as I sat in the soft leather seat of Natasha’s car, the leather from my tall black boots made an irritating scratching noise against the seat.

“Would you calm down?” Natasha sighed, peeling her eyes off the road momentarily to give me an annoyed glance. Natasha’s hair hung pin straight tonight, occasionally drifting into her line of vision before she expertly twisted it in place behind her ears. Her blue jeans, black high tops, and green tank top wouldn’t exactly fit in with the typical club crowd, but she didn’t care.

“Well, Miss Lip-Piercings-And-Wrist-Tattoo, I’m not used to being bad and lying. What if something happens?” I worried, biting my lip and staring out the window as we crawled along the highway into the city. I shifted uncomfortably in my own sparkly, silver tank top and black skinny jeans tucked into my favorite tall leather boots; a very different outfit choice compared to my usual t-shirt, jeans, and converse. Everywhere we went, I felt like everyone stared, a sensation I was not used to, nor did I grow to appreciate.

Her hand flew to the two piercings in her lower lip defensively, before she rolled her eyes and retorted, “Now you sound like your mother, and nothing will happen, for the ten millionth time! Don’t be such a goody-goody.” Despite Natasha and I’s long standing relationship, my mother never approved of her “bad influence”, and by that she always meant her wrist tattoo and multiple facial piercings. In reality, my mother was extremely uptight and overprotective, Natasha helped loosen me up, and although I thanked her later, breaking the rules always twisted my stomach a little. Quite an unlikely pair we made, but I wouldn’t survive without my best friend.

I sighed, mentally calming myself. “You’re right, tonight I am officially seventeen. We’re going to be two carefree teenagers having an excellent time,” I said, mostly for my own benefit.

“Exactly,” Natasha concurred.

It wasn’t long before Natasha’s sleek, white car, pulled smoothly into the dim parking garage next to the club. After searching for a spot, we continued down to the club and got in line, all the while chatting idly about school, boys, and my birthday. The line was short; it didn’t take long to get in the club. In under an hour we were surrounded by sweaty, grinding bodies, dizzying strobe lights, enough fake smoke to make you gag, and pounding music so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. Exactly what we came here for.

We quickly joined the throng and swayed to the music. Somehow, I always looked much less graceful and beautiful compared to Natasha and the other dancers, but tonight I didn’t care. I came here to not think or judge or be anything but one synchronized member of this dancing pack.

“Thank you so much for taking me here!” I shouted to Natasha over the beat of the dance music. Somehow, Natasha always knew me better than myself. I didn’t realize it before I was lost in the chaos of the night, that I had needed this, an escape, a chance to just be normal. She nodded and laughed, clearly pleased the world was still in its usual order and she was right, again.

“I’m going to get a soda, you want anything?” I asked. She nodded again and together we squeezed through the pack to get to the bar at the very back of the large, open room. I ordered us two Dr. Peppers and the bartender promptly placed two cans in front of us.

“This is such a rush,” Natasha enthused, her freckled face slightly pink and shiny with exhaustion and sweat. I nodded, the only response I could form between chugging down my soda, trying to twist my brown hair off my sweaty neck, and tugging on my silver tank top to let some air reach my stomach. When I wasn’t dancing and embracing the sweet anonymity of the crowd, the claustrophobia and anxiety started to set in immediately.

“Oh my god! Kristin? Is that you?” A high-pitched voice screeched from the dance floor. I cringed inwardly. I recognized that voice all too well. Please, let it not be her, I prayed silently, but this time no one was listening to my pleas apparently. The short, thin, overly enthusiastic Kim bounced toward the bar in all her dyed brown hair, brown eyed glory. I noticed the taller, even thinner figure of Stephanie trailing behind her, with matching shades of long brown hair and brown eyes. Their skin gave a sickly appearance, a combination of off-tone concealer and the dizzying strobe lights. Last in the line was Elizabeth, the same height and build as Kim, but with blonde hair and tan skin, for a change in pace. I suppressed a groan. It wasn’t just Kim; it was the entire pack.

“Please, just dry drown me in my soda,” I begged Natasha softly as the girls bounded over. Natasha folded her thin, pink lips around a laugh as I plastered on my best cheery smile.

“Hey, Kristin! I haven’t seen you in forever!” Elizabeth gushed, the three of them stood before us now in skimpy, flashy clubbing clothes. My back pressed against the bar and my three least favorite human beings on my other side, did little to ease my sense of claustrophobia.

“Mmm,” I murmured sipping my soda, the edge of the bar really digging into my spine now, as if I pressed myself into it further it might somehow incorporate me into its form.

“This isn’t really your scene, what are you doing here?” Stephanie asked, the calmest, least excitable of them all.

“Birthday celebration,” I responded, speaking as little as possible. Stephanie just nodded coolly.

“Ooh, happy birthday!” Kim cooed, “And you actually look like a girl tonight, too!” She enthused, a devilishly sweet smile on her round face.

“Yeah, I just discovered the girl’s section in Wal-Mart. Who knew that was there?” I replied sarcastically; mock cheer dripping from my every word. Kim and Elizabeth cringed and looked at me as though I were some kind of alien. Natasha was trying very hard not to spit out her soda and bust out laughing behind me.

“So, do you want to dance with us for awhile?” Stephanie asked, changing the subject. I pulled my phone from my back pocket.

“Ooh, sorry, I have to go. Curfew and all, maybe next time,” I lied, suddenly eager to go back to Natasha’s. They said goodbye and headed back to the dance floor.

“Thank god,” Natasha groaned, “I hate them so much.”

“Tell me about it. ‘Oh, you actually look like a girl tonight’” I mimicked Kim’s high pitched squealing exactly, “I hate how condescending she is,” I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

“Whatever, don’t let them ruin your night. It’s hot as hell in here and I don’t want to run into them again, I’m going to go pull the car around, wait for me out front,” Natasha said, throwing down a couple bills to pay for our drinks.

“Wait, I’ll come with you,” I replied, following her out to the front of the club. It was cold outside in my thin tank top; I shivered and hugged my arms against the breeze.

Natasha rolled her eyes, “It’s fine, the garage is right up the road. It’s your birthday, I won’t make you walk. I pity the person that tries to take me,” Natasha laughed, joking easily. I sighed. It’s pointless to try to argue with her once she’s made up her mind.

“Fine,” I replied begrudgingly, “Be careful!” I called after her as she walked just up the road to the car. The road had really emptied out since we first came into the club, it was darker somehow now, and the stench of the city floated through the air. There was no quiet here though, the way there sometimes could be on Long Island. Honking horns, yelling voices, stray animals fighting for survival in the alleys; inescapable noise constantly rising and swarming the ears of the city residents. We certainly were not in the nicer part of town, garbage mixed with stale alcohol assaulted my nose. The eerie desolation of the street made my hair stand on end.

         “Happy birthday,” A playful voice called. A figure somersaulted off the roof of the club behind me and landed in front of me. I jumped in surprise, a squeal escaping me before I could stop it.

         “Calm down,” The figure laughed, “it’s just me.”

         “Oh,” I sighed in relief, my body relaxing of its own accord, “I was a little worried for a second; I broke my no going out at night rule.”

The figure chuckled and leaned against the unlit streetlamp on the sidewalk across the street from me. A strange thought occurred to me just then. This street had been well-lit when Natasha and I had first arrived, it wasn’t just my imagination. I peered down the block, and sure enough, every lamp sat dark and empty of their former glow. With no moon tonight and not even a hint of artificial light, I could barely make out the figure’s black mask and pale face; the shadows seemed to swallow him, hiding him away from my view. I decided that the figure seemed distinctly masculine, it was the deep tenor of his voice and the cocky air about him, unmistakable for a precocious young male.

         “How’d you know it was my birthday?” I asked, squinting, attempting to recognize any feature of the figure. I tried and failed to form the image of someone’s familiar face hiding under that mask. “What are you doing here, anyways? I’m not in danger.” I asked confused, taking another step forward. Is that dark hair? I couldn’t tell when he ended, and shadow began, or vice versa.

         “It’s not every day I save the same girl twice, usually it’s just strangers, I figured I could at least stop by for your birthday,” He laughed in the same easy, musical way, taking a step back to match my every step forward. It gave me the strange sense of being locked in a dance.

         “How’d you know it was my birthday?” I asked again, taking another eager step forward.

         “Remember, dark streets are dangerous at night,” He grinned, the echo of his laugh reached me before he disappeared into the shadows. I raced forward to catch him knowing he was already long gone. A little box with silver wrappings gleamed on the ground in the place he stood just moments ago. I smiled, picked up the box, and gingerly tugged it open. A small, intricate rose charm on a silver chain fell into my hand. I smiled at the beautiful trinket and clasped the necklace around my neck.

         “Thank you,” I whispered mostly to myself, staring into the dark that had enveloped him, and fingering the charm. The bright headlights of Natasha’s car suddenly blinded me as she turned the corner.

         “Get in!” She yelled, honking the horn. I turned away from the dark alley my figure had retreated into, quickly snapping back to reality. I ran across the street and jumped into the familiar interior of Natasha’s Prius. At least there would always be one stable, sane thing in my life. As we peeled off down the street, I stole one last glance behind me. The street was somehow unchanged following my encounter, dirty and empty, just as it had been. This time, however, I noticed gold light filtering down on the dirty asphalt street from every well-lit streetlamp going all the way down the block, their light illuminating every discarded bottle and stray cigarette butt in their wake. I struggled to find some meaning to this and failed. My head began to spin, all the images from the night flashing behind my eyes, out of order and without any sense to them. I let my head rest against the cool glass of Natasha’s window as we drove towards familiar roads and neighborhoods.

[cinnashaun-roll]

Story I Wrote at 10 years old

(Warning: It’s quite shitty and cringe worthy)

Prologue

Year: 3016

   The humans had barely saved themselves. By building a dome that acted like the Sun and protected them from “The Explosion”, the humans had accomplished their greatest achievement yet.

The Dome was full of the most advanced technology programmed to act exactly like the atmosphere but with false projections showing the Sun, clouds, and stars. Though it did more than just that, The Dome also brought the world together in peace during a race against time. One wrong move could kill all of humankind.

But what was “The Explosion”? 

And what caused it?

Chapter 1: Big News 

Astra POV

Year: 3015

My name is Astra, Astra Cosma Stellar and I was just a normal 12-year-old, until today... 

“Astra wake up!” shouted Mom, “ Astra! For heaven’s sake just wake up!” 

 “But Mom, there’s no school!”, I shouted back.

 “And there’s a reason why, but we don’t know yet.”, she replied,” We’ll find out in the news, and it’s coming up in five minutes, so you better hurry up!”

Oh right, I forgot. “ Can I call Nebula so we can watch it together? She’s just next door!” 

“Sure Honey, but make it quick!”, Mom said.

Ugh. My long purple and sea green hair just had to be so messy right now.

Nebula Galaxia Nova was my best friend since we moved here, 777 Starlight Way in Comett, California (we were the only state that still had an Old Era name). 

As I was running to her house, she saw me through the window and decided to go outside to meet me. 

“Hey Astra!” said Nebula. 

“Hey!”I replied, ”Do you want to come to watch the news at my house?” 

“Sure!” she said,” but I wonder what the big news is, I’ve always wanted to be on an adventure.”

 “ But it’s not like Earth is about to explode and we’re all going to die!”, Nebula laughed, her short, silver hair flying as she chuckled. 

“Of course not, that would be taking things way too far,” I said.

Back at home, Neb and I waited for the news on my family’s Hologram TV (HoloTV for short). 

And then it finally happened, it felt like the TV screamed at us “BREAKING NEWS!!!” the reporter said.

”As you all know, WWIII just ended and there is only peace now, but what scientists didn’t predict was that their idea of harnessing the Sun’s energy for the war would use almost all of it.” 

“ This means that if we don’t think of a solution fast, it will explode in one year, killing all of humanity!” 

What!?

I felt a sense of foreboding.

 A sense that there was an adventure ahead of me.

Chapter 2: (Untitled?)

Nebula POV

Oh my goodness! We’re all about to die!!!

Astra and her Mom are panicking, I’m panicking, the WHOLE STREET is panicking!!! We all knew we were going to die, it was inevitable.

“Neb! Hey Neb, are you alright?”, Astra yelled. She was snapping her fingers in my face, and her blue eyes were full of concern.

“I’m fine”, I said.

The truth was, I was not fine. Why would anyone be? 

Wait a second…  I’m overreacting. No one was panicking, only I was.

Then it happened again, “BREAKING NEWS!!!” the reporter shouted,

“We have a solution.”

“Dr. Bliss, would you have the pleasure to explain to us this miraculous idea?”

“Yes, I would, Hello my name is Dr. Maple A. Bliss and I am a scientist at the WSC (World Science Corporation).”Dr. Bliss said,” The new solution the WSC has proposed is that we build a high-tech unbreakable glass dome hereinafter “Project Dome” with projections and simulators for the sky, and more that can also protect us from the explosion.”

“May I ask, how will we build it in time?” asked the reporter. 

“Well, because the whole world is at peace, many other countries have offered to help us build Project Dome by having their best engineers build their area of the dome, which will be assigned. Our area, of course, is Comett”, Dr. Bliss replied,” but even with this plan we are still skating on thin ice.”

Oh, shoot. I thought we were saved. Oh, I guess some things are too good to be true.

“Thank you Dr. Bliss.,” said the reporter, “ Coming up next! Deadly hovercar crash on highway A70…” Astra’s mom turned the TV off.

“Bye Astra! Bye Mrs. Stellar!`` I said. “Bye!”, Astra replied.

Back at home, I went straight to my parents. They didn’t watch the news, so when I told them… well, my mom sort of freaked out and got all overprotective.

While I was in bed, I heard my parents talking, so I decided to go downstairs and eavesdrop.

“That’s it!”, my mom said,” We’re moving! This town just keeps getting even more dangerous!” 

“Shh! Sky, I have to say, that is a great idea, but what about Nebula and Astra?” my dad replied quietly,” What about my job? It took me a long time to get a job as the mayor’s assistant.”

 That was it, we were leaving. No more Astra. No more ice cream. Just silence.

“But that’s exactly why!”, my mom finally said,” If we don’t leave soon, they’ll start dragging you into this mess.” 

“Don’t you see? Our whole family could be in danger.”

Chapter 3: Crystal Cream

Astra

Today was Saturday, and I was so excited about my ice cream day with Neb!

When I walked over to her house she was ready, but for some reason, something was off. It seemed like her happiness was fake and she was worried about something. I don’t think it was about the news.

“Hey Neb, is everything alright?”, I said.

“I’m fine! Don’t worry about me! I’m fine!”, Nebula replied.

Uh oh, I knew something was wrong. 

Two years ago, in fifth grade, my teacher Miss. McGrayer gave us this advice: “Usually if anyone says they’re fine, they’re not.”

Let me add on to that: “Usually if anyone says they’re fine, they’re not. Especially when they insist they are.”

“Come on, stop daydreaming let’s go!”, Neb said in her “fake happy voice”.

“Neb, just tell me the truth or we’re not going for ice cream!”I ordered (maybe a bit too demanding because right then she started to cry).

“Neb, I’m so sorry! We don’t have to talk about it if you want.`` I said apologetically.

“And there’s nothing ice cream can’t fix!”I added, trying to lighten up the mood.

“Okay, let’s go”, Neb said between sniffles.

This time I heard a little bit of genuine happiness in her voice.

Going to the ice cream shop is always fun with Neb, and we go as much as we can. We’ve even memorized each other’s orders. Mine is a Milky Way Mousse Sundae with extra whipped cream, and Neb’s is a Simple Supernova Sundae. 

Today we did the usual, talk while eating our ice cream and stalling as much as possible.

   As we were walking back from our favorite ice cream shop in the whole galaxy (located in the Solar City Plaza), The Star Scoop, we heard very indistinct whispering and followed it to an alleyway.

“Are you sure we should eavesdrop? I don’t have a good feeling about this.”, Nebula whispered.

    “It’s fine (*cough*cough*)!”, I whispered back,” Anyways I thought you wanted to go on an adventure?”

“Yeah! But not a dangerous, risky one! “she said angrily.

“Shhh! They’ll hear us! That’s even more dangerous right?”, I whispered.

“Alright, alright, let’s start eavesdropping.’’, she said.

“Okay, let’s review the plan I came up with,” a girl’s voice whispered,” We’re going to hire, I mean, ask someone to help us who has connections to the city so that they can help us bomb this part of the Dome. And what I’ve concluded is that if one unfinished part of the Dome breaks, it will create a domino effect which will shatter the rest of the Dome.”

“Thank you, daughter, for explaining the plan you came up with,” whispered a man’s voice,” But my question is, how will we survive?”

“Easy!” she whispered back,” I called in a few favors and had a compact ship built just for us.”

“Oh no.”,Nebula said after leaving the alley,” Did we seriously just hear a plan to hijack the Dome? We have report this to the police!”

“No Nebbie, I think we’re going to have to do this ourselves.”

Nebula POV

I felt different after splitting up with Astra (to go to the store to buy a few groceries), like everyone’s life was in our hands. I knew that I should’ve stopped Astra, but once that stubbornly determined girl’s mind was on something, it was impossible to change it.

But I was so busy thinking about what happened, that I bumped into a girl about my age.

“I’m so sorry!” she said,” My name is Crystal Starr what’s yours”

Something about Crystal’s voice was familiar but wrong. I was suspicious.

“Um, Nebula…” I replied slowly.

“Hey, you sound kind of sad. Is it because I bumped into you?” Crystal asked.

“No”, I said.

“Whatever it is, you’ll be fine,” she replied,” Anyway, do you want to be my friend?!”

“Okay...”

“But first, can you do me a favor?” she said,” Do you know anyone important in the city? If you do, can you introduce me to them sometime?”

“Sure!”, I replied,’ My dad is one, so I’ll have to introduce you anyway!”

“Bye! I have to get home now!`` said Crystal,” Same time, same place tomorrow!”

Something about Crystal made me uneasy, so I decided that it would be good to tell Astra.

After getting back from the store, I dropped off the groceries and went to Astra’s house.

When Astra opened the door, she grimly said, “ Nebula! Guess what I just found out.”

[wolfstarbaby]

a gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

This fic was written with love for @flaggermousseart​ for @wolfstar-secret-santa​! Enjoy! :D

Title: a gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

Author: wolfstarbaby (fuutenfantasy on AO3)

Pairing: Wolfstar

Rating: T

Length: 6202 words

Summary: 

“James, Peter and Sirius manage to land themselves in detention the night of the full moon. Remus will be fine! He's done moons by himself before. Everything will be fine. Totally. 

Sirius is full of emotions and James can tell something is amiss. Remus is also full of emotions but better at hiding things. Will things work out for these star-crossed idiots? Read on to find out!”

Link to AO3 HERE

Fic under readmore!

a gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart

Remus was waiting for his friends for three hours, half-reading an old History of Magic textbook and staring into the fire, before the Portrait Hole finally slammed open. Sirius came storming in first, followed by James, and Peter came scrabbling in last, still complaining at top volume.

“-and you know Tulip’s had it out for us from the start! Totally unfair, is what it is.”

“We know, Peter,” moaned James wearily. “You’ve been on about it for the past ten minutes. Just shut it.”

Sirius threw himself onto the couch next to Remus, his eyes narrowed and and his arms folded. Remus closed his book and eyed his friend.

“I take it things did not go according to plan?” he quipped. Sirius just grunted. James flopped onto a nearby armchair and Peter stretched out in front of the blazing fire, both arms over his head. The other Gryffindors on the floor in front of the fire had to scoot out of his way, pulling books and wands closer to them with half-hearted grumbles.

“Things went great!” said Peter, voice muffled. “For the first ten minutes, anyway. We had the ravens stowed and the birdseed scattered.”

“It was going to be magnificent!” James interrupted, waving his arms about. “A perfectly timed series of events that would lead to old Tulip being absolutely covered in birdshit! I had everything planned. But then...” he sighed, running a hand through his already wild hair. “It all fell apart.”

“How so?” Remus asked, trying and failing to conceal his smile.

After a dramatic pause, Peter took his arms off his face. “Tulip came in early.”

“We still could have gotten away with it,” James complained, sinking down into the overstuffed lap of the armchair, “if Padfoot hadn’t been busy using birdseed to spell WANKER on Tulip’s desk!”

Remus let out a snort and put down his book. “Did you really? That’s a bit much, even for you, Sirius.” He patted Sirius on the arm. Sirius glowered and made cranky noises, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

“And from there he looked up and saw the ravens and it was all downhill.” Peter sighed and rolled over onto his stomach. “Yelled at us for two hours. I thought his heart was going to burst, the way his veins were pulsing.”

“Glad I gave this one a pass, then.” Remus rubbed his shoulder, grimacing. “Not by choice, mind you, but I suppose it worked out. Did you get away with just a bollocking or do you hooligans have detention now, too?”

“We all have four hours of detention,” muttered Sirius. He turned to look at Remus. “Saturday night, starting at 8.”

Remus felt his stomach drop. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry, Moony!” James leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “We argued with Tulip for ages but he wouldn’t budge, and it’s not like we could tell him why.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Remus automatically. “I’ve done plenty of moons without you lot before, I’ll survive this one too.” He stood up abruptly, stretching with some difficulty. “Let’s go to supper, I’m famished.”

The evening passed as many do at Hogwarts. Sirius came out of his funk by dessert and soon all the boys were laughing and bantering like normal, but Remus noticed that every time he winced at a pre-lunar ache Sirius glanced over, worried. They took their usual spots around the huge scarred wooden table in the common room and muttered over some homework, making more jokes than progress on their Transfiguration essays.

“I just don’t understand how we’re meant to explain a process we’ve never seen before!” Peter complained, scratching his forehead with his quill and leaving a streaky black line in its wake. “ ‘Explain in fine detail the technical process of turning a chicken into a cow, paying special attention to where the additional mass comes from.’ What does she want us to do with this?”

Remus, already halfway through with his outline, just chuckled. “It’s in the book, Peter. You have to read.”

“Sounds like too much work,” said James, closing his book with a decisive thump. “Right, lads. How’s my hair?”

Sirius ruffled it playfully, messing it up even more. “Now it’s perfect. Go get her, Prongsie.”

James eyed his target, squared his shoulders, and stood. “Wish me luck.”

He sauntered across the common room so he could attempt to flirt with Lily - by which he meant leaning on the back of her chair and joining whatever conversation she was a part of with loud commentary and inappropriate humor. This was met with eye rolling, ignoring, and the occasional artfully dodged hex. Eventually Peter went for a shower before bed and it was just Sirius and Remus at the table, sitting in a comfortable silence, the pretense of working long since given up.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright by yourself this Saturday?” Sirius asked softly. “I could skip detention and Padfoot could be there at least.”

Remus’s heart clenched. “Don’t skip out, Tulip will lose his mind and you’ll be in even worse trouble. I’ll be fine, I promise.” He smiled, fairly convincingly. “Come on, let’s rescue Lily from Prongs and head upstairs.”

Together they hauled James away from Lily and her friends, dragging him up the stairs by his elbows, and Remus tried his best not to notice every time he bumped into Sirius on the narrow staircase. He climbed into bed after a round of “good nights” and only when the curtains whisper shut around him did he allow himself the luxury of basking in the idea that Sirius’s concern meant anything more than platonic worry. He fell asleep imagining a world that could not be - a world with Sirius stroking his hair and whispering sweet words meant for him and him alone, chasing away the lingering curse of the moon with his quiet warmth.

~~~

Remus had been quietly pining for his best friend for what seemed like forever, but for what was realistically about two years. Before Hogwarts he’d kept to himself out of both necessity and choice - growing up on an isolated farm and being bitten by a werewolf are both life challenges that keep you from making many friends. It wasn’t until about halfway through his second year that Remus began to realize that he wasn’t interested in his female classmates the way the other boys were, and not until his third year that his heart was captured by Sirius.

It wasn’t anything dramatic or complicated - in fact, it was the simplest thing of all. It was, as most things were in Remus’s life, centered around the full moon. A rough transformation in December of their third year had left Remus in the Hospital Wing for longer than usual - nearly a week. He spent the first two days of that awful week unconscious, and didn’t wake up until nearly midnight on that Wednesday. The first thing he saw when he opened his puffy eyes was long black hair strewn across the end of his bed. There, softly illuminated in the candlelight, was Sirius, head pillowed on his arms, fast asleep at the end of Remus’s bed. As if on cue, Sirius turned his head and smiled sleepily at Remus, and that was that for Remus’s heart.

But this realization was followed almost immediately by the knowledge, the deep, certain, bones-deep truth of the fact that he could never act upon his feelings. Not once, not ever. Sirius was assuredly heterosexual, and also one of the most important people in Remus’s life. He wasn’t going to put years of friendship in jeopardy over the simple vagaries of his heart. No, best to push these feelings way down deep and pretend they weren’t there.

This decision came in a split second, and Remus was able to return Sirius’s smile with one of his own - even if it was a little forced at the corners. He could live with that.

~~~

It was the day before the full moon, which means Remus woke up with full body aches and a head that felt like it was underwater. He buried his head under the pillow and tried to ignore the slow-roasting coals in his knees and shoulders. His stomach curled and twisted, though, and it wasn’t long before he was up and in the bathroom, viciously ejecting the remnants of his dinner the night before. His ears were ringing and his headache was splitting - all in all, normal pre-lunar symptoms. He thought about making is way down to the Hospital Wing, but the idea of submitting himself to the fluttering and worrying of Madame Pomfrey was almost more than he could bear - besides, it’s not like she could cure what was really wrong. He resolved to spend the day in bed and pretend like the rest of the world didn’t exist.

He heard the rest of the boys surface to consciousness and rise to face the day, but the velvet curtains around his bed and the mountain of pillows he’d sunk his head into muffled everything. He thought he heard his name once or twice.

“-Remus doing okay?”

“-probably not going to lessons today, poor chap.”

“-him alone. Moon’s tomorrow, you know how it is.”

There was a rustle and a change in the light against his eyelids, so Remus cracked one eye open to see Sirius, his dark hair swinging around his face as he peered through the curtains. He was so close to Remus that the ends of his hair brushed ever so slightly against the boy’s cheek. The sun, well and truly up by now, poured in behind Sirius, the golden streams illuminating him and giving him an unearthly sort of glow. The light got tangled in his hair and brought depth to the blackness, little pockets of richness and color that weren’t usually visible. His eyes were brown and so soft as he looked at Remus. Remus choked a little as his heart clenched almost painfully from the unexpected loveliness of this sight. It took him a minute to realize Sirius was talking to him.

“-anything, mate?”

“I - what?”

“I said, would you like us to bring you any breakfast? We’re heading down now.”

His stomach clenched again at the thought of food. “No thank you - I wouldn’t be able to keep it down, anyway.”

“Fair enough.” Sirius hesitated, then pushed a hand through the curtains and rested it on Remus’s hair, stroking it gently. Remus felt his whole body stiffen in reaction as his brain short-circuited. Quickly, as if embarrassed, Sirius pulled his head and arm back through the curtains, and the sunshine disappeared. “Get some rest, we’ll bring you what you miss in class.”

It wasn’t until the dormitory door closed with a soft clatter that Remus had the presence of mind to call out, “Thank you!”

Soon enough the dormitory was empty, and the air sat silent and still. Remus wanted to lie there and dwell on the unexpected moment of tenderness from Sirius that morning, but his body had other ideas and soon he was asleep again, his brain running from the pain as best it knew how. He spent the day in and out of consciousness, drifting along like a soap bubble. He was vaguely aware of the other boys coming and going, leaving books and parchment on his bedside table, and he managed to rouse himself enough to drink the mug of soup one of them brought for his lunch around noon.

The afternoon brought less drowsiness but more pain. His shoulder and hip joints, as if in preparation for the next day’s miseries, felt tense and twisted. A gentle heating charm cast on a pillow helped a little bit, but not a lot. Again the thought of the Hospital Wing crossed his mind, but at this point it would have hurt more to drag himself down there than to stay in bed.

Besides, he was used to pain.

He felt a weight settle at the end of his bed, and looked up to see the messy black hair and dorky glasses of James. His friend smiled easily and patted his leg.

“Hanging in there, Moony?”

Remus shrugged. “Day before the moon. You know how it is.”

James winced sympathetically. “Need anything?”

“A cure for lycanthropy?” Remus quipped.

James laughed. “I’ll get right on it. You take care.” He deposited an armload of parchment scrolls onto the teetering pile next to Remus’s bed and waved as he headed out the door again.

Remus knew they were all in their afternoon classes for the next few hours, so he was duly surprised when a half hour or so later Sirius showed up again.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Potions?” Remus remarked, pushing himself to a sitting position.

Sirius shrugged and sat down. “Told Slughorn I needed to bring you your assignments.” He waved a hand at a notebook slung onto the floor. “Didn’t want you to fall behind, and all that.”

“And he just… let you go?” Remus raised an eyebrow. “Decent of him. Odd, but decent.”

“Not that odd.” Sirius smiled. “Everyone knows you’re his second favorite, after Lily. You’re a genius with a cauldron, as he says.”

They fell silent after that, Sirius fiddling with a wrinkle in the duvet and Remus watching his hand while trying to seem like he wasn’t. Finally, Sirius looked up.

“Look, mate, are you sure you don’t want me to skive off this detention tomorrow?

I hate the thought of you being up in the Shack alone.”

Remus sighed. “As much as I want to say yes, I’m going to say no. I don’t want you getting in more trouble because of me. It’s fine, Pads - I’ve been alone before.”

“I know,” said Sirius, “but you shouldn’t have to be.”

“I’ll be okay, Sirius, I promise.” And before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “but I love that you asked.” Immediately he felt his cheeks and ears turned crimson and hastily looked down, pretending to smooth out wrinkles in the duvet. He didn’t notice Sirius looking at him. Eventually Sirius stood to go back to class.

“We’ll bring you something from dinner if you don’t make it down,” he called over his shoulder as he left the dormitory. “Get some more sleep!”

As soon as the door closed Remus threw himself painfully backwards and covered his face with a pillow.

It wasn’t even that revealing of a comment! He told himself. God, what a state I’m in, mention the word ‘love’ once and I act like an idiot.

Somewhere in between the self-admonishment and the lingering moon-pain, he did fall asleep again. He woke up once more to the sound of James and Peter bring him a plate from the Great Hall - beef, yorkshire pudding, carrots, and a slice of Black Forest Gateau, if his wolf-sensitive nose was correct. They were talking softly as they approached, so as to not wake him up.

“-acting weird all day.”

“I know, Pete, but you know he’s always weird where Remus is concerned.”

“I wish he’d sort his feelings out, this pining is exhausting to watch.”

Still lying down and in a sleep-fever haze, Remus kept very still and hastily closed his eyes when James pulled aside the curtain to peek in. The curtain twitched closed again and the soft conversation resumed.

“I swear, James, he doesn’t even know what’s going on inside his own head. He won’t admit it to himself.”

“Did you see his face when Remus tripped into his lap last weekend by the lake? I thought he was going to produce steam, his face was so red.”

“He’s an idiot, Prongs. He needs our help.”

“You’re right, Pete - they’ll never sort it out for themselves.”

Remus waited until they had both left the room before getting the dinner plate. The wolf was getting stronger, and he was ravenous. He puzzled over what he’d just heard and the implications therein. He knew what he wanted it to mean, but he couldn’t risk the danger of hope, no matter how much he wanted to believe. He devoured the dinner plate and, lacking anything else to do, pulled over some of the work from Charms and began to read. O.W.L.s were this year, and Remus would be damned if he let something as stupid as lycanthropy keep him from scoring well.

~~~

Saturday morning. Moonrise due at 2 pm.

The achiness had left Remus’s joints, but he was left with a horrid combination of exhaustion and nervous energy. He wanted to be moving around, itching to do something, but the weariness enveloping his whole being kept him from doing very much at all. He settled for sitting on the edge of his bed, twisting the blanket in his fingers and swinging his feet, just…….. Waiting.

He eyed the others. James was flat on his back, curtains wide open, snoring with his mouth askew. Peter was an indistinguishable lump underneath his blanket. But Sirius - Sirius was propped up on one elbow and watching him, face expressionless. When he noticed Remus staring at him, he quirked up one corner of his mouth.

“The waiting is hard, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

Remus shrugged. “Not as hard as some things, but… yes. The anticipation. I feel like I’m going to crack in half from the tension of it all.”

His hands kept working at the fabric of the blanket, bunching it up, smoothing it out, fidgeting with the wrinkles, pulling at loose threads. He stared down at them, as if they belonged to someone else. He felt disconnected from his own body, like he existed slightly above and to the left of everything around him. Those hands, in a few short hours, would twist and crack and bend and stretch, forming paws coated in coarse brown fur and tipped with wicked black claws. Those hands would tear at the walls of the Shrieking Shack, batter and beat at the remaining furniture until it was splinters. These nails would rend his own flesh, bringing blood and bruises and pain. These hands were capable of such damage. It was astonishing they ever produced anything of worth at all.

“Stop that, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

It wasn’t until Sirius’s smooth hands closed around his own that he realized how tightly he’d been gripping the blanket. He blinked, and relaxed his fingers. The muscles were sore, having been clenched up so tightly. He looked up - Sirius was on his knees, both hands wrapped around his own, lips slightly parted, his eyes filled with something… indescribable. Remus could feel the dry warmth of Sirius’s palms radiating into his knuckles, soothing them. He leaned forward a little almost without thinking, and now he realized he could smell Sirius - the scent of sleep, of laundry soap and clove and the faintest tinge of cigarettes. It was drowning his senses, the smell of him, the feel of him, everything. He was falling into Sirius’s eyes, surrounded by their gentle brown. Falling. Drowning. Rising up.

Somehow he came back to himself before he did anything stupid, like finish leaning forward and kissing the boy in front of him. Remus gently pulled his hands out of Sirius’s grasp and sat back. When he did, he saw the slightest hint of pain flash across Sirius’s face before the other boy stood up, hands jammed into his pockets. Remus grimaced inwardly and stood, trying not to look Sirius in the eye.

“I’d better head down to Pomfrey, it’s nearly time.” It wasn’t, and they both knew it, but Remus had to get out of that room before the tension knocked him sideways. Sirius nodded silently and moved aside to let him pass. As Remus went out the door, Sirius opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but changed his mind and shook his head. The door closed between them with a soft ‘click’.

~~~

Remus sat on the splintered bed in the Shrieking Shack and waited for the change to come over him. Sunlight streamed in the high-up window, sluicing through the dust in the air.

It always snuck up on him, like a train through the fog. By the time you noticed the rumbling and the noise, it was almost upon you.

He shuddered. He jerked. He twisted. He Changed. His nose sampled the air, searching for the smells that meant Friends, Safety, Fun, Comfort. He couldn’t find them! Where were they?

Out came teeth and claws.

~~~

A huge mountain of assorted birdseed was piled in the middle of the table. James, Sirius and Peter sat around it, armed with tweezers and an assortment of bowls. They surveyed their task.

“So let me get this straight. We have to sort this,” Peter pointed at the mountain with his tweezers, “into these bowls.” Another point.

James shook his head. “Tulip’s a clever bastard, I’ll give him that. This will take us all night.”

Sirius said nothing, just eyed the task before them with displeasure. After a moment’s silence, he sat with a heavy sigh and picked up a piece of seed at random with his tongs. The other boys flopped down and followed suit.

The moon hung high in the sky, visible from the narrow window. It was brilliantly white against the black of the night sky. Sirius kept glancing up at it.

An hour passed, then two, in relative silence.

~~~

The splintered bed finally crashed to the floor after a determined paw swipe took out the last leg. The wolf howled, calling for its friends. When no response came, its fangs clamped around a foreleg in frustration, sending blood splattering across the wall.

~~~

A howl echoed up from the forest, causing all three boys to pause. Sirius abandoned his tweezers and got up, crossing to the window. He gazed out at the forest, fingers drumming a rhythm on the windowsill. Peter and James exchanged significant glances, and then James put down his tweezers.

“Padfoot?”

“What?” said Sirius, still looking out the window.

James rolled his eyes. “When are you going to pull your head out of your arse and tell Remus how you really feel?”

That got a reaction. Sirius stiffened and spun, hands clenched and eyes wide.

“I - I don’t - you mean -” he paused, forced himself to be still, and finished. “I don’t know what you’re on about, Prongs.”

“We’re not stupid, mate,” chimed in Peter. “You’ve been pining over him for at least a year. Him being alone tonight has you wound tighter than a paranoid doxy.”

“You goggle at him when he’s not looking,” added James. “You find every excuse to touch him. And the way your eyes look when he’s smiling at you…” he shook his head. “Sirius, did you think we would hate you if you told us?”

A pause, then Sirius sank into a chair and rested his face in his hands. “Am I that obvious?” His voice was muffled by his palms.

“Yes,” said Peter and James in unison. Sirius groaned.

“Does Remus know?” Sirius asked, still covering his face.

“No idea. “James shrugged, picking up his tweezers again. “But you should go find out.”

Sirius turned to look at James. “What, now? But we’re-”

“Go on.” James reached into his robes and threw the Invisibility Cloak at Sirius, nearly knocking him out of his chair when it hit him in the face. “We’ll finish up here.”

“We will?” Peter asked, then jumped and rubbed his shin where James had kicked it. “I mean, yeah, we will. Go get him, Pads.”

Sirius thought about it, and finally stood to cover himself in the Cloak. “I… thank you for not hating me,” came from the air where he’d been standing. James just chuckled.

“You’ll have to do a lot worse than fall in love to get us to hate you. Now go!” The door opened by an invisible hand. “And don’t come back to the Tower until you’ve told him how you feel!” James called after his escaping friend. He turned back to the tower of birdseed and sighed.

“Shall we?” Peter grumbled.

~~~

The wolf curled up in the center of the room, panting. Wood splinters and strips of wallpaper littered the floor, along with slapdash specks of blood and tufts of fur. It was Sad. Confused. Angry.

Its ears twitched as a distant patter came ever closer up the tunnel, and a familiar scent wafted its way into the room as the trapdoor flapped open. The wolf lifted its head.

Friend? Here? Friend! It bounced to its feet, disregarding the myriad cuts and bruises all over its body, and ran over to the large black dog makings its way into the room. The black dog sniffed it all over, whimpering at the blood.

The wolf didn’t care about its pain - now its friend was here, and all was well.

~~~

The weak morning sunlight slanted past the curtains, and Remus cracked an unwilling eye to the world. Just like every morning-after, he took a general inventory of his body - ankle definitely twisted and maybe sprained, deep cuts across the left thigh, bruised ribs, scratches everywhere… he touched a hand to his nose and winced. Definitely broken. He pushed himself to a sitting position, moving slowly so as to not jostle his injuries more than necessary. The thin blanket kept in the Shack fell away from his chest as he sat up, and fell onto Padfoot’s sleeping body. He’d apparently curled up next to Remus to keep him warm during the night.

Just thinking about warmth made Remus realize how cold it was in the room, especially since he was decidedly unclothed. He looked around for where he usually left his clothes, and saw only a pile of shredded cloth. He grimaced - last night had been pretty terrible, it seemed. He shivered, and it was this movement that woke Padfoot up. The dog opened it eyes, cocked its head, and then in a complex and brain-twisting series of movements turned into Sirius sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“Morning, Moons,” he whispered. Remus tried to smile, but the dried blood on his face had stiffened the skin too much. He reached one hand up to wipe it away, but gave up after a few halfhearted swipes. Sirius got to his knees.

“Here, let me.” He took the edge of his jumper and gently wiped Remus’s face, working off the worst of the blood. Once finished, he took the blanket and wrapped it around Remus, then stood up. He went to the trapdoor, rummaged around for a second, and returned with a bag.

“Don’t worry, I came prepared.” Out of the bag he drew a sweater and a pair of soft pants, as well a thermos and his wand. “I was a bit in a hurry, but managed to grab a few things.” He tossed the clothes at Remus and turned his back in a semblance of privacy.

“I’m surprised you came at all,” croaked Remus as he pulled on the sweater and pants. “Weren’t you supposed to be in detention?”

“Prongs and Wormtail covered for me.” Sirius turned back around, the thermos in his hands now full of steaming liquid. He poured some into a cup and gave it to Remus. “Hot chocolate. Drink up.”

Remus took a tentative sip - it was delicious, and not too hot. It was smooth and rich and filled his aching mouth with warmth and sweetness. He drank the hot chocolate slowly as Sirius gathered his shredded clothes into a pile. When that was done, he dropped onto the floor next to Remus and looked him over, eyes moving slowly up and down Remus’s body. Remus flushed, hoping the bruises on his face would cover any redness. Sirius reached out a gentle hand and held it over Remus’s injured ankle, not quite touching it.

“This must smart, yeah?”

Remus nodded, avoiding eye contact. He felt the tap of a wand on his ankle, and with a warm squishing sensation the swollen tissue receded somewhat and the pain died down. It still hurt, but nowhere near as bad. Sirius pushed up Remus’s pants leg, tapping the deep cuts on his thigh with his wand to close them up. The warm hand on his bare thigh was doing strange things to Remus’s brain, and he gripped the now-empty cup of hot chocolate so tightly it almost broke. Another gentle tap to his broken nose twitched it somewhat back into place. Remus finally looked up, and saw Sirius less than six inches away from his face. His eyes were wide, his mouth slightly open. Remus stared - he couldn’t help it. There was a fine spray of freckles, so light you usually couldn’t see them, across the bridge of Sirius’s nose. He found himself focusing on those freckles, wondering what it would be like to kiss each one. He leaned forward unconsciously, closing the distance to four inches. Then three.

“Remus, I…” Sirius closed his eyes briefly. “I need to…”

But what he needed was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps in the tunnel. The boys sprang apart, Sirius throwing the Invisibility Cloak on just in time for Madame Pomfrey to throw open the trapdoor. Remus managed to send the thermos and cup over to the concealed Sirius in a panicked slide before Madame Pomfrey had climbed all the way into the room. She did her usual clucking and fussing over Remus, practically pouring two bottles of potion down his neck to speed up the healing process. If she thought the clothes were unusual, she was kind enough not to say anything.

They made their way back to the Hospital Wing, where Remus spent the day sleeping in a curtained-off bed. When he woke up for the third time some time around 3 pm, his ribs felt better and the other Marauders were clustered around his bed. James was the first one to notice he was awake, and grinned broadly.

“Cheers, Moo- er, Remus,” he said with a sideways glance at Pomfrey three beds away. “Welcome back to reality.”

Remus grinned weakly. “How was detention?”

Peter pulled a disgusted face. “It was awful!” And he launched into the story of Tulip’s detention. Remus half-listened, laughing or exclaiming in the right places, as his mind wandered. He kept thinking about this morning, about what he’d almost done.

He’d almost kissed Sirius, right there in the Shrieking Shack. And he was pretty certain that Sirius had wanted him to.

He chanced a glance at Sirius, who was sitting on the edge of the bed half-smiling at some pivotal moment in Peter’s story. He glanced over and made accidental eye contact with Remus, blushed, and looked away.

The blush was interesting and worth looking into, Remus thought. All at once he threw caution to the winds and made a decision.

“Madame Pomfrey?” he called. The matron made her way over to them, giving the Marauders a dirty look and a wide berth.

“Yes, dear?” she asked, patting him on the shoulder.

“Can I finish resting up in my dormitory?”

“Of course, dear. But come back down if you need anything.” He nodded, and she walked away. The other boys seemed a little surprised. Remus sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Pads, will you help me back to Gryffindor Tower?” Sirius’s head shot up and he looked at Remus warily, but nodded. Remus stood and only wobbled a little bit, which he counted as a victory.

“I’ll see you lads later, then.” This to James and Peter. James immediately grabbed Peter’s arm and pulled him to his feet.

“Right, we’re off to the library. See you at dinner!” He hauled a protesting Peter away in the direction of the library. Remus smiled inwardly. James always was quick on the uptake.

Remus and Sirius made their way slowly back to Gryffindor Tower. It hadn’t been a ruse - Remus genuinely needed help, especially on the stairs. He found himself leaning on Sirius more often than was strictly necessary, though - and each time he saw the blush and felt the nervousness. But by the time they were climbing through the Portrait Hole, Remus was almost spent. The Common Room was nearly empty, thankfully - most people were spending this cold but sunny Sunday afternoon outside or somewhere on the grounds, with only one or two zealous fifth years seated and studying at the tables. No one bothered them as they climbed the stairs to the fifth-year dormitory.

Sirius helped Remus climb into bed, and stood there awkwardly as Remus arranged the blankets and pillows around himself. When he was finished, Remus looked up at Sirius.

“Sit with me?” he asked, softly. “Please?”

Sirius sat on the bed, legs tucked up underneath him. He stared down at his hands, fiddling with the fabric of his pants.

Remus took a deep breath. “Sirius…”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Sirius burst out. “I shouldn’t have… I almost… I didn’t mean to…” he sighed. “It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Remus just blinked a few times. “...what?” he finally managed to ask.

Sirius balled up handfuls of the blanket beneath him, his knuckles white with the tension. He still wouldn’t look a Remus. “I… I almost kissed you earlier, in the Shack. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.” He blinked several times. “All of my feelings just came rising up and spilling out and I couldn’t control myself, Remus, you were right there, right beneath my hands and so close to my face, and I could see your eyes, and the way the light was hitting you, and God, I just…” he scrubbed one hand over his face almost angrily and took several deep breaths. “I just don’t want this to ruin us. Ruin our friendship. Because so help me God keeping you in my life is more important than any stupid emotions I might be feeling.”

He fell silent, still breathing hard. Remus’s mind was reeling. He gathered himself together enough to reach out and touch Sirius’s wrist. The other boy jerked under his touch and turned to face Remus, brown eyes overbright with tears. Remus closed his hand around Sirius’s wrist.

“Pads, are you telling me you fancy me?” Sirius closed his eyes and nodded, just once. A wave of excitement and relief washed over Remus, and for the second time in an hour he threw caution - and himself - to the winds. He pulled Sirius by the wrist towards himself, caught the other boy’s face in his free hand, and kissed him.

The kiss, as kisses went, was too new and enthusiastic to be much good. It was all angles and teeth and repositioning, but it was honest and right and full of the feelings neither had been able to express. Sirius’s lips were warm and a little chapped, and they felt like perfection. They felt like comfort, safety, and home.

Sirius eventually leaned back, cheeks flushed. “I… wow, Moony, I just…” he ran a hand through his hair. “How long?”

Remus reached out a hand to run it through Sirius’s hair as well. “About a year and a half. I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” He wound strands of black hair around his fingers, carefully working out any small tangles he encountered. Sirius leaned into the touch. “How about you?”

“About a year,” Sirius replied, with a soft smile. “We’re right idiots for waiting so long, I suppose.”

“Something like that.” Remus was overtaken by a yawn so large his jaw cracked. “I really should get some more rest if I’m going to be in any sort of shape to go to lessons tomorrow.” He leaned back on his pillow, letting his hand fall from Sirius’s hair. Sirius picked up the hand where it lay and held it in both of his.

“Would you like me to stay?” Remus intertwined his fingers with Sirius’s.

“No, you go down to dinner and bring me something back.” He pulled Sirius’s hand to his mouth and kissed it, delighting in the sheer overwhelming fact that he could. “We should talk more when you get back. About - well, all of this.”

Sirius stood up. “What should I tell the others? James and Pete, I mean.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “They already know… some of it. My side of it, anyway. Practically threw me out of detention by my collar to go to you.”

Remus made himself comfortable in the blankets and pillows. “Tell them I swept you off your feet. Make me sound romantic.” Exhaustion was coming back over him in waves. Sirius leaned over, tilted his chin up with one finger, and kissed him again. This kiss was less urgent and more languid, sweeter, gentler. When he stood up again Remus’s head was swimming.

“I’ll see you soon,” he whispered. Sirius kissed Remus once more and made his way out of the dormitory, closing the door very gently behind him.

Remus slid into sleep and into dreams that welcomed him with open arms. Dreams of a person who saw his heart and held it, warm in their hands. Dreams of Sirius. Dreams of love.

[theshawnieboi]

Boss Baby | pt. 3

boss baby pt. 2

Over the weekend, I was in contact with Nancy to prepare for a type of welcome slash congratulatory lunch party thing for that new author guy and the company. As Monday rolled up, we were busy preparing everything at the office pantry.

"Hey, Lexine.” Nancy called, looking through the list on her clipboard. “Are we good to go here?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. It was almost 11 in the morning, and we were expecting people to arrive by then. “This was tiring. How did you survive through this when you were alone?”

“I don’t.” She chuckled. “I die right after then come back to life.”

Shawn enters the room, looking much more edible than the food...

“Everything looks good here, ladies.” He said, eyes going around the room. He went to check on the mini buffet we got catered and scrunched his nose up at the last meal. “Why is there tomato pasta?”

I look at Nancy, confused as to why Shawn was asking about the tomato pasta.

“He doesn’t like tomatoes.” Nancy whispered, and I just nodded in understanding but still confused.

A few minutes later, employees from every department started to come and Shawn greeted them at the door.

Shawn called for me and as I went to stand by his side, Tyler arrives with his team. “Hey man.” Shawn greeted him and they did the man handshake hug type thing.

“Hi.” I gave them a small smile and ushered them to the buffet table, leaving Shawn.

“Lexine, right?” Tyler asked, looking like he was about to say something else.

“Yes.”

“It’s nice to see you again.” He said, letting his team go first.

“You too, and congratulations again on the book deal.” I smiled.

“Yeah, thank you! I think it was because of you, you’re kind of like a lucky charm.” Tyler joked which actually got me giggling.

“But really, it was all you. The book is amazing, I’ve just finished reading the unedited version you sent us.”

“Thank you. Have you eaten? Come eat with us.” He offered and put his hand on my back, as a gesture to get me to cut in front of him.

I took a step back to get his hand to fall from my back. I looked around the room to see if someone saw, but instead made eye contact with my boss who was slowly approaching us.

“No, you guys go ahead. I’ll eat when everybody’s done. Thank you.” I told Tyler with a small smile.

“Hey, let’s eat.” Shawn said, who now has his hand on my back. He smiled at Tyler before guiding me to the end of the line.

“I really should let everybody eat first.” I smiled nervously at Shawn but just got pushed back in line by the hand that was still on my back.

“Eat.” He said firmly, took his hand off my back and handed me a plate.

“Okay..” 

When we sat down with our food, Shawn was just looking at me like he wanted to say something.

“What?” I asked.

Shawn shrugged, finally starting to eat. “Didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, but why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?” I took a tissue and tried to wipe my face when I got stopped by Shawn.

"Nothing.” He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at him, trying to stop the smile from forming on my face, which actually got him chuckling a bit more.

After the small gathering, Nancy and I were left at the pantry cleaning up, and Shawn and Tyler were at one corner talking about something.

Nancy nudged me on the side, and pointed to Tyler with her head. “Well, you never told me that the new author was cute.”

“Meh.” I shrugged.

“Not your type?”

“Nope.”

“But Mr. Mendes is.” She smirked at me.

“Nancy.” I hiss a little too loudly, making the two men look at us.

“Everything okay?” Shawn asked.

“Yes, sir. Uh, we’ll head back to the office now.” I said, grabbing Nancy by her elbow and pulled her towards the elevator, the both of us giggling.

“Would yah look at that.” She laughed once the elevator doors closed.

“Stop it. You’re going to get me in trouble.” I managed to say in between the fits of giggles.

“Whatever.”

When the elevator doors open, Nancy and I immediately went back to work mode and proceeded to our desks.

As Shawn walked out of the elevator, Nancy winked at me which got us both giggling again.

“Thanks for the lunch, ladies.” Shawn said.

“You’re welcome, sir.” Nancy thanked our boss for the both of us before he entered his office.

My phone beeped with a text from Annie at our group chat.

Anniebee sent a message to bestiez. lets dwink anniebee is sad

Johnnyboi sent a message to bestiez. ure always sad

Anniebee sent a message to bestiez. f u.

You sent a message to bestiez. hahahahahahahahahhhahh dwinks at my place then

Anniebee sent a message to bestiez. Y A Y 

Johnnyboi sent a message to bestiez. see yall later mwa

I put my phone back in my pocket and got back to work. 

The intercom buzzed followed by Shawn’s voice. “Lexine, tell Tyler to just come straight to my office when he arrives.”

I pushed the button and said, “Okay, sir.”

Tyler arrives not long after. “Hi, Mr. Mendes said that you can go ahead into his office.”

"Got it.” He replied with a smile and went into Shawn’s office.

I’ve got to say, he really is charming. I mean, your typical cutie next door with the blond hair and green eyes. You know, if you’re into that Jesse McCartney charm.

I was taken out of my thoughts by the very person in them standing in front of me. “Yes? Is there anything that you need?” I looked at Shawn’s office to see if he was coming out.

“Oh, no. The meeting’s over.” Tyler smiled at me and took out what looked like a business card from the pocket of his jacket. “I was kind of hoping that you’re available for dinner later?”

“Oh, uhm...I can’t.” I manage to choke out, a blush creeping up on my face, and took another glance at Shawn’s office. “I already made plans.”

“What about Saturday?” He raised his eyebrows at me, with a hopeful smile.

I was about to decline again when the intercom buzzed followed by my saviour’s voice. “Hi, Lexine. Can you please come in here. Thank you.”

“Sorry.” I cleared my throat of whatever was blocking it. “I need to go. Excuse me.” I quickly stood up from my desk and speed-walked to Shawn’s office, not daring to look back.

“Ah, Lexine. Can you please cancel all my meetings for tomorrow.” My boss said, looking at me briefly before turning his attention back to his phone. “I need you to help me with something.”

“Is everything okay, sir? Can I get you anything?” I asked, concern lacing my voice.

“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.” He said, not going into detail.

“Uh, okay. Would that be all, sir?”

“Yes, thank you.”

I walk out of Shawn’s office and see that Tyler and his invites are gone.

“Hey, I think Tyler left something on your desk.” Nancy said with a smirk on her face.

I look at my desk, and on top of it is his card. Okay, spoke too soon, Lexine. I pick it up and see that his phone number is underlined by the purple pen on my desk, he also wrote ‘saturday?’ on it. I sigh, actually feeling like a teenager being asked out on a date.

The rest of the day was uneventful for the office, and I just couldn’t wait to get home and get that drink with my best friends. A very much needed drink.

I groan as Shawn was coming out of his office. “I’m leaving, don’t worry. You can leave too.” He snickered.

“Oh, shit.” I muttered. “No, I was just-” I stuttered, unable to find the right words. “Oh what the hell.” I feel my face heat up, and covered it with my hands, not having the courage to look at my boss.

“It’s fine. Let’s go?” He asked, still chuckling.

“Go where?”

“To the elevator, Lexine? We’re just going down together, don’t stress yourself too much.” He said, grinning, finally stopped laughing at me.

“Oh right, let’s go.” I followed him to the elevator without a word, afraid that I might say something stupid again. We entered the elevator, and I stood absentmindedly by the buttons.

“You okay there?” Suddenly Shawn’s breath was fanning my face, getting me out of my trance, as he leaned to press the ground button. 

He went back to his place after pressing the button, and I dare to look back and see him standing there with a smirk on that perfect face. My face immediately heats up as I make eye contact with him.

“I hate you.” I mutter and looked at the buttons again, trying to hide my face with my hair.

been watching christian grey for some intimidating ceo vibes inspo

well that took long enough im so sorry for the delay and im so sorry for sucking

taglist: @ashwarren32 @ellascarlettangel @ilsolee @mx-and-mb @to-the-road @shawnmendes048 @miclarodeluna @someinsanefangirl @lili-alvarez @sweetheartmendes @coralchloe @vintageroses1014516

boss baby pt. 4

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

WIP Wednesday - Finding the Words

Ok, ready to try and actually share!

My most recent story was “Finding the Words” - a story taking place after the Not-Pocalypse, after dinner at the Ritz, and is basically my first attempt to write pure fluff.

It didn’t quite work, cuz first Aziraphale then Crowley felt the need to get all sad in the middle and go through some actual character development or something. ;) It does, however, have 90 kudos at the moment, so I’ll just take that as evidence that it was something my audience wanted.

So what is there to talk about?

Hey, that’s my last two stories in a nutshell! Nearly 20,000 words on the Wall of Eden, then jump to the Ritz and see what’s changed. I’m going to point out that Aziraphale’s wing in the first image becomes the piano cover over Crowley in the second, just in case you haven’t seen it before.

You know what the change really is though? Aziraphale’s posture.

So, on the Wall of Eden, he shields Crowley with his wing, but doesn’t otherwise move.

He doesn’t acknowledge what he’s doing. He doesn’t look at Crowley. He certainly makes no effort to close the distance, that’s all the demon (who, of course, starts moving first). It’s almost an unconscious gesture, as if his wing is moving without consulting the rest of him. And that’s sort of how their relationship starts: Crowley reaches out, Aziraphale pretends to be aloof, and any connection they manage to make goes unmentioned because it shouldn’t exist.

It also is a hint of their underlying characters.

Crowley has a tough exterior, but he very much wants the comfort and protection Aziraphale can give him. I don’t know which of the two he wants more - comfort or protection - I doubt he knows, but he constantly goes to Aziraphale for it. He can be brave, he can be clever, he can be confident because at the end of the day, he knows his angel will be there for him. The times when he doesn’t know this - which makes up a good chunk of the TV show, including when Aziraphale gets distracted by the book, when Aziraphale tries to break up with him twice, and when he thinks Aziraphale is dead - well, he becomes a mess. His whole facade collapses bit by bit, until he’s getting drunk in a bar waiting to be destroyed along with the whole earth. And when Aziraphale shows up and says he needs Crowley to do something? He bucks the f**k up, and drives a flaming Bentley across a good chunk of England to swagger up to the airbase.

Aziraphale, meanwhile, wants companionship. We really don’t see him having a real, personal connection to anyone but Crowley in the whole show, of course the one person he’s forbidden from connecting with. But here, Crowley could walk away, get shelter somewhere in the Garden, or just snake off back to Hell. Even though Aziraphale might have been a bit stiff during the conversation, he wants Crowley to stay beside him longer. So he raises his wing, gives him shelter, but tries to act like it has nothing to do with him HES AN OBEDIENT ANGEL WHO DOESNT HELP LIKE OR RESPECT DEMONS YOU GUYS. And that lets him stay near Crowley a little longer.

The more I write Aziraphale, the more I realize how his need for companionship drives him. He wants the other angels to be his friends (look how he acts around Gabriel he is F***ING DYING FOR A SIGN OF APPROVAL) but they give him nothing; he wants Crowley to be his friend, but denies himself because DEMON. This is something I’m going to be touching on in the next two stories, so I’ll probably leave it at that for now, but yeah.

THEY BOTH NEED HUGS REAL BAD SOMEONE GIF THAT FOR ME KTHNX

But let’s jump to that final scene in the Ritz, which I am apparently incapable of finding a good GIF for :(

Now Crowley sits straight up, and Aziraphale leans toward him. He’s so animated.

It’s...I could write another ten paragraphs on all the differences from the first Ritz scene. The fact that Crowley is sitting comfortably, clearly planning to eat instead of just staring at Aziraphale. The fact that Aziraphale’s anxious upright body posture has evolved into something almost giddily relaxed. The way he leans in like he’s going to grab Crowley’s arm or hand at any second. This is a man UNLEASHED.

And that...really that right there is 100% of how I wound up writing “Finding the Words.” Like, I just looked at that final scene and thought, Aziraphale is not going to make it to the end of the day without confessing every unspoken feeling he’s ever had. 

Like, if he’d had a childhood, Crowley would know about every secret childhood dream, every book character he’d had a crush on, all the places he used to wander in the cornfields by himself and where he would stash the frogs he caught so his parents wouldn’t toss them back into the woods idk what do people with normal childhoods do? Whatever, this is just a simile anyway.

And somewhere among all that would be I love you. Crowley knows it. He’s waiting for it. 

Now, since getting more directly involved in the fandom, I’ve noticed that a lot of people write their love confessions and first kisses (or first More Than Kisses) not after the Ritz, but before the body swap. That seems odd to me.

All the emotion, to me, of the body swap is tension. It’s worry. Will they get caught? Are they right about the punishments? Is this even going to work? I mean, that is why I wrote “Give them Hell.” To me, it didn’t really make sense to have the love confession mixed with those emotions. I know, there’s the “now or never, we may die tomorrow, etc” aspect of it but... to me, the more natural place for that was afterwards. “We’ve survived. We’re free. Now is our time.”

And what they feel is so big, it doesn’t all come out at once. They’re so used to keeping it all in, it comes in little awkward, hesitant bits. A touch here. A quiet word there. Then back to walking as they always had, back onto familiar ground, but smiling because they managed another tiny stride.

I’m actually slightly on the fence as to where to go from here. I know where I want them to be a month after the Apocalypse, but as for how they get there, I see two paths: one where they continue making tiny steps forward, the other where everything all comes tumbling out all at once. I’m playing around with ideas, so we’re back to historicals for the next few weeks until I get my milestones pinned down.

Anyway, once again, you can read “Finding the Words” here on AO3.

On Saturday, we’re going way, way, WAY back to the War in Heaven. I look forward to sharing it with you!

[melikeylikeyjimin]

Noir || Two

(I don’t own this gif)

Word Count: 1.6k

Genre: Mafia AU! Sugar Daddy AU! Jungkook X Reader, fluff, angst.

Warnings: none

A/N: Here is the second chapter of Noir! I hope you continue to enjoy it as the story slowly builds up! If you’d like to be tagged whenever I post a new chapter of Noir, please DM me, leave a comment on this post, or send an ask and I’ll add you to the list!

Tag list: @another-star-you-fade-away @yeontanie21

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter

Waking up, I see the sun shining into my eyes from the balcony window. Cursing myself for not closing the blinds last night, I sit up from the couch. I grab my phone that I had left to lay on the floor and realize that it’s almost dead.

I groan and stand as I move to my room to plug it in. Scrolling through the notifications on my way, I see a few texts that I need to answer. I open the text from Dylan and read it over, ‘Good, you should go to sleep soon. It’s late.’ I smile and reply with a heart emoji before clicking out of our messages.

I open the one from Nicci next and see a long text about her ranting about her latest guy. I read through it before reading the last bit of text, ‘Anyways, enough of my boy troubles, do you work on Saturday?’ I type out the letters n and o and hit send.

Almost immediately I get a text back from her saying, ‘Good’ because we’re all going out!’ I frowned as I didn’t like going out, or at least not going out in the same way as Nicci did.

Going out in her book meant going to the club or going to some party, which was a crowd I was not particularly into. Knowing Dylan, he would agree with it just because he liked to go drinking, but Jisoo might not show up if she’s got a shoot. I plug my phone in and grab more comfortable clothing before making my way to the shower.

I put my clothes on the counter and began to undress. Letting the clothes fall to the floor, I step into the shower and feel the warm water cascade down my body. I let it cure the sleepiness I had felt and wash my hair. Once I finished I stepped out and dried off before throwing my hair up to dry in the towel.

I get dressed and step out of the room and walk over to my phone. I sit on my bed and open my messages with Dylan and text him, ‘movie night?’ Almost immediately I get a response from him with a thumbs up emoji and a heart. I smile and put my phone down to go scavenge for food.

I didn’t have much, but food is food. I grabbed the cereal from on top of the pantry and pour it into my bowl putting the milk in last because I’m not a monster. I sit down on the couch and watch whatever I left it on and shovel the cereal into my mouth.

The news suddenly flashed on and talked about how a girl was assaulted last night. I watched it carefully and saw that it was near my house and it made me feel uneasy. Like, that could have been me if I wasn’t careful. I felt bad for the poor unnamed girl as no one deserved that. I didn’t realize that my area was that dangerous. Sure, it was on the cheaper side but I made sure I wasn’t living in a seedy neighborhood where I just wasn’t safe.

I opened my phone to see another text from Dylan, ‘I’ll be there around four with dinner’. I smiled at the thought of food even though I felt the smallest bit guilty. I wondered if I should invite Nicci or Jisoo but I didn’t think they’d be available even if I asked.

Jisoo is a model and was usually away doing photo shoots for magazines. She did covers for Vogue and many other popular beauty magazines, but that was to be expected. Jisoo had an ethereal beauty to her and everyone flocked to her, men and women.

Knowing Nicci, she would probably go to a frat party or some kind of party of the sorts and find a good time. Nicci was the definition of a party animal. She was always partying, drinking, trying new things, having sex, you name it she’s probably tried it once.

We were complete opposites but our friendship just happened to work out. Despite our differences, we’ve stayed friends for the past two years and I expect many more years to come. I decided against asking Nicci and Jisoo as I figured it would bother them, but we would all be going out tomorrow anyway. Dylan was good enough.

I looked at the clock thinking about how much time I had. It was 11:30. I had plenty of time to go to the store and buy some snacks and drinks. I got up and let my hair fall out of the towel. I walked to the bathroom and grabbed the brush, pushing it through my hair. I grimaced every time it would encounter a tangle and pull on my scalp.

Once I had detangled it, I towel dried it a bit more and put it up so it wouldn’t soak the back of my shirt. Grabbing my keys I slipped my shoes on and walked out of my apartment, locking the door behind me. The store wasn’t very far from my house, thankfully as I didn’t have a car.

I walked a couple of blocks and walked in. Popcorn was a movie essential so that was the very first thing I grabbed. I made sure to get some chips and a bit of candy as well. I didn’t know what to really get drink-wise, but I figured a few carbonated drinks would be good enough. I sighed as I looked at the food I was about to buy. I had enough money for it but sadly it was another one of those unnecessary purchases.

I took my basket and set it on the self-checkout and began to ring in my items. I looked at the total and felt my bank account cry as I swiped my debit card. I couldn’t understand why food was so expensive when you needed it to survive. I took my bags and walked back to my house.

I unlocked my door and set the bags of food on the counter. Something caught my eye though, the tv was off. I raised an eyebrow, why was it off? I didn’t turn it off before leaving and it doesn’t turn off by itself either.  I felt anxiety pool in my stomach but I tried to talk myself out of it. “It’s nothing y/n, you probably did turn it off and just don’t remember,” I whispered to myself. I still felt anxious, but I took a few more deep breaths to calm myself.

I grabbed a kitchen knife and decided I would keep it on me. I wasn’t about to go searching my whole apartment for someone, I would rather wait for them to come to me. I sat down on the couch making sure my back was against the wall. I would normally unpack the food and put it on the shelves, but I was too paranoid to let my back be exposed.

I grabbed my phone and decided I would text Dylan. He would understand surely and come over. ‘Hey Dylan, could you come over earlier? Like now?’

Immediately there was a flood of messages, ‘Why? Is something wrong? Call me!’

I sighed and called him and not even after one ring he picked up. “Y/n, what’s wrong?!” I heard him say.

“Not much, I’m just nervous. Some girl was assaulted in my area last night and I went to go get food for tonight and I came back and my tv was off. I didn’t turn it off before I left though. I’m sorry I could just be paranoid about nothing.” I sighed.

“No, No, it’s fine, y/n. I’ll be there in fifteen okay?”

“Okay.” I hung up and sighed. I just had to make it fifteen more minutes by myself and then I wouldn’t be alone anymore. I let myself calm down but held the knife close to me regardless.

I kept myself distracted for the time period by watching the tv. I heard the doorbell and I ran to it. I flung it open and let Dylan in. His arms wrapped around me as he looked down at me, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll go look around, okay?” I nodded and he let go of me and went to go search. I heard him opening and closing doors and with more silence, I felt relief hit me.

He walked back out, “I didn’t see anything, so I think you’re okay, okay?”

I nodded and he grabbed my hand, “You can relax now, I checked everything and now I’m here.”

“Sorry to make you come here early. You must have had something else to do.”

“No, no, I wasn’t doing anything. I was just giving you time to do your own things.”

He led me to the couch and we both sat down, “I know it’s early but we can go ahead and start our marathon and take your mind off of things.” I smiled and nodded. He finally smiled at me before grabbing the remote.

“Do you have anything, in particular, you want to watch?”

“Not really,” I replied. He hummed as he looked at all the different movie choices.

“Let’s watch something happy, so it can improve your mood.”

“What about the food?”

“I’ll order it later for us, don’t worry.” I nodded. He grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and threw it at me. I unfolded it and put it over my legs. He sat back down next to me and I let my head rest on his shoulder. He smiled gently at me and wrapped his arm around me, letting me get comfortable.

I grabbed the blanket and made sure to put it over his legs too as I didn’t want him to be cold. He grinned at me and I felt myself smile back at him. He started the movie and we both became immersed within it, forgetting about our worries.  

NEXT PROJECTED UPDATE: 05/12/19

[heungtanbts]

“I’m really sorry to bother you, but i just spilled an entire can of paint all over the floor and my apartment’s getting inspected in an hour.” + taehyung (not sure if this is too specific akdks sorry)

drabble #1 - clean up on aisle — err, in unit 602.

“So… this is where the blue ooze is coming from.”  

He stood at your doorway, surprisingly nonchalant, filling up the rectangular frame with his red checkered pajama-clad stature, like you had disturbed his sleep or something, even though it was only 7PM and that clearly was not the case. Taehyung, your insanely handsome neighbor who lived in the unit below you and always managed to make your heart stutter with his boxy smile and easy-going charm whenever you were graced with the opportunity to share an elevator with him. There he was, standing in your apartment unit, running a hand through his electric blue hair that stood out as a stark contrast to his sleep wear (but coincidentally matched the “blue ooze” he was speaking of), not even realizing what he was doing to you and your poor, weak heart. Just like you had always imagined. Because you had daydreamed about this moment a lot, but not happening like this. Never like this.

“It-it’s paint.” You managed to choke out.

“I mean, I figured the ooze wasn’t Avatar blood but it sure looked like it. Felt like I was in a horror movie, watching it drip down from my ceiling.” Taehyung faked a shiver, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. He peeked over your shoulder at the smooth, untouched puddle of cerulean “ooze” sitting in the middle of your living room.

“You know, usually people paint their walls and ceilings, not their hardwood floor.” You’d think he’d be more surprised and upset by this predicament (you certainly were), but from the look of amusement and curiosity on his face, you would argue he was rather enjoying all of this.

“I-I can explain.” You felt your cheeks and ears burn even more, but there really was no time for embarrassment. “Not now, later.”

If he wasn’t surprised earlier, he certainly was when you suddenly pulled at his arm and nearly dragged him into your unit, the door shutting behind him as he tripped his way into your living room.

“Uh, sure ____, I’d love to come in for a cup of tea, thanks for asking?” Taehyung sputtered. Normally you wouldn’t be this bold but desperate times called for desperate measures. You needed help, period. Still holding his arm, you hastily pushed a side table out of the way to bring the both of you right to the edge of the ominous (and growing) circle of paint. You whirled around to face him.

“I’m sorry Tae, I just- you know the landlord’s running inspections tonight and when I looked out, I saw that he’s almost done with the 5th floor which mean he’s coming up here next and I didn’t mean to start this paint job today, I just wanted to see just how blue this ‘seaside blue’ was because can you really trust those paint catalogs thingies? But after I opened the can, I turn my back for literally 1 minute and my stupid cat Yellow thought it’d be funny to fucking knock it over and now it’s all over the floor and it’s even seeped down into your unit-“

“Whoa whoa hang on, slow down.” Taehyung clasps a hand on your shoulder, and only then do you realize you’ve been breathing rapidly and talking his ear off at a mile a minute. His grip felt strong, warm, comforting. Of course it was the right time to admire his hand strength, perfectly appropriate. “Your cat’s name is Yellow?”

You sigh quickly and dramatically, waving your hand dismissively in the air. “Yes his name is Yellow, it’s a long story, Tae please just help me! I already broke one of the washing machines last month, Mr. Lee is going to seriously skin me alive if he finds out I managed to screw something else up.”

Taehyung raised a beautifully thick eyebrow at that. “You were the one who broke the washing machine? But I heard a fork got caught in it, how did you-“

“I’ll explain it all later, Tae, I swear!” At this point you were exasperated. You could practically hear Mr. Lee’s footsteps traveling from room to room on the floor below, and this unwanted man-made aqua lagoon was only growing larger. With that anxiety-inducing mental imagery in mind, you wildly gestured to the obnoxious blue polka dot on the ground. “Please,” you begged, “any ideas on how to get rid of this?”

Taehyung paused, his stare fixated on the paint as he rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. Your own eyes followed his and trailed over the giant blue pimple on your floor. So you didn’t catch him stealing glances at you, biting his lip to hide his amusement. What a quirky girl, and what a situation.

“Well, lucky for you I happen to be quite experienced in this field.” You already felt a question forming at your lips as he continued, swiftly cutting you off. “But we’re gonna need a Swiffer, a dust pan, some rags, a couple of lemon, and a hair dryer.” You weren’t sure you even wanted to know where he was getting all of this. Taehyung rolled up his pajama sleeves and cracked his knuckles, beaming at you with that charming rectangular smile of his. He looked so confident, and Mr. Lee was practically knocking at your door — you had no other choice but to trust him and his “experience.”

“Let’s get moving, sis!”

— — —

An hour later, you and Taehyung were sprawled out on your sofa, Mr. Lee come and gone, an invisible check mark bestowed upon your apartment unit, your hair dryer still plugged in and lying on your spotless floor just a few feet away, a pile of squeezed lemons filling up your living room’s mini garbage can, and both your palms just slightly tinted blue, only truly noticeable if you squinted hard enough. You had your doubts but you had to admit, Taehyung really came through for you. Though it turned out he googled these remedies when he spilled some of his oil paint on his hardwood floor a couple months back. And that was when you learned that his hobby was landscape painting. Could the man be any more perfect?

You took in a deep, calming breath, staring up at your blank white ceiling. “Thank you so much Tae, I seriously could not have survived this without your help.” Turning your head to the side, you found him already staring back at you, your stomach doing summersaults just from his pointed gaze and how his eyes seemed to sparkle, even with your shitty apartment lighting. He smiled, giving you a thumbs up.

“Google, my friend, google.”

You nod in agreement, finally finding the peace and ability to smile again. Taehyung slowly sat up and stretched his arms out, a sliver of his stomach peeking out as if to tease you. How rude, seriously. You needed to say something and distract yourself before he could notice you oggling at him like a starved woman.

“How can I thank you for all your help, Tae? Because seriously whatever it is, it’s on me. Just please don’t ask me to paint your walls or something. Too soon, too soon.” You pretended to shudder, a giggle leaving your lips and Taehyung had to fight the urge to take that melodious sound and store it away in a jar for a rainy day. Cute, just too cute.

“Hmm,” he pondered, a smile already reappearing on his lips. He paused just a moment longer, but you had a feeling he was just doing it for dramatic effect. For whatever he was about to propose. “You free tomorrow? It is Saturday, after all.” You offer another nod, his eyes lighting up instantly. “Then come model for me.”

The shock and horror was evident in your expression and just as you were about to wave both of your hands frantically in rejection, he laid a warm hand on top of yours, effectively sending a pleasant electric jolt up your arm. “I’m usually only drawn to landscape pieces, but now I think I want to give oil-based portraits a shot.

You gulp audibly. “N-now you do?”

Taehyung‘s lips curl upward in response, and he shifted his weight forward to stand up from the couch as you automatically followed suit. You followed him to the door where he slipped on his house slippers.

“Does 1PM sound okay? I want there to be enough natural lighting. Also you can come fully dressed in whatever clothes you want.”

Your eyes widened. “I mean, I wasn’t planning on coming naked-“

Taehyung offered you a playful wink, “Just making sure you knew.”

All you could do was bite your lip and nod vigorously like a bobble head, not trusting your voice to help save you from any further embarrassment. You internally vowed to start doing more cardio workouts because curse your racing heart for failing you like this.

“Alright, sounds good.” You managed to get out, despite the sudden nervousness. “Thanks again, Taehyung. You’re a lifesaver.”

Taehyung stepped out into the hall, pausing to turn back just enough to make eye contact with you. “Tae,” he corrects you quietly, “I like it when you call me Tae.”

That was it. Full-on cardiac arrest. Just like that. Curse you, Kim Taehyung, curse you.

send in a dialogue prompt + bts member for this drabble game!

[atc74]

Green Isn’t Your Color

Square Filled: Jealousy

Warnings: Angst, Jealous Jensen, mentions of surgery (not graphic), family emergency

Summary: Jensen gets a call and flies home for a family emergency, but let’s his mind get the better of him when he returns home to find Jared and Y/N staying together while he was gone. 

Pairing: J2 x Reader 

Word Count: 2717

Written for: @spngenrebingo and my girl @supernatural-jackles, who told me she would love to see me write a J2 x Reader, but would never send a request. When I got my new card for this bingo, I knew exactly what I was going to write. Jen, your wish is my command. 

Beta’d by: @evansrogerskitten, also thanks to @sis-tafics for her read over and assurance. Love you both!

Check out Jared and Jensen’s scents here at @scentsfromthebunker.

This is the newest installment in my J2 x reader series: To New Beginnings

“I got you the next flight out, but we have to leave now, Jen,” Y/N told him. Jensen was in his room, throwing random clothes in a bag.

“I just need...fuck!” Jensen violently shoved a pair of jeans inside.

“Baby, here is your travel kit. I have your passport and your coat. Jared’s waiting in the car downstairs,” she told him calmly. She placed the kit in his bag and zipped it shut. She threw the bag over her shoulder and grabbed his hand.

Together, they walked out of Jensen’s apartment hand in hand to the waiting vehicle. The drive to the airport was silent as Jared maneuvered them through traffic. Y/N sat in the back, holding Jensen’s hand, providing him the silent comfort he needed.

Jensen didn’t want hushed reassurances. He didn’t want anyone to tell him everything would be okay. He just wanted to be close to them, taking comfort in their presence alone.

Jared pulled up to the drop off at the airport. Y/N got out of the vehicle with Jensen and walked him to the doors. “Please call me when you land and when you have news, okay? I love you.”

“Thank you, Y/N,” Jensen pressed his lips to hers and headed to the ticket counter. She watched as long as she could before she needed to leave.

“Y/N?” Jared’s voice carried over the din of the cars idling at the curb and planes taking off. “Come on baby.”

She got back in the car, holding tight to Jared’s hand. “He’ll be okay.”

“Alan’s strong, Y/N. He’ll pull through,” Jared affirmed.

“No, Jare. Jensen. He’ll be okay, right?” She looked to him with tears in her eyes. Although they were constantly exploring their relationship, she had never felt so strongly, so passionately for two people like she did for Jared and Jensen. They were her life and she couldn’t imagine it without them.

Jared drove them back to his house and they settled on the sofa with a blanket and a bottle of wine. Neither would admit it, but they both checked their phones when they thought the other wasn’t looking. It had been seven hours and Jensen still hadn’t called. If she didn’t hear from him before they headed to bed, she would call, but until then, she was going to give him time.

“Jare, turn the alarm off, it’s Saturday,” Y/N mumbled against his warm chest.

“Babe, it’s not the alarm. It’s your phone,” Jared sat up and grabbed it. “Jensen?”

“Hey, where’s Y/N?” Jensen asked, his voice tired.

“She’s right here, we fell asleep waiting for your call, brother,” Jared handed the phone off to her.

“Jen? Baby, how’s your dad?” she asked.

“The doctor said the surgery went well, but he’s still in recovery and they won’t let us see him,” Jensen choked back a sob.

“Baby, how are you? Are you okay? Do you want us to come to Dallas?” she questioned.

“No, no. We’re going to be okay and I’ll be home in a few days. I just want to be here for my mom, you know?” He informed her.

“I know, Jen. Send our love to everyone and call us, okay? Doesn’t matter what time, if you need us, you call,” she enforced.

“I will. I love you,” Jensen murmured through the phone.  

“I love you,” she echoed, ending the call.

“Let’s go to bed. There isn’t anything we can do for him right now, but we need to be rested for when he comes home. He’ll need us, okay?” Jared pulled her up form the couch and led her to the bedroom.

“Yeah, okay. Thank you, Jare,” she yawned.

“Hey, you don’t have to thank me. Y/N, we’re a unit and we’re in this together. When one of us hurts, we all hurt,” he attested.

They each talked to Jensen a few times over the next couple of days. His dad was recovering nicely and would be going home soon. Jensen sounded relieved that his dad was going to be okay, but he was tired. He needed sleep, but he needed to get back to Vancouver for what he really needed. A family that needed comfort could only provide so much in return. He needed Y/N and Jared. Only they could give him what he needed.

Jensen entered the house quietly, disarming and resetting the alarm. He toed off his shoes and dropped his jacket on the floor. He made his way up to Jared’s room. He just needed sleep and to be wrapped in the arms of those he needed most right now. The television was playing some mindless background movie while he undressed and slipped into the bed behind Y/N.

Her body was warm and welcoming as he pressed up against her. She turned in his arms and wrapped herself around him. It wasn’t until that moment Jensen realized how fucking scared he’d been that he’d lose his father. He finally allowed himself to take the shuddering breaths and let it all out. She cradled his head against her neck and he sobbed, his tears falling into her hair and wetting her delicate skin. The bed dipped behind him and soon he found himself cocooned between two of the most important people in his world. His ragged breaths evened out and he drifted into a peaceful sleep for the first time in four days.

“How is he?” Jared asked. He and Y/N were seated at the kitchen island, sipping from their coffee mugs.

“Still sleeping when I checked a bit ago. He’s tired. I doubt he slept much. You know he gets when he’s got too much on his mind,” she sighed.

“It’s our job to take care of him right now. So let’s just make sure he’s got what he needs and be there for him,” Jared said.

“”He’s going to be okay. His dad pulled through with flying colors and now that he knows he’s okay, he’ll be okay,” she said, assuring Jared as much as herself. He put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.

“You two look awful cozy,” Jensen muttered, shuffling to the coffee pot. “What time is it, anyway?”

“It’s a little after ten. We have to be on set in an hour, but you don’t have scenes until tomorrow,” Jared confirmed, rinsing his mug and setting it in the sink. “What are you going to do today?”

“Probably head home and take a shower. Maybe do some laundry,” Jensen shrugged.

“Why don’t you go home and pack a bag and just stay here with us?” Jared offered. “Take the day, get some rest. I’ll cook a nice dinner when we get home and we can just relax, the three of us.”

“Is she living with you now?” Jensen snapped. He didn’t know why, but he felt incensed at the thought of Jared and Y/N together without him. He turned to Y/N. “You’re living here?”

“No, Jensen, she isn’t. She has just been staying here since you were with your family. We wanted to be together when you called and got home, so you had what you needed,” Jared told him.

“So you guys have been playing house while I’ve been sitting in a hospital, praying that my father survived his triple bypass?” Jensen accused.

“Jen, what Jared said is the truth. We thought it would be best if we stayed here so when you called you had both of us. We wanted to be here for you and the best way to do that was to be here when you came home,” she stepped up to Jensen, putting both her hands on his chest, trying to calm him down.

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told her the day you went home. We’re a unit, brother, and we’re in this together. When one of us hurts, we all hurt. We’ve been waiting for you to come back to us so we can help you in whatever way you need us to. Even if that is just being in the same room,” Jared professed.

“Well, you two have a fun day at work without me. I’m going home,” Jensen stormed upstairs and within minutes, he was out the door, slamming it behind him.

“Hey, there’s nothing we can do about it now. He needs to cool off,” Y/N put her hand on Jared’s arm to stop him from going after Jensen. “Let’s get to set so we can get our scenes filmed. We’ll go to his place tonight and be there for him.”

While they were both worried about Jensen, Y/N and Jared welcomed the distraction of filming. With a little luck and a lot of determination, they were able to wrap their scenes, finishing ahead of schedule.

Clif was waiting for them when they left the set. “Have you heard from Jensen today, Clif?”

“Negative,” came the gruff reply.

“He hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts, Jared,” Y/N worried her bottom lip as she dialed him once more.

“Same here. It’s okay. We’ll be there soon,” Jared comforted her.

“Jensen! Please open the door!” Y/N knocked again.

“That’s enough. I’m just using my key,” Jared announced and unlocked the door. “Jensen? Brother, where are you?”

They were both met with silence walking through the front door. Jensen’s condo wasn’t that large so there weren’t many places he could be. The house was dark but he wasn’t in the kitchen, or his bedroom. Y/N gently pushed open the room she used to stay in before the three of them became one. It too was dark, but she heard sniffling and followed the sound.

“Jen, baby, I’m here,” she whispered. With the light from the hall filtering in, she found him on the bed, his arms wrapped around a pillow and his face buried in it. There was an empty bottle of scotch next to him.

“Why are you here?” he mumbled.

“Jen, I’m worried about you, we’re worried about you. This isn’t like you, babe. Tell me what’s wrong, please,” she pleaded with him. Y/N laid down next to him, carded her fingers through his hair.  

“You have Jared now, you don’t want me anymore,” he told her.

“Hey now. We’re in this together. I want you as much as I want Jared and more importantly, I need you both. This doesn’t work without one of us,” she whispered in his ear. “We’re a unit now, remember?”

Jensen didn’t reply, he just laid there, with Y/N by his side. They were quiet for a while before she spoke again.

“Why are you in here, Jen?” she asked quietly.

“Because I miss you and the bed still smells like you,” he admitted. “If I can’t be with you, at least I can still have this small part of you.”  

“I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you and neither is Jared. We’re in this for the long haul, remember?” she reminded him as she pulled him closer to her.

A soft knock sounded on the door. “Hey, can I come in?”

“Whatever,” Jensen grumbled, holding tighter to Y/N as Jared laid down on his other side.

“Brother, you’re my best friend. Remember when we started this thing, the three of us together? We said communication is the most important thing. That when one of us is hurting, we need to talk to each other. We’re here for you to talk to, man. If one of us hurts, we all hurt,” Jared wrapped his long arms around his friend.

“But you were so comfortable without me,” Jensen argued, his tears falling freely.

“Yes, we were. The same would have happened if the roles were reversed and it had been you here with me instead of Jared. Because what we have is built on trust, Jen. Jealousy can’t be part of this if we’re really going to make it work,” Y/N reiterated.

“I feel like a total jackass,” Jensen admitted, rolling to his back and looking between the two of them. “I’m sorry. I just love you both so much and can’t imagine my life without you, either of you. I’m so sorry.”

“Baby, it’s okay now. Let’s get you cleaned up and we’ll have some dinner. We can talk more once you sober up a little, okay?” Y/N asked, her fingers trailing from his hair to his chin, scratching along the week long growth.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed. Y/N got out first, holding her hands out for Jensen when he stumbled, trying to find his footing. “Will you help me, please?” He looked up at her with pleading green eyes.

“Of course I will. Jare, can you order some dinner, please?” She asked. He nodded and she helped Jensen to the bathroom, lowering him to the closed toilet seat. “I’m going to go get clothes and towels. I’ll be right back.”

Jensen was still sitting there, his head in his hands, waiting for her when she returned with clothes for both of them and a couple of towels. “I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

“Shhhh, let’s get showered, then we can all talk it out together,” she soothed him, as she helped him undress. Once they were both down to just their underwear, she turned on the water, making sure it was warm enough. She pulled Jensen to his feet and he slipped down his boxers. She pulled off her bra and panties and stepped into the shower first, helping him in after her.

She turned him into the spray to wet his hair. Y/N squeezed a drop of his shampoo into her palm and washed his hair, massaging his scalp as she did. He moaned under her attention, finally allowing himself the chance to relax since he first got the call about his father. Once his hair was washed, she took the wash cloth filled with his body wash, gently scrubbing the sweat and stress away with the bubbles down the drain.

Jensen was clean and she helped him out, wrapping the towel around his neck. He was steadier on his feet and she took two minutes to wash herself. Y/N stepped out of the shower and dried off, wrapping the towel under her arms. She took Jensen’s towel and dried his back. They both dressed in silence before walking out of the bathroom hand in hand.

Jensen and Y/N joined Jared on the sofa. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened this morning. After everything, I just freaked out and I’m sorry.”

“Jensen, with everything you went through this week, you’re allowed to be a little freaked out. Not everything is within our control, but how we chose to react is. We understand that the stressful situation you were in with your family this week is enough to lose that control,” Jared reasoned, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“When you said you were staying there together, I lost it. Our rule of no one on one time without the other’s knowledge was flashing in my head like a huge warning sign and I saw red in it,” Jensen breathed out a ragged breath.

“Hey, that is still the rule, Jen. I stayed at Jared’s but we we never had sex. I promise,” Y/N held his gaze, hoping he believed the truth. He tore his eyes from her to look at Jared.

“It’s true. We barely kissed goodnight and I never saw her naked while you were gone,” Jared reaffirmed Y/N’s statement.

“Really?” Jensen’s eyes darted between them.

“Honest to God, baby. We aren’t going to break the rules. All that can wait. It’s the three of us, not just two when one can’t be here. We’re a un-”

“Unit. When one of us hurts, we all hurt,” Jensen finished her sentence. “I’m sorry. I’m so glad I have you both.”

“Good, because even though I love your eyes, green is not your color, baby,” Y/N leaned in and kissed him gently. “Just be my green eyed boyfriend, not a green eyed monster.”

“Deal,” Jensen agreed. “I love you guys. Thank you for loving me in return.”

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The Whole Enchilada: @closetspngirl @emoryhemsworth @iwantthedean  @meganwinchester1999 @sis-tafics @wilde-abandon @wegoddessofhell @holyfuckloueh @horsegirly99 @smoothdogsgirl @dolphincliffs @thisismysecrethappyplace @neeadinghugs @roxyspearing @theoriginalvicki @andkatiethings @mrswhozeewhatsis @just-another-busy-fangirl @linki-locks11 @evansrogerskitten @hennessy0274-blog @hobby27 @gh0stgurl @charliebradbury1104 @blacktithe7 @the--blackdahlia @fortisetgloriosusinarduis @roseblue373 @hannahindie @pinknerdpanda @cherrycokegirls1 @mogaruke @kickingitwithkirk @wotinspntarnation​ 

Jensen’s Jamboree: @supernatural-jackles @dean-winchesters-bacon @docharleythegeekqueen @maddiepants @squirrel-moose-winchester @amanda-teaches @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @adoptdontshoppets @wingedcatninja  @akshi8278 @kathaswings @deansgirl215 @x-waywardaf-x  @elara98azalea @jerkbitchidjitassbutt @pretty-fortune @deanwinchesterwitch 

Jared’s Menagerie: @supernatural-jackles @squirrel-moose-winchester @amanda-teaches @deansgirl215 @x-waywardaf-x  @pretty-fortune @team-free-will-you-idjits-67

[blueboxesandtrafficcones]

Second Chance at Forever - Chapter 14

Chapter 14 of this year’s entry for the @dwsecretsanta, my present to @wordsintimeandspace!  Beta’d by the always-kind @stupidsatsuma​.  Thank you!

@doctorroseprompts​ and @timepetalscollective​ as an AU fic

General warnings for: alcohol use, cursing, discussions of sexual activities and mature situations.  No explicit love scenes.

Masterlist

AO3

Summary

Once upon a time, a boy and girl met at a bar and fell in love - until he ghosted her.

Five years later Rose Tyler’s best friend Mickey is getting married, and arranges a dinner for her to meet the groomsman she’ll be walking with - unaware that the two already know each other.

John Noble’s not sure how his friend and mentee managed to connive with the Universe to bring the One Who Got Away back into his life; all he knows it carefully built and maintained walls are crashing to the ground with no warning.

At first, John’s few functioning brain cells assumed the noise was his pulse beating in his ears.  He and Rose were tangled on the couch, her hand in his pants while his were occupied at her chest. They were kissing frantically, sloppily, too focused on the pleasure they were bringing their partner to concentrate properly.

Then he heard his name.  Not just the sexy way Rose was whispering it, but his sister’s obnoxious loudmouth calling for him.

Reluctantly tearing his mouth away from hers, he propped himself up slightly and strained to listen.

“No, shh, John,” Rose pleaded, and the way she said it meant he wasn’t imagining things.

“Please tell me my sister’s not outside our door.”

She pulled him back to her by his half-undone tie, mouth latching onto his adam’s apple.  “She’ll go away.  Don’t stop.”

The choice was taken away from him by the door slamming open, and they both moaned in regret.  With no time to hide what they’d been up to, John just shifted higher to cover Rose’s bare chest as Donna stalked in.

“Oh, you have got to be shitting me,” the redhead fumed as she came around the couch and found them lying together.  “I’ve been calling for an hour!”

“Go away,” John said firmly, knowing if she had gone to the effort of showing up something was seriously wrong but wanting to hold onto denial a few moments longer.  “We’re busy.”

“You have the rest of your lives to shag,” Donna was unsympathetically blunt.  “But I need Rose, now.”

“So do I,” he muttered before her words processed.  “Wait, what?”

Rose wriggled beneath him, achieving nothing more than torturing him.  “Donna, can you give us a minute?  Maybe wait in the kitchen?”

Standing above them with her arms crossed, lit by the moonlight coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows, Donna cut an imposing figure.  “I’ll be at the window.  Don’t you dare do anything but stand up and put yourself back together.”  She spun on her heel, walking the few yards to stare out at the city.

Glancing down at Rose, he held her eye for a moment before she pinched his side.  Sighing heavily he stood, offering Rose a hand up.  It didn’t take them long to make themselves presentable, though John winced as his zipper made a loud noise in the otherwise quiet room.

Once they were ready Rose turned on the light on the end table, bathing the room in a soft glow.  “Sorry, Donna.  What’s going on?”

Donna returned to them, and the two women sat gingerly.  Not quite ready to meet his sister’s eye and needing time to get himself under control, John busied himself in the kitchen preparing tea.  He couldn’t hear much of what was being said, but didn’t need to; he knew his sister, and it would have to be an absolute crisis at work to show up at Rose’s door unannounced at midnight.

Fetching Rose’s purse from where it had dropped by the door, he fished out her phone and plugged it into the charger on the counter.  Sure enough the screen showed more than a dozen missed texts and calls from Donna. Fixing each a cuppa to taste, he brought them back to the sitting area just as Rose buried her head in her hands.

“Here, love.”  He would be lying to say he wasn’t irritated at the interruption, but made a conscious effort to clear his expression before she looked up.  Whatever was wrong wasn’t her fault, or at least not deliberately with the intention of ruining their night.  She had been plenty understanding the few times he’d been called away for a medical emergency, not least of which being his month-long trip to Haiti; now it was his turn.

A relationship, a marriage, like the one they were building would only succeed with equality.  Support went both ways, and he would be damned before he gave her any reason to hesitate about his commitment.

“What’s going on?” he asked quietly, settling one palm on Rose’s back as she sank into his side, blowing gently on her tea.

“This morning Rose presented a new spread to our- her biggest client, and the meeting went well, they loved it,” Donna sighed, watching Rose with sympathy.  “But… the meeting was with the number two guy.  Apparently when he presented it to his boss, at ten o’clock tonight no less, she flipped her shit.  We’ll lose the account if it’s not redone to new specs by eight Friday morning.  It took more than an hour to negotiate them down to that, if you can believe.  The owner wanted it Monday morning, but Harriet – the owner of our firm convinced her that was unreasonable.  If they like what we come up with by Friday, they’ll pay for both sets of designs and stay clients; if Yvonne doesn’t, she won’t pay a penny and will pull her business.”

“And she’s an important client?” John gathered.

Rose moaned.  “Millions of pounds a year.  We’ve been working on this for months, it was perfect.  Witch.”

“What can I do to help?”

His girlfriend straightened up with a pout.  “Not much, I’m afraid.  I’m going to have to work pretty much straight through to get this done in time, even with the extra help Harriet’s promised me.”

“Then you’ll do that,” he said brusquely, already formulating and discarding half a dozen plans.  “I’ll handle everything else.  Take a shower, wash your face.  I’ll have some war supplies ready for you by the time you’re done.  Go, go.”

Rose stood, taking the time to lean down and kiss him.  “We really will have to wait for after the wedding now,” she whispered, but he just shook his head, pressing his lips to hers.

“Don’t worry about that.  Do what you need to.”  As soon as she disappeared down the hall he went into crisis mode, heading for the kitchen and pulling out canvas bags, his sister trailing behind.

“So, sorry for interrupting what I walked in on,” Donna mentioned, leaning against the countertop.

“Me too,” was all he said, focusing on his plan.  Grabbing down every insulated travel mug they had, he started filling them with tea before refilling the kettle for more.  Opening the snack cabinet, he pulled out everything relatively healthy and started throwing it in a bag.  “Can you...”  Gesturing towards the whistling kettle he didn’t wait for a response, heading for the bedroom.

Locating her overnight bag in the back of her closet, he efficiently packed two changes of clothes and comfortable shoes.  A quick raid of her gym bag produced on-the-go toiletries, which got tossed in as well. Returning to the kitchen with a detour to drop the bag by the door, he took over the tea-making, tightly closing the lid of the last travel mug by the time Rose reappeared in yoga pants and a tee, one it took him a moment to realize came from his own drawer unless she’d gone to Cambridge Med School without telling him.

“Right, I’ll head in and get started, Donna, go home and get some rest.  I’ll need you first thing,” she started, before stopping to stare at the now-cluttered counter.  “What’s all this?”

“Supplies,” John shrugged, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the counter.  Donna’s gaze was burning a hole in the side of his head, making him flush, but he refused to feel ashamed of showing how much he loved Rose.

She slowly shook her head, expression softening.  “I know you said… thank you, John.”

“Anything for you.  There’s also a bag by the door.”

Padding up to him, she tugged him down for a firm kiss, momentarily sucking at his bottom lip before releasing him.  “I love you.”

“Love you too.  You’re taking a cab, yeah?”

Rose nodded.  “I’ll text you, but probably won’t be home before tomorrow night.  Er, tonight, I guess,” she corrected herself, seeing the time. “Don’t forget to feed the cat.”

“I won’t.  Now, shoo.  The sooner you go the sooner you can come back.”

With one last kiss for her and a wave to his sister, the girls were gone in a whirlwind, leaving him alone in the kitchen.

Tardis came barreling in then, jumping up onto the counter and nosing around some of the food he’d left out.  John sighed, pushing her away and starting to restore the room to normalcy.

“Guess it’s you and me now, girl.”

The next day was Saturday, and he puttered around the flat for part of the morning before deciding to unpack some of the boxes sitting around.  Most of them were books, cds, and knickknacks, and he took his time arranging them just so.  Rose had cleared some space for his things, and he killed some time reorganizing for fun.

He spent the afternoon polishing the finals for his various classes, drawing up study guides and planning the last week of lessons.  By teatime he was bored and lonely, unable to remember how he’d survived on his own for so many years.  The cat was somewhat of a comfort, having a living creature there to talk to instead of thin air.

Rose appeared around nine, taking a shower and scarfing down a salad before collapsing into bed.  Despite the early hour he went with her at her request, holding her close in the dark as she slept.  When he woke at dawn she was already gone, and he trudged through most of the day in a grumpy mood.

When five rolled around and he didn’t hear from her he texted her himself.

How’s it going?

She responded almost instantly.  Ugh.  Ok, I guess, but UGH, with an angry person emoji attached for good measure.

Dinner?

Probably takeaway in a few hours.  Too busy.  Sorry.  This time, the tiny face was pouting.

Tapping the phone against his thigh as he debated, he ran his idea past Tardis.  “What do you think, girl?”

He took the meowing for a yes.

“Ugh, that’s not going to work,” Rose groaned, throwing her pen on the table in front of her and closing her eyes in frustration.  The office was empty on a Sunday evening except for them, so they’d taken over the main conference room to make use of the large whiteboards.  She was incredibly grateful to the ragtag team Harriet had scrambled together for her, but so far all they had to show was a lot of terrible ideas and a few with potential.  The idea was out there, just waiting to be had, but they were running on fumes at this point.  “Let’s… let’s take a break for a few minutes, order some dinner.  Yeah?”

There were five of them; Rose and Donna of course, and to her surprise Harriet as well.  Her boss and mentor had roped in one of the more junior girls, a lovely if too-perky woman named Mel, and an intern named Bill, who had lots of brilliant out-of-the-box ideas that would work for any other client, but not Yvonne.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Donna commented, staring behind her.  “Look.”

Rose looked over her shoulder, gasping when she realized her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.  Jumping from her chair, she hurried to the door and threw it open to let John and two other men in.  She didn’t know who they were, but one carried pizza boxes and the other a bag of chips and pop, so she didn’t care.

“What’re you doing here?” she asked in delight, throwing her arms around John.  He hugged her back, the bags he carried thumping against her spine but she didn’t care, too happy to see him.

“I brought reinforcements and some temporary help, hope that’s all right.”

Mindful of the glass walls of the conference room she didn’t snog the daylights out of him like she wanted to, merely squeezed tighter.  “Thank you.”

Taking one of the bags from him they walked in together to find one of the two men already regaling the women with a lively story.

“Jack,” John said in a warning tone, and the man turned with a smile.  He was handsome, tall and broad shoulders, and if she didn’t have John he would’ve been just her type.

“What?  Trying to lighten the mood!”

“That’s what the food is for.”  The other man was dressed in a three-piece suit, and said it with such a resigned, fond air that said maybe Rose wasn’t Jack’s type after all.  “You all look like you need a break, come eat.”

“Thanks, Yan.”  Donna was first to the food, the other three exchanging bewildered looks as they followed her.

“Yes, thank you…” Harriet trailed off expectantly, raising an eyebrow at Rose as she put some salad on a paper plate.

“Oh!  Of course.  Um, Harriet, this is my boyfriend John, and… I honestly have no idea.”

Donna snorted.  “Pretty boy is Jack, he’s a friend of ours, and this is Ianto.  Hopefully here to be our barista?” she smiled sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes up at Ianto and making him laugh.

“Certainly.”

Everyone filled a plate, relaxing at the conference table to eat and chat.  Settling down with John next to her, Rose grinned to see her team come alive again.  Using her left hand to eat, she laid her right on his thigh under the table, squeezing in thanks.  Glancing at her he grinned, taking her hand with his as they ate.

After an hour Jack cleared his throat, smiling as the laughter from his last story died down.  “Now, I believe we’ve taken up enough of your time and recharged your batteries.  We can go if you’d like to get back to work.”

Donna bolted upright, eyes going wide.  “Jack!”

“Donna!”

“I’m an idiot!” she gushed.  “You used to work for Yvonne Hartman, didn’t you?”

Jack and Ianto exchanged glances.  “We both did, why?”

Rose followed Donna’s train of thought.  “Oh, perfect!  We can’t confirm or deny if she’s a client of ours, but would you mind if we bounced some ideas off you that she might like?”

Jack’s eyebrow raised, but he nodded.  “Absolutely.  What’s going on?”

The week passed slowly, Rose spending the majority of her time at the office and coming home only to sleep.  John took the opportunity to greatly extend his office hours, and was pleased that most of his students stopped by at least once.

When he would finally pack up he’d call for takeaway, stopping by Rose’s office so she could take a break and they could eat together.  The team had been good for brainstorming, but Rose was handling most of the work to keep consistency.  He would fill their dinner hour with teaching anecdotes and stories from his travels, doing his best to keep Rose laughing and at ease.

Once she’d get back to work he would pull out his laptop, sometimes taking up her couch or working at Donna’s desk if she needed the room to herself.  He had plenty of his own work to keep busy with, and the hours would pass quickly until she was ready to call it a night.

When her alarm went off at five on Friday morning, he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her against him.

“Jo-ohn, I’ve gotta go,” she whined, nonetheless happily rolling into his chest and burrowing down.

“In a minute,” he promised, “just need a morning cuddle.  And to talk to you.”

“Mhmm?”

“Can you come home after your presentation?”

Rose tensed in his arms for a minute, before sighing.  “Depends on what Yvonne decides.”

“You’ve had a long week, and you need a break,” he said firmly.  “The rehearsal’s tonight, the wedding tomorrow, and you should decompress first.  Even if it’s to come home and nap.”

“Is that your suggestion as a doctor?” she teased, pressing a kiss to his bare chest.

“Yep.”  He patted her bum before releasing her.  “Think about it, I’ll be here all day unless a crisis comes up.”

Rose rolled out of bed, stretching her arms above her head before moving towards the shower.  “I’ll text you one way or another.”

Watching her bum sway as she moved, he wished the wedding would be over soon so he could finally follow her in.

Two more days.

John looked up from the textbook he was reading, brow furrowed.  Music was coming from the hall, but before he could go see what it was, the song coalesced into We Are the Champions, and he stood grinning as Rose burst into the flat.

“-keep on fighting, til the end!”  Kicking off her heels and dropping her purse at the door, she sprinted towards him and leapt into his arms, laughing.

“I take it the presentation went well?” he rumbled, holding her tighter as she sprinkled kisses over his face.

“It went perfectly,” she gushed, wrapping her legs around his waist.  “She loved it!  She’s still a bitch for making us redo it all at the last minute, but honestly this was even better than the original and she’s going to keep us and I got a raise and I love you so much!”

John laughed, returning to the couch and settling down with her in his lap.  “That’s amazing, love.  Congratulations.”

“Mhmm.”  She kissed him leisurely.  “And I know I’ve already got next week off but Harriet’s going to give it to me without using my time, so I am all. yours.”

“You weren’t already?”

“Oh, shut up.”  Rose was smiling too hard for him to take her seriously though.  “All we need to do is get through tonight and tomorrow, then we are off to Bermuda for a week.”

John hummed.  “Sand, sun…”

“Sex,” she corrected sternly.  “Play your cards right, and I’ll let you out of bed to eat.  Maybe.”

“Sounds perfect.”

They snogged, hands roaming and clutching long enough to be breathing hard when they finally pulled away.  “What do you say we head to the hotel early?”

John smiled and pointed at the bags waiting by the door.  “Say the word, my love.”

They were able to check in when they got there, and Rose threw herself onto the bed with a laugh, pleased when she bounced.  “We’ve got four hours before we’re supposed to meet, whatever shall we do?” she teased, giving him her best ‘come hither’ look.

John joined her on the bed, stretching out next to her with an amused smile.  “You were asleep in the taxi, love,” he said gently, putting his hand on her hip.  “I think a nap’s in order.”

She pouted, sticking out her lower lip.  “Haven’t we waited long enough?”

He groaned, leaning forward to capture it between his own.  “Temptress. A little longer won’t kill us. Let’s get through the rehearsal dinner, yeah?  Then see what happens tonight.”

“Mhkay.”  Cradling the back of his head with her hand, she pulled him with her as she lay down.  “Kiss me to sleep?”

The last thing she remembered was his tongue in her mouth and hand on her bum.

They walked into the ballroom arm in arm, stopping just inside the doors as Rose gasped.  “This is beautiful!”  Nearly all the decorations were up except the flowers, which were due for delivery the following morning.

The wide aisle was marked with three sets of three-foot high pillars, waiting for vases of white roses.  Candles lined the space between the pillars; for safety reasons they were battery-operated candles, but Rose suspected the visual would be no less stunning because of that.  At the end of the aisle stood a dais with a frame, sheer white drapes drawn back and secured with ribbons.

They were still early despite being the last ones there, and her brother was the first to notice them.

“Rosie!” he shrieked from the front row, racing down the aisle to fling himself at her.  “You’re here!”

“Of course I’m here, silly, I’m in the wedding too,” she teased, swinging him up into her arms as they moved towards the rest of the group.  “You remember John.”

“Hi.”  Tony waved with a grin.

John smiled.  “How’s it going?”

“Good!  My Rosie’s here now.”  The boy nodded seriously, and Rose coughed to hide a laugh as John winked at her.

“I know exactly how you feel, mate.”

The rehearsal seemed to take forever, though Rose didn’t know if that was because of the wait for dinner or the expectation of what might happen with John when they were finally alone again.

They spent most of the practice sharing smiles, making it difficult to concentrate on anything else.  Being the lowest ranking members of the wedding party worked in their favor; they walked first, stood at the end of their respective lines, and had zero responsibilities during the ceremony itself.  A few times Rose caught glares from her mother, but she ignored them in favor of making faces at John in a bid to get him to laugh.

When the rehearsal was finally over and it was time for the dinner, they held tightly to each other as they followed the group to the hotel’s restaurant.  They were in a private room, still a rather intimate group at fourteen around a single, long table.

Once they ordered came the toasts.  As the hosts of the dinner, Rose’s father stood and said a few kind words about Mickey, and by some miracle managed to keep her mother from speaking as well.

Mickey’s toast was funny and poignant, and Rose leaned into John’s side as she blotted away tears while they raised their glasses.

“All right?” he murmured, wrapping an arm around her back and pulling her closer.

She nodded, smiling up at him.  “I’m just so damn happy for him.  He deserves the world, and I think Martha’s the answer to that.”

“Agreed.”

The dinner went quickly, jokes and personal stories flying from every corner.  Rose spoke about when she and Mickey were children, while John shared stories from trips he and Martha had taken with Doctors Overseas, highlighting her bravery and calmness under pressure.

Due to the early morning the group split not long after dessert, though by mutual agreement John and Rose headed for the hotel bar instead.  Settling together at a table near the edge of the dance floor, they ordered wine.

“To the happy couple,” John toasted, holding up his glass.

“May they have a long and happy life together,” she added, clinking their glasses before sipping.  “I still find it a little hard to believe, Mickey getting married.  I think I half expected him to be a perennial bachelor.”

“That’s what Donna’s always said about me,” he snorted, leaning closer.  “Look at us.”

“Mhmm.”  Rose slid her chair a little closer, tangling her legs with his under the table.  “Not planning on permanent bachelor-hood, then?”

“I think I found an acceptable alternative.”  His palm was warm on her knee, thumb rubbing back and forth at the inner crease of the joint and making warmth pool low in her gut that had nothing to do with the alcohol.

“Is that so?” she murmured, and they met in the middle for a chaste kiss.  When they pulled apart a band was setting up on the small stage, a singer dressed in forties garb talking to the bartender.  “Looks like there’s about to be music.”

John merely took her hand, waiting until the singer introduced herself and the first strands of music began to play to say, “May I have this dance?”

“Of course.”  Rose let him pull her to her feet, stepping into his arms just as she recognized the song, smiling.  “At last,” she sang softly in his ear as they swayed, “my love has come along.”

“My lonely days are over,” he took it up, “and life is like a song.”

Rose let herself sink deeper in his arms until they were pressed tightly together, barely moving to the music.  The song felt like the sign she hadn’t known she’d been waiting for, but nothing had ever felt more right than this moment.

She loved this man with all her heart, trusted him without hesitation.  He’d long since proved himself to her, shown the true depth of character she’d seen hints of the first time they were together.  Her doubts were gone, having evaporated months ago, and any last stubborn spots were wiped clean by how he’d handled the previous week.  Never pressuring her in any way, never suggesting she do anything other than what she needed with the exception of getting more sleep, he took care of her, being there when she needed him and waiting patiently in the wings if she didn’t.

This was it; this was their moment.

At last.

As the final strains of the song faded out, she went up on tiptoe to whisper in his ear.  “John?”

“Yes love?”

“Take me to bed.”

[bechloeislegit]

What If The World Ended Tomorrow? - Epilogue

Five Years Later:

Chloe smiled as she watched Beca mouthing the words to the final scene of "The Breakfast Club." She did this every year.

"Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal...Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."

Beca smiled as the mouthed the last words, remembering Jesse. It has become a yearly tradition to watch the movie in memory of Jesse on the anniversary of his death. Even though they now lived in their own house, Aubrey and Stacie would come over and watch with them. Emily had been there the first year but moved back to California when she found her mother's name on the website the military had set up for survivors who were looking for family and friends. Mrs. Junk was left blind by the infection, so Emily moved back home to take care of her. Emily always watched "The Breakfast Club" on that day since she knew how much it meant to Beca.

Chloe used the remote to turn off the movie. Sammy and Taylor sitting on either side of Beca each hugged her. Stacie and Aubrey smiled at the interaction.

"I still hate movies," Beca said causing everyone to chuckle. It was the same thing she said every year.

"You watch them with us," Sammy said. "You love to sing to-"

"Okay, okay," Beca said covering her mouth. "That's enough." She leans down and whispers in the 10-year-old's ear, "That's supposed to be our little secret."

"Oh, leave her alone, Becs," Chloe said. "We all know you're just a big old softie."

"Yeah, Beca," Aubrey said. "You don't fool us."

"Fine. Whatever," Beca said. "I'm ordering Chinese." Beca got her phone and went to the kitchen to place the order for their food.

It had taken a while, but life was pretty much back to the way it was before the outbreak. The military quickly worked to ensure that power and communications were up and running across the United States within the first few months. Times were hard, but surviving business owners got their businesses up and running again. The government was back on track, having had an election two years ago for a new President and Vice President. The country had been under military rule while the country was getting back on its feet. Beca and the girls were most excited about the fact that Chinese and Pizza places were back to delivering on the regular.

Twelve-year-old Taylor was just sitting quietly, eyes downcast. Chloe moved to sit next to her.

"Hey, kiddo," Chloe said. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Taylor said. "This just always makes me miss my mom and dad. I mean, I love you guys, but I still remember them and wish I knew what happened to them."

Chloe pulls her into a side-hug and kisses the top of her head. "Oh, sweetie," Chloe said. "It's okay to miss them. I miss so many of my friends and family, too. We don't stop loving them just because they are no longer with us."

"Yeah, Tay," Sammy said giving her sister a hug. "Plus, you have me, Mom and Mama. We made out okay."

"Just okay?," Chloe said with a smile.

"Better than okay," Sammy said rolling her eyes.

"Yeah," Taylor said and smiled. "You guys are the best." Chloe hugged both girls to her.

"Food will be here in about 20 minutes," Beca said as she came back into the room. "Hey, you're having a cuddle session without me!" With that Beca launched herself and landed on top of Chloe and the two girls.

The cuddle session turned into a tickle war which Beca lost as usual. They all flopped back on the sofa laughing and panting.

"Hey, did you guys make your reservations for DC yet?," Stacie asked.

"Yep," Chloe said. "We're so excited for you guys."

"I know," Beca said. "You do realize you're going to be putting Lily and Zeke out of business."

Aubrey laughed. "Somehow I think those two will manage just fine."

"I can't believe we're actually friends with someone, well, three someones, who won the Nobel Peace Prize," Beca said. "CR, Lily, and Zeke traveled all over the country for over a year helping all the cured and cleaning up some the areas that suffered the most damage. I'm glad they settled in Georgia and opened the Bellas Home for the Blind."

"I can't believe Lily got Ramada to give them the hotel," Stacie said. "CR said that Lily barely said a word, but the executives gave in after Lily stared them down with that look she has." Stacie shivered. "I love Lily to death, but I still get goosebumps when I think about that look."

"Yeah, well, I am very proud of our best friends," Chloe said looking at Aubrey and Stacie. "Getting recognized by the President for their working in helping find a cure for the blindness the infection caused is a big deal."

"Well, the cure was already out there," Stacie said modestly. "The mist the military developed to help with the infection just needed a little tweaking. And we happened to be the ones to perfect the formula to help the blindness."

"I can't believe you are actually a chemist," Beca said shaking her head.

"Aca-believe it," Aubrey said causing everyone to laugh and Beca to roll her eyes.

"Have you talked to Emily lately?," Chloe asked. "How's her mom?"

"She's doing great," Aubrey with a smile. "Her eyesight is at almost ninety percent. The drops are working for her." Aubrey furrowed her brow. "I wish we could figure out why the drops work for some but not for others."

"Don't fret about it," Chloe said looking at her best friend. "Your drops have a ninety percent success rate. Don't focus too much on those it didn't help. You'll drive yourself nuts."

There is a knock at the door. "Food's here," Beca and Sammy both yell as they jump up and run to the door.

"I swear those two are so alike it's not funny," Aubrey said with a laugh.

*0*0*0*0*

It was time for their trip to DC and Beca was checking in to their hotel while Chloe sent a text to Aubrey letting her know they were there and in the lobby. Taylor and Sammy were checking out the brochures on things to see and do in the Nation's capital.

"Lily!," Sammy suddenly squealed causing both Beca and Chloe to jerk their heads over to the hotel doors.

Sammy went running over to Lily and throw her arms around the woman. "Sammy!," Lily said. "Look how big you've gotten." Lily hugged Sammy back, and Taylor was next in line.

"Taylor, you look stunning," Lily said. Just then Zeke and CR came through the doors, smiling and laughing as they caught sight of Sammy and Taylor hugging Lily.

"What about us?," CR asked and opened her arms as Taylor came rushing over.

"CR!," Taylor said. "I didn't know you guys were coming."

"It's a surprise," Zeke said. He hugged the two young girls. "It's great to see you girls. It's been too long."

Beca came up behind Chloe and wrapped her arm around the redhead's waist. The two stood as their girls talked animatedly with the trio. CR finally looked up and smiled at the couple.

"Beca. Chloe," CR said as she walked over to the pair. "It's great to see you. I see married life agrees with you."

"Totes," Chloe said with a big smile, pulling CR into a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm good," CR said and pulled back from the hug.

The two groups decide to get settled and meet in the hotel's restaurant for dinner. Just as they are about to go their separate ways they hear, "What up, Pitches?!"

All heads turn to see Fat Amy coming through the doors, followed closely behind by Bumper.

"Amy!," Chloe and Beca both squeal as they rush over to the Aussie. The three hug and then CR and Lily join them.

Sammy, Taylor, and Zeke stand back and watch as the women start talking and laughing about something.

"Who is that?," Sammy asked Zeke.

"That's Amy," Zeke responded. "She was in the Bellas with your moms back in college. She was also a resident at the Bella Home before she got her sight back. She's got almost one hundred percent of her sight back. The guy with her is Bumper, her boyfriend."

"Hey, are these the mini-Mitchells I've been hearing so much about?," Amy said as she walked over to give Zeke a hug.

Chloe put her arm around Taylor and introduced her to Amy. Beca did the same with Sammy. They both said it was nice to meet her.

"What?," Amy said. "You've been with Chloe for five years, and you haven't learned to hug someone when you meet them? Come here you two." Amy grabs them both in an almost bone-crushing hug.

"Can't breathe," Sammy said.

Beca laughed. "We were just going to get settled in our room and plan to meet everyone in the restaurant for dinner. You and Bumper should join us."

Stacie and Aubrey finally make it down to the lobby, and the hugs and everything starts all over. It is a surprise to the two that they are all there. An even bigger surprise came through the doors as they were still greeting each other.

Emily and Katherine Junk came into the lobby. Sammy and Taylor see them first and go running over to hug Emily.

"Mom," Emily said. "This is Sammy and Taylor."

"It's so nice to see you girls," Katherine tells them. "And, yes I can see you. You're both so beautiful. Emily has told me so much about you."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Taylor said and gave the woman a hug.

"Emily!," Chloe squeals and the hugs start all over.

Katherine has tears in her eyes when she saw Stacie and Aubrey. "You don't know what it means to me to finally get to thank you ladies in person. My eyesight is almost ninety percent restored thanks to you. And, Emily told me how you all helped her during the outbreak. So, thank you. Thank all of you."

Everyone was wiping tears from their eyes as Katherine hugged Aubrey and Stacie. Zeke pulled Lily close to him, and she smiled up at him.

"Um, guys," Zeke said getting everyone's attention. "The ceremony for Stacie and Aubrey isn't until tomorrow evening and we, Lily and I, we're hoping you had the morning free to attend our, um, our wedding."

A gasp is heard throughout the group. "Seriously?," Chloe asked.

"Yes," Zeke said. "She finally said yes, and we want to do it while we have everyone here."

The group again starts hugging and talking about the wedding. Sammy and Taylor stand off to the side.

"We are never going to get to our room," Sammy said with a sigh. "And, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Taylor said with a laugh. "I swear, and you and Mama are so much alike."

"Yeah," Sammy said. "We're both badasses!"

Both girls started laughing and jerked their heads when they heard a loud gasp come from Chloe. They saw her looking at the door, and their eyes moved in that direction.

"Beca!," Chloe said grabbing onto Beca's arm and shaking her as she pointed to the door.

"Geesh, Chlo," Beca said. "Stop shaking-" Beca's mouth dropped open in surprise when she saw who was standing by the door.

Stacie and Aubrey furrowed their brows and turned to see what they were looking at. Stacie gasped in surprise and took off running, Beca close on her heels.

"Donald!," Stacie squealed before throwing herself into his arms. She let the tears fall as she hugged the man. Donald saw Beca stop behind Stacie, so he took one arm from around the leggy brunette and held it out to Beca. With tears running down her face she fell into the offered arm and let Donald pull her into the hug.

The three finally pull apart. "Dude, we thought you were-," Beca stopped herself.

"I know," Donald said quietly. "After we were cured, I was in a bad place in my head. I couldn't see, and I was besieged with memories of the things I did while I was infected. I don't want to talk about it, but it weighed heavy on my mind. I wandered around a bit, getting help from those who weren't infected. Then I heard about the eye drops to help cure the blindness. I wasn't going to try them because I didn't think I deserved to see again. But, then when I heard that none other than Stacie Conrad and Aubrey Posen helped develop the drops, I had to do it."

Stacie wiped at the tears running down her face. "It's really good to see you, Donald," Aubrey said, running her hand up and down Stacie's back to help calm her.

"And I have you and Stacie," Donald said giving Aubrey a smile, "to thank for me being able to say, it's good to see you, too."

"This is like a Barden reunion," Amy said. "Let's get our stuff settled in our rooms and meet back down here soon. I'm hungry."

"Finally," Sammy said dramatically as everyone headed for the elevators.

Beca told Chloe she'd meet her and the girls up in their room. She then grabbed Amy and pulled her aside.

"What's up, short stuff?," Amy asked as she was dragged over to a chair in the lobby.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Beca said. "What's up with Bumper? He hasn't said anything since you guys got here."

"Don't tell anyone but he's embarrassed," Amy said.

"Why?," Beca asked.

"Because he was really scared and he hid out the entire time the infection outbreak happened," Amy said. "You remember the day it started, and I got off the bus trying to find him?"

"I'll never forget it," Beca said.

"Well, Bumper was hiding under his bed," Amy said. "He heard the zombie things attacking everyone. He even heard me screaming for him. But he stayed hidden. Then when it seemed clear he ran. He saw a bunch of the zombies and got scared and ran into the diner near the Treble house. Someone else was hiding in there. They were together for about a month when the other person, some guy named Seth, decided to go out to see if things were okay. He never made it back. So, Bumper was by himself for almost 9 months. No one to talk to but himself. It kinda made him go off the deep end. He has nightmares and flashbacks. It's been five years and he still only talks when it's necessary. He's afraid one of those zombie things will hear him and come for him."

"Wow," Beca said. "That's rough. How did you find each other?"

"Some people found him after it was over and assured him everyone was okay," Amy said. "He found my name on the website for survivors and came to CR and Lily's place looking for me. He's stuck around since."

"I'm sorry for what happened to him," Beca said. "And to you. But, I'm glad you found each other again. I know how much you two love each other."

"Thanks, Beca," Amy said. "I'm glad we are all able to come together again for Stacie and Aubrey. If it weren't for them, I don't know that I'd be here."

"Amy," Beca said.

"No, Beca," Amy said. "I'm serious. Being one of those things was horrible. It's like my brain knew I was sick but the sounds were so bad it turned me into something I don't even want to think about."

Beca watched as Amy wiped at the tears that fell down her face. She was not used to this emotional and serious Amy. She wished that she could see the old Amy again. She grabbed her friend in a hug.

"Listen," Beca said. "Maybe you need to be around friends more. Why don't you and Bumper move back to Barden? Then you'll have me, Chloe, Stacie, and Aubrey. You can talk to any one of us. We didn't get the infection, but we can help you if you start feeling like things are too much for you."

"I'll talk to Bumper," Amy said pulling out of the hug. "Enough of this emotional stuff. I'm hungry. Let's go get everyone and eat."

"Let's go," Beca said, and the two stood. Amy grabbed Beca in another hug.

"Thank you," Amy said.

*0*0*0*0*

The next morning Beca, Chloe, and the girls were just sitting down to breakfast in the hotel restaurant when Chloe saw another familiar face. She smiled and told Beca she'd be right back. She walked out to the lobby.

"Jessica," Chloe said softly, so she didn't frighten the girl.

"Chloe?," Jessica said.

"Yes," Chloe said. "I'm going to hug you if that's okay."

"I would never say no to a Chloe Beale hug," Jessica said.

Chloe pulled the girl into her arms and hugged her. Jessica squeezed Chloe tight for a moment before pulling back.

"Oh, let me introduce you to my brother," Jessica said. "Chloe this is my brother Jackson. He's, um, been taking care of me."

Chloe held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Jackson. Would you two like to join us for breakfast? We just sat down. I know Beca would love to see you."

"Um, I don't know," Jessica said hesitating.

"We'd love to," Jackson said. "Jess, it will do you good to be around people you know."

"Okay," Jessica said quietly.

"Great," Chloe said and smiled. "Come join us after you check in."

"We will," Jackson said.

Chloe went back to the table. "Jessica's here," she told Beca.

"I saw," Beca said. "How's she doing?"

"She seems okay, I guess," Chloe said. "Her brother is with her, and she said he's been taking care of her."

"Does anyone know why she doesn't try the drops?," Beca asked.

"I don't think so," Chloe responded. "Personally, I think it's because of Ashley."

Beca called the waitress over and had another table added to theirs. Jessica and Jackson came in, and Jackson helped Jessica sit before taking a seat himself.

"Jessica, Jackson. I'd like you to meet our daughters, Sammy and Taylor," Chloe said.

"Hi, I'm Taylor," Taylor said.

"I'm Sammy," Sammy said. "It's very nice to meet you both."

"It's very nice to meet you, as well," Jackson said.

"You both sound so grown up," Jessica said. "How old are you?"

"I'm ten and Taylor is twelve," Sammy said. "May I ask you a personal question, Jessica?"

"Honey, I don't think that's a good idea," Beca said.

"No, it's okay," Jessica with a soft smile. "I have a feeling I know what you're going to ask. Go ahead."

"Why don't you use the eye drops?," Sammy asked. "Aunt Stacie and Aunt Brey worked hard to get the formula right. And it's worked on like 90% of the people that have used it."

Beca and Chloe look at each other, worried that it was too much for Jessica. Jessica gave a sad smile toward Sammy.

"You know, Sammy," Jessica said. "You're the first person outside my family that has asked me that question."

"I'm sorry if I upset you," Sammy said looking down at the table.

"Oh no, Sammy," Jessica said. "I'm glad you asked. You see, my girlfriend Ashley and I both got the infection on the same day. I made sure to stick with her everywhere we wandered to after that because I was worried about her."

"Did you tell her that?," Sammy asked.

"We couldn't really communicate," Jessica said. "It's hard to explain, but our minds seemed to be okay, but then there would be these sounds that hurt our ears so bad that we kind of lost of our minds in a way. All I wanted to do was to stop whatever was making the sound. It was much better when there was quiet. But, the sounds affected Ashley differently. She became very...um, violent. She would sometimes attack one of us because we would screech when the sounds hurt us. Am I making sense to you guys?"

"Yes, actually, it makes a lot of sense," Sammy said before anyone else could speak. "But, it doesn't explain why you don't try to see again."

"Sammy," Chloe said.

"No, it's really okay, Chloe," Jessica said. "One day we were just wandering around, and there was a loud noise, which I know now were planes. Then it rained, and we went to sleep. When we woke up, we were in a field or something. We felt better, but we couldn't see. Some nice people found us and helped us. We ended up on a base of some kind and doctors worked with us to get us back to 'normal.' Ashley remembered everything she did when we had the infection, and it was driving her crazy. She couldn't handle it, so she took a bunch of pills to make it go away."

"She died?," Sammy asked sadly.

"Yes, she died," Jessica said as a tear fell down her cheek. "I was so angry and upset with her for leaving me behind that I kind of gave up. But I also miss her so much that if I can't see her, I don't want to see anyone or anything."

Sammy thought for a moment. No one else said anything; they just waited to hear what Sammy was going to say next.

"But don't you want Ashley to know you're okay without her?," Sammy asked. "I think that's why she killed herself. So you wouldn't have to be burdened with taking care of her. She knew that you would be okay without her, you just have to figure out that you'll be okay with her. I remember when we were little and our grandma died, our mother said that we should live like we did when she was alive to honor her memory. If we don't then we are showing dishonor to her. Don't you think Ashley wants that for you? To remember her when she was okay and to let her know you still love her by living your life to the fullest."

The waitress had come by to take their breakfast orders but could sense something special was happening at the table. She looked at Chloe and mouthed "I'll come back." Chloe gave her a smile and a nod. The waitress left, and Chloe wiped a tear that had fallen. Sammy was young, but she was giving Jessica some sage advice.

"I, uh, never thought of that way," Jessica said. After a moment Jessica sent a small smile in Sammy's direction. "Are you sure you're only ten? I can't see you, so I'm not sure because you sound like someone much older and wiser than a ten-year-old."

"Yep, I'm ten," Sammy said. "And I'm starving. Where's our waitress anyway."

Jessica laughed. "Yeah, now she sounds like she's ten. And, a lot like Beca."

Everybody laughed, and Beca got the waitress's attention so everyone could place their orders. Chloe hugged Sammy and kissed her temple. Jackson quietly asked Jessica if she was okay.

"Actually, I'm better than okay," Jessica said. "I think I want to try the eye drops. Sammy made a lot of sense."

"I've been telling you basically the same thing she did for months," Jackson said.

"No, you've been yelling at me for months," Jessica said. She leaned in a gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled. "You should have talked to me like a ten-year-old, so I would listen."

Jackson laughed and gave her a quick hug.

*0*0*0*0*

After breakfast, Jackson and Jessica went to their room with the promise to meet everyone back downstairs in a few hours for Lily and Zeke's wedding. Jessica was excited to hear about the wedding and asked Chloe to come help get ready.

Beca, Sammy, and Taylor met CR, Stacie, and Aubrey in the lobby a little before 11:00 am. Zeke and Lily joined them shortly after followed by Donald, Fat Amy, and Bumper. Everyone was surprised when Chloe walked in with Jessica and Jackson. There was another round of hugs and greetings. Emily and her mother Katherine were the last to arrive. Everyone settled down when the minister came in.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," the minister said to the group. "I am Reverend Edwards. Lily, Zeke. Good to see you. Are you ready to be married?"

"Yes, sir," Zeke said proudly.

"And do you have someone to stand with you?," Reverend Edwards asked.

"Oh, um, CR? Would you do me the honor of standing with me?," Lily asked.

"Absolutely," CR said and stood next to Lily.

"Beca?," Zeke said. "I know it's a little unorthodox but would you stand with me?"

"I'd be honored, Zeke," Beca said and stood next to Zeke.

Reverend Edwards began the ceremony. "We come now to the words Zeke and Lily want to hear the most today…the words that take them across the threshold from being engaged to being married.

A marriage, as most of us understand it, is a voluntary and full commitment. It is made in the deepest sense to the exclusion of all others, and it is entered into with the desire and hope that it will last for life.

Before you declare your vows to one another, I want to hear you confirm that it is indeed your intention to be married today."

Reverend Edwards turns to look at Zeke. "Zeke, do you come here freely and without reservation to give yourself to Lily in marriage? If so, answer I do."

"I do," Zeke said and smiled at Lily.

"Lily, do you come here freely and without reservation to give yourself to Zeke in marriage? If so, answer I do."

"I do," Lily said.

"Zeke and Lily, having heard that it is your intention to be married to each other, I now ask you to declare your marriage vows. Please face each other and hold hands."

Zeke and Lily face each other and take the other's hands in theirs.

"Zeke," Reverend Edwards said. "Please repeat after me…I, Zeke, take you, Lily, to be my wife. I will share my life with yours, build our dreams together, support you through times of trouble, and rejoice with you in times of happiness. I promise to give you respect, love, and loyalty. This commitment is made in love, kept in faith, lived in hope, and made new every day of our lives."

Zeke repeats the words and Reverend Edwards turns to Lily.

"Lily, please repeat after me…I, Lily, take you, Zeke, to be my husband. I will share my life with yours, build our dreams together, support you through times of trouble, and rejoice with you in times of happiness. I promise to give you respect, love, and loyalty. This commitment is made in love, kept in faith, lived in hope, and made new every day of our lives."

Lily repeats the words. Reverend Edwards asks for the rings.

"Your wedding rings are the outward and visible sign of the inward and invisible bond which already unites you two hearts in love. Zeke, place the ring on Lily's finger and repeat after me….I give you this ring. Wear it with love and joy. As this ring has no end, my love is also forever.

Zeke's hands are shaking as he places the ring on Lily's finger and repeats the words. He then pushes the ring until it is snug on Lily's hand.

"Lily, place the ring on Zeke's finger and repeat after me….I give you this ring. Wear it with love and joy. As this ring has no end, my love is also forever."

Lily places the ring on Zeke's finger and repeats the words.

"May the wedding rings you exchanged today always remind you that you are surrounded by enduring love," Reverend Edwards said.

The Reverend looks at Zeke and Lily. "Everyone has advice for newlyweds. Zeke and Lily, I offer these good wishes to you on this special day. May your life together be blessed with prosperity and good health. May you always share open and honest communication with each other. May you respect each other's individual talents and gifts and give full support to each other's professional and personal pursuits. May you cherish the home and family you will create together. May all the years to come be filled with moments to celebrate and renew your love. May your love be a life-long source of excitement, contentment, affection, respect, and devotion for one another." Reverend Edwards pauses for a moment. "And so now by the power vested in me by the District of Columbia, it is my honor and delight to declare you husband and wife. You may seal this declaration with a kiss."

Zeke and Lily kiss and everyone starts clapping.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Zeke Williams!"

The couple turn and everyone starts hugging and congratulating them. Zeke finally gets their attention.

"We have a small brunch set up next door for everyone," Zeke said. "Reverend we do hope you'll join us."

"Thank you," Reverend Edwards said. "I'd like that."

*0*0*0*0*

Everyone enjoyed the brunch, and things were winding down.

"Lily," Chloe said. "Aren't you going to have the first dance together as husband and wife?"

"We hadn't planned on it," Lily said

"You have to," Katherine said. "It's tradition."

"But we don't have any music," Zeke said.

The Bellas in attendance just looked at him and laughed.

"Zeke," Beca said with a smirk. "We make our own music." She gathered everyone together including Donald and Bumper. They talked a bit, and once they decided on a song, Chloe told Lily and Zeke to get into position. As soon as Zeke took Lily in his arms the music started. And then Beca started singing.

What would I do without your smart mouth Drawing me in, and you kicking me out Got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down What's going on in that beautiful mind I'm on your magical mystery ride And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright

Zeke leads Lily around the small dance area. Bumper jumps in for the next few lines.

My head's under water But I'm breathing fine You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

Lily and Zeke stare into the other's eyes as they sway and move to the music. CR, Jessica, and Amy took the next verse.

'Cause all of me Loves all of you Love your curves and all your edges All your perfect imperfections Give your all to me I'll give my all to you You're my end and my beginning Even when I lose I'm winning 'Cause I give you all, all of me And you give me all, all of you

Chloe, Emily, and Katherine are next.

How many times do I have to tell you Even when you're crying you're beautiful too The world is beating you down, I'm around through every move You're my downfall, you're my muse My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you

Amy joins Bumper and sings.

My head's under water But I'm breathing fine You're crazy and I'm out of my mind

Beca lets them all know to sing the final verse, which they do in true a cappella fashion.

'Cause all of me Loves all of you Love your curves and all your edges All your perfect imperfections Give your all to me I'll give my all to you You're my end and my beginning Even when I lose I'm winning 'Cause I give you all of me And you give me all, all of you Give me all of you

Zeke dips Lily on the final note of the song and kisses her before letting her back up. Reverend Edwards and Jackson both start clapping.

"That was wonderful," Reverend Edwards declares.

Everyone congratulates Zeke and Lily again before heading back to their rooms. Beca and Chloe want the girls to rest before the evening's event. Everyone was excited to get to go to the White House. Stace and Aubrey spent over an hour adding all the new arrivals to their guest list. Things were strict when it came to gaining entry into the White House, but not as strict as they once were before the infection outbreak. They were able to get everyone listed and when they heard that three Nobel Prize winners were a part of the group, the coordinators were ecstatic.

"Okay everyone," Aubrey said. "There will be limos arriving at about 6:00 pm to take us to the White House. Everyone meet down here at 5:45 so we can leave when the limos arrive. The ceremony starts at 7:00 and a small reception will follow."

"Are we really going to get to meet the President?," Taylor asked.

"Yes, we all will," Aubrey responded. "Okay. Don't forget 5:45 down here in the lobby."

"Okay, babe," Stacie said calmly. "Take a breath and relax. It's going to be fine."

Everyone decided to go back to their rooms until it was time to meet. The occupants of the Mitchell room were napping. Stacie was trying to keep Aubrey calm. Jessica and Jackson were visiting with Emily and Katherine in their room.

"Katherine," Jessica said. "How did you feel when you started using the eye drops?"

"Honestly," Katherine said. "I was scared to death. I wanted it to work so badly that it took me a week after getting the first bottle to use it. At first, I didn't think it was working. But, then one morning about a week after I started I woke up and could detect light. I knew the sun was shining in the window. It was an amazing feeling. It took several weeks but I can see so much more now. My doctor says I'm at about eighty percent and he thinks I'll get one-hundred percent of my vision back."

"That's great news," Jackson said. "Hear that, Jess? It will so worth it."

"You don't have to convince me," Jessica told him. "I'm going to visit my doctor to get started as soon as we get back home."

*0*0*0*0*

Donald was restless and went to Stacie and Aubrey's room. "Hey, Donald," Stacie said when she saw him at the door. "Come on in."

"I'm sorry to bother you," Donald said. "But I just couldn't relax. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but can you tell me what happened with Jesse? No one will say anything except he didn't make it."

Stacie told Donald about the day Jesse died. She told him how Beca had been the one to end his suffering because they had promised each other that they wouldn't let the other become one of the infected. She also told him how Beca used to have nightmares because of it. She was better now and actually had a little ritual she did every year to mark the anniversary of his death.

Donald felt bad for Beca and Jesse. He thanked Stacie for telling him and went back to his room.

*0*0*0*0*

"The limos are here," Stacie announces.

Everyone exits the hotel and are divided to fit into the three limos provided. Beca, Chloe, and their two girls were riding with Stacie and Aubrey. Fat Amy, Bumper, Donald, Lily, and Zeke were riding together. And, Emily, Katherine, Jessica, and Jackson were in the third limo. There were oohs and aahs as they were driven onto the White House grounds.

Three gentlemen opened doors for each of the limos and helped the passengers exit the vehicles. Everyone went through a security check at the door before being allowed in. Once inside they were all escorted to a room where they would meet the President and First Lady prior to the actual ceremony. They sat and anxiously waited. Suddenly the doors open and several Secret Service men walked.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please stand," one of the Secret Service members said. Everyone immediately stood. The President and First Lady walked in.

"I'm so sorry we are running a bit late," President Bartlett said. "Welcome to the White House. Ms. Posen, Ms. Conrad. It is an honor to meet you both."

"Actually, sir," Stacie said. "We're both Mrs. Posen."

"Oh, my apologies," President Bartlett said. "Mrs. and Mrs. Posen, may I present my wife, Abigail Bartlett."

"Please, call me Abby," Mrs. Bartlett said.

"It's truly a pleasure, Mr. President," Aubrey said. "May I introduce our friends and family?"

"Of course," President Bartlett said. "Although these three here do not need an introduction. Ms. Onakuramara, Ms. Adams, and Mr. Williams. It's truly a pleasure to meet you all. I've read all about the work you've been doing."

"Thank you, sir," Zeke said.

Aubrey then proceeds to introduce the rest of the group. As she finishes the introductions, a man comes in and says something to the President.

"It's showtime ladies and gentlemen," President Bartlett said. "The two Mrs. Posens will come with Abby and me. The rest will be escorted to their seating area by these two gentlemen. We'll see you soon." The President then offers his arm to his wife and Stacie and Aubrey follow them.

"This is so exciting," Chloe practically squeals.

The group is escorted to their seats. Stacie and Aubrey are standing on a small stage with two others. The President's Chief of Staff introduces the President and everyone stands. Once he is behind the podium most of the audience sits. Photographers and journalists were on hand and camera flashes were going off. The President begins his speech.

"We are here today to present four of our fellow Americans with the Presidential Medal of Freedom," President Bartlett said. "This award is the nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

The President proceeds to read the recipient's name and their accomplishments before bestowing the medal to them. The badge of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in the form of a golden star with white enamel, with a red enamel pentagon behind it; the central disc bears thirteen gold stars on a blue enamel background (taken from the Great Seal of the United States) within a golden ring. Golden American bald eagles with spread wings stand between the points of the star. It is worn around the neck on a blue ribbon with white edge stripes.

Stacie was the last to receive the award. Once she had received it, she stepped back to stand next to Aubrey. Both had a tear in their eye because they were so honored to receive the award. The award recipients were escorted off the stage to another room to have photos taken separately and with the President. Afterward, they met up with their friends in the reception room.

"Brey! Stacie!," Chloe said grabbing them both in a hug. "We are so proud of you."

"Yeah, Posen and Posen," Beca said. "This is well-deserved and we thank you for letting us be a part of it."

After about thirty minutes, Amy walked up to Aubrey and Stacie. "So, when can you blow this popsicle stand?," she asked.

"Well, the President has already left," Stacie said. "So, I think we just need to let someone know we're ready to go so the limos can be notified."

"What do you have in mind?," Aubrey asked.

"I'm thinking we go back to the hotel and hit the bar," Amy said. "Celebrate Bellas style!"

"Let's do it," Aubrey said with a laugh. Stacie finds someone and the limos are brought around for them.

The group arrives at the hotel and Beca and Chloe take Sammy and Taylor to their room. Jessica and Jackson offer to stay with them so Beca and Chloe can join the others. Jessica shot down their arguments by telling them she didn't drink and neither did Jackson. They thanked them and made their way to the bar.

Chloe grabs Beca's arm before they entered the bar and pulled her into a kiss. "I love you," Chloe said.

"I love you, too," Beca said.

"I just wanted to say it since we haven't had much alone time the past few days," Chloe said.

"That's okay," Beca said. "We have the rest of our lives to find some alone time."

"Let's go party like we used to," Chloe said and gave Beca another kiss.

Just then they heard Amy yelling, "Shots! Shots! Shots!"

The couple laughed and walked into the bar to join their friends. Beca looked around at them and couldn't help but be proud of all of them. Five years ago she couldn't imagine being back with her friends, her family. Thinking she was never going to see any of them again. And, now, they were all going to be facing the future together. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

She looked up when she heard Amy suddenly shout. She shook her head as she walked over to the Aussie saying, "Okay, Amy. Let's put the shirt back on."

Yep, she wouldn't have it any other way.

That's it. All done. Hope you enjoyed it.

Song used: All of Me by John Legend. I don't own anything to do with John Legend or the song.

Movie quote from The Breakfast Club. I do not own anything regarding The Breakfast Club or Pitch Perfect.

[ficdirectory]

The Crossing (Disuphere series #3) Chapter 29

Scene III:  It Can’t Be True

It’s Saturday night when Dominique is ripped from sleep by the ear-splitting ringing of the fire alarm in her apartment.  It takes all of one second for her to realize what this is.  Another second to jump down from her bed, glad to be in her shoes.  She spots Roberta’s scared yellow eyes in the corner of the living room and goes for her, grabbing her, and her key, and running for the door.

Dominique’s vaguely aware of people standing in their doorways.  All confused.  All unsure of what to do when the fire alarm goes off at 3:15 AM.  Dominique’s head is splitting, she can’t think.  She’s just opened the door to the stairwell, when Dudley zips past her down all the stairs, faster even than she can run.

Heart about to pound free of her chest, Dominique hits one landing.  Then, eventually another.  Finally, she finds herself on the first floor.  

She’s on her way out the doors when the apartment management - a lady in her 50s - bleach blonde hair - stops her.

“You should know better than coming down here!” she scolds.

Dominique’s ears actually hurt.  The alarm is piercing - easily the loudest thing she has ever heard - but she finds herself glad for it.  If it keeps her from having to ever encounter fire again in her life, Dominique will take it.

“You need to go back to your apartment.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” Dominique insists.  She doesn’t think.  Just darts around Cindy - or whatever the hell her name is - and outside.  The noise is slightly less terrible out here.  She starts walking, Roberta’s claws digging into Dominique’s skin.

She thinks about going to Avoidance but that’s too far.  She wants to be around when the alarm stops.  She’s got work tomorrow.  Dominique hates this, just to be clear.  Being out late at night reminds her of being in the life.  Of a different kind of work.  She sees a flash of white in the dark, hears the clink of tags and squints.

“Dudley?” she whispers.

Roberta is still trying to climb Dominique.  “You behave,” Dominique warns her.  “We gotta get Dudley so he doesn’t run away from Jesus.”

It takes a while.  Dudley’s apparently just as skittish about the fire alarm as he is about Roberta.  And as both are still close by - and possibly a threat - he keeps Dominique at a distance.  

“Dudley, it’s me.  I’m Jesus’s friend.  Don’t you wanna go back to Jesus?” Dominique calls softly.  The dog has retreated to the far side of the building, in back, but at least there are lights back here.  He finally stops moving.  Stops cowering after the alarms get turned off inside.

It’s been half an hour.  Dominique is pissed beyond words that every fire safety lesson she was ever taught expressed the importance of evacuation, but that here, they were expected to stay put.  Not being able to escape is what caused her most painful physical injuries.  It meant months in the hospital.  Years of surgeries, and more to come in the future.  

In short, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that staying put in a potentially life-threatening situation is ludicrous.  No fireproof door is gonna help if fire eats through the wall.  Sprinklers won’t do a damn bit of good if smoke gets to her first.  Who in the hell reprimands a person trying to escape a fire to go back inside and wait it out?  A burn survivor, at that?

Dominique arrives at the third floor, shaking.  Dudley’s shaking at her side.  Roberta’s eyeing him from her perch over Dominique’s shoulder.  She kicks the door and calls inside, juggling the animals, afraid to let go of either one:

“Jesus?  It’s Dominique.  I’ve got Dudley.  I don’t have my phone.  If you’re up, can you please come to the door?”

Dominique waits.  Five seconds.  Ten.  Fifteen.  She turns away, prepared to somehow keep Dudley for a few hours in her own apartment until it’s not 3:47 AM anymore.  But the door opens, and Jesus is there, shaken.

He leaves the door ajar and Dominique lets go of Dudley as the dog darts inside.  Jesus, it seems, has forgotten all about the door, retreating inside.  Dominique leaves it open at her back and tentatively steps in.

“You okay?” she asks.

“No, not really,” he answers from the living room.  He paces into the kitchen.  Back.  Dudley’s at his side.

Jesus’s apartment is the total opposite of Dominique’s.  As it’s smaller, Dominique had expected clutter, but it’s sparse.  A futon in the living room.  A chair and a desk in what she would have assumed was the bedroom.  But there’s no bed to be found here.  She supposes it makes a kind of sense.  That he might feel more at ease sleeping somewhere open.  After everything.

“Oh.  Um.  I can go.  If you want.  Just wanted to drop Dudley off.”  She says finally.  Awkwardly.  Still juggling Roberta.

“She can walk around,” Jesus nods at Roberta.  “They got along fine at your house.”

“Oh,” Dominique casts a glance behind her at the open door.  “It’s okay.”  She’d always rather have an escape route than potentially stay in the company of somebody of the opposite sex, alone.  Even a friend.

Jesus is still making the rounds back and forth from living room to kitchen.  Sometimes he stops at the fridge, opens it and just looks for a while before he closes it again.  Dudley always keeps pace with him.  Is always at his side.

“Hey.  What’s your Twitter handle?” Jesus asks on about his fifth pass.

“Why?” Dominique asks, wary.

“Just a question.”

“I know that.  I wanna know why you’re asking.”  Dominique’s heart thuds in her chest.  She can only keep up this illusion of calm for so long before she breaks.

“You said you tweeted me.  Months ago, right?  I wanted to see if I could find it.”

“Why?” she asks again.  It’s ragged.  Her composure’s slipping.  She backs slowly toward the door.  “You mad?”

“No.  I’m not,” Jesus says, confused.

“You’re pacing.”

“Yeah.  ‘Cause I’m wired ‘cause of the fire alarm, not because I’m mad at you.  I’m glad you’re here.  That you brought Dudley.  I don’t wanna scare you.  So if the pacing’s hard for you to see, I can try to stop.”

“You sure?  You’re not mad?” she checks.

“Positive, yeah,” Jesus breathes.  He sits down on the futon and Dudley jumps up beside him.

Finally, Dominique inches the door closed, but doesn’t lock it.  “That lady make you stay inside?” she asks.

“Cindy?  Yeah,” he makes a face.  “It’s bogus because we’re supposed to be allowed to leave, right?”

“Yeah.”  Dominique pauses.  “Did Mariana tell you?  Like, anything?  About me?”

“She said she saw you a couple times.  That you asked if I’d keep my distance.  So that’s why I haven’t texted or called or met up at Avoidance except that one time.  Wouldn’t have bothered you at all except Francesca crashed at your place the other night.  She keeps asking to come back, by the way,” he smiles, rueful, almost apologetic.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Dominique admits.

“I’m just saying, I’m all about respecting your boundaries.  I love boundaries.  They’re kinda my favorite thing.  So…”

“Even if they’re not yours?”

“I dig other people’s boundaries, too.  They make me feel kinda like extra safe?  It’s people without any boundaries at all that make me nervous.” Jesus admits.  

“So...you wanna see my tweet to you...but...you’re not mad…” Dominique ventures, shaking her head like all the information shouldn’t fit together.

“Yeah,” Jesus nods.  “I wanna see it because I’m curious.”

“I’m @IMadeItToo,” Dominique finally allows.

Jesus is on his phone, scrolling.  In moments, he’s found it, and looks at her, shocked:

“I helped you survive?  Really?” he asks quietly.  Incredulous.

“Yeah…” Dominique admits, shy.

“I had no idea…”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“Why?” Jesus asks, confused.  “I mean, you lived.  If you needed help, that doesn’t make you weak, it just means you’re a human being.”

“No...I mean...I’m embarrassed because...when I was a kid, like you, I got tricked into a car.  When I got where they were taking me, they had news on all the time.  It seemed to always be about you.”

“When was this?” Jesus checks.

“Almost eleven years ago,” Dominique allows.  “October, 2009.  So, I was eleven,” she says at the same time as Jesus says:

“I was eleven.”

“Oh God, was that the triplet thing?” Dominique asks, half amused, half scared to have broken such a serious moment with a joke.

Jesus cracks a smile.  “Told you you’d be doing it soon, too.”

There’s quiet.  Dominique’s not sure he wants to hear anymore until he nods at her.  Says:

“You can keep going, if you want.  I’m listening.”

“The thing is…” she offers, cringing.  “You kinda used to be my invisible friend…”

“Oh,” he says.  Like he’s kinda surprised, but not much.  He’s not laughing in her face.  Not insulted.  Nothing she’d imagined.

“That’s it.  Just ‘oh?’” she checks.

“Yeah.” Jesus nods.  “I had one of those, too.  So I get it.”