#but yeah this was something that happened to me when I was at fort Jackson in 2021 lmfao

[line-of-fire]

When she was younger, sometimes she'd just fucking space out if she was like, caught of guard by a question or some shit and while it usually didn't become an issue because her brain would reboot after 15 seconds or so, there were some times where it was fucking hilarious.

Like the time in basic, very first week, where she stared up at a drill sergeant because they had come out of the bay office while she was refilling her canteen at the water fountain (there were other trainees in the bay) without saying a damn word. Because logic and knowledge of what she was supposed to do just left the fucking building apparently.

Naturally she was asked what she was doing and she just. Fucking held up her canteen as if that was a normal response.

That specific drill sergeant called her 'bubbler' for the next two and a half weeks.

[elliespeach]

i'll be home soon | ellie williams angst

an. this is very short, around 800 words, and very angsty. this is a remake of one of my older fics from 2016 because i can't bring myself to write anything else i am at a road block im sorry if this is not that great but i wanted to give yall something!

warnings: ellie death, blood and gore, all around sad vibes

ellie rolled over, heaving the dead clicker off of her body. she groaned as she did, the pain in her stomach overcoming her and she looked down to examine it. any bite mark she could survive, but she wasn’t immune from being ripped apart. her stomach was badly wounded, the clicker had taken a chunk out of her abdomen leaving it jagged and gushing blood. ellie tried using her hands to cover her injury but it kept bleeding profusely and she cursed herself for letting this happen. 

she knew she didn’t have a lot of time, that she would bleed out before anyone could come and rescue her. she had patrolled alone today, the section she was assigned to was an easy one but the clicker jumped her and her efforts to save herself only prolonged her inevitable fate. her backpack only a few feet away began to utter muffled words, but she could recognize your voice anywhere. 

dragging herself to the backpack she shuffled through it for the radio and was able to make out the last few of your words. “...ellie can you check in?” your voice so clear through the radio almost made all the pain go away. ellie’s world stopped and for a moment she forgot her predicament, the only thing in the world that truly comforted her was you. 

ellie breathed your name into it with a weak smile on her face, she rolled onto her back, the radio gripped in her hand. “i’m fine, don’t worry about me.” she spoke, using every ounce of energy to sound coherent but in reality her world was shifting and her vision was going fuzzy. 

“are you almost done? we have a date tonight you know and it’s getting late,” you joked into the radio from jackson. you weren’t on patrol today, taking the day off to do some chores around the house you and ellie shared. you liked it this way, although you wished ellie wouldn’t go out so often. 

“y-yes baby, i know about our date,” ellie contemplated her words, holding in her bloody coughs to keep you from worrying. ellie didn’t want the last time you spoke to be frantic, she knew no matter how fast anyone got here, she was a goner. “i’m – i’m gonna be home real soon, okay?” 

“are you okay? you sound weir–”

“do you remember our first date?” ellie laughed into the radio, her stomach was on fire but she concentrated hard on the memory. “we snuck into the abandoned building in town–” 

“and we made a fort,” you recalled, smiling at the small radio in your hands. oblivious to your girlfriend’s distraction tactic. “what did you call it again?” 

“castle fort,” ellie chuckled at the name and you did too, making her smile. “we should go back there someday.” 

“yeah, we should.” you leaned back in your chair, your eyes wandering to the clock in front of you. “when did you say you’ll be back, i miss youuu.” 

“i'll be home soon, baby i promise. i’ll make it to our date, don't you worry,” she paused, the gaping hole in her stomach begging to be treated. she bit down on her lip to keep from groaning in pain. “can you wear that pretty dress i like? the floral one?” 

“ellie, were just watching a movie.” you rebutted, twirling a pen around your fingers. “speaking of, maria spoiled it for me so don’t get attached to the blonde kid.” 

“i told you maria s-spoils everything, and i know, but you look so beautiful in it,” ellie begged, “please? for me?” 

you sighed into the radio and ellie imagined you smiling at the compliment as you always did. “if it makes you happy, sure babe. i’ll wear it but we need to actually watch the movie.” 

“you got it, pretty girl.” ellie’s pain reduced to a numbed stinging and her mind was beginning to feel foggy. she felt tired, so tired and she fought to keep her eyes open as they began to well up at the idea of never seeing you again. 

“go finish what you gotta do, i’ll talk to you when you get back.” your voice sounded so angelic over the static in the radio and ellie had to use all her strength to respond. 

“okay, i love you. i love you so much,” she breathed out,still holding back her tears, the pain was almost gone now and her vision was going black. 

“i love you,” your words rang in ellie’s ears as the radio fell from her hands and landed in the blood that had pooled around her. her mind was repeating the phrase as her eyes closed, feeling the tiredness melt away until she felt nothing anymore. her last thought was of you, all smiley and bubbly wearing that dress she loved so much. 

[deeptrashwitch]

Sorry for the Google Translator russian. Not my mother language.

Part six, Corporal Elijah Wilson!

The Beggining (Part 6)

The next day Jackson and Alicia were ready so they went to Austin's airport, leaving Luke on charge while the women came back. Both of them were silent, but the blonde still alert as they aboard the plane. He felt a little more relaxed when they sat sepparatedly and passed the time re-reading the archive and the medical record.

It was a uncomfortable flight and he just tried to keep his mind out of it for the moment while listening to a podcast. Three hours and a half later the plane arrived to the JFK, where a car waited for them to take them to Fort Hamilton. Once again the trip was in a heavy silence, but this time Alicia looked the title of the podcasts and recognized it.

She took her pen and notebook where she wrote a short phrases. After that she gave it to Jackson, who was curious as he read. The blonde one was a bit surprised when learned that Alicia heard similar podcasts, but used his own pen to answer. And that way they started a little conversation via notes, sharing some opinions about the things they heard.

The SEAL was amused when she admitted to hear some medical podcasts, not that was her main interest but it was something. He told her about his interest on lawsuits cases and she told him some that she learnt about. And an hour later they were there, which gave them chills as both got near the barracks.

Blackwell saw the rage and hate in the eyes of Marchant before she covered them with the sunglasses. He was slightly relived as he knew that fury wasn't directed to him but also got a little nervous. Inside the barracks the women called some Privates, ordering them to bring Corporal Wilson ASAP.

-You're not gonna call the Sergeant too?-asked curious

-Not yet, let's have our boy here first for you to check him out

-And then?

-I'll have a...talk with the Sergeant and the Captain

-W-were more than one?

-They knew about it, did nothing, and I'll fuckin' make 'em see hell for it-growled almost hissing with hatred-the only one I can't reach is the Mayor

-So he'll be free

-Maybe from jail, but that bastard is not getting away with this shit

He nodded as he saw how the Corporal arrived and in that moment just said to himself, "God fuckin' forgive me". The way the guy moved gave him hints of what happened, also he couldn't tell if he had bruises or similar but he noticed the fear when he saw around before concentrate in them. He made the salute and rest once Alicia told him to and stood there for a second.

-Leave-said in the Privates direction

-Uhh, C-captain?-asked suddenly in fear

-Rest easy Corporal, not gonna do anything to you-told him with slightly softer voice-I might introduce myself, I'm Captain Alicia Marchant, he's my team's medic, Sergeant Jackson Blackwell

-Plesure to meet you Corporal-said him calmly

-We're here to talk with you for two things, the first one is about your habilities and performance but that can wait for now

-And the second thing?

-We'll make justice, as I told you, Sergeant Blackwell is a medic and if you are okay with it he'll check you up to gather evidence

-I don't know...

-Они за��латят за ��о, что сделали с тобой, Элайджа. (They'll pay for what they did to you, Elijah)-told him in russian, watching his surprise and the little hope inside

-Вы обещаете, что? (You promise?)

-да (Yes)

The soldier with heterochromatic eyes took a deep breath as his hands shaken, but nodded and Alicia smiled sadly.

-Didn't know you speak russian-said Jackson raising an eyebrow

-I speak six languages, useful in this kind of cases, don't you think?

-Yeah, but that sounded a bit of a showoff

After he said that he froze, oh shit, he fucked up, he fucked up. The memories made him get tense because of an instinct, waiting for...that. But Alicia just scoffed.

-Maybe I'm a bit of a showoff, anyway, I'll leave Corporal Wilson to you

-Yes Captain-said before looking at the Corporal-come with me

The brown-haired soldier nodded as he followed Jackson to the medic bay, where he asked for them to leave. Blackwell asked him to sit on a gurney and he took the medical record to take a seat in front of him.

-Corporal Elijah Wilson, 75th Ranger Regiment, you started in this team two years ago as a First Class Private. You were a lot of missions before today and yet, the bruises reported were during leave, is that correct?

-...Yes

-I see, listen, I need to take notes of your bruises, can you show me? If you don't want me to look at you while taking off your clothes it's alright, I'll look to the other side

The Corporal flinched but started to take off his clothes and at the same time Jackson looked away for a moment. Once Elijah gave him permission he looked at him, as he did, his blood run cold in his veins. Big and long bruises never done by human hands, whatever made them did it with grudge and fury, they were already purple except for some of them and also the guy had scratches going down that went behind his pants.

Even as a medic, Jackson felt nausea and knew that now he was pale but went back to his professional attitude. He started to take notes about them trying to identify what caused the bruises, then Elijah got tense when he got near the edge of his pants, so he took his hands back. Blackwell sighed and tried to calm the rage he felt before looking the Corporal with a little smile on an attempt to calm him down.

-Corporal, we are here to help you-said calmly with a sigh-for now we only can gather evidence, but my...Captain will found the way to take them to the justice

-How did you know about it?-asked Elijah surprisingly firm

-...Alicia has a lot of contacts everywhere, don't ask how many, I have no idea-said trying to lighten up the mood-but she learnt about your situation once adquired your archive, I'm not sure how she was so sure, but she was. Later she asked me to take a look on your medical record and the signs were there, and we came here to take care of them

-Why your Captain had my archive?

-She want you to be part of our team, an independent one, because you're really talented as a recon expert. So, if you want to came with us you'll be with us on Black Tomb, Texas

-How do I know you won't do the same?

-If it helps, our Lieutenant, Sergeant and Corporal were about to come with us to commit agression or maybe arson

-What?

-The Lieutenant was infuriated almost to the point of doing something illegal, he's really straight-edged when it comes to this

-He hates this kind of things? The Captain and Sergeant here?

-Yeah, but he doesn't know about the Captain or even the Mayor-explained with a sigh-we knew about it recently because of an old friend of yours

-A friend?

-Corporal Noah García, SEAL Team 5, rings a bell?

-Noah? You met Noah?

-He's our other Corporal now and he seems to remember you-Jackson told him calmly while doing the physical exam-he told the Captain about the last time, how they did nothing, he regrets that he couldn't help you

The brown-haired nodded slightly with a little smile.

-Noah shouldn't blame himself, we were just Privates

-Still, he feels that way

-What you're gonna do?

-Talk with my Captain, see if we can throw 'em in jail and offer you a place with us

-With you? Want me to be part of your team?

-As I told you, you're a good one and we just offer this to the best

-I'm...not what you think, not even near

-Trust me, our Captain has accurate instincts when come to talented soldiers, if she ask you this is for a reason

Elijah remained silent but Jackson excused himself before going out of the medic bay. He walked looking for the black-haired women and found her outside a conference room, absolutely pissed off and with her jaw painfully clenched. As well he let his own rage take over and he grabbed her arm, calling her attention.

-Sergeant?

-We need to take him out of here, it's worst that we thought-said with his eyes filled of fury giving her the record-Alicia, this is serious, it's not only assault, what did they said?

-I just talked with them, just denial

-SCUMBAGS!

-I know...you said we need to take him out?

-If we don't, I'm not sure he'll be alive the next time we came here

-Sergeant Blackwell, take Corporal Wilson with you to pack everything, he's coming with us to Black Tomb, you copy?-ordered her as she finished to read the new medical record-I'll talk with Wraith and a contact of mine

-Affirmative Captain

She nodded and then he went back to the medic bay finding Elijah already dressed up once again. He explained to him and accompany him to pack everything, vigilant in case any of the involved officials came even near him. After that they get reunited with Alicia outside as she looked at the others superiors like they were just trash.

She just excused the three of them with calm before they were scorted to JFK once more, and their flight was ready to go back to Austin. There they went to Black Tomb once again, where Luke and Wraith already were waiting for them.

-Mornin' Michaelis-greeted Alicia with a smile as she walked

-Mornin' Captain, how's Fort Hamilton?-asked the red-haired raising an eyebrow

-Shitty, those barracks almost gave me a stroke

-I can tell, what about you Jackson?

-Trust me, Luke, I wanna commit murder-answered the blonde one with a growl

-You're not the only one, tell me if you need some help, Edward can gave us a ride!

-Will do

-When did you trust Eager?-asked the Captain as she crossed her arms with a smile-last I can remember, you didn't trust him

-Meh, I ended up like him

-Captain, Sergeant-said Wraith with a nod, interrumpting the conversation-I'm guessing he's Corporal Wilson

-He is, just for now we need to talk Wraith, the both of us

-We will

-Good to know, for now, please Lieutenant, explain everything to Corporal Wilson-asked calmly-and Sergeant, prepare the medical record as detailed as possible

-Yes Captain-answered both of them

-And Corporal, please come to talk with me once you finish

-...Yes Captain

[bastillewolf]

Hello idk if the requests are still going but if not then its okay ignore this and if they are please don't over work yourself and you don't need to do my request if you don't want to just stay healthy and eat well and drink lots of water we all live your work (and are simps for corpse-)

The ask : could I ask for a corpse husband x reader where they used to get shipped together before they even meet each other and when they meet each other corpse goes soft for reader and they play two rounds In among us together where they are imposters together and corpse is an imposter alone in the other round

Reader info : reader has a very soft voice and is a softie and the pronounce is she/her or they/them ( as you wish)

Again you don't gotta do it if you don't want to

Thanks so much for the ask, An. I was feeling like shit and this was a lot of fun to write. I’m sorry though, I completely read over the part where the reader was supposed to have a soft voice. I’ll see if I can make another one with this specification sometime. Also, I wrote this rather quickly because I’m watching Twilight for the first time and now my feelings are hurt.

#CorpseBride - Oneshot

Pairings: Corpse / Reader

Twitter wasn’t really your forte, but you knew how to get around. It’s just that you never really had the time to check it, let alone to see what’s on the trending page every single day. At the very least, you were capable of replying to your friends’ stuff and letting your viewers know when you were streaming or when a new video would be up. Again, you weren’t a pro, but you got by.

Until you didn’t.

“Hey, everyone,” you greeted, and immediately went to change your Among Us figure to its usual colour and outfit before someone else took it.

Everyone welcomed you, while it seemed Toast was still busy trying to get a last person to join.

“Whaddup, baby,” Corpse’s shot out from the rest of them. It was pure teasing, something he’d grown quite comfortable with ever since people had blatantly started simping for his voice. “Nothing much, honey. How’ve you been?” You cheekily replied. “Pretty good. Streaming still makes me nervous, though.” “You greeted me with ‘Whaddup, baby’ and then proceed to tell me you’re nervous? Don’t get upset when I say that I don’t believe you.” He chuckled at that.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Impostor

“Ha!” you called out, “I doubt this will soothe your nerves, Corpse. You’re teamed up with me now.” You sneaked in a glance at chat. “We are not an old married couple! If anything, he can be my bitch for this round. I’m just not gonna murder anyone.”

And that’s basically how it went. He managed to kill three people and still wasn’t being sussed. “Alright, I think I’ve tortured him enough,” you laughed, “I’ll even spare Sykkuno for the man.”

You managed to corner Toast and killed him in a corner where the water wheels were, before heading out into admin. You vented until you found Corpse in Labs and jumped out. It was right when Sykkuno walked in.

“Oh, god no. Please, Sykkuno.”

Your kill count still wasn’t down yet and he was obviously planning to run straight out the door to hit the emergency button, but he was stopped. Corpse had murdered him in an instant.

Your mouth was hanging open. “Did… Did he just kill Sykkuno for me?” Chat was going absolutely wild. “What the fuck just happened?” You decided to report the body anyway.

“I can’t fucking believe it,” Corpse growled, “Not my best friend, Sykkuno.”

You had to mute yourself to keep the laughter at bay. Corpse evidently vouched for you, saying you’d walked in on the body together. Felix was sussed and voted out.

“Corpse, you killed me!” Sykkuno cried out.

“I’m so sorry, Sykkuno! I wanted to spare you but you walked in at the wrong time!” You pleaded.

“Sacrifices had to be made,” Corpse merely responded.

“Wait, what happened?” Sean asked.

“I walked in on one of them venting and then Corpse killed me!”

“Collateral damage. You watched me get killed one time, too.”

“Blame me, Sykkuno. It was my fault,” but you were laughing as you said it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard such regret coming from an imposter,” Sean laughed along, “Also, why the fuck were you two being so slow? Three meetings in and you’d only killed three people.”

“Corpse was simping for me,” you replied.

“I was not.”

“Yes, you were. Otherwise you would’ve asked me what the hell I’d been doing that entire time.”

“Fuck off,” he laughed.

“Corpse is an UWU-boy!”

“Oh my god, you guys are already trending.”

“Wait, what?”

Your phone was being blasted off to space, getting tons of messages with the hashtag #CorpseBride. It was number 1 trending on Twitter.

“So… whaddup, baby?”

“Oh no, you better buy me a drink first.”

“Sure.”

 You hadn’t thought he’d been serious in that moment, until he’d asked you to meet up after the game had ended. You hesitantly agreed, but reminded him that he absolutely did not have to participate in this just for the meme. “I’m not doing this for the meme,” he’d said, “I’ve been wanting to ask you out for a while, I just never knew how. It seemed like the perfect timing.”

You met him at his apartment, knowing how he was about going out in public, and feeling extremely nervous. You’d brought takeout, and because you hadn’t been sure what he wanted you’d ordered way too much. Upon opening the door, he looked at you, down at the bag, and said, “Shit, you got food?” Not really knowing what else to say, you simply replied, “Uh, yeah.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have lots of leftovers, then.”

He smiled, gave you a hug that ended way too fast and left you paralyzed for a minute, and then invited you in. It turned out he’d already ordered food, too. “Plenty to choose from,” he laughed awkwardly. “Uh… You got any neighbours who might want some?” you asked.

“I-I don’t really talk to anyone outside of my friend group.”

“Oh, of course. I could go around, if you’d like.”

“You’d do that for me?”

You furrowed your brows. “Of course I would. Why not?”

“Alright, but let me at least come with you. You just do the talking.”

Three knocks at three different doors later, and someone accepted the offer and took over some of the food. “Hang on a minute,” the elderly man said, clad in only his pyjamas and a bathrobe, managing to make the situation even more uncomfortable, “Aren’t you my neighbour? You always scurry off before I get the chance to talk to you!”

You looked at Corpse, and he back at you, and you turned back to the elderly man. “He, uh… He’s very people shy. He has anxiety. I’m trying to help him cope. Also, his vocal chords are damaged.” Nothing you’d said so far had been a lie, technically, but the man still remained sceptical. “Then why didn’t you just leave a note or something?”

“Uh…” you jumped at the small voice appearing from behind you. It’s just that his ‘small voice’ is still nothing close to small. “I know, I’m terribly sorry, sir. I also just wanted to let you know that if you ever need anything, I’m just a few doors away.”

This seemed to please the man enough.

“I can’t believe you made me do that.”

“I made you?!” You gasped, “I didn’t make you do anything, you filthy liar! You’re just as bad in real life as in Among Us, when you’re the impostor and I’m the innocent crewmate.”

“No comment.”

“I didn’t even ask you a question.”

“No comment.”

“Deadass?”

“Deadass.”

You both laughed. Corpse hesitated for just a moment, but decided to ask anyway, “Were you nervous when I opened the door?”

You chuckled awkwardly, admitting, “Yeah, I was. I always get anxious meeting people. Well, we’d met before, of course. But just, you know, in real life.”

“I get it.”

You stood there in silence for a moment, until you noticed the rest of the takeout in your hands was getting cold. “Come on, wife,” he joked, linking his pinkie finger with yours, “Let me get you that drink.”

If he hadn’t dragged you along then and there, you could’ve sworn your knees would’ve given out.

TAG LIST CLOSED

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[icerosecrystal]

Daminette - The Goddess of Deception vs the Goddess of Creation Pt. 1

Next

Marinette, goddess of deception, at least, that’s what everyone thought. In reality, she was the goddess of creation, but all the other gods and goddesses had handed over the title to another goddess. Lila was her name, and she was the actual goddess of deception, not that anyone except for Marinette knew. Even the queens and kings of Olympus Tikki, Plagg, Wayzz, etc. were starting to believe Lila. How did Lila manage to do this? Well, it all happened a year ago.

(A Year Ago)

Marinette was heading out to meet her friends. Once she arrived, she heard a loud, obnoxious voice claiming to be the Goddess of Creation. She looked around and saw a girl with sausage hair, talking to the rest of her friends. Supposedly, she found out she was the goddess a couple of months ago, and she and the god of the sun, Adrien were to be married in six years. While the dates were correct, her claims most certainly were not. Marinette then came up and questioned, “How could you possibly be the goddess of creation?”

Yeah, tactlessness was not her forte. Sausage hair burst into tears, exclaiming, “Of course you would question me! I expect nothing less from the goddess of deception.” Marinette couldn’t believe what she just heard, she tried to stammer out an answer, but after sausage hair’s response, everyone swiftly turned to glare at her.

“That’s so not cool, have you been lying to us the whole time, Marinette,” Alya yelled, “And just because you are the goddess of deception, that doesn’t mean you have to have it out for poor Lila.” Oh, so Lila was her name, it should be Liar, not Lila. Everyone continued shouting similar things to Marinette, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lila looking at her smugly.

Lila then loudly laughed and said, “Well, I should tell more about what it’s like being the goddess of creation, ” and she then dragged everyone along, leaving Marinette shaking with blinding rage. She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked around to see Adrien looking at her. He had a disappointed look in his eyes.

“Marinette, why would you do that? If you leave Lila alone, she will get some more friends and will eventually admit that she isn’t the goddess of creation. Just play along.” It made Marinette even angrier was he implying that she should leave her future in the hands of a LIAR!

Marinette gave him a cold glare, “ I don’t care what you think, Mr. Agreste. You think Lila’s well being is more important over my own. She is stealing my title and future, and it will end up harming everyone, including me.” She saw him opening his mouth to most likely retort, but before he could, she turned on her heal and said, “Have a good rest of your day Mr. Agreste.” After seeing Adrien’s true colors, Marinette swore that if she ever got out of this mess and be identified as the true goddess of creation, she would do everything in her power so that she wouldn’t marry Adrien. For he is a fool, the god of the sun is.

~Present~

Marinette sighed, reminiscing in the consequences that day. Who knew that her friends had so little faith in her?! The only good thing that came out of the whole ordeal was that she ended up dodging a bullet in having to marry Adrien. But, she realized that if she does come out as the true goddess of creation, she would have to marry him. Fortunately, it would be a bit harder for her to do because Adrien had kissed Lila, which resulted in the breaking of the bond between Marinette and Adrien. It came with a price of immense pain, but the bond, still broken.

Either way, she would end up losing something if she left or stayed, and did she want to out her true identity to a group of people who believed a stranger over her? No, she didn’t. So, she made the hard decision to disappear, well the semi-hard decision. She would miss her parents, the god of baked goods and family, and the goddess of the harvest. She would miss Luka, the god of music, Juleka the goddess of insecurities, Kagami the goddess of war, and surprisingly Chloe, the goddess of subjection, whom she got closer to over the year of isolation that Marinette faced from her old friends. Nonetheless, she would be sad about leaving them, but she needed this. She got in contact with her Grandma, goddess of traveling, and she then left for the mortal world, saying goodbye to Olympus, if only for a couple of years.

(Time Skip of 4 years)

It has been four years since Marinette left Olympus, and she was so happy. She was able to explore so many different places in the mortal world with her grandma. But, unfortunately, her grandma was needed back in Olympus a year ago, so she had been traveling by herself ever since. She was currently in Los Angeles, California. It was crowded with many mortals and was very noisy, but it was incredibly beautiful and a new experience for her. She was walking around the city when she saw a doorway. She looked around and saw that none of the mortals could see it, meaning it belonged to Olympus. She looked back at it and saw a dark figure leaning against the alleyway leading to the doorway. When he saw her, he pushed off the wall and walked to her. He stepped in front of her and smirked, “Little goddess, what are you doing all alone? And why are you looking at one of the gateways to the Underworld?”

Wait, Los Angeles was one of the gateways to the Underworld?! (Yes, I did get this idea from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) But, if that’s the gateway to the Underworld, then it meant that this figure in front of her was Damian, the god of the Underworld! “Yes, I am,” Oh, crap, she said that out loud. “Little Goddess, you didn’t answer my question. Why are you here and not on Olympus?”

It took a minute for the question to register into her brain before she promptly explained how Lila claimed the title of the goddess of creation, how she was the real goddess of creation. How she got completely isolated because Lila said that she was the goddess of deception. Marinette ranted about how her life had been five years ago, and how Marinette had had enough, deciding to leave Olympus for the mortal world. The whole time, she could see Damian’s face growing darker, and he looked like he would try as hard as he could to commit a murderer to a goddess, which confused her. Why did he care she just met him? By the end of her tirade, Marinette was panting for air, before she realized that he might no believe her like her old friends. So she timidly asked, “Do you believe me?”

Damian was snapped out of his murderer planning and quickly reassured her, “Of course, I believe you! I can feel the aura of creation surrounding you while you can most likely feel the aura of destruction and death around me.” She understood what he meant about the auras. She was also relieved that she had finally found someone who believed her.

Damian watched her closely before asking her a question that changed everything, “Would you like to go to the Underworld with me?” Marinette looked startled for a second before carefully thinking about her answer. It would be a great experience staying in the Underworld. And Damian had been so kind to her so far, on top of all that he believed her. No one believed her, especially not a stranger. She looked him straight in the eye before giving him her answer, “Yes.”

Damian leads her through the doorway, and after a series of confusing twists and turns, they finally reached the Underworld. Most would find it dark and spooky, but for Marinette, she was in awe of how all the shadows mixed to make a type of beauty that was found only in a place like the Underworld. Damian was watching her closely and smiled softly at the look of sheer awe displayed on her face.

Before he could say anything, a loud voice yelled from somewhere, “Well, if it isn’t Demon spawn, and look, he brought a goddess!” They turned around and, Marinette saw a god, as she assumed, with black hair with a shock of white along with blue-green eyes. His sentence was followed by a crash and dogs barking, and finally, three more gods barreled in from a doorway. Two of them squealed in delight, while the other one yelled, “Is that a real, goddess?” (I did just casually quote Frozen in the middle of my one-shot)

From there, it was chaos, all the boys were asking questions, trying to know her, but all of the questions were flying overhead, none of them understandable. Having enough, Damian whistled, halting everything to a stop. “Tt, enough you useless, morons! What’s going to happen now is that you are going to shut the hell up, let me explain how I met her, and then you will ask Father and Pennyworth to come here so that I may introduce each of you to her. UNDERSTAND!” They all muttered agreements and then waited for Damian to explain how they met. Damian then went on to explain how they met and exactly what Marinette told him about her past. By the end, all the boys looked like they wanted to tease him or get more info on Marinette. They decided to choose the former.

“Oooh, the demon’s in love. The brat found a girl on the street,” the boy that was in the room from when they first arrived exclaimed.

“Tt Todd, go get Father and Pennyworth so I can introduce you,” Damian yelled harshly. The other boy raised his hands as if to surrender and ran out of the room. After some awkward silence, he came back with two gods trailing after him.

“Damian, what is this,” the younger of the men asked.

“Father, this is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, she is the goddess of creation, but the goddess of deception claimed her title, and everyone thinks that Marinette is the goddess of deception,” he went on to explain everything he already explained to the other gods. Once he finished explaining, he introduced everyone. “Marinette, I would like to introduce you to my Father, Bruce Wayne. These are my adopted brothers, Jason Todd, Tim or Timothy Drake, Dick or Richard Grayson. My best friend Jon or Jonathan Kent, and my butler Alfred Pennyworth. Father is the god of darkness and adoption, Todd the god of weapons and witchcraft, Grayson the god of death, Drake the god of judgment, Alfred the god of emotions, and finally, Kent, the god of happiness. If you couldn’t tell, he’s visiting.”

Marinette smiled widely at all of them, “It’s nice to meet you all.”

“Ahhh, blinded, we’ve been by the pure sunshine that you are,” Jason yelled, covering his eyes. Marinette’s mood automatically soured, “Please, don’t compare me to the sun. You would be comparing me to the god of the sun who is an asshole and a coward.” They all raised an eyebrow

at her response but didn’t further question it.

“Go be idiots somewhere else, heathens,” Damian screamed, pulling out a katana with the intent to impale them. All of his brothers and his friend ran out of the room, screaming bloody murderer, while his Father and Alfred calmly walked out.

Damian turned back to Marinette, “Would you like to stay for a little bit?” Damian asked. “Would you like to stay forever?” someone shrieked along with a thump. (If you couldn’t already tell, I am obsessed with Disney movies. This was a Mulan reference.)

Marinette smiled gently and replied, “I think I would like that.” Loud whoops, were heard after her response, which caused Damian to groan in exasperation.

(Time Skip, it is about the time of the “Lila’s” and Adrien’s wedding)

Marinette has been staying in the Underworld with Damian and his family, and she has been enjoying it. They were all very kind and supportive of her. They helped her, and she found common interests with each of them. But, out of all of them, she connected with Damian the most. He was the one that brought her here, and he was the one who always had her interests in mind. He made sure to check in on her every day, making sure that she was satisfied with her day and didn’t want to leave the Underworld. Marinette wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she loved how much he doted on her. It was a nice change for her. But, she finally realized the actual reason when it smacked her in the face, literally.

She was walking down one of the long windy halls that she would most likely end up getting lost in, but her being the stubborn person that she was, refused to ask for help. She then smacked right into a shirtless Damian. He grabbed her shoulders to steady her and looked at her, “Are you alright, Marinette?”

But she couldn’t answer. The only thing she was capable of doing at the moment was staring at Damian’s toned chest. It was smooth and had a beautiful shine to it underneath the lights. He had huge biceps, broad shoulders, and a very clear eight-pack. He had just finished exercising, so he was sweating, which made him look even hotter,“…Marinette, MARINETTE!”

“Huh,” she mumbled out. Damian gave her a curious look, “What were you looking at?”

She looked up at him, “You hot, I -I mean, you look nice, n-n-no, uhh your a chest look amazing, w-wait no, ” she then started mumbling to herself, so that Damian couldn’t understand her and hid her face in her hands.

He gently took her hands and rested them on his chest while putting his hands on her hips and pulling her closer, “So, you think I’m hot. Am I hot enough for you to do this?” He started leaning forward slowly so that she could pull away anytime. Yet, she didn’t. She instead tilted her head up and brought her lips closer to his, fluttering her eyes shut. Their lips met in a moment of passion. Her lips were warm and sweet, almost like strawberries, and they molded against his lips. Damian gripped the back of her neck, deepening the kiss, evolving it from chaste to intimate. It felt like a dream, her hands around his neck, his in her hair, and around her waist. Her finding the feeling of being loved. She pulled away and put her hands back on his chest. She looked into his amazing emerald eyes and his swollen lips while panting in sync with him. He pulled her close again and asked her after giving her a peck on the lips, “ Be my girlfriend?” “Yeah,” she replied, and they went back to kissing, this time making out. They heard the cries of joy at her response, it looks like they had some incompetent fools to murderer later, but for now, it was just them.

That had been a couple of months ago, and they were happy together. While things were going great in the Underworld, things were falling apart in Olympus and the mortal realm. Because Marinette, the real goddess of creation, was in the Underworld, plants stopped growing, and many other things that the goddess of creation controls, was, in the process, of destruction. In Olympus, the Kings and Queens were trying to figure out the cause of the lack of life in the mortal realm. And so they went to Lila. Lila claimed that someone was stealing her powers. The kings and queens were skeptical, but since everyone else believed her, they figured that it must be the truth. And so, everyone on Olympus was ordered to find the thief. And the wedding of creation and sun was to commence.

Back in the Underworld, Damian and Marinette were making plans to expose Lila, but one thing was still troubling Marinette, “Dami?”

“Yes, little goddess.”

“If I do go through with the plan, I would have to marry Adrien. I don’t want to marry him!”

Damian hummed thoughtfully, “That does seem like a problem. What do you suggest?”

She blushed underneath his loving gaze, “Would you be willing to marry me?” Damian looked stunned, opening and closing his mouth, looking like a fish. After several failed attempts to speak, he manages a nod with a hint of red splayed across his cheeks. Marinette squealed and tackled him to the ground.

Dick came inside, pretending that he wasn’t listening to their conversation the whole time, “Well, congratulations, make sure to use protection, we don’t need little demons running around the place.” Marinette blushed and swiftly tucked her face into the crook of Damian’s shoulder. If looks could kill, Dick would be dead three times over with the glare Damian was giving him at the moment. Dick seeing his reaction, quickly left the room in an attempt to avoid being stabbed by Damian.

Marinette cuddled into Damian. Damian looked at her tenderly and spoke, “When do you want the wedding to be? And before you answer, I want to tell you something. If we get married, we would be together legally, but you won’t be the Queen of the Underworld automatically. To do that, you need to eat these six pomegranate seeds, but don’t do it for me, I don’t want to ruin your life, okay?” She looked at him and nodded, “Good.”

They held the wedding the next day. It was a beautiful ceremony, but none of Damian’s family could believe it. Who would have thought that the goddess that he met in an alleyway in Los Angeles would be with him forever? None of them expected it. By the end, both Marinette and Damian were happy that they were together. But, they still had one more obstacle to face, the wedding of the goddess of creation and the god of the sun.

To be continued…

[twh-news]

Interview: Makeup Artist Douglas Noe on Loki’s Looks Through the Years & Creating Anew for ‘Loki’ [EXCLUSIVE]

Douglas Noe has been in Hollywood for three decades. An award-winning makeup artist, he’s worked on projects such as World War Z, Planet of the Apes, Spider-Man 3, I Saw the Light, and Birth of a Nation. On top of these impressive credits, he’s also been Tom Hiddleston’s personal makeup artist since joining the MCU in The Avengers, designing all of the looks for Loki’s subsequent appearances.

Noe has been nominated for three Emmys with one win, and five Makeup Artist and Hairstylist (MUAHS) Awards resulting in two MUAHS awards. His skills include creating making natural and period looks, prosthetics, hair, and tattoos.

Along with being the head of the makeup department for the most recent Disney+ series Loki, Noe is also creating looks for the new Netflix comedy series True Story starring Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes.

We had a chance to chat with Douglas Noe about his work on Loki, The Avengers, the incomparable value of teamwork on set, and most importantly, Richard E. Grant.

Nerds and Beyond: So you started your Marvel journey with The Avengers, but what drew you to your field in the first place? And how did you get your start?

Douglas Noe: Star Wars was a huge influence to me as a young boy, both sketching and drawing, and a little bit of sculpting but not much. Cut to 1983, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” comes out and I find a magazine called Fangoria on the newsstands where I can order blood and wax and pencils and fake hair. So, I started playing with these things. I was also taken with the horror movie craze that was happening in the early 80s — Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, and others, obviously.

In High School, in 1984, I joined choir thinking I would get an easy credit, but my voice had not changed. So the choral instructor had been waiting for a boy soprano to do a theatrical opera presentation. So with that I sang the lead, I quit choir after that, because my peers were merciless, but, I learned the world of theatrical makeup which I hadn’t been introduced to.

I did years of theater. I went to a performing arts high school — it’s called Fort Hayes School for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Ohio — graduated, went to beauty school, and continued working in Ohio doing industrial, commercial, theater, and opera [makeup]. Worked for Maybelline and Revlon, got restless, worked in Cincinnati on my first film in the summer of 1990, it was July so 31 years ago, A Rage in Harlem. And my boss said you come to Los Angeles, I’ll make sure you get on your feet.

Nerds and Beyond: So you mentioned that it’s been about 31 years since your career started, what’s changed over the course of those 30 years in your field?

Douglas: How much time do we have? I’d say the biggest, biggest change would probably be the way we make these things now. Although another large change, more specific, would be the materials that we use. There’s a constant evolution and reinvention of almost all aspects of the materials that a makeup artist uses. That said, I have to shine a light on the way we do things now with the onset of digital and digital cameras. Shooting on film now has almost completely fallen by the wayside. Film was very forgiving, quite frankly, and now it’s not so forgiving. And because of that, the bar has been raised. The wonderful thing about this journey is watching my peers just get better and better and better, my colleagues rising to meet the challenge of not having anything to hide from with this new way we make films.

Nerds and Beyond: So, sometimes you kind of throw prosthetics to the wayside in favor of a more traditional makeup. How do you make that decision on which one to go with?

Douglas: That’s an excellent question. The decision is based purely on what are we going to see. That’s where I start, what is the lighting? I have a conversation with the director of photography and I find out what is the dynamic. Obviously, I know from the script whether it’s an interior or exterior, or if we’re exterior but we’re going to be on a stage, if it’s day or night. These variables all play into my decision as to whether or not I should rely on my theatrical experience and ability to paint 2D to appear 3D, or go ahead and make small prosthetics and put them where I need to put them and use actual prosthetics in lieu of paint.

That has everything to do with lighting, locations, logistics, and because most of his [Loki’s] wounds appear on his arm and some on his face in the Void, it’s all very moody and very dark. And again, the theatrical quality of the paint is not going to be altered by the changing light, it’s just going to react the same way the rest of the face is going to react. It’s purple light, it’s going to make everything have a purple hue. There was no accounting for any correction that didn’t need to be done. There wasn’t anything wrong with that. It’s real.

Nerds and Beyond: So, you did make up for not only Tom on Loki, but you helped plan out the looks for everybody?

Douglas: Yes, what I do is I surround myself with strong talent. It’s all about team. I designed Wunmi Mosaku, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia DiMartino, and Tom [Hiddleston]. Regarding the rest of it, Neil Ellis, both Dennis Liddiard and I, added to the elements of his scars and wounds, which you would only see in close-ups.

The rest of it, the parameters are set — Blade Runner to Mad Men — and stay in those confines. And obviously, I choose color palettes for the women and there are parameters set for the men, but then it’s about team. I’m a big one on a team and not putting my thumbprints on other people’s work, but rather build other people up so they feel like they own what they’re doing.

My team consists of artists that also have stronger resumes and quite frankly, skills that exceed mine. It’s the mutual trust that allows us to keep a high level of artistic integrity in every aspect of the job. It also means I get the very best from my team, and it shows on the screen.

So, I didn’t have every look in my hand. Dennis Liddiard designed the Mobius character and I had Ned Neidhardt run with Gugu and turn up the volume on some of the elements that she already possesses that we can play with. Her eyes and lips, I think Ned turned the volume on both. And because we’re shooting in order, it’s a progression in the makeup you did.

Nerds and Beyond: When it came to Sylvie and Loki, when you when you’re doing those, did you try to kind of plan them both to have any similar things to give them a Loki look?

Douglas: It’s a fair question, but the answer is no. So again, I think the characteristics and traits that were going to be similar among them, aside from wardrobe and costume hints, were all character driven. And I did nothing with the makeup and hair to try to make them look or even closely resemble each other.

Nerds and Beyond: I want to kind of back up a little bit to Tom in the first Avengers film. That was by far one of his most standout looks. Can you tell me anything about what went into the creation of that absolutely tormented, haunted look that he had throughout that entire movie?

Douglas: Yeah, and that’s probably one of the elements that, because the character has evolved, we kind of left with Avengers because by the end of Avengers, and we carried it into Endgame, he does have a bit of an edgier look in Avengers, and not many people pick up on it. But the reality is he’s a little sculpted in Avengers.

I remember sculpting his cheekbones and temples, and doing a little play on his forehead for when he’s in the cell on the Helicarrier carrier with all that overhead lighting. I did like a little devil horn shadow, which is so subtle. The only person who’s going to notice is anybody who looks back at it and having read this and knows what to look for, but it is so nuanced and so subtle. And that’s the only place I think we did that. But the rest of him is very much chiseled and sculpted, but it’s a light touch.

And I think, again, as he evolved through the Marvel Universe and into the other movies that was something that was easy to leave behind, because I think that look played directly into his evil desire to rule over Earth. We rested that design element with that storyline.

Nerds and Beyond: It’s very clear too and I’ve always loved looking at that, because I’m a huge fan of the character. I’ve always loved kind of comparing how he looked in that movie to the rest of them.

Douglas: You’re on to me!

Nerds and Beyond: I’m not! I swear [laughs] So, what’s your best method for making the actors comfortable in the makeup chair? And with the final outcome?

Douglas: It’s dialogue; listening, talking to them, talking to their representation, whether it be an agent or a manager, and doing my homework and doing my due diligence to find out what’s going to make them comfortable the moment they walk through the door. I do my homework on them. It’s not just IMDb, it’s an internet search. So, I spend some time on the web and find out who these folks are, and if I find out, for example, they’re not one that likes to talk a lot, well, the writing’s on the wall, we’re not going to talk a lot, we’ll cut to the chase and get to the point. But also, it’s about building a rapport and building a relationship. Also, knowing that, I’ve said this in previous discussions, knowing it’s necessary to get out of the way.

Like if, for example, I’m not a proper fit for somebody, I have to be plugged in, I have to be aware enough to understand that it may not be working before somebody says to me, “Hey, this isn’t gonna work.” So it’s just about being open, especially as Tom’s personal on these projects and running the department, knowing that I don’t get to do everybody. I don’t get to put my thumbprint on other people’s work. Because not only is that disrespectful, it’s very often unnecessary, because I hire good people. I hire contemporaries and peers. Truly, you’re only as good as your weakest crew member. I surround myself with good people.

So, take Owen Wilson, for example, it would have been wonderful to do Owen’s makeup, but there were times when he was not going to be shooting with Tom and I was going to need to be ready for Tom or available to Tom, so it didn’t make sense. So I never touched Owen, I had Dennis Liddiard design that look and run with it. And then Ned Neidhardt took over that look when Dennis had to depart. That’s just one example of not trying to do everything.

Another one was the Classic Loki. I wanted to do Richard E. Grant’s [makeup] so bad, I can’t even tell you. I’ve been a huge fan since 1987. I wanted so badly to bring that full circle, didn’t make sense. It just didn’t make sense. So again, I never touched him. It wasn’t necessary. Ned was always there. And I think the same thing happened to me on Ragnarok reshoots, which I ran in Atlanta again with Dennis Liddiard. I wanted so badly to do Sir Anthony Hopkins makeup, but it didn’t make sense. So I was happy to hand it off to Bill Myer.

Nerds and Beyond: Oh man, I loved Richard E. Grant in this show so much.

Douglas: He’s amazing.

Nerds and Beyond: He’s so good!

Douglas: He really is. And he’s that good in person. He’s just so fun and interesting and alluring and attractive. He’s such a wonderful, wonderful person and, of course, a phenomenal actor.

Nerds and Beyond: I was watching little videos that he posted and he just seems like the warmest person.

Douglas: You know, just one last tidbit about Richard Grant is he’s got wonderful stories and as he’s telling them he’ll often stop and pause and just laugh. Just laugh, not for the sake of the stories or for anybody that he’s telling the story to, but because recounting the story brings him true joy. So he’ll stop and embrace that joy. Oh, it’s so wonderful.

Nerds and Beyond: That’s so amazing to hear. What is the most memorable job that you’ve done?

Douglas: The most memorable … That’s a tough one because I have so many fond memories of so many projects. The first Avengers film was memorable because there was a buzz, there was a vibration, a frequency, that was in the air when we were shooting that. We kind of knew we were making something big and something special. I don’t think any of us knew how big or how special it would be, but that certainly is one of the most memorable and most special projects.

I’m pretty good about focusing on the positive aspects of all these things, regardless of how difficult the project may be for whatever reason. The pros always, always heavily outweigh the cons, but I have a lot of wonderful, memorable experiences. Another one, it’s the polar opposite only because of the conditions in which we shot, but Birth of the Nation was one of the most memorable and exceptional experiences of my career. I was on the wrong side of 40, had 25 years of experience, and had still never worked so hard in my entire life. We did a 50-day shoot in 27 days. So proud of the work we did.

It was 100 degrees with 99 percent humidity, we shot it in the summer in Georgia, in Savannah, so it was hot, humid, and just getting the makeup necessary to be on individuals to stay put was its own challenge. And then the other challenges only added to that. But Nate Parker, the director, writer, producer, and lead actor, he is a special human being. And he was inspiring from start to finish. Usually, the first people in are the teamsters, transport department, and usually I’m second. He beat me in almost every single day. He’s in three hours before he needs to be. That was a very special experience.

Nerds and Beyond: Finally, are you excited about the news of Loki Season 2?

Douglas: I’m beyond thrilled! I invite being in the dark a little bit, I kind of like surprises and I like not knowing, so I suspected, but hearing the news confirmed, I was thrilled, naturally. What are they going to dream up? This is amazing. How do you top season 1 of Loki? That’s the burning question.

[ragingbookdragon]

The Accidental Wife PT. 1

A Bruce Wayne x Reader AU!

Warnings: Explicit Language Author’s Note: I don’t remember what brought this story into existence, but rereading the parts I’ve written remind me of how enjoyable it was to make it! Enjoy! -Thorne

Her hand pressed the button on her alarm clock, and she sat up in bed; her hand moved to her phone and she picked it up, looking at the time. Eight-thirty…Time to get the boys up. She rose from the bed and stretched, feeling her bones pop, then she folded her sheets up and moved into the hallway. (Y/N) opened the first door and peeked her head in.

           “Jay? Time to get up baby.” She heard a grunt and she smiled, closing the door and moving to the door across from it. She stepped inside and moved beside her son’s bed; (Y/N) placed a hand on his back and rubbed. “Timmy? Time to wake up Hun.” He groaned and she snorted, patting his back. “Don’t make me come in here again Timmy. I’ll bring cold water next time.” He weakly tossed a hand up and she laughed before walking to the hallway; she moved down the steps and into the kitchen, starting breakfast. A few minutes later, her second oldest stepped inside and moved to the table; she smiled at him as she flipped the bacon in the skillet. “Morning baby.”

           “Mornin’ Ma.”

           “Sleep well?” He nodded and set his books on the table; she eyed them. “History and Business Management?” Jason nodded again.

           “Midterm exams are today.” (Y/N) placed a plate in front of him.

           “You ready for it?” He huffed a laugh.

           “They’re my fortes Ma.” (Y/N) ruffled his hair and placed a kiss on his head.

           “I know they are. Your teachers always told me that when we’d go to parent-teacher conferences.” She moved back to the refrigerator and grabbed the orange juice, setting it down on the table. “You’ll do fine.” Jason smiled at her and she tipped her head to the stairs. “Timothy Jackson! Do not make me come up those stairs to wake you up again!” Jason laughed as she set another plate down.

           “Timmy stay up all night again?” (Y/N) shrugged.

           “Probably. Kid’s gonna run himself into the ground if he doesn’t sleep soon.” Jason chuckled, and a few minutes later, a groggy Tim came down the stairs, shuffling into the kitchen to the table. They watched him sit down and stare at his plate. (Y/N) set a hand on his shoulder. “Timmy? You okay?”

           “…ffee…”

           “What?”

           “Coffee.”

           “Magic word?”

           “Please.” (Y/N) smiled and set a cup down in front of him, watching as he picked it up and drank from it.

           “Better?” He nodded.

           “Much.” (Y/N) snorted and went into the kitchen again, putting dishes into the sink, then, the sound of the door opening and closing came into the house.

           “Mom…I’m home!” (Y/N) tipped her head into the hallway and smiled.

           “Dickie! What are you doing here all the way from Blüdhaven?” Dick grinned and put his hands on his hips.

           “Can’t I come home and see my family?” (Y/N) rolled her eyes and opened her arms, laughing as he walked into them. He picked her up and bear-hugged her; then, he put her down and moved into the kitchen. “Jay! Timmy! What’s hanging little brothers?” (Y/N) listened to her sons go back in forth as she stepped to the table and sat down; she stared at them.

           “Mom? Is everything alright?” She looked up at Dick and smiled.

           “Yeah baby…just been awhile since all of us have sat down at the table for breakfast…I missed it.” They gave sad smiles and Dick took her hand.

           “Sorry Mom.” (Y/N) shook her head and squeezed his hand.

           “Don’t be sorry baby.” She paused and looked at her sons. “My babies are grown and living their best lives. What more could I ask for?” Her son’s smiles grew, and she leaned on her other hand. “So, what’s our agendas for today?”

           “I have my midterms today, then I’m going to work.” She nodded at Jason, then looked at Tim.

           “I have classes and my internship at Wayne Enterprises today.”

           “How’s that going?” He nodded.

           “It’s going well. Mr. Wayne is an excellent boss.”

           “Seems like you’re learning a lot from him?” Tim glanced at Dick and opened his mouth to speak, but Jason beat him to it.

           “I’m still surprised you’re actually working with The Bruce Wayne.” Tim shrugged his shoulders.

           “I’m still expecting the dream to wear off.”

           “How did you end up working with him again?” Tim glanced at Dick.

           “I submitted a plan to upgrade technology and save money at the same time, and he called me to his office and asked if I wanted to work with his team.” He paused. “Apparently they liked my plan.” (Y/N) smiled.

           “Of course, they did. No one knows tech like you Timmy.” They watched as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and she turned to Dick. “So why are you here from Bludhaven? I thought you had to work?” Dick picked up a piece of bacon from his plate and popped it in his mouth.

           “Had the day off. Figured I’d come home and see how everyone is doing.” He placed a few envelopes on the table. “Picked up the mail by the way.” (Y/N) took the bills and stood up, flipping through them. “What do we have mom?”

           “A few bills and the survivor’s benefit from the VA.” She passed the bills to Dick. “Take my bank card and go pay those for me, please. I have to work the late shift for Darleen tonight…I won’t be able to get to the bank today.” Dick nodded and took them, then she passed the check to Jason. “Go with your brother to the bank and put this into yours and Tim’s accounts.”

           “What about you Ma?” She waved him off as she put the dishes in the sink.

           “Don’t worry about me Jay. Just put the money into your accounts.” Jason’s eyebrows furrowed.

           “But Ma.” She held up a hand.

           “You boys need to go get ready. You’ll be late for school.” Tim and Jason looked at the clock before rushing from their seats and up the stairs; (Y/N) snorted and began clearing the table, taking the dishes to the sink. She felt Dick stand beside her and she sighed. “Don’t worry Dickie…Everything’s fine.”

           “Is it?” She nodded and he reached out, turning her to him. “Mom.” (Y/N) sighed again.

           “We’re fine Dickie.” She paused and wiped her hands on the towel. “Just a few bumps. But we’ll be okay.” Dick stared at her.

           “What happened?” (Y/N) exhaled and looked up at him.

           “…Alex had to let me go the other night.” His eyes widened.

           “For what?”

           “Some asshole grabbed me, and I broke his arm.” She leaned against the counter. “To keep him from suing Alex and I, I agreed to walk. I’ve been checking the newspapers for job listings, and I’ve been pulling extra shifts at the diner to make sure we have money.”

           “That’s why you’re telling Jay to put the VA check in their accounts?” (Y/N) nodded.

           “If anything happens, and we end up in an unfortunate position, I want you boys to be able to stay afloat as long as you can.” She glanced at him. “I don’t have to worry about you in Bludhaven, because I know you have a successful job. But Tim and Jason are still in college, and I need to keep them going until they graduate and do the same.” Dick stared at his mother before pulling her into a hug.

           “I wish you would’ve called me mom. I could’ve sent some money over.” He felt her shake her head.

           “No. It’s my job as your mother to keep you boys safe and protected. Besides, your money is yours Dick. Keep that for your own.” Dick pulled away.

           “Mom…I make almost eight grand a month. My expenses are three grand a month. I can help out if you need me to.” She shook her head.

           “Like I said Dickie, that’s your-”

           “And if I’m not using that extra money to help take care of my little brothers, and the woman who has always kept food in my stomach, clothes on my back, a roof over my head, and countless other things, then what good of a son am I?” (Y/N) stared at him in shock and he spoke solemnly. “Mom. I can help you.” She held his gaze for as long as she could before sighing and nodding reluctantly.

           “If you could pay the electricity bill, I’d appreciate it Dickie.” He smiled and nodded before placing a kiss to her forehead.

           “I’ll take care of it Mom. Anything else?” (Y/N) handed him a grocery list.

           “Get groceries please. You can use my debit for that.” He waved her off and took the list.

           “I’ll take care of it Mom, don’t worry about it.” She huffed a laugh and moved past him, stopping at the stairs.

           “I always worry. Comes with being a mother.” He snorted and she looked up the stairs. “Boys! Put it in gear!”

           “Ma! Where’s my leather jacket?!”

           “I don’t know Jay! The last time I wore your jacket was…never!”

           “Ha-ha Ma…Very funny!”

           “I try! Tim! Are you done yet?!”

           “I’m about to brush my teeth!” She grunted and moved to the door.

           “I swear…you boys have no concept of time.”

           “Hey! I do to!” She glanced at Jason and held out his backpack.

           “Well take your concept and take it to school, else you’ll be late.” He grinned and kissed her cheek.

           “Love you Ma.” She smiled as he headed out the door.

           “Love you baby.” Tim came rushing down the stairs, adjusting his tie.

           “Mom, do I look alright?”

           “You look sleep-deprived.” Tim snorted and kissed her cheek before taking off after Jason.

           “Love you Mom!” She was about to respond when he stopped and turned around. “What are you doing Friday night?” (Y/N) raised an eyebrow.

           “Why?”

           “Mr. Wayne invited me to dinner and asked me if I would extend the invitation to you and the others.”

           “Really?” He nodded.

           “Yes ma’am.” (Y/N) went silent for a moment, then nodded.

           “Darleen owes me for her shift tonight, so I’ll ask her to take mine Friday. Tell him we’ll be there.” Tim grinned and waved before running after Jason. “Love you!” His hand went in the air and she closed the door; Dick stood beside her and she looked at him. “Mind helping me around the house?” He smiled and nodded.

           “Sure.”

           She stared at the mirror then turned around and tugged at the dress.

           “Should I go with the red one instead?” Her sons stared at her from their spots on the bed.

           “I think the black one looks good on you Ma. Makes you look slim.” (Y/N) raised an eyebrow.

           “Trying to tell me something Jay?”

           “What! No! I just meant that black makes you look slim. And most women want their figure to be flattered. Black does that.” She paused and turned around again.

           “You may be right.”

           “Why are you so concerned about this Mom? It’s just dinner.” She looked at Tim through the mirror.

           “Yes…Dinner…with your boss. Who happens to be one of the richest men in the world? I can’t look like a mess in front of him. It would be an embarrassment for you.” Tim snorted.

           “Mr. Wayne won’t be bothered by that mom.” She grunted and adjusted the dress.

           “You say that, but when he looks me up and down, the moment his eyes reach mine, they’re either going to indicate that he’s impressed by me, or not.” She met his eyes. “I’d rather it be the first one than the second.” Dick rose from the bed and moved beside her.

           “You look great mom.” She sighed and nodded.

           “Thank you, baby.” (Y/N) turned and looked at them. “Are you boys ready?” They nodded and she tipped her head. “Then let’s head out.” They followed her to the door and to the car.

           When they arrived at the restaurant, (Y/N) stared at it in shock.

           “Mom? You good?” She nodded.

           “I’ve never seen such a fancy restaurant…except in the movies.” Tim grinned and motioned them to follow; they stepped in and a waiter greeted them.

           “Mr. Drake?” Tim nodded and he motioned them. “Please follow me. Mr. Wayne is waiting for you.” (Y/N) began taking deep breaths as they walked through the restaurant.

           “Ma? Are you hypervenilating?” She looked at Jason and glared.

           “I’m fine…just a little nervous.” Tim snorted and glanced over his shoulder.

           “Mom. Mr. Wayne isn’t going to do anything.” She rolled her eyes but kept silent.

           Eventually, they moved into a secluded room, and her eyes fell on a man sitting at the table; he looked up at them and smiled, rising to greet them. He held out a hand and shook it with Tim.

           “Tim. Glad to see you could make it.” Tim shook his hand and grinned.

           “Thank you for inviting us.” He paused and turned to (Y/N), gesturing her forward; she stepped next to him and smiled. “Mr. Wayne, I’d like to introduce my mother, (Y/N) (L/N).” She held out her hand.

           “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Wayne. Timm-” She caught herself. “Tim has spoken about you many times.” He took her hand and placed a kiss to the back of it.

           “Pleasure is all mine Ms. (L/N). And please, call me Bruce.” (Y/N) felt her cheeks warm and she let out a nervous laugh.

           “Can…do.” She heard a cough and her two oldest stood beside her; they held out their hands.

           “Dick Grayson.”

           “Jason Todd.” He shook their hands and turned back to (Y/N).

           “Wonderful family you have Ms. (L/N).” She smiled and looked at her sons.

           “They certainly keep me on my toes.” He smiled and motioned to the table.

           “Please, sit.” They took their seats and he looked at her. “Do you drink Ms. (L/N)?”

           “You can call me (Y/N), Bruce. Ms. (L/N) makes me feel old.” Bruce chuckled and he nodded.

           “Totally understand (Y/N).” He glanced at her. “You look like a white wine type of woman.” She grinned.

           “I’m more of red actually.” Bruce nodded and motioned to the waiter.

           “Montoya Cabernet, two glasses.” He paused and motioned to Dick and Jason. “Unless you two would like some also?” Jason shook his head.

           “I prefer beer.” (Y/N) elbowed Jason in the side and he grunted. “I mean, no thank you, but I appreciate you asking.” Dick snorted and nodded his head.

           “I’d like to try some.” Bruce smiled and turned to the waiter.

           “Three glasses then.” The waiter nodded and took off; Bruce leaned forward. “So (Y/N), Tim tells me you’re a waitress?” (Y/N) eyes darted to Tim who wore a nervous smile; she huffed a laugh and nodded.

           “Yes. I work at Tammy’s Diner on fifth and parks. Worked there for most of my life actually.”

           “Were you born in Gotham?

           “No, Blüdhaven originally, but my parents moved to Gotham when I was younger.” Bruce nodded and she turned to Tim. “So how is my son doing? No problems, I assume?” Bruce chuckled and nodded.

           “Your son is a genius (Y/N). I’m lucky to have someone so smart on my team.” She smiled as Tim rubbed his neck, and Bruce turned to the others. “From what Tim’s told me, you two are also making strides in your work. Dick, you’re a police officer in Blüdhaven, correct?” Dick nodded.

           “Yes sir. I joined a few months ago.”

           “Are you enjoying it?” Dick laughed.

           “I love my job…paperwork is a pain though.” They shared a laugh.

           “I know what you mean.” His gaze turned to Jason. “And you Jason, you’re majoring in history, aiming to teach?” Jason nodded.

           “I plan to teach at Gotham High…if I can get a teaching degree.” Bruce nodded.

           “You could teach at Gotham Academy if you wanted.”

           “I could…but I’d prefer to help the kids of Gotham who were like me growing up.” He paused. “Ma taught us to give back to those who need it. I plan on giving back to the kids of Gotham.” (Y/N) felt her heart warm at his words, and a smile crossed her face; Bruce caught this and smiled.

           “You seem proud of your sons (Y/N).” She nodded.

           “I couldn’t be prouder of my sons.” She glanced at them. “They’re my world.” The boys flushed at her words, and Bruce smiled.

           “They seem like good young men.” (Y/N) met his eyes.

           “They are.”

           After dinner, they sat around the table, listening to Dick tell a story about work.

           “And I looked at the guy and I said, ‘Man…What’s a drug dealer doing selling shoes? You’re tripping man.’” They burst into laughter, and he continued. “I mean, I still had to book the guy for possession, but the mood was certainly lighter.” (Y/N) laid a hand on his arm, the other wiping under her eyes.

           “Oh Dickie, you crack me up.” He smiled.

           “I try to mom.” Bruce watched them for a moment.

           “(Y/N)?”

           “Yes?”

           “If you don’t mind me asking, how did they come into your care?” The room went silent as the boys stared at their mother, and Bruce raised a hand. “I apologize, that was wrong to ask.” (Y/N) shook her head.

           “No, it’s fine.” She paused and looked at the boys. “Do you mind?” They shook their heads and she started with Dick. “Dick’s parents were…” She paused and Dick laid a hand over hers.

           “Mom…it’s alright.” She smiled sadly and nodded.

           “Dick’s parents were murdered when he was eight. GCPD placed him in the orphanage a few days after it happened. Eventually, he fled and somehow ended up at the diner I worked at. I’ve grown up around the Narrows, so I know homeless kids when I see them, and I knew he was one. So, I sat with him and talked with him. He said he didn’t have anywhere to go, so on a whim, I let him stay at my home.” She paused and looked at Dick. “And here I was, in college, with an eight-year-old kid to look after…But it worked out in the end.”

           “How so?” She glanced at Bruce.

           “CPS showed up, asking that I hand Dick over…that he was supposed to be at the orphanage. I asked Dick if he wanted to stay with me. He said yes…the rest is history.”

           “And Tim and Jason?” (Y/N) laughed.

           “Jason and I actually had a rather humorous meeting.”

           “Oh?” (Y/N) nodded.

           “I caught him taking my tires.” Bruce’s eyes widened and she continued. “Dick put him in a headlock while I put the tires back on my car, then we invited him inside for dinner. He left that night and showed up the next. Eventually, it became a regular thing, and he became part of the family too.” She paused and looked at Tim. “Now Tim on the other hand was actually a surprise.”

           “Really?”

           “Mhm. I was friends with Tim’s mother, Janet. When his father passed away, he showed up on my doorstep with a letter from his mother saying that if anything happened to her and Jack, she wanted Tim to stay with me. Dick and Jason immediately took him in under their wings, and that’s how the family is.” (Y/N) paused and looked at them. “I don’t know if I’ve been the best mother I could’ve been, but I made sure to raise them like gentlemen, with respect for people, and kindness to others. I don’t know who I’d be without them…They make me proud every day.” The smiles they gave her almost made her cry and she turned to Bruce. “Sorry…I’ve rattled on.” He shook his head.

           “It’s a parent’s job to praise and dote on their children.”

           “Do you have children of your own Bruce?”

           “A son, Damian.”

           “That��s a fine name.”

           “Thank you…his mother picked it.” (Y/N) raised an eyebrow.

           “I wasn’t aware you had married?” Bruce snorted.

           “Oh, she and I aren’t married.” (Y/N) nodded.

           “I see. Apologies.” He smiled at her, and the waiter brought the bill; she watched as Bruce put a credit card on it and hand it back. After a few minutes, they stood outside the restaurant, watching as Bruce spoke to Tim; then, they walked over, and Bruce smiled.

           “(Y/N)? May I speak with you for a second?” She nodded and handed the boys her keys.

           “You boys go ahead and get into the car. I’ll be there in a sec.” The boys said their goodbyes and she and Bruce were left standing alone; she looked at him. “Thank you for inviting us out for dinner Bruce. I think I speak for us all when I say we enjoyed it.” He smiled and nodded.

           “I’m glad I did. I usually invite my team’s families for dinner, just to meet them, and Tim was no different.”

           “How is Tim doing?” Bruce’s tone took on one of pride.

           “Your son is without a doubt, one of the best employees who’s ever worked at WE. He is so smart and so very capable of everything he’s given.” (Y/N) beamed with pride.

           “That’s my boy.” The two of them shared a laugh and Bruce looked down at her.

           “But the reason I wanted to speak with you, is because I was wondering if I could ask you to dinner again. Maybe the two of us?” (Y/N) eyes went wide and she gestured to herself.

           “Like a…date?” He nodded. “With…me?” He huffed a laugh and nodded again.

           “I enjoyed speaking with you (Y/N). I’d like to do it again.” She felt her cheeks warm.

           “…Oh…”

           “Unless you don’t want to. I’d never ask someone to do something they didn’t want to do.” She shook her head.

           “No! I’d…love to.” Bruce smiled and took her hand, pressing a kiss to it again.

           “Then I’ll speak with you later (Y/N).” She smiled bashfully at him as he walked off, then she called out after him.

           “But you don’t have my number!” He turned as he was climbing into his car.

           “I have my ways!” (Y/N) snorted as she walked to the car, climbing into the driver’s seat; her sons were on her in a second.

           “What did he say Ma?”

           “What did Mr. Wayne want?”

           “You alright Mom?” (Y/N) raised a hand.

           “Everything’s fine…relax.” They eyed her suspiciously.

           “You’re grinning Ma.”

           “Jay’s right mom. What’d he say?” She sighed and pulled onto the street.

           “He just…asked me to dinner.” Shouts of shock went around the car and (Y/N) thought Tim’s eyes were going to bulge from his head.

           “MR. WAYNE ASKED YOU OUT?! WHAT?!” She raised an eyebrow.

           “Am I not capable of being asked out?”

           “What?! No! I just meant…wow. I was not expecting him to do that.” (Y/N) shrugged.

           “He asked…I accepted.”

           “You sure that’s a good idea mom? He is Timmy’s boss.” She nodded.

           “Even if it doesn’t go well, he doesn’t seem like the type of man to give up a good team member to get back at someone.” Tim nodded.

           “She’s got a point.” (Y/N) raised a hand again.

           “It’s just dinner.” The boys seemed to accept that answer until,

           “I don’t like him Ma.”

[blizzardfluffykpop]

First Christmas

Summary: Jaebeom can’t have you not celebrate Christmas. He decides to go above and beyond to ensure you have the best Christmas.

Oneshot

Word Count: 1,076

Jaebeom X Reader [Featuring: OT7]

Requested: Okaaaay third one! 6. “I know you’ve never gotten a real Christmas, so this my present to you” + Jaebeom! This one.....you can make it smutty or fluff. I am good with anything!

Prompt: 6. “I know you’ve never gotten a real Christmas, so this is my present to you.” 

We're driving around in Jaebeom’s car in comfortable silence. When I ask, “Tell me something about you no one else knows.” He thinks, “I think I lay it all out on the line though.” I shake my head, “There has to be something?” He shrugs, “My parents had a glass flower that sat on the mantle. I was running around playing and ran right into the cabinet and it fell and shattered behind the cabinet. I supposedly didn’t know what happened, and my parents blame the dog.” I shake my head laughing at his story. “Do they still not know?” He shakes his head, ‘no’, “Are you ever gonna tell them?” He shakes his head more fervently, ‘no’. I laugh even harder and he chuckles, “What about you?” It’s my turn to shrug as we hit a red light, “I guess I’ve never celebrated Christmas.”  He looks over at me in disbelief, “What do you mean you’ve never celebrated Christmas?” 

I shrug and say, “Just that, I’ve never celebrated Christmas.” He lets out a sigh, “That sucks.” “I guess,... when you’ve never had the experience you never miss out on it.” He shakes his head, “I’m not sure if that’s how that works.” I nod, “I guess,... But for me, it just comes and goes. Although it does suck seeing commercials of people gathered together..” He nods, “Yeah, that’s understandable.” 

It was pretty quiet after that, keeping our thoughts to ourselves. Up until we see a massive display of Christmas lights. He pulls over, “You wanna go check it out?” I nod excitedly as we get out and he finds my hand. We walk through it, “Wow, this is breathtaking, Jaebeom. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” He smirks, “Maybe, once or twice,” I shake my head and shove him lightly. It ends in front of a big statue of Santa Claus. “You wanna sit in front of it and I’ll take your picture with Santa?” I nod my head and sit on the bench. I look up at the icicle lights, taking it all in. It’s my first time in a Christmas light display. He walks over to me, after taking a picture, “You look beautiful.” I blush and push my head into his chest as we walk in the park. “I’m glad I got to see this with you.” He kisses the top of my head, “Me too.”

--

Jaebeom calls up the six boys that night telling them he needs them over tomorrow. Having them promise to be over bright and early to decorate his apartment for Christmas. “Why do you want to decorate for Christmas so bad?” Bambam asks that morning after everyone has arrived. Jaebeom gives them a small smile, “You know, (Y/n)? Who I started dating a few months ago?” They nod, “They’ve never celebrated Christmas.” Yugyeom gasps, “So I wanted to make their first time special.” 

--

They get to work on it, covering the whole apartment in colorful string lights. A tree in the corner, one in his bedroom, and a miniature one in the kitchen. A novelty toy train runs around the tree in the corner. Mark sets the final touches of two nutcrackers on either end of the mantle. He treats the six boys to lunch for their hard work. Jackson says it was nothing when he brought up the trees from Jaebeom’s car to the ninth floor by himself. 

“So do you have a plan for how you’re going to make their Christmas spectacular or?” Jaebeom gulps when Jinyoung asks him that. Jinyoung sighs and rolls his eyes and looks over at Youngjae, ‘can you believe this guy’. “Well, I know we’re going to watch Christmas movies.” They all shake their heads at him. Jackson says, “We figured that. Nothing else?!” Jaebeom shakes his head, “No,...” Yugyeom sighs for the whole group and Jinyoung says, “Fine, then we need to come up with a plan to make this memorable.” 

--

Jaebeom knocks on my apartment door, all six guys behind him dressed as carolers. Before I can get a word out, I’m being serenaded by Got7, “We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you,...” figuring this is a once in a lifetime opportunity I allow them to continue. Not sure, what’s going on or for what reason. “So bring us some figgy pudding, bring us some figgy pudding. We won’t go until we get some,...” I mutter, “I have chocolate pudding in the fridge.” 

Five minutes later, they all smile and leave Jaebeom wishing us a Merry Christmas. “How was seeing your first Christmas Carolers?” I laugh, “Few people get to say Got7 serenade them with Christmas songs no less.” He grins, “I take it that you enjoyed that?” I nod, “And that you also have chocolate pudding?” I nod having him follow me into my apartment for some chocolate pudding. 

--

From there, it only ramps up, you two go to the mall and pick out a present for each other. Then get your pictures taken with Santa Claus. Ice skating? Yes, did you guys fall more times than you stood on the ice? Yes. Was it fun? Yes. Join in on a big snowball fight and build a snow fort to protect yourselves. Anything and everything Christmas, Jaebeom went above and beyond. Making sure you got to experience it for the first time. With some help from the boys, of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without them.

--

On Christmas Eve, Jaebeom and I walk up to his apartment. “I wanted you and to spend Christmas Eve alone together.” I nod, “Okay, that’s fine.” He smiles, and unlocks his door, and tells me to cover my eyes. I do and between my fingers, I can capture colorful lights. “I know you’ve never gotten a real Christmas, so this is my present to you.” I gasp as I put my hands down, “It’s beautiful Jaebeom,...” I spin around and he chuckles as I pull him into a big hug, “How can I ever--.” “I wanted to do this for you, don’t worry your pretty little head.” I smile into his chest, “Thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyou, thank you, Jaebeom.” He runs his hands through my hair, and pulls me back, and points up at the mistletoe. I nod and share my first kiss under the mistletoe with Jaebeom. 

--

Yes, the boys do come over the next day and celebrate Christmas with you two. 

[dalamjisung]

addicted ❁ choi youngjae

word count: 3676

genre: fluff

pairing: reader x choi youngjae

description: you might be three years late, but good things come for those who wait.

You meet through Tinder because that’s how everyone meets nowadays. Or maybe you meet before that; get introduced before, talk before— at the coffee shop he works,— but officially meet through Tinder. Yeah, that’s how you know his name, anyways. Youngjae. At the coffee shop you don’t really talk, but you text and that’s even worse than Tinder; you want to hear his voice. He has a nice voice and it calms you down when he says that everything will be alright, his overwhelmingly fake confidence taking over your overwhelmingly misplaced anxiety. A match made in heaven, really. 

Too bad it took you almost three years to notice. But you know now; oh, boy, how you know. You know from the moment you wake up, when you get dressed and your hand linger on your AC/DC t-shirt, thinking about how he likes the band and how you only know that because you know he’s in charge of the playlist in the coffee shop. You think of him in the afternoon, walking down the hill to the small town, when’re you know that, crossing under the bridge, on the other side of the tracks, he will be, inside the coffee shop, cleaning the table next to the counter, because he always seems to be cleaning that table when you get to the shop– he will smile, make a joke or two, and pull out the chair for your heavy book bag. More than ever, though, you think of him at night, when you are about to leave the shop after a long day of homework and essays, and when he’s not even on shift, but rather just hanging out there, since all his friends work there intermittently, and before you go he hands you a cup– tea, hot chocolate, coffee… whatever he feels you might need for the walk home. You always try to pay, and he always laughs it off, which consequently makes you two start to bicker, annoying and amusing everyone around you at the same time. You haven’t payed for coffee in five months.

For months that’s how it is; the both of you talk, ignoring the whole Tinder thing. Until it happens again. It’s about four or five months later when your roommate, Mina, having one of her usual breakdowns, convince you to download Tinder with her. It happens from time to time– she realizes she feels alone, downloads a dating app, goes out with a guy, and, once it inherently goes bad, vows to never do it again. You on the other hand, never reaches the ‘going out’ stage. You chat with people and it’s all fun and games until they ask you out and you get fed up with this whole thing. It’s just what happens– until Youngjae. You notice his smile before anything else– it’s a picture of him in front of the Koffee Haus, mid-laugh in the sun. Only after you feel a familiar warmth spreading, you realize it’s him. Youngjae. Choi Youngjae. Barista Youngjae. Your Youngjae. 

Three days pass and you refuse to swipe. Not left, nor right; you stay put, in hopes that the app crashes or malfunctions and reloads automatically. As if you were that lucky. His face is the first thing you see when you open the app, time and time again, and you know you have to make a decision and stick by it. You know that if you swipe right, you can’t bail– you’ll have to follow through, for everyone’s sake, your’s included. It takes a two-hour conversation with your roommate and a full afternoon with him to settle it; you’ll swipe right as soon as you get home. 

Saying you ran all the way back to your dorm is downplaying it, but as soon as you get there, finding Mina in the kitchen, you swipe right. The relief is as instant as the ‘It’s a match!’ screen, and the fear comes as quick as Mina’s bodyslam. She is shouting out of excitement after knocking your air out of your lungs and leaving you in the ground as she runs around the small apartment, screaming incoherent things about love and unicorns. 

“You have to text him!” 

You don’t, you want to scream back out of pure stubbornness, but you know she is right. You have to commit to it, that’s the only way you’ll ever be able to do this. Dating has been an issue for you ever since you can remember. The whole things about intimacy and vulnerability just wasn’t your forte… 

“Okay,” You take a deep breath, hand grabbing your phone firmly. “You’re right, I have to text him– I mean, I swiped right! It would only make sense!”

“Exactly,” Mina agrees, breathing harsh like yours. She is nervous for you and that is one of the reasons why you’ve been roommates for almost four years. Your friendship being much more than a simple word and title; she’s been family ever since you’ve known her. “And it’s not weird! You don’t have to worry about that– cause I know you are– because he also swiped on you! It’s like a mutual confession of attraction or something.”

“You’re right,” You repeat. “There is nothing to be embarrassed. And who says the woman can’t make the first move? We’re on the goddamn 21st century, you know? If he wants to make it weird because I texted first–“

“Just do it!”

You scream as you do it– putting your password, looking for the app, and finally opening the chat. 

Hello again. 

Well, you were not expecting that. 

“He texted you,” Mina shouts in your ear. “Oh my god, Y/N, he texted you!”

The night goes like that, filled with screams and giggles and excitement, and you only wished it would last forever. When you see him at the coffee shop the next day, you wave, blushing when he winks back. He is not on shift, and you know. He excitedly chats with his friends about life and you know he’s looking at you– you can feel his gaze heavy on the top of your head. He circles around you like a shy kid, sitting on three different places in thirty minutes. First the stools in front of you, then the ones behind you, and finally the table across the small room from yours. You end up ditching homework and talking to him for hours, once you gather enough courage to invite him to sit with you. 

A joke here, a joke there, and Youngjae is suddenly more and more present in your daily life; talking to you almost everyday for a week. At the coffee shop, in person, and then back at your dorm, through Tinder. It got constant enough that people started to notice– the other baristas, his friends, your friends. Everyone watching, keeping tabs, asking. It got to the point that it freaked you out enough to ask for his phone number, so that everyone wouldn’t always be staring at your phone, waiting for his name to pop up on an app notification. You think you’ve got it all down once he gives it to you, but the despair comes back when his first text comes through. 

Okay, so what are your expectations out of this?

The conversation ends with you crying on your carpet at 1AM, anxiously waiting for a text back. A confirmation, a rejection, anything but silence. 

I like you too. 

“Y/N,” Mina gasps, reading the message out loud, enough to be heard over your crying. “I am so happy for you, babes.”

She joins you on the floor, hugging you as you cry even more, relieved that you haven’t ruined everything.

“What was there to ruin, love?” She asks, holding your hand. 

“I live at the Koffee Haus, Mina,” You sigh, sniffling every now and then. “The people in there are like family to me. Jackson, Bambam, Yugyeom, Jaebeom, Jinyoung, Mark. If I had ruined all of this just because of a boy I don’t think I’d ever forgive myself…” “But he’s not just a boy,” She points out.

“How do you know?” You ask, eyes closing. “I’m the one that likes him, and even I’m not sure.”

“Because I know you,” She shrugs. “Years of living together will do that to you, babes. You are the most calculating person I know– always careful to not hurt or bother anyone, measuring your words to not offend anyone, doing your best to pass unnoticed and not interrupt anyone. You decided to do this, Y/N– you consciously decided to do this. He is not just a boy. He can’t be.”

“I’m scared,” You whisper, squeezing her hand. 

“Of what?”

“Of messing up.”

You wake up on the carpet and late for your morning class. Deciding to skip (for once in your life,) you take a shower and calmly go back to your bed, where your back cracks and relaxes as you fall asleep again. Mina is the one to wake you up once she’s back.

“Y/N,” She giggles. “Babes, it’s already three in the afternoon. Wake up.”

You mumble something and tiredly open your eyes, smiling lightly. 

“I needed this sleep,” You yawn, sitting up.

“I know,” Mina drops her bag in the ground and climbs on your bed with you, sitting with her back against the wall, and you do the same, your shoulders touching. “You are probably tired from studying at the Koffee Haus for hours– sometimes you just need a break.”

“What are you talking about?” You laugh. “I haven’t been at the coffee shop since yesterday. I slept the whole day… Should I email my professor?”

“Does that mean you have been ignoring Youngjae since yesterday?!” Mina shrieks, making your eyes go wide as both of you lunge towards your cellphone. 

“Oh my god, no,” You groan, rapidly clicking on your phone so that the screen lights up. “I put it on silent.”

“Goddamn it,” Mina scrolls through the various notifications. “You and this phone… I think it’s been on silent since day one.”

“There!” You shout, and unlock the screen.

We missed you today… everything okay?

“Okay, it’s not that bad,” You shrug, typing out a response. “How does ‘lol just took a very needed nap’ sounds?”

“Sounds good,” Mina approves and the two of you giggle. “This feels like we are back to being fourteen.”

“I know, right?” You smile. “Feels good…”

“Well, get ready, girl,” Mina winks. “It’s about to get much better.”

Everything that comes next goes by in what feels like a second; you keep going to the Koffee Haus, of course, and Youngjae keeps giving you free coffee, although you insist to pay every time. Homework gets done– even though it takes longer with your distracted stares and his not-so-subtle winks– and drinks are made, and within a week, you have a date, a time, and a place. Friday night, 9PM, at the Tavern. Things are going fast– too fast,– but you like it, because then it doesn’t give you enough time to back down. It is just the pace for you. 

Friday comes in a blink and you are nervous, pacing the room in your underwear as Mina pulls black jeans after black jeans in an effort to put something together. 

“If you want to put some makeup,” She says moving on to your tops drawer. “The time is now; you’re already late.”

“I’m nervous,” You say as you covered some pimples with concealer. “Like, really nervous.”

“It shows,” Mina laughs and her head pops behind you in the mirror. “It’s cute.”

Things are simple, from the way you are dressed to the place Youngjae chose, and you hope things stay like that as you walk down the hill to meet him. You see him through the window a little before he sees you, too distracted chatting with Jackson and Jinyoung and you can’t help but feel more and more nervous. What are they doing there? Are they there do observe the shit show this will eventually be once you mess up? Oh God, what if–

“Hey! Come in,” Youngjae chuckles from the door. “We have a date, remember?”

“How could I forget?” You joke and your voice cracks a little, suddenly feeling light headed and out of air. His smile doesn’t falter, but you see it in his eyes– he noticed. 

Guiding you to a table a little away from the other, you sit down before ordering a drink. Youngjae chuckles and small talk starts– how-are-you-where-are-you-from kind of small talk and you hate it. You absolutely hate it because you knew it all; you knew his hometown, his age, his birthdate. You’ve been through this already when you first met, three years ago. You think he notices, squinting his eyes at you as you finish your drink in three gulps and muttering something. 

“What?” You ask, allowing your uncomfortableness to come out as a low chuckle. 

“Nothing,” He shakes his head.

“No, come on,” You whine. “What were you laughing about?”

“Honestly?” He asks, leaning forward. You nod. “You just look really beautiful and I got distracted.”

What follows is probably something you will never forget, because that is the moment you felt so embarrassed that you allow your head to bang the table. Getting up, you see him laughing and you smile, finally seeing in person that photo of him in the sun. He looks ethereal, even under the purple lights of the dimly lit bar. After that, however, conversation is fluid; it is almost as if by head butting the table, you embarrassed yourself enough to not feel embarrassed by anything else. Anxiety came and went, still, but Youngjae allowed no space for it, simply grabbing your hands and gesturing in between you and him.

“It’s just us,” He’d whisper, getting closer and closer to you. “Don’t worry, everything is alright, yeah? Just you and me, Y/N.”

“Okay,” You’d smile nervously. “Just you and I.”

Turned out it wasn’t just you and him, and that Chaemin, an ex-something of yours– ex-fling, ex-friend, ex-everything,– seemed to quite enjoy going to the Tavern too, arriving in the most loud and obnoxious way possible. He walks in as if he owns the place, and you feel nausea taking over. 

“Oh shit,” Youngjae says when he spots Chaemin. Sighing, he offer a polite smile to the boy that kept staring at you two. “Fucking douchebag. He comes to the Koffee Haus almost everyday…”

“I know,” You gulp. “I see him, too.”

“Hey, your hands are cold as shit,” He frowns. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah!” You exclaim, maybe a little too loud for him to believe you. “It’s just; just– that’s–“

“Hey, what did I say before?” Now his hands is fully on yours, fingers laces, palms together. “You and me, Y/N. I’m having a great time and I won’t let fucking Vanilla Latte there ruin it.”

You smile, chuckling a little.

“Vanilla latte?” You ask, leaning forward enough to meet me him halfway over the table. The tension is so palpable anyone can feel it, and you think you might just kiss, with everyone looking and you don’t even care. But he backs away. You see something flashing in his eyes, but it’s gone in a second and the conversation goes back to its natural flow. His hands never leave yours, though, and you especially loved when he’d squeeze them together, assuring you once again. 

Four hours pass as if they were a few minutes and soon enough you are getting calls and texts about your whereabouts. 

“Sorry,” You smile. “Just have to assure my roommate I’m alive.”

“Nah, it’s alright,” He winks and gets up. “Tell her I only kill after the third date.”

Youngjae goes to bathroom and you take your time in your phone, promising every single friend that texted that you are alive and well. One of the baristas brings another drink and you look at her surprised.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I–“

“It’s on the house, love,” She says and offers you a smile. “I’m Vanessa.”

“Oh, thank you then!” You exclaim happily. “I’m Y/N, nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure’s mine,” Vanessa says. “It’s nice to see Youngjae laughing.”

Before you can say anything, you feel a hand on your lower back. 

“Gossiping about me, girls?” Youngjae laughs.

“Of course,” Vanessa winks at you. “I had to meet the girl that made it here.”

“Alright, alright,” He whines and jokingly pushes her away. “You can have a date with her another day.”

You laugh and you finally realize how relaxed you have been for the past hour or so. Youngjae had that effect on you– he made you feel like being yourself was the only and best option. And that’s when you realize you actually like him– enough to want to ask him out, enough to want to kiss him, enough to want to have him, and give yourself in return. 

“It’s already one in the morning,” You laugh checking your phone. “Guess we’ve been here for a while…”

“Do you have anything important tomorrow?” Youngjae asks, squeezing your hand and caressing it with his thumb. “I can walk you home now, if you want…”

“I guess,” You mumble, suddenly remembering everything you had to do the next day. “But you don’t have to walk me home if that’s not the way you’re going anyways.”

“I’m coming back here after I drop you off,” He shrugs. “I just don’t like the idea of you walking alone at night.”

“You’re coming back?” You say, getting up and gathering your things. “Then you definitely don’t need to walk me all the way back– I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Nope,” Youngjae smiles. “Let me just pay the bill and we’ll go.”

He’s gone in a second, and you take the chance to slip a ten dollar bill in his discarded jacket’s pocket. Once he’s back, he puts the jacket on and you smile, following him outside. He extends his hand to you and you grab it excitingly, only then realizing you feel for a trap– you pull away laughing, with your ten dollar bill in hand. The walk is filled with whispers and laughter and the back and forth of the ten dollar bill– it’s only when Youngjae manages to put it on your jacket’s pocket that he pulls you close by the waist, nose touching each other, and asks.

“Can I kiss you?”

You can help but giggle as you nod, and he is quick to claim your lips, claiming the rest of you in consequence. He is surprisingly firm for someone that is so gentle otherwise; lips more giving than demanding, and hands possessive and careful. You almost forget that you are in the middle of a sidewalk, if it wasn’t for Chaemin’s laughter coming from a distance. 

“Youngjae,” You mutter, slowing down the kiss. “Let’s go, there are people coming.”

“No,” He groans, hiding his face in your neck. “Fuck them. I want more kisses.”

“Let’s go, you child,” You laugh, and pull him by the hand in a hurry, but it’s too late. Chaemin and his friends see you, and from his face, you know he won’t leave it alone.

“Well, hello there,” Chaemin shouts. “You two look quite… friendly.”

Youngjae looks at you, confused as you take a step back, partially hiding behind him. 

“You were never that friendly with me, Y/N,” He says. “Good to see you’re changing for the better…”

“Is she, though?” One of his friends ask, and you recognize her from the Theater department. “Or is it the free coffee? She is there everyday, after all.”

“Oh, maybe you’re right,” Chaemin teases. “She is addicted, isn’t she?”

“No–“ You try to protest but Youngjae moves and you can’t see anything but the back of his hoodie.

“I don’t think she’s changed,” He says with a smile, very Youngjae like, never showing his irritation. “I just think the company got better. And sure, she is addicted to coffee, unhealthily so, what’s wrong with that?” “Easy now, coffee boy,” Chaemin takes a step forward and you freeze, knowing that either you step in, or things could easily go south. “We’re just making small talk.”

“I’m not your friend, so there’s no need for that, buddy,” Youngjae says and takes your hand, pulling you to his side. “We’ll get going now.”

“Have fun,” Chaemin calls from behind you. “If she lets you.”

“Oh, we will,” Youngjae waves and continues to guide you to your dorm.

The walk is now quiet, and you can feel Youngjae’s irritation, but you also know there’s nothing you can do about it. You are almost at the door when he stops you, pulling you back by the hand and kissing you again– fast, harsh, raw. You break apart panting, eyes searching for his, and you know; you know why he gave you free coffee, why he took you out, why helped you out. He likes you as much as you like him and although he doesn’t say anything in that moment, you feel it. I hope I’m not wrong, you think before kissing him again. You knew he liked you because he said it, but there’s a difference in between saying it, and showing it. He’s finally shown it. 

“Are you going back?” You ask, pecking his lips. 

“Yeah,” He smiles. “I always end up helping Vanessa on her closing shifts.”

You nod. “Can you text me once you’re back?”

“Sure thing,” He kisses you. “Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Goodnight, Youngjae.”

He texts you once you are already tucked in your bed, Mina laying next to you as you tell her all the details.

This was fun! We should do this again!

“God, I hope I’m not wrong,” You mutter, hiding your face in your pillow.

“Nah,” Mina says chuckling. “You’re addicted.”

“What about him?”

“Him too,” She laughs. “Him too, babes.”

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

hello again!!!! it’s been so long and I apologize for that :( online classes are a mess, as I’m sure many of you know. So this is a story I’ve been trying to write for days and although I’ll admit it’s not my best work, it is very dear to me. I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know what you think on the comments, it means a lot when I get your feedback... also, this might have a second part, so it’d be good to know how to make it better ❤️ thank you, love you! stay safe babes!

[howcanisey]

stray kids :: to all the boys i've loved before

so this is the short drabble i did for this gif edit 👉👈 so i hope you like it ✨🗿

Bang Chan

This stupid little crush I have for Chan started because of the smallest things he notices when we're spending our time together but it only grew when he said out of nowhere "I love your laugh, you know?".

We were running late for school cause he had overslept but he keeps telling jokes on our way. "Now's not a good time for jokes, Chan," I tried to glare at him but his stupid cheesy joke kept replaying in my mind.

"What? It's cute," he smiled softly at me as if he just won an argument.

"I love your laugh" the words started spinning in my head that night and I knew that this is wrong. What I was feeling was wrong. And now every time I laugh I can hear Chan's sweet voice inside my head.

A silent knock on my door pulled me back to reality, trying to put everything on my box of letters, a familiar face popped in, "Your door's open. I've been knocking for like five minutes. What are you doing?" Chan asked trying to take a peep on my study table. I panicked.

Looking at the papers and envelopes on my table Chan quickly grabbed one. He raised it up far from my reach when he started reading the paper he took,

"Dear -" he started. "BANG CHAN!! If you don't stop it and give that to me this second I'm gonna-" I was so lost for words when he laughed.

"I was just kidding. Even if it's a love letter, I wouldn't read it unless it was written for me," Chan gave me the blank paper and sat on my bed, still laughing at my face.

I'm so dead.

Kim Woojin

Building a pillow fort and acting out as a panicked and outraged chickens was not exactly what I had in mind during Drama Class. We had to pair up and I got to be partners with Woojin. The Kim Woojin who juniors try to avoid because he seems to be the kid your parents warned you about.

Maybe he doesn't remember me but we met already during Middle School, he was just really nice and cool. Approachable as well. He even helped me out while carrying my classmates notebook in the teachers lounge. So I don't get why he suddenly look so dark and cold now that we're in high school. I guess people change so fast.

“Look, I know we don’t have to be friends, or anything. I was just... I need to pass this class, okay?” I whispered to him, he slowly nodded seeing the discomfort in my eyes when I avoided his gaze. Students throwing some sympathetic looks towards my direction.

 “Are you afraid of me?” he asked as he shuffled beside me.

"N-no. I mean why would I?" I stuttered in disbelief, as his face lit up into a small comforting warm smile. "Then why are you blushing?"

"I am not!" (cause you're so cool and scary at the same time) I whispered inside my head. "Just nervous that's all."

Who would've thought that the infamous Kim Woojin would be a total charmer? I did not expect that.

Lee Minho

“Wait, you have a crush?” I dropped the croissant I was about to eat. Nervously praying he didn't heard it all, I turned towards the voice behind me suddenly ending the phone call with my bestfriend.

Minho's eyes were sparkling with curiosity. “Who is it? Tell me!” He tried to grab my phone, but I was quick enough to hide it under my shirt.

"You know Minho, eavesdropping is a bad thing. And its much worse if you do that to me," I sulked nervously as he cupped both of my cheeks and stared into my panicked eyes.

Avoiding his gaze he answered, "Tell me! Who is it? Tell me! It will just be our secret," he smiled warmly like a kid discovering something for the first time.

"No! Shut up. You don't even know him," I lied through my teeth. "Jackson is upstairs. Go bug my brother not me" I peeled his hand away from my face before I melt under his stare.

"You owe me a croissant you dummy!" I sadly retorted picking the lonely food on the ground.

"Not until you tell me," he stole the food from my hand, and took a bite. "Tell me. I'm not leaving till you tell me," Minho teased again.

"Then stay. I AM NOT TELLING! JACKSON! MINHO IS HERE! Why do you have to be friends with someone so nosy," I tried to make a sad face but was returned with a giggle when Minho flicked my forehead and said, "I bet he's just a dumb kid."

"Yeah he is" I walked away. "Didn't know you would call yourself dumb, Minho" I whispered silently.

Seo Changbin

"I don't get it!" Changbin stared off at the distance.

I stared at the basketball team prepping up for practice. "Me neither," I answered. "Why did you call me here again?" I asked Changbin now looking at me, as if I offended his entire family.

"We're friends, right?" Changbin asked. I nodded unsurely, raking my last brain cells of all the possible reasons on why he would call me out of nowhere. Does he know that I like him even before he and Mina started dating? Or maybe because he heard me and Jisung talking about how awesome he would look if he had an undercut? Or did he found out about the drawings I did of him at Art Club?

Seo Changbin one grade ahead of me, we're not really friends. Actually he's one of the many ex boyfriends of my friend, Mina, now migrated to Canada.

"She left just like that" he continued.

Ahhhh he's here to rant about Mina. "You're an emotional disaster-" I tried to tell him but he cut me off.

"If you think I'm sad about her dumping me. I am not. I'm mad because she never gave me back my jacket, do you know how much that one cost me? Fortunes!!" Changbin shook the sense out of me when I started laughing at his face.

"You're kidding me right? You called me here? Leaving an ominous letter on my locker just to tell me that Mina never gave you back your jacket?!"

"Ominous? It was a short and precise invitation" Changbin scoffed.

"You. Meet me at the Gym. 3 p.m. Just you. -Seo Changbin" I read out loud.

"It's short." Changbin said now laughing at my flushed face.

"Yeah just like the person who wrote it!" I teased.

"Yaaah!" he tried to force a mad face at me but he kept laughing.

Hwang Hyunjin

History Class is one of my weakest point. Or maybe our teacher was just really bored teaching the subject. While Mr. Kim was trying to explain on god knows what, I tried myself to focus on the topic but i keep spacing out. Trying to distract myself I looked at my right side seeing Hyunjin building a small diorama of something made from rubber erasers.

A small laugh escape my lips when one of the erasers knocked down his hard work. He slowly laughed then louder. One of the most loudest laugh I have ever made, making everyone look our way.

"Mr. Hwang, care to explain what you and Miss ____ are doing at the back?"

"Wait, Mr. Kim! Why am I included?" I tried to reason out.

"Since the two of you are so absorbed with Mr. Hwang's little project there at the back. I expect the two of you to make an animated slideshow of our lesson for the next week," Mr. Kim grinned at us as if successfully passing the baton.

-------

Expecting it to be a disaster report, Hyunjin exceeded my expectations in making the assigned task. We started hanging out after class for almost a week and finished our slideshow preparation.

"I am Groot" Hyunjin started making the whole class boom in laughter. Mr. Kim, looked at me asking for an explanation. I smiled at him and answered, "as what Hyunjin said our report would be based from last week's lesson"

Hyunjin beside me, animatedly explained his whole script with the whole "I am Groot thing", while I answer him with explanations. Ironically, the whole room listened to us and are actively participating during the discussion.

"I am Groot" Hyunjin finished bowing and I did the same "I am Groot". The whole class clapped as we bowed, Hyunjin held my hand up, victoriously screaming "WE ARE GROOT!"

Han Jisung

I started to write my first letter after having a debate on whether I should tell Jisung or not this feelings I have.

How on earth did I ever crush on my very own bestfriend? Han Jisung. My Best friend. We're just kids. Wrong. Middle school is a tricky place and Jisung was always there by my side. I would watch him laugh mirthfully at silly things, as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

“You need to stop making that love sick puppy face at her all the time. It’s weird, and frankly kind of creepy, Han Jisung” I told him off as he stares again at his crush.

“Shhh just shut up," he jokingly pushed me lightly with that goofy in love smile he has on his face "You just don’t know anything about love.” He pouted, grasping his heart comically.

“First of all, as I've deduced while observing you, now I know it’s stupid and it's a waste of time competing for someone's attention."

"Heeeey!" Jisung violently reacted, still with that weird smile on his face. "Can't spell stupid without U and I, Heeeyyy!" he cheered pointing me then him.

"See, it's taking over you, silly." I forced a smile.

You see, everything about my best friend is just truly lovable. And it just so happens that he can never look at me the same way I'm feeling about him. So I'm trying to control this emotions I have. I don't want to lose someone like Jisung, even if it hurts so much, I'll smile at his stories when he openly talks about this girl he currently likes.

Lee Felix

"I-uh I had a good time... Tonight-uh with you." Felix deep voice stuttered with a smile. Honestly, I never thought I would make a single friend during Summer Camp. Besides the fact that my best friend bailed out on me after getting the flu, Jisung sucks at this kind of things. He may be energetic but he's a child and needs to be taken care of. And spending time with Felix, I realized that this is a breath of fresh air.

"Is it weird that I really want to kiss you right now?" he asked, scratching an invisible itch behind his ears.

"Then why don't you?" I challenged him, thinking it was a joke. You see, this kind of scene only happens in the movies, and I never thought it would happen to me in real life. Under the blanket of stars, our feet dangling just above the river dock. A perfect scene. This was it. My first kiss.

Like a slow motion in a crappy movie scene, Felix cupped my face gently, closing his eyes, my brain cells battled whether I should close mine too. Too late, he kissed me. Not what I expected but seriously, Lee Felix must be the softest guy I will ever meet in my life.

I soft laugh escape my mouth, "You're sweet, Felix. Really." I leaned on him closely and kissed his cheek lightly.

His freckled face started blushing, "I always thought forehead kisses are the sweetest."

"It is," I agreed smiling brightly at him. He returned with a smile brighter than the sun.

Kim Seungmin

"Watch out!" Was the last thing I heard before getting hit by a soft ball at the back of my head. When I woke up, I was already lying at the grass with Seungmin in front of me, fanning me with his cap. Seungmin the captain of our baseball team.

"Where am I?" I slowly sat up. "Am I dead? Are you an angel?" I eyed him closely searching for wings. I started checking my body for some injury when I felt short pain

"You're still in the park. Sory but I'm not an angel. Fotunately you're alive. The bad thing is that you're nape would hurt a lot for the next few hours." Seungmin gently placed an ice pack behind my head and continued, "You got knocked out pretty bad. Good thing the ball wasn't thrown too hard."

Before I got to reply, two little boys started running towards us with more ice. "Hyung is she gonna be ok?" Seungmin nodded.

"Noona you're not going to die, right?" the younger one asked. I looked at Seungmin wanting to know as well.

"You won't" he smiled gently. "The impact on your nape was just off. But if you feel nauseous we can go to the hospital"

With the word hospital, the two kids dropped beside me and hugged me in unison, "Noona we're so sorry. Please don't die"

----

The next school day, while walking towards our spot in track field, I heard someone scream "Watch out!" Instinctively I reached out for the incoming impact, closing my eyes half praying.

"Nice catch!" I heard Seungmin running towards us. I opened my eyes, seeing the ball on my hand, "I caught it?"

"Hey! It's you! How are you?" he smiled warmly at me and high fived me in the process of retrieving the ball. "See you later?" he asked.

Dumbfounded I nodded. "Since when did you and the Kim Seungmin knew each other?" Jisung asked.

Yang Jeongin

"Jeongin, for the nth time can you just focus on the problem instead of tapping your pen on the table? It's distracting." I exasperatedly pleaded. I shouldn't be here on Cram School but since I really wanted to go to my target university I have to deal with this. But why do I have to babysit someone instead of studying? Jeongin is a smart kid, but sometimes he gets way to distracted.

“I’m teaching myself French in one night. It’s going great.” Jeongin said out of nowhere.

"Shouldn't you be studying math, instead of French?" I pulled my hair out of frustration. "Didn't you say your finals are next week? And you have Math exams in two days?" I reminded him.

Jeongin stopped tapping and suddenly pushed his chair. He screamed into his hands like a dolphin trying to break out of water, laughing victoriously I tried to read equations to him. "I'm doomed!" earning a few glances from other students I told him to be quiet.

With that said he kneeled in front of his Math problems and said "Oh gods and godesses of Mathematics, save thy child. I’ve been in a state of panic for the last 61 years.”

"You're 16," I smack his head lightly. "Focus child!"

-----

"Hey, what am I supposed to learn for this again?" Jeongin asked.

"I don’t know. How to best deal with despair, probably.” I retorted humorlessy.

"You know what? You're my goddess from now on!"

"Flirt one more time, Yang Jeongin and I'm gonna make sure you fail this exam"

"Nooooooo!"

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

The Turkey Story

Another fic in @incendiaglacies and I’s Roommate verse. The turkey story mentioned in A Roommates’ Thanksgiving with more context. 

AO3

“So, years ago, when I was living with the Steins, Thanksgiving came around,” Gideon began. “And things leading up to it hadn’t been great between Lily and I.”

Lily nodded. “We were at each other’s throats constantly.”

“We were,” Gideon shuddered at the memories of how difficult her transition to living with people who cared about her had been. “And eventually, we buried the hatchet. But it took a big fight before we got to that.”

Clarissa shook her head. “Oh, I remember that one very well…”

~~~

“I know you took it!”

“And what proof do you have?”

“Because it’s gone!”

“That doesn’t mean I took it!”

“Yeah, right, like Ronnie took the curling iron!”

              The shouts started abruptly from upstairs as soon as Clarissa Stein entered the house with the groceries. She sighed and went to quickly go set the bags down in the kitchen before hurrying for the stairs. Ronnie, who had gone shopping with her, came in as she passed the front door. His eyes widened as he heard the arguing above.

“I can finish unloading the car,” he offered. “You can handle them.”

“Let’s hope I can,” Clarissa replied as she made her way up the steps.

              At the top of the stairs, she found Lily and Gideon in the hallway. The two teenagers were almost screaming at each other now. They were so caught up in their argument that they didn’t even notice Clarissa watching them. Before any physical violence broke out (they’d already lost one vase- thankfully one she and Martin despised from his aunt), she went over and separated the girls from each other.

“That’s enough, you two,” she said sternly, silencing them. “What happened this time?”

Gideon scowled. Half of her hot pink hair was curled. “Lily took the curling iron.”

“Because you took my jacket!” Lily snapped back.

“Ha! You admit it! And it’s not like you were going to wear that jacket any time soon.”

“I need to use the curler! Melanie invited me over tonight, it’s not like you’re going anywhere other than your room to sulk.”

“At least I’m not trying to kiss everyone’s ass in school!”

“Stop!” Clarissa held up her hand. “I’m disappointed in both of you. If you want to borrow something, then ask the other first. If they say no, then that’s the end of it. I won’t stand for this behavior in the house. You’re teenagers, not toddlers.”

She turned to Lily. “Lily, I’m taking the curling iron. And you aren’t going to Melanie’s tonight.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Clarissa said firmly. “You’re going to be joining family game night. So are you, Gideon. No sulking in your room tonight.”

Gideon pouted and stuffed her hands in the pocket of her hoodie. “As long as I’m on Ronnie’s team and not hers.”

“We’ll see,” Clarissa said. “Gideon, can you go check on Ronnie? I’m going to talk with Lily some more.”

“Sure,” she shrugged, leaving them.

As soon as Gideon was gone, Clarissa looked back to Lily. “This isn’t like you to lash out. You weren’t like this when Ronnie came to live with us.”

“Because Ronnie isn’t a bi-“

“Lily…” she warned.

“Big jerkface,” her daughter finished. “All Gideon does is sulk all the time. I try to be nice to her at home or school, but she brushes me off. Then she gets mean and what am I supposed to do, be a pushover? I don’t want to do that.”

“You need to be patient with her,” Clarissa said. “Gideon hasn’t been as fortunate as you have in life. Your father and I love you very much, you know that. But Gideon never really got that. Ronnie told us she’s been let down a lot of times by families who got her hopes up. She’s been shuffled around so much that it’s made her wary about where she places her trust. You need to be more patient until she comes around. Okay?”

Lily nodded. “Okay, Mom. I’ll try.”

“Thank you.”

~~~

“You need to control your temper, Gideon,” Ronnie told her as they put the groceries away in their respective places. “Lily’s nice and she’s really trying to bond with you.”

“Yeah, well, how long is that going to last?” Gideon muttered as she opened the fridge to put the milk away. “She’s going to hate me eventually. Everyone always does.”

Ronnie put a hand to his heart. “What am I, chopped liver?”

She shrugged. “Fine, everyone ends up not liking me except you. I’m just speeding up the process.”

“Look, the Steins are good people. I’ve been with them long enough to see that. Lily’s not the kind of girl who’s going to turn her back on you.”

“Yeah, I’ve been there before, and they always turn on me, Braceface.”

Ronnie’s smile fell to mask his braces. “There you go, striking out at people.”

Guilt twisted Gideon’s stomach. She hated that he was right.

“I know you’ve been hurt before, but you can’t give up on people completely. The Steins are people you can let in, Gideon. And I know how hard it is for you, but you need to start trying.”

Gideon sighed. “I’ll try.”

“Good,” Ronnie grinned again. “It’s gonna get better, you know that, right?”

“Sure.”

~~~

              The next day was Thanksgiving. Lily had tried to get Gideon to watch the parade with her. However, Gideon was grumpy in the morning and still stinging from the fight yesterday. She rejected the offering and Lily left in defeat. As the other girl did, Gideon remembered Ronnie’s advice from the previous day. Lily had extended a lot to her, and her rejections had soured the relationship between them.

Perhaps it was time for her to try something else.

              After an hour of thinking and avoiding the others, Gideon threw her hoodie on over her pajamas and crept downstairs to the kitchen. She saw Lily watching the parade with her parents and Ronnie. Slowly, she slung into the room and took a seat in one of the chairs. Martin smiled at her and passed over a cup of tea, already prepared just the way she liked it. She accepted it with a smile, but didn’t look at Lily as she did so.

              Eventually, they all started getting ready for the dinner they would be having. The Jacksons were coming over with some of the food, so they didn’t have to cook everything. There were a few things they did have to prepare, and everyone pitched in to help get it done. Unfortunately, Gideon found herself struggling when she added coriander instead of cinnamon to the cranberry sauce. Cooking had never been her strong suit. Then again, she hadn’t gotten a lot of chances to do it before.

“We can start a new batch,” Clarissa assured her when they’d had to throw it away. “I can get more cranberries. Martin and I have to make a quick run to the store anyways.”

“We won’t be long,” Martin promised as Clarissa went for her coat. “Lily, did you finish your letter to Caitlin?”

“Dad, Mr. Barnes switched my pen pal for Daisy’s, remember? I’m writing to a girl named Louise now.”

“Yes, of course. Did you finish? I heard you talking about it earlier. We can drop it off if it’s ready.”

“It’s almost done. But thanks for offering.”

“We won’t be gone long,” Clarissa told the three teenagers as she returned. “Just make sure to turn the heat off on the potatoes when the timer goes off. We’ll probably be home just after that.”

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Stein,” Ronnie smiled. “We’ll hold down the fort.”

She nodded before leaving with her husband.

“And hopefully not burn the house down,” Gideon muttered under her breath.

Lily raised an eyebrow at her but kept her mouth shut.

~~~

              The timer rang and the stove was turned off, but Martin and Clarissa weren’t back yet. Gideon was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to see how big of a bubble she could blow with her gum. Ronnie was checking over his math homework. Lily had gone to finish her letter to her pen pal upstairs. The house was relatively quiet for the time being.

However, Gideon was eyeing the fridge. With everything being so tense between her and Lily, maybe a joke could clear the air. “Hey, Ronnie?”

“Yeah?”

Gideon walked over to the fridge and pulled out the turkey that would be going in the oven when the adults got back. “Think you can fit your head in this?”

Ronnie looked up. “You’re kidding me.”

“I dare you to.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. What if I get stuck?”

“You won’t get stuck,” Gideon told him. “What comes in must come out.”

Ronnie still looked nervous.

“Come on, it’ll be funny,” she pleaded. “I swear, I will get you right out.”

“Fine. But you better get me right out.”

“I will.”

It took a little maneuvering, but eventually Ronnie got his head inside the carcass. Gideon took a picture before calling for Lily to come down. “I need to show you something!”

“Did you burn something?”

“No!” Gideon shouted back. “Come down, you need to see this!”

She heard the footsteps on the stairs. “She’s coming. Lay down in the pan.”

“I can’t see it.”

“Here,” she moved him down so his turkey-covered head was lying in it. “Just stay there.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Ronnie’s muffled voice came from the turkey.

“A bad feeling about- AHHHHH!”

Lily had walked right in on them. Her scream made Ronnie’s head bolt up and Gideon got hit by with a wing. She hissed and covered the area around her eye. Lily was sliding down the doorframe, hand to her chest and eyes wide with fright.

“What did you do?”

“Surprise?” Gideon offered, the fun leaving the situation as the throbbing by her eye began to ease up. “Happy thanksgiving.”

“That looks more appropriate for Halloween,” Lily shuddered, climbing to her feet. “Is that Ronnie in there?”

“Hi, Lily.”

Lily looked to Gideon. “What were you thinking?”

“I was trying to lighten the air between us,” Gideon replied. “I thought it’d be funny.”

“It’s terrifying-”

Her heart sunk.

“-when you first walk in on it,” Lily finished, giggling a little. “But it actually looks funny.”

Gideon laughed. “See, Ronnie? I told you so.”

“Yeah, I can’t see it though.”

“I’ll take a picture,” Lily darted off and returned with the camera. “We might want to get it off his head though before Mom and Dad come back.”

“Good thinking,” Gideon agreed. “But a few pictures first.”

“Make them quick,” Ronnie pleaded. “It feels weird in here.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I’m going.”

Gideon and Lily took turns taking a few pictures. Then it was time to get the carcass off Ronnie.

“Can you get out on your own, or do you need help?” Lily asked.

Ronnie grabbed the sides of the bird and started to pull. “Um, guys?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m stuck.”

Lily froze. “What?”

“It won’t come off!”

“Uh oh,” Gideon cringed. “Sit down, let me try.”

“Please hurry,” Ronnie pleaded. “It smells in here!”

“Of course it does, you’re in a dead animal!” Gideon muttered, trying to pry the turkey off. “Oh dear.”

Lily rushed over to the other side. “I’m helping.”

Unfortunately, the bird remained stuck.

“Could we cut it off?” Lily suggested.

“No, then we’d have to explain that to your parents,” Gideon brushed a stray strand back from her face. “We can’t eat the turkey off his head.”

“Yeah, I don’t want that,” Ronnie chimed in. “I need fresh air.”

“Hold on,” Gideon told him. “Lily, spread the legs. I’ll pull.”

They heard the front door open. “Girls? Ronnie? We’re back.”

Gideon whipped her head towards the noise, then back to Lily. “I’m gonna pull on three! One…two…three”

“OH MY!”

As Gideon pulled, Clarissa and Martin came into the kitchen. The grocery bags fell to the floor. Lily let the legs go and Gideon lost her grip. She stumbled backwards, a ripped off wing in her hand. The girls looked at each other before back at the adults.

“Hi, guys,” Lily waved.

Martin was staring at the scene. “Who is that?”

“It’s Ronnie,” came from the turkey.

“How long has he been in there?” Clarissa asked.

Gideon set the wing down in the tray. “Not long.”

“How did this even happen?”

“It was meant as a joke. And a dare.”

“But it was funny after it was scary.”

Clarissa sighed. “We need to get him out. I’m not feeding the Jacksons dinner with Ronnie still attached.”

“Yes, please don’t.”

“Let’s all work together,” Martin suggested. “We need to get him out on our own, or we take him to the emergency room.”

~~~

              Within half an hour, the turkey had been removed from Ronnie’s head. It wasn’t suitable to be cooked for dinner anymore, but Clarissa was replacing it with a chicken she’d had in the freezer. Ronnie was shaken and taking a shower to get the smell of turkey innards off of him. Martin had taken the car out to pick up the Jacksons, leaving Gideon and Lily to work on getting the table set up.

“I’m glad Ronnie’s okay,” Lily said while setting a fork down on the napkin Lily had just laid down.

“Me too,” Gideon agreed. “I thought he’d be able to get his head out quicker because we’d gotten it in.”

A quick smile graced Lily’s face. “At least we didn’t have to take him to the emergency room.”

“Yeah,” Gideon chuckled. “Although it’s kind of my fault that I egged him on into doing it.”

“He still did it. But why did you do it?”

Gideon set down the last napkin. “I was trying to doing something funny. An attempt to make up for yesterday.”

Lily shook her head. “That wasn’t your fault. I was the one who took the curling iron from you.”

“Well, I did take your jacket,” Gideon shrugged. “I’ve just been expecting you to end up hating me eventually. Everyone always does.”

“Ronnie doesn’t.”

“Yeah, he said that too.”

Lily smiled. “I should have been more patient waiting for you to get settled in. I thought you’d warm up after a week, but I probably should waited a little longer. Maybe not tried to force you into so many things.”

“Oh yeah,” Gideon nodded. “I know you were trying to be friendly, but it was too much. But I didn’t help myself sulking around all the time.”

“Even though we’re definitely getting another lecture from Mom and Dad and Ronnie’s probably a little scarred, it was kind of fun with you today,” Lily admitted. “I’m sorry I didn’t have more patience with you. And for taking the curler. And a bunch of other things.”

Gideon looked over to her. “You mean it?”

“Of course I do.”

“Just…just making sure,” Gideon twisted her hands together. “And I’m sorry I’ve been cold. And kind of a bitch.”

“Apology accepted,” Lily said in a hushed whisper. “And don’t let Mom hear you call yourself that.”

“I won’t.”

The two grinned at each other. Lily held out her arms tentatively for a hug. “Are we here yet?”

“I think I can take the first step,” Gideon nodded as she stepped forward to embrace her. “You’re not so bad, Lily.”

A laugh fell out of the other girl. “I’d hate to be a bad sister.”

“Foster sister,” Gideon corrected.

“We’ll work on that. But since we’re on better terms, I do have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“You came here with blue hair, and now it’s pink. How are you getting hair dye in here? Because I know Mom and Dad didn’t get you it.”

Gideon laughed.

[theydontknowaboutusimagines]

Hey Angel - Chapter 100

“Hey! Give it back!” Wylie groaned chasing after Willow. 

“No! It’s my turn!” She defended. 

“You have your own!” Wylie shouted. 

“It’s charging! Shush before you wake Mum and Dad!” Willow shouted back. 

Harry opened the bedroom door and saw Willow and Wylie fighting over the iPad. It was seven in the morning, on a Saturday, how they are already up, he thought to himself. 

“Already accomplished that,” Harry yawned crossing his arms. “What are you two fighting about?”

“I was playing on my iPad and then I put it down to go to the bathroom and then when I came back Willow was on it!” He said. 

“You were done! Duh! Besides, it’s my turn! You’ve been on it since six!” Willow said. 

“Okay, how about this,” he said. “I’ll take the Ipad and then you two can help me make breakfast for everyone.” 

“Aww, Dad,” they both whined. 

“Aww, “ Harry mocked. 

“Let’s go,” he said pushing them towards the stairs. 

They groaned as they walked to the kitchen and Harry laughed. 

“Where’s the rest of your brother’s and sisters?” He asked. 

“Jackson’s snoring, Ella is still sleeping, and Carter is cleaning his guitar,” Willow rolled her eyes standing up on the stool at the island. 

“And by cleaning, he’s just rubbing it with a washcloth. Pretty sure there’s nothing on it,” Wylie added. 

“Well, at least he’s not fighting over an IPad at seven in the morning,” Harry smirked. 

The twins rolled their eyes. 

“Where’s Mummy and Poppy?” Wylie asked. 

“Mummy was taking a shower and feeding Poppy,” Harry said getting out the ingredients for pancakes. 

They nodded and waited for Harry to tell them what to do.

Once everything was out on the counter, Harry measured out everything and told them when to add each of the ingredients. 

“Okay, now we’re going to take turns mixing it all together,” Harry said. 

“I want to go first!” They both say at the same time. 

“How about this, one of you holds the bowl and the other risks the mix,” Harry said, “Then after a few mixes, it’s the other’s turn and you both take turns until it’s all mixed?” 

“Fine! Sissy can go first,” Wylie mumbled. 

“Thanks, brother,” Willow smiled kissing his cheek. 

“Gross,” he giggled. 

Harry laughed and heard a commotion from the stairs. It was Jackson carrying a giggling Carter over his shoulder. 

“Remind me again, why you and Mum had so many kids?” Jackson joked walking into the kitchen. 

“Hey!” Willow, Wylie, and Carter protested. 

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding, I love you all, even though you’re all nuts,” he laughed sitting Carter on the floor. 

“You two realize you were just like them when you were their ages,” Harry said pouring the pancake batter onto the griddle. 

“Never,” he smirked. “So, isn’t today the day you’re taking Ella out?” 

“I am,” he nodded. “Why?” 

“I went to wake her up, after Carter, jumped in my bed, but she was already up. Mum was helping her get ready,” he said. 

Harry smiled, “I’m glad she’s looking forward to it.” 

“Daddy, why am I not going?” Willow pouted. “I’m your daughter too and Poppy.” 

“I know, sweetheart,” Harry said softly. “But remember when Ella came home sad the other day?” 

She nodded. 

“Well, I’m doing this to show her how much I love her and so that she doesn’t feel sad anymore,” he answered. 

“Oh, I don’t want sissy sad either,” She smiled. 

He smiled, “I promise one day I’ll take you, Ella, and Poppy out.” 

“Yay!” She giggled. 

“Hey, what about us?” Jackson smirked. “You know your sons. I mean... I could use some new clothes... maybe a car.” 

Harry rolled his eyes. “You’ve got plenty of clothes, especially since you sneak into my closet and wear mine. And you’ve got a good two or three years before you can legally drive, so why do you need a car? Just so you can sit in the driveway and hang out?” Harry smirked. 

Jackson rolled his eyes, “So I have it to practice.” 

“Well, you can’t practice until you get a permit, which is still a few months away. Have you even been studying?” He asked. 

“A little...” he mumbled. 

“Well, you better turn that little into a lot, if you plan on getting your permit on your birthday,” he said. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got this,” Jackson smirked. “I’m a Styles remember.” 

“Yeah, you are, talking like that,” You laughed walking into the kitchen. 

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Both Harry and Jackson asked at the same time. 

“I rest my case,” you smirked. 

“Anyway,” Harry said. “Jackson, are you good to take over, while I go get ready?” 

“Yep,” Jackson said. “Okay, little Minions go over to the table and sit down. I’ll bring your food in a bit.” 

Harry rolled his eyes and walked over to you. He kissed you quickly and tickled Poppy’s tummy. 

“Morning my loves,” he smiled. 

“Morning,” you smiled. “Ella looks really pretty. She’s looking forward to today. Thank you for doing this.” 

“Baby, you don’t have to thank me,” he smiled. “Now, are you sure you got it with the little hellions?” 

“Yeah, I’ll put Poppy in her chair and finish up the breakfast,” you nodded. 

Harry smiled kissing you one more time and heading upstairs. 

**

It didn’t take super long for Harry to shower and get ready. Once he was ready, he came downstairs, expecting Ella to be there, but she wasn’t. 

“She wanted to wait until you were down here,” You smiled. “She wanted to make a staircase entrance.” 

Harry nodded with a smile and turned towards the stairs. After you shouted out for her, Ella emerged from her room and Harry’s eyes widened as he looked up at her. You had curled her hair and applied just a hint of makeup. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and a pair of vans. 

“You look just like your Mum,” Harry smiled. 

She blushed hugged him tightly. 

“Ready to go?” He asked. 

She nodded and they both waved bye to everyone before heading out the door and into the car. Since it was just the two of them, Harry decided to take one of his smaller, sports cars, that he usually drove when you two went out on dates. 

“Isn’t this the car you take when you and Mom go out?” Ella asked. 

“Yep,” he smiled. “But you’re my date today, so I thought why not?” 

Ella giggled and got inside. Harry put the top of the convertible down and Ella hooked up her iPod up and put on the playlist she made just for today. 

“Oh my god, what is this?” He laughed. 

“It’s a boyband,” she smirked. “Just like you.” 

“Yeah, but they’re no One Direction,” he smirked. 

“You’re right, they’re better,” She smirked. 

“Ouch!” Harry laughed pulling out of the driveway. “I’m highly offended by that. I mean you used to be One Direction’s number one fan, what happened?” 

“I was a baby then. I’ve grown up,” she giggled. 

“Don’t let Uncle Niall hear you say that,” Harry laughed. 

**

After breakfast, Ella and Harry went to the mall. It didn't take long before Harry was carrying tons of bags. A few were Ella’s, some were for you and the other kids, but quite a bit was for Harry. 

“I think you have a shopping problem, Daddy,” Ella laughed when they stopped for a smoothie at the food court. 

“There was a sale!” He defended. 

“Okay, but don’t we have enough Gucci pillows in the house?” she laughed. “Mom’s gonna kill you.” 

“Your Mum loves me,” he said. “She won’t kill me. She may throw a pillow or two at me, but at least they’re soft so there shouldn’t be an injury.” 

Ella rolled her eyes, “Where should we go next?” 

“Where ever you want, love,” he smiled. “Today’s your day.” 

“Could we maybe go to the park or something?” She asked. “Maybe like on a bike ride or something.” 

“I know the perfect place,” he smiled. “Come on, we can finish the smoothies in the car.” 

**

Once all the bags were in the trunk of the car, Ella and Harry got inside and he drove straight to the park, where you and Harry met with the kids for the first time. Harry parked the car and found the bikes for rent. He paid for a few hours and looked over at her with a smile. 

“Do you know what park this is?” He asked. 

She shook her head. 

“This park is the same park I met your mother at... well, it wasn’t the first place we met-” he said. 

“Because you spilled coffee on her at Uncle James’ studio, right?” Ella asked. “And then... water at the restaurant.” 

“Yes, yes, but that’s not the point,” he laughed. “Your mother and I first met with you and Jackson here at this park and we always brought you two here whenever we were home in LA.” 

“Really?” Ella smiled. 

Harry nodded, “Then when we moved, we just went to the one in the neighborhood,” he said. 

“So, this park is super special then?” Ella asked. 

“Really, really special,” he smiled. “I even proposed to your Mum, here.” 

Ella smiled, “Oh my god, Dad! I’ve got the best idea ever!” 

“What?” He laughed. 

“You know how Mom’s birthday is coming up?” Ella asked. 

“Yeah, of course,” he said. 

“Why don’t we all come back here and have like a family picnic?” Ella asked. “Sort of like... a back to where it all started...” 

“I think that’s a great idea,” Harry smiled. “Want to help me plan it out?” 

“Duh! It was my idea,” she smirked. “We should make it a surprise though and we can invite everyone. Do you think Nana Anne and Auntie Gemma can come?” 

“I’ll see if we can arrange that,” he smiled. 

“This is going to be fucking awesome!” Ella smirked. 

“Ella! Watch the language,” Harry scolded with a laugh. “Your Mum will literally kill me if she heard that.” 

“Why because you’re the one who says it all the time?” She smirked. 

“Exactly,” He laughed. 

“Well, then maybe you’re the one who should be watching their language,” Ella smirked. 

**

It was well after Sunset by the time Ella and Harry arrived home. After the bike ride at the park, they went to the pier for lunch and then spent some time at the beach before heading to dinner. Ella was used to going to fancier restaurants, but not with just her dad. 

Once the two got home, Harry brought everything inside and before collapsing on the couch next to you. A fort had been built by Jackson and the younger Styles and they all were watching a movie, while you held a sleeping Poppy in your arms. 

Ella made some popcorn and joined the rest of her siblings in the fort. 

You smiled looking over at Harry, “How did it go?” 

“It went great,” he smiled. “I loved it.” 

“You know... I started thinking... if you did this with all the kids where you spent just one day with only one of them... it’d literally take you almost an entire week,” you laughed. 

“Oh my god,” he laughed. “I’d be broke and exhausted.” 

“Maybe you should have thought about that all those times you jumped me in bed,” you smirked. 

“Oh come on,” he laughed,” I seem to remember plenty of times where you were the one practically throwing yourself at me.” 

“It’s cause you’re just so hot,” you mocked. 

“You know it’s true,” he smirked. “You lucked out in the husband department, love.” 

“Even though your statement is a cocky one, I do have to agree with you on that one,” you smiled. 

Harry pressed his lips against yours with a smile. 

**

Soon after the movie finished, you and Harry got all the kids ready for bed. Once everyone was tucked in and fast asleep, you and Harry went into your room and started getting ready for bed. Just when you were about to climb under the blankets, there was a knock on the door. 

“Come in,” Harry smiled. 

Ella peeked her head out and walked into the room. 

“Everything okay?” Harry asked. 

Ella nodded walking over to him. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. 

“I just wanted to say thank you,” she whispered. “for today... for being my Daddy when no one else would. I love you and I’m glad you chose me because I wouldn’t want anyone else.” 

Your heart swelled as you heard her say that and you could see tears in Harry’s eyes. He held her tightly to him and kissed her head. 

“You’re welcome, love,” he smiled. “And I love you too. More than anything and I’m just happy you chose me too.” 

**

So, I’m thinking of ONE MORE chapter... because I have a really great idea on how to end it. But if you have anything you want me to add, let me know! :) 

[sapphicscholar]

Chapter Text:

“Agent Alex Danvers, FBI.” Alex flashed her badge at the NCPD officer stuck on front desk duty.

He barely deigned to look up from the sports section of the newspaper propped up in front of him. “Yes?”

“I have a meeting with Officer”—Alex glanced down at the index card with the scrawled name of the woman Kara had picked out of their virtual lineup of NCPD officers—“Maggie Sawyer.”

“One minute.”

Alex tapped her foot as she waited for him to call her.

“Sawyer? … Yeah, some fed’s here to see you. You want me to send her to you? … Alright.” He looked back up at Alex. “She’ll be here in a minute. You can take a seat.”

Alex glanced over at the rows of plastic chairs bolted to the floor, opting to stand instead. After a few moments, a small woman strode into the waiting area. With a smile that seemed less than certain on her face, she raised her hand in greeting. “You’re here to see me?”

“Officer Sawyer?”

“Detective Sawyer, but yes, that would be me.”

“My name is Alex Danvers. I’m an agent with the FBI unit that your division has expressed interest in supporting on the occasional small case.” She held up her badge as a show of good faith, even if it was a faked ID.

“I don’t think that’s quite how we phrased it, but sure, come on back.”

Alex followed behind Maggie, watching the way her hips swayed slightly with every step, drawing her attention—nowhere, absolutely nowhere. She shook her head and sped up to walk at Maggie’s side.

Once they were settled in one of the small meeting rooms, Maggie sank into a chair, steepling her hands on the table in front of her and regarding Alex with a slight tilt to her head. “What can I do for you, Agent Danvers?”

“I figured it would be good to meet after the first extraterrestrial threat in which you and your division”—Alex bit back words like “meddled” or “got in the way” or “talked about things you couldn’t understand”—“intervened.”

“Mm, right. The K’hund.”

“I…yes. Did Supergirl speak to you?”

Alex couldn’t help but notice the way Maggie rolled her eyes at the question, feeling herself bristle in turn. “No. You think I need Supergirl to give me information as basic as the kind of alien we’re dealing with?”

“It’s just, certain things aren’t exactly common knowledge.”

“Most things aren’t common knowledge. But once it’s your job, you learn them.” Maggie said it so matter-of-factly that Alex almost found herself nodding right along with her.

“Some things are classified, though, and there will be situations in which we at the FBI will need to be the ones to call the shots and take point.”

“You mean steal jurisdiction and leave us in the dark.”

Alex ground her teeth together, hearing J’onn’s voice in her head telling her to play nice. “I mean ensure that the situation is handled appropriately.”

“With no oversight or care for the aliens’ rights.”

“Do you have any idea about the K’hund you were dealing with?” Alex scoffed, pushing her hair back from her face. “He’d been imprisoned before. Twice actually. Even if we ignore his prior records, here on Earth he went out on a spree destroying armored vehicles, abetting criminals in stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold, killing or seriously injuring almost a dozen guards in the process.”

“So there are trial records?” Maggie arched an eyebrow as she held Alex’s gaze, the corner of her mouth curling up slightly as though she were enjoying herself.

“You have a jail cell to hold someone who can crumple a car into a ball of metal with his bare hands?”

Maggie shrugged. “Even if the containment is on you, there are rights that shouldn’t be abridged.”

“I—you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? Do I still not know what I’m saying when I look at that fake badge of yours and call your bluff ’cause I can tell you’re DEO from a mile away?”

Alex felt her hands curling into fists. “I can see this was a pointless meeting.”

“What? Mad that someone might not let you get away with running a black ops site in the middle of nowhere?” Maggie yelled after her, but Alex was already through the door and striding back outside.

On the drive to the DEO, Alex called J’onn, grumbling loudly about pain in the ass cops who should learn to stay in their own lanes.

“Alex, please tell me that the working partnership is still intact.”

“It is. I left, but I didn’t yell at her…not really.” She could hear J’onn sigh through the line.

“These orders are coming from high above me. With the President’s new Alien Amnesty Act signed into law, we’re going to see more and more changes.”

“But—”

“Alex, some of them will be good. People like me, like your sister—we might be able to live openly, and even if I'm still not certain about how it will work in practice, it is law now. But that means that things like alien rights will need to be a consideration. The way we’re operating now might no longer work.”

“Okay, fine. Say you stole from a store. Sure, you should get a trial. But J’onn, these Fort Rozz aliens have intergalactic rap sheets that go on for pages!”

“And a few of them were subjected to an unduly strict justice system and given life sentences for petty crimes that might only have garnered fines and community service here.”

“What about the ones trying to kill my sister, J’onn? I’m supposed to let the cops throw some flimsy handcuffs on them and put them in front of a jury of people they could kill with a single punch and call that justice?”

“It’s—it’s more complicated than that. We are not ceding control completely. But the new law means there will be cooperation. It means being a little more upfront and self-reflective.” A pause. “I’ve not been the most open to these changes, but I’ve been working to understand them. I think Kara might be a step ahead of both of us here. Perhaps it would be wise to listen to her.”

“Maybe.” Alex was anything but convinced.

“Change is coming whether we like it or not. We’ll do well to get out in front of it, set the terms of these partnerships while it’s still in our power to do so.”

Alex hummed in understanding. She’d adapt; she could do that. But ceding any amount of control to Detective Sawyer? That would happen over her dead body.

---

Alex spent her evening reading through the articles Kara and Cat had been writing about the Alien Amnesty Act and alien rights over the past few months. She remembered listening to Kara rave about having the opportunity to work with Cat “as equals, Alex, can you believe it?” but she had heard so much about the articles while Kara was writing them that she never got around to reading the final drafts, let alone Cat’s pieces.

Begrudgingly, she admitted that they made a few good points. The interviews they had done with aliens from across National City had moved Alex in ways she hadn’t expected. There were children forced into home-schooling because they couldn’t pass as human, and adults forced into manual labor without any protections or insurance, being paid well below the minimum wage because they couldn’t get papers.

Alex thought back to Kara’s early days with them. She’d had trouble controlling her powers at first, and she had spoken in halting sentences with odd inflections on the words, but she’d never struggled to look human. That was something Alex had always taken for granted. But seeing the portraits featuring silvery skin that shimmered underneath bright flashes or scaled hands that held a child close to a mother’s chest…that wasn’t a possibility Alex had ever considered. She’d seen less-than-human hands curled around weapons pointed at her and her team and her sister; she’d watched distinctly non-human faces contort with rage in the midst of warfare and destruction. But the portraits Cat had organized—well, there was a reason she won as many awards as she did.

Come the end of the night Alex was far from convinced—especially when it came to NCPD’s involvement—but she thought J’onn would be proud of her for trying, and that had to be enough for now.

---

Two quiet days in a row with J’onn out of town had to be too good to last, and sure enough, on Thursday, a group of three Tormocks, one of whom pinged as a Fort Rozz escapee, laid waste to downtown National City.

Ignoring the call from NCPD, Alex ordered Alpha and Beta teams to mobilize and meet Supergirl downtown to provide backup. A call to Vasquez at the desert base from the van was enough to have a third team meeting them to secure the area and provide aerial reinforcements should they become necessary.

Deep in the fray, Alex cursed as bullets bounced ineffectively off the skin of the Tormocks, shifting as they did to become bulletproof and static or mobile and deadly in turn. Supergirl was holding her own, but there were only so many things she could do when her opponents could alter themselves at will, becoming impervious to her every attack.

Bullets ricocheted off the Tormocks' suddenly solid forms, and Alex found herself ducking and dodging more rebounding attacks from her own team than from the aliens.

The DEO agents confused and frustrated, and Alex watched on in horror as a few of them let their guard down long enough for a Tormock to strike out with an arm that was suddenly sharp as a blade.

“Man down! We need a med evac,” Alex barked into her earpiece as she watched Jackson, one of the agents from Beta Team, fall, a gash across his face and upper arm, his chest having been saved only by his Kevlar. Dodging attacks, Alex wove her way across the street and grabbed Jackson, dragging him to the relative safety of an alleyway.

“You’re okay,” Alex insisted, putting pressure on the wound and calling again for backup as she watched blood soak through the fabric over his arm at a pace that seemed much too fast to give the man a solid chance at survival. She swallowed back fear, repeating over and over again that he would be okay, even as she radioed in to the med team to let them know that his brachial artery might have been cut and they needed to have blood ready for him stat.

As soon as Jackson was whisked away into the back of one of the med vans parked a few blocks over, Alex threw herself into the fight with a renewed zeal, rage and frustration pulsing through her veins.

It seemed like a small eternity before a first shot landed, wounding one of the Tormocks while he was in a more vulnerable form, lashing out to try to attack Supergirl.

Alex whipped her head around, looking to see who’d managed to get the shot off, following the bullet’s trajectory back to a dumpster where she found the same damned detective from Monday crouched low, little more than a standard-issue police gun in her hand.

“Get out of here!” Alex hissed, jogging back to the dumpster.

“I’m the first one that got a shot in! I’m staying.”

“This isn’t your mission.”

“Only because you’re all too stubborn to admit you could use help.” Maggie popped up, firing off another round and landing a glancing blow to the same Tormock as before, who seemed to be moving more slowly, his shapeshifting not coming as easily as it once had. “See!”

“Do you even have a vest on for protection?” Alex grumbled before leaning out to fire off a round of her own, cursing under her breath as she caught the thick armor.

“Trick is to start shooting while they’re still armored. The second Supergirl leaves herself open for an attack is when they shift, and that’s when they’re vulnerable, but only for a few seconds.”

Alex watched, noting the exact moment when Supergirl turned her attention away from one of the three aliens. Never one to be bested, Alex sent a volley of bullets in his direction, letting out a satisfied huff as they met their mark, leaving one down—or at least down enough to contain—and two to go.

Maggie looked almost impressed. “Good shot.”

“It’s my job.”

“God, you’re infuriating.”

“And you’re not?”

They were soon distracted by one of the remaining two Tormocks, and Alex called out orders to her teams, breaking down Maggie’s instructions over the comms and getting her best long-range shooters in position, while Supergirl was left with only a small handful of agents who knew where to stand to avoid the line of fire.

By the time they wrestled the third alien into containment in the back of a DEO van, Alex had three wounded agents, including Jackson, who remained in critical condition. With an excuse to that effect, Alex brushed off Maggie and hopped into the back of a van, calling in for updates from all of her teams as they drove back to the downtown branch while the transport van took the Tormocks out to containment in the desert base.

Between check-ins with the wounded agents and more phone calls than she’d ever wanted to make and stacks of paperwork that seemed endless, Alex felt the post-battle adrenaline surge seeping out of her and leaving her exhausted.

After one final call down to the med bay to inquire into Jackson’s status—still critical, though it looked like he would pull through—Alex dragged herself out of the office. The short drive back to her building passed in a haze, and she cursed the lack of an elevator as she dragged her legs up the four flights of stairs to her apartment.

Once she was in the door, Alex kicked off her boots and shucked her jacket, pulling off the rest of her clothes as she made her way to the bathroom and into the shower. It didn’t matter that she’d washed off at the DEO; it never felt like she’d quite left the battle behind until she stood beneath the hot stream of water in her own bathroom in her own apartment, letting the final remnants slip away in the steam. Not that they ever went away entirely. She knew well enough that the nightmares that woke her weren’t random, much like she knew there was more behind the way her thoughts raced and spiraled, keeping her awake on days when she’d come a little too close to losing people, to losing her sister.

That night, though, Alex felt ready to fall into a deep sleep as she sank down on the mattress and pulled the sheets up around her, letting her head nestle into the pillow.

Barely an hour later, she woke with a start, bolting up and scrambling for her gun as she tried to figure out what had pulled her out of such a deep sleep.

A thud against the wall behind her headboard drew her attention.

“Fuck.”

Alex narrowed her eyes at the offending woman’s voice, but it seemed to quiet. Perhaps she hadn't been the culprit after all.

After a few minutes of murmurs from next door that were barely enough to constitute noise, Alex sank back down into the covers, letting herself get comfortable once more.

It was then that she heard the squeaking of a bed frame. Incessant. Grating. A few minutes later it was joined by a woman’s breathy moans—fuck, oh god, don’t stop.

Alex blinked at the clock on her bedside table. 10:49. Possibly early enough that normal people would still be awake. Of course, normal people hadn’t been awake since 4:30 and battling aliens into the early afternoon. Not that her neighbor knew any of that. Because Alex was a good neighbor who didn’t leave any indications about her schedule.

She ground her teeth as the rattle of the bed grew louder, the woman’s demands and moans increasing right along with it. A loud, high-pitched whimper finally rang out, and Alex let out a preemptive sigh of relief.

To Alex's dismay, the process repeated another two times before the noises stopped entirely.

Well, wasn’t he considerate, Alex thought to herself. Then again, maybe it had all been faked. God knows she’d done it a few times. Or, well, more like all the times. But she didn’t need to dwell. Instead she pushed all those questions down with her ever-growing to-do lists and thoughts about calls she had to make, resolving to deal with them all in the future. Maybe.

[jj-ktae]

Operation proposal - Prologue -

Title: Operation Proposal

Genre: Drama, Angst, Fluff

Pairing : Jinyoung x You

Summary: You and Jinyoung have been friends since high-school. He loves you, but his clumsy way of dealing with love made him miss his chance with you. Today is your wedding but you’re marrying another man, and as Jinyoung is full of regrets, a fairy appears, giving him a chance to change the past and win your heart.

Disclaimer: Inspired from the 2007 drama Proposal Daisakusen.

- Teaser - 

Prologue 

It’s complicated. Everything is a struggle. A sleepless night is a struggle, waking up in the morning is a struggle, regretting is a struggle.

Today is the worst struggle in Jinyoung’s life.

The coffee machine is broken, so he sighs. Yet another struggle. He throws his mug in the sink and grabs his keys before heading out. He is late but he doesn’t care. He hates feeling this way, but he doesn’t give a damn whether he makes it on time or not.

The taxi is incredibly slow, just like Jinyoung’s brain. It should be scattered, torn, broken, but it’s still processing the information with a killing pace. It’s like he can’t accept it.

The driver pulls him out of whatever his brain was doing when he speaks up, voice raspy and bored “We here.” Jinyoung’s feet stop tapping the ground before he takes a deep breath.

Everything’s going to be just fine.

“Thanks.” He pays the man and gets off the black car, his suit wrinkled and hair a tad dishevelled. His appearance is one of a free guy, a guy who does as he pleases, a guy who is raw and uncaring when it comes to his self.

He sucks at self-help.

“Jinyoung! It’s about to start!” He stares at his shoes, shiny on the red carpet and enters the huge green house, pure white and paradise-like.

It suits you well.

“Why are you late? Damn it, it’s a special day!” Jinyoung’s friends love drama. Of all things, he just wants them to shut up and stop making a fuss over nothing. He looks up to one of his friend, Mark, who is wearing the biggest grin ever.

“Overslept.” He didn’t. He didn’t sleep a wink. He thought about the story over and over, the result always the same.

“We would like to call the newlyweds, if they are ready.” Mark grabs him by the arm and drags him deeper into the crowd. They both stop right in front of the biggest table. It’s made of deep mahogany and lights, with white arum lily and deep green leaves.

It’s pretty, but Jinyoung sees nothing.

He looks up to the first person stepping into the greenhouse. Violins pop up in his ears, just like light illuminates his brownish eyes and tints his bewildered expression.

You walk into the greenhouse with uneasy steps. Everyone is looking at you. Some of them are emotional, others are serious. You close your eyes and walk deeper, your dress floating around you in a swift yet delicate manner.

You try to focus on everything but your surroundings but there is only one thing that strikes you. You don’t need to see it to notice Jinyoung. You never needed to look at each other to know the other was around. He is wearing the same suit he always wears whenever there’s an event.

“You’re so pretty.” You hear and it makes you blush.

You look at Jinyoung when you gather enough courage to face him on such an important day, but he is gone. Your husband is right next to you, in his bright white suit. He smiles widely at your heavenly features.

Right. Jinyoung is a guest. One of the best men, among all your male friends.

You have a husband, now.

“I’m nervous.” His voice is a tad shaky as his head approach yours, making you tear your eyes from the void to stare at his anxious face.

“Me too.” You breathe and smile at him. You’re not sad, it’s not like you didn’t pick your husband yourself. You love your husband, he is a caring and gentle man, with a great personality.

“Shall we greet the guests?” He asks while readjusting his tie and waves at his friends.

You don’t feel like wandering the place yet. Nervousness is eating you from the inside, and the idea of meeting Jinyoung now is frightening.

But then again, Jinyoung wouldn’t care. He never did, and you feel stupid as you think about him.

It has always been one-sided. Right from the start.

You sigh and take a step down, separating from your husband to meet your guests. At the same time, someone else is running away from the hassle to find peace, but an annoying hand stops him before he can take a step out of the crowded place.

“Get your ass inside.”

Jinyoung turns around, a brow lifted “Can you let me live?”

But Mark has other plans. “I want you to have fun. Don’t be down now when you did nothing back then.”

Jinyoung smacks his lips in irritation. Of all people, Mark is the only one who knew at the time, and has always been the nagging type, the friend who pushes him until he wants to yell in frustration. He is a great friend, and Jinyoung doesn’t want to admit he is actually damn right on this one.

“So I can’t even hate myself?” He exhales and Mark laughs wish his stupid white teeth.

“I told you regrets would eat you alive. What did you answer, then? Oh yeah ‘It’s not like I need her to live’ you stupid dimwit.” Mark rolls his eyes, falsely dramatic.

“Ok first of all, stupid and dimwit mean the same thing. And thank you for the support. I appreciate.” Jinyoung almost forgets about his own depression at some point, and Mark laughs again, grabbing him by the shoulder to pull him back inside.

But Jinyoung isn’t sad, Jinyoung is totally out of it. He still hasn’t realised the fact that you are getting married, and until he set foot in here, he couldn’t believe it. He looks around the place again and sees you, hugging people and laughing with others. You look happy, like the world is complete and he wants to hit his head against the nearest table.

You don’t look for him in the crowd. You don’t need to see him. You can’t look at him because you decided not to think about this. Hurting yourself has always been your forte, but today isn’t about him, today is about your future and your husband. You can’t possibly ruin everything for the sake of a man who doesn’t even care about you.

He doesn’t deserve your love anyways.

When everyone is greeted, it’s time to go back to the main table. Your friends have a surprise for you, and even though it’s scaring you, you’re glad you can run away from Jinyoung to focus on something else. You take a seat and the master of ceremonies approaches you.

“If the guests would like to have a seat, we have a surprise for tonight’s princess.”

You cringe at the choice of word, before looking in front of you. This is so cliché-

You stop processing whatever you brain is thinking when Jinyoung’s eyes meet yours in the middle of the room. He is among your group of friends and he looks bored. He stares at you like you are the most stupid person on earth, and at some point, it’s hard to stare back so you focus on your other friends.

Mark looks so happy, and your best friend Gina is crying a river. The table is full of emotions, and then there is Jinyoung, who looks like he would rather jump out the window rather than be here.

You husband sits right before the video projector turns on.

“The bride’s friends prepared a little something. If you’d like.” He takes a tiny remote control and presses a button.

Our Best Moments

Jinyoung turns to Mark, bewildered. “Did you do this?” He can’t believe this.

Mark nods, pointing at him, Gina, and another one of their friends, Jaebum -who is too busy stuffing his mouth to notice the general atmosphere-. “Of course we did. You’re so useless we had to do it without you.”

“Hopefully my name won’t appear. You guys are so soppy I want to throw up.” Jinyoung makes a face and Mark almost smacks him on the head.

Gina leans to whisper. “Only people with a heart can understand so shut it.” She high fives Mark and they both team up to mock Jinyoung.

What a day to be alive.

When the first picture appears, Jinyoung freezes right on the spot. His heart starts to beat faster and his eyes can’t get away from the scene.

It’s a picture of you all. Everyone is happy in their old high-school uniforms. The class sends nostalgic vibes to Jinyoung, but what strikes him the most is the way you look at the camera. You look so unhappy.

He can’t deal with this. He thought he could, he thought he could deal with you being happy and loving another man but he can’t. It’s right at this moment that everything he built to come here crushes like a sand castle. It’s hard, it hurts, but he can’t do anything about it.

He can’t stop you from being happy.

He didn’t know he could feel moved anymore. He had been so miserable all these years he thought he wouldn’t feel anything, but the way you look at the picture, with that tiny smile he loves so much is enough make him release a shaky breath.

Jinyoung made the biggest mistake in his life.

He closes his eyes and lets his head drop on his hand, pensive.

He can’t hear anything at some point, but he blames it on his wandering mind. He is totally out of it and wants to disappear, so when he reopens his eyes, he is surprised to see everyone frozen.

He blinks a couple of times but no one is moving. The music has stopped, the master of ceremony is frozen with the mic right over his lips, your smile doesn’t move.

“What the hell is happening-” he jumps when he sees everyone frozen next to him. Mark’s hands stop while clapping, Gina’s face is close to crying again, and Jaebum’s mouth is wide opened.

“Hey.” He jumps when a deep voice blows on his ear and finds a man in a bright white suit. He has the goofiest smile ever, with a bit of mischief and blinks cutely at him.

“What do you want?” Jinyoung gets up so fast he almost falls, surprised to see at least someone who actually moves.

“Let me introduce myself. I’m Jackson Wang. You can call me Jackson.” The Jackson boy smiles at him and extends a hand, which Jinyoung totally ignore. “I’m here to help you.” He adds.

Jinyoung’s brain disconnect for a second and Jackson laughs.

“I’m a fairy. I’m here to help you.” He explains like it’s the most natural thing in the world and pushes on Jinyoung’s shoulder to make him sit. “You might want to sit down, kid.”

Jinyoung purses his lips, his eyes narrowing at the fairy who takes another chair to sit next to him.

“Before you say anything, let me explain. I’m a fairy. I’m here to help you get this girl,” he points to you, still frozen “I’m here to make you both happy!” Jackson squeals so loud Jinyoung jumps again.

“Are you drunk? Do we know each other? And why is everyone frozen?” Jinyoung groans because this is getting too crazy for his liking. Now what, a fairy?

He knew weddings were dangerous places.

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much. Everyone is frozen because I made them froze.” He wriggles his brows at Jinyoung who is by now totally lost as to what is happening.

“They sent you, right?” He laughs at some point, because he has no other way to explain the situation, and even less when he sure didn’t drink enough to get this drunk.

Jackson points at his frozen friends with furrowed brows, “Them? Come on kid, do you really think everyone here agreed to this type of joke? No seriously, come on.” He makes gestures with his hands like the fact that he is a fairy is obvious.

But something inside Jinyoung’s brain ticks and he opens his mouth, eyes turned into two slits “How do you even know about her and I?”

When Jackson whines, he jumps back, shocked. “Because I’m a damn fairy! Are you even listening to me?”

“Ok so, let’s say you’re actually a fairy. You’re here because you want to help me get the person who is getting married right now?” It doesn’t make any sense, but Jinyoung gives it a try, because maybe, just maybe, this guy will go away.

But he doesn’t, and inches even closer. “exactly,” he whispers. “I’m here for that.”

“And how are you genius going to do so?” Jinyoung tries to confront this bullshit. Maybe Jackson is a psycho who is about to slander his body. Who knows.

“The pictures! You’ll go into the pictures.”

How interesting.

“Look, I had a lot of fun talking to you but maybe you’re out of your damn mind.” Jinyoung starts scratching his face in an annoying manner and takes another sip of his glass. Maybe he should get drunk.

“Come on, you were crying from the inside a couple of minutes earlier. Don’t act like it’s not true. I’ll give you one last chance. Well technically, you have five more chances.” Jackson starts explaining the deal and Jinyoung finds himself listening to him before he can even protest. It’s way too crazy to be ignored and he will have to beat Mark’s ass for this very lame joke later.

“So once I jump into the picture what do I do?” A smirk appears on Jinyoung face. He must be going crazy, too.

“You do what you were not able to do back then. I can only send you, you’ll have to pay for some good dating pro-tips.” The fairy winks and laugh loudly, before stopping. “I’m joking. I send you right on the day the picture was taken, and you do the rest.”

Jinyoung bites his lips, slowly nodding. “and… how do I get to…go there?”

He can’t believe he is actually having a conversation about going into pictures to get the girl he loves.

“If it’s your most precious wish, you only have to ask for it.” Jackson explains, grabbing the first champagne glass he finds.

“How?” Jinyoung is too tired to deal with crazy people right now. It’s the worst day of his life, he feels lonely, sad, frustrated, angry and now there is a weird guy talking about fairies and steps back in time.

“The magic words.” The fairy answers and Jinyoung wants to slam his head against the table in despair.

“Get lost, freak.” His hand moves on its own, signalling the guy he isn’t going to play along.

Not today.

He tried playing along, he tried being nice, but now it’s too much for him to handle.

“Come on. Just say ‘One more chance!’”

“One more chance.” Jinyoung repeats with a bored voice and Jacksons slaps his arm.

“You have to believe it! Try again! Come on get up, spread your arms, do something but be passionate, for god’s sake.”

“One more chance!” He yells once Jackson pushes him up and the last thing he sees is Jackson talking to him.

“May your wish be fulfilled.”

An: Credit to the owners for the pictures!

[kgyeomiex]

Three Empty Words (M)

“It’s so hard to pretend to be friends with someone special, when every time you look at that person, all you see is everything want to have.”

Summary: Have a best friend who sticks with you through thick and thin is impossible to find. The moment you met Jackson, you know he was going to be your best friend for life. Jackson always knew how to make sure you were happy and healthy and always seemed to turn a negative situation into a positive one. However, you would be lying to yourself if you were to say you didn’t have any type of feelings for Jackson… But Jackson is just your best friend… You knew best to push those feelings away and just move on.

Previous Parts:

Part 1 // Part 2

Part 3 everyone~

More Parts:

Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8

Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`~

“I see you were finally able to make it,” Yoongi says the moment you appraoched him and you smiled.

“Of course, wouldn’t miss it,” You didn’t know how to approach Yoongi. The moment the both of you were alone at the party, you two locked lips and you enjoyed yourself.

Although you didn’t want to really ruin anything, you approached Yoongi and the two of you pulled each other into a hug. The moment the both of you pulled away, you looked at Yoongi and catching you off guard instead of kissing you on your lips, he kisses your cheek.

That was sweet... You placed a hand on your cheek and you continued to smile. Yoongi probably noticed but who cares.

“What’s our plans for today?” You asked Yoongi and he just grabs your hand and locker your hand with his as the two of you intertwined fingers with one another.

“I’ll keep that a surprise,”

Yoongi had an unexpected side? This should be fun...

~

Jackson’s Point of View

What the hell just happened? I looked at the fort and then back at the door. Did Y/N happen to hear me talk on the phone? Is that why she left? Or did she leave to possibly meet up with Yoongi... I don’t know but whatever it was I couldn’t really say much about it.

I mean, to be honest, I was going to ditch her but not for no reason. I actually needed to meet up with a good friend of mine to maybe get some advice and get some things done...

“Jackson! Damn what took you so long?” Jooheon asks as he continued to sit on the bench with his arms folded and all I could do was smile.

“Yeah, sorry about that... Something came up.” I didn’t want to mention Y/N because I know the moment I did that Jooheon would make comments about young love.

You see Jooheon is a good friend of mine and I didn’t want to let him know about Y/N, but it happened to slip out of my mouth without even me noticing when I got drunk and after that happened the moment I mentioned Y/N’s name, Jooheon will go on and on how I should make a move already.

“Like?” Jooheon asks tilting his head looking right me and I sighed.

“Nothing, now can we get going?”

“Right you were with Y/N,” Shit I forgot that I happened to mention her name when we talked through the phone.

“Okay I was, now let’s go.” Jooheon nudged me on the side, gave me a quick wink and in no time the both of us finally went on with what we had to do.

~

Your Point of View

“Mm, where are we going?” You asked Yoongi as you followed behind him and he smiled.

“Patience,” Yoongi hasn’t given you a single clue where your date probably was located or even what you guys were going to do.

The only thing you knew about the date was you were going to be with Yoongi Well, this should be interesting. You didn’t know either to expect something risky and crazy or something simple and cute.

You were beyond curious because you two were literally walking in an area where it was nothing but trees and grass. Eventually, the both of you came to a stop and you took one look and noticed that you were near a cliff. You looked down it was that steep but there you saw an ocean and a mini waterfall.

This was incredibly beautiful.

“I know we just started talking and stuff but you know I wanted to do something different and something for the first time with someone special.” You didn’t know if Yoongi was flirting with you but if he was you didn’t mind at all.

“Aw... Well, what do you have in mind,” Instead of Yoongi responding using his words, you noticed he was suddenly removing clothes off of himself one by one. You noticed the way he lifted up his shirt and then suddenly began to remove his shoes one by one...

“Uh, Yoongi?” You had no idea what Yoongi had planned for you and him but it felt like you were with Jackson you just have no idea what to expect from this boy... If anything you should only expect the unexpected...

“Have you ever cliff dived?” Cliff Dived? That was something Jackson and you talked about... Something the two of you wanted to do together... Wait why are you even thinking of Jackson... You’re here with Yoongi and you should enjoy the moment...

“No, I haven’t... But I wouldn’t mind trying,” In a matter of seconds you suddenly began to remove your clothes and now you were left in your undergarments along with Yoongi.

You did feel bad for doing this without Jackson but he missed this... If Jackson wasn’t to ditch you in the first place you wouldn’t be here with Yoongi but instead, he wanted to ditch you to be with someone else...

Oh well, things happen for a reason and right now you shouldn’t be here moping around feeling bad because you’re not with Jackson... If anything you should be excited to try something new with someone different.

Yoongi grabbed a hold of your hand and he looked at you.

“Are you sure you want to do this? We don’t have to if you don’t want to.” At first, you were slightly unsure but to be honest now you were with the idea.

“Let’s do it.” A huge smile spread across Yoongi’s face and in a matter of seconds Yoongi began to do a mini countdown for the both of you.

“3.....2....1.. NOW!” The both of you ran together side by side still holding hands and jumped off of the mini cliff and now landed in the ocean and you were quick to lift up your head and quickly wiped your eyes.

Wow did you really just do that?

You looked around and didn’t see Yoongi in sight till there he lifts up his head and he looks at you and smiles.

“What do you think?” Yoongi asks as the two of you were there right in front of one another and you couldn’t help but to suddenly feel how warm the water felt... And the view was just breathtaking...

This was definitely one experience you weren’t going to forget.

“This is incredible,” You said looking right at Yoongi and that’s when you noticed he was suddenly approaching you and he now wrapped his arm around your waist looking right at you.

“And you’re absolutely beautiful.” After that being said you weren’t expecting to kiss Yoongi anytime soon but you couldn’t help yourself. One the moment was perfect. The two of you had a beautiful view, his face was inches away from yours and you would be lying if you were to say that there was no connection between the two of you.

You could feel Yoongi glance down at your lips and at that moment you knew that Yoongi is possibly thinking the same thing as you. After glancing at your lips he began to suddenly lean in and you could feel your heart beating out of your chest full of excitement.

~

Jackson’s Point of View

“When are you finally going to make a move on her man? It feels like this crush of yours will go on until you die.” Joonheon says as I followed behind him on an ally and all I could do was a sigh.

“It’s not that simple... I mean she recently broke up with her boyfriend. At first, I thought yes now it’s my chance to make my move but I thought I didn’t want to be her rebound so I pushed it off and thought maybe if I could wait... I can confess when the time is right.” I said as we finally came to a stop and Jooheon looks at me.

“Well... What’s stopping you now?” Joonheon asks before he reaches up and grabs a staircase bringing it down that leads to a balcony.

“Yesterday I invited her to a party and well... She seemed to kick it off with Yoongi very well.” I lost my chance and now I feel like there is no point in ever waiting for her... Y/N hasn’t been single in a long time and I can’t just wait for her to be single... Because honestly, I have no idea when that will ever happen again.

“And what are you saying? That Yoongi is her new boyfriend or something?” Jooheon asks as he was now going up the steps and I followed behind him.

“I wouldn’t say that he is her boyfriend right now... But I mean... There is no way I can compete against him... Last time I saw the two alone they were exchanging salvias with one another.” Jooheon stopped himself from walking and looked back at me.

“You could have had your chance, but by the looks of things it looks like it’s too late now.” I rolled my eyes and from that point on we were now on the balcony and Jooheon opens a window and goes in. I followed behind him and hoped that after we went in the building... The topic of Y/N wouldn’t be brought up anymore.

~

Your Point of View

After swimming around the beautiful lake, the both of you walked to rocks and just sat there across from each other.

“You know when I first saw you walk in that party... I thought you were Jackson’s girlfriend.” Yoongi says and you looked at him completely shocked.

“What? Why would you think?” You asked Yoongi confused and he sighs.

“Well, the two of you were extremely close with one another. Plus on top of that Jackson did tell the boys before you came in that you were off limits. So I expected the two of you to be a couple.” Wait why would Jackson say that?

“He did what?” You asked Yoongi confused and he laughs.

“Oh, right I wasn't supposed to tell you.” What the hell? How can Jackson think it’s okay to tell anyone that they can and can’t talk to you? Last time you checked Jackson wasn’t your parent.

“Wait... I’m surprised you didn’t listen to him,” You said looking at Yoongi and he smiles.

“Why should I listen? The moment I found out a beautiful girl like you is single, I can’t let that just go.” You couldn’t help but blush. Although Jackson might have opened his mouth and told the boys not to make any moves, you were honestly glad that Yoongi didn’t listen.

You might not know Yoongi very well but the more you were around him you couldn’t help but develop a crush.

“And well, what are you going to do about my situation now?” You asked Yoongi and it was long till he slowly got closer and closer to the point your face was inches away from his.

“Well I’m going to change that of course,” Yoongi says and 2 seconds later his lips touch yours and you couldn’t help but smile throughout the kiss.

You had no idea that meeting one guy could lead to you moving on from your ex and now in another relationship. You could be mad that Jackson did tell Yoongi beforehand not to basically think about asking you out but Jackson isn’t your parents to tell me who you want and don’t want to be around.

~

Jackson’s Point of View

I have no idea why but the moment Jooheon and I began to discuss the dance routine we both wanted to do, I was completely distracted. Y/N kept randomly appearing in my mind and I have no idea how to possibly take her out of there. She was likey a catchy song that no matter what I tried to think of, she was on my mind.

“I... I fucked up,” I blurted out and Jooheon stops from dancing and looked over at me confused and clueless.

“It’s okay man, just try again.” Jooheon thought I was talking about the dance routine we were trying to do but no...

“Not the dance... I mean with Y/N,” I said sitting down on the ground and Jooheon looks at me and smiles.

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about her?” Jooheon says smirking and all I could do was just stare at him and sigh.

“What do I do? I left Y/N early and who knows what she could be doing now,” I don’t know why I’m suddenly having a hard time trying to keep my mind focused on important things like this dance.

“What do you mean?” Jooheon asks confused and I sat on the floor and looked at him.

“What if I just gave her an opportunity to go meet up Yoongi? What if they are with each other right now....” Damn, I messed up bad.

“Then Yoongi would have Y/N and well you lost your shot once again,” I should have known. I was here trying to be a good friend thinking that Y/N needed more time to get over her ex... But by me thinking like a friend I, later on, lose my shot with Y/N once again.

“Maybe I should text her.... See what’s she up to?” Jooheon walks up to me and places a hand on my shoulder.

“Chill, I know you probably regret what you did but the damage is done. If Y/N and you are meant to be together than Y/N will still be single by the time we are done rehearsing.” I wanted to continue going on about the topic but Jooheon was right.

I could stand here all day and say I fucked up over and over... But what was that going to do?

“You’re right.” I agreed and I sighed.

“Let’s just get started.”

~

Your Point of View

After basically making out with Yoongi, the two of you got out of the river and just sat on the rocks admiring the view you had right in front of the two of you.

“You know what I’m pretty surprised about,” Yoongi begins to say and you looked at him.

“What are you surprised about?” You asked Yoongi and he smiles.

“That Jackson and you aren’t a couple. I mean at the party at first I thought you two were together.” Ha, why do people always assume that? Can’t I be friends with a guy?

“No, if anything he’s like a brother to me. I don’t think I could ever see Jackson as anything more and he knows that.” Yoongi smiles and looks at you

“Well you’re mine now,” Yoongi says wrapping his arm around your waist and you smiled.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” You said and it was long until you pulled him into a kiss.

You’re hoping being with Yoongi is going to be completely different compared to the relationship you were just in. Yoongi seemed like had good intentions and honestly, he looks like he will be different from the rest.

Yoongi got up and smiled.

“Ready to go for another swim?”

“You know what, I am.” You got up right next to Yoongi and he grabbed a hold of your hand and from that point, on the both of you jumped back into the river and decided it was time to spend some time with your boyfriend. It’s weird to even say that but it felt right.

Although you found out some things about Jackson like him telling guys not to talk to you, you weren’t going to let them get to you. If anything you were just ready to have fun and call it a day.

~

To Be Continued

[sarahsilverdog-blog-blog]

One Problem At A Time

~There's Something Happening Here~

"Dad? Where are you? Are you okay?"

The real world came crashing back down around them, hybrids and babies and insanity. Jamie rose from the cool white breakfast nook chair and wandered to the cockpit window to see what was happening in the compound as Mitch cleared his throat again and answered. "We're fine, Clem. We're on the plane. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Dad. We're all fine. But everyone evacuated, we're the only ones left." Her voice took on a new urgency. "Abe is here with me and we have some news. Sam woke up and we explained what happened. He says he may know where Abigail is, some lab she has here in the southwest. He says its the only place he knows of that is close."

Jamie spoke up before Mitch could answer. "I thought Jackson made a deal with Abigail," she said, "to let the hybrids through in exchange for Baby Sam."

Clem's voice was tight with tears. "Abigail isn't responding to us. Jackson has tried her but she's not answering, she's not...I know she's not going to give him back. We have to find him, Dad!" Fury flared up inside Jamie again but she quashed it down. Now was not the time for darkness.

Mitch was on his feet, pacing as much as he could in the small cockpit area. "So, where is this lab?"

Abe's deep voice answered him. "In the mountains outside of Phoenix. Unfortunately, without the plane, we will never make it in time to administer the sterility cure."

Mitch threw his free hand in the air. "Well, unfortunately Roger Ramjet rammed our jet through a giant wall, so that's out-"

Jamie, still watching out the cockpit window at the deserted compound, interjected. "We still have the plane."

Mitch took the phone from his ear and squinted at her through his glasses. "What are you talking about? This thing was just used as a battering ram through a concrete wall. It's going to have some damage to the body or the wings."

"Actually, it's not," Jamie retorted, pushing herself away from the control panel and getting closer to Mitch. "A few years ago I had an incident with a wall some idiot built on the Mexico/US border that nearly killed me and the Shepherd I had just captured in Mexico City. I decided to have the plane sheathed in super strong carbon fiber coating. Lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel." She nodded out the window at the remains of the barrier. "Or concrete. I'll have to run some quick diagnostics to be sure, but if we can get the engines cleaned out and find a stretch of land long enough to use as a runway, we can get back in the air."

Mitch was staring at her with something between amusement, annoyance, and admiration. "Carbon fiber sheathing. Of course you did." He caught her eyes and held her gaze as he said into the phone, "Okay, Abe, according to Super Jamie, the plane is still an option. So let's come up with a plan."

***

Jamie had disappeared into the belly of the plane to start working on cleaning debris from the engines. Mitch left her to it; knowing her, she had some fancy gadget installed to take care of just such a situation.

He ran the plan over in his head again. When the engines were taken care of, he and Jamie would move the plane back out of the compound, turn it around and back it up so that the vehicle bay was as close to the interior of the compound as they could get it. Jackson and Tessa were charged with finding a vehicle of some sort suitable for moving Sam - he was still in very bad shape and couldn't walk. There was a vacancy in the vehicle bay where Jamie's Mustang used to be, so after they were all loaded up with Sam they would just drive right up into the plane while Mitch and Jamie covered them and then hope that they could find an open stretch of sand to take off on.

Mitch was not too sure about being able to take off, and he said as much to Jamie as she was leaving the cockpit. "Mitch," she reassured him, "this thing landed with no runway, it can take off without one. I have been in worse places than this and made it out okay." She smiled and kissed him softly. "And this time I have you with me. It's going to be fine."

He cupped her face with both hands and kissed her back soundly. "I hope so. I have faith in you, Jamie Campbell."

Abe and Dariela he had tasked with a far more dangerous job. "I need the zombie dog, Abe. The one that died and came back as a hybrid. I need to figure out if the hybrids are turning the animals or of it's something else. And if they ARE turning the animals, how?"

"That would be good information to have, Mitch," Abe agreed. "Should I get anything else?"

"Yeah. The soldier the dog killed, bring him too. Whatever is left of him, anyway."

***

Two hours and fifty five minutes left.

Mitch had been right, Jamie did have a gadget to clean the engines for her. A small robot on a tether, basically a combination fan/mop, ran into the engine compartments, blew out the dirt, rocks, any other debris that could be detrimental to them, then ran the 'mop' over the metal inside, cleaning the remaining dust out and greasing the interior so that the turbine blades would run smoothly. She tapped at the spare tablet she had activated to replace the one Jackson broke, her mind wandering as the robot did its job and she found herself thinking about Logan. He had been so many things to her - companion, conspirator, friend, lover, enemy - but he had never been who she really wanted. Had he known from the beginning no matter what he did she would never love him, never really belong to him? He had spent years of his life sharing her with a dead man, yet never complained, never even brought it up. How many nights had Mitch's ghost lay between them, keeping her forever apart, keeping Logan forever alone? Guilt began to eat at her and she squeezed her eyes shut tight to stem the tears that were threatening to overflow. "You don't have time for this now, Campbell," she muttered to herself, taking a deep shaky breath. "Save it for later."

"Save what for later?" Dear God, Mitch was the last person she wanted to see just at this moment, and she hastily wiped her eyes and turned her back to him, pretending to be busy.

"Uh," she grasped for an answer as the cleaning gadget beeped at her, and she took the opportunity to cover up her emotions, pulling on its tether as she finished, "Putting this little guy away. I may need him again."

"Uh huh," Mitch replied flatly. He wasn't fooled but to his credit he didn't push her, instead peering curiously at the mop/fan as she wound the tether up. "So I guess we're good here? I just got off the phone with Abe, they have Sam loaded up in one of the IADG golf carts, I guess it was all they could find."

"Well that doesn't sound very safe."

He shrugged at her. "Since when have we ever been very safe?"

Jamie chuckled. "Fair point."

An uneasy silence fell over them. Mitch wasn't a stranger to the emotional workings of women, but since dealing with them -women or emotions- had never been his forte he had never mastered the art of tactful handling. His footing with Jamie was still a little uneven after the Duncan fiasco and he didn't want to upset the peace they had made, he didn't want to be the darkness that swooped in and blotted out their moment of light, but he found his tongue moving before his brain could stop him and he blurted out, "I'm sorry about Logan."

It was the right thing to say. She rewarded him with a sad smile and a squeeze of the hand. "Me too."

***

Moving the plane was easily accomplished, and Mitch was fairly impressed when Jamie whipped it around and backed it into the open, deserted compound yard. He gave her a low whistle as they left the cockpit and headed to the vehicle bay and said, "I bet you aced your parallel parking test in high school."

"I knocked over three cones and spilled my instructor's coffee in his lap," she said as they reached the top of the central staircase. She paused before taking a step down giving Mitch a teasing smile that nearly made his heart stop. "Super Jamie didn't come along until later."

He caught up to her halfway down the stairs. "Bruce Wayne didn't become Batman until he was in his mid-20's. Tony Stark didn't become Iron Man until his mid-30's and they are bona fide super heroes. Hey, now that I think about it, they were both millionaires who used their vast fortunes to fight crime and injustice. Sounds kinda familiar."

They reached the lab, footsteps clattering on the gleaming floor. Jamie moved to one of the portholes, peering out into the compound. She had managed to maneuver the plane so that the vehicle bay was only about thirty yards from the barrier doors that led to the interior and the infirmary, and she had angled it so that from this side of the fuselage she had a pretty good view of what was happening around them. "Oh my God." she murmured.

Mitch didn't like the sound of that. "What is it?" he asked, as he joined her at the window.

About a dozen razorbacks were milling around the compound, and when she looked up Jamie could see the shadows of several giant vulture hybrids circling, dark against the clear blue sky. "Oh look," Jamie said, her voice strained, "It's one of our dinosaur friends." A familiar, scaly green-brown head bobbed above the razorbacks and she added, "Welcome to Jurassic Park."

Mitch grabbed his phone and hurriedly dialed Abe as he and Jamie both started racing toward the vehicle bay. "Hey, we've got company out here. You need to stay where you are until we can figure something out."

Abe's voice was worried on the other end of the line. "What kind of company?"

"Oh, just a few razorbacks and some dive-bombing vultures. And a dinosaur. Velociraptor I think. I don't know for sure, I'm not a paleontologist. Nothing we can't handle, though, just stay there until I call you." They had reached the bay, Jamie was already at the armory, unloading automatic weapons and ammo, and then she reached into the bottom of the armory and pulled out a big, heavy black case.

"Did you say dinosaur?" Abe's deep voice was incredulous but he recovered quickly. "We are running out of time. Dariela and I will come and help you clear out the hybrids. We must find the baby before it is too late."

"Copy that." Mitch didn't like it, it wasn't part of the plan, but Abe was right, they were running out of time and there were a lot of hybrids out there. He took the assault rifle Jamie handed him and the extra ammunition, stuffing it into his jacket. "Five minutes, have everyone ready." He hung up the phone slipping it into his rear pocket, nodding at the case Jamie was opening and asked, "What's that?"

Jamie lifted out a long, gray object that looked like something halfway between a rifle and a water gun. It had a heavy black hose attached to the rear that connected to the backpack made of gas canisters that Jamie hefted onto her back, slipping her arms into the straps and settling the weight on her shoulders. "Flamethrower," she said with more than a little pride. "Israeli military. I won it from a Russian government official in a bet a few years ago. I've never had the opportunity to use it, but now seems like a pretty good time to try it out."

Jesus, she was glowing with excitement - and a little fear - and even though there wasn't time for it, wasn't room for the distraction, he couldn't stop himself from pulling her close, feeling the crush of her against him, smelling the grease from the engines still in her clothes and tasting the saltiness of her skin as he kissed her, free hand wound tightly in her hair, he didn't need to breathe, he just needed to drink her in as long as-

His phone rang shrilly, breaking the moment and he let go of her reluctantly, pulling his phone out. It was Abe, and he turned it on just as Abe was yelling, '-if you can hear us, we are being attacked! Mitch, Jamie, we are being attacked!" There were gunshots and screams and the phone went dead.

***