#clooney is the real star of the fic

[lune-de-miel-au-paradis]

OC Nina Cerasus deep dive part 2.

Meet my OC from my Star-crossed story. (She is a young woman living in her early twenties on Naboo. The time period is before the Phantom Menace.) I already made a short list about her. This is a little more deeper and collected. I hope you enjoy knowing her and like her as much as I do. Sorry for any mistype or bad English this is not my first language. I made a mood board about how I imagine her, the pictures are from Pinterest.

have they / would they dye their hair? she is a natural dark chocolate brunette, maybe she would add some colorful highlights 

do they maintain eye contact when talking? definitely

what is their tell for lying? a small movement, she picks her right pinky finger.

do they have an accent? she speaks in Nabooan dialect, also, she has a raspy seductive voice. People often ask her if she has a sore throat. Sometimes she sounds out of breath because of her illness. 

what languages do they speak? basic, binari (droid), kenari, 

what kind of music do they listen to? alternative/ acoustic/classic piano, also I think she would like Lana del Rey, Hozier and Mitski

describe them in one word. What could happen to make them the opposite? Abandoned. / Stay by.

do they have any ghosts? yes, her mom died, her dad left, and Maul broke her heart 

what is their worst fear? left alone, die alone, being forgotten

what is a secret they do not tell anyone? she has a few:

That her relationship was with Maul (in my Star-crossed fic)  

She was there when her mom died. 

She was the one who unveiled her fathers frauds and thefts and sent him to jail. It's her revenge. 

what motto do they live by? Ad astra per aspera. - Through hardships to the stars.

if they were a famous figure, who would they be? she was inspired by many characters from movies or books, also from my own life, but if I have to say some concrete examples it would be Amal Clooney's and Dakota Johnson's dressing style, a lot of inpo comes from Ellie Saab and Zuhair Murad gowns. And Sofia Bush's voice.

Also she got her name from my highscool bff called Nina. (She passed away a few years ago sadly due to a car accident.) So it's like a memorial thing to name my oc of her. A few of her personality traits, her freckles and silly moments also given to my character that remind me of my friend. And the green eyes my oc has is coming from me.

personality: the constant fear of being abandoned, having trust issues and the feeling of never being good enough. And she is trying to be the best version of herself by working hard and passionately. She fears to show out her real emotions or build connections, especially romantic ones. 

what great moment shaped them to be who they are? Have they lived through the moment yet? 

discovering her heart disease

when her mom got sick her dad left them and made his own family

Maul choose revenge over her and left in the Phantom Menace, she thinks he just left and used her, she never knew he was the sith assassin till my Heavenbound fic

her grandma’s first accident, then her hospital rest time

Wolffe’s love changed her, healed her and made her trust him and believe in love

what is their fatal flaw? fear of abandonment and trust issues makes her make bad decisions

how do they feel about jewelry? painted nails? she likes celestial themed or rare, personalized dainty jewelry

she gets her nails done soft almond shapes, and always decorated with stars and moons and use sparkly nail polish

what kind of art are they? astrophile as a hobby, art deco as a style, romanticism as paintings and mythological in sculptures and a femme fatale archetype in movies/novels

do they play a sport? weekly pilates lessons and dancing in clubs

do they have a speech impairment? how would that translate across paper? she is well spoken, and intelligent. Also her voice is raspy but in a seductive way.

what could you do to betray their trust? lying 

what makes them smile? acts of kindness and gentleness, paying attention to her little things, also the starry sky, and her loved ones

if you had to choose something to make them go all john wick, who would it be? to protect her loved ones

do they swear? in what language? yes in basic mostly

how comfortable do they feel around strangers? she tries to seem calm and collected being in charge of the conversation, but she usually assesses and judges their gestures and researches their back intentions

are they extraverted or introverted? introverted 

do they stand straight? what is their posture like? straight and hard like a ballerina's posture

what is their sleep schedule like? when she has time after work on mini power naps on rare occasions, she’s more insomniac workaholic

would they consciously invade someone else's body space? even a stranger's? always holds a decent distance, except when she flirts

how do they feel about contact with other people? do they flinch? she doesn’t like touchy people and only hugs her loved ones

are they the first to hug? never (exception if when she hugs Maul)

what would make them kill / stop them from killing? her morals, she wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose and she avoids physical harm

how do they smile? do they have dimples? yes she has smaller dimples, and in her apples and on her chin, and it makes her diastema visible

what about their teeth -- braces? sharp teeth? dentures? yellow teeth? what about spots? hers are white and straight but she has diastema (a big space between her two front teeth)

how do they get others' attention? clear their throat? punch them? clears her throat,

do they talk with their hands? sometimes

what is their final goal? building her home, having a family and feeling safe

how would they describe happiness? being with the people she can trust and love, under the bright starry night admiring the comets

what is their biggest conflict? it doesn't need to be big for everyone else, only for them. 

she needs to learn to let others in and be open for love

it’s hard for her to understand that Wolffe is loves her and doesn’t have the intention to leave her

also letting go Maul, she never knew who he truly was and her ideal about him got shattered in my Heavenbound fic, she had a hard time learning the truth letting her feelings go and having a closure, after she meets him on Mandalore

how do they react to death? seel super sad, and isolate herself 

do they cry? how do they cry ? in silent tears, or sobbing and screaming in pain, but she is not a crybaby. she suppresses it and have “episodes” of panic attacks she refers to as“inner storms”

how do they react when someone else is crying? can they comfort a stranger? she tries to give some sort of solution or comfort, she is empathetic

how are they around pets? are they allergic to any? she is allergic to tooka cats, she loves wolves 

following up, do they have allergies? to some pollens, and tooka cats

do they take off their shoes going into a stranger's house? would they offer to do the dishes? she offers to help cleaning up

do they call strangers by their first name or title? she is a professional lawyer so she calls people on their title/ titled name or accost

how do they show fear? trying to hide it? shaking? etc. she tries to hide it and acting calm and collected, try to show out her fearlessness, her voice is tremble and she shake's lightly

what is their impact on other characters? she usually gives the impression of a beautiful, clever, well spoken intelligent women who is very elusive and cunning

how could any of these change by the end of the story? we can see her softened up and warm hearted true self in the end of Heavenbound, she heals her traumas from Starcrossed, lets go of her past and builds her own family. She learns to trust and she dies while she is defending others. 

Taglist: @hellhound5925 @cloneloverrrrr @stardustbee @the-chains-are-the-easy-part @firstofficerwiggles

let me know if you would like to be added!

[waveridden]

eight things i've written that i think rule and are underappreciated

because sometimes you go to your ao3 stats page out of curiosity and you see things at the bottom of stats and go what the fuck, that rules and deserves more attention, and honestly i like the things i write so i'm going to promote some. you know how it goes. multifandom but with a heavy blaseball focus

keep low (blaseball semicentennial) was written for the rolling remix exchange, about rat mason avoiding the vault, and i had a lot of fun trying to make it feel legitimately threatening and weird without writing A Full Horror Story

imprinting (blaseball) was written for the blaseball zine jam, specifically fusion weather, where i answer the question, "how fucked up would it be if salmon eclipses could kill people and then undo it" and i'm still really proud of the four different scenarios in the fic

building as a verb (blaseball) was written for one of those maincord flash fanwork prompts, i took two characters i'd never written before and threw them together for no real reason and injected all my thoughts about the gleek having seen so much death, and it was fun just fucking around

on currents (blaseball sc1) is a story about pirates featuring a bunch of temporary characters and so is maybe more accessible to nonfans than a lot of these blaseball fics. what if a sword that became a tree and a star that became a wrestler had to navigate a crew of pirates out of hell. what if i trusted you enough to let you hold my whole body and essence in your hands

hurricane season (blaseball, early expansion) was written for a friendly fanwork jam about elsewhere back when that was a very new concept, and i still love the idea that elsewhere players literally dissolve into immateria. like let's be honest i crushed it

sense/memory (neoscum) was written bc i had the idea very present in the back of my mind and no time to commit, so i sat down and did a messy style experiment and i really love what came out of it

a ten-year concussion (f@tt c/w, jace/addax/jamil) is a ghost au. i don't normally do ghost aus but this one still exists fully in my head. idk i just think that jamil is a fun addition to the jace/addax dynamic and this was me trying to explore that and i think i did well

window blues (campaignpod s1, tryst/aava) was my attempt at smushing together the scenes in ocean's eleven where they recruit young hotshot matt damon, their old retiree grifter, and where george clooney reunites with julia roberts. and i really love the tone that's set here

thank you. tell your friends

[palpablenotion]

This idea that fanfic isn't real literature has pissed me off so much. You know who wrote fanfic? Virgil, who authored the Aeneid, a continuation of Homer's works. Dante, who included real people in his self insert fiction wherein Virgil - you mean who authored the Aeneid? Yea, him - guides him through hell and purgatory and Beatrice, who was also a real woman, guided him through heaven. He wrote a mash up of Judeo-Christian themes (heavier on the Christian) as well as figures, same as mythological figures from Greco-Roman pantheon and lore. He wrote a self insert, rpf cross over fic. About religion. And Mary Sued the heaven into a real woman's facade.

Know who else? Margaret Atwood. She's famous for a lot of YA books but in this theme, she's also known and renowned in circles for the Penelopiad, retelling the Odyssey from Penelope's perspective. Rewrites from another perspective, that isn't at all a staple of fanfic collections /sarcasm.

Let's stay on this same vein, wherein things come from Homer who, regardless if it was one man or several persons, penned the oral lore and traditions of the Hellenes. O' Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) starring George Clooney is just a complete rewrite of the Odyssey in an alt universe.

How about Rick Riordan's works? Just modern set "post story" fic, arguable whether it's alt uni or not.

How can we forget Ulysses? Which is the Odyssey. Ulysses is Odysseus.

That's just a very small amount of applauded media/fiction/content/great literature that is based off the Iliad and or Odyssey. I could continue on with Shakespeare who was himself just rewriting other stories in new settings for the most part. There's probably thousands of examples of that. And Disney princesses? All based on other people's stories (some fiction, some real life stories).

Fanfiction is naturally occurring. It's fish tales, a legacy of telephone, scribes practicing their writing on clay tablets and leaning heavy on certain relationships in their copy that accidentally gets immortalized because they set the hole of clay slabs on fire (cough epic of gilgamesh cough). It's natural to retell stories. It's natural to want to change things in them. Fanfiction is normal and not lesser.

This guy has a meltdown every time he sees anyone so much as mention fanfic on his dash.  Seriously, he’s reblogged people’s personal fic links with only a handful of notes screaming about how it’s “fair game” for him “to shit all over”

So what’s his fucking problem?  Oh, apparently he wrote a book that no one was interested in, and he decided this is the fault of fic authors.  Somehow.

Yikes.

The funny part is, he’s written fanfic!

He’s just claiming it’s not fanfic for “reasons.”  Totally obvious and not-at-all bullshit reasons, and if you don’t get it you must be illiterate!  Duh.  (The reason is “I hate fanfic, so therefore anything I write cannot possibly be fanfic!”)

[katytheinspiredworkaholic]

Dog Days! I fell in love with your hotchreid so I'm so excited to see how you treat moreid too!

I have so much fun with this one, but there's SO MUCH going on idk what I want to do: either tell you the plot or give you snippets from my messy outline. So -- legit -- I flipped a coin.

I can't tell you much about what is going on or why, because spoilers, but just know that there is a snowstorm of the century outside, Spencer has been snowed into Morgan's house while dog-sitting Clooney (Morgan had returned home to Chicago for the holidays), and Morgan has just recently discovered that Dr. Spencer Reid has had a crush on him for a very long time.

Super unfinished blurb/outline/clip below the cut! SPOILERS

-

When Morgan arrives at his house, it’s like four in the morning. Clooney doesn’t come greet him, nor does he chase him off, and Morgan finds the dog with Spencer in his bed -- because the pipes burst and flooded the room Spencer was staying in. He’s fast asleep, in Morgan’s clothes, cuddling his dog and soft from sleep and… Morgan almost doesn’t have the heart to wake him. Brushes some of his hair out of his face, watches how Spencer wakes gently but not fully, stretching and the long lines of his body curve in a way Morgan hasn’t allowed himself to stare at in a long while. Against his bedsheets.

“Reid.” he tries to wake him, but damn if the boy isn’t a heavy sleeper. “Reid. Pretty boy, wake up --”

“Tooearly,” he’ll mumble rolling a little but not enough and his curls are everywhere and Morgan isn’t sure what he wants to do beyond fall asleep also. And be as warm as Spencer looks.

“Sleeping beauty, either wake up or scoot over,” he teases, and Spencer hums noncommittally, not even questioning why Morgan is there. “You’re hogging the whole bed.”

“NoI’mnot, Clooney is.” The dog looks at Morgan with an expectant stare and Morgan can’t help but grin, enjoying… whatever dynamic this is. This domesticity.

“Well then both of you scoot over.” He rumbles, taking off his winter jacket and soaked socks.

“Don’t gotta answer to you if I’m dreaming,” Spencer grumbles out, curling into Clooney’s fur and dozing as Morgan gets dressed for bed. Usually he doens’t dress much at all, but it’s freezing and… fuck it, he’s about to share his bed with his dog and his best friend who has a serious crush on him so. Clothes.

“You argue with me even in your dreams? I’m touched, pretty boy,” he snickers, then kneels on the edge of the bed about to either pick up and move his dog, or push the both of them all the way over. “Now seriously, move before I move you myself.”

The dip in the bed is Spencer’s first clue he needs to wake the fuck up.

His eyes snap open and he’s pushing himself up onto one arm slowly, hair a mess and Morgan’s shirt half off his shoulder. Lips parted in shock and not sure what to say beyond --

“What are you doing here?”

“Trying to sleep, but someone won’t let me into my own bed.”

--

Ask Game: WIP file folders Game

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (12 Sep-18 Sep 2021)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍 The Downsides to a Secret Identity (liodain) - 42K, SuperBat - Clark's not into Bruce but very into Batman, Bruce is very into Clark but kinda hates Superman, and Lex Luthor is definitely up to something shady af.

😍😍 bene castigat series (Nonymos) - shrinkyclinks, 69K - forever fave BDSM fic with smol Dom Steve and a beefy subby Bucky, plus Natasha, Clint & Sam. Truly perfection.

😍 Tommy Cabot Was Here (The Cabots #1) (Cat Sebastian) - reread of this fantastic historical 2nd chance romance novella with not a huge amount of plot, a medium amount of angst and a whole lot of vibes. Eleventy stars.

😍 Peter Cabot Gets Lost (The Cabots #2) (Cat Sebastian) - a grumpy/sunshine enemies-to-lovers road trip with little action, big vibes? YES PLEASE.

😊 Plain and Tall (destielpasta, mtothedestiel) - 69K, Destiel western/homesteading AU - I have no shame in admitting I love a Little House on the Prairie AU

plus 239K of shorter fic so shorter work shout out:

true leadership, rainbow laces, short shorts, and a small cause for a national scandal (foghornjazz) - The Witcher: Geraskier, 11K - modern footballer AU (me, reading a football AU: Ted Lasso has a lot to fucking answer for.)

Your (ridiculous) eyelashes will write (a stupid poem) on my heart (powerfulowl (StuckyFlangst)) - MCU: Stucky, 8K - shrunkyclunks, bartender Bucky

Here Come the Dreams (PorcupineGirl) - Check Please!: Zimbits, 26K - let me reiterate: I am always here for baker!Bitter and NHL’er Jack

Gone Fishing (liodain) - DCEU: SuperBat, 2K - Bruce thinks the JL needs a team-building exercise in the woods. Just super funny.

[Podfic] unsportsmanlike conduct (quietnight; steebadore) - Stucky, 1.6K - the one that describes Steve’s hair as duckling fluff

[Podfic] Boeuf Mystère (quietnight) - Stucky, 1.2K

[Podfic] Chuck Roast (quietnight) - Stucky, 5K - sequel to Boeuf Mystère; Leverage crossover

champagne problems (sunset_phantom) - Julie and The Phantoms: Julie/Luke, 6K - suuuuper cute and romantic aged up fic

A warlord with a dark secret. His defiant captive, who burns for his touch. A smoldering passion will ignite when they surrender to their… (Helenish) - X-Men: Cherik, 9K - a delightful ‘80s style romance novel with an appropriate x-men slant; just a lot of fun

AND ALSO THESE ESSAYS/ARTICLES I REALLY LIKED

Is Becky Chambers the Ultimate Hope for Science Fiction?

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Blown Away - s2, e1-2

Legends of Tomorrow - s3, e10-12

Only Murders In The Building - s1, e1-5

Star Trek: Discovery - s1, e5-8

Ted Lasso - s2, ep9

Ghosts - s3, e1-3

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Twenty Thousand Hertz - THX Deep Note, Pt 1 & 2

Strong Songs - "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" from The Witcher

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings And What's Making Us Happy

Overinvested - Ep. 227: Strictly Ballroom

Strong Songs - "Tiny Dancer" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John

Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein - Pearl Mackie

Strong Songs - "Satisfied" from Hamilton (Updated!)

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Brooklyn Nine-Nine

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Åtvidaberg Sun Cannon

Strong Songs - "Barracuda" by Heart

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Only Murders In The Building

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Good Vibrations Antique Vibrator Museum

Twenty Thousand Hertz - Being George Clooney

Strong Songs - "Tom Sawyer" by Rush

99% Invisible - 458- Real Fake Bridges

Ologies with Alie Ward - Ciderology (DELICIOUS APPLE BEVERAGE) with Gabe Cook

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Nepali Folk Musical Instrument Museum

FILMS TO BE BURIED WITH Patreon Crew! - Mandip Gill

Strong Songs - Strong Covers, Vol. 1

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Ted Lasso

Twenty Thousand Hertz - Listening to the Movies

Pop Culture Happy Hour - What We Do In The Shadows

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Magical Summer Memories Vol. 2 – Via Francigena

FILMS TO BE BURIED WITH Patreon Crew! - Edgar Wright Pt 1 & 2

Strong Songs - "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Mirror Lab

Strong Songs - "Making Christmas" from The Nightmare Before Christmas

FILMS TO BE BURIED WITH Patreon Crew! - Yvette Nicole Brown

Strong Songs -"I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Julie and The Phantoms (Season 1 soundtrack)

Presenting Rihanna

Rocketman (Music From The Motion Picture)

"Return of the Mack" [Mark Morrison] radio

Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

The Hamilton Instrumentals

I ❤️ Heart

Rush

Gordon Lightfoot

Instrumental Beatles Covers

Instrumental Dancehall Riddims

The Hamilton Instrumentals

MONTERO

Instrumental Rock From Brazil

Presenting Billy Joel

[edourado]

tagged by babe supreme @carry-the-sky. Thank you, lovely ♥

name/nickname: Erica

pronouns: she/her

star sign: Sagittarius but it's my Hogwarts house that guides me ;D (Hufflepuff pride!)

height: 1,64m. I don't know what that is in American, though

time: 10:05 PM

birthday: December 14

favorite bands: Maroon 5 is the one that followed me through the years. Civil Wars has been very present in my Spotify lately

favorite solo artists: The classical jazz singers, especially Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Donny Hathaway. More current, Ariana Grande, Beyonce and Rihana are always present, Fauzia was a BEAUTIFUL quarantine discovery, and Harry Styles-mania GOT ME GOOD three or four months ago

song stuck in my head: "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)", by Lil Nas X and "Lento", by Lauren Jauregui ft Pabllo Vittar are fighting for first place right now

last show: Shadow and Bone (Sat through 8 episodes just to see Ben Barnes kissing someone LIKE THAT. Worth it.)

last movie: "The Mirror Has Two Faces". Barbra Streisand is a precious gem and I love her

when did I create this blog: ppffft dude, idk. It was after season 4 of Once Upon a Time, and it was because of Outlaw Queen. 2014? 2015?

what do I post: writing (when my anxiety allows), fic recs, the faces of men and women I love but can never ever have and or be. Cute shit, too. Art. It's a mess

last thing I googled: a hotel in Amsterdan for my mother

other blogs: I can barely keep this one

why I chose my URL: because I didn't know how Tumblr worked and now I'm afraid that if I change it, people will forget who I am

do I get asks: I used to get more prompts (I still have so so so many that I am yet to deliver), but now not very often, no

following: Had to check. 97

followers: also had to check. 1081. No idea how that happened

average hours of sleep: I always slept a lot, but now I think I average like 3 or 4 hours per night? It does show, believe me

lucky number: I am a firm member or the humanities and, as such, numbers scare the living crap put of me. But 13, out of spite

instruments: played the keyboard for a good 6 months and then dropped it

what am I wearing: a jumper that looks like PJ's

dream trip: Any trip. I would spend my life travelling, if I could. Never been homeseick a day in my life. That George Clooney movie that he struggles with having no real home? Can't relate. (But I would love love love to visit Italy)

favorite food: Potatoes. In any form or shape or texture. It's literally my sister's nickname for me

nationality: Brazilian

languages: Portuguese, for my ~mother tongue, plus English, Spanish and Italian

favorite song: "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone. But I'm not a snob, so there are a lot of other versions and renditions that I love

last book read: "Romancing Mr. Bridgerton". It was pretty lame. The show is insanely better than the books. Currently reading Sense and Sensibility

top three fictional universes i’d like to live in: Sense8 (always. Forever. Yes), Marvel (but only if I'm allowed to fall in love with a violent man with a heart of gold and a tragic past. If not, than I don't want it) and any kdrama

tagging!! @evilbunnyking, @ejunkiet, @ninzied, @superrpowerlesshuman, @lpdwillwrite4coffee @anigmagrl @phenomenaaa @youhadmeuntiltroll and literally anybody else. I loooove reading these things

[victimhood]

The Beautiful Game - Chapter 5

The Old Guard international football (soccer) AU! Again, this is a Booker/Nile fic, with chapters of both Nile and Booker POVs. Joe/Nicky are the side ship in this fic.

Summary: In the summer of 2026, Booker is transferred from James Copley’s Liverpool FC to Andy’s Inter Milan. Nile is Team USA’s star striker but had to retire due to injury issues, and is hired as a UEFA Champions League pundit for a US TV network.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | all chapters on the tag

CHAPTER 5 Booker skips the preseason tours with Liverpool. The negotiations take a while, and he misses out on the preseason training camp with Inter as well. Finally, he is called to Appiano Gentile for a medical, and the contract is signed. Publicity photos and interviews are taken at the Angelo Moratti Sports Center, Inter’s training ground. Booker’s agent tells him that staff are briefed never to mention the World Cup incident with Di Genova under any circumstance, and Booker has an easy time of it. He is introduced to the team, and everyone shakes hands. Even Di Genova shakes hands with him, and the photographers make a big deal out of it for the website. Anything for PR, Booker thinks, smiling at the camera while Di Genova keeps his usual stony face. 

Booker is taken out to dinner and made to go through the usual initiation rite of singing a song. Oasis is too cliched and he got booed at Liverpool for that, so Booker springs for Bob Marley, Three Little Birds.

The Milanese clubs have their training grounds outside the city, and this means most of the players live around Lake Como. He is shuttled from house to house by the real estate agent, and each house is more stupendous than the last. You have got to be pulling my leg, is what Booker thinks when the car pulls into a village right by the lakeshore. A good deal of these houses have absolutely smashing lakeside views, and there’s even one that used to be George Clooney’s house.

Money is silly to Booker at this point, with his signing bonus of €10 million. He buys a turnkey house departed by AC Milan’s Kalulu, Booker’s national squad teammate. Before Kalulu departs, he invites Booker to move in early, and they joke about what Kalulu should leave behind and what he should take with him to Munich. Booker definitely wants Kalulu’s sneaker collection, shoe size be damned. When Kalulu moves out, taking his extensive collection of limited edition sneakers with him, Booker doesn’t even bother replacing the wifi password, although Kalulu has the cheek to kick Booker out of the Netflix account. Get your own, asshole, Kalulu jokingly texts him, you’re fucking up my recommendations. Booker has to phone his sister for his own Netflix password, which he doled out to his family long ago. It’s a lonely life as a footballer, and Booker calls his mom, begging her to move in with him, but his mom is helping his sister with her new baby. Booker says they can all move in, but his brother-in-law wants to keep his restaurant going. Booker has six bedrooms in this house and he’s not even using any of them. Instead, he prefers to sleep on the couch in the games room, leaving the television on to generate some background noise.

Surprisingly, Di Genova never once brings up the World Cup incident, and he doesn’t say anything nasty to Booker either, preferring to let his actions do the talking. In training, Di Genova is tough on Booker, really tough, and he gets yelled at often, but it is always for genuine mistakes and Booker just takes it as a baptism of fire.

Of all his new teammates, Booker gets along best with Yusuf Al Kaysani, who never fails to crack a joke when he senses that things might be getting too tense. Yusuf is a fellow FIFA enthusiast, being the best player in the pre-Booker team, and Booker throws down the gauntlet, insisting that he can beat Yusuf any day. They end up spending their post-training afternoons on the PlayStation, and soon they fall into a routine of visiting each other’s houses. Booker discovers that Yusuf also lives alone, in a fairly restrained four bedroom house where the nicest feature is just the heated pool, no spa room, no separate theater room. The living room is where the Playstation games happen, and Yusuf has a projector alongside the usual TV screen. When they get tired of FIFA, they move to Yusuf’s ping pong table, which sits outdoors in his garden, and Booker is influenced to buy one to put in his own games room, for wet weather days.

The new season kicks off, and their first game is an away game at Sampdoria. They manage to bag an away win, though not without struggle. Booker helps orchestrate the opening goal, but Sampdoria come back strong with an equalizer after halftime. Andy takes Booker off towards the end of the game, introducing a speedy forward, and this forward helps to earn a corner that becomes the winning goal. 

As often happens at away games, Booker discovered he has once again forgotten his toiletries bag, and he has to ask around for spare soap and shampoo. It is Yusuf who comes first to the rescue, telling Booker that if anyone forgets their toiletries, just ask the Capitano, who has an endless supply of pinched hotel toiletries and never forgets his washbag, a battered old Louis Vuitton pouch in the gray Damier pattern. Without asking, Yusuf grabs a couple of bottles from Di Genova’s washbag and tosses it to Booker. Le Labo—courtesy of the Park Hyatt. Nice. 

[aleteia-ff]

A Decade To Find You - 3

Also Read On: AO3 | FF.net

Thank you everyone for the support! Unfortunately, school started again, so this update came in a bit later, but I'm definitely finishing this story! My current expectation is that it will end at 5 chapters, perhaps 4. This one turned out a lot longer than I'd anticipated, hence me coming back from my earlier estimate of 3 chapters!

I hope you enjoy!

Summary: Astrid didn't think much of the guy she bumped into just after midnight on January 1, 2010. It was just a hasty apology, a quip and a lop-sided grin from his side. It wasn't supposed to be special.Hiccup felt the same way. That was, until he locked eyes with her again one year later. And the year after that. And the next.But somehow, their destinies only seemed to intertwine that one night a year... On New Year's Eve.

Hiccstrid, New Year’s Eve Fic. Spanning the entire past decade.

Chapter 3: New Year’s Eve 2016

December 31st, 2016

Life came with a lot of difficult choices. Hiccup knew that all too well. Batman, Superman, or simply admitting that the DCEU, especially after Suicide Squad, didn't quite hold a candle to the MCU? It was a shame, really. He'd always loved Batman, had reread many of his old comics since 2014, even saw the humour in George Clooney's Batnipples. But perhaps Justice League would prove everyone wrong in 2017. Hopefully.

At least it hadn't been difficult to choose between Team Cap and Team Iron Man. As much as he adored Spider-Man, his father's opinion was simply more important. And Steve Rogers was their guy.

He felt silly to be spending energy on those dilemmas, but after all the shit he'd been through, it was a breath of fresh air to be worried about stuff that was simple. To have his life on the rails, to no longer be forced to sort through his father's will and figure out how to handle all the insurance and ownership documents. He'd even felt comfortable enough to go and study abroad, having spent the best part of the last half year in Melbourne while Gobber, Snotlout and Uncle Spite took care of what was now his house.

Uncle Spite had told him that it was fine if Hiccup wanted to sell it, that he would find a trustworthy real estate agent who got him his money's worth. It would allow Hiccup to buy an apartment in Hopeless, closer to university, and leave Berk and all the painful memories there behind.

He'd seriously considered the change of scenery, because of course it was difficult to forget what had happened when so many people around him knew. Not just the small family that remained. But also Mrs. Ack from down the street, who kept bringing him leftovers, because his thin frame had led her to assume he wasn't feeding himself properly. The Bog family, who lived a few houses away and whose eldest daughter, Camicazi, frequently stole his garbage bags long and put them at the side of the street for the truck to pick up. Everyone knew what had happened to him, and wanted to do their utmost best to support him. He didn't need it, and had told them to stop several times, painfully elated and awkward, rubbing the back of his head so hard he was surprised he hadn't gone bald yet. But Berkians were stubborn, and persisted nevertheless.

And the more time he'd spent in Australia, the more he'd started to miss Berk. He didn't know what it was about the town that had been his family's home for seven generations. But the moment he'd set foot in it again after returning from the other side of the world, it had simply felt like home. And for now, he had no intention to leave.

He didn't know what it was, exactly. Tuffnut and Ruffnut weren't around much, their band now touring the country and only returning as a service to Gruffnut, who had given them the necessary spotlight by booking them last New Year's Eve - although the way the twins told the story, it was Gruffnut who owed them, not the other way around. Fishlegs was studying at the Hopeless Institute of Technology - the name of which was a HIT with students in exam weeks - like him, so Berk wasn't where they saw each other most. Hiccup had grown closer to Snotlout however, some of his cousin's obnoxiousness having faded after his father passed away. Or it was simply being channelled into the roles he played with Berk's local musical theatre company.

Still, Hiccup felt something was keeping him in Berk. He didn't mind it, not in the slightest, it felt good, like he'd finally found a fragment of inner peace. But he didn't know what it was exactly.

And he didn't have time to think about it, since a voice snapped him out of his tragically derailed train of thought.

"What's on the menu?"

He had only heard it one time before, seven years ago. Yet he recognised it immediately.

He turned his head, looking right into the beautiful blue eyes of the woman next to him. He had to look down at her now, unlike on the first day of 2010, but felt incredibly tiny nevertheless. He'd thought he'd blown it when she'd fled from him last year, having rejected her himself the year before that one. But here she was, smiling at him with a teasing smirk on her face and making the ground underneath his feet disappear, sending him into a free fall.

"Hey - uh - hey -" He laughed sheepishly when he finally remembered how to form words, rubbing the back of his head, and her grin only widened. "Hi," he concluded more sternly, as if it would miraculously make up for his earlier stammering.

She bit her lower lip, laughing still and making his insides contract because he'd thought she couldn't look cuter, a dark blue beanie pulled over her ears, but of course she kept surprising him. "Hey."

For all the times he'd imagined spending time with her, he now realised he'd put embarrassingly little effort into what exactly he would say to her when the stars finally aligned.

There were a million thing he could say, but now that he had the chance, he couldn't come up with anything. His eyes flicked back to the wooden stall in front of him, to the choice he'd been trying to make, and he finally realised that she had already asked him a question he still had to answer.

"All of this is on the menu," he told her, widely gesturing at the space in front of him, a holiday market stall selling all kinds of New Year's treats and drinks from around the world. "I don't even know half of it, but I figured I should try something."

"How about you let me pick?" she proposed. "And I'll pay for it too, in case it's horrible."

"Only if you have it with me," he smiled, her smirk contagious. "And let me buy you a drink in return."

"Deal," she nodded, instantly stepping forward to examine the shop's showcase, her brows furrowing as she focused. Occasionally, she made an adorable sound when she not-so-silently judged the different kinds of food, and Hiccup found himself staring at her, cherishing the moment.

Because she hadn't disappeared yet.

He quickly pretended to be studying the sign that listed the available drinks when she glanced over her shoulder, shooting him another smile.

"Glühwein?" he asked, his voice shooting up as if he'd gone straight back to puberty.

"Nah." She shook her head, looking away from a moment. "I don't drink." She paused before adding: "Not anymore."

"I can respect that," he nodded, thinking back to the times he'd seen her considerably less sober. Despite only catching a glimpse of her, he was sure just last year had been one of those. And he couldn't deny that while he respected anyone enough to let them make their own decisions, she hadn't looked as well as she'd done the years before. As if there had been a little less light in her otherwise bright eyes.

She pulled up an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah," he shrugged, gesturing at his head. "Hangovers suck. Kills your brain too. And booze doesn't even always taste as good as people pretend it does."

"I'm glad you agree," she hummed.

"You make it sound like I'm special."

She took him in for a moment, as if she was seizing him up. "I guess you are. Most of my friends at university disagreed."

"Seems like you need better friends."

"Which is why I'm here." Her lips settled back into a smile. "And I think you still owe me a mug of hot chocolate."

He couldn't help but grin. "Sounds like a plan."

He ordered two mugs of hot chocolate with whipped cream on top while Hot Chocolate Girl - her name, he had to ask for her name - picked out a snack she liked. They walked away from the stall with what she laughingly informed him were called 'Dutch doughnuts' - huge balls of deep fried dough with raisins in them, covered in about a pound of powdered sugar.

He asked her if she wanted to sit down.

"Of course," was her simple answer.

They zigzagged through the crowd, her leading so he wouldn't lose sight of her - not again - until they reached one of the market's squares. He thanked the Gods Luktuk had gotten spiteful and had organised its own winter market this year. Meaning it was a lot less busy and that there were actually some free spots. He had already started to dread the prospect of having to go and sit back with Snotlout. Not that Snot wasn't good company, but from the corner of his eye he could easily see his cousin, already sufficiently drunk, draw Barney Stinson's hot-crazy scale in the air, challenging Fishlegs and the twins to determine where Hot Chocolate Girl would land.

So much for Snotlout losing some of his obnoxiousness.

They sat down across from each other at one of the wooden picnic tables, and for a moment, Hiccup felt himself caught in how unreal the situation felt. He had thought of this girl for years, imagined what she might be like, chased by the notion that seeing her every year on one specific day couldn't be a coincidence. And now he had the chance to confirm that suspicion.

He laughed at himself for his superstition. He had no idea if she even had the same ideas about him. But she chuckled, too, and their eyes met again.

"What's your name?" he asked, curling his fingers around his mug.

"Astrid. Astrid Hofferson." She - Astrid - slowly moved her spoon, mixing the cream into the hot chocolate. "You?"

He blinked, somewhere surprised that she didn't know it already. That he had forgotten that she knew as little about him as he did about her. "I'm -"

He was going to offer her the formal introduction he gave any stranger. But that didn't feel right.

"People call me Hiccup."

Astrid - such a pretty name - pulled up her eyebrow. "Hiccup?"

"It's a nickname," he shrugged. "People close to me have been calling me that for as long as I've known. I was quite small as a kid." He held out his hand next to the table, at the same height his hip would now be. "Dad called me a little Hiccup, and it stuck. First with my cousin, who was in the same class as me in elementary school… And you know how kids are."

"Assholes," she noted.

"Definitely."

She reached for her pocket, whisking out her phone. She bit her lower lip as she started to type. "Are you Hiccup on Facebook too?"

He gave her a sheepish grin. "No, I actually don't have Facebook. Nor Instagram. Or Snapchat."

"Whoa. What century did you come from?"

"I'm not much of a social media guy," he tried to explain. "Not a fan of Mark Zuckerberg getting his hands on all my data."

"Yeah, he is a bit of a creep," Astrid nodded. "Shame I can't go without Messenger."

"Call me old-fashioned, but I can give you my number instead," he proposed. "I do have WhatsApp."

She frowned. "Didn't Facebook buy WhatsApp like two years ago?"

"Just an introduction to how consistent my principles are," he quipped.

"At least you have some. I'm just a regular sell-out." She swiped around on her phone for a moment, before handing it to him. She had opened a new contact, the name already filled out.

"Fake Foot Guy?" he laughed.

"It's not much worse of a nickname than 'Hiccup'," she shot back.

She'd had a nickname for him too. "Can't argue with that."

He typed his number into her phone and handed it back to her, feeling awfully giddy at how easy it was to talk to her. Astrid tucked it back into her jeans, and pointed at the curious snack in front of her. "After you."

"Whoa, Astrid," he objected, putting his hands up in the air. "You picked it out."

"Fine, I'll be the brave one," she joked, and lifted the doughnut, making a toast with it. "Bon appetit."

She took a bite, looking pensive as she chewed calmly before finally publishing her verdict. "It's not too bad, actually."

Encouraged, he began to eat as well, taking a big bite to show he wasn't a coward.

"You're right, not as bad as it looks."

"You doubted me?"

"Not even for a second."

She shook her head at him, working the rest of the doughnut down with impressive speed. She propped her head up on her hand as she waited for him to finish, playfully cocking her head and tapping her fingers on the table while grinning to herself.

"Hey, at least I'm taking the time to enjoy my food," he defended himself.

"Oh, that's now why I'm laughing," Astrid grinned. "You just have some sugar on your face."

"Where?"

Astrid gestured to her own face, drawing a circle in the air. "Everywhere."

Way to make an impression, Haddock. He hastily grabbed his napkin, but when he looked back up he found Astrid leaning over the table, tentatively reaching out to him with hers.

He sat there, frozen when she carefully wiped the tip of his nose as if it was the most obvious, the most natural thing to do. With her so close, he could count the few freckles on her cheeks, her entire presence kissed by the sun in a way people in Berk so rarely were. His eyes fell to her soft, pink lips, slightly chapped by the cold, and he considered hooking his finger underneath her chin and finding out if she still tasted like sugar too. But he figured she always did.

It felt like it was supposed to. It felt right. As if he'd never done otherwise. As if he was lucky enough to get to gaze into her beautiful blue eyes every single day.

While the truth was that he hardly even knew her.

"What do you do?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

"Huh?" Astrid blinked, then looked at her hand, her eyebrows shooting up as if she hadn't realised it belonged to her. "I'm sorry -"

"No, don't be," he told her as she backed away, already missing the closeness and sheepishly cleaning the remaining sugar off his face to occupy himself. "I just meant, what do you do on, you know, other days than New Year's Eve?"

"Oh." She sat down, wiped off her hands and tucked some of her hair back behind her ear. "Mostly volunteer work, these days. Trying to help people where I can."

"That's great!"

"Yeah, it's very satisfying." Her voice trailed off, making him raise an eyebrow.

"Sounds like there's a 'but'."

She smiled slightly. "It's not exactly long-term. I need to find an actual job eventually so I can move out and become an actual adult."

"Any ideas on that yet?"

She shook her head. "That's the issue. I went to uni to become a doctor so I could help people, but it wasn't for me. So this past year, I've been trying to figure out what I want to do instead."

"I don't see how that's an issue."

"Because it's not the way it's supposed to go!" Astrid exclaimed. "I always thought gap years were a waste of time, and now here I am, doing exactly what I vouched I never would."

"Life hardly ever goes how it's supposed to," he shrugged, taking a sip. "And it doesn't seem to me like you're not doing anything."

She cocked her head at him. "What makes you so sure?"

Because I feel like I've known you all my life. "You don't seem like the kind of person to lie in bed watching Netflix all week."

"Of course not," she snorted.

"And you probably volunteer like ten, twenty hours a week…" he murmured, trying not to grin.

"Thirty. At least," she corrected him. "Fifty maybe, if there's a kickboxing tourney in town."

"Okay, public service announcement, don't pick a fight with Astrid," he quipped, painting the words in the air. "Although it's unlikely kicking your ass fits her schedule, because she works so godsdamned hard."

Astrid gave him a determined look. "I can always take time out of my day for special cases."

"Lucky me, people have been telling me I'm very special all my life," he mock-gaped. "What are the odds!"

"About the same as those of living in a town with one hundred thousand people, but nevertheless seeing the same person eight New Year's Eves in a row?"

He froze and looked at her, the way his blue eyes peered into his, searching for something. "You realised it too," he gaped, his voice suddenly a lot softer.

"Of course I did," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I may be a drop-out, but I'm not stupid."

"Didn't meant to imply you were, just…" he laughed at himself. "I thought I was the weird one."

"I don't think you're weird," Astrid reassured him. "Just a dork."

"Do you…" he started, his throat suddenly dry. "Do you think it's a coincidence?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

He was staring at her again, wondering if leaning across the table and kissing her would be an acceptable way of 'figuring it out'. If she would find it inappropriate, or if she would wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him back until their position inevitably became uncomfortable.

He could get up and walk to the other side of the table, sit down on the bench next to her and pull her into his lap, curl his arms around her and hold her until the clock hit midnight. So she wouldn't vanish, not this year. Ask her to come home with him, or meet him again tomorrow, because they had only barely talked and he already couldn't imagine never hearing her voice again. Because it had been enough to catch a hint of how she was brave, passionate, selfless, and smart. And he wanted to know everything else there was to learn about her.

He was snapped out of it by Astrid clearing her throat. "So what about you?"

He blinked profusely and sat back, not even realising he'd been leaning forward. "Huh?"

"What do you do?"

"Oh, I -" He took a deep breath, trying to push away the heat in his cheeks through sheer force of will. "I'm still studying. Trying to become an engineer."

"What kind?"

"For a long time, I wanted to do something with aviation," he elaborated, studying her face for a trace of boredom but finding her eyes opening up instead. "Like, my room is full of sketches of rockets, air planes, flight suits."

"Flight suits?"

"Yeah, you know, so people can fly themselves." He moved his arms, demonstrating the idea until she laughed and made him realise how stupid he made himself look. "It'd probably be a regulatory nightmare though, given that airports already aren't happy with people flying drones." He grinned. "So naturally, I got myself one for Christmas."

Astrid leaned forward, giving him a knowing look. "Does it fly yet?"

"No, but -" He continued, despite Astrid's chuckles. "That's only because I'm making some modifications."

"Sure," Astrid teased.

"It's true! Sticking to the basics takes all the fun out of it."

"Basic planes do sound a lot safer to me, you know," Astrid countered.

"Well, you're in luck, because that's what I was getting to," he explained. "I've loved planes all my life but recently, I've been giving a lot of thought to this thing. You know, what gave me my superhero name." He grinned, vaguely gesturing to his left foot. "The longer I live with it, the more ideas I get to improve it. So maybe I should do that instead." He shrugged. "Help people like me."

Astrid smiled softly. "I think that's a wonderful idea."

"Me too."

He could only smile back as a silence settled between them. It wasn't uncomfortable - on the contrary, he felt he could do this all day, simply look at her, the sounds of the busy market around them seemingly non-existent. Suppress the urge to reach out towards her, unwrap her delicate fingers from around her mug just so he could study them.

He felt like Tarzan - minus the dreadlocks, broad chest and any other kind of muscle definition - wanting to pull off just one of the gloves of his Jane. Not that she was his, of course, he barely knew her name, for years he had known nothing more than that her smile warmed his heart and that every moment they shared seemed to last forever. Besides, he was a 21st century man who didn't believe women to be his property in any way. In fact, he didn't mind a woman who looked like she could kick his ass instead.

But he cherished the thought of carefully taking her fingers in his, treat them delicately despite her obvious strength, and press their palms flat against each other. To get a sense of just how real she was, her warm skin against his, treat her as if she was the first woman he'd ever laid eyes on. Because in a weird way, it felt like it. Then again, everything about this was weird, but in a way that made his heart beat faster.

He could do it. Take her hand, wrap his fingers around it and simply hold them. He would settle for that, and not let her go for the rest of the night. Not even when the fireworks started. He wasn't concerned with those. He was just wondering if they would also go off in his head the moment he kissed her.

Or he could finally realise he was staring at her like a fool, way longer than any sane person would. He blinked profusely, and she cocked her head at him, clearly amused as she took another sip.

He cleared his throat, trying to come up with something smooth, or another topic, but he found himself speechless. "There's so much I want to ask you," he laughed, embarrassingly awkward. "But I can't think of anything."

"Really?" Astrid teased. "Nothing?"

How old are you? Do you prefer dogs or cats? Sushi: overpriced raw fish or actually quite okay? How do you feel about Brangelina getting divorced? Who is your favourite character in Friends? Will you think less of me if I admit I exercised almost every day last Summer, but that ninety-nine percent of that was walking around town catching Pok émon? What even is Brexit?

Do you feel like there 's something here too? Do you like me, even a little bit?

"I just don't know where to start," he shrugged.

"Perhaps you could Google it," she grinned, seemingly content with letting him drown.

"You know, there are actually lists for that," he pointed out, pulling another useless fact out of his repertoire. "Questions to ask on dates."

"Oh?"

He treasured the fact that she didn't ask whether this was a date. So he leapt again. "Yeah. Like a list of 36 questions that 'guarantee' two people will fall in love with each other."

She snorted. "Now that sounds like yak dung." He opened his mouth to agree, but she added: "So go ahead."

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a confused goldfish, not having expected to get this far. "I don't know them by heart…"

"You don't do this often?"

He liked the twinkle in her eyes, the way she consistently teased and challenged him. No, he loved that.

"But there was this one question that stuck with me, regardless," he continued. "If you were able to live to the age of ninety, and retain either the mind or the body of a thirty year-old for the last sixty years of your life…. Which one would you want?"

Astrid answered nearly instantly. "Body."

Well, if I had yours, that's what I'd pick too.

"And that's not to sound vain," she elaborated before he could comment. "It's not about that at all, but the thought of becoming so old that I can no longer move around on my own, that I'd need help to get everywhere, or that I simply don't have the energy to do the things I love anymore… I'd hate that. I would lose my independence, my freedom. I don't know what it's like to be thirty yet, of course, but if I got to live the next sixty years feeling like I do right now, but with more and more experience as time goes by, I'd sign up for that." She grinned. "And of course, not getting any wrinkles, or menopause, is an upside too."

"Not sounding vain, right?" he quipped, earning him a punch in his shoulder.

"I gave you a serious answer!"

"I know, I know!" He put his hands up in the air. "But hey, don't blame yourself for being gorgeous."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Hiccup…"

He liked the way she said his name. He hoped she would do it again. "Look, if you can't take a compliment, that's not my fault."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "You're not bad yourself either."

He tried not to bask in that comment, in the knowledge that she might like him, even a little bit. He did his best to wipe his grin off his face and continue where they left off. "But I get what you mean, I suppose. People say that you need three things to live a happy life." He counted on his fingers. "Time, energy, and money. If you're young, you have time and energy, but no money. When you're a proper working adult, you have energy and money, but no time. And once you've retired, you've finally got time and money, but no energy. So I don't think your choice is that strange at all. Let alone vain."

"Well, that's one way to get depressed," Astrid huffed.

He gave her a wry smile. "Leave it up to me to brighten the mood, I guess."

"No worries, it won't keep me up at night," Astrid shrugged. "So what about you? What would you pick? If you remembered the question, you probably thought about what you'd answer too."

"I did," he admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "It's… interesting, but I always thought the answer was obvious. Then you made some really good points, and -"

"And I'm interested in yourreasoning, not your backpedalling."

"Okay…" He shifted, pushing his bangs back. "I'd choose mind. I'd never thought about those things you mentioned, about the whole 'walking around with a walking frame' part of getting old. Especially with my leg and all." He vaguely gestured beneath the table. "Whenever I think about reaching those ages, my mind always goes to the documentaries, the news reports about people with dementia. Because I just find them so incredibly… scary."

Astrid nodded at him and he briefly chewed on his lower lip before he continued. "The thought of getting Alzheimer's, of digressing until you forget yourself and the people around you… I don't think it runs in my family, at least not the early version of it, as far as I know, but I know that doesn't make me immune and it's just -" He sighed. "I know we all die eventually, that's inevitable. But I wouldn't want to go like that."

"Me neither," Astrid softly said, glancing at her hands. "Can I still change my pick? No use in feeling fit if you don't remember what to do with it."

"Or we could team up," he joked, wanting her to smile again. "One preserved body, one preserved mind."

"Sounds like a plan," Astrid laughed. "When I'm old and senile, you just tell me what to do and I will carry you around when you can no longer walk yourself."

"Perfect!" he agreed, grinning. "Match made in heaven."

Astrid cocked her head, observing him as her lips settled back into a slight smile. "It'd seem that way."

Had they both just implied they'd still be in each other's life years from now? Was he reading too much into that? Into the way Astrid's eyes seemed to soften the longer she looked at him, in how he was struggling to remember the last time he'd felt both this excited and this at ease?

He should just ask her. Show that he wasn't afraid to step up and declare he liked her more than he should like anyone he'd talked to this shortly.

"Do you -"

He was interrupted by a loud crash, a shout coming from the other side of the square, the world suddenly larger than just the two of them. He twisted his head to see a guy with fiery red hair stumble backwards, reaching for his eye.

"Dagur!" Astrid jumped up, sprinting in the direction of the sound as the man - Dagur? - balled his fist.

And punched the guy Hiccup only now recognised as Snotlout right in his nose.

"Fuck," Hiccup muttered, rushing after Astrid.

Snotlout recoiled, grasping his nose, blood seeping out from between his fingers as he ran into Dagur shoulder first. Ruffnut and Tuffnut cheered as the two fell over, crashing into the bench Fishlegs had been sitting on until a second ago. What the Hel had they gotten themselves into?

Astrid reached them before Hiccup did, shouting in exasperation at the men rolling around on the ground. "What the fuck are you doing!?"

No one gave her nor the small crowd that had gathered the answer they were looking for. Astrid rolled her eyes, digging her nails into Dagur's leather jacket and pulling him off Snotlout with a show of strength that seemed to surprise Dagur too and left Snotlout on the ground, wide-eyed.

Dagur tried to rush back in, but Astrid yanked him back. "Nope, you're not ruining my night, not this year." She twisted his arm behind his back when he moved again, making him yelp. "You can go berserk in your own time!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Dagur sputtered, his left eye blue with something Hiccup didn't know was a bruise or a tattoo. "He hit me first!"

"You were asking for it!" Snotlout yelled, coughing as blood streamed into his mouth from his obviously broken nose.

"Nah." "Not really." The twins countered instantly, crossing their arms.

Hiccup rushed over to Snotlout as he got back up, and put his hands on his shoulders. "Whoah, Snot, calm down."

"Move over," Snotlout insisted. "Let me at him!"

"Dude, your nose's broken," he argued as calmly as he could, trying to use his height advantage to prevent Snot from moving.

"You know him?"

He looked back over his shoulder at a sceptical Astrid, her eyebrow pulled up, Dagur's efforts to squirm out of her hold futile. He didn't know whether to yell at Snotlout or simply stand there and be impressed with how well she handled guys two times her size. Make a bad and inappropriate joke about her handling him, sometime…

"My cousin," he shrugged, trying to make clear that he also didn't ask for this. Out of all the nights Snotlout had to be, well, Snotlout…

"Nice family you got there," Astrid snorted.

"Right back at you."

"Nope." Astrid shook her head. "Best friend's brother."

"Oh my Thor… You broke my nose!" Snotlout suddenly yelped, as if he'd only just realised it.

"Heh. You kind of sound like Hiccup, talking through your nose and all," Tuffnut commented.

"You gave me a black eye!" Dagur yelled.

"I'm gonna sue you!"

"Playing the lead role in a local production of Grease doesn't make you an American, Snot," Hiccup bit, trying to glance over Dagur's shoulder, where Astrid was trying to hold her grip. "Astrid -"

"Is there are doctor around!?" Snotlout whined.

"I hope so, cause you need one, to fix your head!" Dagur bellowed.

"Guys, fighting doesn't solve anything, please stop…" Fishlegs tried weakly.

Dagur surged forward with such force that the last thing Hiccup saw was Astrid tumbling backwards on the ground, right before Dagur collided with him and Snotlout. They landed in a pile of limbs, both real and fake, Hiccup's elbow landing right in Snotlout's stomach and Dagur's knee digging into his thigh. He cried out in pain, trying to push Dagur off him but ending up as the heavily abused third wheel, caught in the crossfire while neither Snotlout nor his assailant paid any actual attention to him.

"Alright, fine, then we'll try it this way."

His misery was interrupted by a few flashes of blond, followed by pained yelps from Dagur. Finally free, he sputtered and rolled off of Snotlout. He pushed himself up, glancing around to thank his saviour and finding Astrid next to him, perched up on Dagur, holding his arms behind his back as he was lying face down on the floor. Looking uncannily comfortable, as if she was doing this every day.

"We should probably get out of here before the cops get here," she casually remarked.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were currently undercover," he grinned, distractingly offering Snotlout a not-so-helping hand while keeping his eyes on the most badass woman in the world. He was happy she wasn't with the police though. He didn't need the idea that she could end up like his father.

"You caught me," she laughed. "I'm trying to get a breakthrough in the curious case of cute guys who only appear on New Year's Eve."

He could feel his face change colour. Along with his hand when Snotlout gripped it, leaving it sticky with blood as his cousin hauled himself up.

"Geez, can no one hand him a tissue?" he asked, agitated. Ruffnut shrugged as if there was no other sensible option, zipped open her coat and tore off part of her shirt, handing it to Snotlout, who promptly pressed it to his nose.

"Astrid -"

"Oh Gods," Snotlout gasped, glancing at the piece of fabric and seeing how red it had gotten in mere seconds. "That's a lot of blood."

"- this is not how -"

"Am I dying?"

"- I thought this would go -"

"I'm definitely dying."

"- but thank you, and -"

"But I'm too young and handsome to die!"

"And I think you should get your charming cousin to the ER," Astrid smiled, softly patting Dagur's head when he struggled again.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup tried. So this was how it ended. His first true chance in seven years.

"I'll call you tomorrow," Astrid reassured him with yet another smile.

That phrase stayed with him as he told her goodbye, dragging Snotlout away from the crowd, the others following in his wake. It was echoing through his head when the clock hit midnight in the waiting room of the hospital and Snotlout lamented this being the worst New Year's ever, his complaints unheard because Hiccup himself simply disagreed. He was on cloud nine despite the hospital smell, despite having to explain to the twins that bringing booze into the ER to 'have a bit of a party after all' wasn't socially acceptable behaviour, despite being semi-traumatised by Fishlegs Googling every single medical condition a nosebleed could be a symptom of. No matter how often Hiccup pointed out that there was a direct correlation between the position of Snot's nose, the unstoppable force that had met it and the voluminous amount of blood.

Astrid's words were still with him when he woke up the following morning, feeling like he had a hangover despite not having drunk any alcohol. But in a good way. The best way. The kind that made him giddy and excited, anxiously glancing at his phone while he tried to go about his day.

And they didn't leave him until by the end of January, Astrid still hadn't called.

[katytheinspiredworkaholic]

I am obsessed with Clooney being a bug puppy! I picture Ghost from GOT, but do you have any pictures you can share of how you see him?

Haha, of course I do! I'd love to share 😊 and you know, I thought about something kind of like Ghost for a while too. Mostly because there are a _million_ pictures on pinterest of people cuddling wolves at those sanctuaries and I needed some images for my board of Spencer hugging a giant dog.

But then I started looking at actual breeds like Huskies and Malamutes and Great Pyrenees and found kind of the best hybrid.

So kind of like that but maybe slightly more wolf/husky-like. These are mostly Great Pyrenees with a little bit of maybe some Labrador? Just a big, fluffy, smiley dog. Clooney is wonderful. And also most definitely takes up the whole couch, as you can see.

Thank you so much for the ask, and for reading! Much love to you dear 💕💕

[katytheinspiredworkaholic]

Tagged by @angelfxllcm thank you dear! I've done this before with the roses but a couple of these are more concept and outline than actually story I can pull snippets from. So let's play, if anyone is awake lol

rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how ridiculous or non descriptive. Send an ask with the title that most intrigues you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPS!!

1. Dark AU (the unsubs!HotchReid story I've been talking about forever)

2. Correspondence Sequel

3. Extraordinary (already started posting)

4. Dog Days (not the actual title I'll be using I just didn't know what to title it at the time. Moreid Holiday fic starring Clooney)

((I have a handful of RPs and some requested oneshots as well, but we will just stick to my long fics for now. Also I realize I didn’t need to put descriptors but let’s be real: y’all already know what they are, I’m just evening out the playing field for the new followers.))

Tagging (no pressure whatsoever): @thaddeusly @ssa-noa @foxtrot91 @merpancake