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trashfor-imagines · 5 years ago

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If There’s Light There’s Hope | 6

Bakugou x Fem!Reader (BNHA)

Summary: U.A. High School was your dream. You wanted to save people. You never expected how wild your journey would be and you certainly never expected a hot headed boy to play as large of a role as he would. Warnings: Swearing. Spoilers: If you haven’t watched the School Festival episodes thru the end of S4 because they’re not dubbed yet and want to avoid spoilers (+ you haven’t read the manga), then you’ll want to not read this chapter. [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5] | [6] | [7]

“A school festival! I hope one of the classes hosts a couples event,” you mused out loud during the girl’s only study group.

“I never expected you to be such a romantic,” Jirou commented, a few of the other girls echoing their agreement.

Smiling at them, you simply shrugged. “Never had a boyfriend before. All of these thoughts and feelings are new to me.”

Ashido perked up as her alarm went off. “Sorry girls, time for dance practice.”

She and a few of the other girls headed off to meet with the rest of the dance team. You’d been stuck with Aizawa and the rest of the interns making up work you missed while the rest of the class decided what you were doing for the festival. You didn’t mind your role doing special effects; it would be perfect to showcase your quirk.

Soon enough it was band practice and you were left alone. Thanks to you and Todoroki, the special effects team had their plan solidified a while ago so you didn’t have to meet very often. Putting your things away in your room, you headed back downstairs to make dinner and prepare snacks while everyone worked hard on their routines. Just two more days.

When you were hanging out the other week, Hitoshi had tried to get you to sign up for the beauty pageant. That caused quite the heated argument between the two of you, especially when he teased you about using his quirk to get you to sign up. When you brought the pageant up in passing with Bakugou, even he paused before acting nonchalant and yelling about how if you wanted to sign up it was up to you. You called Hitoshi immediately and told him you’d sign up so long as he helped you.

“Look Hito, you brought up participating in the first place. It’s only right you take responsibility for your part in this.”

The two of you spent forever deciding on clothing choices and what talent you were going to demonstrate. You recalled most of a dance routine from when you were in the dance club in junior high and you were positive you could make it work for one person. If that failed, you could maybe perform Ikebana (flower arranging), but that could be pretty boring to watch. Hitoshi asked for his mom’s help which she was more than excited to take you shopping for an outfit. Looking at Kenranzaki’s outfits from previous years, you settled on a colorful kimono that complimented you.

Soon enough the day of the festival arrived. At 9AM, you changed into a short robe with a pair of shorts and spent 45 minutes taking your time with your skincare regimen, having Hitoshi help you with your hair. He was awkward, but it warmed you how hard he tried. Running through the day’s schedule in your head, you’d have a little while longer after 1-A’s performance to get dressed and zen out to calm your nerves.

It was easy to ignore Kendo and Nejire’s friendly teasing of who would win, but it was almost impossible to keep your headspace clear as Kenranzaki cackled about how she was the sure winner. Kendo and Nejire’s moods seem to change and you decided it was time to go before the their energy could throw you off. Carefully tying a scarf to protect Hitoshi’s hard work on your hair, you and Hitoshi went your separate ways, agreeing to meet up later, before you joined the rest of 1-A in the gym; Midoriya a few minutes behind you. When no one was looking, you pressed a small kiss below Bakugou’s ear.

“You’re going to be great.”

Before he could pull you back, you had Uraraka use her quirk to quickly get you up to the rafters. You made sure to settle into a spot where you could clearly watch the performance and still do your part. The chanting and cheers of the students sent vibrations throughout the room and you could feel it.

At 10:00 the curtains opened and your eyes lit up. They were incredible!

On Todoroki’s queue, your hands extended to the stage and slowly began to glow brighter and brighter for the finale. As they struck their final notes you released sparks, careful so that they weren’t dangerous. The cheers of the student body sent a surge of motivation through you and to your heart. It was then you realized how capable everyone was, especially when you worked together.

Meeting Bakugo backstage, you pressed a kiss to his cheek as he held you tightly to his side. “That was incredible! Did you mean to create an explosion during the opening?”

The way his eyes seem to avoid yours and that faint blues told you that was improvised. “C’mon let’s get lunch before your pageant.”

“But we’ve got to clean up.”

“It’s okay (Y/N). We agreed that you should go ahead and get ready for the beauty pageant,” Iida spoke up. “The rest of class can handle this and we’ll be there to support you, but Bakugou, you have to stay and help! Don’t think you can use (Y/N) to get out of cleaning!”

As Bakugou fumed, your eyes lit up as you laughed. “Thanks, class rep!”

You made it back to the dressing room, meeting with Hitoshi who had gotten you some snacks to eat. Carefully getting dressed, you added hair pieces and jewelry to your look along with some light make up. You went on just before Nejire, which was a bit nerve-racking as she was also doing a dance. All you could do was try your best. Spotting your classmates and Bakugou at the front of the crowd cheering for you ensured you didn’t lose your smile during your performance.

Though most of the girls changed back into their school uniforms, you decided Hitoshi’s hard word deserved some more attention so you stayed in your pageant outfit. It wasn’t like you were planning on participating in any of the sport activities. You took photos with Todoroki, cheered Bakugou on while he competed in the obstacle course, shared a crepe with him because he won, and enjoyed 1-C’s haunted house - Hitoshi definitely giving you a good scare.

At the end of the day your class gave you tight hugs as you came in third place. Monoma definitely gave you an earful for beating Kendo, who simply shook your hand in the spirit of friendly competition. Bakugou held your hand tightly, loudly proclaiming that you were still his number one and anyone who disagreed could fight him. The two of you went off to do couples experiences during the rest of the festival, though you were sure a few of your classmates weren’t that far behind.

“You look nice,” he muttered once the two of you entered The Lovers’ Maze, the brain child of Class 1-E.

“Oh, thanks.” Part of you was disappointed and it was clear in your voice; if he was going to compliment you, you were hoping he’d put more effort into it. He should have kept quiet and ended on a high note when he yelled that you were his number one.

It was dark and difficult to see each other’s expressions. The only light was up ahead, leading the two of you on where to go. The light suddenly went out and he squeezed your hand in reassurance before cute, glowing pink hearts appeared, providing a gentle light so you could see each other.

“Are you... blushing?” you asked him, surprised.

He avoided your gaze. “So what if I am?”

“But, why?” you asked teasingly, leaning forward to try and get him to look you in the eye.

He growled to himself before grasping both of your shoulders firmly, locking eyes with you. “Any idiot who looks at you and doesn’t turn a little red doesn’t deserve to look at you! You’re beautiful, got it?”

Your face lit up like a red light on a traffic stop, unsure of what to say, “Katsuki...”

“I’m not really... good... at compliments... and stuff,” he mumbled, clear enough for you to understand. “So try not to get your feelings hurt if I don’t know what to say the first time. I’ll get it right at some point.”

A smile tugged at your lips. “Okay, I’ll be patient.”

The Japanese Hero Billboard Chart was one of the most talked about events after the school festival on campus. You’d be a liar if you said you weren’t excited about it as well. It was the best event to happen twice a year! There was just something wonderful about seeing your favorite heroes getting recognized. You tried more than once to convince Todoroki to get Endeavor to take the two of you, but he refused. You spent the last week being pouty and curled up to Bakugou’s side.

It wasn’t until the Wild Wild Pussycats came to visit with some cute Paw Pad Buns that you finally expressed any mood other than being bratty. You helped Sato prepare some tea for the Pros. It was great to hear they were back in business again.

The day of the the Japanese Hero Billboard Chart event, you seemed to be glued to the television in the common area, snacks and drinks surrounding you like your own little island, or fortress, of food. This was the first time that heroes were going to actually appear on stage and you weren’t planning on missing any of it.

“Isn’t this a bit much?” Kaminari asked, trying to sneak one of your rice balls away from you.

“First of all, Kaminari, you could ask me for a snack first! Second, I love seeing the rankings live! It’s exhilarating to see just how well the heroes have done between polls!” You paused at hearing Edgeshot’s ranking and cheered, attracting more attention from your classmates than you’d meant to.

“(Y/N) maybe... you should back up from the television. Your eyes will go bad from sitting close.” You sent a sharp look Iida’s way and he quickly backtracked, apologizing for disturbing you.

No one had the heart to tell you to quiet down, even Iida didn’t want to yell at you for being loud. It was a rare sight to see you energized or excited about anything. Your eyes lit up as Hawks was announced as number two, which only reaffirmed it: Endeavor was number one! You couldn’t wait for internships to start up again. Though he wasn’t the softest person out there, you learned so much from Endeavor and appreciated his strictness; especially since you were quite serious about your own future as a Pro. His entrance was certainly the coolest and his new armor pieces looked very cool, making him seem more menacing than usual.

Their speeches had your full attention, not even Bakugou annoyingly prodding at you with a finger could tear you away as you happily snacked on popcorn. You raised your brows as Hawks stepped forward to speak. He was always a rebel in everything he did. His speech had your jaw dropping. Tokoyami really did his internship with this guy? For the first time, you peeped at your classmate in question who seemed to have a pained expression on his face; it was incredible how different the two of them could be.

Your body tensed as Endeavor received the mic. How was he going to follow up that wild speech? It was certainly short and direct.

Just watch me.

Scrambling for your phone, you quickly sent a text to your mentor, telling him you thought he was quite cool for what he said. It was his work cell so you were sure he’d see it tomorrow or something. There had only been a few other sparing messages between the two of you, the last one being from when you asked if you could get permission to watch Todoroki at one of his remedial courses. During your internship, he hardly ever responded to you, preferring to address your questions briefly in person.

At the end of the program you sighed stretching from your terrible posture, before cleaning up the mess you made as you camped out in front of the television. With the fierce - and scary - Endeavor as the new Number One, villains would have to be crazy to start any trouble.

The next day, you went with Todoroki to the post office. You had sold a few little handmade items online and needed some help getting them mailed out. You’d normally annoy your boyfriend into helping you, but Bakugou was napping from his workout. Todoroki saw you struggling with your packages and said he had to mail a letter so he was happy to accompany you.

“Thanks so much Todoroki! You saved me from making two more trips,” you said, purchasing two drinks from the vending machine and offering him his favorite - something you observed from work study. The two of you sat on a bench and enjoyed your drinks.

“I think we’ve spent enough time together to be friends now. Please feel free to call me Shoto.”

Turning to look at him, you smiled. “Really? I don’t really have that many... friends that is. I mean, everyone in class is nice, but I don’t feel comfortable referring to them casually. You’d be like, one of four people total.”

“Yes. I’d like that.” He smiled faintly in return.

Finishing your drinks, you stood and offered him a hand up. “Okay, Shoto. Let’s head back.”

Returning to the dorms, you sat on the couch, turning the television on and browsing through the channels with a few of your classmates. You all decided to look for a movie to watch. An image flashed briefly on the screen and you had go back. It was the news channel and it looked like a fireball in the sky.

“Shoto! Come quick!” you called out, turning up the volume as your other classmates came over to join you. Your hands flew to your mouth, eyes wide.

Your mind seemed to blank as you watched events unfold. When it was over and that image of Endeavor appeared, still standing, you found yourself knelt beside Todoroki, your new friend, with hands on his shoulder and arm in comfort. Bakugou rested a hand on top of your head. It was silent as no one knew what to say.

Though it was a win, you had a feeling that not everyone would sleep well that night.

#my hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia #imagine #fanfic #reader insert #bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki

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artificialqueens · 6 years ago

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perfect places (craquaria): chapter four - melody

Summary: Enrolled on a boarding school, Aquaria, Brianna and all their friends try survive until they graduate. But some of them like Aquaria and her friends really don’t care about the rules, survivint on their own way. Brianna and her friends otherwise, are the neat model students who does everything right according to the rules. In a chaotic way, Aquaria has a crush on Brianna and in the middle of clandestine parties, cigarette and alcohol, she has to find out how to deal with it besides dealing with the horrible pressure of Charles Academy.

Chapter summary: Brianna goes to a student council meeting - good thing she brought doughnuts with her. read on ao3 / writing blog / main blog

A/N: Sorry for taking so long for writing this chapter, I was just without inspiration, but yeet I wrote something!! It’s updated!! Hope you like it <3 @artificialmeggie is the best beta in the world spread the word!!!

Worried. That was what Brianna was at that moment. Dazzled, confused, worried, very worried. Finding out about the secret parties should be the biggest achievement of her seventeen year old life, but she couldn’t do anything about it. Aquaria Needles - in all her glory, and hypnotic red plump lips - blackmailed her, and then not even Aquaria’s deadly beauty could make Brianna less worried, less pissed off at her. She helped her for God’s sake, and that was how she thanked her? But she would still keep her promise to look out for Aquaria; she remembered clearly the moment she made it, and how she wouldn’t break that one.

Being late was already a burden to her, Brianna Cracker could never be late to class. She knew her mom wouldn’t be very happy, and Brianna would blame herself for a lifetime. All that confusion made the blonde walk in quick steps, with a box of doughnuts in her hands almost bumping into annoyed students. Brianna’s presence always caused a mix between admiration, fear, and disapproval in the students - depending on who they were.

In one hand, she could snitch on the secret parties and end that. It would be great for her academic life, and she would make the school a better place for everyone. She was fighting against it for so long, it would be paradise to end the parties, and fire that damn security. But on the other hand Aquaria would be disappointed… No. Aquaria blackmailed her, she would show the video and Brianna could lose her position, or be kicked of the student council. That damn video, that damn song, Brianna scolded herself for being just another teenager lost in the music.

A thing came into her mind: she couldn’t snitch on the troublemakers. The blackmailing was way too serious, she knew Aquaria wasn’t the kind of girl who’d do this, and her friends were behind this. Brianna believed Aquaria had something good inside her, but she couldn’t say the same about her friends. It was like all her hard work and dedication was fading away from her hands. The rooms, of course it was the rooms, they were way too distant from the rest of the academy. Brianna really needed to suggest that room change, but would it work? Ending the parties would work, but for her own sake, she couldn’t.

All Brianna could do was to go to her dorm, tie her hair in a bun, adjust the student council president pin on her blazer, and grab a cup of coffee and a box of doughnuts. The coffee was because Brianna couldn’t work without it - it was her weakness; she knew it was an addiction but she couldn’t stop it, otherwise she would be a sleepy incoherent mess - and the doughnuts… Well, the student council president has to make the other members happy, and Brianna took that duty seriously.

The student council room smelled like coffee, cleaning products, and ink; it reminded Brianna of home. Weirdly, one of her safe places was that room. Not when it was crowded, and with her being the perfect leader she was raised to be, but it was home when she was alone. Brianna had the keys, and it wasn’t an infraction so she could come there any time she wanted to. She loved to sit there, and read a book with her cup of coffee - that kind of thing made her feel like herself once in a while.

It didn’t take long for somebody to be very happy with the box she brought in her hands:

‘’Oh my god Brianna you’re the best, you brought doughnuts!’’ Courtney ran to her. ‘’Duh, literally, you’re the best since you’re boss lady.’’

It was surprisingly early for Courtney Act - their pretty popular Australian exchange student - to arrive. Courtney was one of the rich kids who studied there, a very known one, and it would be stupid to put one of them on her team - since they were all snobby and carefree - but Courtney caught her attention. Brianna needed people to vote on her team back in student council elections, but the people she picked were efficient, but not popular: Eureka was known for being as nerdy as Brianna was; Vixen was dislikedby a lot of people because of her aggressive ways; Sasha was a weirdo; and Brooke and Kameron were the reserved kind. Courtney was an average student, but even if she was a little bit dorky sometimes, she had people in the palm of her hands with her bright Australian smile.

‘’Hi Courtney, wow that’s early. I’m impressed.’’

‘’I arrived earlier than you.’’ She stuck her tongue out. ‘’I heard people saying you arrived late in French, ugh, that’s off.’’

One thing Brianna didn’t like about Courtney: she didn’t respect Brianna like everyone else. It was literally the only thing about the blonde that got her on her nerves, but she let it pass since she arrived early. Brianna was a fair leader.

‘’Personal problems, nothing you should worry about.’’

‘’Good morning,’’ Sasha and Vixen mumbled together, entering the door.

‘’Good morning, you two. Bri brought doughnuts.’’ Courtney grabbed the box and waved it in the air. God, did she knew it would ruin the doughnuts? It made Brianna very annoyed.

‘’Courtney, sweetheart, I brought doughnuts but you shouldn’t wave them in the air…’’

‘’And she doesn’t like being called Bri! It’s Brianna!’’

And it was Eureka. Brianna wasn’t friends or enemies with anyone at student council, but she could say she despised Eureka. They always competed in everything, and it was a surprise when Brianna asked her to be her vice-president. The blonde wasn’t dumb, she knew Eureka would make it work more than anyone else. She was so… Loud. Brianna concluded that she didn’t really like people, but had to put a smile on her face every single morning.

‘’And I could’ve said it myself.’’

A silence was installed in the room.

‘’Delicate like a petal,’’ Sasha joked. ‘’That’s inappropriate, Sasha.’’

Brianna swore she could cut the ginger with her eyes. She saw Sasha gulp: fear was a common expression in the eyes of her student council mates - it was better than disrespecting her, and she knew they secretly knew it was for their own good.

Finally, Kameron and Brooke arrived, so they could start their meeting. They took their seats quietly, mumbled a ‘’good morning,’’ and grabbed their notes - as secretaries, they had to do many.

Somehow they all worked well together: Brianna was the president, the head girl; Eureka was the vice-president, the lock to Brianna’s key, even if they despised each other a little bit, their brains together were too powerful; Courtney was the social representative, she would bring what was happening and what people wanted in school, besides doing polls and promoting things; Vixen was the sports representative, she took care that their school was valued by body, mind, and soul. Even if she was aggressive, she knew how to handle things, Brianna admired that; Sasha was the art representative, she took care of all the art events and matters; Kameron and Brooke were secretaries. They did the paperwork - and did that wonderfully, they were excellent in their execution.

Brianna remembered election time fondly. It was when she saw the announcement , one year ago, she remembered the joy in her eyes: in one year studying at Charles Academy, she heard a lot about the student council - that was her goal since she got in - and now it was time for another election: her time to shine.

She remembered how she had to leave her rivalry with Eureka behind, and how well they worked together. Courtney helped to promote their campaign so fast, they found the perfect sports representative - Vixen was captain of the girls’ basketball team, and very popular between them - Sasha had so many avant-garde ideas perfect for art, and Brooke and Kameron literally did all the bureaucracy with a smile on their faces.

The other team was a blur for her, and for everyone. Brianna’s team won the majority of votes, she heard rumors that even the other boy who were running for president voted for her. They were the dream team, and even if Brianna acknowledged how brilliant she was, she knew she would be nothing without them. She worked so hard to get there, she remembered all the tours with new students - in which she meet Aquaria - all the muffins she helped Courtney to distribute, all nights without sleep till the day the principal called her name in the school’s auditorium…

‘’Should we start?’’ Brianna asked politely, taking her president chair.

They all nod silently, Brianna grabbed her cup of coffee. ‘’First, Vixen, there’s a basketball championship coming, what’s on the matter for that?’’

And the meeting proceeded perfectly as usual. They discussed sports, and then the talent show - where Sasha got very upset for the disinterest of students on art, and Courtney was assigned to promote it. Brooke and Kameron showed her the last grades they got from the teachers - a success, Courtney babbled non-stop about the social issues in their school, even if her rich friends were the ones who bullied the scholarship students, but Brianna had to swallow that - Courtney was helpful in a lot of things, she was just… A little bit ignorant.

The topic suddenly became the troublemakers. It was a well discussed topic in their meetings, the troublemakers weren’t a chill thing - it needed to be discussed . Brianna talked about the room change, and gulped hard when Eureka asked her why.

‘’They all are very close, if we put them apart…’’

‘’And put them with good people that have nothing to do with them?’’ Eureka cocked one eyebrow. ‘’Not very smart of you, Brianna, we keep them isolated from the rest because they need to be.’’

Jesus, Brianna wanted her to choke - but she would never say it out loud; it was impolite.

Brianna tried to change the topic, but it came back to the troublemakers, the secret party thing was on her throat daring to come out.

‘’There’s that Aquaria Noodles, she’s evil.’’ Courtney pouted, with her accent that made everything she said dorkier.

‘’Aquaria Needles,’’ Brianna corrected, but the name gave her chills. ‘’And I think there’s more than evil to her to be honest’’

‘’Are you protecting that whore?’’ Vixen slammed the table.

Brianna gave her a cold look, she knew it was enough to stop Vixen’s random anger attacks.

‘’Sorry, Brianna, she keeps coming to the female team games and… Distracting my players, it would be terrible damage to the team. They have to follow the rules you know they can’t fuck her-’’

‘’Acceptable, but language, Vixen, always.’’

‘’And there’s Adore Delano too. I don’t know even how she didn’t got expelled. The number of warnings she got, every time I see one more in the system, it’s just a normal day to me.’’ Kameron addressed something, a rare event.

‘’Her dad is a famous musician, duh.’’ Courtney rolled her eyes. ‘’To be honest, she is kinda hot…’’

And Brianna thought her messy thoughts for Aquaria were unacceptable , Courtney literally said that out loud with zero worrying. Brianna frowned in disgust. At least she kept them on her mind, Courtney was so oblivious.

‘’What? I’m human!’’

“Well darling, to be in the student council you have to sell your soul and lose your humanity’’, Brianna thought, and laughed to herself.

‘’What about the secret parties, Brianna?’’

Damn Eureka. Brianna could feel how red her cheeks got, but how could Eureka know? She knew Aquaria’s friends didn’t share the video, they made a deal - more like blackmailing, but it was a deal.

‘’They are a real trouble, and guaranteed I’m working on it. Brooke, I need you to write a request to the principal to more random stakeouts and-’’

‘’It doesn’t seem like you are…’’

‘’What do you mean?’’ She gulped, but Eureka couldn’t know, right?

Eureka smirked with an evil look. If Brianna ever dared to swear, she would have said, ‘’Fuck.’’

‘’I got some material about the secret parties, let me just find it.’’ Eureka grabbed a laptop and clicked on some video, Brianna hoped it was some anonymous video from the party, or something else.

But it was her, dancing and feeling the music, feeling herself. A reminder she could never be herself, right in front of everyone. The shame consumed her face, tears wanted to come out, but all she let go was a sigh - even if she was dying inside.

Eureka paused the video, smiling. ‘’How can you explain this?’’

For the first time, Brianna Cracker didn’t know what to say. Everyone was shook, silence remained in the room - just as it was before anyone arrived, as they were ghosts, too shook for saying anything.

‘’I am asking for a trial,’’ Eureka announced. ‘’As vice-president I have the right to until the day you are out. Depending on what they decide, maybe you’re never will step in this room again.’’

Brianna couldn’t even believe it.

‘’Look, you could have snitched them, and instead you danced? You were out of bed on curfew? I’m sure you drank, what a shame! This school needs somebody who takes things seriously.

Who gave you the right to speak this way to me? Brianna thought ‘Fucking cunt, fuck fuck fuck fuck. Well, her mind could swear.

‘’…For today, dismissed,’’ Brianna used all the strength that lasted in her body to say that.

‘’Don’t worry Bri, it’s the last time you will say that.’’

Now she was alone, at ‘’home’’ that never would be her home again: falling into pieces on the floor, she knew she would never have peace anymore.

#rpdr fanfiction #miz cracker #eureka o'hara #courtney act #the vixen #sasha velour #kameron michaels #brooke lynn hytes #craquaria #angst #lesbian au #boarding school au #enemies to lovers #perfect places #melody #concrit welcome #submission

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minyoongijjangjjangmanboongboong · 7 years ago

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Dissonance Chapter One

Description: After spending a year studying abroad in America, Y/N returns to Seoul hoping to greet the familiar city as a new girl. But what will she do when she’s met with old friends she’d rather forget? It seems the strings of fate are determined to test her resolve...and her willpower.

Genre: Fluff and Angst

Pairing: Taehyung x (f) Reader

Word Count: 8.6k

Tags: Non-Idol!Au, Rockband BTS!Au, Bassist Taehyung!Au

Warnings: Swearing and mentions of alcohol, although infrequently

A/N: Whoa!! So here we are hehehe. I’m so excited to start this new journey with you guys. I cannot even begin to express how overjoyed I am that you have stuck around with me through Arranged, and I’m glad you guys chose Tae in the poll! This is gonna be fun, and I can’t wait to go on this ride together. That said, this story is so different! It’s been a hell of a lot of fun and a little challenging to write it thus far. Big thank you to @musicandmusing you have been such a huge help getting through the tougher parts of writing this chapter. Please send me a message if you like it, hate it, whatever! I really can’t explain how happy I am when I get to talk to you guys, so I hope I get to do it more in the future! I’ll respond to all asks within a day of receiving them. As always, please send feedback, critique, questions, or comments my way!

Ah! And this is important!

My posting schedule for this fic will be once a week, as twice a week was too much for me with Arranged. I really wish I could maintain a twice weekly posting schedule, but it has been remarkably strenuous for me and while I’m not complaining, I really want to give you the best writing that I can. I’m sorry if this disappoints any of you!

So, expect a new chapter every Sunday at 1:00PM PST!

- Mercury

Previous Chapter -- Next Chapter

Masterlist

The sun pressed softly against the bare skin of my arms as they flapped on every jump, flailed on every descent. Sometimes my hands would search for something to grab onto, seeking purchase on anything and finding nothing but the mesh net of my neighbor’s trampoline. Sometimes I would fall onto my bottom in a fit of giggles and reach those grasping hands into the air where he would stand, his form eclipsing the sun, a silhouetted body that looked from below to be larger than the earth itself.

“Get up!” he shouted through laugher. He reached a bronzed forearm down towards me and I clamped a hand around it, hoisting myself up to stand beside him.

He grinned at me, that grin that always had me grinning too, and patted his black bowl of hair down around his ears. His mother had told him he’d grow into them. I wasn’t so sure about that. I struggled to look at him past the glare of white-hot, yellow sunlight behind his head. Squinting my eyes, I bent at the waist in the hopes that perhaps at the right angle he could blot out the sun once more.

“What are you doing?” he asked, still smiling.

I shook my head. “The sun!” I said. “It’s too bright.”

He raised his brows and grabbed my shoulders, hopping to the side and turning me with him so each of us stood with sunlight casting shafts across the sides of our faces. “Better?”

I nodded. “Yeah. But that was no fair! You double bounced me,” I said with a pout.

He flicked me hard on the center of my forehead and I cringed. “You tripped me earlier,” he said before turning his face to the side to peer with a tilted head at the sun.

“What are you doing?” I shouted, clamping a hand down over his eyes. “You’re gonna burn your eyes out.”

“No I won’t, that’s a myth,” he said, smacking my hand away and giving me a frown. “The sun is really cool when you think about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like…it’s shining so bright that it hurts to look at it. But still we wanna look, you know?” he said, suddenly pensive as we stood barefoot on the hot nylon trampoline.

I shrugged. “It’s just hot gas, right?”

He laughed. “Yeah, but it makes people look, even though they’re not supposed to. Just because it’s living so brightly.”

“But what does it matter if it’s bright if it’s just gas?” I asked.

He pursed his lips, thinking. “I wanna be a person like the sun.”

“Gassy?”

“Y/N,” he groaned, turning to me.

He looked at me, and the deep brown of his eyes seemed in the light to be on fire. In my ten years I’d never seen more ambition in someone’s eyes than I did in his. I wondered what my friend could possibly mean, what he could be talking about with his eyes glittering like that. I wasn’t sure why, and I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, but I grabbed for his too-big, calloused hand and held it firmly, nodding my head.

“You’re already bright. But I’ll help you get brighter,” I said with a resolute steeliness in my young voice.

“Excuse me?”

I startled awake and rubbed my eyes as the taxi driver stared over his shoulder at me, his bushy, grey-laced eyebrows knitted as he nodded his head a few times. “Um…are we here?” I asked, unable to keep the drowsiness from seeping into my words.

He nodded. “Yes,” he said, pointing to my large duffel bag as it sat beside me, practically the size of a second passenger. “I got a bad back. Can’t help you with that.”

“Right,” I said with a forced smile. “I wouldn’t have asked.” I rifled through my satchel to find my wallet and, once in hand, slipped some cash from the side pocket. I handed the bills to him and nodded my head. “Thanks,” I said before exiting the car, yanking my duffel bag out the door with me.

I dragged my bag laboredly to the sidewalk and waved as the taxi driver sped off without a second glance. Sighing, I glanced over my shoulder at the tall, brick-faced apartment building. It had been a whole year since I’d seen the place. Its lofty roof pierced the blanket of foggy, cloudy sky overhead, and the sharp wind teased a chill up my spine. I rubbed my upper arms gently to coax the goosebumps down. I then looked down at my bag as it lay limp on the ground. If I wasted any more time the rain would come and wash it away. Part of me wanted the rain to wash me away too.

“Y/N!?” screamed a voice from above. Perhaps the voice of God?

“Yeah?” I called back, glancing up to find the source.

“Oh my God, I’m coming!” she called. Not the voice of God. Just the voice of Lee Yuna.

I smiled fondly as she yanked her body back inside the building, shutting the window behind her as she disappeared inside. Left alone once again, my body felt uncomfortable in the city, and the skeletons in my closet had turned to ghosts of memories in my absence, specters wandering around every corner, lingering like smoke in alleyways. Even taking glances around the street brought back a painful swell of remembering. But after what felt like only a few seconds, she was panting in front of me, the front door of the apartment building still swinging behind her as she rested her hands on her knees, catching her breath.

“You okay?” I asked with a laugh.

She looked up at me, blew her bangs out of her face with a puff of breath, and gave my arm a firm smack. “You said you were coming home tomorrow!” she shouted, causing a few walkers across the street to look and whisper.

I smiled and swayed, letting my head sway too. “Yuna,” I whined. “I missed you.”

Her frown eased and she rolled her eyes, pulling me into her for a warm, long hug. Still clinging to me, she whispered, “You okay?” A repetition of my question, this time posed towards me and asked in earnest.

I shrugged. “Better. That’s all I can ask for, really,” I said, pulling away to push her hair behind her ears. “Let’s go inside, hm?”

We struggled with my duffel bag for a good fifteen minutes, coaxing it over the lip of the front door, past the reception desk, slumping it against the wall as we waited for the elevator, pushing it with all our might into said elevator, and then, eventually, dragging it with whatever energy we had left into the apartment. I collapsed onto it with a thump and let my body lay limply atop the thing, a few secretly stored boxes poking into my side.

“Yuna! You can’t just ditch me in the middle of making kimchi-,” started a voice from the kitchen. A voice I knew belonged to-

“Haewon!” I called with an exhausted sigh, pushing myself to my feet as our friend emerged from the doorway on the right, deep eyes wide, black hair tied in a lopsided bun.

“Y/N!” she shouted before launching towards me, capturing me in what was more of a full-body attack than a hug.

I laughed, using the wall beside the front door for support to keep from toppling over. “Hi,” I said.

She pulled away and gave me a pout, her cheeks red from being in the kitchen so long. “Why didn’t you call to tell us you were coming home early?” she asked.

“It was a really sudden change,” I said. “That said, we have plans tonight.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Yuna, holding a finger up to seize my words. “You haven’t even told us how America was.”

I raised my brows. “America? It was cool. I saw a bald eagle.”

“What?” called Haewon, her arms still wrapped around my neck.

“I went up north. You know Seattle?” I asked, glancing at my two friends as they slowly nodded. “Well, north of there.”

“Y/N,” said Yuna as Haewon tightened her bun and released me, sitting on the couch with her eyes trained on me. “You’ve been studying abroad in America for a year and all you have to say is that it was cool and you saw a bird?”

“It’s a rare bird,” I defended.

Yuna sighed. “Oh my God, enough with the bird,” she said. “How was the food? Did you eat In N’ Out?”

I laughed and nodded. “I did. Oh! And I brought something nice for you guys,” I said, rushing to my duffel bag. I tore it open and moved a few things around until I found the two boxes I’d stored near the top. “Here you go,” I said with a proud grin.

“What…what is it?” asked Haewon from the couch, squinting at the skinny rectangular boxes in my hands.

I raised my eyebrows. “Girl Scout Cookies,” I said. “I’ve been holding onto them for a few months, but I think they’re still good.”

“A few months?” asked Yuna, her eyes suddenly dull as she looked at the boxes. “And what are Girl Scout Cookies?”

I gaped. “You don’t know?” I asked. “They’re like…an American classic. Little girls come to your door and ask if you want cookies and you buy them and then you eat the whole thing in one sitting and hate yourself. It’s tradition.”

“Are they expired?” asked Haewon with a grimace.

I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. You can only get them during a special time of year and-you know what? Forget it. I’ll eat them myself.”

“No!” shouted Yuna, suddenly interested in the cookies in my hands.

I stuck my tongue out at her and shook my head. “You had your chance. Begone, wicked one.”

“I really want them though! I’m sorry I didn’t trust you!” she called as I hopped over the duffel bag and hovered in the doorway to the kitchen.

“First you didn’t care about my bald eagle, now you don’t care about my Girl Scout Cookies?” I asked, a sneaky grin finding its way to my lips. “I’m offended.”

She launched herself towards me and, before I could turn into the kitchen where the heavy smell of garlic and fish sauce greeted me, she had grabbed both boxes, her hands creating ugly dents in the sharp corners.

“Hey!” I shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her. “Those are my gifts to distribute as I please!”

He cocked a brow. “And we are very appreciative of your gifts,” she said, tossing a box to Haewon. “What’s a thin mint?” she asked over her shoulder.

“It’s the best flavor. Next to Samoas,” I said, sighing as I leaned against the doorframe.

“Anyway,” said Haewon, examining her box with a soft smile. “Tell us about what it was like. Tell us the actual story.”

I raised my brows. “There is no story. It was fun. That’s it.”

Yuna looked at me, once again serious and putting a very serious damper on my mood. “Y/N…,” she said, giving me that knowing look that she knew made me anxious.

I shrugged. “What more can I say? Let’s just…make kimchi or something,” I said with a cautious look at Yuna.

She sighed, her arms crossed, a box of cookies in her hand. “We’ll talk more,” she said. “For now…what plans do we have tonight?”

Ah, she conceded. I grinned, joining Haewon on the couch and pulling my knees to my chest. “We’re going to a concert.”

At a quarter past ten, the three of us stood in front of a stout grey building in Hongdae, only a few blocks from our apartment. We all stood close as we braced ourselves against the chilly fall weather, huddled in front of the entrance. Yuna smiled beside me, nudging my side with her elbow as Haewon scrolled through her phone.

“I can’t believe you got us tickets to this show,” said Yuna.

I glanced at her with a scowl. “I told you, I didn’t get them. Jimin called and invited us.”

Haewon sighed as she tapped away at the screen of her phone. “Can’t believe you came home because a boy told you to,” she said.

I scoffed. “He didn’t tell me, he asked. And he was excited about it since he was the one who scheduled it for this day in our neighborhood. And I wanted to come home and surprise you. And he’s not a boy, he’s Jimin,” I said, counting on my fingers as I made each point.

Haewon lifted her eyes, her face alight with a blue electronic glow from below, and shrugged. “He’s in one of the hottest bands in the city,” she said. “I think he qualifies as a boy.”

“When you’ve seen him kick himself in the head and then cry about it you kind of stop seeing him that way,” I said with a laugh as I remembered the day when I was in third grade, just after I’d met him, when he’d been trying to pass a soccer ball to his friend across the field during recess and had accidentally smashed his forehead into his knee on the upswing.

“Let’s get inside,” said Yuna, hopping a little at my side. “I’m cold and there are cute boys to see.”

We waddled together into the venue which was already alight with the buzz of an anxious crowd. A beefy man inside demanded our tickets, which I provided in the form of the email Jimin had sent. He raised his brows and nodded gruffly, granting us access into what felt like an elite club of miscreants. People crammed together, filling almost every available space, leaving Yuna, Haewon, and me to try and force our way through the fray and into the thicket. My hand clasped with Yuna, with Yuna’s other hand clasped with Haewon’s, the three of us snaked through the hazy room, smoothing into vacant spaces in the crowd until we were as close the the stage as I could manage.

“Hey, you know all these guys right?” asked Haewon from beside me, her voice fighting with the din of the massive room for dominance.

I shook my head. “Just Jimin, Yoongi, and Jungkook,” I said. “And the second two I only know through Jimin.”

Yuna furrowed her brow as she stood in the middle and turned to me slightly. “Wait, you know V too, don’t you?”

I stiffened, blinking a few times, before shaking my head with a dismissive shrug. “Not really.”

“That’s not true though. You grew up with Jimin and-,” started Yuna before the lights went dim and, thankfully, cut off her train of thought. I didn’t want to board that train tonight.

A hush fell over the crowd, everyone speaking quietly as if the slightest noise might disturb whatever was coming. I’d been away too long, and I’d never seen Jimin’s band perform for such a large and excited crowd. Most of their rise had occurred over the course of the year I was abroad and, with a slight pang of guilt, I wondered if it had been hard on them.

I refocused on the thrum of the crowd, the jittery energy that seemed to pulse, to ebb and flow, through all of us. It was odd. I’d never known the band to have this sort of impact. Perhaps I really had missed a lot while I was gone. I remembered sitting in on band practice when the group was only a four-man operation in high school. We would sit in Jimin’s musty basement, using speakers Jungkook had stolen from his work at the electronic store. Back then I thought I could be their biggest fan forever, back before the band even had a name. Yoongi playing drum sounds from his keyboard, Jimin playing acoustic guitar, Jungkook singing his heart out, and Taehyung-

“Are you guys ready?!” cried a voice I recognized from backstage.

Kim Namjoon. Bangtan’s almighty leader. Thank God he’d come around when he had, just before college had begun for Jimin. From what Jimin told me, he made the group much more cohesive, more focused. He gave them a name, and he helped them reach their potential. That was what Jimin said at least. I wouldn’t have known firsthand, because by then I wasn’t going to shows anymore. I was always a fickle fan anyway.

“Make some noise!” he called again, and the crowd began to roar. The noise was deafening, but even despite the ringing in my ears I couldn’t help but smile. I was nervous, vibrating with anxiety, but melting into the crowd eased my troubled mind.

“Is that the best you can do?” asked Namjoon, his tone slightly disappointed.

Once again, the crowd went wild, arms flying, voices wailing into the dark venue. Namjoon chuckled into the microphone and I could barely register seven bodies walking onto the stage. The stage lights were still shut off, leaving the crowd in darkness, the only light source belonging to the stray cell phone screen floating above someone’s head here or there.

“Here comes Bangtan,” Namjoon said quietly.

A moment of silence.

A moment of tension.

And then…

A moment of rapture.

The stage light turned on, revealing all seven members as they stood behind their microphones. Jungkook had a hand on his mic already, grinning into the crowd. Boy, had he always had such remarkable stage presence? Gone was the goofy kid we used to tease about his bunny smile, and gone was the boy who, according to videos Jimin sent me, had not only a week prior gotten a chopstick stuck in his left nostril. In his place stood a young man with all the charisma of a rock star, eyes rimmed with what I could see from below was light makeup. Makeup! On my Jungkook!

Beside him was Namjoon, only this time he looked like a photograph. Long legs, guitar strapped over his shoulder, a smirk on his face and his hair dyed a particular shade of coppery blonde that caught the spotlight just right. He gave a sweeping glance across the crowd, offering a dimpled smile. On Jungkook’s other side was a guy I knew was named Kim Seokjin. Jin for short, according to Jimin. Another picturesque young man, standing dashingly in front of his own microphone, no instrument necessary to give strength to his presence.

Behind him, offset to the side, was Park Jimin, hair styled expertly out of his face, a honey color that suited his skin tone. I could see from my vantage point the glint of blueish contacts and stifled a gasp. He’d never been the type to wear those sorts of things! The mom in me wanted to hop onstage, grab him by the ear, and scold him for compromising his preferences for fame. But then I saw the bright smile on his face, a smile that outshone not only the spotlights, but the entire stage. And I smiled too.

In the back beside the drum set was Min Yoongi, fingers already settling on the keys, eyes resting half-open on the keyboard in front of him that obscured him from view. His hair was bleached and looked, at least from below, to be holding up well despite his lamenting about it on social media. I’d teased him about his hair falling out lately, and while he would usually fire back with a quip of his own when I teased, on this issue all he could do was agree with me.

And then, behind him, was a smile that stole the breath from my lungs. The smile was attached to a cute face with eyes squinted against the stage lights and a jawline so sharp it cast shadows on his neck. Mystery boy’s hair was fluffy, probably styled that way, and fell just above his eyebrows which he rose in a silly expression I wouldn’t have expected from a drummer in a rock band. The crowd still screamed around me, and as they did the drummer transferred his right drumstick to his left hand so he could raise his pointer finger and thumb in a little heart that had my real heart thumping in my chest.

The girls in the crowd shouted in response, a magnificent display of hormones amongst the sea of high-pitched wails. I smiled and Yuna leaned close to me to shout in my ear, “Who’s the drummer?”

I shrugged. “Dunno,” I said, then turned to her, still unable to stop my grin. “But I’m in love with him.”

She laughed and nodded, but didn’t argue. I returned my attention to the boy in the back, wearing a wildly printed button-down shirt and that shining smile. But before I could enjoy the view, motion to the right of the drummer caught my attention and, to my great distaste, I glanced to the side to capture it.

And there he stood.

Kim Taehyung.

Or at least, what I thought was Kim Taehyung. His hair had been dyed a shade of silver I couldn’t name and was growing past his eyebrows, shaggy around his head and unrestrained. His features looked the same, but somehow not. His lips were still the same rosy color I remembered, his cheeks still high, his shoulders still broad, his neck still slender, large hands still holding the same bass guitar he’d had since high school. His eyes, although sporting grey contacts, were still his. But something about him was completely different. A year can really change a person…

Before I could dwell on it, the drummer smashed down mightily on his set a few times and, with that, the song began. Jungkook and Jin started belting into their microphones, singing a song I could recognize only vaguely from clips Jimin had sent me when I was abroad. Jimin and Namjoon strummed steadily, Namjoon occasionally adding a riff that struck me as particularly pleasing. The beat was heavy, with emphasis on the drums, and thusly emphasis on the drummer. I couldn’t look away from him, couldn’t look away from the joy on his face.

The music continued and as it did, the crowd began to bounce, almost in sync. On instinct, my hands lifted to the sky with Yuna and Haewon, all of us jumping in time with the others. All of us were sandwiched, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, chest to beck. If we lifted our feet, I suspected we would have stayed upright with how closely packed everyone’s bodies were. There was an electricity in the crowd, a kind of syncopation that was hard to put to words. Jungkook and Jin continued singing, backed up by Jimin now and again. I was content to continue with the concert that way, focusing only on the members I could stand to look at, and would have enjoyed the evening far more if I could have managed it, but like he always did, Taehyung seemed to steal my attention without even trying.

His husky voice blasted through the speakers around the warm venue as he sang a few lines. The lights focused on him and he shut his eyes as he began to really feel the rhythm. As much as I hated myself, I had to admit that he was a natural. Something gave me pause, however, just as he was about to finish. His spotlight flickered slightly before petering out, leaving him in dimness as he sang and played, unaffected. A few of the other stage lights came on and turned off until, for a split second, the back light flashed, illuminating him from behind. And, if only for a moment, it was just like my dream. His form was eclipsing the sun once again. My chest ached because, just as the spotlight returned and he slowly finished his verse, the boy I used to know seemed to be shining so brightly it hurt.

“Park Jimin!” I shouted as I approached my friend backstage. He grinned when he saw me and held his arms wide and, with his invitation, I rushed into them. “For someone so small you give really big hugs,” I remarked, only to be greeted with a sharp smack to my arm. “You did so well.”

Everyone had cleared out by then, security ushering them out into the cold autumn night, leaving behind the damp floor and the humid air of the venue for the sharp bite of nighttime wind. Yuna and Haewon were going to stay and meet the guys, but during the final song someone spilled a full can of beer on Haewon’s sweater, leaving her wet and irate. Yuna said she’d take her home. When I’d offered to accompany them, both of them told me not to take another step and urged me to meet up with Jimin anyway.

Only meeting up with Jimin meant meeting up with everyone.

And that was something I didn’t really want to do alone.

“Come inside!” Jimin chided, still beaming from the praise, leading me by the shoulder through the threshold of an open door. Surprised, I saw all manner of sweaty young guys, drying off or settling into lumpy couches or removing makeup roughly with wipes. Conversation was boisterous, and the atmosphere was rowdy enough for me to slip in without notice.

I flushed as my eyes caught on the fluffy top of someone’s brunette head and I turned back to Jimin before I could get caught staring at that drummer. “Oh,” said Jungkook at the vanity, turning to see me with a face half-streaked with makeup. “Hey,” he said before returning to his task.

Jimin scowled. “You’ve been gone a year and all that kid can say is hey,” grumbled Jimin at my side. “Thanks for coming back a day early by the way! I really thought today was the right day.”

I shook my head as he led me inside, pulling a chair from the corner and ushering me to sit down. “It’s fine. I wanted to support my little Jiminie,” I said, grabbing for his cheeks and finding them much less pinch-able than before.

“I am also your friend,” said Yoongi from the corner, typing away at his laptop without once lifting his eyes to meet me.

I thought a moment. “Yeah, but you don’t care if I support you or not.”

He pursed his lips as he mulled this over and then gave a shrug. “Fair.”

Jungkook turned to me again and frowned. I raised a brow, silently asking what his problem was, and he simply puffed a little and rolled his eyes. “Hey, are you egging me on?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Well why?” I asked. “I just got here!”

“I sent you a Snap a day ago and you opened it but didn’t respond,” he said.

I scoffed. “A day ago I was in an airplane.”

“Didn’t the plane have wifi?”

“Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

He fumed for a moment before his contemptuous gaze turned soft and he chuckled. “Did you bring me a souvenir?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s a postcard from Yellowstone,” I said, then thought. “I forgot it though.”

He gaped. “You forgot it?”

“I remembered Jimin’s gift,” I said, rifling through my satchel with a smile as Jimin bounced below me, settled criss-crossed on the floor. I produced the silver chain and let it dangle in the air between us.

Jimin’s eyes flashed before they went wide and round, snatching the necklace before I could even explain what it was. “Is this a new chain?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I got a little pendant for it too,” I said, pointing vaguely in the direction of the trinket.

He turned the small silver circle at the bottom of the chain around to examine it. “Are…are these your initials?” he asked.

I nodded. “At first I bought it for myself but I thought it was too long so I’m repurposing it.”

“I believe the technical term for that is ‘regifting,’” said Namjoon from the sofa beside me.

I’d been deliberately avoiding the right side of the room, careful not to let my gaze linger anywhere it shouldn’t. “Even if I gifted it to myself to begin with?” I asked, brow furrowed.

He laughed and shook his head at me. “I’m Kim Namjoon, by the way.”

“I know. Jimin tells me everything,” I said.

Namjoon’s eyes went wide and he turned his gaze to Jimin who by then had snapped the necklace around his neck and was fiddling with it gently. “Does he?”

Jimin nodded. “You know we’re childhood friends.”

“Pretty shitty friends if the only gift she gives you is something she bought for herself and didn’t want,” said Jungkook with a look over his shoulder.

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not his only gift,” I said.

Despite his age, Jimin was still as excitable as a child as he looked up at me. “Wait really?

I nodded. “I also may or may not have found a signed Haim album at a music store in Portland.”

“What?” he shouted.

“Jimin?” said a voice from the right.

Damn the right.

I turned to be polite and came face to face with the drummer, his expression soft and kind as he peered at both me and Jimin. I went stiff as a bone under his gaze, unable to say or do much of anything.

“Yeah?” said Jimin.

“Who’s this?” he asked with a laugh. “I’ve been waiting for you to introduce her,” he said. Man, even his voice was handsome.

I chanced a glance to his side and saw Taehyung, face buried in his phone and feet propped up on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Had he even noticed me? And more importantly, the drummer had been waiting? My heart thumped.

“Oh! This is Y/N. She’s my childhood friend,” he said with a sweet smile. “Tae’s too.”

I winced at the last part, crossing my legs and waving lightly at the members I hadn’t met. All two of them. Jin was resting against a wall on the floor beside Yoongi, playing with an acoustic guitar. He stopped only to give me a smile and a nod. And that left only-

“My name is Jung Hoseok,” said the drummer, smiling gently.

I returned it. “Nice to meet you.”

“So stiff,” said a voice I wasn’t expecting. I turned to face Taehyung who was suddenly staring directly at me, a wicked smirk on his lips. “You’re still as awkward as ever.”

I raised my brows, lacing my fingers atop my knee. He had some nerve. “Mm, and you’re still intolerable.”

He nodded his head. “Glad to know some things don’t change.”

“My sentiments,” I said, returning my attention to Hoseok who by then was shifting uncomfortably. “Sorry. He gets under my skin.”

Taehyung snorted and sat up straight. “You’re just testy,” he said, looking at me with a cold indifference that briefly hurt.

But I was grateful, at least, that our interactions were bristly. Better this than the alternative. “Mhm,” I said with a smile.

“Anyway,” enunciated Jimin with a cough into the crook of his elbow. “Y/N has been gone in America for a year studying English. She goes to Hongik.”

“Jesus, is this an interview?” asked Taehyung, groaning as he resumed his previous position, leaning back so far his chin nearly brushed his chest, scrolling easily through his phone. “Listing her specs?”

“At least I have specs to list,” I said under my breath.

He shot me a sharp look before returning his focus to his phone. “Ah yes, an English Language and Literature degree from an art school,” said Taehyung with a snort. “How could I have forgotten?”

I smiled to myself, shaking my head. He could be such an incredible dick. A rush of memories flooded back to me of his worst moments: the time he’d made a girl cry after she confessed to him in high school, the time he’d called Jimin’s mom and got him in trouble when Jimin had stolen his favorite pick, the time he’d gotten so upset over a particular song he was learning that he snapped at me and told me not to talk to him anymore. The guy had a penchant for pushing buttons and watching the chaos. I wasn’t sure how or why he’d picked it up. I supposed that somewhere along the way someone told him that getting far meant getting mean, and he’d taken it to heart.

“Um, what is this?” asked a high female voice from the doorway behind me. I turned to face her, a young girl of probably twenty or so, dark hair brushing her shoulders in a tidy line, eyes a peculiar shade of greenish brown. Did everyone start wearing colored contacts in the year I’d been away?

“Oh hey!” said Namjoon with a smile. “We were just getting ready to leave.”

The girl raised her brows and crossed her arms. “Funny. Doesn’t look like you’re getting ready,” she said. Her petite face said she was happy, but her sarcastic tone said something different.

Namjoon glanced around the room and, with a dismissive shrug, looked back at the girl. “Is there really a rush?”

She sighed, gripping the bridge of her nose between two fingers. “Yeah kinda. Just…the fans are gonna figure out where we’re parked eventually and you remember what happened in Itaewon,” she said.

Taehyung snorted in the corner and glanced up from his phone. “Yeah. A girl threw her shirt at me and another one grabbed my-,”

“Enough!” called Jimin from beside me, waving his hands.

Taehyung chuckled some more to himself. “Anyway, if you guys could maybe…pick up the pace? That’d be sweet,” said the girl. She looked a little too young to sound so tired.

“Sunny,” whined Jungkook from the vanity with a makeup-smudged smile.

“Lighten up.”

“If I don’t keep you guys on track nobody will,” she defended with a pout. “It’s like herding cats.”

Hoseok gave a bright smile. “Hey, we’re all really appreciative of what you do for us, right guys?” he asked, prompting a series of grumbled, distracted responses from the rest of the guys.

Sunny, at Hoseok’s comment, beamed for just a moment and I caught the way her cheeks went a little pink. Did I have a right to be jealous? “Thanks. Ah, and who’s this?” she asked, pointing a painted finger at me.

I raised my hand in a wave and smiled. “I’m Y/N. Just a groupie.”

“Wouldn’t be the first,” she murmured with a pointed look at Taehyung that he didn’t see past his phone screen.

“She’s not a groupie,” said Jimin, giving my thigh a smack. “She’s my friend.”

“Oh…well, at any rate you guys really need to get a move on. If we don’t get outta here soon we’re gonna get flooded again and-,”

“Sunny?” called a distressed female voice from the black abyss of backstage.

Sunny stiffened and glanced over her shoulder. “Shit. That’s Mijin. Have you guys even gotten you’re outfits back on the rack yet?” she asked, her breathy voice rising with frustration.

The guys glanced amongst themselves, clearly spent from the concert as they could hardly move their heads, and Taehyung groaned. “Oh my God, if I wanted a lecture I’d go home,” he said lowly.

“Maybe you should,” teased Jimin with a laugh. “Your mom texts me now to see how you’re doing.”

“Really?” I asked, then cleared my throat as Taehyung looked at me sternly.

“Just…please get ready to go. I’m not gonna ask you twice,” said Sunny, sweeping her pointer finger across all of the boys to seize their attention. Their attention remained steadfastly un-siezed.

Namjoon nodded at her with a dimpled grin. “We will!” he said, but even I could tell it was an empty promise.

She sighed and gave one last furtive glance over her shoulder before turning on her heel and jogging down the hallway until the blackness beyond enveloped her entirely. At Sunny’s exit, the guys began chattering easily once again, having forgotten her warning as quickly as they’d heard it. As I looked around the room, I realized that none of them were quite working at…full capacity. Yoongi was still caked in makeup, Taehyung couldn’t be bothered to change out of his stage clothes, Jin was playing with a guitar he’d gotten from who-knows-where, and Jungkook was still struggling with the same wipe he’d been using when I arrived. I faulted Sunny on weak execution, but perhaps she had reason to be concerned for them.

“So, your stage outfits,” I said to Jimin softly as he fiddled with his necklace. He turned to me and smiled. “Are they yours or are they costumes?”

“Not really…costumes per say, but they’re special outfits that our stylist picks out and then holds onto,” he said, pointing to his flannel. “I already put mine away. Mijin is getting them all dry-cleaned so she asked us to hang them over there.” He pointed a finger towards a rack in the back of the room, just behind Taehyung’s head which explained why I’d missed it.

I sighed and walked a few paces forward until I was settled right in front of the devil himself. “Hey,” I said to him, my voice awkward to my own ears.

He peered up at me with suspicion before his eyes focused again on his screen. “What?”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, trying desperately to think of some way to speak to him without sounding strange. It was a horrible, novel dynamic between the two of us. But as I remembered the exhaustion in Sunny’s face, I couldn’t waste more time. “Strip,” I said with crossed arms.

His eyes went wide and he stared up at me like it was the first time he’d seen me. I reveled in it for the second or two it was there: a brief glimpse of innocence which was, predictably, replaced with a lecherous grin, his gaze roaming up and down. “Well, why didn’t you ask sooner?”

I rolled my eyes and gave the side of his leg a kick with the tip of my black boot. “These clothes don’t belong to you. If you ever wanna leave this sweaty room I suggest you change.”

He raised his brows and then, without much of a fight, stood to his feet and walked roughly past me, presumably to find a bathroom in which to change clothes.

I cleared my throat, struggling past my fluttering stomach, as the guys resumed their leisure, and sailed up behind the vanity. “Jungkook,” I said, catching my reflection in the mirror as I stood at his flank.

He turned to me and blinked a few times, eyes wide. “What? Why are you so close to me? What are you trying to do?”

I chuckled and grabbed for a second wipe, handing it to him. “Take it from a person who wears makeup recreationally, you’ll need more than one. It’ll make it go faster,” I said.

Jungkook took it gingerly and, with an air of caution, began rubbing his skin with the damp thing, eyes never once leaving mine in the mirror. “Thanks,” he said, tentative.

I nodded and set my sights on Yoongi. “Hey, Min,” I called across the room.

Lazily, he lifted his gaze to meet my eyes. “Hm?”

“If you don’t take off that stuff,” I said, pointing to my own eye, “you’re gonna get an infection.”

He scoffed. “Will not.”

“Bet,” I said with a smirk.

For a moment the blonde boy wavered and then, as if possessed by the spirit of fear itself, he shut his laptop altogether and grabbed for the bag of makeup wipes Jungkook was holding. Namjoon eyed me from his spot on the couch, one eyebrow cocked and a small smile on his face. I tried not to notice the look of a hatchling plan in the brown of the leader’s eyes, because I had a feeling I knew exactly what he would ask.

I was never cut out to be a manager anyway.

Before he could approach, I slid past Jimin and into the doorway. “Guys, if you’re not ready by the time I get back I’m gonna take my boot and smack each of you upside the head. Respectively,” I said, narrowing my eyes at Jin as he plucked discordant notes. He blinked at me before setting the thing aside and settling into Yoongi’s previous chair.

“Wait where are you going?” asked Jimin from below, turning his pout towards me.

I smiled. “I’m gonna check on Sunny. You guys seem…short-staffed,” I said. “I’ll be back in ten, maximum.”

I quickly swiveled and walked out into the darkness of backstage, pressing myself close to the wall so I wouldn’t be in the way of the tech crew dismantling equipment. Having seen how frazzled the young girl was, I was anxious to locate her to see if I could help out, if only a little. I wandered for a moment, passing workers who didn’t bother acknowledging me with a smile or even a bit of eye contact. If nothing else, the atmosphere bred anonymity. And that was always welcome. I meandered around to the right side of the stage. Or was it the left? Jimin was always the one who did theatre when we were kids.

One thing I did know was that I was nearing an exit, as I felt the cool rush of breezy autumnal wind bracing against my skin in slender drafts. I pressed a little closer to myself, moving my chin to my chest to keep from losing more heat to the night. In the distance, I heard a toilet flush. I shuffled along the walls, shambling aimlessly in search of any sign of that hapless manager, perhaps a hint of that lilting voice, a ghost of her dark hair disappearing around a dark corner. But I was met again and again with nothing but crew until-

My body collided into someone else’s launching the both of us backwards and sending me into a heap on the floor where the drafts were far chillier. I shivered as I regained my bearings and shook my head.

“Shit! Are you alright?” asked a voice I knew all too well.

My heart thudded. “It’s me,” I said, rubbing my arm as I stood to face Taehyung looking much more…Taehyung than before.

His hair was restrained with a black beret, his torso fitted with a white shirt and a jacket that seemed too thin, wearing the loafers he’d bought with his first paycheck from the art supply store in high school. He’d yanked his black face mask down below his chin as he appraised me, suddenly with a lackadaisical indifference.

“Ah. No harm then,” he said before brushing past me.

Only the backstage corridor was cramped and his shoulders were too wide. He’d made no accommodations for me and, once again, sent me stumbling. This time I had the wherewithal to catch myself on something before I collapsed, seeking purchase like I had when we were kids on his trampoline and for once finding something to steady myself.

But, of course, it was the pristinely hung outfit he was carrying to the back room.

I yanked the black sweatshirt from its hanger and, with a sick feeling in my stomach, I heard a seam rip. “Shit,” I breathed as the fabric lay limp in my fingers.

Taehyung turned, eyes wide, and stared at the sweatshirt, now with a gaping hole in the side. “What did you just do…?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing! You shoved past me! You know there’s not much space back here!” I shouted, pointing my finger at him.

Taehyung mimicked me. “You should have moved!”

“Why should the world bend because you’re walking through?” I shouted.

He scoffed. “Why should the world bend because you got back from your joyride year abroad?” he shouted back.

I gaped up at him. “Are you kidding me?”

“We scheduled this whole concert around you!” he yelled. “Jimin and Sunny had to organize everything and here you are! Breaking shit!”

I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t even scheduled to come home today, you idiot! Jimin got the date wrong!” I said. “I had to pay an extra two hundred dollars to change my flight! Now I’m gonna have to work doubles to pay rent!”

“Well you’re gonna have to pay a lot more to replace that!” he retorted with a smug grin my way, pointing to the sweatshirt.

I hadn’t noticed in the low light, but as I glanced at the thing now, I happened upon some red detailing on the arms. Hastily, I turned it over to get a better look and, to my horror, I realized what it was. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” said Taehyung with a laugh that I couldn’t help but feel was sadistic.

“You know I’ve always had a thing for Gucci.”

“You just perform and sweat in a Gucci sweatshirt?!” I shouted. “You just lounge in it? Casually? Gucci?”

He shrugged. “Hey, I didn’t buy it. We used our ticket sales to purchase our performing outfits. And it’s not me you wanna be talking to right now,” he said, grinning.

I shook my head. “No! I refuse to take responsibility for this, Taehyung!”

He shrugged. “I dunno what to tell you,” he said, leaning down close to me. I could feel his breath against the skin of my neck, ruffling my hair. He smelled like he used to, faintly of lavender. He chuckled, the breath of it sending shivers up and down my spine. “You break it, you buy it.”

“Ugh,” I said, shoving him away by the chest.

He began to laugh again, and before I could tell him off Namjoon’s voice beat me to it. “What’s going on back here?”

I turned to face in in the low light and noticed a small smirk, the one he’d worn before, had worked its way back into his features. How much had he heard? “What did you break?”

“Namjoon!” called Taehyung with a whine, suddenly pouting as if he were the victim. “She ripped my sweatshirt. The one I wear for concerts.”

I gaped at him. “You goddamn traitor,” I whispered under my breath, to which he only cast me a wink without turning his head towards me.

“Oh,” said Namjoon, but his smirk said it all. He’d seen everything.

Behind him a small figure came running and as she approached his flank, I realized it was Sunny. “Oh no,” she said, pointing to the sweatshirt. “That’s not-,”

“It is!” said Taehyung, crossing his arms.

“I’m so sorry. It was a total accident,” I said, my voice quick and frenzied.

Sunny’s eyes were wide, her mouth agape, one slender hand touching her cheek. “That’s gonna cost…like, fifteen-hundred dollars,” she said.

“W-What?” I asked, shaking my head wildly. “No, I can’t afford that. I…I haven’t even started working again. I’ve only been back a day. I-,”

“Slow down,” said Namjoon, that immobile smile still sparkling in the darkness.

“Let’s talk this out.”

“Namjoon, I’m really sorry but you know it was an accident. I-I work at a coffee shop. I’m not gonna be able to pay for this,” I said, shaking my head. Tears had begun to well in my eyes, but I kept them at bay by steeling my gaze, clenching my jaw.

Sunny sighed, her brows knit, and her head fell to the side slightly. “This is really messy,” she said, exhausted. I’d only wanted to lighten her load, but I’d inadvertently added to it…

I noticed Taehyung eyeing me in my peripheral. He was scanning me, picking over me with a fine-tooth comb. He knew me well enough to know my tells when I was trying not to cry. After all, the last time we’d seen each other I was wearing this same expression. I noticed him lean towards me, almost microscopically. If he thought he was having a moral crisis now, it was far too late. I took a half step away from him.

“If you can’t pay,” said Namjoon, tossing his head this way and that, his tone sensible. “Then work it off.”

“What?” said Taehyung.

“Excuse me?” said I.

Namjoon shrugged and placed a hand on Sunny’s shoulder, bringing her limp form forward as she stared ahead, still slack-jawed. Presumably still in shock. “Our lovely manager is in over her head.”

“W-No! I am not!” called Sunny, regaining her senses with a frown.

Namjoon raised a brow. “You sure?”

Sunny cleared her throat and looked towards me. “I mean…I offered to manage you guys when you only had two-hundred people at your concerts. I had no idea it would get this big. I guess…I’m a little overwhelmed.”

I stared up at Namjoon with furrowed brows. That stupid plot he’d been cooking in the backroom had needed only a catalyst: a catalyst I’d all too eagerly provided. “Wouldn’t you like some help, Sunny? Like…a co-manager?” asked Namjoon with a bright smile.

Sunny pursed her lips in thought. “I always kinda considered Mijin my co-manager, but she’s too busy keeping you guys pretty so…,” she said, then turned to me, appraising me. She looked me up and down. “Hm,” she said. “With a little polish…yeah, maybe you could work.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I…classes start on Monday and I work part time and-,”

“If you don’t have the time, then you can just pay for the sweatshirt instead,” said Namjoon with that stupid smile that felt anything but comforting.

“Jesus,” I breathed, glancing briefly at Taehyung and catching a glimpse of worry in his expression.

“Listen,” said Sunny, approaching me and grabbing for my hand. I lurched away before letting her hold my fingers. “You got the guys to listen to you. That’s something Mijin and I have been trying to do for a year.”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t make me a manager.”

“It kinda does. I’m…I’m doing my best, but I’m making careless mistakes lately. It’s too big for me to handle alone,” said Sunny, her voice reeking with desperation.

I cringed a little. “I-,”

“She messed up the date for the concert today,” offered Namjoon, to which Sunny gave a glare his way.

“Pretty sure that was Jimin’s fault…,” I mumbled, but my words fell on deaf ears.

“He’s right. I’m not doing the best I can because I’m spread too thin. You wanna help me, right?” asked Sunny with a smile.

Looking down at her, at that innocent, hopeful grin…I saw a bit of myself. Who I was before I left. I stiffened and looked at Taehyung who was now staring at Namjoon, as if trying to communicate something nonverbally to his leader. I tried not to notice the way his jaw strained sharply, the way the scant lighting made his skin glow.

I didn’t want to spend more time with this particular skeleton. I wanted to let him, like the rest of them, become a ghost, a whisper that only appeared in my mind when I passed a certain ice cream shop or bowling alley. But it seemed some skeletons were more stubborn than others. And it seemed that fate wasn’t ready to shake Kim Taehyung from my life just yet.

I sighed and turned towards Sunny. With a painful twist of my lips, I said, “I’ll do it.”

#bts #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #kim taehyung #taehyung #taehyung fanfic #bts reactions #bts imagines #bts reader insert #bts au

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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Did The Republicans Vote To Repeal Obamacare

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-the-republicans-vote-to-repeal-obamacare/

Did The Republicans Vote To Repeal Obamacare

When Did Obamacare Start

Do Republicans Have The Votes To Begin Obamacare Repeal?

The timeline of key events leading up to the passage of the Obamacare law began in 2009. Here is a list of those events, along with key provisions that went into place after the law was enacted.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a group of Democrats from the House of Representatives reveal their plan for overhauling the health-care system. Its called H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

;Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a leading supporter of health-care reform, dies and puts the Senate Democrats 60-seat supermajority required to pass a piece of legislation at risk.

;Democrat Paul Kirk is appointed interim senator from Massachusetts, which temporarily restores the Democrats filibuster-proof 60th vote.

;In the House of Representatives, 219 Democrats and one Republican vote for the Affordable Health Care for America Act, and 39 Democrats and 176 Republicans vote against it.

In the Senate, 60 Democrats vote for the Senates version of the bill, called Americas Healthy Future Act, whose lead author is senator Max Baucus of California. Thirty-nine Republicans vote against the bill, and one Republican senator, Jim Bunning, does not vote.

Poll: Obamacare More Popular Than Ever

A sign in favor of the Affordable Care Act is held up outside the Supreme Court building after the courts ruling in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, June 28, 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the core of President Barack Obamas health-care overhaul, giving him an election-year triumph and preserving most of a law that would expand insurance to millions of people and transform an industry that makes up 18 percent of the nations economy. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

BLOOMBERG NEWS

The Affordable Care Act wins 55% support among the public for its highest rating since becoming law nearly a decade ago, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll released Friday.

Kaiser said the clear majority of support is the highest in more than 100 polls the nonprofit health foundation has conducted. The ACA was signed into law in 2010 by President Barack Obama and has expanded health insurance coverage to more than 20 million Americans.

The recent uptick reflects strong support among Democrats, 85% of whom now express favorable views, Kaiser said in its analysis. A narrow majority of independents also view the law favorably. While most Republicans still hold unfavorable views towards the ACA, the poll suggests that Republican voters have largely moved on from efforts to repeal the ACA and now rank opposition to a single-payer government health plan like Medicare-for-all among their top health priorities.;;

Lesson 1: Replacing Obamacare Will Remain A Struggle Without A Clear Replacement Plan Or Goal

On one of his last days in office, President Obama, in an interview with Vox, issued the Republican Party a clear challenge. Now is the time when Republicans have to go ahead and show their cards, he said. If in fact they have a program that would genuinely work better, and they want to call it whatever they want they can call it Trumpcare or McConnellcare or Ryancare if it actually works, I will be the first one to say, Great.

I suspect, Obama continued, that will not happen.

So far, the former presidents prediction has proven right. Republicans have struggled over the past six months because they never came up with a clear replacement plan that the public actually wanted.

The day before Obamacare was signed, Republicans decided they would not campaign only to repeal the new health care law. They would instead vow to repeal and replace it with a more conservative health policy.

The repeal and replace message was a concession that simply promising to return to the days before Obamacare was unrealistic. But it also committed them to coming up with a plan of their own and that part never happened.

After Republicans swept the House, the Senate, and, finally, the White House, they still had no clear replacement plan. The GOP had spent seven years running a scorched-earth campaign against Obamacare, while turning a blind eye to the deep divisions within their own party on the replace part of their pledge.

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Lesson 5: The Drive To Repeal Obamacare Is Strong And Often Underestimated

Early Friday morning, bleary-eyed reporters couldnt see the path forward on Obamacare repeal and replace no matter how hard they squinted. The Senate hadnt just rejected one health care bill it had rejected four different options, all the repeal bills it had going into this week.

This means Obamacare repeal-and-replace efforts are in a hard place. But it does not mean they are over.

It is true that three Republican senators voted against the skinny plan to repeal Obamacare. It is also true that 49 Republican senators voted for that bill.

There is a strong drive in the Republican Party to deliver on the campaign promise they’ve made for seven years, and if we’ve learned anything in this process, it is that this drive cannot be underestimated.

Within moments of the bill’s failure Friday morning, the conservative Heritage Action group released a statement arguing that “Repealing and, ultimately, replacing Obamacare will require moderate Republicans to come to the table and follow through on their repeated campaign promises.”

House Republicans, meanwhile, continue to hold out hope for a path forward. Vox’s Tara Golshan was at the conference’s regular Friday meeting this morning, where she spoke with conservative Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows . He was already talking about paving a new path forward, citing a yet-to-be-seen bill from Sens. Graham and Bill Cassidy.

Republicans Learn The Limits Of Reconciliation With Failed Aca Repeal

With late night drama not often seen on the Senate floor, Republicans latest attempts to pass a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act failed last night, thanks in part to a divide the partys congressional leaders, especially in the Senate, could simply not bridge.

At the end of the day, however, individual Senate Republicans concluded that even if leaders had judged that repealing Obamacare was in the best interests of the party collectively, they could not support the different proposals drafted to actually get there. This was perhaps most true of Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski , who opposed beginning debate and all three alternative proposals considered this week. There were also, however, 11 other senators who voted no on at least one of the alternatives offered this week. While some of those votes may have been strategic, as members knew that the proposal would not ultimately be enacted, they do help illustrate the persistent divides within the Republican Party about the best way to proceed on health policy. In an era of high party polarization and a well-sorted electorate, this kind of cross-pressuring, where whats good for the party is not necessarily good for the individual member, is less common than it once was. But as the experience of the last few months suggests, those situations can still and do arise.

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Gutierrez Says Hundreds Of Republican Amendments Were A Part Of Obamacare

Republicans continue to sell their health care plan in an effort to deliver on a party-wide campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Yet during a roundtable discussion on State of the Union, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., pushed back on charges of Democratic obstructionism regarding health care legislation.

Anchor Jake Tapper asked if Gutierrez was involved, or if;Democrats were;just sitting by the sidelines opposing everything.

Very different process, Gutierrez replied. 2009-2010, lets remember, hundreds of Republican amendments were adopted in the ACA.

We decided to look into Gutierrezs claim that the final version of the Affordable Care Act incorporated hundreds of Republican amendments.

When the ACA was making its way through Congress, former President Barack Obama made a similar statement in September 2009. During a joint address to Congress, he said that his plan incorporated the ideas of both Republicans and Democrats. We rated that claim Mostly False, because many of the amendments Republicans introduced were technical in nature.

Republicans had several opportunities to introduce amendments to the Affordable Care Act, in both the Senate and House bills. Ultimately, for procedural reasons tied to the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., the Senate version was the only one that moved forward. But Republicans offered changes in the committees that considered the bills before the whole chambers voted on them.

Featured Fact-check

Our ruling

Trumps Promise To Repeal Obamacare Is Now In Limbo

President Donald Trump expressed disappointment after Republican lawmakers’ failure to muster enough votes to repeal Obamacare placed one of his loftiest campaign promises in limbo.

A series of defections by Senate Republicans scuttled two separate efforts to dismantle the sweeping U.S. health care law put in place by Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama.

“We’ve had a lot of victories, but we haven’t had a victory on health care,” Trump told reporters July 18, as it became clear the latest Republican legislative efforts would fail. “We’re disappointed.”

A slim margin of error constrained GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare and forced a delicate balancing act between the party’s conservative and moderate members.

But defections by Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah on July 17 brought to four the number of Republican senators to publicly oppose the bill , effectively killing the repeal-and-replace plan. Senate leadership could only afford to lose two Republican votes for passage.

Senate Republicans then turned their attention to a measure that would repeal major parts of Obamacare over two years, in theory buying lawmakers enough time to agree on a replacement plan before the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, was largely dismantled.

“I did not come to Washington to hurt people,” Capito said in a statement. “I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians.”

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Republicans Give Up On Obamacare Repeal

Most GOP lawmakers arent interested in another failed effort to gut the health law in an election year.

By BURGESS EVERETT

02/01/2018 11:45 AM EST

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. Republicans are giving up on their years-long dream of repealing Obamacare.

Though the GOP still controls both chambers of Congress and maintains the ability to jam through a repeal-and-replace bill via a simple majority, there are no discussions of doing so here at House and Senate Republicans joint retreat at The Greenbrier resort. Republicans doubt they can even pass a budget providing for the powerful party-line reconciliation procedure used to pass tax reform last year, much less take on the politically perilous task of rewriting health care laws in an election year.

I dont think leadership wants to, said Sen. Bill Cassidy , who worked with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on a last-ditch repeal effort last fall. In the sense of Graham-Cassidy, a partisan exercise? Doesnt look like it.

Republicans’ decision to abstain from another attempt at gutting Barack Obamas health law at least this year goes back on a pledge the party has made to voters since 2010. And it underscores how Republicans overpromised in their ability to reform the nations health care and never fully recognized how divided the party is over key Obamacare planks like protecting pre-existing conditions and preserving the laws Medicaid expansion.

On Groundhog Day Republicans Vote To Repeal Obamacare

Republicans vote to repeal Obamacare

met at the White Housetold reportersfeelWashington Postreported

The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on overturning President Obama’s veto of legislation to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. The vote, appropriately scheduled for Groundhog Day, is expected to fail, leaving conservatives to gear up for a final year of budget fights with the president.

PostscriptUpdate

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Support For The Affordable Care Act

Then along comes Donald Trump and threatens to cut off subsidies for low-income Americans, ostensibly as a method to force Democrats in Congress to come to the negotiating table. A New York Times editorial summarised it: It sounds more like a two-bit Hollywood villain promising carnage if he doesnt get his way. Holding his own voters hostage to prove a point is not really the best political move for someone elected by a combination of low-wage workers from rural and industrial America and high-income families. But the Republican health plan what pundits are labeling TrumpRyan care advocates decreasing financial support for those worse off while decreasing taxes for the rich. And just to top it off, support for the ACA is currently at its highest point ever with 55% of Americans approving of it a complete reversal prior to the November election.

Even one of the most conservative columnists in the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer a nonpractising psychiatrist wrote a column in April where he admitted that the ACA had changed the zeitgeist. It is universalising the idea of universal coverage. Acceptance of its major premise that no one be denied health care is more widespread than ever.

Now, how is that for progress!

Republicans Who Think Nobody Would Miss Obamacare Should Ask People Who Depend On It

Some of the Republicans agitating to repeal Obamacare say they arent worried about taking health insurance away from more than 20 million people. Their theory: The program is wildly unpopular and even the people with coverage wouldnt miss it, no matter what takes it place.

People have crappy insurance, Rep. John Shimkus told Politico last week. This fear that theyre going to lose something that they dont think they have anyway is crazy.

Anna Meyers would beg to differ.

Meyers, 42, lives in the eastern part of North Carolina. She and her husband, 59, have been getting insurance through healthcare.gov for the last three years. Meyers also has a son, 14, who has autism. He gets coverage through Medicaid a program that Republicans say they would like to shrink just as soon as they are done with Obamacare.

Meyers works as an office manager for an accountant. Her husband does repair work for a company that manages rental homes. Between the two of them, she figures, their income is about $40,000 a year maybe less when his business is slow.

We dont get to go out to the movies a whole lot, Meyers explained to me on the phone. But we do travel a lot on the weekend, in our car, and see some of the bigger towns in the area just to get out.

Also, there is date night once a week. They drop her son at her parents house, and then bring home takeout. Smithfields Chicken is a favorite.

The Majority Of People With Obamacare Seem To Value It

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Trump Signs Executive Order On Obamacare; Impact Unclear

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave federal agencies broad authority to defer or delay any part of the Affordable Care Act that costs anybody any money.

More formally, the order tells agencies they can “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act that would impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications.”

That’s a mouthful, but what does it mean, and how far does it go to repeal Obamacare?

Larry Levitt, senior vice-president at the respected and neutral Kaiser Family Foundation, said in a series of tweets that while the impacts are unclear, it shows the administration is “moving to unwind the Affordable Care Act, but it won’t be immediate.”;

Levitt added, “One sure outcome is it creates uncertainty for insurers at a critical time.”

Health care analyst Sabrina Corlette at Georgetown University echoed Levitt’s point.

“For insurers already uncertain about their future in the Affordable Care markets, the uncertainty this executive order generates doesn’t help,” Corlette said. “At a minimum they’ll have to factor it into their 2018 premiums, which are due to be filed by May 3 in most states.”

But that hasn’t happened yet.

Why Mccain Screwed The Gop On Obamacare Repeal Again

His friendship with Lindsey Graham was less important than his grievances with the process.

By BURGESS EVERETT and SEUNG MIN KIM

09/22/2017 06:34 PM EDT

Not even 24 hours after John McCain dramatically tanked a Republican effort to repeal Obamacare in late July, his best friend, Lindsey Graham, started working feverishly in private to try again.

Graham whos never shown much interest in health care policy quietly trekked to the White House with Sen. Bill Cassidy to try and sell President Donald Trump on their latest proposal that would transform Obamacare into a block grant program for states.

It seemed like an afterthought at the time; Obamacare repeal was all but left for dead. But momentum behind the so-called Graham-Cassidy plan snowballed this month. The unexpected passage of a fiscal deal well ahead of schedule freed up valuable floor time. And McCains stated openness to the bill combined with his friendship with Graham raised hopes within the GOP.

Ultimately, his friendship with Graham mattered less than McCain’s grievances with the lack of scrutiny and lack of bipartisanship surrounding the bill.

Ive never known John on something he believes strongly to defer to a friend, said Charlie Black, a longtime adviser who speaks to McCain regularly. The GOP leaderships view that McCain would buckle under new pressure or reverse course because Graham was involved didnt make sense to me, Black added.

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torippiyos · 7 years ago

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Ota Motohiro in TAIPEI Fanmeeting Report!

Mokkun had two fanmeets in Taipei on the 3rd of February, and they’re his first fanmeetings overseas! I was on a trip with my friends during that time so I managed to go for the first session (thank you to my wonderful friends for indulging me and sending me to the convention centre i love all of you). My Chinese and Japanese aren’t the best so I tried my very best to understand and write down whatever I could remember! (so i’m writing this on the train right after lol)

He had quite a lot of merch lined up which included plastic folders of his Gekkan photoshoot, and about 6-8 sets of bromides? I was almost late so I bought one set of bromides for 300NTD and a cheki opportunity for 500NTD.

To start the fanmeeting off we were told to call out “Mokkun!” in the loudest and cutest voice before he emerged. He tweeted that he had specially bought nice clothes for the fanmeet in Taiwan since it was his first international one, and I really wouldn’t have guessed what it was because he turned up in a suit that was all black (including his inner shirt) and his blazer was GLITTERING lol quite extra but really nice!

The first segment was a few questions about Taiwan since he had only arrived the day before. He said that he went to Jiufen the day before and he didn’t expect it to be so windy and it was also raining a lot, so everyone had their umbrellas up and he thought it was kind of dangerous lol but he ate a lot of really good food there too. I don’t actually remember most of the questions during this segment because he was talking a /lot/ and he even apologised to the translators about it lol He was also surprised that most of the audience understood Japanese to a certain degree since we were all reacting to what he was saying without needing the translator. He also noted how Taiwan is a lot like Japan, and the entire atmosphere feels very familiar.

He talked a lot about food too. He was having dim sum the day before and he was served buns with a custard filling (im not sure how to explain it in a non chinese way but it’s like nikuman but with custard filling instead) and it was served in the bamboo steamer like the rest of the savoury dishes. When he bit into it it kind of exploded (?) and ran down onto his clothes lol He was wondering if it was meant to be a dessert separate from the rest of the dim sum, and when the audience replied him in Japanese before the translator could translate for us, he jumped out of his seat and yelled “Hey, you guys really CAN understand Japanese!”

The emcee also asked if anyone went to greet him at the airport, and Mokkun seemed to really appreciate it, and the she also asked if anyone came from overseas in which there were only about three, including myself. When I responded with 新加坡 he said シンガポール！ありがとうございます (so i was quite happy about that hehe) Mokkun himself also did a small poll on the different plays which the audience first heard of him, most from Tenimyu, followed by Toumyu, Pedasute, and a small handful from Messiah, Kurobasu and Kuroshitsuji.

For the second segment they played a behind the scenes video of Mokkun during his Gekkan and calendar photoshoot in Vietnam and it was really adorable~ And everyone was more or less commentating on it. In Vietnam, Mokkun ate a LOT of coriander/cilantro and he really liked it, even eating it by itself (something i don’t understand how anyone does) and he said he’ll eat anything with coriander in it/smells like there’s coriander in it, to the point where he feels like some kind of animal eating grass wwww

When it came to clips of that One Really Pretty Outfit the audience went “woo~” and he “woo~”ed back, but the second time they did it he got embarrassed. At this point in the video they showed him with his newly bought hand fan which he was Very amused by and now keeps in his home.

The third segment was fan questions, although I’m not entirely sure where they picked the questions from. (i apologise for the answers being in third person, i don’t want to misquote him because of my bad memory)

Q: What foods are you looking forward to eating in Taiwan, or if you have arrived, what foods have you eaten?

A: He mentioned the dim sum and custard bun, and that he’s also looking forward to/had also eaten chou tofu (smelly bean) and he was quite surprised by the strong scent.

Q: What made you decide to get into 2.5D productions?

A: Back then the industry wasn’t really called 2.5D, but he made his debut with Tenimyu and decided to carry on with that.

Q: What was your first reaction to/impression of Sengo Muramasa?

A: He was shocked when he saw that he was casted as Sengo, because he felt that he was nothing like Sengo looks and personality-wise after seeing the official illustration. He really thought it was a mistake and he wanted to bring it up to the producers, but since rehearsals were starting in two weeks he decided not to lol. He also said that because most of Team Mihotose is on the serious side, he wanted to make Sengo a different but interesting standout.

Q: Prior to your casting in Toumyu, which other swords would you have wanted to be casted as?

A: He hadn’t really thought about what other characters he could’ve possibly played, but maybe Ookurikara because he’s so cool! He also really likes the black, gold, and red colour scheme so possibly Kashuu too.

(The next question is where my brain blanked and got jumbled up but it was about cross-dressing and Anna Edelman from Magdala da Maria Live)

Because of time constraints, the emcee skipped to the final question which she felt all of us wanted to see (which we did www) which was...

Q: Please show us a sexy pose.

A: For some reason, when he thinks of a sexy pose he thinks of licking or sticking out the tongue (like Hanamiya Makoto from Kurobasu, he said, but that ones a bit gross huh). He seemed embarrassed but in the end he chose to lick his finger sjfkskfjfkf mokkun pls

Forgive me if I get the order mixed up, but the next segment was a game that Mokkun could play with the audience, where he had to find out who was the wolf among the red riding hoods from 5 participants. (I would’ve gone but I barely understood the description of the game at the beginning lol) He had 3 guesses to get it right if not there would be a punishment game (which everyone was eager to see). I swear this man knows he is ultimately Very Sexy so when asked the five of them “Are you the wolf?” he got really close to their faces so they’d crack. In the end he got it right on the last guess so everyone was vaguely disappointed hehe

The next segment I believe was where we could ask Mokkun to say something in Chinese, and the first thing that was requested was 我今晚不让你回家 (I won’t let you go home tonight) (“Huh? Why is this so erotic lol” -Mokkun upon hearing the translation and learning how to say it) and someone else shouted NUGIMASHOUKA and without needing someone to tell him how to say it in Chinese and without hesitation he said 我们一起脱下吧！The only other two things he remembers how to say in Chinese are “Hello everyone” and “Thank you” wwww

Since Mokkun was in Jiufen the day before, he bought five fans for his fans (haha get it), signed and all and there was a lucky draw done with the ticket stubs. The Big prize was an alarm clock also signed by Mokkun, and the lucky person who’s stub was drawn got to get a personalised wake up call recorded on the clock. While deciding on what he should say that one same person shouted 我不让你起床 (I won’t let you wake up) (“Hey seriously?”)

The next segment was a free photo taking event, which I was slightly surprised was a thing, where he just went around the room striking Very Cute poses. We can’t post any of them online at all but I have about 50 photos of him in my phone now lol if I had a better seat there would definitely be more. Mokkun said he’d never done stuff like this in Japan but he was quite happy to be able to do it now.

With that it more or less concluded the fanmeet. Mokkun was very grateful to those who showed up and supported him, and that we’ll continue to watch future productions he’s in. He also slipped in a promotion to by the UtaPri DVD lol

Oh and there was the cheki segment at the end! Everyone except for around five people bought the cheki, and we had the option to either do a peace sign with Mokkun or a heart, and you can probably tell what everyone went for wwww afterwards we got to high-five him. It was my first cheki ever so I was nervous especially since everyone else looked really good and cute?? Also I am Quite Small so Mokkun did feel quite tall to me. When we leaned in to do the heart he really did smell very nice~ (“you smell like shit” -me to my friend wearing dior @ prom) And his smile was absolutely gorgeous I’m glad I got to look at it up close..

First fanmeet experience was great and I’m really glad I seized the opportunity~ I’ve really loved Mokkun since getting into 2.5D with Pedasute so I’m really happy I got to see him IRL.

#look it me #it still feels so unreal #ota motohiro #mokkun #toumyu

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flyingsassysaddles · 7 years ago

Text

Election Day

Notes: Okay, so Election Day in the US came and went, but I was inspired by the results and the polls that came out of it, and also I’m still a bit obsessed and in love with the characters made by @askaphmaine and all, so yeah, here’s a fic about Election Day and the chaos that goes on in the Democratic Caucus while it happens!

Summary: It’s Election Day, November 7th, 2017, and California is head deep in work and organization for the Democratic Caucus’s annual Election Overwatch Session, checking poll numbers and flipping through all news channels even remotely referencing the elections. However, a certain Republican-ish New Englander crosses the party line a bit to join in, and, as usual, trouble soon followed.

Happy reading!

The main Democratic Stateroom lounge was in chaos. TVs were being endlessly flipped to news channels, paper was flying through the air, and as always a million different people were yelling a million different things. On any other day, California would be livid, shouting and trying to control her fellow states lest they break a window like last week, which she had to pay for, mind you. But, this wasn’t any other day. Today was election day.

“Everybody, gather by the big TV! I need all of your attention because I’m going to assign roles for our 2017 election day overwatch committee, or just making sure we don’t completely lose our minds while the polls come in!” California stood on a steady chair and waved for everyone’s attention, which they half heartedly gave to her, if only because today was the one day that they would see if all of their campaigning, endless phone calling, and flyer distribution was effective this time around. They all came close to their Democratic leader and watched anxiously as California went on. “Now, we have TWO main races we’re keeping track on today, but there are many other smaller but no less important elections going on, so some of you will have to divert from the governor races,” -a huge number of them groaned at that, no one wanted to keep track of a city council race again- “However, this is a worthy cause, as we care about ALL potential wins, not just from Virginia and New Jersey.”

At the mention of New Jersey, they all whipped over to the awkwardly standing man in the corner, who waved a bit and leaned against the wall again, kicking the floor and wondering how long this would take. It was a tradition for the states actually doing the election to not go to poll watching parties, on both sides of the political spectrum, really. He knew for a fact that the Republicans were doing the exact same thing on the other side of the building, undoubtedly with more shouting and death threats from Texas, but still with the same panicked hustle and bustle. Virginia would be in an even more awkward situation than him, really, especially since she was at the Republican Caucus watching party, instead of the party thrown by the caucus she was actually in. At least the people here knew he was on their side. Virginia would have to deal with the grudges from 2016 and her possible defect to the enemy. Maybe he should-

“Now, is everyone body clear on what they’re supposed to do? Let me repeat, New England on Jersey, West Coast on small mayors in the south, any mountain states or lake states on Virginia, and all split representatives will follow the Virginia and New Jersey lieutenant governor race and the attorney general race. I want New York on speed dial as soon as polls close for his mayor, and all of you will grab a pamphlet from the back in case you missed the instructions. All other races will be handled by me and their home state, or in today’s case, their closest neighbor, and I want every TV on every news channels even referencing the elections!” She paused for a moment and bent down, hissing at Colorado, “Did I forget anything?”

“Nah, I think you got it all,” Colorado smiled, and California could smell the marijuana from her spot on the chair. Ugh.

“RIGHT! Anytime any winners are projected, put it on the flat screen! And anyone who wants to smoke has to go to the smoking lounge! Some of us haven’t legalized it yet!” A wave of groans followed that, and several states shuffled off to the corner, Colorado happily leading them. “Now MOVE OUT!”

The states did just that, leaving the huddle and most of them grabbing the pamphlet from the back and walking over to their spot. There wasn’t much urgency yet, just panic, but it would grow as the night wore on and more polls closed, as usual. This year, California swore, this year, we’ll get our states back. The room felt almost empty, they only had Colorado, New England, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and herself, along with Virginia and DC, both of which were mysteriously absent. And New Mexico and Nevada just went to smoke more weed. Great. Anyway, they had the fewest amount of members than ever, but this election was a reveal to 2018, and then they’ll get all of their states back. They had to.

California quickly left for the New Jersey race corner, where New England was dialing polling stations and watching the news, waiting for the projections, or along with eating as many chips they could smuggle into the lounge.

California was about to ask if CNN had said anything when Vermont looked behind her and paled. What was it now?

“Uh, hi Maine, what’s going on?” Massachusetts almost croaked, and California whipped around, holding her sleek black hair in place in her bun and making sure her blouse was as neat as possible, before facing the last ruffian in the world she wanted to meet.

“Maine, how nice of you to come.” California let the barely disguised loathing sneak into her voice, and the giant of a state shuffled awkwardly in response, cringing at having to interact with the West Coaster and looking at her brothers for help. Not this time, doll. Her turf, her rules.

“I was wondering, if you, um, if you had anyone watching the Maine races.”

“Maine what now?” California raised an eyebrow, putting on a mask of smugness but secretly shuffling through her memory to see if there were any elections going on up there. Was there?

“The one on Medicaid and the mayors and the city councils,” Maine explained, moving farther away and not looking California in the eyes.

Ah yes, there was that referendum to expand Obamacare or Medicare, well, one of the two. Wasn’t very important, really, they hadn’t put that much money into it, but Maine was actually asking if they had a guy on it? Interesting. Things must be falling apart without Texas in the Republican section, it seems. And the weakness of her enemies was always a good thing to learn about.

“Ah, that one. Not a big one, but we do have someone on it, I believe. Let’s see.” She shuffled through her mountain of papers and pamphlets and news articles and donations pledges and god knows what else, but eventually found what she was looking for. “Yes, it seems the referendums and the small, nonconsequential, couldn’t-matter-less elections belong to Delaware!” She gave a mock smile to the already fuming nation, honestly making her angry was beyond entertaining, and motioned for a small kid in overalls to come over.

Delaware approached the two women with a curious look in his blue eyes, wiping away the blue football paint on his cheeks and smiling happily as he stopped in front of the two really not-that-nice ladies.

“Delaware, I need you to escort Ms. Republican over to the place where the referendums are being watched.” Delaware's face immediately crumbled into disappointment, but he perked up when California added, “And if you do this, I’ll move you to the Virginia race.”

“SWEET! That’s the real stuff right there, actual political battles, neck and neck, and as I neighbor I need to-”

“CNN JUST MADE A PROJECTION!” Everyone in the room dropped what they were doing and rushed to the TV, California included, and Delaware was halted mid-sentence as he was suddenly all alone with someone he wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, or ever, in fact. God that woman freaked him out. Delaware beamed a smile at the Northerner anyway and motioned over to a small room next to the smoking lounge, which was currently vacant as everyone was studying the TV.

Silence reign between them and Delaware quickly grew bored as they just walked towards the room. Just walked! What kind of lunatic just WALKS?! To fix this problem, Delaware started jogging backward and asked Maine, “So why can’t you be with the Republicans?”

Maine stopped dead where she stood, glaring at Delaware until he stopped jogging backward and realized he really shouldn’t have opened his big mouth. Delaware coughed awkwardly and added, “Is it cause they hate you?”

God, he made it worse. Now Maine looked like she wanted to beat him over the head with a chair, not the Delaware knew what that looked like, obviously. “Is it cause you aren’t really a Republican and Alabama is an asshat?” ‘

“Close enough,” Maine sighed, dropping her sudden furious look like a rock and walking even faster towards the room with the old TV showing the referendum results. Delaware hopped inside, plopping down on a chair, immediately whipped his phone out to text West Virginia, and absentmindedly turned on the TV. Maine sat uncomfortably down on a chair to his left, closer to the door. They sat in silence again before Delaware shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Stupid W.V not answering his phone. Arkansas must’ve taken it, stupid technophobes,” Delaware mumbled before boredom kicked in again almost immediately and he looked at Maine with dangerously bored eyes.

“So, like, why do- Nah, too personal, wait, um, what about- Nah, I don’t want to die today, OH I got one, how come you came here if ya hate California like a rabid dog?”

“Really, that’s the one you went with?” Maine’s mouth quirked up a bit in what might have resembled a smile, and Delaware grinned and replied with the most stuffy voice he could produce.

“Oh, my name is the Republic of California, the best state, and I run the show, cause I’m the only one Texas has angry sexual tension with and I can walk in 12 inch high heels! I hate all birds, and I don’t want nothing in my lobby because of my HAIR!”

Maine started to snicker halfway through and bursted into laughter as soon as the last words left his mouth, doubling over and howling.

“And, a-and I can produce the best milk-” Delaware couldn’t continue because he was laughing too hard, tears forming in his eyes and dropping out of the chair unnoticed by both laughing nations. Finally, the two of them snickered to a stop, Maine covering her mouth to hide her growing smile and Delaware glowing with pride that he made the famous ice queen of the north laugh herself to tears. He was truly the best state of all time.

The commercials ended and the TV anchor went back on, and the two states started watching again. Delaware started fidgeting with a gadget that he always kept around, making sure no one could see the gunpowder peaking out and polishing the metal a bit before he was interrupted from his I-could-blow-up-this-place-if-I-wanted-to train of thought when Maine actually spoke.

“I’m here cause the rest of New England dragged me, and the Republican Caucus took me away as soon as I stepped foot in this building. They don’t really like me though, cause, you know...”

“Susan O’Collins? She’s so awesome. Practically a Democrat, or a Republican with standards,” Delaware quipped, adding one more thing before Maine’s glare made him shut up, “I can tell you as someone who has a friend on the other side that she freaks them out big time.”

“Anyway,” Maine glared, though a bit half-heartedly, “The Republicans didn’t really want me there, so I came here with the rest of New England. Simple as that. Wanted to watch the referendum to get away, mostly.”

“That is so cool! You can just switch sides?! Even though I haven’t had a Republican-held legislature since Reagan, I still have Republican governors and stuff and they won’t let me in at all! They let Maryland in though, and Penn.” He looked down at his gadget thing and quickly changed the subject, saying, “Wait, why don’t you want to stay with your family anyway?”

“Meh. Don’t like ‘em that much. You?”

“I don’t have much of a family, but I love Mary Mary Quite Contrary and Penny and Westie and Jersey Shore and Jane the virgin! They’re pretty cool, and I wish I could find Ms. Virgin Mary for the election, she’s like disappeared! ‘Think she stayed home myself, cause Mary the Lander hates her virgin butt. What about you?”

��Uh, what?”

“Yeah, Virginia is such a douche sometimes, like just let me find you damn it! Doesn’t help that me and Mary the Contrarian like to pull pranks so her; the last thing we did almost blew up her house! Though her puppy is cute, I should get one! I only have a fox name Grey and he hates me.”

“Wait, what did you say about Virginia's house?”

“This is fun, we should talk more often! You know my chicken Button, she tried to talk to the newest-Mexico-in-the-history-of-Mexico last week, but she ended up poking him in the eyes and he had to call the cops like a snitch, so now I have a court order not to bring her into buildings. She’s really sad about that, but she’s happy she can spend more time with Rhode Island’s chicken, Reddie! Though I’m starting to think they’re really really gay because they’re both females but they love to spend time with each other and Button is getting really possessive, so I talked to Rhode Island about it but he said chickens CAN’T be gay, and he usually knows stuff about animals, so he’s probably right. Do you think chickens can be gay?”

“What?” Maine stared in horror and confusion as Delaware went on, changing subjects at the speed of light and laughing at his own jokes every couple of breaths. Maine finally caught up with the conversation when Delaware stopped talking and grabbed the remote to change the channel on the droning TV.

“I didn’t hear anything you just said.”

“No one does. Oh, look, they’re talking about the referendum! Looks like you like Obamacare after all!”

“Medicaid.”

“Meh, close enough. Hey, can I change it to the Virginia race? I really wanna see if Virginia comes on our side permanently so I can get my 10 bucks from Maryland!”

“Sure kid,” Maine smiled, and Delaware went back to watching the TV and trying to reach West Virginia, who eventually picked up and was forced to listen to Delaware’s ranting about Pennsylvania and had to promise he’d punch him in the face for him. He even got some food while they were watching, and they chucked popcorn at Mitch McConnell whenever he showed up while snickering about the Mitch-Turtle Scandal. Some of the New Englanders even joined them as the night wore on and everyone except the ones on monitor duty started to bunker down for the long, long night ahead of them. It was almost, well, fun. Certainly not what Maine had expected when she was dragged out of the house by Vermont, that’s for sure.

Soon, the clocks chimed 12 o’clock, and election night was over. Polls were still rushing in, but at this point, most of the projections were in and all of the Democrats were smiling at the blue map of Virginia and New Jersey. Papers were littered over the floor, and a mountain of crumbs and uneaten snacks were waiting patiently to be cleaned the next day, though a few of the more strict states picked up some trash before leaving the lounge and heading towards their hotel rooms in DC.

California had just finished dumping the pot outside to be decomposed and picking up important papers, trying to rub away the dark circles under her eyes and letting the faint, genuine smile stay on her face. They did it. They won both of the governor races! And so much more! Transgender officials had been elected for the first time in so many places, women had participated in record numbers, not to mention the grass root energy! If this was a preview of 2018, they were in for a very, very good special election. It almost made the anniversary of that day seem less painful. Her blouse was messy, and she had to fix her hair that was loose and draping over her shoulders, but the inner glow that erupted whenever she thought about those hard-won victories made it alright to put off for just a few more minutes. She was about to head out the door when none other than Maine stumbled out of nowhere and followed her to the door, though a considerable length away.

California was still in a great mood from the night, and she decided that just this once, she would cut the frost queen some slack. She waited until Maine shuffled towards the door, tapping her foot and look at her watch in mock impatience, and when she finally reached the door, she opened it out for her and smiled. A real, happy, glowing smile. “Have a good night, Maine.” She ventured as far as to give her a light pat on the back before stepping outside and walking towards her car in the cold, bitter East Coast winds, ignoring the gaping look coming from Maine.

It was November 7th, 2017. Election day. The states had chosen progress, they had chosen to leave the feelings from the previous year behind, they had chosen to fight back. Oh, they were in for quite a year, California smiled, quite a year indeed. In fact, she couldn’t wait until Election Day, 2018.

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