#do not ask me how he got access to the stadium <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[tartt9]

@allroundher asked //

❛ everything looks so beautiful from up here. ❜ [ from here ! ]

"Yeah, it's peaceful, innit?" Jamie asks, his hands folded between them. He's led them to the very top row of the stands of the Dogtrack, looking down at the quiet pitch. It won't be quiet in the morning, when Richmond hosts City for the first time since their treble win, but, for now, Jamie lets himself relax in the temporary peace and quiet of his second home. "I never had this, as a kid. The experience of watching a match from all the way up here, I mean. Especially not before I started playing. But... tomorrow... there'll prolly be a little lad in blue and red and yellow, sitting right 'round here, with the money he's saved up from doin' the dishes or... or however kids get money, I don't know, and he's going to have the time of his fucking life. And I'm gonna be way down there," he points a finger, "and I'm gonna be thinking about that little boy, and... maybe his dreams of bein' a Greyhound someday." He digs his toes into the ground in front of his chair. "I play for 'em. The little boys with dreams. They're what motivate me. And... fuck, Power, I wanna win for 'em. I really do."

[noro-noro-noro]

quick dream summary 1. oversletp for an event 2. visitng the carriage maze 3. the event...

1. overslept on Sunday for some event I signed up to volunteer at, it was led by a tall black trans dude who was super nice & friends w my friend H who's literally the nicest person I've ever met so I felt really bad about oversleeping. I got all my shit together & ran over there, but didn't receive any instruction on what I was supposed to be doing there . my ex & folden were there, though folden was now going by Vicki for no reason. & he'd Gained a lot of weight. i elected to ignore them even though hearing their voices got my hackles up. lunch wasn't free apparently so that qas stupid. it was a buffet style thing where every dish cost $2-5. I ended up just wandering through the building for a while - sine areas had really old bookshelves. there wasone piano that was so old it looked like it would crumble apart. i touched the keys & it was +1 out of tune. after a while everybody left & it was just me & a few other people. you could see who was still in the building from these glowing panels in a secret room by the courtyard. anyway I wanted to try out actually playing the piano so I meandered over & tested it out. suddenly my friend Sean that I haven't talked to in years was over & he was making requested. fortunately it was for songs I knew how to play I even had my sheet music folder even though the sheet music was all incorrect. I was explaining to the trans guy who was also there about synesthesia & then I woke up

2. visiting one of my friends & their friends. we headed out to go get coffee or smth & we were invisible as long as we were in our carriage? it was nighttime & some dude takes the carriage into his restaurabt bc our horses were getting cild. he made a scarf for the horsws. we were trying to stay invisible, & eventually when the guy fell asleep we teied to leave. but the horses liked their scarves & stayed behind so then the trip turns into some kind of escort the carriage through the weird forest game. it kinda felt like a drg escort mission except I didn't have a gun or a steering wheel but I was still expected to control the direction & keep enemies off. we eventually ended up in some German departnent store driving on too of shelves. the people were all like teen punks ,but the enemies were lots of mammoths?? fsr. I remember there was a hole in the ceiling we had to get into under this giant chandelier, so I ripped the chandelier out & tried to lift my little cousins up there since they were too small & I didn't want them to get hurt. but they couldn't pull them selves all the way to safety & fell out swsoite my best efforts, & I got stressed out. a new wave of round mammoths were arriving, butbhust before they hit us there was a CRACK and white light & rhe enemy guy, who was red and slightly transparent, had made an easily accessible staircase down from the ceiling. he was there with his red and slighrly reansparebt goons. I let my little cousins go safely up the stairs, & then asked mr evil why he was doing this, a bit baffled. we'd died in this floor before & had to respawn so I was wondering why now did he help . he smiled & held up my friend's fucking LEFT LEG still bleedig & was like I got what I want!!! I felt conflicted bc I needed my lirrle cousins safety to be assured. but I also was mad about my friend getting his leg torn off. he showed up with a prosthetic from one of the robotic enemies and ran up the hill to charge us but was handily knocked over by the goons. I couldn't do anything. Mr evil had my little cousins.

3. at some kind of event in the gym at a high school, except the gym was the size of a stadium actually and had a dramatic elevation change. the guy who couldn't find the bacon scallion cream cheese was there & so were a lot of other people. I came here with my friend but he wasn't having a super great time, he was just kinda like there. I heard casey talking so I tried to leave the area he was in but he saw me and followed me & eventually picked me up & held me in the air ,m& I was like boy put me down and take 5 steps back or I'll start screaming. he did not so I started SHOUTINT at him and gnawed his wrist until he staeted bleeding and dropped me & I ran off. couldn't find my friend so I wanted to hide in a classroom but all the doors were either locked or when you went in the lighrs and a LOUD fan automatically went off. i ended up running into a guy from.my Taiwan trip & walked around with him for a while until some awards ceremony started. again however the stadium was really fucked in terms of elevation it was like a 70 degree slope to the bottom with scattered flat ledges here or there. it was actually more like at an angle too. I ended up sitting with the guy from the Taiwan trip and ignoring the awards thing bc we couldn't hear from all the way up there

[becomingbts]

Time heals (sometimes) - 1

Summary: 6 years ago, (Y/N) thought that she was finally taking her life into her hands, leaving behind a toxic and abusive relationship with a man who taught her she’d never be worthy of love. However, it became hard to ignore his words when she met her seven soulmates who rejected her without even giving her a chance to prove herself. It took (Y/N) 3 years to realize that it wouldn’t be her end. She would live on to prove them all wrong; she would become what they all thought she wasn’t: someone worthy of love. And as she stands proudly on the stage, under the  burning spotlights and the applause and  the cries of the delirious crowd, she feels alive. Alive, just like the bond she believed to be broken.

Pairings: Y/N x OT7

GENRE: Soulmate AU!, Idol Y/NAU!, semi social-media AU!, ANGST (mainly), fluff, romance, maybe smut in the series.

Ask or comment to be tagged!

1.5k

Warnings:  The series is going to be heavy with a lot of personal experiences  mixed into the fiction, so this is going to be kind of therapeutic for me. Please, consider not reading the series if you are not comfortable with: abandonment issues, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, self-harm (not descriptive and only part of MC’s past), suicide thoughts (in the past), toxic behavior, toxic and abusive relationship (in the past), depreciating self-talk and low self-esteem, a lot of curse, physical and mental pain, near death experience situation (in the past), and maybe smut scenes (happy ending though, but it will probably be quite the ride).

NOTE: So hello everyone, welcome to Time Heals (sometimes). Thank you so, so much for the warm welcoming, it has been my first time getting so many asks, I was honestly overjoyed. I still don’t really know what to call this part; is it a teaser? A note? A full chapter? I believe we’ll get some snapshot of memories like this one throughout the series because there is going to be a lot to unpack on both sides. I think it will be a chapter nevertheless because I have to establish some kind of order as to which parts should be read first, and I think this one is extremely important.

Thank you for reading,

-Dolly

Profiles #2 - here - part 2

Her scream pierced through the air while cries broke in the frenzied arena while a single blond-haired man froze, emptily staring at the stage. It felt like his senses heightened; his skin was shuddering, his eyes were frantically searching for one specific figure while his voice was lost in his throat. The screams resonating in the stadium would have been too loud for his voice to be heard anyway. 

Jimin knew he shouldn’t be there. 

Namjoon had told them more than once that none of them should try to go to one of (Y/N)’s events. It could be dangerous and they could be overwhelmed; anything could happen to them and they would still remain a nobody who fainted in the howling crowd. Would they want to take this risk? No.

So, Jimin would have had to admit that going to her very first concert in Seoul since the pandemic sounded like a very, very, very bad idea. And to be honest, it still didn’t seem to be a bright idea now that he was actually there. 

But he still went because he needed to see her for himself; to see how she was. He had so many things he dreamed about asking her. Are you okay? Are you sleeping well? Did you eat before coming to the arena? Are you nervous? Do you... remember me? 

Maybe he was torturing himself. He kept on watching her lives, following her on all social media, always made sure to leave a sweet comment, and never miss any of her new updates... Maybe he even had a folder of pictures of her on his phone but he’d never admit it to any of his mates. Taehyung would probably take his phone away from him and delete everything and Jimin couldn’t let that happen.

He felt like it was cheating. Don’t take him wrong though. When he thought that, he was not really thinking about the boys. They did collectively agree not to follow her activities as an artist but it was getting harder and harder with how popular she got anyway. Moon was everywhere. In commercials, on the radio, her songs were on the TV… Even if she was known for refusing most of the promotional contracts that were offered to her, her image was still constantly in the media despite her avoidance of it. Ironic, but the media were trying their best to find anything about her, be it positive or negative. One day she was seen on her bike, the next, she was in a coffee shop, and it kept on going on, overstepping on her privacy as if it was just a meaningless word. 

The lockdown had admittedly played a major part in Jimin’s obsession. Being in their apartment meant quickly running out of activities, and his job as a dance teacher was not really filling his free time (a lot of his classes were also canceled). It was also during that time that (Y/N) truly blew up as an independent artist. Advertisement on YouTube started being around her channel and her music, the recommendations he kept on seeing were about also her… Jimin’s resolve honestly broke easily. It was hard not to be curious about his lost soulmate even though he didn’t feel like he had the right to be hurting. 

Anyway, to come back to his main point, if Jimin felt like he was cheating; it was mostly for her. After all, (Y/N) had no means of letting the curiosity get the best of her, to know what they were doing; to simply see or contact them. He had, at first, not really thought about that. Watching her content seemed a very innocent thing to do in his opinion; billions of people were watching her content, why should he prevent himself from doing so? Yet, Jimin could still remember one of her live she did soon after that interview she had given on this damned radio show where she had revealed who her title track ‘TIME’ was about… She had gone live the next day-Jimin had jumped on his phone because of the notification-and one fan had asked her what would she do if she knew that her ‘ex-soulmates’ (and those words left a very sour taste in Jimin’s mind) were watching her. The question had silenced a previously restless Jimin, replacing his initial excitation with dread while a lump formed itself in his throat. He had not even noticed it; he was so focused on her live and her upcoming answer that Jimin had completely missed the sound of a glass breaking in the apartment. Jimin had been home alone, so even if had indeed heard it, he probably wouldn’t have bothered to check what had happened, thinking that the wind knocked it over or something. Jimin had been so absorbed by what he had been watching that he even got surprised a few hours later when Seokjin came home and yelled at him for breaking something when he had been clearly innocent, engrossed in (Y/N)’s live (not that he could tell his soulmates about that part, but yeah). (Y/N)’s live would always be more important than some random glass breaking again in their apartment. Every object was doomed with Namjoon living here anyway.

On her side of the screen though, (Y/N) had seemed taken aback as she had read the question and had gritted her teeth gently. She had seemed to be pondering about her answer even though a lot of people in her chat were telling her to forget about the question if it made her uncomfortable (a lot were even scolding the person who asked). Yet, sighing softly, she had looked up at the screen: 

“I’d appreciate it if you could refrain from asking questions on this topic. It’s not taboo but I’d rather not remember everything that comes with it. However, to answer this-hopefully-last question about it, I’d ask them to turn off my stream and to stop watching any of my content. It would only be fair after all. I’ve been denied access to their lives six years ago, why would they get a free pass into mine now?” She had not smiled nor had she seemed hurt by her own comment, yet Jimin’s heart had shattered in pieces, unable to press the cancel button. 

Her voice had slowly faded into background noise while her words had been stuck in his head. 

I’d ask them to turn off my stream and to stop watching any of my content. 

How could Jimin ever do that? He realized that he truly should. Namjoon would even agree with you, as ironic as it sounded for Jimin. Namjoon had been one of the most adamant ones about rejecting your bond, after all. Jimin was shaking with bitterness while ‘Moon’ continued her stream peacefully with music. Jimin could only try to gulp his anger down as he remembered her crumbling features on that fateful day. 

“You’re not our soulmates. This name on our arms means nothing to us. You are nothing to us if not a hindrance. Leave us alone.” 

If Jimin could go back in time, he’d prevent Taehyung from spatting those words at her. Yet, he couldn’t do anything. Playing the scene over and over in his mind wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t change that she probably hated them. It wouldn’t change the song she made about them. 

And worst of all, it wouldn’t change the fact that Jimin had let himself believe that their choice had been for the best, trying to console and reassure himself, even if he had already known that it was wrong. Tears were pooling up in his eyes even if none escaped as he finally caught a glimpse of her on the stage. Suddenly brought back to reality after his subconscious memory trip, Jimin finally connected back to the world, looking around while he was still frozen on his spot. People were still screaming around him and he wondered if he looked like an intruder. Because, after all, wasn’t that what he exactly was? She said it herself that she didn’t wish for them to watch her; so what was he doing here? 

Jimin couldn’t help but stare; she looked ethereal, dressed like a queen in the middle of a sold-out arena. People were screaming her name as she yelled her infamous ‘hi people’. It was an opening sentence that Jimin heard way too many times in her vlogs and suddenly hearing it in real life seemed surreal. 

Jimin could only watch in awe, entranced with her everything. 

Screw the boys and what they would think once he’d be back from her concert. 

He had been the one to find her six years ago anyway. He had been the one to bring her to their home six years ago, hoping for the boys to change their mind once they’d meet her.

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Uploaded : 09/04/2021

Taglist: @sweetmoonlight9, @mickmoon, @dreamer95, @loveyoongles, @spicetouched , @jikooksgirl19, @summerevelyn , @springjade , @clevercoley, @prooteus, @sehun096rainbow, @ainsle-e, @ifyouareme, @sunshinee0-0, @fangirl125reader, @sea-nevermind-enthusiast, @atlantis-atlas, @thequeen-kat, @naajix, @skyys-universe , @sichajeon , @yukiehyukie, @amxranthinesworld , @bunzom, @potate-oh, @mawwnsterr​, @ celaenaelentiyavox, @dvoz-writes​ , @honeybaby-94​ ,

[correctdangerousfellows]

first date with ethan and harry

anon asked:  first date headcanons for the dfel bois

a/n: this request made me so happy u don’t understand, i’m sorry this was super late and i didn’t want to take too much time so here is ethan’s and harry;s first! i’ll publish zion’s, eugene’s, and lawrence’s super soon <3

ethan

- my precious,,, but very awkward giant,,,,,

- you probably had to initiate the first date. you guys were just chilling outside of a classroom talking about random stuff until the topic of baseball was brought up, and u said something around the lines of “oh my god we should go to one of those baseball games together :D”

- insert dying ethan here he says yes with the most eager and straightforward face

- THE MOST NERVOUS MF he doesn’t show it but when i mean he is dying inside i mean HE IS DYING INSIDE

- he wakes up early for once in his life and waits patiently outside of your home with absolutely everything prepared. he brought a mini backpack filled with snacks, water bottles, and a sports jacket in case it was windy

- asked if he could hold ur hand bc baseball stadiums r so big and he’s not risking losing u in a big crowd

- there was a cameraman going around and he asked u guys if u wanted a photo together and he was like “YES,,,,,,, if u don’t mind of course.” it’s a cute polaroid of u two together with matching baseball caps

- yall the photo is NOT GOING ANYWHERE. he takes it with him everywhere he goes

- if u were familiar with baseball, he would talk about what the teams were doing with u and guessing who was going to win,, it’s basically commentary and it’s so cute bc he gets lost in it and when he realizes he gets shy and goes “oh wait sorry i think i talked too much” MF IF U DON’T TALK MORE

- if u weren’t familiar with baseball, he would explain absolutely everything to u and would keep an arm slung around ur shoulder so u have easy access to ask him anything :”) he is open to every single question and is completely patient with u. in fact he just falls deeper in love with u if u sound into the sport

- what is a sports date... if no kiss cam.....?

- you guys were way too into the game so u guys didn’t notice the kiss cam was on u two until the crowd got ridiculously loud

- ethan really wanted to kiss u but also he didn’t want u to feel pressured at all but if u gave him permission he would give u the most gentle and soft kiss of all time

- doesn’t process he kissed u until an hour later

- dies when he does

- 10/10 would do again even if he died of cardiac arrest

harry

- harry was the one who initiated the first date! he’s actually been wanting to ask you to a date for the longest time but he had no idea how to approach u,, and also he’s pretty scared of making u uncomfortable so he was in this very poor position of oh my god what should i do

- he asked his mother for advice n everything and finally went for it

- pretty casual about it freaking inside he first asks you if you’re available next weekend, then proceeds to be like ,,,”so i heard about this movie right and it’s insert favorite movie genre here” because he’s very tentative to your interests so

- when you said yes he was like “oh, okay cool! see you then : ^ )”

- he thinks he looks composed on the outside but in reality,,, you see harry with the reddest fucking face ever and he’s grabbing the back of his neck and looking away shyly with a small smile

- went shopping for the first time with his mom and got decent looking clothes

- bought the snacks beforehand ofc my mans is already prepared

- the most gentlemanliest gentleman ever u already know he’s there like an hour early, he insisted on taking you safely to the theatres, paid for all the tickets, “your daughter will be back by 9 pm sir”

- no matter what type of movie you guys are watching he is always leaning towards you so your shoulders touch,,, and he’s so warm and he’ll glance at u a few times throughout the movie to see ur reaction

- if you guys are watching a horror movie, he’ll hold your hand very gingerly and squeeze it whenever a jumpscare pops up

- for romcoms, he’ll probably be distracted from the movie just to stare at u HE IS OVER THE MOONNNN FOR U

- action? he’ll be as engrossed as u are and u guys are just sharing snacks subconsciously and sometimes your hands would brush together and he’ll smile at u gently

- HE IS SO CUTE OMG once the movie finished, he walks you back home with your arm around his arm and he’ll quietly listen to you ramble about the movie with the most loving eyes

- got so engrossed in the conversation that he didn’t even notice u were in front of ur home

- he gave u a big fat hug and he was SO WARM he lowkey did not want to let go bc everything in that moment was so comfortable and he buried his head in ur shoulders as he thanked u for the fun date

- everything kept replaying in his head later that night when he was going to bed and he realizes just how bad he’s got it for u :’)

THIS WAS SO FUN TO DO AHH i feel like i did harry a bit wrong here so,,,,, i’ll probably edit it once i finish all my requests. thank you once again for requesting and i am super sorry that this was late, but i’ve finally recovered fully from covid so i should be back to regular posting again!!! i’ll have the rest of the fellows done soon <3

> lychee

[simonsrosebud]

the one where someone doesn’t know who kevin day is, pt. 3

part one two four five

kevin has a talk with them the next morning before practice.  or more of just him storming into the lounge and going off.  the four freshman are there, too, but he doesn’t quite care.

“dalton isn’t fucked up like the rest of us!  there’s a reason i didn’t want any of you meeting or even knowing about him and it’s not because i hadn’t fucking come out yet.  he’s not a fox, and he’s not even thea.  he’s not involved with exy, he doesn’t know about riko and me and the moriyama’s and the rest!  there’s a lot of shit he doesn’t know about yet and none of you had the right throwing it all out in the air last night just to have a fucking laugh.  tell me, was it funny?  was it fucking funny getting him shitfaced just to get some answers and take the piss?!”

dan stands, and kevin holds a hand out.  she looks to andrew, but his silence sides him with kevin.  “kevin, we were just trying to-“

“you have no excuses, dan.  none of you do.  you were trying to make a fool of me and my boyfriend for nothing.  and now, i have to go cure his curiosity of the things you all said.”  and he storms out.

wymack doesn’t stop him.  if anything, he looks mad at those left.  “the fuck did you do to him to make him skip practice?!  you realize that’s never happened so long as he’s lived, right?!  we don’t have protocol for the day kevin skips exy.”

meanwhile, dalton doesn’t actually have that many questions.  the numbing of alcohol for a face tattoo is understandable, especially knowing that kevin’s sober and therefore must have had a problem.  the cracker dust he asks about just because he doesn’t know what it is- he doesn’t like it, but trusts kevin that he’s done with it.  he’s seen the scar along kevin’s hand, he already assumed it was from a surgery.  the edgar allen thing was too vague for him to be curious about, but he does ask- not about, the father comment, but if he’s okay about it.  kevin tells him this much;  that he transferred from edgar allen to palmetto because he’d known for a few years that wymack was his father, and that he didn’t have the courage to tell him until last year.

kevin thanks the gods that dalton doesn’t ask about or seem to remember any mention of the yakuza.

they’re at kevin’s suite because he knows they’ll have a few hours by themselves with everyone at the stadium, but only an hour in there’s knocking on the door.  dalton has his lips on kevin’s- he’d just said how he likes having access to his “real smile”.  “gonna get it?”  kevin shakes his head.  the knocking starts again.

“come on, kevin!  we’re sorry!  just open up for a second!”

kevin knows dalton likes when he speaks french, so he sighs and kisses him before whispering, “i hate them all.”

dan is at his door with matt and allison in tow.  “what do you want?”

“to apologize.”  kevin raises his eyebrows.  “look, we take the piss a lot and you never seemed to be visibly affected by it, so we didn’t realize that last night was upsetting you until you left.”

“you said never have i ever seen kevin have a meltdown.  why do you think you’ve seen that?  because i’m a toddler?  you know what i’ve had my reasons.”  riko.  the moriyamas.

“i know.  look, we don’t want to give you excuses.  i-i don’t have an explanation.  you’ve always kind of let us take the piss without saying anything, and we took it too far, especially last night.  andrew looked like he wanted to kill nicky for the yakuza comment, but neil talked to him about it before we went to the stadium this morning,” she whispers the last part because she’s not stupid, and kevin huffs.

matt jumps in.  “we wanna make it up to you, man.  you’ve obviously hid him from us for a reason and we proved you right.”  kevin honestly wants to get back to dalton and he wants it to just be over with.  “bring him to the winter banquet, we’ll be nice.  if anyone says anything i’ll punch em.  neil will chew em out.”

kevin grimaces.  the ravens will be at the banquet.  it’s in just over a month, the second week of december.  he’ll have to tell dalton some things by then.  and he might have to say something to the public.

he doesn’t tell him anything.  not yet, at least.  he still has three weeks until the banquet- he hasn’t even asked dalton yet.  he starts to like away games a little more than before, though.  he gets dalton a little postcard from every new state they go to.  he tapes them all to one of the walls of his room.

he’s on the phone with dalton at an airport general store, even, when he gets interrupted by two girls.  he puts on his press smile before he even notices.  “hold on, d.”

he doesn’t love fan interactions.

when they leave, dalton asks him with amusement if he’s got fans now, and kevin kind of decides he should probably tell him some more about his life because jesus, does he have fans.  he needs to tell him about he and riko.  what they were, what they were to fans of exy, what kevin was to fans of exy.  what kevin was to riko- without involving the yakuza.

but he doesn’t, because dalton never brings up the topic of “fans” again.

he doesn’t tell him until a week later, when he wakes up from a nightmare.

dalton’s leaning over him, speaking, but all kevin sees is riko riko riko.  it takes all of two seconds for dalton to back off.

“hey, hey, it’s me, it’s dalton.  you’re safe, you’re in my apartment.  no one else is here, i promise.”

kevin’s breathing so hard, dalton flicks the lamp on and he just crumbles.  he sits up and presses his hands over his eyes, “i’m sorry.”

“can i touch you?” he nods.  dalton’s sitting at his side, cross legged, and gently pulls kevin’s hands off his eyes.  “you don’t have to be sorry.  i know there’s shit in here,” he lightly lifts his hands to hold kevin’s face and taps his temple with a finger, “i don’t need to know what it is, just know you don’t have to apologize for it, and know you’re safe.”

kevin nods and twists to hug him.  and dalton wraps his arms securely around kevin’s back.  he presses a kiss to the top of his head and mumbles “c’mere” to prompt kevin into climbing into his lap.

dalton slides his fingers through kevin’s hair and it’s just so soothing, it nearly puts him to sleep.  and when dalton lays back down kevin stays wrapped around him with his cheek pressed to his chest.

when kevin wakes up it’s to find they’ve switched positions overnight.  dalton’s got his arm lazily draped over kevin’s waist, almost holding him close like a pillow.  his ankle is thrown over kevin’s, and his head is pressed into the back of kevin’s neck.

kevin doesn’t want to move.  in fact, he stays so still so as to not wake dalton, that when he stirs kevin just shushes him and pulls dalton’s arm back around him.  he holds his hand close to his chest.

dalton’s not stupid.  he knows kevin’s awake and nuzzles himself closer.  “you like being cuddled.”

“you’re the one doing it, not me.”  but he definitely tilts further into the pillow to expose his neck when dalton starts kissing up the side.

“you like being the little spoon.”  and pushes himself up over kevin.  “you like when you’re on the bottom, kev.” he kisses him deep into the mattress despite morning breath, and noses down his neck.  “i like it.”

kevin tugs at dalton’s hair.  “and what… what about it?”

ahaha.  aha.  sex.

anyway.

he tells dalton everything afterwards.  he leaves out the yakuza part, and the fact of neil’s past, because that’s another monster.  but he tells him the rest.  who his mother is and why he’s such a big deal in the exy world;  why he really left edgar allen and came to the foxes;  the tattoo that’s buried under his chess piece and what it meant.  what his relationship with riko was really like, and everything about their past and the abuse he endured.

and he fills him in on what triggers him because of that: small pitch black rooms, confined spaces without an easy way out, holding his hand too tight, the mention of riko moriyama, a lot of other things.

and dalton stays. 

so kevin asks him to the banquet.  when he says yes, he asks wymack for help arranging an interview.  there are enough people and press lingering outside the exy banquets, and he’d like to hold his boyfriend’s hand on the way in this year.

it’s scheduled to be live the morning before the banquet.  it’s with sophie silletti for espn college exy, and she posts about it as soon as it’s booked.

kevin sits with her.  it’s nothing like kathy ferdinand.  they talk strictly about exy and eventually, with his pre-approved questions, she brings up thea’s team’s most recent game.  “and forgive me if i’m wrong, but you and thea muldani split recently, yes?”

kevin nods.  “back in may, i’d say.  we’re still friendly, i have the utmost respect towards her.  in the end it just didn’t work out.”  i haven’t talked to her in months.

sophie nods.  “everything happens for a reason, i’d like to think.”

“of course.  it wouldn’t have led me elsewhere.”

“is that hinting at something?  i feel we don’t normally talk about this, but does kevin day have someone new in his love life?”  

kevin palms are sweating.  he hopes his face isn’t red with nerves.  “i do, actually.  i won’t say anything about him for his own privacy” i don’t want the public’s prying eyes “but we’ve been together for a bit, now.”

sophie is grinning, she feigns surprise.  “i heard you say him, did i not?  anything else to tell us?”

he keeps his smile easy, but he can feel the worry in the back of his head telling himself they can see right through it.  “if you’re asking, then sure.  i’m a bisexual man, so yes, my partner is also a man.  this is the first time i’ve ever announced it to the public, actually.”  as if that wasn’t the whole point of today.

“at least your fangirls can keep their hopes up, then, yeah?  still got a 50/50 shot!  and i’ve got to say, i feel honored you trusted me and my show with a milestone like this.  coming out certainly is a big deal, or at least nerve wracking!  how do you feel?” she laughs.  “is it like a weight lifted from your shoulders?”

“i was never too stressed about it.”  lies.  “some will hate, sure, but my job is the game.  if my fans are true then this won’t change that.  speaking of,” and then it’s back to exy.

wymack drives them back to palmetto, and when they’re close enough he says, “i’m proud of you for doing that.”

“thanks.”

“where am i dropping you off?”

kevin knows andrew and neil probably watched the interview, and he doesn’t feel like dealing with whatever they’ve got to say about it.  so wymack drops him at dalton’s who hugs him as soon as he opens the door.

“you watched?”

“of course.”  he kisses his cheek.

all posts/updates relating to this au can be found in the “OC: dalton miller” tag!

extra content

[slippinmickeys]

Five Seconds (4/8)

If you’d like to read at AO3, you may do so here. 

June 4, 2018

Mulder stood in the kitchen wearing only sweatpants, the rented house quiet around him. Scully had headed to the local Meijer for supplies of every stripe, and both kids had leapt at the chance to go with her, a rare occurrence the last few years, but a clear result of forced low profile and cabin fever.

He was nursing a rare cup of caffeinated coffee and watching a black squirrel make a nuisance of itself on the residence’s sole backyard bird feeder. When his new cell phone rang, he answered it out of muscle memory.

“Hello?”

“Hello Fox,” said the person on the other end of the line, “aren’t you a sound for sore ears.”

It took him a moment to place the voice.

“Lauren,” he said after a moment, smiling into the receiver, “it’s good to hear from you, too. I take it you got the information I sent you?”

Mulder had had Frohike send her their contact information as they’d previously agreed, and he assumed this was the first of her planned unplanned check-ins.

“It was a little cloak and dagger, even for the District,” she said, and Mulder could hear her smile over the line.

“And I always thought you lived for the drama,” he said companionably.

“Well, I got to wear my best Carmen SanDiego hat, so I guess I can’t be mad.”

Mulder chuckled into the receiver.

“How’s it going?” Lauren asked, her tone shifting to one of sober inquiry.

“It’s going.”

“Dana okay?” her question was sincere, and Mulder marveled how time could change a person.

“She’s good,” he said, “healthy. All systems go. I’m sure she’d want me to send you her best.”

“And the kids? How are they handling it all?”

Mulder sighed.

Will was adjusting, but Lily was miserable. Lonely and bored, unable to talk to friends back home and without the specter and excitement of starting school in the fall. She’d even begged to be able to get a summer job, even as just a waitress at the local Bennigan’s, but Mulder didn’t like the idea of her being away from the house for hours at a time, and Scully wasn’t sold on their borrowed Social Security numbers passing an employment check.

“The kids are… okay.”

“Going that well, huh?” she asked.

“Lil is pretty miserable,” he admitted.

“Of course she’s miserable,” Lauren scolded him, “she’s 18 years old and stuck in a house with her well-meaning parents. She should be at the beach with friends getting day drunk on Bud Light-”

“-she would never-” Mulder interrupted, to which Lauren outright laughed in his ear.

“-I assure you, she already has!”

Mulder sighed again. “Aside from dropping her off at the lake and buying her a rack of shit beer, you got any ideas?”

“College boys in tight pants,” Lauren said.

“Excuse me?” Mulder asked, taken aback.

“Take the family to a football game Fox, you’re in a Big Ten town for Christ’s sake.”

“It’s not football season yet.”

“Just take her somewhere with a lot of people. And give her a little bit of freedom. And when it is football season?”

“Yeah?” Mulder asked.

“Take her to see the tight pants.”

XxXxXxXxXxX

 September 3, 2018

It had been months and they started to relax, maybe a bit too much. They were alert, but comfortable. Maybe complacent, Mulder couldn't tell. All he knew was that if he kept the kids in the house for much longer, they'd kill each other and possibly him and Scully in the crossfire, and it would defeat the whole purpose of their hiding out. That said, all was quiet on the homefront -- Darlene and the Gunmen, and to a lesser extent, Doggett, Reyes and Skinner -- had heard nothing with their ears to the ground.

He and Scully had discussed it, and decided that they would let the kids out of the house. They allowed them to socialize occasionally, if they promised to be careful. Will had made a couple of friends around the neighborhood, playing roller hockey in their cul de sac, but Lily hadn't had as much luck, or as much motivation. She had been quiet and keeping mostly to herself, and come September, Mulder had decided to finally take Lauren's advice. They were going to a football game.

William was beside himself with excitement which made up for Lily's lack of enthusiasm. Scully had opted out of attending, citing her increasing need of accessible bathrooms and the inevitable long lines at ladies rooms in sports arenas.

They took the bus to the edge of the MSU campus -- the first time any of them had been on it since moving to the town several months before. There were people everywhere -- most dressed in the hometown colors of green and white, but a rare few -- looking as lost on campus as the Mulders themselves -- in the brown and gold of the visiting team.

Mulder had ducked into the student union to get a campus map, whereupon William insisted he buy all three of them something supporting the hometown team. Lily opted out, but William and Mulder walked out each in a brand new ball cap, the brims stiff and flat -- in addition, William was carrying a big foam finger emblazoned with the number 1 and the gruff face of Michigan State's Spartan mascot, Sparty.

"It's this way," Mulder said, consulting his map and pointing south, and they set off following streams of people headed toward the stadium which sat in the middle of campus.

The day was delightfully mild, and while the sun shone, there were fat clouds everywhere that would cover it as soon as you were at risk of overheating. There seemed to be tailgate parties set up at increasing concentrations the closer they got to the stadium, the air thick with the scent of grilling meat and tinny stereos playing the home school's fight song.

There were frat boys throwing a football back and forth every thirty or so feet, and crowds of coeds sipping beer from green Solo cups, hovering around games of corn hole and beer pong, laughing while they clung to each other like the last few Cheerios floating in a bowl of milk.

Mulder stole a glance at Lily, who looked at them wistfully. School had just started here at Michigan State and the week before at UVA, and Mulder could tell his daughter was fairly heartbroken about not being able to attend.

Mulder pulled up short and Lily and William both stopped several steps past him and turned to look at him expectantly.

"One sec," he said and walked over to a large tent wherein an alumni organization was selling hot dogs and brats to raise funds. He bought three bratwurst and a couple of sodas and walked them back to his kids, hands full and pockets overflowing with napkins and little packets of ketchup and mustard.

He nodded toward a low stone wall that ran along the length of one of the sidewalks and they all sat down and ate sloppily, ketchup plopping to the sidewalk that they leaned over so as not to spill on their clothes. William was of course done first and snapped open his soda, slurping from it happily.

"They call it pop here," he said, raising his can and giving his father a cheeky smirk.

"No one cares, Billy," Lily said, wiping her lips delicately with a napkin and setting the last quarter of the brat on the wall beside her. "I'm stuffed," she declared.

Will happily scarfed the rest of her sausage and Mulder was about to suggest they start moving again toward the stadium when a frisbee glided through the air and scuffed to the ground at their feet. Lily jumped off the wall and picked it up, looking around to find its owner, who was trotting toward them in droopy cargo shorts and an overlarge school shirt that said "I BLEED GREEN."

Mulder shook his head as Lily pulled back and winged it back toward the guy, sailing it in a perfect arc into his waiting hands.

The kid smiled at her, teeth and all.

"Nice arm!" the kid said, giving her one more charming look before trotting back toward his friends who were waiting further across the Diag that cut through the center of campus.

Mulder glanced at Lily who was wearing a small but fading smile.

He stood, balling up the napkin and sausage detritus. He turned to Lily impulsively.

"You want a beer?" he asked her.

She almost blanched and gave him a queer look.

"A beer?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, "you're a college kid now, no reason you shouldn't enjoy a cold one before a football game like all these other coeds."

Lily gave him a suspicious look just as Will piped up, "I want a beer."

"No," Mulder said, cutting off any complaints with a sharp look and then he walked over to a fraternity tent and talked for a moment to the kid that was manning the keg. After a few words, he handed over a few bills of cash and returned to his kids, handing Lily a dripping plastic cup.

He took a sip of his own cup and inclined his head at his daughter.

"Not the best," he said, while she took a tentative sip.

She smiled over the rim of the cup but kept her eyes on the ground.

"Tastes like college," she said, and Mulder couldn't help but smile.

XxX

"Hey Frisbee," Lily heard from several feet to her right.

She stood up from the drinking fountain in a nook of the stadium in between lavatories, and used her wrist to wipe her mouth dry.

The guy who lost his frisbee at her feet while they were eating before the game was standing only yards away, a small cocksure smile on his lips. Lily tilted her head at him.

"I thought that was you," he went on.

She nodded awkwardly and stepped away from the drinking fountain so the person behind her could drink.

"I think you're in the wrong stadium," he said, and when she looked at him in confusion, he smiled kindly and pointed at her shirt.

She'd donned a UVA sweatshirt for the game out of a sense of loyalty or rebellion (she wasn't sure which, if she were being honest) and she only realized when they stepped onto campus how much it actually made her stand out.

"This isn't the UVA game?" she said mock seriously, "God, I took a left heading into Charlottesville and I guess I should have taken a right." The comment earned her a chuckle and a genuine smile. "Guess the extra ten hours in the car should have been my first clue."

The guy took a few steps toward her and held out his hand.

"Travis," he said by way of introduction, and she shook his hand politely. It was warm in hers, and his grip was firm but brief.

"Lillian," Lily said, almost forgetting to introduce herself with her cover name.

"That's pretty," Travis said, and Lily could feel herself blushing, feeling awkward that it wasn't really her name. "So you go to UVA?"

She nodded. "Deferred for a semester while my folks moved here." Her father had told her to stick as close as she could to their actual stories when telling people their covers in order to keep it all straight.

"Cool," said Travis. They stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"I should get back to my seat," she said, "halftime's almost over."

People were streaming back into the seating areas, and she could hear the marching band keeping tempo as they marched off the field.

Travis shoved his hands into his pockets and for a moment looked slightly bashful.

"Yeah," he said, turning away and taking a few steps, before turning back. "Hey, you want to hang out sometime?"

Lily thought to herself that just about anything sounded better than having to spend one more night at home playing Hearts at the dining room table.

"Sure," she said, and Travis pulled out his phone and handed it to her.

She put in the number of the phone that Darlene had given her and felt only a little weird entering "Lillian" in the name box.

When she handed Travis back the phone, he used his other hand to lightly touch her arm.

"Hey, it was nice meeting you," he said.

"You too," she smiled and wandered back to her seat, trying very hard to keep a smile off her face.

XxXxXxXxXxX

"So..." Scully started, not sure how to broach the subject, other than just to spit it out, "Lily wants to know if she can go 'hang out with a guy.'"

She was sitting at the dining room table sipping on an iced tea, the dew of condensation slippery and cold on her fingertips. She was feeling pendulous and heavy, the high of the second trimester given way to the rolling agony of the third. Her husband, as she had suspected he would, looked suddenly aghast.

"She... what?"

"She got asked out, Mulder, and would like to know if it was okay with us if she went."

William came breezing through the kitchen then, opening up the fridge door and hanging in front of it, blankly staring at its contents, unimpressed.

"Pick something or don't, Will," Mulder said testily to his current youngest, "but please stop letting all the cold out of the fridge."

Will grabbed a soda and stood while the fridge door closed on its own behind him.

"That's Billy to you," he said, mocking insult, and made his way slowly out of the kitchen, staring at Mulder who affectionately reached out as he passed and messed his red curls into an orange soda froth on the top of his head.

"You need a haircut," Mulder said, and Will lifted his nose, shaking his hair out with dignified hauteur.

"So do you," the boy said and left the room.

Scully chuckled. "Don't take it out on him," she said.

Mulder shook himself and turned back to her.

"Take what out on him?"

"That your daughter is growing up and you're not ready. You look like you did the night she went to prom with Derek Smead."

Mulder looked completely affronted.

"He didn't even come to the house! He just had the limo honk and she ran out the door. You didn't get any pictures! Who does that? No self-respecting gentleman. I honestly still don't believe he's a real person."

Scully chuckled again. "And she left him at the dance after an hour and took the limo with five friends to the Sonic drive-in. She's got a good head on her shoulders, Mulder."

"I know she does."

"So what do you think? Is it safe to let her date?"

"I don't like it."

"I didn't ask if you liked it. I asked if you thought it was safe."

Mulder blew out a raspberry. Scully knew that he was thinking the same thing she was -- they'd let Will hang out with a few new friends so long as he was careful. Lily arguably had more common sense by nature of her age (and her gender, thought Scully). She would take precautions and employ the minimal tradecraft Mulder and Scully had taught her.

"What do you think?" Mulder asked her.

"I think she's 18 years old and we're lucky she even ran it by us. If she were away at school, she'd be making these decisions for herself."

Mulder's shoulders slumped.

"As long as she's careful," he finally said.

"I'll give her some condoms," Scully muttered, an offhand remark.

"Scully!" Mulder blanched.

"I just wanted to see the look on your face," Scully laughed.

Mulder shook his head and turned to walk out of the room.

Scully was still chuckling minutes later.

XxXxXxXxXxX

"Hey Frisbee," said a voice from behind her.

Lily turned to see Travis standing several feet away in the middle of the footbridge. He was wearing black flip flops, a pair of long khaki shorts and a navy blue polo shirt. His hair -- dark tousled waves, cut short but shaggy -- was poking in all directions out of a  university ball cap, which, she was relieved to see, was pristinely white without a yellowing band of sweat or scuzz. His face looked freshly shaved and he was smiling.

"Hey yourself," she said, and took a step toward him.

He reached into his pocket as she approached and pulled out a ziplock sandwich bag, filled with a gritty grey substance. She took it with some hesitation.

"Is this... a bag of oatmeal?" she asked.

He colored and put both hands up.

"Okay, so: I was going to bring your flowers, but then I thought you know what would be cute? Flour . So I went to our pantry and I'm looking at this giant bag of flour and I'm like what the hell is she going to do with a giant bag of flour? And then I saw the oatmeal and thought -- well, we're meeting on the footbridge, we could feed the ducks! ...So I brought you oatmeal. Bread is bad for ducks."

Despite the lengthy diatribe, Lily laughed. "It was nice of you to think of the ducks," she said.

"Well," he said, and walked with her to the railing of the footbridge, which crossed the Red Cedar River. "The bag itself is multipurpose. If you think it'd be fun, I thought we could rent a canoe later and go down the river?"

"What does that have to do with the bag?" she asked, leaning over the railing and looking down into the tannin-tinted water. A cluster of ducks, trained to anticipate food, swam quickly toward them.

"We can put our phones in it," he said, leaning into her shoulder a little. "I myself have been through the gauntlet of canoe training at Camp Quitcherbitchin as a young lad, but you're an unknown quantity, Frisbee. What if you dunk us? I aim to save our electronics."

Lily laughed again, charmed despite herself. She opened the baggie and threw a handful of oats to the waiting ducks below, which scurried as fast as they could swim for the feast. Lily offered Travis some, and he took a handful and cast it out. They fed the ducks for a minute or so of comfortable silence.

Finally, Lily asked: "Camp Quitcherbitchin?"

Travis smiled.

"Sleep-away summer camp up north. I went every year. It's actually called Camp Nageesh, but some of the counselors were somewhat less than tolerant of complaints, so the campers called it Quitcherbitchin.”

Lily chuckled. "Canoes, huh?"

"Plus sailboats, swimming and archery. I refuse to divulge which I have a higher level of competency in, in case you're some kind of polymath with a competitive bent."

"You aren't one of those guys who can't stand it when a girl is better than you at something, are you?" Lily asked.

“Are you a polymath with a competitive bent?” Travis grabbed another handful of oatmeal and threw it toward a mother with a brood of ducklings that were having trouble getting into the mix.

“I’ve got some game,” Lily said, arching an eyebrow that would have made her mother proud.

"In that case," he said, turning toward her. His eyes were a mossy green, like her father's. He  gave her a small smile, “I look forward to being outmatched."

"Well," said Lily, intrigued. She scattered out the last bit of oatmeal and, blowing some of the grit from the bag, put her phone into it and handed it to Travis for him to do the same. "Let's see what you're made of, Paddles."

XxX

"We seem to be drifting a bit to starboard," Lily called over her shoulder. Travis had taken the backseat ("Do you mind if I steer?" he'd asked). They'd managed to board and push off okay -- the bored-looking livery attendant having given them minimal instruction, but held the craft as they both lifted themselves gingerly aboard.

"I'm aware of that," said Travis, his voice a little tense for the first time.

"You said you were steering," she teased him. They were rapidly making for the opposite shore of the river, the canoe swinging sideways with the current.

"I'm aware of that too," he said back, and then a moment later, she felt the canoe sway radically, followed by a splash. She grabbed the side of the craft for dear life and then swung her head to look behind her. Travis had jumped out of the canoe and was now holding it by the triangle at the stern with one hand, paddle in the other; halting their momentum, which had been about to take them into a bramble of cedar branches hanging low over the water.

"Oh my god!" Lily squeaked. "Are you okay? Did you fall?"

"I jumped," Travis said, "If you headed home with a rat's nest of cedar sprays in your hair, you might not go out with me again."

"And they say chivalry is dead," Lily said, setting her oar down on the bottom of the canoe.

"Will you go out with me again?" Travis said hopefully, and the smile he flashed her made her want to say yes, but instead she teased:

"Too early to make that call."

"This water is really cold, Lillian," he said, and turned, pulling the canoe behind him into the water upstream and back toward the livery.

"It looks it," Lily said. "If I do go out with you again, let's stick with something land-based, huh?"

Travis threw a grin at her and kept trudging, clearly trying his best to keep the craft steady so she didn't fall in herself. She checked her pockets briefly for their phones, which she'd offered to hold on to, and watched him. The river was relatively shallow -- he was a tall guy and the water was only soaking the cuff of his shorts.

"Your parents should call Camp Quitcherbitchin and get their money back, Travis," she said, canting her face up to the sun and closing her eyes briefly. She shrieked when the canoe suddenly lurched to one side. She grabbed the side and looked at her date, who had stopped and was wearing a mischievous grin. He was still wearing the dorky orange life jacket that they'd been required to don, and the whole situation made Lily start laughing.

"Laugh it up, fuzzball," Travis said, turning again to continue the trudge back to base. "I'll have you know that I learned how to canoe on a lake. I forgot to account for one variable."

"The current?" Lily asked.

"The current," he admitted.

They made it back to shore and he helped her out of the canoe, explaining to the still benumbed livery worker that they wouldn't be back, but still throwing a soggy five dollar bill in the tip jar. After retrieving his flip flops from the bottom of the small boat, he offered to take Lily to the campus Dairy Store for ice cream.

"Your campus has a Dairy Store?" she asked him curiously.

"This is Moo U, Lillian," he explained, steering her a few blocks from the river to a large brick building beyond the main engineering hall. "This street is Farm Lane. We have cattle."

Once inside they reviewed the offerings, and Lily noticed that they had a flavor for every university in the Big Ten conference -- even their arch rivals. About which he announced, "I'll buy you anything but the Maize & Blueberry. I like you, but even I have my limits."

Once they had their cones (she with Boilermaker Brownie and he with Hoosier Daddy ("basically strawberry," he explained)), they settled onto a picnic table in the shade.

"So," Travis said, licking a drop that had melted onto his knuckle, "why'd you end up deferring this semester?"

Lily swallowed the bite in her mouth without chewing. They had prepared cover stories but she hadn't yet needed to use hers. Stick with the truth as much as you can , said her father's voice.

"My dad got a job here and my mom is pregnant. She was on bedrest for a while and needed help."

Travis was looking at her expectantly, clearly waiting for her to elaborate, but she didn't -- continuing to nervously lick her cone. After a long moment of waiting, he kindly plowed ahead, asking her about her major and telling her about his. He was a sophomore, from a town in the northern part of the state, and she found him inherently easy to talk to and interesting, and wondered, idly, if that was because he really was interesting or if she were just starved for company and attention.

When they finished up, they threw away their napkins in a nearby trash can and stood looking at each other, only a little awkwardly.

“So... “ Travis started, “still too early to make the call?”

She smiled, remembering what she’d told him in the canoe about going out with him again. “I like your chances.”

He smiled back and she felt a little thrill. “Lillian, will you go out with me again?” he asked.

“Dry land stuff?”

“The driest.”

“In that case, yes.”

She was still feeling the soft kiss he'd given her cheek hours later as she sat around the dining room table, fielding invasive questions from her father and trying to avoid her mother’s eye.

[goldenhemmings]

The Unforgettable Inning - A Stealing Second Extra | Baseball!Shawn

This is easily the quickest I’ve ever cranked out one of these extras; got the request today, knocked it out today. Don’t know what came over me. I’d recommend watching this before you read, it’ll help you understand the context of why the game referenced in the piece was so important. It was an elimination playoff game, it was being stolen from Toronto by horrible calls, and the fans were so on edge to the point where they were throwing things onto the field in protest. Then, Bautista. His home run released all the tension in every fan in the stadium. It was absolutely electrifying, and resulted in the most iconic bat flip of all time. One of the best moments in Blue Jays history. Anyways, here’s 1.9k words of Y/N trying to make Shawn feel better about baseball season being postponed. Enjoy!!

Baseball season should be a month in by now. 

You and Shawn both knew it, and the two of you were slowly starting to go crazy. It wasn’t that you didn’t understand why the season had to be postponed, because you did. There were more important things right now than sports. But baseball was your entire life, and to say you and Shawn were going stir-crazy stuck inside the apartment with nothing to do all day was a massive understatement. 

While you were upset yourself, you felt worse for Shawn. You, at least, still had a bit of work to do on a daily basis for your position with the team, but without a season, Shawn and the other players had nothing. He was trying to act like he was coping well, but you knew him too closely to believe him when he said he was doing fine. 

He’d thrown himself into training, trying to maintain his baseball-season form so he’d be ready as soon as the league said it was able to resume play. The gym in your apartment complex wasn’t anything like the one he had access to at the stadium, but it was better than nothing, and he was taking advantage of what he had available.

With the extra time you now had on your hands, you wanted to do something for Shawn that would take his mind away from the stress of feeling trapped, which you knew he did. You had a plan in place, but you were waiting for him to leave to put it into action.

As you sat cross-legged on the couch, your computer in your lap, you watched Shawn come out of your bedroom dressed to workout and clutching a water bottle.

You looked up from your laptop, trying to remain nonchalant. “Have a good workout,” you said, and he leaned over to quickly kiss your forehead. 

“Thanks, honey. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

As soon as you heard the front door swing shut behind him, you closed your laptop and tossed it to the side. You knew his workout wouldn’t be more than an hour, so you had to move quickly. 

The first thing you did was call in a pizza, one half with everything but the kitchen sink on it for Shawn, because you knew he’d want the calories after a workout, and the other side plain cheese for you. 

You then moved into your room and dragged the comforter off of your bed, doubling back to grab as many pillows and extra blankets as you could hold in your arms. You tossed it all down on the couch before pushing the coffee table sideways and out of the way to the side of the room. 

You laid the blankets and comforter out on the floor in front of the couch until it made a comfortable enough cushion, arranging the pillows into a pile to rest against the bottom of the couch until you were satisfied with the way it looked.

When the pizza came you set the box on the coffee table, stacking two plates on top of it in preparation, then leaned over to plug in the fairy lights you’d finally convinced Shawn to let you put up in that corner of the apartment and dimmed the rest of the lights.

Once everything was set up to your satisfaction, you grabbed the remote to the TV and tapped it against your chin as you tried to decide what to watch, but you quickly got an idea that was better than any movie could’ve been. You switched over to YouTube, knowing exactly what to type in.

2015 ALDS Game 5 - Rangers vs. Blue Jays. You just about cried with happiness when you found the full game on YouTube. It was perfect. 

It wasn’t long after you had everything ready that you heard Shawn’s key jiggling the lock on the door. Your head snapped up from where it was bowed over your computer in the same position you’d been in when he left, and as soon as he came through the door you could make out a furrow in his brow through the now-dimmed lighting of the apartment. 

“What’s all this?” he asked, a smile grabbing at his lips even though he was clearly confused. He set his keys down on the table in the foyer, making his way over to you.

“Well,” you started, unable to keep yourself from grinning back at him, “I know you’ve been going crazy without baseball, and I have been, too, so I thought we could hang out and watch an old game or something.”

“Which one?”

“Hm,” you sighed, trying to think of a clue that wouldn’t give it away too easily. “It’s a good one, but I’m gonna make you guess it.”

He laughed. “Try me.”

“One of the most iconic Blue Jays games in this decade.”

“So it’s not from either of the World Series’ then,” he mused, “because that was the 90s.” You nodded, prompting him to continue. 

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Can I get one more hint?”

You made a show of rolling your eyes. “Fine,” you sighed out playfully. “I really expected more from you, though.”

“Shut up,” he laughed. 

“Okay. The unforgettable inning.”

“2015?” he guessed immediately, and you smiled. 

“Warmer.”

“ALDS game 5. Too easy.”

“Good job,” you teased. “I found the whole game online. I thought it’d be fun for us to watch it. I got pizza, too.”

He stared back at you with a small smile, and his silence elicited a nervous laugh from you. “What? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“This is just really thoughtful of you,” he said, leaning in to kiss you.

But you pressed a finger to his chest to keep him at a distance, to which he frowned. “What?”

“Shower first,” you teased. “You look like you just crawled out of a swamp.”

“You’re really lucky that you just did all this nice stuff for me, because otherwise I’d chase you around until you were covered in sweat like this, too, just for that comment.”

“Well that would be pointless anyways, because girls don’t sweat.”

“I hate you,” he laughed, but he allowed you to shove him off in the direction of the bathroom. 

“Make it quick,” you called after him. “I’m bored already!”

After about 15 minutes he came back out, his hair damp and a pair of black athletic shorts hanging low on his hips. 

“Do you want to get me a glass of wine before you sit down?” you asked, batting your eyes at him.

“No,” he said, but he went into the kitchen to get it anyway. 

“I love you,” you called out jokingly, and you could visualize the way his eyes were rolling.

“I love me, too,” he said back. You just laughed. Such a shithead.

He came back over and handed you your wine glass, stepping over you to grab the box of pizza, the plates disregarded. 

“Plates!” you whined, but Shawn didn’t care.

“Just don’t make a mess,” he answered matter-of-factly. “I don’t want to do dishes.”

“You mean you don’t want to sit on your ass while I do dishes?” you jabbed, but he wasn’t bothered because he knew it was an exaggeration. 

“Yeah, exactly,” he answered sarcastically. “Get a piece so we can start the game.”

As soon as the 6th inning had ended, you felt a chill go down your back in anticipation of the excitement that was about to come.

“What?” Shawn asked, his chest shaking with a slight laugh. You were halfway lying on him, so he’d surely felt you shake. 

You giggled. “I got the shivers. The 7th inning gives me goosebumps.”

“It hasn’t even started yet,” he teased, jabbing a finger into your side to make you jump.

“But I know what happens!” you laughed. You grabbed his forearm so he couldn’t poke at you anymore, which ended in a power struggle to see who could grab hold of whose wrists longer.

“If you make me miss a single pitch of this inning I will make you sleep on the couch tonight,” you threatened, but it didn’t sound very menacing when you were forcing the sentence out through giggles.

He sighed. “Fine.”

You sat up and scooted out of his reach as soon as he took his hands off of you, and you could instantly feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of your head. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t trust you!” you laughed. “I wanna actually watch this.”

“Truce,” he replied, holding his arms up in surrender. “I promise. Just come back.”

“So needy,” you teased, but you crawled back over to lie down on him again anyways.

When Bautista came up to bat after Toronto had tied it 3-3, you sat up and leaned slightly forward; you could not lie down and relax when you knew what was going to happen, especially considering the fact that you were already pretty fired up from the inning’s happenings thus far. 

“Here it comes,” Shawn said.

“No, it’s the pitch after this one,” you replied, negating him without tearing your focus away from the screen.

“I thought it was on the 0-1 pitch?”

“Nope. It’s the 1-1. Just watch.”

“But I--” Shawn started, but was cut off when the second pitch of the at-bat came in as a ball. 

“Told you,” you bragged triumphantly. “It’s this pitch.”

Shawn sat up with you, both of you waiting intently. As soon as Bautista sent the ball flying into left field and flipped his bat, you yelled like it was your first time seeing the hit. The cameras were shaking from how loud it was in the Rogers Centre, all the tension the fans had been feeling released with one crack of the bat. Your cheering turned into a jittery, excited laughter you couldn’t control as Bautista rounded third, and Shawn quickly joined in.

“‘You can only play with fire for so long, and it’s gonna burn ya,’” you giggled, quoting the announcer. You’d seen the play so many times you had the commentary memorized by now. “I fucking love baseball.”

“Maybe I should flip my bat like that the next time I hit a home run.”

“You couldn’t pull it off,” you retorted. 

Shawn sighed. “Yeah, I know. Bautista is way cooler than me.”

You laughed, crawling back on top of him. “Plus it was the playoffs, which makes it even better. Easily the most iconic bat flip of all time.”

“Easily,” he echoed, beginning to calm down from the hype of the hit. “I miss it so much.”

You sighed, grabbing his hand and squeezing it lightly. “I know. But this is the best we can do right now.”

“Thank you for doing this, honey,” he said softly. “You’re the best.”

“I know,” you sassed. He swatted at you playfully. “There are plenty of classic games on the MLB YouTube channel so we can watch more whenever you want. You know I’m down for that.”

“I know you are,” he replied. “Because my girlfriend loves baseball more than the average baseball player.”

You laughed. “That’s not true, but I’ll take it.”

“Mmm, I think it’s pretty true.”

“Whatever you say, rookie,” you breathed out, burying your head in the crook of his neck. He instinctively wrapped an arm around your shoulder. “Now let me finish watching this game.”

Thank you for reading!! Feedback makes me very happy.

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[cottagecorewhore420]

Zukka Fluff <3

Protective!Sokka, Fluffy Zukka

Just a short drabble of these two lovelies being emotional on main; also, Sokka finds out how Zuko got his scar.

I hope you like it! Please lmk what you think, I’d love to hear!! <3

They were laying out under the stars, Zuko’s head cushioned by Sokka’s chest, laying contendlt as Sokka carded his hands through the elder’s hair.

“It’s hot,” Sokka complained. Not because he was truly bothered, but he wanted to break their (albeit comfortable) silence.

“Do you want me to move, because I can-“

“No!” Sokka held tighter to Zuko, wrapping both arms around him to prevent him from leaving. Zuko laughed, reorienting himself in a new position, accepting the aplogetic ‘please-don’t-leave’ kiss from Sokka with a grin.

“I was just observing, is all.”

“oh.” There was a beat, before Zuko continued. “Well...You’re hot.”

Sokka looked down at Zuko, who was grinning cheekily up at him from his new position of laying with his head on Sokka’s lap.

“Just observing, is all.” The fire lord said flirtatiously, before turning and looking out to the ocean.

Sokka chuckled quietly, so happy that they had made it to the point in their lives that Zuko was happy and  felt safe enough to joke and flirt like he did. It wasn’t suave, by any means, but the attempts at seduction were so Zuko that it was all the better.

Zuko was idly tracing patterns on Sokka’s calves, when he noticed a scar, about three inches long, shining white in the moonlight. It was obviously old, and long-healed, but he hadn’t ever seen it before.

Admittedly, though, they had only been dating for a few months, during which time Zuko had been trying to make reparations to the rest of the world on behalf of his nation and family.

He wanted to know what it was, wanted to know everything there was to know about Sokka, but additionaly, he knew how hurtful it was to always be asked about a scar; how it reduced you to nothing but some messy looking skin tissue.

Sokka had noticed the traced patterns starting to zero in on the old wound though, and unbothered, decided to tell Zuko.

“It’s from a fishing accident when I was a kid.”

Zuko jolted slihghtly, worried that he had somehow made it too obvious he was interested, but Sokka pressed on, obviously still content and not upset at all.

“Me and Katara were going with our dad and Bato to the ice-holes, to go fishing. Me and Katara had one hole, and then Bato and dad had one each. Me and katara were, predictably, arguing back and forth, and we started pushing each other and arguing- we hadn’t caught any fish, and we both were convinced it was the other’s fault. Anyways, I decided I was gonna make my own fishing hole, to prove that it was her fault we weren’t catching any fish. So, I stomped about ten feet south of her, and then realized I needed something to make the hole. So, being the stupid little kid I was, I yelled at Katara to throw me the bone-dagger we use to skin the fish. And, being the stupid little kid Katara was, she threw it. It, uh-,” Sokka sheepishly cleared his throat, before continuing. “It detached from the holder mid-air, and went right through my leg. It slashed my calf really bad, but that’s all that’s left, at this point.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Nah, it’s all healed up now. Besides, I’ve heard scars are sexy. They apparently help pick up cute guys.”

Zuko sat up, quirking his non-scarred brow at Sokka, who laughed and just grabbed Zuko, moving him towards him until they were hugging, stomach to stomach, Zuko in Sokka’s lap.

“I’m just kidding- I really only wanna pick up one guy.”

“Hmmph.” Zuko looked away playfully, ignoring Sokka’s attempts to kiss him. “Is this mystery guy a cute guy?”

“Oh, the cutest.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s got this really hot teen angst, brooding vibe, but once you get to know him he’s a total softie. It’s really quite endearing.”

Zuko’s cheek colored, blush matching his other cheek’s red.

“Well… seems like a lucky guy if he’s managed to catch you.”

“Oh, I’m definitely the lucky one.”

“Yeah?”

Sokka was in Zuko’s face suddenly, breathing in the same air, hot puffs of breath hit Zuko’s lips. Blue eyes met gold, both blown wide with lust.

Leaning forward, centimeters away from his lips, Sokka whispered “yeah.” Before leaning forward, capturing Zuko in a heated kiss, grabbing Zuko’s thighs and moving him higher up on his lap, stabilizing him.

The movement and flippant showing of strength from his insanely hot water-tribe beefcake of a boyfriend made Zuko moan brokenly into the kiss, which just allowed Sokka access to lick into Zuko’s now-opened mouth.

~

They laid there, panting, Zuko completely atop Sokka, his non-scarred ear pressed against Sokka’s chest, listening to the beat of his heart, allowing it to comfort him.

Despite laying fairly-openly on the beach, he hadn’t felt this safe and protected in a long time than when he was here, right in this moment, basking in the afterglow with Sokka.

“I have a scar from a family member too.”

“Yeah, baby?” Sokka’s tone was light; he didn't want to pressure Zuko into sharing his scar’s story. 

Even when Katara had pressured him when they began dating, he had remained firm that if Zuko never wanted to discuss it, it was his own prerogative, and that was fine, too.

“Yeah… I was thirteen, and my uncle had talked the war-room guards into letting me sit in on my first strategy meaning. So, we went in, and this general was talking about how he was going to move an entire division of troops into a suicide-mission, purely as a distraction.”

The night around them was quite, still except for their voices, as if Yue was watching to make sure nothing interrupted them from this obviously-important moment.

Sokka was sickened at the horrifically brutish militia tactics the fire nation used to employ- to willingly sacrifice hundreds of lives, just for a slight strategical advantage? Disgusting.

“I… I didn’t agree, didn’t think that was right. I spoke up, even though Uncle had warned me not to. But I went on and said how reprehensible that was, how those were real people, with families and lives, and a loyalty to our nation. I was quickly rebuked, and in a show of anger, I agreed to an Agni Kai.“

“Oh my god- at 13?!”

“Yes. And I was stupid enough to take the offer.”

“Oh my god- baby, I’m so sorry.” Sokka curled an arm protectively over his boyfriend’s form. Sokka ached for 13-year-old Zuko, scared and desperate to please his father, to please his nation.

“When I got to the arena, and prepared for the Agni Kai, it was revealed to me that I wasn’t going to be fighting the general. Because I had spoken out of turn in the fire lord’s war room, my slight was against the fire lord, not the general.”

“No-“ Sokka gasped, heart clenching at what he suspected was going to come next.

“My father was there, and said he would be who I battled in the Agni Kai for my honor. I- I had no idea it was him I would be fighting. I dropped to my knees, in front of the whole stadium, crying, pleading. I refused to fight my own father, and I told him as his humble and loving son, I refused to do so. I was so sorry, I was so scared.”

Zuko at this point had sat up, staring out at the ocean, legs crossed in a meditative-esque pose, hands on their respective knees. His voice was small, almost drowned out by the gently cresting waves. 

To hear him, Sokka had moved so he was sitting directly behind him, purposefully not touching his boyfriend despite a visceral want to do so. He  knew this was a hard thing for Zuko to discuss, and he also knew physical touch was something his boyfriend struggled with.

“My father… he told me I had brought dishonor to myself, and in punishment held his hand over my eye, and shot a burst of flame into my face. He banished me that night, and Uncle went with me… he said I would only be allowed back, to restore my honor if I brought him the avatar.”

Sokka jumped up, and started aggressively pacing back and forth, parallel to Zuko.

As if pulled from a dream, the thousan yard stare Zuko had adopted broke, looking shocked at the tensed body of his boyfriend.

“Sokka?”

When he didn’t get a response, Zuko worriedly stood up and approached his stony faced boyfriend, shocked to find tears rolling down his dark cheeks.

“Where is he?”

“Wha-“

“Where is Ozai?!”

Zuko was shocked at the aggressive tone of Sokka’s voice. He had never heard him this… feral sounding. And, pushing past the thought that is was insanely (I mean, really, insanely hot), he was worried.

“Why do you need to know where my father-?”

“Don’t call him that, Zuko! That disgusting animal doesn’t deserve any relation to you.” Sokka looked like a mongoose-viper, coiled and ready to strike. His growled words and obvious anger were very confusing to Zuko, who just watched warily. He didn’t think Sokka would hurt him, but he was confused at the anger literally emanating from Sokka in waves.

“Why are you mad?”

“Why am I- Because I am trying to stop myself from building a ship, sailing to mainland, and hunting through every prison cell in the fire nation until I find your deadbeat father.”

“What- why?!”

“Tui and La, Zuko, because that vile excuse for a human had the audacity to lay his hands on you, his own fucking son with such a sick fucking intent- I just. That shit isn’t okay. If this were back home, I would have his fucking head, for doing that. To a- to a kid, Zuko!”

Sokka was crying now, tears illuminated under Yue’s averted gaze.

“Baby, I’m okay.”

“But it’s not okay. I am- I’m so sorry Zuko. The hand that you were dealt was so fucking unfair. I am so sorry, I wish I could protect you from that fucking monster. I just- I want to rip his head off. How dare he-“ Zuko brought his distraught boyfriend into his arms, who slumped down into the smaller framed man.

Sokka’s tears were steadily flowing, soaking Zuko’s bare chest.

“It’s okay, Sokka. I’m sorry I said anything, I-“

“No, please- I’m- God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be the one being comforted right now.” He pulled away from Zuko, scrubbing his face with his hand. His form, now fully matured, towerd over Zuko. (Holy shit that’s hot Zuko thought staring at his jutting muscles in the moonlight, before admonishing himself that now was not the time to be horny on the beach.)

“It’s just- the mere thought of someone laying a hand on you, baby, especially with such an evil purpose, it makes my blood boil. I love you so much, Zuko, and I know you probably aren’t ready to say that, which is fine, but I love you so fucking much and all I want is to protect you, and heal you, and save you from-mmhph!” 

Sokka was silenced by Zuko’s fervent kiss, hungrily moving his lips against his boyfriends.

When they both needed air, the pulled apart regretfully, panting in sync.

 “I love you too.”

They fell back into the sand, and back into each others arms, languidly kissing, feeling blessed to be with the other, in their small, personal realm of love and safety.

~

“Iroh.”

“Hello, Sokka. What an unexpected surprise!” The reitred war general regarded his nephew’s boyfriend warmly, if not slightly appraisingly as he stood outside Iroh’s quarters in the palace.

“Is it?”

“Ah, well, perhaps not entirely. My nephew mentioned he has told you the story behind his scar.”

“He did.”

“When he came to me, he seemed very shocked to find your reaction so… visceral. I had to explain to him that anyone who loves him truly and deeply will react much the same. He still has trouble realizing his worth, how his treatment as a child was so flawed. He’s still accepting that the world’s treatment of him wasn’t right, and wasn’t deserved.”

“I… I haven’t felt that kind of anger in a long, long time. Maybe ever.”

“Hmm. That is just the price of love, Sokka.” he mused. Turning his wizened eyes to the younger man, “Now, I’m sure you’ve come to see me for more than a hello, yes?”

“Do you know where Ozai is being kept?”

Iroh regarded the man, studying him, not letting the shock show on his face.

Far from the young child-soldier with traditional face paint on who he first saw many years ago; Sokka had grown so much.

In place of that lanky, pubescent boy, stood now a full-fledged southern water tribe warrior, who had the traditional tattoos, battle scars, and hard-earned wisdom to prove his standing in the world. He had fought for all he had, and he protected what he saw as his.

With a deep sigh, Iroh moved aside from the doorway. “Hmm... this may be a bit longer than I thought. Do come in, Sokka… won’t you play me in a riveting game of Pai Sho?”

[bush-viper-cutie]

“The Cloaked Fools” || YEAR 3 – Ch.26 (HP au)

                              Chapter List

<-- Last Chapter                          Next Chapter -->

Day posted: 10/9/2020

Word count: 3, 058

Relationship: EVENTUAL severus X oc (slow burn)

Rating: E for everyone

Warnings: none

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A/N: This is my first fan fic I’m writing mainly as a way to practice. This is a retelling of the hp books with an inserted character. Although most every character will be written about, this is mostly for the pro snape fandom. Please do not fear, although this is a severus x oc story, it is an incredibly slow burn as I do not intend for them to get together at all until after the final book events. Chapters will be posted twice a week.

This derivative work follows the events of the Harry Potter books by Jk Rowling and is intended as a fun way to practice my writing. Thank you for reading :D

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~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

“I’ve never been happier!” Ron exclaimed as he zoomed all over the field on the firebolt.

Heather and Harry were sitting on the grass watching Ron finally smile after a week of obvious misery. Harry was still in his Quidditch uniform and smelled of practice.

“ – And apparently Cho Chang’s their seeker – a fourth year – but Wood’s worry about her vanished the second I got up off the ground. I mean, you saw how fast I caught the Snitch! Took me like ten seconds to get from the goal post to the other side of the field!”

“Woooooh!” Ron zoomed passed them overhead.

Heather nodded. She was very happy for Harry, and was glad he’d surely win his game against Ravenclaw within a few minutes… But from what she’d seen from practice, even Slytherins should be terrified of playing against Harry. Draco’s Nimbus two-thousand-and-one was a joke next to the firebolt. If Gryffindor won against Ravenclaw, they’d be second place behind Slytherin. She couldn’t imagine losing the House Cup AND the Quidditch Cup this year. Slytherin always won the Quidditch Cup… this’d be their eighth year in a row.

“That’s great, Harry,” she said, trying to sound genuinely pleased for him.

Madam Hooch stirred in her seat and woke with a start. She had fallen asleep watching Harry’s game and was coming over with hands on her hips. She told them off for not waking her up and in the darkness they walked back towards the castle. Harry let Ron hold the broom a bit longer as they went.

“Why don’t you put it in the broom shed?” Heather ducked as Ron turned towards to her with the broom on his shoulders.

“Are you mad? Everyone with a broom has access to the shed! It’d be easy sabotage!”

“Wait!” Harry lifted a hand to stop them going any further up the stairs and pointed down at a nearby tree.

Two eyes blinked up at them from the darkness. Ron took out his wand and illuminated the area. The border of light reached the tree and Crookshanks waved his tail high at them.

“Get away! Go on! Get!” Ron yelled.

Crookshanks turned swiftly and sunk back into the darkness.

“Can’t believe she’s still letting him roam around anywhere! What if he eats someone else’s pet!” Ron scoffed and turned off his wand light.

They entered the castle just as night officially set.

“I think she doesn’t even know where he is.” Heather looked at Harry and saw he was still frowning. She knew he’d probably thought those were the eyes of the grim. She wanted to roll her eyes at him… but she remembered his last match. The way the clouds had looked like a large angry black dog right before he’d fallen fifty feet from the air... Heather dropped them off at the tower, giving Harry a big hug. “Rest well, alright?”

Harry nodded. “Don’t tell the Slytherins yet that I’ve got my broom back. I want to see their faces tomorrow morning.”

Heather nodded and skipped down the stairs. When she reached the main corridor on the ground floor, for a second, she felt the need to look both ways into the creeping darkness, like she’d find the grim’s shadow waiting for her, warning her that Harry would be in danger tomorrow; but there was nothing. She skipped down the corridor and down the dungeon stairs with ease. As promised she didn’t tell Marcus or Draco anything and went straight to sleep.

The next morning, she sat at the Gryffindor table with Wood, waiting for Harry and Ron to make their big entrance. Heads turned and students gasped as Harry entered holding up the firebolt, making sure not to knock it on anything. Heather glanced over at the Slytherins and saw Marcus’ look of fury and Draco’s look of disgust. Her arms hurt instantly at the thought of Marcus doubling their practices after this.

“Look at that!” Wood helped Harry set the broom in the center of the table, pushing plates of food away and turning the handle so it showed ‘firebolt’ at the top in golden letters.

Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were coming over, gasping and aweing at it. Penelope Clearwater asked Harry if she could hold it but Wood swatted her hand away.

“No chance at sabotage, lovely.” Percy held her hand. “We have a bet going on,” he informed them.

“Though I think he knew his chances better than I did when we made it.” Penelope scowled and walked away.

Percy leaned into Harry. “I don’t have ten Galleons so… win this one, alright?” He turned and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, joining his girlfriend in some toast.

“Look at Malfoy,” Ron whispered, drawing attention to Draco’s widened eyes and pressed lips. “This is brilliant!”

“Congratulations on the broom, Harry.” Cedric Diggory smacked his shoulder. “If we’d gotten a rematch I’d be worried.”

Harry smiled and nodded as he left back to his table. “Everyone’s so impressed…”

“And scared, as they should be.” Wood didn’t take his eyes off the broom. “Harry’s you’ve got your dementor problem figured out have you?”

Fred and George laughed. “They’re not coming back onto the grounds.” Fred jabbed a thumb up at the High Table. “Dumbledore’d freak.”

Heather followed his thumb up at a merry looking Professor Dumbledore enjoying his eggs. He looked so different from when he’d gotten furious at the dark-hooded creatures that had entered and made Harry fall. He’d looked even madder than Professor Snape did now, scowling down at his food next to Professor Lupin who chattered away with Professor McGonagall.

“You sure you can handle that broom, Potter?” came Draco’s cold, sharp voice, slicing through the Gryffindor’s enjoyment.

Harry rolled his eyes and turned. “Yeah, I reckon so,” he said casually, almost smiling as Draco’s face turned back to disgust.

“Heard it’s got all sort of new features. Think catching you when you get too near a dementor’s one of them?” Draco smiled maliciously.

Crabe and Goyle snickered behind him.

Heather’s hands slowly reached her face, ready to cover her eyes at what she knew was coming.

“Shame you can’t attach an extra arm to yours. Then it could catch the Snitch for you.” Harry said, turned back to the team as they burst out laughing.

Heather watched through her fingers as Draco almost smacked him where he sat. He gritted his teeth and stalked away, Crabbe and Goyle at his heels. He sat back with the Slytherins and her team put their heads together. She’d likely get a talking to from Marcus again, as if she could do anything about Harry having the firebolt back.

The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw team set out for the locker rooms and Heather stayed behind with Ron as the chatter of the room reached peak excitement.

“Where’s Hermione?” Heather looked around.

Ron shrugged avoidantly. “Was doing homework at one of the desks when we left. Who cares if she wants to miss the greatest Quidditch match of the decade. Well – ” he looked at Heather, “second to the Gryffindor, Slytherin one after this.”

She rolled her eyes. Technically it would be Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff afterwards if Ravenclaw lost – or should she say ‘when’ they lost, but she refrained from correcting him, getting the point. After several more minutes, the whole school was getting up to make their ways to the stadium.

Ron and Heather ran to find seats, excited to see Harry in action.

“We’ll be sitting for two minutes max,” Ron said, gripping the railing in front of them. “I know it.”

Harry made his way onto the field with his team, and the Ravenclaws walking out at the same time looked unusually nervous. Heather easily spotted the Ravenclaw Seeker that Harry had talked about. She was shortest of both teams… and also the only girl on the team. Heather knew what that felt like.

“They waved at each other,” Heather told Ron.

“Who?”

He was distracted looking at the score as if it’d change in a blink in the presence of the firebolt. If Hermione was here she’d be raising her brows. Harry hadn’t yet talked of any girl to Heather, but she thought that was about to change. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. Was this the moment they’d start talking to each other about crushes? If he started liking this Cho Chang, would she be doomed to crush on someone too? Would he even tell her? Were crushes something twins talked about?

At the whistle the teams kicked off and Heather’s thoughts were erased when Harry zoomed around, showing off how fast he was. The crowd lost it, cheering and screaming and whistling. Gryffindors were yelling for Ravenclaws to forfeit on the spot and Professor McGonagall had to come down from the announcer desk to tell them to calm down.

Lee Jordan wasn’t doing any better than them. “LOOK AT THAT FIREBOLT EVERYONE. RAVENCLAW MUST BE QUAKING ON THEIR BROOMS. IT’S ONLY BEEN OUT HALF A YEAR AND IT’S ALREADY THE BROOM OF CHOICE FOR THE NATIONAL TEAMS AT THIS YEAR’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP – ”

“ – FOCUS ON THE GAME, PLEASE, MR. JORDAN,” Professor McGonagall interrupted as she reached the announcer desk again.

“JUST ADDING SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE ANTICIPATION – ”

“THERE’S NO NEED FOR THAT.”

“ALRIGHT… GRYFFINDOR IN POSSESSION WITH KATIE BELL HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THE GOAL…”

The Gryffindors were laughing at Lee and Professor McGonagall’s exchange. Harry was streaking around the air with Cho not far behind. She seemed to be a good flyer. She hadn’t noticed how good she was when Slytherins were playing Ravenclaw, but she must have given Draco a good scare. Harry sped up suddenly and Cho got left behind as hard as she tried to stay on his trail. Harry really was no match for any Seeker at this point.

There was a golden dot on the edge of her vision and Harry saw it too. The Snitch was near the ground, close to the stadiums, and Harry was rushing for it. The Ravenclaw Beater hit a Bludger several feet in front of Harry to make up for his speed and narrowly missed Harry’s head by an inch, making him veer off course. The Snitch was gone and Heather was horrified at the advanced thinking the Ravenclaw must have gone through to time the Bludger near perfectly.

“Boooooooh!” the Gryffindors yelled at the Ravenclaw Beater. The Ravenclaws cheered for him, however, asking him to do it again.

George hit a Bludger at him in frustration, making the Ravenclaw Beater roll in midair. Heather wished she was on her broom, playing with them. She loved doing midair rolls; they were her signature move.

“GRYFFINDOR LEADS BY EIGHTY POINTS TO NONE – AND LOOK AT THAT MAGNIFICENT FIREBOLT. CHANG’S COMMET JUST CAN’T COMPETE – LOOK AT THAT PRECISION-BALANCE DURING POTTER’S LONG – ”

“THE GAME JORDAN!”

“ – THREE GOALS FOR RAVENCLAW BRINGING GRYFFINDOR’S LEAD DOWN TO FIFTY!”

Harry was flying by towards the Gryffindor goalposts where the Snitch fluttered. Cho sprang up out of nowhere, halting Harry’s movement.

“Don’t be a gentleman! Knock her off her broom!” Wood yelled at him from the goalposts.

Harry started again and was gaining on Cho in an instant, until she exclaimed and pointed down. Heather leaned over the railing at what Cho had pointed to and saw three cloaked creatures entering the field, looking up at them as they approached.

Harry extended his arm, yelling “Expecto Patronum!” and from the tip of his wand, a silvery-white orb shot out, knocking the three dementors to the ground. Heather blinked, stunned, and the crowd was cheering.

“POTTER’S CAUGHT THE SNITCH.”

In the time it took for the dementors to hit the ground, Harry had gotten to the Snitch before Cho and was holding it up for all to see. The end-of-game whistle blew and the Gryffindor team was barreling towards Harry, hugging him on their brooms, unable to wait until they could all touch down.

“Did you see that!” Ron was pulling her down the stadium benches and down the stairs. “Did you see!”

“Of course I saw! I was right next to you.” Though Heather had to admit several of her blinks got in the way of seeing Harry’s actions.

They ran onto the field followed by a crowd of Gryffindors and joined the Gryffindor team in cheering for Harry. Fred and George were lifting him up as best they could as they jumped up and down, not being too careful about not dropping him.

“That’s ten galleons for me! Thanks Harry!” Percy yelled over the cheers. “Excuse me – excuse me – Penelope!” He pushed his way out of the crowd.

“Ruddy brilliant, Harry!” Hagrid boomed from the back, being tall enough to spot him at the center of the crowd.

Fred and George set Harry down and Professor Lupin placed his hand on his shoulder.

“That was quite the patronus.” Professor Lupin looked a bit startled.

Heather felt a pang of jealousy. If she’d continued practicing with them, would she have one like Harry? Or would she have still not been able to produce even a silver wisp of one.

“They didn’t even affect me! I felt nothing from them!” Harry finally let go of the Snitch.

“That’s – er… because they weren’t dementors.” Professor Lupin looked back in the direction of them.

The crowd started to disperse and as Heather, Ron, and Harry approached the ‘dementors’, they stood, ripping off their cloaks and revealing themselves to be Crabbe, Goyle, Draco, and Marcus. It was like an episode of one of Dudley’s favorite mystery cartoons. How hilariously embarrassing, however, Heather couldn’t partake in Harry and Ron’s laughter.

“Gave them quite a scare.” Professor Lupin was on the verge of laughing too.

Professor McGonagall was marching towards the four of them with hands on her hips and Heather imagined Marcus was about to get a nasty detention that’d take up all their practice times. It was too much for Professor Lupin and so he left them, holding a hand to his mouth to hide his smile. Ron was on his knees, pounding the ground with laughter and pointing at Draco who glared at them with as much fury as he could muster.

“Harry!” George called out. “Party in the Gryffindor common room!”

Harry looked over at Heather sheepishly and she sighed. “Oh, go. I think I have to help them out with this anyways.”

“I don’t see why.” Ron wiped a tear away. “Actually, see if they can get double detention!”

“Come on.” Harry pulled Ron away and they left together.

Heather made her way over to Marcus and Draco as Professor Dumbledore approached as well, stopping next to a still furious Professor McGonagall.

“Trying to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Fifty points from Slytherin! Unbelievable! I’ll be telling Professor Snape about this!”

Professor Dumbledore chuckled. “No need, he’s making his way down now.”

Heather looked over and saw Professor Snape walking very slowly down the stadium steps, no doubt incredibly annoyed.  She shook her head. “I can’t believe you guys thought this was a good idea.”

“You saw how fast he was going!” Draco hissed.

“But now you’ve lost us fifty points!” Heather huffed. “What if we’re tied now!”

“We’re not,” Marcus growled.

“Not yet,” Professor McGonagall said, dangerously calm.

“Well.” Professor Snape stopped at the foot of the cloaks dumped on the ground. “Shall we discuss this in my office?”

“So you can get them off with a slap on their wrist?” Professor McGonagall raised her brows.

“No,” Professor Snape spoke slowly. “But I won’t allow you to conveniently give them detentions during every last one of their scheduled practices.”

“Afraid you’ll finally lose this year?” She smiled.

Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat. “Perhaps you two should reach an agreement first. For now,” he turned to them, “You will stay in your common room until you are given your detention slips.”

Marcus, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle nodded. Heather followed them out, walking next to Draco who kicked at every rock. Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape bickered behind them, though Professor Snape seemed to enjoy Professor McGonagall’s anger.

“Did you even see what Cho was doing? She was countering Harry really well.” Heather shook Draco’s arm to snap him back to reality from whatever pit he had fallen into in his mind.

“No. I know how she plays. I caught the Snitch too remember? She was easy to beat.” He kicked another rock as they reached the stairs.

“But she played differently, didn’t she? Cutting Harry off.” She was growing more and more afraid as she realized Draco hadn’t bothered to learn anything from seeing Harry fly. Maybe she’d do better as Seeker, seeing as how she was always helping him improve.

They’d reached the common room door and Professor Snape followed them in. A horrible sign.

“You four,” he looked at them each except for Heather. He stepped closer, making them shrink. “Why don’t we have a chat in Draco’s dorm. Shall we?”

They gulped and headed into the boy’s dormitory. There was a slam of a door deeper inside and the muffled yells of Professor Snape telling them off. Heather sat at a chair, chin resting on the top of the back rest, knees tucked into the cushion, and waited for the doors to open once more.

The yelling ended, the boy’s dormitory door flung open, and suddenly there was a flurry of black robes cutting through the air as Professor Snape strode across the room using the full extent of his long legs to exit as fast as possible, his hair blowing back in the wind.

The common room door closed and Draco, Marcus, Crabbe and Goyle stepped out. Draco came to stand by her.

“I hate your brother,” he said, crossing his arms. “If we get too much detention, you’ll have to go out with me to show me what you saw that Ravenclaw Seeker do.”

Heather raised her brows. “Me?”

“Well he’s your brother isn’t he? It’s a Potter’s fault, so a Potter will fix this.”

Last time she checked Draco wasn’t a Potter and it was his own fault he was in this mess. Though, the idea was ridiculous enough to have been Marcus’ to begin with. Still. Someone who follows a fool must be a fool themselves, or very nearly one.

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

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[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (30/40)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

a/n: I am not a fan of the fact that there are only 10 chapters left. Like, not at all. Where did all of this time go? How are we at this point in the story? I feel like I was just writing it!

Anyway, it seems fitting that this chapter posts in a week where a lot of us have gone home to see family because Killian is going home with Emma to meet Ruth😘 Thanks to you all for being you and thanks to @resident-of-storybrooke​ for reading these words for me and checking my facts!

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-/-

“Did you know that it’s Friday the thirteenth and a full moon?”

“Thank you, Alec Trebek.”

“No, seriously. That’s what it says on my phone.”

“Love, I know the date.”

“But did you know about the moon thing?”

“I did,” Killian sighs, picking his suitcase up off of the security belt and placing it on the ground while Emma grabs her sneakers. “I read about it the other day, and I am prepared for all of the haunted werewolves to come out to play.”

“Shut up,” Emma laughs before she plops herself down on a bench to tie her shoes.

It’s a little past four thirty in the morning, and JFK is nearly empty of anyone who isn’t traveling in some kind of suit. He and Emma are surrounded by people in black blazers and tailored trousers only traveling with a sleek black suitcase and their briefcase. He and Emma, meanwhile, are both in joggers with t-shirts on (Emma has on his Vandy sweatshirt over hers) and their hair tucked underneath baseball caps.

Emma got in from Detroit late last night, only taking five minutes to kiss him hello and take a quick shower before collapsing on his bed on top of the covers. The only flight they could get so last minute that wasn’t an exuberant amount of money is at the ungodly hour of six in the morning, so Killian insisted that she just stay at his place last night so that they could leave from the same place and save time. Considering they woke up ten minutes before their Uber arrived and could barely brush their teeth before they left, that didn’t exactly work in the whole saving time department.

It doesn’t help that Emma has pretty much been deadweight this entire morning until she started to wake up right before they went through security.

He, on the other hand, is wide awake. Nervous jitters run through his body, his stomach twisting in knots, and for someone who doesn’t get nervous for many things other than baseball, Killian is pretty much a wreck when it comes to meeting Emma’s family. Ruth is the last one, the final piece of the puzzle, and as intimidating as David was to meet, his mother might outrank her.

Killian both wants to spend the entire weekend sucking up to her and thanking her for taking Emma in and giving her the love she’s never had but has always deserved, but that could prove to be a bit much.

Then again, if Ruth hadn’t taken Emma in thirteen years ago, Emma would have never met David. If Emma hadn’t met David, David would have never taken her to the baseball game that truly allowed Emma to fall in love with sports. And if Emma hadn’t done that, he doubts she’d have ever gotten into broadcasting and found her passion there that makes her so damn happy.

The two of them also would never have met, and that thought sends a shiver down his spine.

It’s funny how such little things can change absolutely everything.

Everything.

So, yeah, Killian is most definitely a little nervous to meet Ruth.

“You want to go find some coffee, Swan?” Killian asks Emma as he props his foot up to tie his own sneaker. “I think the two of us are in some desperate need of caffeine.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll be able to find a coffee shop in an airport. There are never any coffee places here.”

“I don’t appreciate all of this sarcasm so early this morning.”

She pokes his stomach. “You’re the one who woke me up.”

“We’re going home to meet your family.”

“I don’t see your point.”

“You should.”

“Well,” Emma huffs, standing up and pulling up her pants so that he sees a flash of tanned skin on her stomach, “you should. Onto coffee we go.”

They both grab onto their bags and start walking down the terminal, passing gate after gate and store after store, but everything is black with the lights turned off and bars pulled over the stores. Nothing is open, not even the convenience stores, and the moment Emma realizes this, she stops walking and buries her face in his shoulder.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“There are vending machines,” he soothes. “I think they have coffee.”

“But it’s gross coffee,” she wines before wrapping her arms around his stomach. At first, Killian thinks that she’s being affectionate, but then he realizes that she’s using him so that she doesn’t have to stand on her own. He’s not sure he minds either way. “I need real coffee, and I need it in an IV.”

“Okay, Lorelai Gilmore.”

Emma laughs into his shoulder, the vibrations working through his shoulder. “You’re learning. I’m so proud, babe.”

“I might have watched an episode or two.”

Emma’s head pops up then, the bill of her cap hitting him in the chin. “When?”

“While you were gone. It was on Netflix, and it just kind of happened.”

“Good choice, twenty-nine. Good choice.” Emma’s lips brush against the corner of his jaw, and he tugs her a little closer as his hand runs up and down her back while she presses up on her toes to make contact with his lips. “I need a diet coke or something, and then when the stores open, I’m buying the biggest damn cup of coffee in this entire airport.”

“Whatever your heart desires.”

-/-

The flight is only an hour and a half, Emma sleeps the entire time despite them getting her the biggest damn cup of coffee in the airport right before they boarded, and Killian spends his time answering emails before closing out the app so that he won’t see anything else work-related for this entire weekend. It’s a conscious decision, one he’s happy to make, and it’s almost refreshing to know that he doesn’t have anything to worry about for at least a few days.

Well, anything to worry about except for Ruth Nolan and making sure that he can impress her.

-/-

The taxi they get from the airport takes them directly to Ruth’s house, so Emma doesn’t get much time to show him around, only pointing out a few landmarks. They pass the minor league baseball stadium here, the Portland Sea Dogs, and Emma tells him that she’s never actually been despite having such easy access. She was too caught up in everything having to do with New York and getting there that she never really thought about it. He teases her and tells her they’ll have to go to a game, but Emma turns him down by saying that she needs a break from baseball.

He does too.

So that’ll probably be knocked off the itinerary that Killian is sure Mary Margaret has made. Luckily, though, she and David won’t be here until early evening since they both had to be at work and school for half a day, so they’re pretty much free to do whatever they want with Ruth today.

He’s still slightly reeling from his injury and their fight and everything that came from that. He’s not angry or upset, but this is all still such an adjustment. He should be playing. He shouldn’t be here, but it’s his own damn fault that he is. He screwed up on so many levels, and owning up to it all has been a tough pill to swallow.

Hurting the people he loved nearly killed him, and he doesn’t want anyone to hurt because of him ever again.

In the blink of a bleary eye, they’re pulling up to a quaint two-story Victorian home with brown and white details and bright green bushes lining the brick-paved walkway to the front door. It’s a home, undoubtedly, one much the same as all of the ones in the city and yet entirely different in that he can see vibrant green grass and flushed trees that spread out all over the neighborhood. It reminds him of growing up in Ohio, even if they were not the ones to have the spaciously fenced-in backyard, and a little fluttering of his heart takes place as Killian takes it all in.

He’s always kind of wanted a place like this – away from everything.

“So, this is the place?”

“This is the place.”

“It’s nice.”

“Yeah, I’ve always thought so.” Emma hikes her bag up a little higher on her shoulder and turns to look at him, trepidation written across her face. “We can still turn around if you want to. There are hotels around here.”

“We’re going inside, love.” He leans down and quickly brushes his lips over hers. She tastes strongly of coffee just from the little taste that he got. He’d like to kiss her more, to have the privacy of the hotel so he can show her just how much he’s missed her the past few days of her being gone, but they’re not doing that. “Besides, I believe I just saw Ruth peeking her head through the window looking at us, so it’s too late to turn around now.”

“Yeah,” Emma sighs, “I guess it is.”

Emma steps forward and begins moving up the path, Killian following right behind her, and Emma barely gets a chance to knock on the door before it’s swinging open and Ruth is lunging forward to practically smother Emma with a hug.

Damn. Ruth Nolan is a force of nature.

Then again, she was already for being a single mom most of her life and still taking in foster children, especially one as stubborn as Emma. He can’t even begin to imagine.

He fully intends on finding out this weekend. There are a million questions running around in his mind.

“Oh,” Ruth coos, shaking Emma in her embrace. A dog escapes the front door and comes to sniff at Killian’s feet. This must be Wilby. “I have missed you so much. I think I’m going to have to move to New York so I can see you more often. Do you have room in that apartment of yours?”

“Only if the couch is comfortable for you.”

“I think it may kill my back.”

“No, it’ll definitely kill your back. I have no doubt. It kills my back. Killian’s couch is super comfortable, though.”

“Well, I hardly know the man. I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to sleep over in his apartment.”

“Who cares about proper, love?” Killian teases. “I would be remiss to not let a beautiful woman sleep over at my apartment.”

The words slip out of his mouth before he’s able to stop them, and he immediately regrets them. Ruth may not be Emma’s mom, the title something that Emma still struggles with no matter how much she loves Ruth, but she’s very much a mother figure. Yet here he is spewing words that pretty much scream in her face that he doesn’t care about proper and has been fucking Emma for months now. What a smooth start.

The pit in his stomach becomes a heavy, solid weight, one that’s going to have him breaking the wood of the wraparound front porch.

Shit.

But then Ruth is leaning her head back in laughter, her eyes shining brightly as her hair falls off of her shoulders, and that weight lessens a little bit.

“I’m not much of one for proper either,” Ruth says with laughter still on her lips. She releases Emma and steps toward him, wrapping him in a hug as well, even if this one isn’t quite as smothering. It likely helps that he’s larger than Emma. “Hello, sweetie. SoSo, you’re the infamous Killian Jones I’ve been hearing about?”

“From Emma?”

“No, my grandson. He loves you. I think he was probably more devastated about your arm than Emma was.”

“How did you know I was devastated?”

Ruth pulls back from him to look at Emma. “Intuition told me that you’d be upset over the fact that your boyfriend is injured. Mary Margaret gave me all of the other details.”

Emma’s eyes roll. “Of course she did.”

“You know she can’t keep a secret.”

Killian looks over to Emma to see what she’s got to say, thinking that this first meeting is going rather smoothly, but then Ruth’s eyes are snapping back to him and looking him up and down in a way that has him feeling rather naked under her scrutiny.

Obviously, it was wishful thinking for him to assume he was quite out of the woods.

“You’re much more handsome in person than on TV.”

“Thanks,” Killian laughs awkwardly as he reaches up to scratch behind his ear. “I, uh, appreciate that.”

Emma looks over to him with raised brows that are pinched together, probably wondering when he turned into a stumbling fool instead of someone who can charm anyone, and all he can do is shrug is shoulders at her. She shrugs back before squatting down on the porch to scratch behind the dog’s ears.

“Have you eaten breakfast yet, Ruth?” Emma asks, obviously trying to save him. “We’ve had coffee but not food, and we’d love to take you out to breakfast.”

Ruth waves her away. “Nonsense. I’ll cook breakfast for all of us.”

“You really don’t have to do that, Mrs. Nolan.”

She smiles at him. “It’s Ruth, and yes I do. I hear you’re quite the baker, so you can help.”

“Well, who told you that?”

“Mary Margaret. She’s where I get all of my information, don’t you know? Emma and David don’t give me nearly enough.”

“You know, Ruth,” Killian smiles, “I have heard a little bit about the two of them not sharing a lot of information. You practically have to drag it out of them. I would never do such a thing as keeping secrets.”

Emma scoffs but there’s that loving, playful smile. “Too soon, twenty-nine. Too soon.”

Ruth guides them inside and sends Emma off to take their bags to her old room. Killian raises his brow in question to make sure it’s okay for them to share a room, and Emma simply rolls her eyes before taking both of their bags up the stairs while Ruth ushers him into the living room.

It’s just as homey as the outside. Everything is covered in warm colors from the deep brown of the leather couch to the inviting green of the wall. Two windows sit on either side of the stone fireplace where the television is mounted, and that’s when Killian spots the myriad of picture frames on the mantel, as well as on the bookshelf in the corner of the room.

This is exactly what he’s been so excited about.

(Besides getting to spend a weekend away with Emma where she spent the last of her teenager years.)

There are a few photos of David as a child, ones of him alone and then ones of him with both of his parents. Most of them, however, everyone is a tad bit older. Killian knows that it’s so Emma can be included in all of the photos, and his heart swells a bit at the thought of Ruth being that thoughtful so that Emma doesn’t have to feel left out in any way.

A picture of David, Mary Margaret, and Emma sits in the middle of the mantle. David and Mary Margaret look much the same, if not younger than they look now, but with different hairstyles. Killian makes a mental note to tease David about his shoulder-length hair. Emma, though, is definitely a teenager here. Her face is rounder, far less angled, and he can see the tepidness of her smile as she leans into David in the picture.

“Are you looking at how cute I am?” Emma questions as she walks into the room.

Killian turns to look at her and at the shy smile on her face now, and he opens up his arm to let her walk into him so that her arm can wrap around his back while her head rests on his shoulder.

“How old are you here, love?”

“Um, that’s a question I don’t know the answer to.”

“Sixteen,” Ruth supplies, and Killian doesn’t miss the way she’s smiling at the two of them standing there. “That’s from Thanksgiving. Emma still wasn’t too sure about us.”

“I’m still not.”

Killian squeezes her hip. “Liar.”

“Nope, I’m serious. You’ve only just met Ruth, so I don’t think you can judge her character yet.”

“Oh no, darling, I can. She’s promised to tell me stories about you while we cook breakfast, and that’s good enough for me to love her forever.”

Emma groans and dips her head down. “Just let me sulk, and I’ll come to the kitchen when breakfast is ready.”

“Just like when you were a teenager,” Ruth teases.

The morning is mostly spent in the kitchen where they eat waffles and bacon, which is definitely not on his diet but he’s not playing right now anyways, and he gets to listen to Ruth tease Emma all about what she was like as a teenager. Emma’s cheeks are painted red, the embarrassment very clearly there, but she takes it like a champ and smiles and laughs along even when Ruth tells a story about Emma nearly breaking her arm while trying to sneak back into the house after meeting a guy who she wasn’t supposed to be meeting.

“Not my finest moment,” Emma admits as she bites into a piece of bacon. “And definitely not my finest boyfriend.”

The stories continue, and as the day passes on, Killian’s stomach hurts from all of the laughter. Everything about his time here just seems so…perfect. And he knows that there is no such thing as perfect, but the crisp breeze of the air with the sunshine filtering through the leaves of the trees tells him otherwise as the two of them help Ruth with some of her yardwork. Of course, he hasn’t done yardwork in over a decade, so he’s a little rusty. Ruth and Emma make sure to point that out to him every time he cuts a shrub in the wrong way or manages to screw up turning on the lawnmower.

It was complicated, okay?

And Killian definitely wasn’t aware that this is how they’d be spending the first part of their afternoon. It was not at all mentioned in Emma’s pitch of asking him to come here.

Not that he would have ever said no to helping. It’s good to feel useful when he’s been feeling a little useless lately no matter how well he thinks that he’s handling his injury layoff.

It’s decidedly different than the first time around. It likely helps that the injury isn’t as serious and that Killian knows that the end of it is in sight, even if there’s still bits of uncertainty that no one can answer and predict for him. Yet, it also has everything to do with the fact that the people closest to him know exactly what’s going on instead of him letting it all fester inside of him. Honesty is the better policy this time, even if his hand was the slightest bit forced.

Watching Emma easily guide him through Old Port with a beatific smile on her face may help as well.

No, it definitely helps.

She’s such a force of light in his life, even if she doesn’t like admitting that sometimes, but the fact almost seems reinforced after having been apart from her and facing the thoughts of what his life may be like without her in it outside of being someone who he works with.

Frankly, it would be kind of dim. She’s integrated herself so easily into every aspect of his daily routine, and while at first, he thought it really only had to do with her clothes in his closet and her shampoo bottles littering his shower, it’s more in the way that he’ll be sitting with Elsa and look over to see her texting Emma or the way that whenever he wakes up in the morning and she’s not in bed with him, his first thought is to check his phone for a text from her. It’s ridiculous and yet also…not.

She annoys him more than anything or anyone in the world, but he also loves her more than anything. It’s easy in a way that it’s never been before, and Killian wonders if this feeling of fluttering deep in his belly is what he was missing in the past.

They grab a late lunch at a quaint little seafood place, one he can tell is family-owned simply from the atmosphere, and instead of sitting inside, they settle down at one of the umbrella-covered tables outside so that they can have a view of the ocean with the salt-water breeze wafting over them.

He’s missed the water.

Of course, he’s been around it living in Manhattan and traveling to several places around the country that are surrounded by water. Hell, he’s even been back in it in the three years since the accident with Liam. But it’s been a long damn time since he’s sat and simply enjoyed getting to spend time near the water.

During the off-season, he and Emma are going somewhere that’s surrounded by water for at least a week, and they’re not going to let any outside distractions get to them. It’s making plans for the future, and that’s all that he wants right now.

(Some would call it baseball mating season, and while he doesn’t plan on them reproducing anytime soon, they can sure as hell practice.)

They get a call that David and Mary Margaret are nearly there when Emma is showing him some of the lighthouses while using a ridiculous voice that she calls her “tour guide” voice, so they quickly gather their things and start walking back to Ruth’s car since she absolutely cannot wait to see the rest of her family and refuses to have them be at her house before she can get back to her house.

David and Mary Margaret get there first because they are apparently the fastest drivers on the planet today.

And Leo practically tackles Ruth in all of his ten-year-old glory when he sees her.

That’s how Addy and Lucy are with Elsa’s parents too, and Killian imagines that being a grandparent is a hell of a lot of fun since you aren’t in charge of molding a little person into a functioning human being. You just have to give them candy and all of the things their parents don’t want them to have.

Or, at least, that’s what he thinks Ruth does.

(That’s what he does as an uncle and wishes his mom could have done as a grandmother.)

They all eat takeout dinner together from an Italian place that Emma and David swear by, and while it’s certainly not the best thing he’s ever had to eat, it’s pretty damn good. Then again, he’s had so much to eat today that his stomach very well may explode soon. He’ll have to get up and go for a jog in the morning.

But right now, it’s a little past ten at night, he’s been up for over eighteen hours, and all he really wants is to sleep. His body is dragging enough that he imagines he’ll have no trouble falling into a slumber as soon as his head hits the pillow.

He’s wrong.

Because then he sees Emma’s teenage bedroom and sees just how empty it is. It’s absolutely nothing like her apartment in New York full of throw pillows and blankets and every artificial plant known to man with a colorful paintings above her headboard. Everything here is rather…beige.

Emma walks out of the bathroom where she’s been getting ready for bed, and he watches as she rubs lotion up and down her hands and her forearms. “Why that glum look on your face? Are you still trying to figure out better ways to argue with David over soccer? Because that dinner conversation is long over. I thought Leo was going to climb on top of the table and start beating on his chest or something equally ridiculous.”

“Hm, no,” Killian chuckles, opening his knees so that Emma can step into them and his hands can find their spots on her waist, warm flesh against his fingertips.

“Then what?”

He blinks up at her, not entirely sure if now is the right time to ask, but then he sees the glint of his mom’s ring falling against Emma’s chest and is reassured in who he is to Emma. “I can’t help but notice that your room here is not quite as colorful as your room at home.”

Emma sighs, and he squeezes her hip in response so that she looks down at him and smile. “It’s kind of a stupid reason. You don’t want to hear about it.”

“I’d love to know more of your beginnings, Swan.”

“Haven’t you heard enough about them today?”

“There is never enough information, love.”

She smiles and reaches to push his hair back off of his head, her hands a magic touch as they move through the strands there. “I’m not a sentimental person. Or, I wasn’t.” Her right hand leaves his hair to find the chain around her neck. Killian’s heart stutters at that movement. “And I never trusted that I was going to stay in one place for very long, so if I had the chance to decorate my room, I didn’t. I kept everything I owned in a little box that was always ready to go.”

His heart may actually break for Emma in this moment, the sad reality of what she’s telling him something that’s hard for him to take in. He can’t imagine what it must be like for her to have lived that way.

“I think this place worked out for you, though.”

“Yeah, it did.” She smiles again, but Killian can see the twinge of sadness in the corners of her lips. “You sure you still want to know about these beginnings of mine when they’re a little bit sad?”

“Like I’ve said before, love, we make quite the team, sad backstories and all. I do, however, think that you need a little something on these walls of yours.”

“I think all of the home décor stores may be closed.”

Killian winks. “Well, I think I’ll just have to get a little creative then.”

His hand slides around her back to squeeze her ass before he’s pushing Emma back from him and getting up from the bed to walk out the door. Everything is darkened with the lights turned off, and since he doesn’t want to wake up everyone else in the house, he uses the flashlight on his phone and quietly walks down the stairs to find his way to the kitchen where he knows there were sheets of paper in the printer as well as a few pens in a cup right behind it. Emma is on his heels, questioning what the hell it is he’s doing, but he doesn’t tell her until he’s grabbing the paper and a thick blue marker.

“What are you doing?” Emma hisses.

“I’m making you some artwork for your wall.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s endearing.”

“You say that about every weird thing that you do.”

“Because the weird things are endearing,” he corrects, looking back at her and smiling. “What kind of drawing do you want? I’m pretty talented, if I do say so myself, but it’s been awhile since I’ve drawn anything.”

“Just…do whatever you want. I’m going to fix myself a hot chocolate. Do you want one?”

“Does Ruth have any tea?”

“I’m going to make you the hot chocolate. It’s better than tea.”

Killian rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t protest as he starts sketching out what he can remember of the view of the lighthouse today. It’s rough, definitely not his best work, but considering his original plan was simply going to be writing her name out, it’ll have to do for quick work.

Strange things happen when he’s far past tired.

“Milady,” Killian sighs, picking up the paper as well as a bit of tape before walking the few steps toward Emma as she sits on a barstool at the island with two cups of hot chocolate, her mug piled up with whipped cream and sprinkles of cinnamon, “I present to you your artwork for your wall.”

Emma’s eyes glance over it before glancing up at him with a slight smile on her face. “You’ve got to sign it.”

He taps the corner of the paper where he’s scribbled in his number. “Already done.”

“Ah,” Emma laughs, “how could I have missed that?”

“You were distracted by the beauty of the picture.”

“Exactly.” Emma presses up over the countertop and leans forward to quickly brush her lips over Killian’s, and while a part of him wants to deepen it, he doesn’t want to get carried awhile while here. “Thank you. That is very sweet of you to do.”

“Endearing, right?”

“Sure.” She shakes her head and slides his mug over to him so that he can have some of his hot chocolate. “I hope today hasn’t scarred you for life, especially since you still have to survive tomorrow.”

“It’s been fun, Swan. I’ve been…I think it’s gotten me majorly out of my own head. I needed that. And I liked getting to see you be so happy. My only complaint is that I’m under strict instructions not to make your bed squeak. I don’t like that rule.”

Emma reaches over to slap his shoulder, but he moves it out of the way quick enough that she doesn’t get it. It also causes a slight twinge in his shoulder that reminds him that he needs an ice pack for tonight. He hasn’t gotten to put ice on it all day. So, he turns toward the fridge and opens up the freezer, grabbing one of Ruth’s ice packs, and placing it on top of his shoulder before turning back to Emma whose fingers are tracing over the drawing.

Emotion lodges in his throat again, something that’s been happening quite a lot tonight, and it’s what propels him forward to step behind Emma’s back and wrap his arms around her stomach before resting his chin on top of her head.

“I’m not going anywhere, Emma,” he promises, meaning every word. “Not unless you tell me to go. So, you can plan on hanging paintings and making plans and keeping little trinkets in more places than a box. I love you more than I know how to tell you. That’s not going to change.”

Emma audibly sighs, something that he feels under the palms of his hands, before leaning back into Killian and simply staying in that spot so that he can breathe her in.

“I love you,” she breathes out as her head tilts up so that her lips can move across the underside of his jaw. “Let’s take the hot chocolate upstairs and go to bed.”

“And your picture?”

“Yeah, that too.”

-/-

Killian’s arm tingles, the feeling nearly gone, when he wakes up in the morning and finds Emma’s body pressed around it. This isn’t how they fell asleep, not even close, and he’ll probably never have use of his arm again. It doesn’t seem to matter, though, and he flexes his fingers a bit before nuzzling his nose into the back of Emma’s head in an attempt to get to go back to sleep.

They were up until maybe two in the morning talking, sleep never really coming to either of them no matter how much they both wanted it, and judging from the dim light coming through the blinds on the window, it’s still early yet.

He desperately needs coffee. He’s probably not going to be able to go back to sleep, and he desperately needs coffee.

Slowly, Killian begins to extract his arm from Emma’s grip, stopping when she flinches, and after several careful minutes, he’s able to quietly get off the bed and step out of the room, leaving her door cracked so as not to make any kind of noise. He walks down the hallway and uses the guest bathroom before walking down the stairs and wandering to the kitchen in search of coffee.

To his surprise, David is already there sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop open and a cup of coffee sitting next to him, the smell wafting toward Killian.

“Hey,” Killian greets. David nearly jumps out of his chair and knocks everything over, and Killian can’t help but laugh at the shock on his face. “Did you really not hear me coming down the stairs?”

“I, uh, I – ” David is stuttering, obviously at a loss for words, and Killian can’t quite figure out what’s going on. He doesn’t think Dave is usually this flustered in the mornings. “I wasn’t expecting you or Emma to be up this early.”

Killian shakes out his arm, still trying to wake it up. “Believe me. I wish I wasn’t up. Do you always work this early in the morning on a Saturday?”

“No, I don’t, but my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing with emails this morning, so I came downstairs to see so it wouldn’t wake Mary Margaret up.”

“Ah, I turned off my emails this weekend for that exact reason.”

“You probably shouldn’t have done that.”

“What’s that, mate?” David coughs in response, and Killian steps forward to the table and sits down across from David, confusion running through him as his stomach twists and turns. “Seriously. What?”

David can’t look at him, not really, and that doesn’t help calm any of Killian’s nerves as he tries to figure out what in the world is going on with him this morning.

“I didn’t know this was happening, I swear. I’d have stopped it if I got one whiff of it, but there’s been an article.”

“An article?”

David turns his computer around, and Killian reads a headline that he’s always expected to see and yet has always hoped to avoid.

The Truth Behind Killian Jones: A Story Told by His Father.

“Fucking hell,” he murmurs, his eyes taking in the picture of his father that’s plastered on the screen. Killian hasn’t seen him in years, actual years, and yet he looks exactly the same. “What kind of shit is this?”

“It gets worse.”

“How could it possibly get worse?”

“Look at the journalist.”

Killian’s eyes glance toward the screen again, his gaze finding more words he didn’t want to see.

Walsh Osborne.

As in Emma’s ex, Walsh Osborne who she still works with at ESPN. Though, this article is decidedly not on ESPN’s website.

Holy fucking shit.

Killian’s got to go back to bed. This isn’t real. This is all some kind of messed up nightmare that he’s experiencing, and soon, he’ll wake up and none of it will be real. And yet Killian keeps scrolling through the article, skipping the words to instead look at pictures of himself that Killian hasn’t seen in years. His father shouldn’t have these pictures. Liam should have all of them. And yet, somehow, he doesn’t.

Childhood pictures are nothing, though, at least for right now, when at the bottom of the article are pictures of Killian and Emma standing in the airport yesterday with Emma’s arms wrapped around his waist as well as a picture of them kissing in his car from who knows when. Then there’s one that he knows is from the hallways of Yankee stadium in what was supposed to be a private room.

“Everyone knows about you and Emma,” David tells him. 

This is too much. It’s all too much, and he doesn’t know how to handle the reappearance of his father and the very public reveal of his private relationship.

Fuck.

[spudmcloughlin]

152, 146, 141, 121, 99, 64, 59, 37, 36, 23, 13 ❤️❤️👉👈

ahhh omg this is so much!!! thank u!!!!! i’m gonna answer them in order tho. it gets a lil nsfw toward the end be warned

13: Favourite color

i think if i had to pick it would be light pink! like the koala tee shirt, it’s such a pretty soft pink

23: Hair color

black! i got that thick asian hair. i used to dye it a lot, i’ve dyed it literally every color in the rainbow, but for now i’m keeping it natural and long

36: Tattoos and piercing i have

i don’t have any tattoos but i have fucked up ear piercings. my left ear piercing was torn when i was little so it’s like how sean’s ear holes used to be before he started stretching them again, and then my right ear has one right on top of another because the one on the bottom, the original piercing, closed up so instead of just shoving an earring through it, my mom took it upon herself to traumatize me pierce above it with a sewing needle for whatever reason. it’s uneven with my left, looks torn the fuck up with scar tissue, and probably won’t ever close up again.

37: Tattoos and piercing i want

i want ear cartilage piercings! i want to wear a lot of danglies and just decorate my ears. i’ve also thought about a nose piercing but idk if i’d actually want to do it. as for tattoos, i think i’d want delicate looking flowers on my arms or something, nothing crazy. i love simple, dainty tattoos. i’d also want a semicolon somewhere, you know what that’s for

59: Do I have any strange phobias?

i don’t think it’s strange but i’ve always been scared of fire. i used to have nightmares about my house burning down or something being on fire. i think that was the only recurring dream i’ve ever had. it was when i was really young so i only remember a couple details but here we go

i was in my house and my mom told me we were gonna have a fire drill. “everything’s gonna burn”, she said. the next thing i remember was opening a kitchen cabinet and there being a fire inside it. i woke up and went back to sleep, and the dream continued. i’ve never had another dream where it continued after i woke up.

i think it actually started because i saw part of a movie or show that i really shouldn’t have. there were bad guys in a house, with the husband and wife tied up on chairs. they lit matches and put them in wicker baskets and around the house, and then left. the husband broke out of the restraints, untied the wife, and their house burned. they and their daughter stood outside in the driveway staring at it and crying. that fucking traumatized me. ever since then i’ve been terrified of a fire breaking out, getting out of control, arson, anything like that. i’m cool with controlled fires, but the second it appears that it could get out of control i freak out. a couple months ago i tried to make popcorn in a foil pouch over a fire pit and it started to get really big, and i deadass almost started crying i was freaking out so much. luckily it ended up being fine but my mind wouldn’t let go of the worst case scenario.

i’ve also heard stories about theater fires, venue fires, club fires, etc where basically pyrotechnics go wrong or something happens in the audience and the entire place goes up in flames within minutes. that. fucking. TERRIFIES ME. the iriquois theater fire. that one football stadium that was engulfed in flames within minutes of somebody throwing a cigarette on the ground. that one episode of criminal minds. it’s all so fucking terrible and i hate every bit of it.

so yeah. pyrophobia

64: Do I believe in magic?

not really. i believe that everyone has a little bit of “magic” like one thing that makes them stand out, if only a small thing. it was a post on here going around a while ago, where someone makes coffee slightly better than anyone else, or i can’t remember any more examples but just little things like that. everyone has their “magic”.

99: Smoked weed?

i’ve never smoked it but i’ve drank tincture before, that shit was nasty but i got high for a bit and that was fun

i don’t think i’ll ever smoke anything. the only thing that should be in my lungs is oxygen baby

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18?

i guess it depends on what you consider virginity. i’ve had sex with a girl but if you define it more traditionally (i.e. penis in vag), i haven’t technically lost it. if you consider gay sex as losing it then yes lol

141: Play any musical instrument?

i used to play viola! i played from 6th grade to 9th. my middle school had an amazing orchestra program with the best teacher and i loved it. we played a lot of cool songs and it felt so good to create pretty noise. but then i got to high school and it fell apart. our teacher had no idea what he was doing. we barely started playing until halfway through the first semester, and he didn’t really teach how to read and play music. i carried the whole viola section ngl. i quit after one semester of freshman year. i would pick it back up but my sister uses my viola for school now so i don’t really have ready access to it anymore. i haven’t played in 3 years.

146: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad?

well back to 121 my parents were very aware of my antics with my then gf. i got in trouble for a lot of hickeys and being too loud. my mom has walked in on just me many times

152: What do I like about myself 

i..... don’t know. i don’t think about that very much. and i can’t think of anything on the spot.

thank you for asking!!! i’ve never gotten this many at once and i love answering these so much so thank you :’))))

ASK ME STUFF

[chrsitophwaltz]

MICKEY MEETS FC BAYERN (PART 1/4)

for the entire houston clownery experience click here

psa: excuse my face and the pic qualities. up until this happened i haven’t really taken pictures of myself (less than 10 in the past two years for family and work purposes and NEVER selfies) and when you meet people you’ve only seen on TV in a very unexpected circumstance, then don’t expect your brain and motor functions to work 100%.

okay. i posted part 1 of this a few days ago but i’m gonna redo it again to flush out the details. before i start, know that i arrived in houston wednesday afternoon. my original flight back home was scheduled sunday after the game (i booked my flight and lodgings months before like a good binch) but since bayern clowned again and announced the full detailed schedule really late, and put ALL the major fan stuff on SUNDAY, i grudgingly rebooked and extended one more day. how much that one extra day cost me will haunt me for a while but hey, it was more than worth it! of course, i didn’t know it would work out like that at first...

the hotel reception was around 6:30-7 pm on friday so we went there a few hours earlier to get good spots. met up with The Niko Thirst Gang (big shoutout to @screamingoranges, @saquonbrkley, and @simplyirenic! it was great meeting y’all hope we could do it again sometime) and waited patiently in the houston heat and humidity outside the hotel. finally the team bus arrived and got my shirt signed by boa, fiete, benji, leon, and thomas! made a post about it here and i also have the full reception video if y’all wanna see!

but being the greedy thirsty binch that i am, i wasn’t satisfied at all. thiago and niko weren’t there. the coaching staff were the first to go down and hansi flick, dr. broich, and even Witch Doctor™ müller-wohlfahrt were there, but NOT niko. after the bus left and all the other entourage cars were off, i was about to rage outside the hotel bc i was really banking on seeing niko that day and taking a pic with him there (my blood pressure had been raging for 4 hours and then to be let down just like t h a t...). apparently he and thiago went straight to nrg stadium from the airport for a press conference. and guess what? NRG STADIUM WAS JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM MY PLACE 💀💀💀

anyway, come saturday and it was game day! i was so pumped since my seat was five rows behind the bayern bench! y’all know what that means: unlimited firsthand access to peak drama!!! i also had this huge ass sign asking for niko’s bottle sdhfsdjfh. the game was great (bc we beat madridies and it was just really exciting all the way) and i saw stuff that we normally don’t get from TV (e.g. ALL the angry niko antics, leon changing into his kit on the bench, etc.) at one point niko finally looked at my direction while drinking from his bottle and i’m pretty sure he saw my sign but he just kept on drinking sultrily from that goddamn bottle sjadhksfksdfdk i hate him!!!!!!!

after the game i was feeling pretty let down and desperate bc i know sunday was the team’s last full day in houston and i didn’t want my extension to be for nothing. the practice session and paulaner bbq were invite-only events (ugh) and the mall meet-and-greets won’t have niko or everyone else in them. so i set my alarm, went to bed, and decided to try my luck by randomly going to the hotel again to see if i can get something. i had no idea if it was gonna work or not. it was a shot in the freaking dark.

sunday morning. 8:30 am. i went out armed with a sharpie, my cardboarded jersey, a pack of gum, and two bottles of water.

my uber drove me to the hotel entrance and i even got the whole five star welcome sjdhfsjdfbjkds

hotel staff: ”hi! welcome to the post oak hotel!”

me: “oh lmao i’m not actually a customer i’m just here to see if the team’s still here. have they left for practice yet?”

hotel staff: “oh no problem at all. they’re still here they just finished breakfast i think”

me: “oh cool i’ll just wait here then”

hotel staff and some guy in a bayern audi fcb tour polo shirt: “it’s so hot here, though. don’t you want to wait inside?”

me:

me: “............i can do that? am i allowed in?”

bayern guy: *shrugs* yeah sure. i’ve seen you around before anyway (nice guy talk for: i know ur stalking them lmao)

just like that.

i’m in. i made it.

u n s u p e r v i s e d. totally no barriers whatsoever. with full blast A/C too!

cue happy lil me, relieved to be out of the houston heat, entering the hotel and chilling in their nice plushy seats. (if y’all have cash to burn, it looks like a real good hotel too if you get to houston sometime). i kept on looking over my shoulder bc i still can’t believe they just let me in like t h a t. i tried to make myself look as harmless and innocent as possible and saw some of the training staff milling around and chatting in german (for a moment i thought i was back in munich it was so surreal). at some point, a very sleepy and very casual javi martinez in slides came up to the reception and i nearly passed out. he looked over at me and i waved and said hi and raised my shirt (signal if he wants to sign). he shook his head no and gestured to reception and i was like “oh sure no problem!” (i was trying not to freak out even if i was sad ok)

i’ve been trying to kill time by screaming here on tumblr until about 10-15 minutes later i heard the huge ass team bus pull up out front. a few moments after that, it all started.

i saw the kitmen carrying stuff to the bus and greeted them “guten morgen!” they were so cheery lmao (idk if it’s bc they just had breakfast or bc i greeted them in german). then i saw dr. broich and hansi flick come out in their training gear (both looking hella tanned sfnsjfjsdfn) and greeted them both again. dr. broich waved, said hi, and went straight to the bus but i was able to flag hansi down for an autograph. in my excitement (he was my first catch of the day!) i forgot to ask for a pic ugh but oh well

me: “thanks hansi! and welcome to bayern!”

hansi: *handing me back my shirt and trying (and failing) to put my sharpie back in its cap* “oh, thanks so much!”

after hansi went on his merry way, i saw dieter nickles (the press conference guy) and asked him for a picture and autograph too.

me: “hi dieter! can i please have a photo and an autograph?”

dieter: “are you sure? i’m not a player...”

me: “haha i know but if it’s all the same to you...”

he seemed pretty chuffed that i knew him and happily signed and took pictures (score #2!)

that was it for a while (they were the early birds) until giovane elber himself came out. i freaked (i love him) and tried to keep my voice from shaking when i asked him for the standard photo and autograph. in my haste, the first was pretty blurry and against the light but giovane, angel that he is, was like “oh no that’s bad. let’s try again” and maneuvered me to another angle. success! i luff u, giovane ;__;

then The Voice of the Allianz Arena himself came out. i semi-shouted “stephan!” and startled him that he nearly dropped his coffee snbfsdbfsdfsb. while he was signing my shirt, i asked him if he could give me a lil soundbite and HE DID! he sounds exactly the same as he does on TV during games omfg

the younglings started to come out too. i missed a few of them because they went out in a group so i was only able to flag down sarpreet and ron. oh well! they cute af! go bayern babies! grow up and save us from clownery!!!!!!

(ignore the pen in my mouth i was multitasking lmao)

after that, the ground started to shake (just kidding) bc Big Uncle Nik was there! after i got his autograph (a very simple N.S. lmaooo) , we tried to take a picture. i say “tried,” because i’m 5′3 (and 1/2....on a good day) and he’s built like a fuckin skyscraper. in the end, since he was so nice and realized it was hopeless, he bent down to my level so we could both fit in the frame sdhfbsdjfsbdfjd COME ON SÜLEEEEE

then Pure Angel Baby Fiete came out! i already got his autograph and had a pic with him in the hotel reception, but hey, one more can’t hurt! lemme tell y’all: he looks like an angel, and IS an angel. he’s always so game for photos and even said thank you after we took the pic and i’m like “um???? no, thank YOU!!!” he laughed and i cried lmaooo

also, javi finally showed up again. i raised my pen and phone and he was like “oh sure! yeah!” my brain was fried from Beautiful Athlete Overload that i forgot NOT to take a pic from that cursed angle. javi looked like he was in a hurry though so i didn’t even try to ask for a better pic. oh well, at least here he looks like he came down from heaven (he really looked like he did huehue)

(tumblr has this stupid 10 photo per post limit thing so stay tuned for more pics in part 2!)

[magistralucis]

Rammstein @ Stadium MK, 06 July 2019 [Review]

Just over a week ago, I saw one of the greatest shows in my life.

I dedicate lengthy reviews to most concerts I’ve been to. R+ most definitely merit one, and I like to think this one turned out very nice and long, with plenty of images in between. Nevertheless, I omitted a lot more details this time than I usually do, because:

My pre-show adventures were abnormally long (12+ hours wait).

I made irl queue buddies whose identities aren’t up to me to release.

I’ve talked to people who plan to attend future tour dates and do not want to be spoiled on what R+ has planned. I usually put my reviews below a cut to prevent spoilers, but it doesn’t work on mobile as well.

So, a compromise: I commented on every song on the setlist, but I kept to general comments for new content. There are things R+ brought out this year that you really need to see with your own eyes. But I can’t completely refuse to talk about new things, otherwise that’s only half a review. Those who are wary of all spoilers, please, read at your own risk.

Read on for more. Mobile users, be warned this is a very long post.

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

The Journey (+ Queue Adventures)

This show wasn’t in London. You won’t read about London commutes or opinions about the London Underground in this section for once. Too bad the journey to Milton Keynes fucking sucked. It wasn’t commuting back and forth between Rammstein and my hotel that was the problem. In fact, going back home from Milton Keynes was very simple. But getting there? My God. Only a few things went pear-shaped, and I have nobody but myself to blame for the things that went wrong, but I was not prepared for the discrepancy between MK and the areas surrounding it. Future me, book your hotels and transport in Central Milton Keynes next time.

I will never put myself in the mercy of so many taxis in my life again. Well, I mean, two. Still two too many.

A quick note about Milton Keynes for non-UK residents. It’s probably the most organized city in this country. Milton Keynes is modern and grid-planned, unlike most other cities here which have grown organically and have alleys and hills and cobblestones all over the place. All the roads in MK are in straight lines or clear roundabouts, buildings/facilities are in logical places, and it’s widely considered to be a very easy place to navigate. It’d have been nice to experience literally any of that during most of my journey, because dumbass booked a hotel in the villages around Milton Keynes rather than the city itself. The villages are serene and calming, but they absofuckinglutely do not adhere to any such thing as a grid plan and getting around them was difficult. This was not helped by the fact that the very first leg of the journey, Brighton to London, was delayed for an hour due to an accident on the motorway. I missed the connection to Milton Keynes as a result.

Fuckign.

That was one inconvenience which was not in any way my fault whatsoever, and I’m still bitter that it nearly ruined my entire journey. At least trains between London to Milton Keynes are very common, and it’s only half an hour. So ultimately, after an extra fifteen quid, I arrived right on time. Commuting to the hotel was much harder, because it was a very hot day, and the trains to these villages come by more infrequently. But at least they were there, I hadn’t packed a very heavy load, and when I finally reached the hotel I was given a cottage room all to myself which was cool and comfortably out of the way. There was a huge bathtub. Some nice free toiletries. Complimentary brandy. Oh, hotel, why couldn’t you have been a little closer to the city centre?

But, whatever. I got there. I took the Ls I deserved, and I didn’t pay too high a price for the one I didn’t deserve. I’d brought more than enough money to cover it, because I’d known I would need to shell out extra for transport on the day of the concert. That thought process is universal among concertgoers; I think I handled that as well I could have. I ate dinner, packed a bag, and fell asleep.

That was Friday. Saturday the 6th I will cover in bullet points, from waking up to front row, because most of my Saturday consisted of nothing but waiting for Rammstein. I’m usually more detailed about my preshow life, but there’s a line between an entertaining diary entry and making people slog through fifteen hours of Rammstein-not-happening. Let’s go.

4am. Up nice and early. I force down breakfast. I have a small bag packed with necessities, and a plastic bag intended to be disposed of at the concert: the latter contains energy bars, satsumas (for hydration), some dried salami, and two bottles of water. That is all I’m going to be eating for the rest of the day.

5:45am. Taxi to Stadium MK. It costs exactly a tenner. I decide that when I’m heading back from the concert, I’m willing to pay up to double this amount. A higher price surge will mean I’ll have to wait.

6am. Queuing adventures begin. There are already four people ahead of me; the people at the very front have been waiting since 3am. I’m at Gate 5, closest to front row out of all the other available gates in the stadium. There are three queue lines already formed with metal barriers, separated by standing, seats, and accessible/disabled, but there is a taller barricade in front of it which prevents us from going in there. We are too early even for that.

Stadium doors open at five, R+ comes on at eight. This is going to be a ridiculous haul.

7am. Up to ten people in the queue. The first six of us in the queue begin talking. These people are the aforementioned queue buddies who will subsequently keep my place in line during bathroom breaks, give me much concert wisdom, and preserve our places for front row. The human capacity to spontaneously begin caring for one another at concerts is what I like best about concert culture, especially metalhead culture. Ain’t no other home I’ve found like with fellow metalheads.

9:30am. I am really tired. The people right behind me have homebrewed a sunshade out of plastic picnic mats across the barriers. Half of us are collapsed on the asphalt, sleeping.

10:13am. Bathroom break. Me and one other girl leave the queue to the 24h McDonalds to make use of theirs. I will revisit this McDonalds roughly 14 hours from now, this time to contribute actual business.

12pm. People in queue are significantly more alert because security guys have started milling around. The barricades for the main queue lines will be removed around 3pm.

1:30pm. One last bathroom break. We visit the nearby Asda, because it’s becoming evident the area is flooded with R+ fans and the restaurants are demanding they engage with actual business before using their bathrooms. Asda has no such issue.

3pm. Barricades finally open and I make it to the front of the line once more. We’re allowed a single 500ml bottle of water with us but then they FUCKING HIT US AGAIN WITH THE NO BOTTLE CAP BULLSHIT. Seriously it’s more of a hazard to have open bottles spilling water everywhere for the love of God just let us keep our bottle caps. I discard my original cap, but what I didn’t tell security was that I had a sports cap from a separate bottle from earlier hidden in the depths of my jacket. Once I’m in, I just screw that on, and I am fine and dandy.

5PM FUCKING DOORS ARE OPEN GO GO GO-

-STAIRS? S T A   IR S??? AIN’T NOBODY FUCKING TELL ME ABOUT STAIRS ? 1!?@?3@?@/2?3?#

After a wild scramble I score front row nonetheless. Last time I was front row for Rammstein, I was in front of Richard; this time I choose Paul’s side.

Around 6pm it begins to rain. In the stadium.

6:30pm. I am really cold. I am shivering despite the thousands of people rubbing shoulders beside and all around me, and it’s still 1hrs 30mins until R+ show up. They cannot come on fast enough. I have never wanted so much to be toasted like a marshmallow.

7pm. The opener comes on - Jatekok, a classical pianist duo who covered most of Sehnsucht over a half-hour period. They are all the way over at the B-stage however, and while I can hear them, being a short woman at front row essentially means I forfeit anything that happens on the B-stage. It’s too far back, and there are too many people between me and the stage for me to see anything.

Rammstein came on at 8pm to a multi-language announcement asking the audience not to film the performance. The abundance of full-length videos on youtube depicting exactly that is proof that this request was not kept, but I digress. I’m assuming most people reading this review are Rammstein fans, or or know how each song’s ‘performance’ goes, so a minute-by-minute play will be unnecessary. My comments are general, but hopefully insightful.

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

01. Was ich liebe (Rammstein)

Check this shit out!

This screen will continue to be relevant throughout the concert. Half the time it’s displaying the logo, and half the time... well, you’ll have to see 😂 R+ have opted for a relatively calm start in this tour. The bandmates appear one by one to the intro, lingering at the front of the stage (save for Schneider) until Till appears.

All the bandmates’ outfits. So far a theme is uncertain. Or maybe it’s just that Flake is the odd one out. He sparkles most golden throughout the entire concert. He still has the treadmill arrangement going. If anything he’s gotten more stage-confident and hilarious since the last time I saw him.

Till’s outfit goes hot and serious and heavy. He will only keep the coat on for ‘Was ich liebe’, which is perfectly reasonable; it’s stopped raining by this time and the venue is warm-ish, though clouded. As for ‘Was ich liebe’ as a song, I’m fond of it. I am, however, surprised to see that it’s the opener. This is not a complaint: in retrospect, R+ paced out the songs from their recent album very cleverly throughout the concert, alternating between their older hits and building up to the major climaxes in the middle (songs 7-14). It was just a bit of a surprise at the time.

I see the most of this cheerful lil’ bastard through the show. Paul will feature heavily in my images of this night.

02. Links 2-3-4 (Mutter)

Storytime. Kinda. I had never watched the music video of ‘Links 2-3-4′ until the day of this concert. I’ve always known one existed, I just didn’t watch it because it’s full of ants and insects are my number one phobia. I haven’t willingly sought out things with insects in it for years, and I wasn’t going to start any time soon. This self-imposed ban on watching the video was broken in Stadium MK because while we were waiting, they were marathoning every single R+ music video on a large screen off to the side of the stage. I watched the whole thing then because I might as well; what the hell else was I gonna do, leave the front row?

It was actually a pretty good video once I got past the CGI bugs ick factor of it. This has nothing to do with the actual live version of the song. Why the hell have I written so much about this? Till removes his heavy coat almost as soon as the song begins. Paul starts properly fucking around with his mic. I’m seeing the virtues of being on Paul’s side very early on, and I finally get what people mean by having ‘met Paul’s eyes’ during the concert. It’s not that he’s focused on the one person, at least not as far as he outwardly presents himself, but he does seem to have a specific zone in which he regards the audience. He takes time to meet eyes with various people, smile, and acknowledge particular situations.

03. Tattoo (Rammstein)

Till is now dressed suitably for the Tillhammer to come out in full force. I’m not huge on ‘Tattoo’ as a song, but this is where Till really starts to gravitate towards either side of the stage, rather than at dead center. After shenanigans with Paul, as seen above, he comes over to Paul’s side (where I am) and stays for the first verse and the first ‘zeig mir deins, ich zeig' mir deins’ chorus.

I like to think we make eye contact, but there are thousands of people behind me and he’s not an eye contact person. Just a fleeting thought.

Also I just went to look at one of the aforementioned full-length videos of this concert and someone was bouncing around an inflatable shark (?) behind me. How did they get that in? Hide it deflated in one’s clothes then inflate it while in the stadium?

04. Sehnsucht (Sehnsucht)

The last strands of ‘Tattoo’ fade immediately into ‘Sehnsucht’ with no time for a break. Till removes another layer of outerwear. Fireworks burst out at every beat leading up to the main part of the song. In retrospect, discounting their fiery entrance, ‘Sehnsucht’ is really the point where you can tell they’re warming up the pyrotechnics. I don’t remember any particular interaction between Till or the guitarists, as from what I can remember Till was busy Tillhammering at the center stage; he will move around more freely later. My memories of this song are loving but blurred, because I got into headbanging with the girls beside me and their hair was grazing my arms something awful. I have similar length hair, however, so I’m sure I was doing the same to them.

God ‘Sehnsucht’ is so good. I always think of the Live Aus Berlin performance where Till was bashing the mic against his forehead when I hear this song. Hits me right in the spot every time.

Also: bonus Richard.

05. Zeig dich (Rammstein)

*sick guitar riffs* ‘Zeig! Dich!’

Fuck yeah. The heat from those firebursts are brief but incredible. Now I feel most comfortable and toasted. Black smoke drifts into the sky.

Also significant ymmv based on location, but this is only about the people around and behind me: come on guys, seriously? You don’t know the lyrics! This is the third song from Rammstein already and you’ve been quiet all three times! I however give them credit for being so well behaved through the show. People further to the right of me were getting dragged out all over the place.

06. Mein Herz brennt (Mutter)

Till trolls us with the first instance of ‘mein Herz brennt’, as the main riff doesn’t immediately begin after these words in this performance. He has a laugh about this. Other than that, the performance is as you’d expect, complete with heart pyrotechnics towards the end.

Olli comes very close to me at the halfway point. I'm starting to worry he’s going to spend the entire concert dressed like this, though the concern is unwarranted. It seems such a hot thing to be wearing.

07. Puppe (Rammstein)

ich rEISS' DER PUPPE den KOPF! AB!

ja, ich REISS' DER PUPPE den KOPF! AB!

UND DANN BEISS’ ICH DER PUPPE DEN H̷AL҉S̕ ĄA̡AA͟B̵!

E̷҉S̀͡͞ ҉̶ĢE͞͝H̷͡T͘ ̢́M͜҉I̵͜R ́͠͝N̷̴Í̷C͟͡͞H̸̀T̛̀ G̡̕U̡҉̀U̵̕U͡͠U҉UU̢U͡T̷̨̛

Make sure you see this performance live, preferably up close. It’s beyond words.

08. Heirate mich (Herzeleid)

When I was in the queue I struck up a conversation with one of my queue buddies about what songs might be on the setlist. She had been front row for the concert in Berlin prior to this, so she already knew what we were getting into. I requested no spoilers in advance, which she kept to - but then our conversation moved to the Herzeleid-Sehnsucht era and I mentioned how I’d love to see a live performance of ‘Heirate mich’ again. It was always a wistful sadness of mine that I was born too damned early to see Till doing this.

Not that I said outright Tillchard was the reason I liked this song.

In retrospect, she had a twinkle in her eye when I said this, because she knew that this song was on the setlist. I did not see it coming. I kept myself spoiler-free from day one of buying tickets to the actual concert itself, so it was a genuine surprise when the intro to ‘Heirate mich’ started playing. Surprise and confusion with a heaping side of mother fucking excuse me when I recognized what it was.

Oh I went hog wild, guys.

Till does not do the dragging himself onto his knees thing in the current tour, which I think is understandable. His knees weren’t amazing twenty years ago and they are presumably even less so now. It’s a very straightforward performance, winding down to prepare for the real showstoppers - but my old wish was finally granted, Till sounded wonderful in both song and narrative, and I came away most satisfied. 11/10 would listen again.

09. Diamant (Rammstein)

Half the band takes a break here. Flake comes down from the keyboards to sit on the stage and Olli sits beside him, providing the bass for this short beautiful little ballad. There are no fancy pyrotechnics here, nor much stage movement; it’s a sequence to make the audience aware of the overheard screen, imo, in case ‘Puppe’ didn’t do a good enough job of it. The entire performance is broadcast on that screen with the camera turning between Olli, Till, and Flake.

Till’s voice is beautiful. It’s the most legitimately serene Rammstein performance I’ve ever seen live. They have their share of ballads - ‘Ohne dich’ will also feature later in the concert - but ‘Diamant’ is probably the most low-key of them all.

10. Deutschland (Richard Z. Kruspe Remix) / Deutschland (Rammstein)

I...

???

?????

?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

I have no words. Like ‘Puppe’, you really need to see this entire sequence live. I can say three things, however, and two are about Richard: 1) ‘Deutschland’ comes in two flavours in the tour, the second one being the glorious full version in the main album, 2) Richard avoids sounding devilish in his backing vocals (‘du hast, du hast, du hast, du hast... so heiß, so heiß, so heiß, so heiß’ etc), though I cannot guarantee he will always be as tuneful in future performances, and 3) he will not go of that coat until ‘Du hast’. DJ Kruspe is in the house and only the unrelenting flow of time can part him from his swaggity swag fluffcoat.

But I... well, I keep remembering Till’s pink shrug every time I look at it. Remember back when we fawned over that as the brand new Rammstein outfit?

Oh my God I’ve gotten so old.

11. Radio (Rammstein)

This is probably my second favourite song of the new album and they deliver. Because ‘Deutschland’ was, well, ‘Deutschland’, it comes across as relatively low-key compared to what came before (and will after), but I like it like that. During the bridge ‘Ra-di-o... radio’ part, Paul and Richard come out with their own small synths to recreate that sound. It’s so peppy.

Paul does another small dance. Why did I neglect being on Paul’s side until now? This is great.

12. Mein Teil (Reise, Reise)

I’m half ashamed to say I spent this entire performance filming it instead of rocking out. I wanted to save it that much. It was that good.

No, it’s not fundamentally different to other performances of ‘Mein Teil’. Till keeps his usual outfit, Flake’s in the pot, there is a pot, etc. However, the pyrotechnics have changed significantly, and let’s just say that Flake endures a hell of a lot more than previous incarnations.

And comes out of it more sprightly than before, somehow.

Marry me.

Also a bonus consequence of being front row: after this song, Till comes down the stage and walks along the barrier shaking/slapping hands with people. In his murderchef outfit. I was one of many who managed to touch his hand. It really is a very quick walk, so you’ll have to be ready with hand already out and in reaching distance (difficult if you’re short) if you want to partake in this encounter, but it does happen. Future concertgoers watch out for something like this maybe.

13. Du hast (Sehnsucht)

Can you really call it a live performance of ‘Du hast’ if the audience isn’t singing at least 50% of it in Till’s stead? But then, when else do we have that opportunity. Milton Keynes audience does not disappoint.

Also Till shoots some excellent fireworks that travels across the length of the stadium and back before crashing back onstage. I still hear their whistles in my mind. Night is beginning to fall for real, and it’s a fantastic time to be ramping up the fireworks. Evidently R+ think the same, because...

14. Sonne (Mutter)

Daaaaaaaaammnn!!!

I have a video of this performance, but honestly it is not that useful for assessing what’s happening onstage. There is just too much fire. The video whites out continuously from all the flames mere feet away from us. ‘Sonne’ has always been a facemelting showstopper for Rammstein during live shows, but they’ve really gone above and beyond this year: the arena truly lights up like the sun for the full duration of the song. I highly recommend getting front row for this, right in front of where you can see the pyrotechnics are installed in the above gif. (Between main speakers, essentially.) Your face will burn off even more than it usually burns off during a R+ concert, and you will enjoy every minute of it.

15. Ohne dich (Reise, Reise)

Till’s in very good condition tonight. How he pulls off the slow ballads is how I tend to gauge his voice is from night to night, and he doesn’t let us down here either. The entire front row slow waves to this song, which is something I’m proud of being a part of. The girl to the left of me is weeping. The seriousness of this song still does not prevent Flake fucking around. It wouldn’t do R+ performances justice if he wasn’t like this.

‘Ohne dich’ is considered the first ‘ending’ of the concert, meaning in reality the band’s first departure from the main stage. All six members take an initial bow before moving to the B-stage. They will return to the main stage shortly afterwards for further encores.

16. Engel (Sehnsucht)

Pros: The opening act return in their gorgeous outfits and pianos, and act as the piano instrumental for this performance.

Cons: It’s on the B-stage. I sure heard this song but didn’t see anything. God damnit I hate being five feet four.

They provide a karaoke for people exactly in my situation, though. That’s at least something 😂

17. Ausländer (Rammstein)

You thought one R+ boat ride was awesome? HOW ABOUT THREE.

I am going to cry. Look at it. It’s literally a Welcome sign. The sentiment of the music video to ‘Ausländer’ is perfectly retained as they surf across the audience from the B-stage.

Also bonus ~✨👀 unintentional Tillchard moment 👀✨~ as Richard has a little slip on his way out of the boat. He was not hurt and was back onstage quickly. All this before the song even begins. I may need to upload the video of this moment.

‘Ausländer’ itself I have slightly more mixed feelings for. The song is fantastic and I have no complaints about the album version, and hearing Till cry out ‘я люблю тебя’ is always a plus. The problem with the live version is simply that the drums are too loud during the chorus: instead of a clearly enunciated ‘Ich bin Aus-län-der!’ with a drumbeat on each syllable, one hears ‘*THUD* *THUD* Aus-län-*THUD*!’. I was wearing earplugs which might have affected the quality somewhat, but people who weren’t wearing any were talking about this after the show as well, and after watching videos of the Milton Keynes performance I’m sure the drums were too loud. Your mileage may vary on whether this is a desirable effect - it lets the audience fills in the ‘ich bin’ part, I suppose - but I feel Till was unnecessarily drowned out.

18. Du riechst so gut (Herzeleid)

For me, the highlight of this song in the live version is always, always, always Richard’s evil scream-growl ‘DU RIECHST SO GUUUUUUUUUUUT’ (example here for reference). He delivers yet again.

19. Pussy (Liebe Ist Für Alle Da)

On the whole, this performance is largely unaltered from how it usually goes. Till gestures for the audience to sing the first couple of lines, there is a dick cannon that shoots something at the audience, and Till mans the dick cannon. Last time I saw them from front row, we were all covered in a very thick white foam; this time it was bubbles, followed by a shower of white confetti. The combination was less clinging than the foam, somehow, much more pleasant to be showered with.

Only Rammstein could make me write such a sentence about dick cannons.

Speaking of the dick cannon, though, I engaged in some discussion about it while I was waiting for the performance. This cannon has had a troubled existence, as R+ fans would know: sometimes it straight up hasn’t worked, and it’s been redesigned several times, ranging from a disturbingly realistic look to a flesh-coloured polygonal creation. This current version is the least realistic of all the dick cannons R+ have ever used. It’s just like, metal. Visibly. They haven’t gone to the extra trouble of painting it flesh-coloured. My guess is that this is because it fits with their current chrome/dark aesthetics better, R+ aren’t a band to neglect that kind of detail. As long as it works and the audience is aptly showered, what’s the problem? Let’s do it quick! 😀 And now this is entirely too many words about dick cannons, so I’ll move on.

20. Rammstein (Herzeleid)

‘Ramm-stein!’

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. It is past ten o’clock and the skies have gotten dark, though not so dark you can’t see the black smoke spiraling into the air with each burst of fire. A plane flies by far above into the distance and I appreciate the poetic irony. I think I would have been happy enough if they’d ended the performance on this note, but there’s one last song left.

21. Ich will (Mutter)

I can’t think of a better finale.

This song is exactly what you’d expect, with an additional sprinkle of fireworks punctuating every pause in the lines ‘Seht ihr mich? / Versteht ihr mich? / Fühlt ihr mich? / Hört ihr mich?’. Like always, audience participation is mandatory, as is the audience showing off their hands. It is the perfect way to end the show: it’s a classic favourite, it’s neither too bright nor too grim (avoids ending on a downer note), and it’s a song exclusively written to highlight a togetherness between band and audience. ‘Ich will’ could end every R+ concert it features in, in my opinion, regardless of theme or era... and it will always be appropriate.

The concert really ends after that. It helps that Till addresses his farewell to us as ‘fucking Milton Keynes’ (in a wholly fond way) before they depart. I won’t speak about the details of how they leave, because that’s almost a small show of its own, but trust me when I say I was in tears.

I say that like that didn’t happen at least three times during the concert.

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

After it’s all over, I... don’t get to go back to my hotel and sleep. Not after a lot of waiting, anyway. Over 30,000 people are trying to leave this stadium all at once, the traffic congestion is awful and there are pretty much no taxis/uber rides available in the couple of hours following the concert. I eventually end up sitting in the McDonalds (only 24hr restaurant nearby) with queue buddies until roughly 1am until the surge goes down and I can pay the amount I promised myself for my uber.

I could have gone back earlier. I budgeted over a hundred pounds to see myself through the price surge, in case it didn’t go down as quickly as I hoped, or if I urgently needed to get myself out of danger. It was just that the predictor was showing something like fifty to eighty quid for a ten-minute ride back to my hotel and, like. Fuck that. There’s being able to ‘afford’ it, and then being able to afford it, and I can think of better ways to spend fifty pounds.

And to be honest, after over a half day of hunger, even McDonalds was one of those better places. I had a meal and a Sprite before I could get out of there. It was probably the first time I’d had something resembling a legit meal in two days and if I hadn’t been so ecstatic I think I’d have been depressed. Then I got back to my hotel. Made myself a hot chocolate with brandy. Passed out on my bed around 3am, then got back up around 7am to enjoy a nice morning bath and get myself back home. It was around 5pm on Sunday when I returned to Brighton, ears still ringing, feeling on cloud nine.

So that’s me. Future concertgoers, take as many opportunities as possible to go see Rammstein’s current tour live. Front row may be near impossible if you aren’t a LIFAD member and/or get pre-releases for the Feuer Zone (although Milton Keynes didn’t have that) but try to get as close as possible, anyway. It is not an experience to be missed.

Though also bring an umbrella, maybe. If your stadium allows it. It was a fucking trip surviving 12+ hours in the great outdoors and then immediately being rained on while on front row 😰

[numba99]

Hate to Love You Part 6

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Summary: You and Jimmy have never gotten along. To say you hated each other would be an understatement. But when a night at a party takes an unexpected turn, things between the two of you change forever. Word Count: 2,482 damn this got longer than I thought

Warnings: Smut y’all know the drill

Brady’s girlfriend was back in town for a visit, which was preoccupying his time. You didn’t mind, less excuses you would have to think of if he invited you over. You weren’t ready to be alone again with Jimmy just yet. Even the thought of just you, him and Brady was too much. You knew you wouldn’t be safe from him making a move, and you weren’t sure you were ready for that yet.

Something about almost getting caught shook you in a way you couldn’t quite explain. You think it was because if Brady had saw, this all would become real. The sneaking around, the hooking up, everything that had been happening between you and Jimmy these last few weeks had seemed almost like a fantasy. You didn’t want anyone, especially not Brady, to find out. Partially because he was Jimmy and you’d never hear the end of it. The other part was the weird feeling almost having sex with Jimmy gave you. You spent the better part of the week convincing yourself it was just arousal and you were fine with letting yourself stick to that. The two of you were just hooking up. That’s it.

You were in a better place when Gracia invited you to go to the game with her. You buried your thoughts about Jimmy in the corner of your mind that you keep other things you don’t like to think about. You were just excited to spend sometime with her and watch a hockey game in person, something you haven’t done in a while.

Your seats were fairly close to the ice, but not too close. Brady always said he needed to Gracia to be out of eyesight because if he saw her he would get distracted. It was corny as hell, but you secretly thought it was adorable. You were both decked out in your Skjei gear, excited to get to see him play.

You and Gracia chatted while watching the game. She filled you in on the gossip from your hometown back in Minnesota. You laughed as you listened, wondering how there could be so much drama in such a little town.

“So can I ask you something?” Gracia asked casually.

“Sure what’s up?” you replied, teetering on the edge of your seat as Lundqvist made a tough save.

“What’s with you and Jimmy?” she questioned. You could feel her eyes on you and you hoped the color draining from your face wasn’t as obvious as you thought it would be. Shit, you thought, maybe Brady did see something? And he’s having Gracia get the dirt. You can’t jump to conclusions, you have to stay calm.

“What do you mean?” you asked, keeping your voice as flat as possible.

“I don’t know, just thinking about the party a few weeks ago when you were supposed to kiss Jimmy. I guess I just was surprised by how disgusted you were by the thought,” she replied, laughing lightly as she finished her sentence.

You laughed along, wanting to appear as unbothered as possible. “Well you know we don’t like each other. You wouldn’t be too happy about having to kiss a guy you thought was a total dick,” you replied.

Just as you finished speaking, the Rangers were making a play towards to the goal. The whole stadium gasped in anticipation as Jimmy passed the puck to Mika. Mika slapped the puck into the back of the net, sparking an eruption of cheers from the crowd. You and Gracia jumped up and celebrated with everyone else. You had hoped the goal would get her off topic, but you weren’t so lucky.

“I don’t know,” she said as you both settled back into your seat, “I just, well, I don’t know if I should say that. Don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“It’s fine, I won’t be mad,” you insisted. You really just wanted to know what she was going to say.

“Well I mean I know you really well and I’ve gotten to know Jimmy pretty well through Brady,” she began, “If I just knew you two separately, I would want to set you up on a date. I guess I just think it’s funny that two people that you think would be perfect together on paper are so wrong for each other in reality.”

You just nodded, not really sure what to say. Something about what she said made you sad. “Yeah it is funny,” you managed, glad you had a hockey game in front of you so you didn’t have to look at her.

Thankfully, another good play was saving you from an awkward silence. Ironically, it was Jimmy scoring. He was having a good game, which got even better when he had another assist in the third. There were three goals from the Rangers that game, and all of them were made possible by Jimmy. Of course he had to be the star of the game that you went to. He couldn’t just quietly float on and off the ice letting you focus on other players.

When the game ended, you and Gracia headed back to the locker room area where girlfriends, wives, and family members would wait for the players. You could hear the players getting rowdy through the door, clearly celebrating their win.

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” you told Gracia. You headed down the hall in search of the bathroom you were 99% was in that direction. Okay maybe 50%, you definitely could have gone the wrong way, but you were committed so you kept going.

Finally you found it, feeling a little more proud than you should. You went quickly, walking back briskly to make up for the time you wasted trying to find it. Suddenly, there were an arm around your waist, pulling you through a doorway. You tried to scream but a hand covered you mouth. You finally got your head around enough to see who grabbed you.

“Jimmy!” you exclaimed when his hand fell from your mouth, “What the hell are you doing? You scared the shit out of me!”

“Shhh,” he hushed you, “No one can know we’re in here.” Here was a storage closet from the looks of it. His hand reached back up the doorknob, the click of the lock making your stomach do a flip.

“Why?” you asked, a soft shake in your voice. As if you didn’t know what that look in his eye meant.

“We have some unfinished business,” he looped his finger into your jeans, pulling you closer to him, “And I’ve got a win to celebrate.” His voice was low and husky in your ear. He nipped lightly at the skin where your jaw connects to your neck.

“Mmm, that was for letting out your frustrations, not celebrating a win,” you teased, tilting your head back to give me better access to you.

“Well than I’m still frustrated,” he growled against your skin. His hands playing at the end of your shirt, clearly to get underneath it.

“Not good to hold it in for that long,” you tsked, rubbing your thighs together slightly. Feeling Jimmy so close to you, breath fanning over your skin as he kissed you making you ache for him.

Jimmy stepped closer to you, pressing your back against the wall. “Let me show you how I let it out,” his lips were on yours the second the words left his mouth. He pressed his hips against yours, pinning you down.

“We have to be quick,” you bit at his lower lip, “People are gonna wonder...” your voice trailed off as he slid a hand down the front of your jeans.

“Good thing you’re ready to go then,” he smirked, running his fingers through your wetness, “Watching me play turns you on? Hmm? Bet you were thinking about fucking me when I scored.”

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” you snapped, but at the same time spreading your legs a little to let him slide a finger into you. He pumped into you, easily sliding in a third finger.

“Just gotta stretch you out for me,” Jimmy said with a devilish grin, “Make sure you can handle me.”

You rolled your eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. We don’t have time for this.”

“Just can’t wait for me to fuck you can you?” he continued.

“God do you ever shut up? You’re all fucking talk just fucking do it,” you fired back at him. With that, flurry of clothes fell to the floor. In a matter of moments your were both down to your underwear.

Jimmy’s hand slid around your next, his thumb pulling at your lower lip. “Try to be quiet. These walls aren’t as thick as they look,” he purred as his free hand pulled his cock out of his boxers. He fished out a condom from the back of his pants, rolling it over his swollen length.

Your pussy throbbed in anticipation as he slid your underwear over.He rubbed his tip over your sensitive core, before pressing into. You let out a gasp despite yourself, feeling the satisfying stretch of his cock. Jimmy let out a low hiss as he bottom out, the tightness testing his own will power. There wasn’t time for letting yourselves adjust, his hips rocking back and forth against yours. You dug your fingernails into his shoulders, trying to keep yourself stabilized as he fucked you.

It felt good. Really fucking good. Even with the awkward angle of standing up fucking. With the leverage of the wall, Jimmy was strong enough to hold you up a little, making it easier for him to thrust into you. His thrusts were urgent, but deep, wanting to get you off as soon as possible.

“Ha-fuck- harder,” you told him. Jimmy gripped your thigh, hoisting your leg up so he could hit deeper inside you. You let out a moan louder than you should have. Jimmy’s hand flew up to your mouth, silencing you.

“As much as I would enjoy you screaming for me this isn’t the place,” he taunted, keeping his hand over your mouth. He kept pounding into you, relentlessly building you up higher. You tilted your hips slightly, allowing his body to brush against your clit with every thrust.

You came fast and hard, moans muffled against his hand. If it wasn’t there, all of Madison Square Garden would know what you two were doing. Jimmy followed you immediately, letting out low grunts as he fucked you through his orgasm. He strokes slowed as you both finished, your legs shaking as you came down from your high.

Suddenly, the door knob was jiggly. Both your heads whipped around, holding your breath. You were frozen, praying to god the lock held up or that the person didn’t have keys. A few moments of silence passed and you both let out the breathes you’d been holding in.When your eyes met again, you both burst out laughing. Stress laughter, but laughter none the less.

“That was close,” Jimmy whispered.

“Real fucking close,” you replied, “I guess we should...” You looked down, where his dick was still buried inside you.

“Right,” he murmured, the slightest hint of a blush in cheeks as he pulled out of you. You both redressed quickly, not knowing if whoever was at the door would come back with keys. Your heart was still beating a little faster than normal, but you didn’t expect it to flutter the way it did when Jimmy’s eyes met yours again.

“We should go,” you said suddenly, feeling like you needed an escape.

“You go I’ll come in a few minutes so they’re not suspicious,” Jimmy replied, “Just make sure you’re walking straight.” He flashed a crooked grin, looking you up and down. It should have irritated you but there was something annoyingly charming about it.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” you huffed, leaving him alone in the closet. You walked quickly with your head down, feeling like if you saw anyone they’d just know what you did. You took a deep breath before rounding the corner where you knew Gracia would be, knowing you couldn’t look as flustered as you felt.

“Hey y/n, what took you so long? Did you get lost,” she teased. You forced yourself to laugh with her.

“Yeah actually, it’s like a maze back there,” you replied.

“Well Brady’s just about done in there. He said him, Jimmy, and Kevin are going to go out to celebrate the win. You’re coming right?” she asked. That sounded like the absolute worse situation to be in right.

“Actually, I’m really tired and I’ve got a long day tomorrow. I think I’m going to head out,” you told her, hoping you sounded casual.

Gracia nodded, seemingly buying it. “Do you want us to ride with you back to your place? I’m sure the boys wouldn’t mind,” she said.

“It’s all good, I think I’m just gonna go now actually. Tell the boys I said good game,” you replied, giving her a quick hug before ditching her. You that made her a little suspicious, but you didn’t care. You needed to be alone.

You wanted to tell yourself almost getting caught again is what was freaking you out, but it just wasn’t true. The sex was good, better than you had thought it would be honestly. You had secretly hoped it would suck, so you could shake these feelings for Jimmy.

Whoa. Feelings for Jimmy?

You shook your head as you walked. You didn’t have feelings for Jimmy. You couldn’t. It was just sex. You didn’t want to date Jimmy, the thought of that making you turn your nose up. But there was something about the way watching him button up his shirt that made you want to kiss him. Not an angry kiss. Not for a precursor of sex or anything. Just to kiss him, because you wanted to.

You didn’t knew what that meant yet -if it meant anything at all. You were hooking up with him, it was supposed to feel good. You were supposed to want more. Just because you liked having sex with someone doesn’t mean you have to like them. You only wanted more because he was good at it. Annoyingly good at it.

So that was it, you told yourself as you slipped into bed. It was just good sex messing with your head. Especially since it’s with someone you can’t stand otherwise. That was what was confusing you. Nothing else. You were just using him for good sex, that’s how you had to look at it. He was like a big, obnoxious sex toy. That thought made you laugh, putting you at ease slightly.

Just sex, no feelings. Just sex, no feelings. Just sex, no feelings.

Your new mantra went round and round in your head, lulling you to restless sleep.

[peachesandsodas]

one last smile - hogwarts!shownu x reader

so, i was on twitter last night and i saw one of my favourite fanart account (@aisyah_tsu) for mx did a quick prompt of shownu going for triwizard tournament and it turned out into such a mess for such a heartbreaking moment. here it is. || words : 3,434 ; Shownu x Reader ; Hogwarts!AU

playlist : 1 2 3 4 

Here you are, standing on the vast Quidditch Pitch that turns into a maze for the Third and final task for Triwizard Tournament. You being the second candidate from Hogwarts, alongside with Son Hyunwoo (or Shownu, his nickname since you knew him on the First Year in Hogwarts) doing a few small stretches here and there, but at a split second, your eyes made a contact. 

You still remember the time you managed to convince Shownu to put his name into the Goblet, and him, also, convinced you to do the same. At the end, both of your name was announced during the Selection of the Champions, earning many support and a few questioning remarks since it never happened before, having two candidates from the same school. Nevertheless, both of you decided to team up in order to make Hogwarts proud. And since then, your relationship with Shownu grew, even though both of you came from different Houses, nothing stopped both of you from doing the best in the Tournament together as a team and a healthy rivals. 

You still remember the First task with the dragons, watching Shownu faced Hungarian Horntail, silently praying that he succeed the task without a single bruise but in the end laughing your asses off as both of you shared crazy stories about his pants lit on fire when he’s about to escape with the Golden Egg on his arm and you flew straight to the stadium’s walls with your broomstick trying to get away from Swedish Short-Snout almost breaking your Golden Egg. 

“At least it burned my pants, not my face.”

“At least, I don’t break my nose, Son Hyunwoo. It’ll be the death of me if I broke my nose.”

“You’ll still be the gorgeous one in here, anyway.”

“Oh shut it.”

“No, I mean it.”

You still remember the time both of you got kicked out from the Library from opening the Golden Egg which turns out into an agonising shriek that both of you couldn’t comprehend (and successfully made the Librarian dragged both of you out and banned for a good amount of time.) Still, laughed from what just happened until one day, Shownu told you to open the Golden Egg under the water, giving the access to the Prefect’s Bathroom, which awes you at the end because how big the bathroom is and filled with amazing bubble soaps. You almost forgot about the Golden Egg because Shownu reminded you about the new Peony scented bubble soap, knowing that it is your most favourite flower.

“How did you know about my favourite flower?”

“I asked Professor Sprout about it.”

“Why?”

“So I can ask you to be my Yule Ball date, and got you this.”

You can feel your heart beats faster than before and cheeks flushed in hues of red, which Shownu finds it cute and adorable at the same time, he just want to protect you from all the harm in the Tournament. You grabbed the bouquet of peonies, and smiled at him. 

“So, what colour are we going to wear for the Ball?”

You still remember the day you panicked to Kihyun and Changkyun days before Yule Ball, trying figure out what kind of dress you should wear for the Yule Ball. Kihyun helped you to choose a dress since he know Shownu pretty damn well like an open textbook and Changkyun’s jaw dropped when you found ‘the’ dress. And when the day came, Shownu picked you up from the Ravenclaw’s compounds, eyes widened in surprise and you saw his lips tugged into a wide smile, extending his hand for you. You shyly grinned and held his hand, automatically fingers intertwined and fits just like a final puzzle piece. It felt complete.

You with a maroon-coloured silk dress that hugged your figure perfectly, golden embroideries that creates flower pattern on the edges, and small dark sapphire diamonds to give glimmering accents when your body moves; Shownu with dark maroon silk shirt, and black suit pants with a golden silk scarf hanging perfectly on his neck loosely, giving that magnificent Gryffindor charm that radiates from his aura. 

His eyes couldn’t leave you even for a second, and his smile never falters from his face. Even after both of you walked into the Ball, eyes were on both of you. (and you can hear Minhyuk cheering on both of you very, very loud, earning a smack at the back of his head from Hyungwon.) When the dance start for the Champions, both of you perfectly in sync with the music, the movements. 

“What?”

“What, what?”

“Stop starting at me, Shownu.”

“How can I stop? Look at you, gorgeous.”

You still remember the day for the Second task came, your hands trembled as your fear of water starting to creep behind your back. Your fear of deep waters shown clearly on your face and you still remember Shownu calmed you down only with a reassurance,

“You will be fine, trust me. You got this, and I’ll look out for you.”

You still remember the time all four of you jumped into the waters, swimming quickly into the Black Lake, fighting off grindylows, and saw those who are close to you at heart become the stolen ‘item’. You saw both Kihyun and Jooheon, both of them are close with you and Shownu, swiftly you took Jooheon up to the surface and hugged him tightly. A few seconds after that, Shownu and Kihyun came up to the surface, earning cheers from the spectators. “Thank God you’re okay.” You pressed your palms onto Jooheon’s cheeks, checking whether he’s been hurt or not, as well as Shownu to Kihyun. All of them are closest to you ever since the Tournament started, and after this task, you knew the bond between all of you will get stronger than ever.

The moment the four of you back on the pier, Hyungwon, Wonho, Minhyuk, Changkyun ran towards all of you and crashed into a group hug. Wonho almost in tears after watching the whole section of the tournament, thanking the Gods that the four of you are all safe and sound. You grew a soft spot for all of them, including Shownu. He wrapped his arm around your shoulder as all of you went back to Hogwarts, getting some final rest and preparing yourselves for the last and final task.

You still remember the night before the Third and Final task, Shownu asked you to walk around the school together with him, cold night air brushes onto both of your exposed skin. Walking in a comforting silence, Shownu sighed softly before turning around to face you. Both of you ended up at the Clock Tower Courtyard, somehow, you can feel the air between both of you getting heavy, and there is this— uneasy feeling that caught deep inside your heart, yet you couldn’t pinpoint what it is. His smile warmed your heart and at that point, you knew you’ve fallen for him. Months spent with the Triwizard Tournament, him, the boys, and moments both of you shared to bring glory to Hogwarts, as well as that special bond you both have. 

The hard work both of you gave; the blood, sweat, tears, and pain you both shared; mentally and physically challenged by clearing every single tasks given; risking both of your lives and hoping that everything will end tomorrow without any mishaps or whatnot. The thought of the Final Task burdens both of your shoulders as eyes are now onto both of you as the current lead and runner up in the scoring. But all you can think of is how grateful and blessed you are to have Shownu right by your side throughout this journey, and vice versa. Shownu couldn’t imagine what would it be if your name wasn’t called with his at the beginning of the selection, he couldn’t imagine the loneliness he has to go through even though he got the boys supporting him— yet, he found solace in you. 

The way he opened his arms for you, the way you moulded perfectly onto his figure and wrapped your arms around his waist, you sighed in content before you heard him say,

“I’m proud of you.”

You looked up to him and smiled, heartstrings tugged and there’s this sudden pain that struck in you as you saw his hazel coloured eyes looking straight to yours. He saw through your eyes and he felt that something is bothering you. Shownu didn’t dare to ask you, but he knew exactly what to do to ease your thoughts.

“Let’s give our best for the final task tomorrow, yeah?” 

“After that?”

“We can go to the Three Broomsticks with the boys and have some Butter Beer party.”

“And can we go to Zonko’s?”

“We can go to Zonko’s every time you feel like going.”

You snapped back to reality as soon as Professor Dumbledore gave a final speech for each Champions, and you saw Shownu smiled at you, giving a thumbs up before he took his place on one of the maze paths. You sighed before gripping your wand tightly, taking your place as you wait for the signal. Shownu turned around to see Wonho, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Jooheon, and Changkyun cheering for both you and him, giving them a small wave and smiled at the warm sight. He saw his name painted on a red and yellow paper that Changkyun made the night before with Jooheon, Kihyun waving his hands, Wonho and Minhyuk clutching onto each other as nervous took control of both of them, and there’s Hyungwon smiling warmly. He lastly looked at you, mouthed encouraging words for you before the signal was given by Mr. Filch and that’s when the Third task started. Hogwarts’s school band started to play a marching song, and all of the champions walked into the maze. As soon as all of them entered the dark maze, the sound of the band starts to dissipates, only the sound of gushing air and eerie quietness surrounding the foggy maze.

“Lumos.” Shownu faintly extended his wand as its tip light up into a bright light, clearing the darkness around him as he carefully walk towards the path in front of him. Every single side is covered in tall bushes and dry twigs and branches. As he got deeper inside the maze, he heard rustling noise behind him, and swiftly he turned around to cast a spell when a Blast-Ended Skrewt dashing towards him. “Confringo!” A burst of blue light emitted from Shownu’s wand, creating a loud explosion as it threw the creature a few metres away from him, giving enough time for Shownu to run away quickly. All of the sudden he could feel the maze surroundings are getting shallower and it made Shownu slowed down on his tracks, yet he pushed every inch of his muscles to run as fast as he could, following the clear path. He could feel the maze’s walls are closing around him, with his last spurt of energy, he jumped and rolled on the ground as soon he landed. He saw the maze’s wall closed, shocked and terror painted clearly on his eyes. 

He never thought the Third Task would be this deadly. 

All of the sudden, a flashing red signal blasted through the sky, someone might be eliminated during the task, his thought quickly went to you, he just hoped that you’re still on the maze and nothing harm came to you. He regained his composure as he continued his path. The fog thickens after a few minutes of walk, and he heard your scream from afar and without even waiting any second, he dashes towards your voice. He saw the champion rep from other school chasing you with eyes covered in cloudy white; it seems like he’s been cursed. Shownu did not hesitate to jinx the person, he quickly grabbed your arm and pulled you to go behind him. He extended his wand and stunned the latter, he could feel you tugged his sweater, signalling Shownu to start moving as the maze’s walls are closing in once more. “Shownu— Shownu! Let’s go!” You pulled him and both of you ran against the closing walls behind. Both of you saw the gleaming Goblet, and hands reached for each of the handles. 

All you can think right now is to end the Tournament, to go back to normal times, filled with studies, random hangout times with the boys and Shownu at Three Broomsticks or playing around the halls with prank toys bought from Zonko’s. 

But both of you ended up in another unfamiliar compound, filled with angel statues and gravestones.

Shownu lifted his wand, carefully examine the surrounding. “It was a portkey. The Goblet was a portkey.” He turned around to face you. The Goblet is now right on another corner of the field, “Why would be a portkey?” You questioned the whole situation, slowly reaching for the Goblet but quickly stopped as soon as you saw someone approaching. 

The figure got your goosebumps raised within seconds, fear starting to creep from within, shock, disbelief, and you couldn’t even move from your spot.

Shownu furrowed his brows but then also stopped on his track as soon he saw the figure that approaches you. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or people would call, the Dark Lord himself, Voldemort showed up. The Dark Lord clicked his tongue as his slender fingers grazed onto his white, long wand. 

“What a great opportunity to meet you both.” Voldemort’s voice sends chills down to both of you and Shownu’s spine. You couldn’t even move an inch as Voldemort approaches, lifting your chin to face him with the tip of his wand. “Two young, innocent, pure souls. What a surprise.” He smirked. Shownu took a few steps to approach you but then the Dark Lord pointed his wand at Shownu, stopping him from getting closer to you. “If I were you, I wouldn’t do that, young man.” He hissed, quickly striding towards Shownu to show dominance. The Dark Lord poked his wand onto Shownu’s chest, “So what would you do, if, I gave you a choice.” Suddenly a group of Death Eaters appeared from the dark shadows, cloaked in black robe and face covered in a bronze/brass skull mask. Your throat immediately felt dry and you couldn’t even have any strength to scream. A couple of Death Eaters grabbed your wrist harshly, pulling you towards the Dark Lord himself. “What are you doing?! Let me go!” You tried to yank your wrist off from the tight grip, Shownu still facing Voldemort, taking a second glimpse to look at you and giving a reassurance that everything will be settled, everything will be alright. 

“Her life, or yours.” Voldemort smirked, “Show your loyalty to me, and she’s free.”

“Let her go, and it’ll be settled.” Shownu demanded, looking at you before back to face the Dark Lord, he gripped his wand tightly, calculating every move and choices he made to make sure both of you can go back alive and safely. Shownu saw the Goblet is not too far from where they are standing, he knew what he should do, so he decided to stall some time. 

“Give me your arm first, young man.” 

“Not until your Death Eaters let her go.” 

Shownu looked at you, before looking at the Goblet and back to Voldemort. You knew exactly what’s on Shownu’s mind. It is a crazy idea but perhaps it’ll bring them both back safely. You gulped the nervousness down, gripping your wand tightly to brace yourself. 

Shownu looked at your briefly and smiled warmly to you. How can he still smile at this point of time?

“Everything will be fine, trust me.”

You nodded, Voldemort signalled the Death Eaters to let you go. You walked towards Shownu slowly, and as soon as Shownu’s hand extended to pull you closer to him, you casted a knockback jinx to Voldemort and Shownu quickly hexed the Goblet with Accio spell, flinging towards both of you. 

But, Voldemort was smart enough to realise all your plans. 

A bright green light bursts out from Voldemort’s wand and everything went too fast for you to comprehend. You felt Shownu’s arm holding you close, protecting you, shielding you with his taller build as your hand grabbed the Goblet, teleporting you back to the maze entrance. 

You felt the damp grass beneath you, the sound of marching song still played by the band, the cheer roared loudly when spectators saw you and Shownu appeared nowhere all of the sudden. You could hear Minhyuk and Wonho screamed on top of their lungs at your return. But something felt wrong.

Shownu didn’t show any movement, his arm still wrapped on your waist and hand gripped tightly onto his wand. You threw the Goblet to the side, quickly placed both of your hands on his cheeks; it felt cold. 

“Shownu— No.” Your breath hitched when you saw how pale he is. Lips turned blue, as blood stopped running inside his veins. Your lips quivered as tears escaped from your eyes, “No, no no no. Wake up, Shownu. No. You promised me.” 

Death took someone so precious to you, it took Shownu away from you.

You can feel your heart is breaking into pieces, all you wish is to turn back time, to save him, to keep him alive. 

Your hands clutched tightly onto his red knitted sweater, not wanting to let him go from your grasp as lungs wrenched in agony to see the lifeless body lying next to you. Your tears rolled down onto your cheeks, dropping to the damp grassy field before you cried onto his body. Hoping that he will wake up, hoping that he will regain his consciousness, hoping that you can feel his fingers brushing through the strands of your hair and say, “Hey, look, I’m fine.” for one last time.

Even after the arrival of the two of you from the maze, the school band doesn’t seem to stop playing its anthem, until one person screamed in fear looking at the condition. It was Kihyun who dashed from his spectator seat, running to both of you as soon his foot landed on the field followed by Minhyuk, Hyungwon, Wonho, Jooheon and lastly Changkyun who held close to Jooheon’s sweater. Professor McGonagall runs towards you and pulled you away from the body, but you still held onto him, not wanting to separate even though all the Professors from Hogwarts telling you to step away from him. “No! Please!” You shouted, shrugged off the hands that held onto your shoulders, holding onto his body, Hyunwoo’s lifeless body. “Please, please no.” You feel your body pulled away by Professor McGonagall. Your vision blurred from tears pooling on your eyes, but you can see the other boys are crying their eyes out for the loss of their friend, their brother, their backbone and pillar of strength. 

You can see the Professors took Shownu’s body away from the field, only tears and and silence was heard in the field. You broke down even more when Kihyun held you close, the boys surrounded you and embraced you tightly, as if they’re trying to mend all the broken pieces inside you.

The Tournament doesn’t matter anymore, the Goblet doesn’t matter anymore, the Glory, Pride, everything, it doesn’t matter anymore.

All you want is to turn back time;

All you want is to see him smile, the way his eyes crinkled into a crescent shaped moon when he smiled widely.

All you want is his laughter rang through the halls, earning a glare from Professor McGonagall .

All you want is those small moments when both of you passing small notes in Professor Snape’s class to come back.

All you want is to have Butter Beer pong with him and the boys.

All you want is those pep talks in the library or pranking Kihyun during break time.

All you want is, Shownu. To be alive and well.

A bright sunrise will contradict the heavy fog that weighs you down,

In spite of all the funeral songs,

The birds will make their joyful sounds,

You'll wonder why the earth still moves,

You'll wonder how you'll carry on,

But you'll be okay on that first day when I'm gone.

But life will call with daffodils,

And morning glorious blue skies,

You'll think of me some memory,

And softly smile to your surprise,

And even though you love me stil,l

You will know where you belong,

Just give it time, we'll both be fine,

When I'm gone.

[kpop-sprite]

Your Voice Resonates, Too

Part 1

The music echoed through the building; the sounds from the microphones bouncing off the concrete walls resonating all throughout the stadium. I was used to this sound; the sounds of rumbling echoes and screaming fans. These were the typical things to be heard during every concert performed by the most popular boy band in the world.

I moved the aluminum lids from atop their corresponding metal dishes filled with different foods and placed them to the side. There was a lot of food to choose from on this buffet style table, including many hand-crafted dishes that I made just hours prior before traveling them from the large kitchen at my home to the North-West Stadium where the mid-tour concert was being held. It was then I heard what sounded like a crowd of people shuffling through the small hallway corridor outside the cafeteria door.

They must be done rehearsing.

I bent down to organize the extra utensils, plates, and boxes of trays that rested on the shelves below the buffet tables. I could hear the crowd moving into my area now. Styrofoam trays being lifted and metal spoons scooping up food from the table as well as different voices speaking all at once. “You guys really don’t know how to come into a room quietly, huh?” I stood up from my crouched position startling Hoseok, a spoon of kimchi fried rice falling like confetti onto the floor.

“Ah, we were wondering where our favorite chef was,” Namjoon stated while coming up behind Hoseok, planting his hands on his shoulders.

“I could’ve found out without being frightened, though,” Hoseok retorted.

“Ah,” I smiled brightly at my friend, while grabbing a napkin, “I’m sorry, Hobi, I didn’t intend to startle you.” I moved to the front of the table to scoop up the fallen rice while the boys went to a table to sit and eat.

I stirred some of the items on the buffet and placed more drinks into the ice bucket that sat beside the table before glancing back over to the table where the boys sat enjoying their lunch.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, -- Someone was missing…

“Hey guys, where’s Jungkook?”

Taehyung answered swiftly, “He wanted to finish his set for Euphoria again. He said something didn’t feel right.”

I nodded my head in response to this, not really knowing what to say. Jungkook always pushed himself to be the best he could, incredibly worried about disappointing anyone.

“Why don’t you come sit with us for a bit? You’ve been working hard, too,” Jimin says while dragging out a chair from beneath another table and pushing it towards the one they sat.

I stayed with the boys for a while, enjoying quiet banter as they finished their meals, staying long after they had finished to prepare to clean the area.

 He came into the room and plopped into the crooked chair beside me. His hair disheveled and his frame curving into a shape that was relating to that of a weeping willow, Jungkook hung his head back against the chair. His eyes were shut, sweat glistening from his protruding Adam’s apple, and his mouth slightly opened as he breathed heavily. This is what exhaustion looked like.

“You just don’t know when to stop, do you?” I spoke out quietly, my hand reaching over to brush his hair, that begun to stick to his forehead from the sweat, back to its place. He smiled that cheeky smile of his as I stroked his hair, my fingers feeling the waves of his dark locks entangling between the spaces of my fingers and separating them slowly.

I scooted my chair closer to him, allowing myself to have easier access to his skin, running my fingers along his jawline gently rubbing his skin, feeling the rough patches of hair just starting to poke the surface to create a five o’clock shadow. “I know, I need to shave again, right?” He spoke in a burly tone, his lungs still trying to gain back their energy.

“I don’t think so,” I continued to run circles across his skin, feeling every curve of his face beneath my fingertips as if to remember his every feature; “then again I like facial hair.” I rested my chin on his shoulder to gain a better look at him.

I could see his brain ticking, his eyes opening to look into mine. “I think you just like me,” he spoke in a cocky tone now, he is so full of it.

“Oh, yes. I just got to have all of Jungkook, all of the time!” I exclaimed pressing a teasing kiss against his cheek.

His smirk burned into me as he turned slightly to look into my eyes, his hair fluffed up from my fingers teasing the roots. He perks his lips out towards me, a genuine duck face for the naked eye. I lean forward and press a kiss against his lips, the warmth something I was familiar with as it wasn’t our first lip-lock.

The skin on his hand was a bit rough as it found its way to my face, his hand taking in the entire side of my face. I placed my hand over his and kissed him once more. He dragged my hand down and pulled my body over, me barely being able to stay in my own seat. “Come here.”

“Jungkook I don’t think this is the best place for –“

“No one is even here,” He tugged at me once more.

I got up and sat on his lap as he requested, playing with his right hand, spinning his rings along his pinky and middle fingers. I could feel his eyes on me as I did so, his other hand beginning to explore, fingertips rubbing and tugging on my waistband.

“Jungkook—“

His smile never fades from his face as he cocks his head to the side and looks up at me, those doe eyes burrowing deep into me telling me everything he wants.

“I swear to God if we get caught –“

His hand slid in between my waistband and my skin sliding the fabric down a bit, “we won’t, I promise.”

I stood up enough to slide my pants and panties down to expose myself, Jungkook adjusting his work-out pants to release his throbbing cock. He guides the head of his cock to the entrance to my dripping core with one hand while holding my hip with his other to guide me down. I take a slow deep breath before gently sliding my frame onto his engorged cock, its thickness stretching my walls ungratefully causing a gasp to release from my lips.

“Just go slow,” he was quick to reassure me, guiding my body down until it covered his cock, a wincing whine showing on his face, “how do you keep getting tighter?” He groaned.

“F-fucking kegel exercises,” I panted, just his dick filling my pussy was enough to leave me breathless.

Jungkook begins to rub my hips, his fingers curling and grasping hold of me, “what the fuck is a kegel?”

“It’s –“

His hips thrust up into me, his hands shifting my own hips to move with his causing me to gasp and moan loudly into the empty room.  

Shit.

“Huh, is that a kegel?” He smirked once more before driving his cock into me repeatedly, his rhythm being found quickly with each thrust.

He thrusted his cock into my pussy as if to give it a new name. The tinging sharpness that filled every inch of my body recoiled back into the fire that grew quickly in my gut. I mewled out his name as I panted loudly into the still air, his fingers digging into my skin as he pounded ruthlessly into me, the head of his cock rubbing against my most tender of places, my walls tightening with each thrust.

Jungkook’s fingers loosened on one of my hips, his hand sliding into the front where my pants wear buttoned, before they started sliding to my knees. I draw my head back as his fingers find my clit; he pinches it tightly between two fingers and rolls the nub vigorously causing inhumanly sounds to resonate from my throat.

“I thought you didn’t want to get caught,” his smug remark blurred itself between pants and moans of pleasure he forced from my being, his thrusting never letting up.

I released whimpered whines against his chest, my body slowly turning into jelly as it was reaching its inevitable high. It was then Jungkook wraps his arms around my torso being sure to hold me against his chest in place and stood up, allowing my body to be placed on the table, left over food being smooshed into my shirt and exposed stomach.

“The hell, Jungkook, a warning would be n-ICE,” I wailed as Jungkook grabs hold of my shoulder and pounds into my pussy even harder, stroking against my g-spot releasing a scream of pleasure as I reached my high.

I breathed heavily as my bosom rubbed back and forth across a place of left over kimbap. Jungkook rolled his hips into me, the squelching sounds of my wet, fucked out pussy mixed with the sounds of the food being squished left a distasteful echo in the room.

Jungkook slides out of me, removes my pants and panties the rest of the way and pats my thigh. “Roll to your side.”

“Excuse me?”

“Come on, I’m so close,” he pouts until I undoubtfully give in and roll to my side, Jungkook grabbing onto my leg and pulling me to the edge of the table, he teases my dripping core with his fingertips before sliding his cock back in, one of my legs being held up by his bicep.

I groan and bit down on my lip as Jungkook thrusts deeply into me. The feeling of his cock rubbing the sensitive tissue raising a new fire, one that was burning quickly. His hips clash into mine, the slapping sounds becoming the only sound now. “You take me so well, baby girl.”

Baby Girl.

I close my eyes and wince out tears as his thrusting becomes rapid and slowly erratic. He was reaching his high now, his pre-orgasm causing him to pause and grunt in a husky tone between thrusts until he finally pulled out and expelled his semen across the table and floor.

I sat up from the food/sexed table and bent down to pull my pants back on. My brain trailing into thoughts until I finally decided to ask him, his pants being adjusted and his hands playing with his hair.

“Hey, Kook,” I almost whispered.

“Hm?” He responded, beginning to brush off the food from my tainted shirt.

“Why’d you call me baby girl?”

Jungkook’s hand brushed off a bit a food before dropping it to his side, his hair hanging over his face to hide his expression until he finally cocked his chin up with that smirk on his face.