#even though i was friends with nate first in college she deserves better

[coastercrushed]

so my best friend's nate & haley broke up and haley is getting me in the divorce.

[hstyleshoney]

flawed - h.s

AU she has a new roommate and he’s not the worst 

Wordcount: 13K // slow-burn fluff with a small hint of angst and mutual-ish pining I suppose, strong language, alcohol use, sexual content

AN: This is my little College/Uni AU piece for @stylesharrys fallinharry10k celebration writing fest! And I got carried away. I’ve had the start of this in my drafts for like two years and this challenge kind of just got me motivated to finish it. I’m really happy with some parts of it and some I’m not so sure about...I hate endings... BUT I had really fun writing it and that is all that matters and hopefully someone will enjoy it. I’m just happy I managed to finish it after such a long time. I’d also really really appreciate some feedback on it so please share your thoughts! I don’t have too much experience writing like this so be nice pls haha. ENJOY! <3 

“Harry, you left your dirty dishes by the sink...  AGAIN!  Dunno how many times I have to remind you to clean up after yourself Put it away. Thx. :)”

Y/N took a deep breath to calm herself down and re-read the pink post-it note infront of her. He was going to be the death of her. He really was. Harry was in every other way the perfect roommate, well perfect was perhaps a bit excessive but he wasn’t the worst, except for the fact that he never took care of his stupid dirty dishes. It drove her mad. It took all her willpower to not smash his stupid little kermit the frog teacup into tiny little pieces whenever she saw it.

And yes, maybe it was irrational of her to get so worked up over a few dirty cups when everything else was going so well. But Y/N liked it when things were in order.

In the past two months that she had lived with Harry she had lost count of how many times she had asked him to wash up his used pans, plates and cups. The first time it happened she didn’t really mind. The second time -- also fine. But the third? That was when she started to get a little bit bothered. Because not only was it his dirty dishes from the same day. No. The plate and cup from the day before were still there on the counter as well. That was the first time she asked him to clean up after himself.

It was still fine though.

Y/N just told herself it was because Harry had previously lived in a student accommodation with a bunch of unruly boys and wasn’t used to picking up after himself. It was fine. He’d soon get it.

Only, he didn’t seem to get it.

Because weeks later she still had to remind him to wash up after he was done in the kitchen. It was like what she said to him went in one ear and out the other. It took her another week before she started suspecting he was leaving it out on purpose to irritate her, which well, it worked. It only annoyed her further.

The amount of tea that boy drank was truly worrying. She had been told she drank a lot of tea, but she seemed to have met her match in Harry. At least judging by all the cups he left around the flat. They were everywhere. Literally. She had even found one under the bathroom sink just a couple days ago and she didn’t even bother asking him how it got there. She had simply just left him a post-it note asking him to put it away.

Because she was certainly not going to go around and pick up after him. He was a grown boy and therefore capable of cleaning up after himself. She wasn’t his mother.

It was basic housekeeping.

She ripped the little pink post-it note off the pad and stuck it up on Harry’s bedroom door so he couldn’t possibly miss it. She stared at it for another minute, pleased with herself, before getting her backpack and left to go to her lecture. It was her own way of telling him off; leaving post-it notes for him. A more passive-aggressive approach had always been her preferred strategy, it made her feel slightly less annoying, and anytime she had left him a note in the morning the dirty dishes had magically disappeared when she came home later.

So there was no reason for her to stop leaving them for him.

--

Apart from that Harry really was the best roommate she could’ve asked for. The best one in the short amount of time she had had to find a new one anyways. Lexi, her very good friend from home and roommate before Harry, had decided to drop out of uni a week before courses were due to start again after summer; leaving her alone with a flat she couldn’t afford on her own. Y/N couldn’t be mad at her though because she knew how unhappy Lexi was in Manchester. She wasn’t enjoying her course and she missed her family. Y/N couldn’t force Lexi to stay just because she didn’t want to find a new roommate. She wasn’t that selfish.

It just wasn’t ideal. Everyone she knew already had a place to live and she was feeling pretty defeated about the whole thing. She liked her flat and didn’t want to give it up. Her parents offered to help her pay rent until she could find someone to live with again but she didn’t want to take her parents money. It didn’t feel right. So when her friend Lucy mentioned that her boyfriend Nate had a friend who needed a place to live she offered the mysterious man Lexi’s old room without a second thought.

Then Harry showed up outside her door two days later with a large suitcase and a couple of moving boxes.

They didn’t really talk all that much their first week of living together. He mostly kept to himself, trying to get settled in and get used to being back at uni after a long summer. All she knew about him at that point was that he was the same age as her and that he was studying music. Something she probably would’ve figured out sooner or later on her own, because every evening she could hear him play his guitar from inside his bedroom. She couldn’t complain though. It was quite soothing actually, and she wanted to tell him that.

But she also didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable knowing she laid awake listening to him play and then stop because he didn’t want her to eavesdrop.

So Y/N never said anything.

Their second week of living together was when she picked up on his annoying habit of leaving the kitchen a mess. It was also that week he offered to make her a cup of tea for the first time and she would never admit it outloud but it was probably the best cup of tea she had ever had.

But since he left his own cups all around the flat she also refused to tell him that.

By the third week they started having dinner together and asked each other about their days. They were slowly getting to know one another and Y/N realised for the first time that she did in fact enjoy Harry’s company. That Sunday they spent the entire evening binge watching the first season of a scandinavian crime drama on netflix and shared a tub of ice cream.  

Then they were suddenly in the same group of friends.

Because with Lexi gone Y/N started hanging out with Lucy more and Lucy was dating Nate and Harry was always hanging out with Nate. Which all just led to Tara, Declan and Connor always being around as well. Their flat had, since Harry moved in, turned into the hotspot for the gang to hang out at. She didn’t mind much, because she liked them and she had never really been a part of a group like them before. It was nice. Lexi moving had in a weird way been a blessing in disguise.

So there really wasn’t anything else to complain about when it came to Harry as a roommate.

Well, maybe one more thing.

And she usually met that reason every Sunday morning in their kitchen after a night out.

That Sunday however took a different turn than what she had gotten used to.

��You told me you didn’t have a girlfriend!”

“Harry,“ Y/N said slowly and narrowed her eyes at him. The girl next to them, whose hair was dyed a rich red color, was only clad in one of Harry’s old band t-shirts and stared at the two of them with frantic eyes.

“Y/N, babe, I’m so sorry,” Harry said and stared at Y/N pleadingly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on!?” The red-haired girl demanded and crossed her arms over her chest and Y/N could’ve sworn she did a little stomp. “You told me last night that you were single!”

“Yes Harry, I’d love an explanation,” Y/N said and mimicked the redhead by crossing  her arms over her chest. She probably would’ve laughed if the situation had been any different because the stranger in the kitchen was glaring at Harry with such a hatred in her eyes and Y/N had never seen a girl look at him that way before. 

And it was still funny, but it would’ve been funnier if she wasn’t a part of it. Harry on the other hand only ignored the angry girl and kept the lie going, focusing on his roommate.

“Love, I’m so fucking sorry. It didn’t mean anything! I swear, I was drunk and-”

“Ugh, oh my god,” the redhead cried out, interrupting him. She was fuming and her face was as red as her hair. Before Y/N had the chance to say anything else, to resolve the situation, the redhead stepped forward and slapped Harry across the face. “You’re such a fucking asshole!”

Then she turned around and Y/N’s first instinct was to take a step back because that was how intimidating she looked with her red wild hair and red cheeks. But Y/N, very unexpectedly, found herself being embraced in a bone-crushing hug. “I’m so sorry! I swear I had no idea. He told me he didn’t have a girlfriend. You deserve so much better! Leave him.”

And just like that the girl was gone, marching back to Harry’s room to get changed into her own clothes again, and left the two of them alone in the kitchen. Y/N at loss for words and Harry rubbing the side of his face.

It didn’t take very long before the sound of the front door being slammed shut echoed through the flat and made the walls around them shake.

“You’re disgusting,” Y/N muttered then and walked past him to put the kettle on. She had a headache from all the wine she had consumed the previous night and whatever it was that had just happened hadn’t exactly helped her feel any better. She had only wanted a nice cup of tea, and maybe some toast. She had definitely not been prepared, nor expected, to be part of a terrible made-up triangle drama. Not this early.

“Aw, c’mon,” Harry laughed and finally let his face break out into a grin. “I’ve tried to get her to go home all morning but she wouldn’t take any hints. I had no choice.”

Y/N turned her head to glare at him and pointed a warning finger in his direction

“If you bring a girl back you get rid of her yourself. I want no part in your disgusting shenanigans,” she told him. “You deserved that slap.”

“I didn’t even say anything to her,” Harry said and hopped up to take a seat on the counter. “She just assumed.”

“Why would she even assume that?” Y/N asked and eyed him suspiciously “If I was your girlfriend I wouldn’t randomly appear in the kitchen the next morning in my pyjamas. You must’ve told her something.”

“I didn’t,” Harry denied and put his hands up, still grinning. She rolled her eyes. “I swear! She just assumed.”

“Yeah well, you shouldn’t have let her,” she told him and took out two slices of bread to put in the toaster. “Besides, do you have to bring a girl back every weekend?”

“Do you have to go on like five dates a week?”

“I don’t,” she glared at him again. Harry raised his eyebrows at her knowingly and she looked away from him as the next few words left her lips. “It was only three this week.”

“Oh right,” Harry laughed. “Excuse me.”

“Shut up.”

“At least I’m getting something good out of it,” he continued to laugh. “I still don’t understand why you have to go on so many dates all the time. What do you get out of it?”

“I wanna find love,” she shrugged. “Is that so bad?”

“No, not at all,” Harry told her. “But dating douchebags ain’t gonna bring you love.”

“Yeah because sleeping with someone new every weekend is so much better,” she replied sarcastically and watched as Harry slid down from the counter when the kettle made a small noise to let them know it was ready.

“Like I said,” he started with a smirk and took down two tea cups from the cupboard. “At least I get something good out of it. You should try.”

She rolled her eyes again but didn’t say anything else as her toast popped up from the toaster. Her dating life was a running joke among her friends and she had learned to ignore the comments they made. She wanted to find love, so she wasn’t going to sit around and wait for it. Some may say she was a bit desperate, and maybe she was, but it wasn’t her fault every guy she met was wrong for her. They were all either too clingy or too uncommitted.

Or maybe she was just a bit too picky.

Either way, she did go on a lot of dates when her schedule allowed her to. She wanted what everyone else around her seemed to have. Her parents acted more in love with each other every time she saw them, even after 30 years of marriage. One of her sisters had just gotten engaged to her long-term boyfriend and her oldest sister had been married for three years already and was expecting her second child. Her younger cousin got married that summer. Any time Y/N traveled back home all her relatives asked her when she was going to find herself a nice young man. It was exhausting. Y/N was stressed. Pressured. So she dated a lot. There was nothing wrong with that, yet people liked to mock her for it, especially Harry since he was the one who she came back home to after a bad date.

He’d usually burst into her room after a date, wanting all the details only so he could laugh about everything that had gone wrong. But then he also always made her a cup of tea and got her some biscuits.

He wasn’t the worst.

“Hey,” Harry said and held out the tea he had made for her. “You wanna watch an episode of The Bridge?”

Y/N stared at him for a second and for the first time ever her heart skipped a beat. It was no secret that Harry was unbelievably attractive, the kind of attractiveness that terrified you before you got to know him. If he hadn’t showed up outside her door she never would’ve had the guts to talk to him. After getting to know him though he was just Harry; her roommate.

But there was something about him right there and then, dressed casually in sweats and a plain t-shirt as he handed her a cup of tea in their kitchen, that just got to her. She quickly snapped herself out of her thoughts to stop her mind from wandering too far and took the tea from him. Must be the hangover.

“Sure, but only one episode,” she replied and picked up her plate of toast as well. “I have to read some shit for my seminar tomorrow and I can’t keep procrastinating.”

--

They ended up watching more than just one episode.

And Y/N never got around to reading the chapter she needed to read. She only skimmed through it on her way to her seminar, which is why she made a fool out of herself when the lecturer pointed straight at her and asked her to share her thoughts. She wanted to disappear.

And her day didn’t get any better when she stepped in dog shit on her way home.

And it certainly didn’t get any better when she accidentally knocked over her cup of tea and spilled it all over the rug. So instead of getting to lie on the couch and feel sorry for herself, like she had planned, she had to try and save the white rug from getting a stain. It wasn’t a great day.

It was also at that moment Harry came back home; when she was sitting on the floor, scrubbing the rug furiously and muttering profanities under her breath.

“You know,” Harry began to make his presence known. “There’s something about what you're doing right now that’s really turning me on.”  

Y/N stopped her scrubbing and looked up at him, not impressed by his joke or by the stupid smirk on his face.

“Oh fuck off,” she swore and simply raised her hand and her middle finger at him. “Or make yourself useful and get some baking soda or something.”

“Bad day?” he asked while putting his guitar case down. She only glared at him.

“What do you think?”

“I’ll just get the baking soda.”

“Good choice.”

They cleaned the rug together and after a good half an hour of scrubbing and googling the best tricks to remove tea stains they managed to save it from getting ruined. Y/N slumped down on the couch again, exhausted and defeated, and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down.

What a shit day.

Harry made her a new cup and put away everything they had used to get rid of the spilled one before joining her on the small couch.

“You wanna talk about it?” he asked and squeezed his brows together, uncertain how to approach her.  

“I just had a shit day,” she sighed deeply. “Completely fucked up my seminar.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.”

“Ha!” Y/N scoffed. “No, I did. But it was my own fault though, so I can't really cry about it.”

“Well,” Harry scratched the back of his head. “Can I do anything to make you feel better? We could get some pizza and watch a movie or something?”

“I can’t,” she grumbled. “I have an assignment I have to finish by Wednesday and considering how shit I did today I have to focus. I can’t fuck this up too.”

“You have to eat something though.”

“Yeah, I will. I’ll just heat up some of that leftover pasta later or something,” she assured him and maybe if she hadn’t been so frustrated with herself she wouldn’t have confused the way her heart was racing inside her chest with stress; when in reality it was beating extra for the green eyed boy next to her.

Y/N stayed in her room for the rest of the afternoon into the evening, reading and typing away. She wouldn’t say it was going well, but she didn't want to throw her computer out the window and she always appreciated those rare moments.

She could also hear Harry roaming around in the rest of the flat and later on the low strum of his guitar. She smiled to herself when she heard it and didn’t even realise she was humming along to the melody he was playing until he stopped.

And it wasn’t until her stomach growled loudly that she remembered she hadn’t actually had any dinner yet. She made sure to save her work, hitting ‘save’ an extra time because you could never save a document too many times, before closing her laptop and standing up. Her muscles ached from how long she had been in the same position and she winced a little as she stretched them out.

Then her stomach rumbled and she was once again reminded of how hungry she was. It was nearing 11 pm and she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, which was not good, and she kind of regretted not accepting Harry’s offer about getting pizza before.

But when she made it into the kitchen there was a pink post-it note on the fridge, only this time she wasn’t the one who put it there.

I got some pizza earlier, saved you a few slices in case you want some instead of that old pasta xx H :)

A warm feeling spread through her body as she read his little note, and she couldn’t help but notice that Harry had a surprisingly neat handwriting. It was cute. Both the handwriting and the message. It put a smile on her face.

While the pizza was being reheated she decided to go find Harry and thank him for the nice gesture. She was just about to knock on his door when she noticed that the TV was still on and she spotted him on the couch.

Asleep.

And it was probably cuter than both his handwriting and the message combined.

His whole body took up the small couch; his legs dangled over the armrest and he had his arms crossed over his chest to make himself smaller. There was a slight frown on his face, presumably from the dream he was having, but it was endearing in a way to still see him so relaxed. He had changed out of the blue jeans he had worn last time she saw him and had on his black shorts and the knitted jumper he always just wore around the flat. He looked comfortable. Homely.

A part of her wanted to run back to her room and get her phone so she could snap a picture of him before he woke up.

But an even bigger part of her stopped her from doing so because it felt inappropriate to take a picture of him sleeping. She wasn’t so sure Harry would appreciate her taking pictures of him without him knowing either. So she refrained.

Then, almost like he could feel her watching him sleep like a total creep, he slowly blinked his eyes open, and honestly... it was probably the cutest thing yet. She blushed as he caught her staring.

“Oh, hey,” he said, his voice low and rough, and rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them. “What time is it?”

“Mm it’s about 11.”

“Shit, didn’t realise I fell asleep,” he grumbled and sat up, running a hand through his hair. “Did you finish your assignment?”

“Almost,” she told him and smiled softly. “Thanks for the pizza.”

“No worries,” he said and matched her smile.

“Also, I’m sorry for being so cranky before. I was just a bit stressed.”

Harry shook his head.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “We’ve all been there.”

Y/N ended up joining him on the couch for a bit after the pizza was done. They didn’t talk much while she ate and Harry flicked through the channels on the TV, before he eventually decided on an old romcom. 

When Harry had first shown up outside the flat she had been nervous about living with him. She had only ever lived with girls before, but it had been easier to get along with him than she had first expected. Not that she had heard anything bad about him; Lucy had nothing but nice things to say when she first told her about Nate’s friend who needed a place to live.

She had just assumed it was going to be harder to live with a boy compared to a girl. But Harry made it easy, aside from the dirty dishes and the unknown women in her kitchen Sunday mornings of course, and he was slowly becoming one of her closest friends. While it was terrifying it also felt like the most natural thing. Like he was meant to be in her life.

Which is why she felt so stupid for what happened next.

“They make love seem so easy in these romcoms,” Y/N complained with a huff. “Why don’t I have a gorgeous guy pining after me? I just want someone to have a secret crush on me and then make a big grand gesture. Is that too much to ask?”

“How do you know you don’t?” Harry questioned and she snorted.

“I highly doubt it. Who would that be?”

Harry shrugged.

“Who knows,” he said. “It’s kinda the point of having someone secretly crushing on you, innit?”

“Oh whatever,” she grumbled and Harry laughed. “You have no say in this. I see the way girls stare at you whenever we go out. You probably have a handful of secret admirers. ”

“Are you forgetting the fact that you go on more dates than the rest of us combined?” Harry pointed out and raised his brows at her. “You probably have more admirers than anyone else I know.”

“Not true.”

“So true,” Harry insisted. “You need to stop trying so hard and maybe just let love find you instead.”

“That’s probably the most cliche thing someone has ever told me,” she said and rolled her eyes. “What am I supposed to do then? Sit around and twiddle my thumbs and wait for someone to come knocking on our door and say they love me?”

“No, not at all,” Harry frowned. “I just think that maybe you need to open your eyes and take a step back. Lower your expectations and don’t be so picky. You’re not going to find Prince charming. No one is flawless.”

“You know what? It’s too late to be having this conversation,” she told him and stood up. There was something about what he just said that made her heart sink a little inside her chest. “I’m going to bed.”

“Hey, you okay?” Harry said and caught her wrist to stop her from leaving. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“It’s okay,” she said and swallowed thickly. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.” His hand was hot on her skin and she couldn’t take her eyes away from his long fingers and how he traced his thumb across her wrist in small circles. 

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologise.”

He really didn’t. Y/N wasn’t sure why she had suddenly gotten so upset; why she took what he said to heart. It made her feel like a brat almost. She was used to people making fun of her dating life but she didn’t like this. 

She didn’t want people to think she was shallow or impossible to please. Especially not Harry.  

Because that wasn’t the case. There were plenty of good guys out there and she was far from perfect herself. She had a lot of flaws. Y/N had just never clicked with anyone in the way she wanted to and she wasn’t going to get into a relationship with someone she didn’t feel she connected with one hundred percent.

“Okay,” Harry said with a heavy sigh and let go of her wrist. “Goodnight then.”

“Night.”

Harry still had a frown on his face as he watched her take her plate back into the kitchen and Y/N could feel her pulse racing as she felt his eyes on her. It was awkward and she was embarrassed for how she had just handled everything. It wasn’t even a big deal. He hadn’t said anything she hadn’t thought of herself before. Harry was just giving her advice. 

So why did she feel so upset? 

It was the first time she had ever gotten even the tiniest bit self-conscious about the amount of dates she went on, and as she crawled into bed she couldn’t help but wonder if she felt like this because it was Harry.

It was also the first time she realised she cared a lot about what he thought of her.

She wanted Harry to like her.

--

Y/N got her period a day later and just like that everything she had felt on Monday made so much sense. Of course. Luckily everything was completely fine between her and Harry the morning after she left him on the couch and they even baked some brownies Tuesday evening because Y/N was craving chocolate, which also made sense when she woke up with stains in her underwear and cramps in her lower region on Wednesday.

Despite that though she had quite a good day. She managed to finish her assignment in time and she didn’t hate it; she was maybe even a little bit pleased with it. She bought herself a new pair of sneakers that were on sale and an eyeshadow palette she had been wanting for a while. Her and Harry got chinese food for dinner before meeting the rest of the gang down at the pub.

Wednesdays meant quiz night and Y/N teamed up with Tara and together they managed to win first prize which gave them £50 to spend at the bar.

Y/N blamed the alcohol for everything that happened after that.  

She tripped on her way over to the toilets. She accidentally managed to somehow elbow Connor in the face. She also spilled half a pint of beer all over herself, leaving a huge wet stain on her trousers so it looked like she pissed herself.

But she was still in good spirits.

Until she spotted Harry at the bar with a tall gorgeous girl. Their faces were close and even from the booth she was sitting in she could see his dimples. It left a sour taste in her mouth watching the pair talk and it annoyed her how easily Harry once again had a girl swooning over him. Why was he even off flirting with some random girl when they were all supposed to be there together? And why was he so good at it? And why did he look so good doing it?

Y/N rolled her eyes when the girl giggled and reached out to touch his bicep. Disgusting.

“Hello?” Lucy snapped her fingers in front of Y/N’s face. “You still with us?”

“What?” She tore her eyes away from the scene that was taking place at the bar and turned her attention back to her two friends. “Yeah, of course.” She faked a laugh and took a long sip from her beer. Lucy and Tara shared a look, but they didn’t say anything else about it which she was thankful for.

Mostly because she had no idea how to explain any of it. She glanced over at Harry and the girl again and tried to understand why her chest suddenly felt so tight. It must be the alcohol.

And oh, right, of course, she had her period.

It was her hormones; the only logical explanation.

Satisfied with the answer to her own confusion she threw herself back into the conversation around the table, ignoring the fact that she could still see Harry and the girl in the corner of her eye.  

Then Declan showed up at their table with a round of vodka shots for everyone because he knew the bartender and got them for free.

Who was she to say no to free shots?

But she really should’ve.

The strong liquid didn’t sit right with her and instead of giving her a bigger buzz her head felt heavy and her ears were ringing. She also felt a little bit sick; the chinese food she had had with Harry slowly rising in the back of her throat. Taking shots had never really ended well for her but drunk Y/N still always seemed to think it was a fantastic idea.

It was a good thing she didn’t have a lecture or anything the next day, because her hangover was not going to be pretty.

And Y/N didn’t bother saying goodbye to anyone before she unexpectedly jumped out of her seat, got her coat and stumbled outside. She needed fresh air and she couldn’t wait.

The second she stepped outside into the cold autumn night she instantly felt better. The nausea from the stuffy pub atmosphere disappeared and she sat down on the curb next to the road and took a few deep breaths. 

“Hey there Quiz-Queen, you alright?”

Harry.

She glanced up at him and even though he had called her by the nickname she had jokingly given herself after winning first-prize he was looking down at her with concerned eyes. Her purse hung from his shoulder, she hadn’t even realised she had left it behind, and he had his own long and vibrant plaid coat wrapped around himself; protecting him from the cold.

“Yeah,” she said and took another deep breath. “I just needed some air.”

“Hm,” Harry hummed, relieved she was okay. “Maybe next time let the rest of us know where you’re going and don’t just get up and leave.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“Not at all,” Harry assured and shook his head. “Just want to make sure you’re safe. I don’t think that £50 bar tab was the best thing for a lightweight like you.”

“Oiii,” she pouted. “That’s mean. You’re just jealous you didn’t win. How many right answers did you guys get again? 6 out of 20?”

“It’s not about winning, it’s about having fun,” Harry said with a smug smile and a twinkle in his eyes that he only ever got when he thought he was being clever. “And I had fun.”  

“Oh give it a rest,” she scoffed but there was still a smile on her face. “You love to win, don’t stand there and pretend to be a good loser when I know how competitive you can get.”  

Harry laughed and she felt butterflies come alive inside her stomach as she watched his dimples appear. This time for her and not for some stupid girl at the bar.  

“C’mon Silly-girl, let’s get you home,” he said, ignoring her comment about him being a sore loser, and offered his hand to help her up. His fingers were strong around hers and her skin was tingling as she watched her own hand disappear in his.

Once back up on her feet she had to hold onto Harry for a second to stop her head from spinning so much. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol anymore or her hormones... or if it was merely just because of Harry.

It was just easier to blame the alcohol or her period, so that’s what she did.

Harry had an arm around her to support her swaying body as they made their way over to the bus stop, holding her close to him. He smelled like beer and the shampoo she always secretly sniffed when she took a shower. It was something she would never admit out loud, or sober, but she loved the smell of it.

Sometimes she had considered using it on her own hair, it was just so fresh and relaxing, so Harry, but it was also one of those things she wasn’t so sure he would appreciate her doing. 

“We should’ve stopped to get some food,” she muttered and slumped back against her seat on the bus. “I’m starving and I’m craving something salty.”

“I can make us something when we get home,” Harry offered.

“Really?” Y/N perked up. ”Could you?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit hungry as well.”

“Oh my gosh, have I ever told you you’re the best roommate?”

“Pretty sure you haven’t,” Harry laughed. "I do, however, have a lot of post-it notes that one could argue suggest the opposite."

“I saw you talking to a girl earlier. She was very pretty.” It slipped out before Y/N had the chance to think twice about it. “I’m sorry you���re stuck with me now and didn’t get to go home with her.”

Harry didn’t laugh at that but he still had the same twinkle in his eyes as before and a fond smile on his lips.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said and suddenly his hand was on her knee and he gave it a gentle squeeze; causing her hormones to act up again so her heart skipped a beat. “You’re not the worst person to be stuck with.”

--

As expected her hangover wasn’t pretty the next day.

She woke up with a raging headache and an upset stomach. After Harry had made them both some food she had been too tired to go wash her make-up off so the girl staring back at her in the bathroom mirror had black mascara smudges all around her eyes and golden glitter eyeshadow smeared across her bloated face. It was a tragedy. She was a tragedy.

However, the thing that made her hangover feel even worse was when she walked into the kitchen and saw the all dirty pans and plates from her and Harry’s late night meal. Pangs of guilt instantly swept through her. Harry was already gone by the time she woke up. He had an early seminar, which she knew he did because he had told her before they met up with the others at the pub, and she felt terrible that she had kept him up half the night only to make her food. He couldn’t have gotten more than two hours of sleep and it filled her up with guilt.

So much guilt she didn’t leave him a post-it note telling him the kitchen was a mess, because that would’ve just been super fucking rude since it was her fault he was even in the kitchen cocking at 3 am in the first place. Instead she washed up and decided to go out and get his favorite snacks as a thank you, and also because she was craving more chocolate and a fizzy drink.

Being hungover while having your period was really not the best combination.

Y/N hid her tousled hair under a beanie and put on a quick layer of foundation in an attempt to cover up her blotchy skin. It didn’t really help her feel much better about her appearance so she decided to put on a scarf as well to disguise herself as much as possible, just in case she’d run into someone she knew on her way to the store. She didn’t want to be recognised. Not today.

But of course Y/N wasn’t that lucky.

She ran into three people from her course, who all stopped her and chit-chatted to her about their seminars and latest assignment, all while she stood there with a basket full of various brands of crisps, drinks and candy feeling and looking like an absolute troll.

And that wasn’t even the worst.

No.

Because naturally it was also the day she bumped into someone, quite literally, in the stairs on her way back up to the flat.

Y/N yelped and accidentally dropped her bag of snacks as she tried to find her balance. A pair of hands caught her by the shoulders before she fell backwards and when she looked up to see who she had crashed into her whole face turned red.

“Shit, I’m so sorry!” she apologized with wide eyes, her heart beating fast inside her chest.

“No worries,” the man in front of her said and removed his hands from her shoulders, but she kind of wished he hadn’t because his voice was so deep and smoky her knees weakened as he spoke.

Not to mention he had the most stunning pair of eyes she had ever seen. They were a deep, earthy brown color with perfectly long eyelashes she could only ever dream of. He was utterly breathtaking with his long dark hair, scruffy stubble and nose piercing, that she usually didn’t really like on boys but the stranger in front of her made it work. Oh how he made it work.

And as he leaned down to pick up her bag for her she caught a whiff of his fragrance and her knees were seconds away from giving up all together.

“Thank you,” she managed to croak out as he handed her the bag full of snacks and prayed he hadn’t seen what was in it. She looked pathetic enough as it was and she racked her brain for something else to say but there was nothing. Y/N was left completely gobsmacked by the breathtaking man she had just crashed into. Her cheeks only getting hotter and hotter for every second she stood there like a total idiot just staring at him in awe. “I’m Y/N.”

Y/N wanted nothing more than to just sink through the floor in embarrassment. The stranger, thankfully, reached out and shook her extended hand with an amused smile on his lips.

“Luke.”

Luke let his eyes wander up and down her body, taking in her attire, and she had never felt so unattractive as she did in that moment. Why didn’t she at least take a shower before going out? Fuck.

“Right,” she nodded and reached up to adjust her beanie a little, as if it was going to make her look any better. “So eh... do you live here? I haven’t seen you around before.”

What was she doing?

“I do,” Luke confirmed. “I moved in a couple days ago.”

“Awesome.”

Awesome? Fucking idiot. 

She was definitely losing her mind. While she did go on a lot of dates she had not been blessed with the ability to make small talk. 

“I’m guessing you live here as well?” Luke asked and ran a hand through his hair to push back a couple of strands from his face. It was the hottest thing she had ever seen.

“Yeah,” Y/N confirmed, her mouth dry, and she licked her lips nervously. “I’m on the top floor... aaand I should really get going. My roommate is waiting for me.”

“Of course.”

“It was nice to meet you though. Welcome to the building.” Her heart was still racing. “Again, I’m sorry for crashing into you.”

“Like I said, don’t worry about it. It was good to meet you too,” Luke told her and gave her a small wink. “See you around.”

And Y/N didn’t know how it happened but a strange cackle escaped her lips as he winked at her and she ran off before she could witness his reaction to it.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she muttered to herself all the way up to her and Harry’s flat.

Once she got inside she fell back against the door and tried to catch her breath, from both practically running up five flights of stairs and the encounter she had just had with probably the hottest man alive.

She really was pathetic.

After she got herself together she shrugged off her coat and pulled off her stupid beanie, cursing herself yet again for not taking a shower before going to the store. She could at least have put on a cute outfit. But no. She went out looking like a slob.  

And as she sauntered into the flat she realised that Harry was home again, and with him were Nate, Lucy and Connor as well. 

“Well if it isn’t the Quiz-Queen herself,” Nate teased when he saw her and bowed his head mockingly from where he was sitting on the couch. “Glad to see that you’re still alive after last night.”

“We have a new neighbour,” Y/N informed them, ignoring Nate and his teasing comments, because the new neighbour was the only thing on her mind. “I crashed into him on my way up. Literally. I made a complete fool out of myself.”

“Nothing new then,” Connor joked.

“Ha-ha,” Y/N said dryly. “For real though, he was the hottest man I’ve ever seen. He was unreal.”

“Really?” It got Lucy’s attention and she perked up from where she was sitting on the couch with Nate. “What did he look like?”

“Like a damn model right off the runway,” Y/N groaned and collapsed in one of the armchairs. “I’m telling you, he was unreal. Eyelashes that went on forever. Tall. Cheekbones that could cut glass and his hair was soooooo shiny. He didn’t have a single flaw. He even made a nose piercing look good and you know how I feel about those.”

“Aw, I wanna see him too,” Lucy pouted. “Did you get his name?”

“Luke.”

“So our serial dater has another date then I’m assuming,” Connor sniggered.

“I wish,” Y/N replied with a sigh. “I could hardly get a word out. I just stood there and stared at him like a creep.”

“You could always go over and ask to borrow a cup of sugar,” Nate suggested and wiggled his eyebrows. “And then just suck him off to return the favor.”

“You’re an idiot,” Y/N said and raised her middle finger towards him. It also earned him a slap on the arm from Lucy as she scolded her boyfriend. Connor laughed and made a comment about how it would be the perfect porn scene.

And it was also in that moment Y/N realised Harry hadn’t said anything since she had joined them. She glanced over at him where he sat in the armchair across from her and frowned. He looked tired and it caused the guilt in her to rise up again. In addition to that it troubled her that he wasn’t saying anything about the new neighbour or joining in on the jokes. He just sat in his seat and kept his eyes glued to the TV and the random show that was airing. “Harry?”

“What?”

There was something about how he spoke and how he turned to look at her that made her feel even worse. His voice was taut and low. His eyes burned right through her. It was far from the Harry she was used to. She wanted to ask him what was wrong but she also didn’t want to do so in front of the others if they hadn’t noticed it themselves.

“Um, I got some snacks if you want some,” Y/N said instead. She wasn’t sure if the others had noticed at all but she didn’t like it. Maybe he was angry with her for making him stay up so late? What if it had made him late for his seminar?

“Thank you,” he replied half-heartedly and turned his attention back to the TV without another word. Confusion filled the room and she met Lucy’s baffled expression for a split second. Okay they had noticed. Fuck. Y/N looked at Harry again and there was so much she wanted to ask him but at the same time she was at a loss for words. It wasn’t like him to be so tense. Not one bit.

She didn’t like it.

--

On Saturday they were all, once again, out getting drunk. After her hangover on Thursday Y/N had told herself she wasn’t going to drink again that week, but Harry was still being acting weird around her so she was easily persuaded.

Because she needed a drink.

Harry hadn’t really done anything, which was also part of the problem. She hadn’t seen him all Friday or Saturday, not until he turned up for pre-drinks at Connor’s flat. And once he was there he didn’t even look at her or talk to her. It bothered her. A lot. She hadn’t had the chance to ask him what was wrong and nothing was making sense. She tried to remember if she had said something inappropriate to him on Wednesday, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t figure out why he was being off with her.

Which is why, after a couple of drinks, she took the first chance she got to confront him about it.

She spotted him alone at one of the tables inside the club they were at and marched right up, ignoring the people she accidentally bumped into on her way, and plopped herself down on the leather sofa next to him. The beer she was carrying spilled over in her hand as she did but she paid no attention to it and Harry looked at her with questioning eyes.

“What’s going on with you?” Y/N wasted no time. The music was loud around them and she had to lean into him to make sure he heard her, his curls tickled her upper lip from how close she was. Harry only shrugged.

“Nothing is going on.”

“Oh really? Could’ve fooled me,” she said, almost shouting because of the music, and rolled her eyes. “You’re acting strange.”

“Nothing is going on,” Harry repeated and pursed his lips, looking away from her. Y/N tilted her head forward, to force him to look at her again, and waved her hand in front of his face.

“Look at me then,” she cried out in frustration. “Stop ignoring me and tell me what’s going on!”

It wasn’t the best spot for them to be having a conversation. A couple of people from the tables around them looked over curiously and the dim lights and loud music of club made it harder than what she would’ve liked. She had originally planned to talk to him that morning but he had gone out before she even woke up and it was the last sign she needed to know that he was avoiding her. So talking to him at a busy club felt like the only option. 

She flinched back as Harry unexpectedly turned to face her, almost knocking his head into hers.

”You know for wanting to find love so badly you’re really fucking blind.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Y/N frowned. Harry scoffed.

“You’re so oblivious,” he began. “If you just stopped being so desperate and so obsessed with finding the perfect guy for one damn second then maybe you’d-” Harry stopped himself and pressed his lips together in a thin line as he looked down at the beer in his hands. 

“Then what Harry?” she demanded, and didn’t even bother to try calm the anger that was stirring inside her. Harry ignoring her made her feel worse than she ever could’ve imagined. Nothing could’ve prepared her for it. She hated it. “I wouldn’t be so unlovable?”

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Don’t,” Harry warned. “You know I would never say that. Don’t be daft.”  

“Do I?” she kept challenging him. The alcohol in her bloodstream gave her enough courage to not back down. Even if the loud music made it harder to hear what the other one was saying there was no way she was going to drop it. She needed to know what was going on. She couldn’t go another day with Harry ignoring her; she was too used to having him around for him to just cut her off.

“Yes, you do,” he spat.

“But you think I’m desperate?” she spat back and Y/N wasn’t sure why she was picking a fight with him in the middle of a full packed club, but she was.

Because at least he was talking to her.

“Yeah I do,” Harry admitted and licked his lips. She struggled to breathe a little after that. Her chest felt too tight. “Why are you so set on having the perfect relationship? No couple is perfect.”

“Lucy and Nate are,” she stated, not wanting her facade to falter in front of him. Her throat was dry but her eyes were burning with wet tears because she hated this. She hated it so much.

“No, they’re not,” Harry sneered loudly. “Both of them are far from fucking perfect. Nate is a menace and Lucy is a nutter.”

“Harry, don’t be a dick.”

“What? So just because they’re my friends I’m only allowed see the good in them? I still love both of them and they still love each other even if they’re not perfect,” he insisted. “You know they end up arguing like every night we go out, right? Over something stupid Nate said or some insane shit Lucy did. Do you know how many times Lucy has asked me for advice when it comes to Nate? They’re not perfect.”

“So I’m desperate because I want to find someone who is perfect for me?”

“What if you already have?”

“What?”

The music was still loud around them but suddenly the only thing she could hear was her own beating heart.

And suddenly she became aware of just how close the two of them actually were. Harry’s nose brushed against hers as his mouth carefully, barely, grazed her lips. His breath was hot on her face and oh wow, had his eyelashes always been that long?

Y/N wanted to reach out and touch him, but the way he was looking at her made her unable to move any part of her body. She was frozen; waiting for him to make the next move because she was far too overwhelmed by his presence to do anything herself. He was so close. Too close -- but at the same time not close enough. She wondered if he could hear her heart as well. 

“Oi, oi!”

Out of the blue Declan flopped down next to her on the sofa and just like that she was brought back into reality and away from Harry’s green eyes. Declan had two pints of beer with him and grinned at the two of them; clueless to what he had just interrupted. He didn’t come alone though, soon the rest of the gang had gathered around the small table. All so clueless.

Y/N watched as Harry drank what was left of his beer and glared at Declan and the rest while she tried to stop her head from spinning so much. What had just happened?

They were all talking around her but their voices got lost in the loud music and her own thoughts.

‘What if you already have?’ what was that even supposed to mean?

She wanted to turn and look at Harry again but she was too scared of what he might do or say and too scared that everyone else was going to notice something was wrong and ask them about it. Instead she just kept her eyes down to where her thigh was pressing into Harry’s after Declan had squeezed himself down beside them.

Thankfully no one else seemed to pick up on tension between the two of them but Y/N still regretted absolutely everything about her decision to talk to Harry. It hadn’t helped make anything clearer and she was now stuck next to him in a busy club with their drunk friends. Great.

To make things worse she then, out of nowhere, heard someone call her name and she nearly dropped her drink as she noticed who it belonged to. Well fuck.

“Luke.” 

His name fell from her lips as soon as she spotted him waving at her. He came up and stood behind Nate and Lucy, with his hands in his pockets and his hair slicked back perfectly. Lucy was quick to turn around to get a look at the guy Y/N had been raving about just a couple days ago. Then she looked at Y/N again with her jaw hanging open and gave her a look that confirmed Luke was indeed as flawless as he had been described. 

The tension was thick and awkward as Luke stood before her and her friends, more specifically Harry, and Y/N could feel him tense up beside her as he stared Luke down. She had no idea what to say or do. “This is our new neighbour I was telling you about,” was the only thing she could think of. The smirk on Luke’s face as he heard that she had been talking about him didn’t go unnoticed.

“Y’alright then?” Luke asked and nodded towards Y/N. She couldn’t breathe. How was he there? After everything that had just happened with Harry... where did Luke even come from? She hadn’t processed her conversation with Harry yet, how was she supposed to have a conversation with Luke again, in front of everyone, when her head was so scrambled?

“Yeah, I’m great.” What a fucking lie.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“Oh.” What was happening? “Ummmm, I don’t - well I - ehm I-”

“Yes! She would love a drink!” Tara interrupted her with a big grin, and any other time she would’ve been grateful for her friend stepping in and helping, but now? “Wouldn’t you?” Y/N wasn’t even sure.

“I ehhh - well, I guess so?”

What?

Her whole body was screaming NO when she got up and felt Harry’s warmth leave her side. His eyes burned into her back and it was a miracle she even made it to the bar with Luke without vomiting right there and then.

Two days ago, when she first bumped into Luke, all she wanted was to go on a date with him. But something had changed. Something inside her had clicked, and it wasn’t her hormones or the alcohol this time. All she could think about as Luke talked to her and bought her a new drink was how he wasn’t Harry.

Luke didn’t know how she liked her tea. Luke didn’t know she couldn’t go straight to bed after watching a thriller or anything that resembled a scary movie; she needed to watch something more upbeat and cheerful before going to sleep. Luke didn’t know she liked to keep things in order. Luke didn’t know she ate her weight in chocolate when she got her period. Luke didn’t know she loved mint chocolate chip ice cream. Luke didn’t know she called her mum at least once a day. Luke didn’t know she was desperate to find love. 

Harry did.

Harry knew all those things.

And as she stood at the bar with Luke she realised he wasn’t actually flawless. He was still gorgeous, only a little less breathtaking that time around because he knew he looked good and he wasn’t humble about it. He smelled like cigarettes and she hated the smell of smoke mixed with his strong cologne. It gave her a headache. He also couldn’t keep his eyes off her cleavage and didn’t bother asking her anything about herself.

His nose piercing didn’t even look that good.

Luke wasn’t flawless and she didn’t really like him. 

Harry wasn’t flawless either... but she still liked him. 

“And that’s when we-”

“You know what Luke,” she interrupted and put a finger up to stop him from talking. “I think I have to get back to my friends. But um... “ She glanced at the drink he had bought her before picking it up and downed it in one go, because he had paid for it and the least she could do was drink it. The alcohol burned a little in the back of her throat and she accidentally spilled a few drops down her shirt. She hardly noticed though because she was just aching to get back to her friends. Luke looked at her with wide eyes and a puzzled expression. “Thanks for the drink! I’ll see you around.”

With that she walked off with just one thing, or rather someone, on her mind.

But that someone wasn’t there when she found her friends again. She spotted Lucy and her bright dress sitting on Nate’s lap. She spotted Tara having a conversation with a girl from the table next to them. She spotted Declan and Connor laughing loudly over something on their phones.

She did not spot Harry.

Tara was the first one to notice her standing there just staring at the empty seat where Harry was sat a while ago. Tara excused herself from the conversation she was having and came up to Y/N, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“You okay?”

“Where is Harry?”

“He left,” Tara told her. “I think.”

“Hey, what’s going on?” Lucy came up to her as well, with a small frown on her face, worried something had happened. “Is everything alright?”

“I need to talk to Harry,” Y/N said and looked around the club; hoping to spot his curls somewhere in the crowd. Her eyes stung with tears when she couldn’t see him.

“He left after you walked off,” Lucy confirmed softly. “Is everything alright? Did something happen with Luke?”

“Yes- I mean no. I have to go,” was all she told them before she rushed off. “I need Harry.”

Y/N wasn’t aware of the three words that left her mouth but it didn’t make them any less true. It all made so much sense. It had clicked. ‘What if you already have?’ 

Yes. 

How could she have been so blind?

--

When she finally made it home she was out of breath from running all the way from the bus stop to their flat. She prayed Harry had actually gone home and not continued his night at some other club. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if he had. 

But as soon as she stepped inside she heard the familiar sound of his guitar coming from his bedroom and she didn’t even bother catching her breath before walking across the flat in a couple of strides. She hadn't really thought anything through. Her whole body was just screaming at her that she needed Harry and it couldn't wait. 

Harry left his dirty dishes out. He sometimes forgot to put the toilet seat down. He was disorganized. He did not only leave his dirty dishes out but he could also leave his dirty socks lying around the flat. He didn't like the same music as her. He could be petty and immature. He had ignored her for two days. 

But Harry also made her tea when she was having a bad day. He made her laugh. He made her food in middle of the night. He always asked about her day. He helped her home when she got too drunk. He sometimes surprised her with breakfast. He understood her. He made her feel at ease and she could always be herself around him. 

All of the good thing outweighed the bad, and the bad was only part of who he was; Harry, her roommate, her friend, the boy who she hadn't realised gave her butterflies until now.

And perhaps she should’ve knocked or at least made her presence known in any other way because as she slung his bedroom door open Harry was visibly startled and a sour note came from his guitar. He looked at her with wide eyes. 

“Y/N? What the fuck?”

“Do I have any flaws?” she asked him breathlessly. 

“What?” he asked. “What do you mean?” 

“What about me annoys you?” 

 “Shouldn’t you be off getting a drink with Mr. Flawess himself.”

“Well I changed my mind. Now just answer the question,” she urged, wanting to cut straight to the chase. Harry frowned and she wasn’t really sure if he was angry with her or just confused. Maybe both? It didn’t matter though, she just needed answers before she passed out from the��anxiety running through her. “Do I have any flaws?”

“I - yeah. You do,” he said. Y/N nodded and stepped further into his room, wanting to be closer to him. “Why?” 

“Just - wait,” she told him and ignored his question by asking her own. “What are they?”

Harry didn’t reply at first. He just sat in silence and stared at her with his brows still pressed together in a frown. God, what if she had gotten it all wrong? She’d have to give up the flat to Harry and move out, leave Manchester, maybe even leave the UK. She’d be absolutely mortified; she’d never recover from it. 

Just as she lost all hope and considered running off to hide in her own bedroom for the rest of the night, possibly for the rest of the term, Harry slowly put his guitar to the side. He rubbed his hand over his chin and pinched the bottom of his lip between his index finger and his thumb, contemplating his next few words cautiously.

“You’re incredibly stubborn,” he told her and despite the fact that he had just basically insulted her a wave relief washed over her as he finally said something. 

“Okay, what else?” 

“You ask way too many questions during a movie.”

“Okay.”

“You overthink absolutely everything.”

“More.”

“You leave notes around the flat over the most meaningless things.”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t leave the kitchen a mess then.”

“You have too much milk in your tea.”

“You don’t have enough.”

Harry cracked a smile but it faltered almost just as quickly.

“You want love but don’t see the person right in front of you who has fallen head over heels for you.”

Y/N had never seen or heard him as vulnerable as he was right there and then. For a moment she wondered if maybe she had misheard him but judging by his nervous fidgeting and how he for the first time ever struggled to look her in the eyes she quickly realised she hadn’t.  

“I do now,” she admitted quietly, almost too quiet, and shifted her weight from one foot to the other awkwardly. “I see you.” 

Harry still heard her and looked right into her eyes as he took a sharp breath. Her body ached to feel his touch as she stood in the middle of his room, terrified of what she was about to ask next, but there was no going back. It was, after all, the reason she had followed him home. “And you still like me despite all my flaws?”

“Well,” Harry started and fought back a smile. “I suppose I wouldn’t have saved all your notes if I didn't.” 

It was really all it took for her to close the space between them and throw herself over him. Harry was quick to catch her and his arms wrapped around her body tightly, holding her close, as she pressed her lips to his.

It was strange kissing him and she didn’t quite know where to put her own hands at first, but it felt right that much she knew. Her whole body was on fire from just a simple little kiss. Y/N never wanted it to stop. Harry grinned against her lips before deepening the kiss and sneaked his hands in under her blazer, pushing it off her shoulders before running his hands over her body. 

She wrapped her arms around his neck and it was almost ridiculous how giddy she felt. Harry made her feel drunk, more so than the alcohol in her body. Nothing had ever tasted as good as him. She was completely lost in him and his warmth. 

It wasn’t until she felt him pull at her trousers that she was reminded of reality again and she pulled away from his lips. “You okay?” Harry asked immediately.

“Yeah,” she panted and leaned her forehead against his, twirling the hair in the back of his neck around her finger carefully. “I just... I still got my period.”

“Okay,” Harry nodded and tightened his grip on her, still holding her close, and she was sure she could feel his heartbeat against hers. “S’that all? Because frankly I don’t really care about a little blood right now.”

“Oh.”

“Do you?”

“I... no.”

“You sure?” Harry wondered and placed his fingers under her chin and angled her face so he could look into her eyes. He saw right through her and her mind was hazy as her body melted right into his. Harry made her feel safe and comfortable and it was all she needed to know she was sure.  

She needed him. 

“Give me a second,” she said and gave him a quick peck before getting off him. It pained her to do so but even as she made her way over to the bathroom to remove her tampon, perhaps one of the most unattractive things you could do, Harry’s eyes on her as she walked away made her feel sexier than she ever had before.

She didn’t waste a single second inside the bathroom and quickly did what she had to before she just about ran back to Harry’s bedroom. She caught a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but laugh. She looked dazed. But in the best possible way. Her cheeks were rosy. Her hair was messy. Lips swollen. It was the first time she had ever seen herself look so radiant. Glowing almost. 

Happy.

She also decided to not put her trousers back on after she was done in the bathroom, because why waste time when she was planning to take them off soon anyway?

And Harry seemed to have had the same idea because when she came back he had already removed his floral shirt and his beige trousers as well. His lips were the same colour as her lipstick and he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was staring at her bare legs and underwear. It made her whole body tingle and she didn’t mind him gawking, because she couldn’t take her own eyes away from his naked chest and the bulge between his legs.

“Come here,” Harry murmured and held out his hand for her to take. He gently pulled at her arm until she was sitting on top of him on the bed, straddling his hips. The lack of clothing on both of them made her blush as he embraced her and she felt all of him under her.  

Harry cupped one of his hands under her jaw and leaned in to kiss her again. It started out slow but as soon as his lips touched her a soft moan came from her. His lips were slightly chapped and yet they were the best lips she had ever kissed. It didn't matter that they weren’t perfectly soft. Not one bit. Y/N never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again. 

The kiss quickly deepend and she had her hands in his hair, tugging at his soft curls and getting lost in the taste of his lips. She was throbbing against him and knew he could also feel just how desperately she wanted him through the thin lace of her panties. His lips were eager against hers and she was too lost in him to notice he had blindly reached out to the bedside table and sought out a condom.

It wasn’t until she felt his hand and the small foil packet brush against her leg that she realised. She pulled back and met his green eyes, breathing hard as she tried to find her words to speak. He looked back at her with questioning eyes, silently asking her if she was alright with what was happening between them, and she just nodded. 

She sat back to give him some room and watched as he pulled himself out of his boxers and then helped him get them off before he rolled the condom over his length. The sight alone made her light-headed and, if he hadn’t already, she was sure he could hear how hard her heart was beating. He also caught her staring but she didn’t really care and he only pulled her back into him.

He kissed her along her collarbone, sucking lightly at the skin as he made his way up to her neck. Y/N closed her eyes and hummed with pleasure as she tilted her head to the side to give him better access. Harry ran his hands up and down her back and then slipped his hands in under the tank top she was wearing before he pulled it off her swiftly. 

Harry took a few seconds to stare at her naked chest when he discovered she wasn’t wearing a bra before he kissed each of her breasts lightly, making her nipples hard. Y/N just cupped his face and pulled his head up so she could kiss him again, impatient and desperate to feel him inside her and he giggled against her lips. 

Harry only pushed the crotch of her underwear to the side when he lined himself up under her. She gasped as she slowly sank down onto him and had to break their kiss. Harry had one hand around her thigh and the other on the back of her head, her hair twisted between his fingers, as they breathed the same air. 

When she eventually started to move her hips after getting used to the stretch of him he groaned softly, low in his throat, and tightened the grip he had on her. “Fuck, you feel so good.”

Her blood rushed inside her and her whole chest and face flushed from hearing his words and how hoarse his voice was. She put her hands on his stomach, her fingers digging into his skin around his tattoo, before lifting her hips and taking all of him again; craving the friction created between the two of them.

Harry moaned and let his head fall backwards, breathing heavily, and she couldn’t take her eyes away from his strong jawline. She also couldn’t stop herself from kissing him right there and Harry moaned again as he felt her lips on his skin. 

It made her smile; knowing she was having the same affect on him that he had on her. 

Y/N did her best to find a steady rhythm riding him but her thighs were trembling around him and it had been awhile since she had been on top of anyone. She had almost forgotten how to do it. Harry bucked his hips up into her and she barely had time to react before he impatiently flipped them over and yanked her underwear off.

A loud moan left her lips as he pushed right back into her and instantly built up a new quicker pace, giving her all of him and hitting the spot in her that made her toes curl. He leaned down and connected their mouths again. His chest was slick with sweat as his body pressed against hers and her hands were all over him because she just couldn’t decide where to put them. She wanted all of him. 

And when Harry hoisted himself up and hooked one of her legs over his shoulder to get deeper she didn’t care if any of their neighbours heard her.

“Oh my god.”

Then his fingers were stroking her between her legs and it quite literally took her breath away. Her whole body was trembling as she felt every hot and thick inch of him. Her release was close, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach and he could see it on her as he continued to move above her.

And not once did Harry lose his pace or falter when her nails scratched his back and she clenched tightly around him as her orgasm swept through her body. He kept thrusting into her while she moaned and shivered beneath him.

Just as she came down from her high he got his own release and came with a loud sigh of relief. He continued to move his hips against hers until his muscles gave up from exhaustion and he collapsed on top of her.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, both spent, and she tried to catch her breath. 

Which was hard seeing as he was still on top of her and she could still feel him inside her.

When he raised his head to look down at her, grinning from ear to ear, her whole stomach fluttered. And this time she knew it was because of Harry. It wasn’t because of alcohol. Not because she had a hangover. Not because she was stressed. Maybe because of a few hormones. 

But there were just no excuses. 

Eventually Harry got up. He removed the used condom and retrieved a small towel to clean himself up quickly before handing it over and climbing back into bed with her.

Y/N curled up against his chest and let him run his fingers through her hair, gently scratching the top of her head, and she was seconds away from falling asleep when he spoke up.

“I’m sorry for calling you desperate.”

Y/N tilted her head up to look at him.

“S’okay, I have been a little.”

“Still,” he mumbled. “Wasn’t really fair of me.”

“You know you could’ve just told me.”

“I was going to,” Harry admitted with a low chuckle. “But you always came back home announcing you were going on another date so it never really felt like the right time.”

“Hmm, well you didn’t really help yourself by bringing a girl back like every weekend,” she pointed out and laughed lightly. “It was hard to not be blind.”

“Had to try to forget about you somehow,” Harry admitted and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, letting his lips linger for a few seconds before continuing. “But you and your stupid post-it notes made it hard.”

“Did you really save all of them?” she asked and pushed herself up so she was leaning on her elbows. She couldn’t stop herself from grinning proudly. Harry laughed and tipped his head back, covering his face with his hands as his cheeks turned pink.

“God, I’m gonna regret telling you that aren’t I?”

“Maybe,” she laughed again before giving his chest a quick kiss, just because she could. “I do kind of enjoy writing them for you though.”

“Of course you do,” Harry said and peaked out from behind his hands with a cheeky smile. “And I enjoy leaving the kitchen a mess because I know you’ll leave me a new one,” he confessed and tapped her nose. 

“I fuckin’ knew it!” she exclaimed with a gasp and shoved him away from her playfully. “You absolute knobhead!” 

Harry only laughed and pulled her back into his warm body. 

On her way back home from the club Y/N had been a little bit worried that she was wrong or that it was going to be weird to go from roommates to more with Harry -- but it felt like the most natural thing. It felt just as natural as everything else they already did together, and maybe that was why she had been so picky recently. Maybe it was why she looked for flaws in every guy she dated so she had an excuse to not see them again. She had already found what she wanted; she just hadn’t realised. How stupid.

“Hey Harry?”

“Hm?”

“Would you like to go on a date with me?”

-- 

please let me know your thoughts here ! And please share it if you liked it, it would mean a lot to me! 💛

[uncloseted]

honestly i think it's so stupid that people hate cassie that much. (i mean the audience). so she had sex with her best friends EX boyfriend. who cares. i get that maddy can be hurt but it's not like, immoral to have sex with your friend's EX. nate is not maddy's property. and i get that nate is an abuser and that it IS wrong to date your friend's abuser but does cassie even know? and the audience doesn't care about that. they just care that he was once maddy's bf. can you help me understand?

I don't think people are wrong to hate Cassie at all. Cassie know that Maddy still has feelings for Nate, that he abused her, and that Maddy still wants to get back together with him. Cassie knows that Maddy and Nate's story isn't over yet and that there are still a lot of unresolved feelings. That's highlighted by the way Maddy treats Nate during the bathroom scene- like she still has some sort of claim to him, even if they're technically broken up. And in episode 4, Maddy says that Nate should have said that they're "working it out", because he's still making all of these promises to her about the future of their relationship. "Oh, let's get back together. You're the only person in the world I care about. You're a Goddess, and it's my fault for not treating you like a Goddess. I promise, Maddy. I'll change. I'll grow. I'll be better. I don't deserve you. But I love you. Please, when I go to college, move with me. Marry me. Have my babies." Cassie knows all of this, and she's trying to be in a relationship with Nate anyway.

But even if your best friend has been broken up with a perfectly nice guy for years and you know she doesn't still have feelings for him, it's still a common courtesy to ask her if she would be okay with you dating him, just in case her feelings would be hurt by it. Because intentionally doing something that you know would hurt your best friend's feelings is wrong. Cassie doesn't ask for Maddy's permission because she knows Maddy would say no.

But even then, I don't really think Cassie's actions are what people are mad about. I think they're mad about her lack of self awareness when it comes to the whole situation. In the first episode of the season, Cassie says that she's "trying not to be [a relationship girl]" and "just tryna focus on [herself]" "Because [she keeps] making mistakes and not learning from them." But then she immediately makes a mistake (hooking up with her best friend's ex), doesn't learn from it when she's confronted with the reality of Maddy finding out, continues to do it even though she knows it's a mistake, and then pretends that she's innocent when confronted. It's like Cassie's mum said in last night's episode- "Cassie, you're driving me nuts! It's one thing to do what you did, and it's another thing to pretend you're all innocent and it's no big deal."

People are annoyed that Cassie is trying to pretend like she didn't do anything wrong and that she's the victim of other people's misperceptions because she knows that she's done something wrong. She could have apologized to Maddy, her best friend and the girl who once called her her soulmate, and admitted that even though she didn't mean to and would never do that on purpose, she hurt Maddy. But instead, she's digging her heels in and continuing to sleep with Nate. And she's making it everyone else's problem by constantly trying to badger them into telling her she's not the bad guy in the situation. I think if she had just been like, "I fucked up, I'm sorry, Maddy", the fandom would have had a lot more sympathy for her.

[pretend-writer]

Someday, I Will Understand (Diego Hargreeves x reader)

Summary: With a decision that can change her whole life, Y/N struggles with whether or not she should stay or leave. 

Pairing: Diego Hargreeves x reader

Title Reference: (Someday) I Will Understand x Britney Spears

Word Count: 1.7k words

Warning: angst afff

Note: Different POV from the oneshot, How Am I Supposed To Live Without You

✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤

Y/N's pov;

'I want you to come with me'

That was the message I got from Nate, my ex boyfriend from college. I froze into place when I read it, continuing to stare at my screen and playing that message in my head over and over again.

We've ended in good terms, we broke up because of the fact that we had different paths for our future. When he came back in town a few months ago, we started to keep in touch again.

I didn't know if there was something between me and Nate. Every time I'd imagine Nate and I together, Diego would pop up in the picture. I've never thought Diego would be someone that would influence my life so much, turns out I loved him more than I thought.

That was the reason why I hesitated to get back with Nate in the first place. I kept him waiting because I wasn't so sure about my feelings for Diego. But now that he asked me to follow him across the country, I didn't know what to do.

My whole life was here, this was where my home was. I never thought of leaving because I thought I'd stay here forever. I didn't even think of the possibility of living outside of this place.

I never thought of my life away from Diego

He had been my best friend since I've met him after high school, meeting him at a club downtown one night when my friends and I went out. Diego and I weren't in the mood to go up to dance so instead, we left our friends and just talked all night. That was when our friendship start to flourish.

We started hanging out non-stop. Even when I left for college, he always came to visit me and I'd go and see him as well. Diego became the person I would go to for everything, despite me having a boyfriend throughout college.

Diego was there for me when I had issues with my family, the times when I was stressed from work and even when I had to rant to him about Nate. He was my emotional support system and I loved that he was welcoming whenever I needed him.

My mind and my heart wasn't fully sure how I felt about Diego yet, but he was the reason why I still needed to stay. All I knew was that I needed a sign to tell me I shouldn’t leave.

'What's on your mind?'

Diego asked me one day, it sounded a little bit aggressive but worried. It caught me off guard mostly because I was so distracted. I've been lost in my thoughts that I forgot where I was. 'Ah, nothing Diego.'

'It doesn't seem like nothing.' I knew I couldn't lie to him, he knew all my ups and downs. It was stupid of me to hide this from him, knowing that I needed him to help me now more than ever.

But I couldn't tell him. At least not yet.

I was confused, didn't know what to do at all. I wasn't sure what my true desire was, my intuition told me to do what made me happy but what was that really?

Nate and Diego both made me happy, have the best memories and years with the both of them. How was I supposed to choose which path to take?

One day I decided to talk to Luther. He was in the mansion when I waited for Diego to come home, figured that if I needed to talk to someone, he’d be someone I wouldn’t mind speaking to. Hesitantly, I told him my situation since I needed another set of opinion that wouldn't be a bias choice.

I knew that Diego's choice would've been for me to stay, I knew that he'd stop me from going. I also didn't want him to know the real reason why I would've considered to stay which was because of how I had some confusing feelings for him.

'Maybe you being hesitant to leave here and Diego is a sign that you should stay.' Luther had made a comment which did make sense. If I really was determined to leave with Nate, I would've left in a heartbeat, no questions asked.

'I'd want you to stay Y/N but whatever decision you make, I support you 100%.' I was glad I went to Luther to talk about this. He didn't judge me at all and understood why I was confused in this decision making. He also understood why I couldn't tell Diego and even promised me to not tell him.

After thinking thoroughly for days about rejecting Nate's offer and deciding to stay instead, I visited Diego to tell him the truth about what was happening the last few weeks. I knew that he had been curious this whole time and he deserved to know the truth.

Diego then started to act different, he was angry and upset about something. Even if I asked him what was wrong, he'd immediately shut me down and wouldn't let me help him.

Whenever something was overwhelming him, he'd always start acting childish and that was exactly what he was doing. I wasn't sure what the reason was but something was definitely up.

I'd ask him if the reason why he was upset was because of me. Diego would say that it wasn't although it seemed that every time I would come to visit him, he would throw a fit or be in a bad mood.

His anger slowly projected on me, making me frustrated as well. All I wanted was to tell him that I chose him, hoping that things would go back how it used to be or even better. But it wasn't working.

I'd started to talk back to him, yell and argue with him whenever I'd see him. We'd never fought like this before, we've never even had a disagreement about anything. This was all new territory for the both of us and things just got even worse.

'Why are you acting this way? You know how much I hate it when you turn nasty like this. For no reason too, or at least you say there isn't one.' I shouted at him, I've never raised my voice like this and it was more frustrating that Diego was aggravating me. 

Diego never had made me this upset. It hurt that he was acting like this towards me. I hated the fact that he was hiding whatever was bothering him. All I wanted to do was help him from whatever pain he was feeling.

Even when trying to confront him, he wouldn't answer me properly. I knew there was something he wasn't telling me and I knew whatever it was, it was bothering him.

Eventually, I stopped going to his place. I couldn't deal with the stress nor did I have time to argue with Diego. The decision that I've made to stay was doubtful again and now I was back to square one.

'Maybe this was the real sign, I'm not supposed to stay here.' 

Luther had disagreed, trying to convince me to talk to Diego to set my mind straight. He figured that we just needed a little bit of space and now that we did have some time apart, we could’ve figured things out again. 

But my mind was clear as day, I felt as though I had to leave. It had been weeks since I've had seen Diego and months since we've had a decent conversation. We've never been away from each other this long but I had to do my own thing, move forward with my life and follow my own path.

'Diego doesn't want to talk to me, Luther. Whatever happened or whatever I've done to make him mad is getting to him. I don't think I can help him.'

Luther begged for me to stay or at least see Diego before I left. I knew that that would be a mistake; if I did go see him, I was going to get yelled at and we would argue again and I didn’t want that.

I didn't want to be in that emotional roller coaster again. Diego meant too much for me to get even angrier towards him and I didn't want to end up hating him. Besides, I couldn't do that to Nate. I've already asked him to wait until I made my decision, this would be too much of an inconvenience.

'Are you sure about this?' Luther asked, he seemed upset and I wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't as if me and him were great friends, I didn't think he'd miss me that much. Whatever it was, he really wanted me to change my mind.

'I'm not a 100% sure but I know I'm not meant to stay.' Diego was all I thought about as I said those words to Luther. Months of our broken relationship made me realize that maybe our bond wasn't as strong as I thought it was.

'What about Diego, Y/N?'

I bit my lip, stuffing in my last set og clothes I had in my room into my suitcase. It hurt that this may be the truth, but there was nothing I could do to change it. 'Diego doesn't want me here, Luther. There's nothing to it.'

It was great while it lasted, things were amazing with Diego. Maybe I've relied on him too much, he was my safety net for everything in my life. I've probably loved him more than I should've and possibly pulled him away from his life he could've led if it wasn't for me. Perhaps this was my time to let him go, let him become a great man that he was and go out in the world.

I wished nothing but the best for Diego, he deserved all the good things in life and more. I couldn't drag him down my life anymore and I knew that this was the best thing that could’ve happened to the both of us. 

Someday I hope that Diego will understand why I've made this decision. I hope he knew that wherever I may be, I'd always think of him and cherish all the great memories I had with him. In the end, I knew that he’d be great without me but I hope that I’ll forever be in his heart. 

[izzielizzie]

i'm so glad i'm not the only one who likes the Maeve/Knox/Phoebe trio better than the Bayview Four. The Bayview Four is amazing but there's something more... authentic? about the main characters of the second book

Yes! Not to be like “the Bayview Four suck” because they don’t and I love them, but I honestly like Maeve, Phoebe, and Knox better. The original four are inherently the extreme version of their stereotype: 

Bronwyn isn’t just the nerd, she’s the rich Yale bound valedictorian nerd. Cooper isn’t just the jock, he’s the jock who’s going to play on a professional team.  Addy’s not just the princess, she’s the air-head-who-cares-about-looks princess (ofc she changes into a freaking badass but it takes a while and isn’t explored as much as it could be). Not only is Nate a bad boy, he’s the hot bad boy who was on probation for selling drugs and had a shitty life. From the get-go, they seem... too big for the world. Not like anyone I’d see walking down the halls of my high school. But it’s different for the narrators of the second book.

Phoebe: she’s not just the princess that Addy was. She’s dynamic and sassy and she’s not popular to be popular. She’s popular because she’s just the type of person that people like. She’s had flings and boyfriends but underneath all that, she’s insecure and has the ability to seriously consider her own actions and beliefs which no one does in the first book? Also she’s able to analyze her relationships with others. Also her flawed relationships. And her understanding that sometimes some relationships are worth salvaging and others deserve to be severed? The fact that she was sexually assaulted (why doesn’t anyone talk about this she was sexually assaulted in literally the eighth chapter and then she just... carried on) and she realized that she is worth respect. PHOEBE IS SUCH AN AUTHENTIC PERSON I LOVE HER OKAY?

Knox: He’s awkward and dorky but he embraces it. Bronwyn’s other traits are exemplified and she’s never just allowed to be a dork. But the fact that Knox doesn’t know how to talk to Sean or to Luis and that Cooper and Nate intimidate him? Knox took one look at toxic masculinity and threw it out of the freaking window. The fact that he didn’t pressure Maeve when she didn’t want to have sex? The fact that he continued being her friend and respecting her even though some people would be weird towards her if that happened with anyone else? The fact that he holds grudges but also accepts that he needs to let them go sometimes? The fact that he doesn’t judge? The fact that he understands he can’t take himself seriously but is also worth people’s time? The fact that he is fine with being seen with his sisters outside? The fact that he respects everyone even people like Sean and Brandon??? Knox supremacy okay?

Maeve: God Maeve. She’s kind of broken and weary of the world but that doesn’t stop her for caring about others. She’s had a life with no direction. She doesn’t know where to go to college. She doesn’t know how to talk to boys. She knows when to stand up for someone and when to let them fight their own fight. She accepts that she’s been leaning on the knowledge that she’ll get away with stuff because of her cancer. She accepts that she needs to change and be accountable. She knows when things make her comfortable and when there are things she doesn’t want to do (ie having sex). She’s polite and respectful even when she hates someone. She fights her own battles but she’s learning to accept help. She’s unsure but confident at the same time. She knows where her skills lie and where she needs to grow and she accepts that she’s not perfect (something her sister didn’t really do). She has social skills but choses not to use them sometimes or feels uncomfortable using them she’s just really layered.

Knox Maeve and Phoebe are really complex, something that I feel like wasn’t really a priority for the Bayview Four after a while?

[sanderssidesfanfiction]

If There’s a Place I Can Be - Chapter Eighty Four

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

November 27th, 2000

Remy was ready to punch a wall. His parents made him so furious sometimes. Forcing him to change his major if he went back to school?! If he could drop the rest of his family and only stay in contact with the good ones, he would. He loathed accounting, and that would drive him faster to suicide than taking literally anything else at college would.

He took a breath and made sure he had everything ready to go back to school. He met Toby in the hallway and gave him a hug. “You’d better keep in touch,” Remy playfully threatened.

“Cross my heart and hope to die, I’ll call your number and make sure we have each other’s details,” Toby swore. Then, more quietly, “Now go trick our parents and drop out of college.”

  March 28th, 2003

Emile came back down the stairs finding Toby looking like he was about to cry, and Remy not that far off, either. “You two seem very intent on having a crying session without me,” he noted, taking the last available space on the couch.

Remy rolled his eyes. “Toby was asking about the stuff with my— our mother.”

“Ah, yeah, nevermind,” Emile said. “I totally understand that.”

“I don’t,” Toby said, furrowing his eyebrows, and Emile blinked, because there was so much of freshman Remy in that action, the man who didn’t understand why what his parents were doing was controlling and wrong.

Remy coughed. “Well. Turns out that a lot of the stuff we dealt with that initially doesn’t look like abuse was, in fact, a type of abuse,” he said awkwardly. “So like, not only was Mom stalking me wrong, but so was her taking Bones and any other toy she thought I had outgrown. Same with the toys she took away from you. There’s other stuff, but that’s like...the obvious things.”

“What are the not-so-obvious things?” Toby asked, looking between Remy and Emile.

“Uh...” Remy, for once, looked speechless.

“Things like temporarily taking away toys that brought you a sense of security or comfort,” Emile said. “Or denying you food when you’re hungry when you broke a rule. Remy has told me both of those things have happened. And corporal punishment has started to be studied, and it seems to be less effective than most parents think it is.”

Toby looked stunned. “But that wasn’t...? No, I mean...”

“You may not have seen it as such, but that is abuse,” Emile said gently. “Even if they gave the toys back, even if you eventually got to have dinner, even if the punishment was ‘only’ a spanking. Those are all forms of abuse.”

“Jesus Christ,” Toby said, paling. “You’re serious.”

“He’s always serious about trauma,” Remy said with a weak smile. “It’s one of the things that I had to learn to love about him, because he had this conversation with me before, over the course of literal years, but he has taught me that I deserve better. And now I actually believe it.”

Toby ran his hands through his hair. “Oh my God,” he said simply. “I...wow. I’m...How do I keep in contact with them after this?”

“You don’t have to,” Emile pointed out. “You always have the choice to say no.”

“No, but...Vanessa...Vanessa deserves to know too...” Toby swallowed. “She—how do I tell her, I only ever see her at our parents’ house and I don’t want her to repeat their mistakes...she’s been talking about kids, recently, when she finds a husband.”

Remy shrugged, looking about as hysterical as Toby sounded. “You would know better than I do, Tobes, I haven’t had contact with anyone from our family for years.”

Toby ran a hand down his face. “Yeah, I know...Nate and Magenta have been worrying themselves sick.”

Emile figured it might be time for a distraction, so he asked, “Those two are twins, right? How did one of them get the misfortune of being called Magenta?”

“Oh.” Toby laughed. “Vanessa nicknamed him that when they were babies. Because to tell the twins apart, their parents put magenta nailpolish on his big toe. Bear in mind, she was also really little. But she’d call Nate his name, and she’d call Percy—that’s his real name—Magenta. And it stuck throughout the family, and he never complained, so we all just sorta...rolled with it.”

“He didn’t get called that at school,” Remy hurried to add. “He’d get called that at family reunions, but his own family, for the most part, calls him Percy.”

“Ah, good. I was worried there for a minute,” Emile said, clearing his throat.

They sat there in silence for a minute, before Remy kicked his feet over Emile’s legs and laid his head in Toby’s lap. “Toby, I’m bored,” Remy whined.

Emile laughed at the shock on Toby’s face. Toby looked over to Emile. “Remy said I have you to thank for this.”

“Yeah,” Emile laughed. “I would say sorry, but you don’t look upset.”

“Upset? I’m ecstatic!” Toby exclaimed. “My baby brother has emotions! I thought those all shrivelled up and died in high school! But you revived them! I can’t thank you enough!”

“I’m still here!” Remy exclaimed.

“Yep,” Emile said, grabbing Remy’s hand and kissing his knuckles. “And we both love you more than words can say.”

“Ugh. You’re sappy,” Remy grumbled.

“You wouldn’t have me any other way,” Emile pointed out.

Remy sighed. “This is true,” he admitted. “But you know how weird it is to have people talking over your head like you don’t exist?”

“Sorry, Rem,” Emile laughed. “But to be fair, you complaining you’re bored doesn’t really add much to the conversation.”

Remy stuck his tongue out at Emile and Emile laughed, sticking his out back. Toby looked between them fondly. “You two really are in love,” he said, sounding a little awestruck. “I think the two of you might ruin dating for me by the time this long weekend is over. Because none of my relationships are quite as good as what you two have.”

“Aw, you’ll find someone if you want to, Tobes,” Remy said. “I don’t doubt that.”

“Maybe I will, but I doubt I’d ever be in love the way the two of you are. It’s something else,” Toby said.

“Well, Emile is kinda the reason I believe in soulmates now, so...” Remy shrugged.

“Soulmates, yeah,” Emile laughed. “Listen. I let you be sappy, Remy, but you wanted absolutely nothing to do with me in the beginning of us getting to know each other. I dragged you into interpersonal relationships kicking and screaming—one time quite literally.”

“That was because of the bubbles, not because of the relationships!” Remy said, pointing accusingly at Emile. “Patty used far too many bubbles and I did not want to be seen blowing bubbles like a child when I was still trying to figure out who I was in the world!”

“Whatever you say, Rem,” Emile said, snickering.

“Bubbles?” Toby asked, arching an eyebrow. “There’s a story there.”

“Not a long one,” Emile said. “My friend Patty was—mmph!” He was cut short by Remy surging upwards and kissing Emile passionately. When Remy was done, he leaned back and Emile was sitting there dazed, blinking. “What were we talking about?”

“Nothing, darling,” Remy said, before Toby could say anything else.

Emile blinked and readjusted his glasses. “I thought it was something,” he mumbled. “Ah, Toby, are you weirded out by PDA?”

“Bit late to ask that,” Toby laughed. “But no. I’m just annoyed that Remy cut short an embarrassing story by kissing you roughly enough for it to get an R-rating at the movies.”

“Anything remotely gay gets an R-rating at the movies, Tobes,” Remy scoffed.

“Okay, I was thinking in straight-couple standards, though,” Toby said.

“Were a straight couple to do what I just did, it would be PG-13 at worst,” Remy said, pointing at Toby.

“Agree to disagree?” Toby proposed.

“Oh, hell no. You agree with me or I go all out in proving my point,” Remy said, staring Toby dead in the eye as he declared this.

“Those are fighting words,” Toby said, getting a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Before Emile could ask what was going on, Toby grabbed Remy around the torso and ripped him off the couch, spinning them both around roughly. Remy screeched, before bursting into peals of laughter. “Ah! Toby! Let me down!”

“Not until you agree with me!” Toby exclaimed.

“Toby! I’m gonna puke! Lemme go!” Remy screamed.

“Boys, you’re going to put a hole in the wall!” Emile exclaimed, going over to Toby and holding him by the shoulders.

Toby was laughing and red in the face, while Remy looked a little green. “Hey, Rem, why don’t you grab that disposable camera we’ve got and the photo album? I think this deserves a new photo.”

Remy lightly shook his head and stood on wobbly legs. “Ugh, gimme a minute, first.”

Toby looked worried. “Oh, you were serious about puking?”

Remy blearily nodded.

“Shit, Rem, I’m sorry,” Toby said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Remy said. “‘S fine.”

“Hey, Remy, no,” Emile reminded him. “You’re allowed to set boundaries.”

“Hm?” Remy hummed. He staggered over to the couch. “Is that a boundary? I don’t think that qualifies.”

“Uh, that definitely qualifies,” Emile said.

Remy did some deep breathing before looking up at Toby. “I’d appreciate if we kept the spinning to a minimum.”

“Yeah, of course,” Toby said, scratching the back of his neck. “I’m really sorry.”

Remy nodded and leaned back, before standing and saying, “I’m getting the camera. Emile, don’t kill him while I’m gone.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Emile said simply.

As soon as Remy left, Toby whispered, “How much did I screw up?”

Emile pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not badly. Remy and I have been working on boundaries off and on for a while. Just needing a refresher doesn’t mean you screwed up. He’s just nervous to set up boundaries with someone he looks up to.”

Toby swallowed. “He...looks up to me?” he asked.

“A hell of a lot,” Emile confirmed. “He talked about you all the time.”

Toby blew out a breath. “Oh, God,” he breathed. “I don’t want him falling into any bad habits again by reasoning that I do them.”

“I doubt he would,” Emile said. “He just hates saying ‘no’ sometimes, and to certain people. You’re on that list. I’m on it, too. It just means we have to be more careful than we otherwise might be.”

Toby shook his head. “God. I’m glad I came, but this suddenly got a lot more scary.”

“I wouldn’t sweat it, Toby. Just be yourself. And if either Remy or I call you on something, try not to take it personally. You were raised by the same parents he was. I’d appreciate it if both of you were healthy about approaching things. So I might make a gentle nudge or two. It’s not the end of the world, it just means there are things to work on,” Emile said. “And I won’t try to therapist you. Just let you know, ‘Hey, that sort of thinking isn’t the best,’ or ‘Maybe you should go easy on yourself.’ It’s not the end of the world if something goes wrong.”

“That’s something I have to remind myself of every day,” Toby said with a weak laugh.

Emile smiled sadly. “Yeah. Me too.”

Remy came back down the stairs. “You didn’t threaten to eat Toby if he messed up, right?” he asked, pointing at Emile.

“Cross my heart he didn’t,” Toby said.

“Yeah, I actually let him know he could mess up and we wouldn’t kick him out,” Emile said.

“Good. Because if you did anything else, I just might have had to kill you,” Remy laughed.

Emile shook his head fondly. “No, you wouldn’t,” he said. “Although I don’t think injury to my person would be entirely out of the question.”

Remy rolled his eyes and said, “Duh.”

“How many pictures does that thing take?” Toby asked.

“Uh,” Remy looked at it. “Thirty. We’re down to sixteen. Why?”

“I brought my digital camera,” Toby said. “It was a bit of an expensive investment, but it’s been paying off. I would love to get some more pictures with you guys after this one, but we don’t have to wait for all of them to develop and mail them. Although, I will probably periodically mail you guys pictures just because, and Christmas cards would be a delight.”

“Oh, I was expecting you’d come over here at Christmas,” Remy said.

“Provided I can convince our parents I’m not seeing you, of course I can. But the way Mom bragged about stalking you? I’m unsure if I want to take that chance.”

“We can always celebrate New Year’s and Remy’s birthday and Christmas at once,” Emile offered with a shrug. “Come over the thirty-first, it could be fun.”

“Oh, of course!” Toby exclaimed.

“Picture now, future plans later!” Remy interrupted. “I want a picture where I’m genuinely smiling for the album!”

Toby laughed and Emile grinned. They gathered around Remy and Remy held the camera up and out, pressing the button as all of them grinned. “Here’s hoping that turned out well,” Remy said, putting the camera down.

“Don’t worry, if it didn’t, I’ll just take a dozen more,” Toby laughed.

Remy grinned and Emile realized this weekend was just what all of them needed.

[storiesbyjes2g]

Genetics & Story Summary

Genetics

Even though we all know Melany looks nothing like Kameron, she doesn’t look exactly like Brytani either. Like, most of the time, I don’t feel like I’m looking at a younger Brytani. But they look so much alike I can’t tell what the differences are. Last night I decided to find out how they are different. I found Brytani in another save and aged her down. I aged Kameron down and took off his beard and skin details so we can really see him. I also took away Mel’s details even though they don’t change her much. I made a picture with them all side-by-side to compare.

How about I never really realized Melany had a dimpled chin! And, how cool is it to learn Kameron gave it to her! (I feel like she should write a song about him called Dimpled Chin lol) I’m guessing her cheeks come from him because Noemi also has high, cute chubby cheeks as well. Mel’s face seems to be a little longer than Brytani’s, also compliments of Kameron, but I knew that one already. There is something about their eyes though. I can’t really tell what it is, but they are not the same. Are Brytani’s wider or something?

As far as skin tone goes, Mel is right in the middle, a shade darker than Brytani and a shade lighter than Kameron. I still think it’s funny how EA measures what is light and dark, but we won’t get into that in this post...or maybe ever lol.

Story Summary

This may get long, so I’ll put it under the cut.

Recently I welcomed my new followers and told you about my story. I appreciate everyone who has hopped on for the ride! 😘 So many of you have joined in on this silly little legacy drama, and I don’t want anyone to be lost. I’m going to catch you up so you know who everyone is and what’s going on because I don’t expect you to go back to the beginning, although it doesn’t take very long. I did that a few months ago. It was fun!

Ok! So you’ve met Melany and her parents. Kameron started this whole thing as my guy to save Strangerville. Afterward, I figured I would continue playing with him and give him a much deserved good life. He had the world famous celebrity aspiration, so he started hanging out in DSV and rubbing shoulders with celebrities. That’s how he met Brytani Cho and thus creating our dear, sweet Melany. But, Brytani is not about that relationship life, and things fizzled after he attempted to propose to her.

It didn’t take long for her to leave. Bye Felicia.

Kameron and Melany left Strangerville for a new life in Oasis Springs. He joined the intelligence branch of the military and moved up the ranks. It was tough being a single dad, but he made it work.

Brytani was hyper-focused on her career and made very little time for Melany, and Kameron held that against her. Needless to say, their relationship was never the same, and co-parenting was no walk in the park. Melany, however, attempted to make the best of her mother’s visits, though she wished she visited more often.

Eventually Kameron moved on completely and began dating. He had a few flings and a few dates, but when he met Nadia, he was like a moth to flame.

They messed around a lot, and it didn’t take long for him to ask her to be his girlfriend. They dated for a while before he asked her to move in. He needed to see how things would work with her and Melany. It delighted Kameron to see how well they took to each other. I mean, Melany was an exceptional kid. Who wouldn’t love her? Nadia did and took her role in Kameron and Melany’s lives very seriously once she understood the family dynamics.

Nadia’s pregnancy and the engagement happened around the same time. They had a son named Nathaniel Courtney Pierson, whom they call Nate. Life was very busy with a new baby, new house, and new city (Willow Creek). Once life settled down a little, they were married in Sulani.

It should be noted that Melany began playing the violin at a young age. Kameron took her to El Selvadorada once, and it rained almost the whole time. She was going through a loud phase and picked up the violin; she loved it. She completed all 5 child aspirations which gave her a boost at learning adult skills. By the time she was a teenager, she had maxed the violin skill and had written her first song! She also started a SimTube channel. Between her two celebrity parents and the videos, she was a 4 star celebrity by her teen birthday.

Teen life for Melany was pretty average—aside from the celebrity madness. She had a group of friends she loved. She was on top of her studies and made A’s. She didn’t give her parents any trouble.The only complaint she has was with her mother. Brytani retired and came around more often, but still not often enough. By this time, Melany’s little sister, Noemi Amiah Pierson, was born, and she saw what she missed by not having two parents in the same house. Nadia was an excellent step-mother. Melany didn’t want for anything, and she loved and appreciated her. But she had a mother. Why couldn’t Brytani be like Nadia? Was something wrong with her? Did Brytani love her at all? She was secretly jealous of her young siblings, and those feelings ate away at her. She became withdrawn, cried a lot and made angry videos, but it didn’t help. Brytani was still a deadbeat mom. Melany expressed her frustrations once, but Brytani couldn’t make her feel better. She wasn’t the motherly type and thought Melany would be fine with Nadia not realizing the girl just needed her mom.

Things got slightly better in their relationship, but this would always be a thing between them. Even now, long after Brytani’s death, Melany still feels conflicted about their relationship.

The Piersons moved to Sulani. Melany aged up and went to Britechester University to study Fine Arts. She stayed in the dorms her first semester and had two roommates. That’s how she met her current best friend, Dr. Anissa Thurston. She studied biology and felt a connection with Melany immediately. Being a popular celebrity, Anissa knew everyone would be all over her and act weird. She just saw a fellow freshman nervous about being in a new place and hoping everything would be ok and made it her business to befriend Melany. Little did she know their shared Bailey Kay fandom would create a near indestructible bond.

Like any overprotective father, Kameron struggled with Melany going to college. He wanted her to stay at home for the first semester. And, as one could imagine, he was not ready for boys. Luckily, he made a friend in an elderly gentleman named Myron Churchill. He never had an older friend who could advise him from experience—a father figure. Mr. Churchill’s friendship became precious to him and helped a great deal.

Melany met Nick Wilkinson at a party. She felt uncomfortable about the outfit her friend made her wear on top of everyone looking at and whispering about her being a celebrity and all. Nick approached her and started a conversation. He made her feel better and was terribly cute. All they did was talk, but he definitely left an impression on her.

Brytani died, and Melany withdrew from school for the rest of the year. Nick called to see how she was and to express his condolences, and that’s how their friendship began. He was a huge movie buff and studying drama at Foxbury Institute to become an actor. He also was a huge nerd and avid gamer. Melany is also a gamer as Kameron was a gamer geek and raised her on video games and sci-fi. They were “friends” for a long time before he asked her out. After dancing around each other for so long, it didn’t take long for them to begin an official relationship.

They graduated, and Melany goes back home to Sulani to figure out the rest of her life. At this point she had written and licensed 7 songs and had a few small performances. She loved performing but wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a full blown artist like her idol, Bailey Kay. Also, up until this point she had only been a musician. Few know this, but Melany is also a singer. She keeps it private, but the girl is talented. Despite this talent, she never considered being a singer or writing lyrics to her songs. But sometimes she hears words in her head. They repeat themselves and won’t go away, so she began writing them down. After having this experience a few times, she felt her music life changing and needed professional advice and reached out to Bailey Kay (after much coaxing from friends and family) who gave her some wise words.

Eventually, Melany decided to live in Brytani’s mansion in Willow Creek which she inherited. The thought of living there used to give her pause, but she wanted to be closer to Nick and her friends because traveling from Sulani to San Myshuno and Del Sol Valley was getting to be too much. Besides, she was a grown woman now and needed to get on with her life. Also, she felt like she caused the problems Kameron and Nadia had briefly in their marriage. She invited Anissa to live there as her roommate because she didn’t want to live alone and wasn’t ready to have Nick move in yet. But, soon after, he approached her about the idea and she agreed it was an excellent idea.

That’s pretty much where we are now. Melany and Nick are living their best lives together. Nick is a dynamic actor and getting more popular by the day. Anissa finally got a job as a doctor and is looking forward to dating since getting over the breakup...that Melany caused. Yikes. We’ll hear from her about that soon, so I won’t steal her thunder, but I will say it almost ruined their friendship!

I hope this was helpful for the newcomers and nostalgic for the OGs. If you have questions along the way, just ask! 

[ramblingthoughtsofayoungadult]

Reality Check-Euphoria Imagine

Requested: No Warnings: mentions of trauma and a scene of an attempted sexual assault

A/N: I’m back from a super long break! I am so sorry I have not been able to update this blog since I started grad school but I have a bit of a break to write a bit. I just finished Euphoria so after this imagine, I’ll get started on the requests.

I own nothing from Euphoria and do not claim to own anything

Gif is from:geek-ramblings

Everything in italics in the story is Rue’s narration

Y/N Y/L/N wanted to be a princess for as long as she could remember. It didn’t hurt that every Disney movie and other piece of media designed for little girls endorsed this dream. One of those movies was the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Whitney Houston, Brandi, Whoopi Goldberg, and Victor Garber. It was the first time Y/N saw a princess who looked like her and it solidified that her dreams were possible. She watched that movie every day for three years and knows the soundtrack by heart. When her older cousin, McKay, irritated her, she would belt “Impossible/It’s Possible” at the top of her lungs in retaliation. While McKay was pushed to his limits on the football field, Y/N would twirl around in her living room during the ballroom sequence, pretending as though she had a dashing partner who would whisk her away. Her parents didn’t mind this dream since it suggested that she was as “normal” as a little girl could be. Eventually, Y/N’s mother put her in dance classes so that she could learn how to be graceful and dance with real people. Y/N fell in love with dancing since it gave her a way to express herself without speaking. Y/N was one of the sweetest people ever, but she was so shy and nervous, and I didn’t get it. Once she got comfortable, she actually had some things to say and a decent sense of humor. What she rarely let anyone know was she still dreamed of finding her prince, even though East Highland was overrun with frogs. In middle school, Y/N focused on studying and dancing while everyone else was practice dating (ie talking for a few hours on Facebook Messenger and avoiding eye contact in the hallway save a few nervous glances). She was hopeful that she would meet her prince in high school since that’s how it worked in the movies and what her older cousins had her believe. Y/N learned quickly that high was not like the movies and did not entertain herself with frivolous things, something Maddy called her out on at lunch one day.

  “I’m right so don’t even try to fight me about it,” Maddy affirmed from across the table.

  The cafeteria was busy and smelled of semi-fresh food and bubblegum. Y/N, Maddy, Cassie, BB, and Kat sat at their usual table. Y/N paused mid-bite into her cucumber sandwich and closed her mouth as soon as she realized it was hanging open.

  “What?”

  “You don’t do anything outside of school and dance team unless we drag you out and that needs to change,” Maddy insisted.

  “I do other things,” Y/N said hesitantly.

 “Yeah, like what? And it can’t be anything that you would use for college!”

   Y/N racked her brain for a few moments. “Well, I watch movies and I read----”

  “Fun things!” Maddy interrupted.

  “Like gettin’  d-ck,” BB added.

  Y/N’s face warmed up and she looked away from BB. “B, why’d you have to say it like that?”

  “Well, at the end of the day, all that romance sh-t you’re into is just a pretty form of foreplay.”

  “No, it’s not, they’re displays of affection and they’re beautiful. I know you all think romance is dead but I can’t and I don’t want to settle for that.” Y/N nodded her head in the direction of a table of guys who were concocting potions by mixing up the lunch of day with milk.

  Cassie grabbed Y/N’s hand. “No one would expect you of all people to settle, but you haven’t dated anyone and there are some good guys in this town if not in this school. We just want to see you happy.”

 Y/N could tell that Cassie was being sincere by the look in her eyes, all her friends were, but they also knew why Y/N behaved a certain way. The summer before eighth grade, Y/N saw the texts on her mom’s phone between her and a man that was not Y/N’s dad. It sickened her to her core, and she had no idea how to process it. Suddenly, her parents’ nightly arguments coupled with her mother’s late returns from nights out with “a friend” made more sense. She did not tell either of them that she knew and kept quiet about it. If she did not acknowledge it, she thought it would go away. She threw herself into dancing and studying, which did not raise any eyebrows. One night, Y/N, Maddy, Cassie, Lexi, and I went to the movies to see a Twilight movie. When she stepped out to get a popcorn refill, she saw her mother standing on the other side of the theater, smiling and flirting with a man who had to be in his seventies. Y/N managed to keep it together until we got back to Cassie and Lexie’s, where she broke down and told us everything. We hugged her and tried to calm her down, but there was nothing we could say that would repair her heart. Y/N’s mom officially stopped cheating when Y/N was fifteen but by then, the damage was already done. Her parents wanted to work on their marriage but neglected their child’s emotional and mental wellbeing since Y/N was so good and pretending she was fine. Her grades were excellent, she was the youngest co-captain of East Highland High’s dance team, and she stayed out of trouble. But if you really look at her, you can see the heartbreak in her big, coffee-colored eyes. Despite this, Y/N was convinced that there was a great guy out there for her, but she was extremely reluctant to date. She prayed that college would be better than high school and she would find the courage to date then.

  “I love and appreciate your guys’ concern so much, but I am not about to give up my,” Y/N paused and glanced around the cafeteria before whispering, “virginity just to fit in, no offense.”

  “Come on, Y/N, you may look and act all pure but you have to be dying to know what good d-ck feels like,” Maddy whined.

  She had been, Y/N was human and not a total saint after all.

  “I can wait, really.”

  “So, have you just not been interested in any guys? I know plenty who are interested in you,” Cassie added.

 “What?” Y/N was baffled by the loaded statement.

 “Come on, Y/N, you know you’re hot,” Kat said.

  “Your legs go up to your neck, Sis,” BB blurted as she nibbled on a Twizzler.

 “Your face is basically perfectly symmetrical, it disgusts me,” Maddy said, emphasizing her statement with hand gestures.

  Y/N chuckled nervously under the attention. “Thanks, guys.”

  “But, is there anyone that interests you?”

  Y/N glanced down at the tops of her metallic rose gold sandals. “No, not really.”

  That was a total f-cking lie. Since fourth grade, Y/N harbored a crush on Nate that was fueled by when he shoved Caleb Parker after Caleb shoved Y/N during a game of tag in gym class. When Nate helped her stand on her feet, he was basically her knight in shining armor. Nate fit Y/N’s type perfectly: tall, dark hair, dark eyes, killer smile, and kind. Y/N never said anything, but anyone could tell just by observing the way she looked at him and the fact that she could never string together a decent sentence around him. This did not stop her from daydreaming about him and watching him from afar. She thought that maybe she could impress him with her dancing, and he would be forced to make a move. Y/N paid close attention to what Nate liked and disliked about girls, leading to religious mani-pedis and waxing. I tried to talk her out of it freshman year, but I can’t blame her for ignoring a junkie’s advice. When Maddy and Nate started dating, Y/N tried to cut off her attraction to Nate because she loved Maddy like a sister. She stopped pining after him but wished that she had a tenth of the confidence Maddy had.

  “That’s it, we’re going to a party on Friday and you are going to meet a guy,” Maddy demanded.

  “What?”

  “Relax, you don’t have to sleep with him…unless you want to.” BB wiggled her eyebrows and Maddy, Cassie, and Kat burst into giggles.

 “I think I can start off with kissing.”

 “Have you even kissed a guy?” BB shot back.

 “Yes, I have.”

 In second grade, Travis Williams was double-dared to kiss Y/N on the playground. She knew that he wasn’t her prince charming since he produced too much saliva, and he was dared to do it. It gave her a weird complex about how attractive she was since no one really approached her. Sure, there were guys at parties but they just wanted something warm to slide into, not a real relationship.

 After practice, Y/N and Maddy sat across from each other with their legs spread out, pulling each other back and forth to stretch.

 “You really went in with this number, my legs are still killing me,” Maddy moaned as Y/N tugged her hands.

  “Well, Alia wants to do something super impressive for homecoming; it’s not my fault she was so inspired by Homecoming.” Y/N relaxed her back while Maddy gently pulled Y/N’s arms towards her.

   She relished in the stretch as her muscles released. Alia had tasked her with working on the homecoming choreography a month ago and the only requirement was it had to be set to Beyoncé’s “Diva/Everybody Mad” mix. It was tricky choreography, complete with acrobatics and lifts, but it would be entertaining.

  “Well, we better do Beyonce well because she deserves nothing but the best.” Maddy’s expression dropped.

  “What’s wrong?” Y/N turned and saw Nate heading towards them. He was so gorgeous even though he was in a black t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. His hair looked perfect for finger-combing and Y/N could just see his muscles flexing with every step he took.

  Y/N could never relax around Nate, even though she tried everything----slowing her breathing, counting backwards from twenty, and imagining him with food poisoning since no one looks good with that. But nothing worked, nothing ever worked, and she was forced to do whatever she could think of in the moment.

   “Hey, Y/N,” Nate greeted.

   “Hi,” Y/N breathed.

   “Maddy,” he looked at her and Maddy rolled her eyes.

   “What?”

   “Are you done stretching? I’m giving you a ride and we can’t be late, remember?”

   “Well, it doesn’t really matter since I always take too f-cking long to get ready.”

   Nate sighed. “Maddy, I didn’t mean it…”

   “I can go,” Y/N volunteered meekly, suddenly very aware that she was still sweaty from practice and needed to shower.

   “No, Y/N, stay,” Maddy said, “stay so you can hear the bullsh-t he comes up with.”

   They argued for about five minutes, all of which Y/N used to make herself as small as possible. She knew they had a dysfunctional relationship and that was the last thing Y/N wanted, she’d seen how they worked. If the couple weren’t arguing with each other, they would rant about the other person to a friend. Maddy did it all the time, but she was nowhere near as bad as Y/N’s dad. Her dad spoke explicitly about Y/N’s mother’s activities when things were really bad. It was always late at night and Y/N was not always sleeping over at someone’s house. Her father would rant for hours and force Y/N to sit there and listen. Whenever she tried to ask him to stop, he would say, “Tell your mother to stop, she did this. I didn’t do anything!”. Y/N cried a lot more than she would let anyone know. She wanted so badly to be whisked away from East Highland, preferably by a tall, handsome prince who would take care of all of her worries. She would be comfortable around him and feel loved. After Maddy and Nate’s argument, Y/N was able to slip away and go home.

  Y/N stepped out of a relaxing shower when she heard the low rumbling that started before every argument. The walls of her room felt closer than usual and she could easily run her hands over the lavender and white checked wallpaper. Everything felt so far away and she felt much smaller than five-foot-nine. Y/N slowly curled into a ball on her bed and shook as the rumbling grew higher.

  “Please stop,” she whispered.

  It persisted.

  “Please, please stop,” she repeated.

  Y/N kept repeating herself for so long that she did not know how long it took before her parents burst into her room. Her mother wrapped her up in arms and rocked her while her dad tried to get her to talk.

  “What’s the problem?” he asked.

  “The fighting, it’s loud,” she whispered.

  “Well, you can’t react like this every time we have an argument, Y/N. You’ll fall apart as an adult,” Mr. Y/L/N affirmed.

   “Dinner is almost ready,” Mrs. Y/L/N said and kissed her forehead.  

  When they left the room, Y/N felt dejected and uninterested in food. Just as she was about to start lotioning, her phone dinged. It was Maddy.

   Maddy: Football party’s on Friday. UR GOING.

 It wasn’t a difficult decision for Y/N to make. Her parents gave her a generous curfew since Y/N wouldn’t go out every weekend. But her parents didn’t care how she felt so they shouldn’t care about what she did for once. And if they didn’t care, then why should she? It wasn’t like she going to engage in an orgy or something.

   Y/N: You had me at football.

   Scott Callahan’s giant house was filled with smoke and strobing lights on Friday night. People were dancing and drinking half-naked in his front lawn and inside was another kind of pandemonium. There was every kind of expensive alcohol one could imagine scattered throughout the house, marijuana, Percocet, molly, and cocaine. Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” was blasting through the surround-sound speakers and people were either dancing, grinding, or making out to it. Y/N arrived at the party with Jules and Rue. Hours prior, Y/N gave Jules free reign to do whatever she wanted with her makeup.

 “Ugh, I have been waiting ever since we met for this moment. No, maybe even before then,” Jules said as she swiped silver glitter around Y/N’s eyes.

  Cassie, Maddy, BB, and Kat already helped Y/N pick out an outfit a day before via Facetime: a shiny silver mini dress with platforms. Y/N had been nervous as Jules helped her do her makeup and put some waves in her shoulder-length dark hair. But the finished product made her look like a totally different person.

  “Is that me?” Y/N had whispered as she stared at herself in the mirror.

  Jules rest her chin on Y/N’s shoulder. “Yes, it is, the shinier version.”

  “You look good, Y/N,” Rue complimented.

  “Thanks, Rue. Are you sure you’re okay with me drinking tonight? I feel so weird and guilty.”

  “Yes, it’s fine,” Rue had insisted. “I just got out of rehab and I don’t wanna go back.”

  “And I don’t want you to, either,” Jules added.

  Y/N agreed.

  Y/N still felt weird about drinking around Rue once they arrived at the party,  but Rue insisted that Y/N and Jules have fun. Several guys stared as Y/N walked past, but that could have been attributed to Jules’ neon green corset dress with matching hair or Rue’s tie-dye ensemble. When they reached the kitchen, they found Kat and BB doing tequila shots. Their eyes lit up at the trio.

  “Finally, you’re here!” Kat hugged Rue, Jules, and Y/N.

 “Did you miss us?” Jules teased.

  “Little bit. You guys want a shot?”

  “I’m DD-ing, or DR-ing since it’s a bike,” Rue said.

  “Or DB-ing, for bicycling,” Y/N added.

  BB poured Jules and Y/N shots and handed them over. They cheered before downing the alcohol. The tequila burned down Y/N’s throat and Y/N fought the urge to cough. She’d had alcohol before but she did not drink as often as her friends. Y/N immediately felt the liquid courage coursing through her as she slid her shot glass towards BB.

  “Another one?” BB arched an eyebrow.

 “Are you complaining?”

 “Not at all, you look hot by the way.”

 “Thanks.”

  “I did her makeup,” Jules said.

 Y/N laughed and continued drinking.

  I watched as her third shot became her fifth, and then Jules made them both screwdrivers and she made them strong. I’d only seen Y/N drunk once and that was at freshman winter formal. Maddy convinced her that Gatorade and Everclear were a good mix. She was tripping over herself for most of the night, so there was no telling what she might do.

 “Crap, I forgot to tell you, Maddy and Nate broke up again,” Kat said.

 “Why?” Y/N asked.

 “Stupid same old bullsh-t, probably,” Rue said.

“Where is Maddy, anyway?”

 “Last I knew, she was outside with Cassie,” BB said.

 Y/N finished her screwdriver. “Let’s go, then.”

 Y/N was surprisingly agile as she weaved her way through the crowd and lead the way outside. Maddy and Cassie were easy to spot since they were standing by the lounge chairs and rolling their eyes at every guy who tried to talk to them.

 “Maddy, Cassie!” Y/N announced.

 They both looked up and smiled at her.

 “Y/N, you look amazing,” Cassie said.

 “Thanks, and you look great as per usual.”

 “You’ve been drinking,” Cassie said.

 Y/N nodded.

 Cassie and Maddy greeted Rue, Jules, Kat, and BB.

 “Hey, I’m sorry about Nate,” Y/N said.

  “It’s fine, I don’t need him and I could get any guy here I want. Besides, it gives me the chance to focus more on getting you a guy,” Maddy said.

  “Oh, Maddy, don’t worry about me.”

  “No, that’s why we’re here. Now, let’s do some shots and scope!”

  The shots were easy but finding a good guy was not. Y/N was officially drunk and giggled a lot whenever the guys Maddy or Cassie found spoke to her. Y/N would push the guys she didn’t like away, which was the majority of them.

 “Alright, you rejected eight dudes, why?” Maddy asked over City Girls’ “Act Up”.

  “Well, one had horrible halitsosissss and another kept talking about how he had never been with a black girl before.”

  “Which one said the last thing?” Cassie asked.

  Y/N shrugged and drank more beer. “Seriously, do not worry about me, guys, I’m fine, I just wanna have fun.”

 “Yes, fun!” an equally inebriated Jules commented.

 At that moment, Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” started playing and Jules and Y/N screamed in unison.

 “I love this song!” Y/N exclaimed.

 “Me too!” Jules said.

 “Let’s dance!” Y/N turned to the rest of the girls and extended her hand. “You have to join us, it’s Lizzo, it’s basically law.”

 “Yeah, basically law,” Jules echoed.

 The others couldn’t argue, and they all moved to the dancefloor, which was really the living room. Jules twirled Rue around even though Rue was reluctant, and BB started grinding on some basketball player. Meanwhile, Maddy, Cassie, and Y/N alternated between shouting the lyrics and moving their hips to the beat.

 Dance truly set Y/N free, but the song also helped. There was something about Lizzo’s voice and choice of beat that made Y/N want to dance and never stop. She would move her arms and hands and feel more fluid than water. For once, she wasn’t calculating each step and making sure she was on beat, she was simply reacting to the music.

 Towards the end of the song, Y/N muttered that she was going outside to Cassie and slipped away from the circle. Y/N found herself enjoying the fresh air and giggled to herself when she saw a couple going to second base by the pool.

 “Y/N, I didn’t think you was into watchin’ people,” Fez teased.

 He was sitting on a beach chair in a corner a few yards away from the back door. He was wearing a navy, yellow, and red Coogi sweater with jeans. He was fully reclined in his chair and smoking a joint.

 “You don’t know a lot of things about me,” Y/N shot back as she walked towards him.

 She plopped down on the seat across from him and tried to steady herself.

 “You good, Y/N?”

 “Yeah, just drank a lot more than usual.” Y/N eyed Fez’s joint. “You know, in all this time I’ve known you, you’ve never offered me drugs.”

 “No disrespect, I just didn’t think you’d be into it, didn’t seem like the type.”

 “Oh yeah? Then what do I seem like?” Y/N leaned towards Fez and arched her back a little.

 Fez blew some smoke away from Y/N and tried not to stare at her. “You…you look like the type to stay away from this stuff and even me.”

  Y/N laughed and shooed the thought away. “How could I stay away from you, Fez? You have the best snacks at the gas station. Plus, I like talking to you.”

 “Really?”

 “Yeah, you have an interesting but simple way of looking at things.”

 Fez looked as though he was thinking for a long moment as he smoked his joint. “I knew I liked you for a reason. You act all quiet and nervous usually but you got a lot to say and say it in a good way.” He extended the joint towards Y/N. “Be careful.”

 Y/N focused as hard as she could to grab the joint with two fingers. She’d only smoked once with Rue and Rue was the one to drag her over to Fezco to get the weed. Y/N remembered coughing a lot, but she knew how to avoid that. She took two long drags before handing the joint back to Fez.

 “Thanks, Fez. We should talk more later.”

 “Sure, if you feelin’ up to it. I’m here all night.”

 Y/N stumbled back into the house, her full intentions to find her friends. Then, she heard the beginning strains of Kanye West’s “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” and she smiled to herself. She started spinning around in time to the music, twisting her arms up and down as she did. Her hips began to sway gently to the rhythm. She ran her hands through her hair and exhaled.

 Y/N was lost again and wrapped up in the beat. She usually did not drop low outside of the comfort of her bedroom, but the alcohol mixed with the weed mixed with the great music made her think differently. She was free and everyone else around her was free. There was nothing to worry about and she could let go of her inhibitions. It didn’t matter that none of the guys at the party were her type nor really interested her, she was having too much fun. But little did Y/N know that someone had their eye on her since she started dancing to “Truth Hurts”.

 Y/N felt someone push up against her from behind, followed by hands slink around her hips. Her eyes fluttered open and she covered the large hands with her own. “Sorry, I don’t----" She stopped when she made eye contact with Nate. “I’m high,” she muttered.

 “I don’t know about that, but you’ve definitely been drinking.”

 Y/N tried to ignore the way his gravelly voice made her stomach drop to her heels or how she felt like everything was throbbing. She shook her head and backed away from him. “I can’t…you just broke up with Maddy.”

 “Y/N, please don’t.” Nate looked worried as he took cautious steps towards her.

 Unbeknownst to Y/N, and everyone else, Nate had a fascination with her that bordered on obsession. He noticed her in fourth grade and how much she got excited about reading and history lessons. Even then, Nate thought Y/N was innocent and so quiet. He was curious about her but never really approached her until that day in gym. That day was a godsend so that he could show off how strong he was and get her to talk. All he got was a “Thanks” and “I’m okay”. Nate was disappointed, but he didn’t stop looking out for her. He made sure none of the football players went after her, which McKay appreciated but he thought Nate was doing it as a friend. No, Nate was doing it because he knew that football players were animals and Y/N was high above them. Maddy was too but Maddy was different .She was so much more confident and bold than Y/N was, and she was a virgin when Nate asked her out. But Maddy liked to fight with him and test him and Y/N wouldn’t do that----she was too sweet and would most likely want to resolve everything as quickly as possible. So, she was unofficially his and Y/N had no idea.

 Y/N kept shaking her head as tears welled up in her eyes. “I can’t do this, Maddy’s like a sister to me.”

“Y/N, breathe, please.” Nate took another step and when Y/N didn’t move, he got close enough to grab her forearms and rub them soothingly. “You’re allowed to dance with me, all we did was dance.”

 “That was not dancing, I’m a dancer, I would know.” Y/N tilted her head back to will the tears away.

 “You look beautiful, seriously. Don’t cry.” He tried to touch her face, but Y/N backed away.

 “Thank you, but I think we should stop talking.”

 “You always look beautiful, especially when your hair is down, it frames your face nicely.” He brushed some hair off her shoulder.

 “Nate, stop.” A tear rolled down her cheek.

 “Y/N, what’s wrong?”

 “I know you’re doing this to make Maddy jealous, it’s what you always do, it’s the same game!” Y/N cried, but it was masked by the music. “I’m…I’m not going to be your pawn in this weird game, Nate. I deserve better than that.”

 Nate reached out and cupped the side of her face in one hand. “Oh, Y/N, you would never be a pawn and I’m not playing with you. Maddy’s not gonna care if you dance with me, she’s not even here.”

 Y/N glanced around the room and didn’t see Maddy anywhere. She suddenly got a sinking feeling and looked back at Nate. “I’m just not comfortable with doing anything with you, she’s my friend.”

 “And I would never want to ruin that and I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable; I just wanted a chance to dance with the prettiest girl at the party.”  

 Y/N snapped her eyes to him. “You think I’m the prettiest girl here?”

 Nate nodded. “But if you don’t want to dance with me…”

 “Fine, one dance.” Y/N held up her pointer finger for emphasis. “And we’re done.”

 “Deal.”

 “Good.”

 The song changed to “One Dance” and Y/N was stiff for a moment. She never really did partner dancing and was lost. Nate sensed this, grabbed one of her hands, and spun her around. She laughed and swiveled her hips to the beat. Nate continued twirling her around and watched Y/N move to the music. When he spun her out again, Nate pulled her back in and held her close. Y/N did everything in her power to fight to gnawing desire to melt into his embrace. He felt so strong and protective. Y/N stared at the collar of his t-shirt to avoid eye contact and kept her hands on his chest.

  “This isn’t fair,” she whispered.

  “What isn’t fair?”   “I’ve had a crush on you since elementary school and the time you decide you want me, it’s just after your break up with one of my best friends.” Y/N buried her head in her hands. “I’m such a bad friend, I should go.”

 Nate held her there and stared her down. “Go and do what?”

 “Um, find my friends.”

“And then what?”

“Dance?”

“Just like you’re dancing with me?”

 “No, not this close and you know that.” Y/N stepped back. “We should stop.”

 “But, you said you’ve liked me for a long time.”

 “I did, but I want to be a good friend. I’m sorry, Nate.”

Y/N really didn’t want to, but she pulled away from Nate. She couldn’t believe she’d spent a whole song dancing so close with her friend’s ex. Maddy would kill her if she found out. Maybe if Y/N told her first, things would not be as bad.

“If we can’t dance, can we at least talk?”

Y/N hesitated but nodded slowly.

Nate grabbed her hand and led her upstairs. A few coked out people and couples pushed past them and Y/N felt more and more nervous. They found an empty bedroom and Nate closed the door behind them. The room was dark and Y/N found a light.

 “So, what did you want to talk about?” she made herself comfortable on the bed.

Nate sat next to her and clasped his hands together. “Things with Maddy and me have always been f-ckin’ crazy and they will always be. She always wants to fight when there shouldn’t be a fight.”

“If you wanted to complain to someone about your ex, you could have found someone who wasn’t her friend.”

 “Stop, what I’m saying is I don’t like it, it’s exhausting, and…and we bring out the worst in each other. But you, I don’t think you would do that to me.” He glanced down at Y/N’s hands. “You’re kind and you want the best for everyone.”

 “I try.”

“You would never want to hurt anyone on purpose and you listen, you really listen, and I feel like I could tell you anything.”

 Y/N nodded.

 “The truth is, I’ve liked you since fourth grade too, but I never asked you out because you seemed disinterested.”

 “How’d you get that?”

 “Whenever I tried to talk to you, you wouldn’t talk and I thought that meant you didn’t like me. So, I started going out with Maddy because she was clear about that, but now, I think we could be something.”

 “Just like that? But what about my friends? Maddy and I have the same friends and I don’t want to hurt Maddy.”

“You can make new friends and you’ll have me.” Nate leaned closer to Y/N. “C’mon, Y/N, you know you want this. You’re always thinking of other people, be selfish for once.”

 In that strange bedroom, with the guy she had been crushing on for so long begging her to do something to him, Y/N was at an impasse. She loved Maddy like a sister and didn’t want to divide the group, but Nate was making so many good points. The only reason she did well in school was to please her parents and the only reason she would go out was to please her friends. She didn’t do anything to please herself and this was her chance.

Nate leaned closer to Y/N and looked up at her for confirmation. Y/N closed her eyes and relished in the feeling of Nate’s lips against hers. They were slightly chapped but he knew how to use them, applying pressure in the right places at the right times. His hands went to her waist and Y/N wrapped hers around his neck. He slid her into his lap and Y/N gasped.

 “Did I scare you?” he whispered.

 “A little,” Y/N murmured.

 He rubbed her sides and kept kissing her, adding tongue. Y/N shyly tapped her tongue against his and he smirked into it. He rolled his hips underneath her and Y/N gasped at the shocking feeling, pulling away.

 “Does it feel good?”

 Y/N nodded.

 “Say it.”

 “Yes.”

 “Yes, what?”

 “Yes, it feels good.”

 Nate nipped at her neck and Y/N moaned out, grinding down on him. Nate’s hands tensed around her hips. “You’re so hot,” he whispered in her ear.

 Y/N laughed.

 “Seriously, I’ve thought about what this would be like, what we would be like.”

 “And?”

 “And, so far, it’s better than I thought.” He kissed down to her collarbone and palmed her chest. “I’ve thought about these.”  “Really? But they’re so small.”

 “No, they’re just right.” He bit the base of her neck and Y/N hissed. “I’ve also thought about your legs, how they distract me during practice when you guys are outside. They’re so soft but firm.”

  Nate kissed her again and pinned her on the bed. Y/N gasped as she felt one of Nate’s hands trail up her dress. Her mind was jumbled up and she didn’t know what to think. Everything he did felt so good, he knew just where to kiss and nip. He looked at her with full-blown lust in his eyes. Maybe Y/N had finally found the prince she’d been waiting for, but he was always there.

 Then, his hand went a little too high. She squirmed and shook her head.

 “Nate, that’s a little too much.”

 “What?”

 “I said it’s a little too much,” she repeated louder.

 “I thought you liked it, don’t you want this? Isn’t this what you’ve always thought about?” Nate tangled his hand in her underwear.

 “Nate, stop, I don’t want to do this.”

 “You weren’t acting that way earlier.”

 “Nate, please, stop.”

 “You don’t want me to stop.”

 “Yes, I do, please!”

  Y/N tried to push him away but Nate pinned her down. He rolled his hips into hers and Y/N turned away, tears falling down her cheeks.

 “Do you feel how much I want you? I’d do just about anything to have you.”

 “Nate, stop!”

 “Shut up!” Nate growled.

 One of his hands let go of her wrist and wrapped around her neck. He had a death grip on her neck and Y/N started gasping for air.

 “Don’t pretend like you didn’t want this? Like you weren’t dancing on me, begging for it? You were jealous that Maddy got me whenever she wanted. You wanted me all for yourself just like I want you.”

  Y/N wanted to scream at him, tell him he was wrong about everything, but was he? When Maddy talked about sex with him, Y/N would feel pangs of guilt and jealousy for wanting to trade places with her. Most of all, she wanted Nate to get off her. She wanted Nate to leave her alone forever. When she looked at him, the sweet fourth grade boy was gone and replaced by a full grown monster. Why was she getting monsters when she wanted princes? What did she do to deserve this?

  Nate unzipped his jeans and tears kept flowing down Y/N’s face, ruining Jules’ masterpiece. He kept his eyes trained on her and Y/N was losing oxygen, she couldn’t think to move any of her muscles. Just as he was about to push in her, someone banged on the door.

 “Occupied!” Nate yelled over his shoulder.

 “Whatever.”

 Nate turned back and looked down at Y/N, shaking and crying. He leaned down and whispered, “Don’t make a sound.”  He released his grasp on her neck and pinned her wrists again. Y/N’s throat felt numb and she couldn’t do anything. She inhaled through her nose and before Nate could thrust, she took gathered all her strength to knee him. Nate groaned and rolled onto his side, releasing her wrists. Y/N scrambled to her feet, unlocked the door, and ran outside. People in the hallway looked at her bewildered. Y/N nearly fell down the stairs and ran into Rue.

 “Y/N, what happened?” she asked.

 Y/N gasped for a moment before burying her face in Rue’s shoulder and crying, full-on, heaving, shoulder-shaking crying. Rue held her close and ran her hands through her hair. “Nate,” was the only word she managed to get out.

 Before Rue could only see Red, Fez approached them. “Hey, I’m about to head out if you wanted a ride. What’s up?”

 “I think Nate tried to do something to Y/N,” Rue whispered. “Y/N, could you look at me?”

 Y/N straightened up and Rue and Fezco saw the handprints around her neck. Both of their expressions hardened.

 “Where’s Maddy, Cassie, and Jules?” Rue asked.

 “Right here,” Maddy said as they approached. Her eyes widened at Y/N. “Y/N, what the f-ck happened?”

 Y/N swallowed but winced at the feeling. “Nate tried to rape me,” she rasped out.

 In an instant, Fez and Rue handed Y/N over to Cassie, Maddy, and Jules. Y/N collapsed in their arms and continued crying.

 “Honey, it’s okay, you’re gonna be okay,” Cassie said.

 “Breathe, Y/N, you need to breathe,” Jules muttered.

  “I’m so sorry, Maddy, I’m so sorry,” Y/N said.

  “No, don’t apologize,” Maddy insisted, stroking Y/N’s hair.

  They cleared a couch for Y/N to rest and they continued trying to comfort her. A few seconds later, Nate came tumbling down the stairs, with Rue and Fezco on his heels. Rue was cursing at him while Fezco laid more punches on him. Nate’s face was already bruised and scratched up.

 “It’s not my fault!” Nate spat out. “I told you, she came onto me, she’s been in love with me since fourth grade, she wanted this! Maddy, Y/N’s a bad friend, that’s not my fault.”

 “Don’t even talk to me right now or I swear, Rue and Fezco will have to keep me from killing you,” Maddy hissed.  

 “I’m a bad friend,” Y/N whimpered.

 “No, you’re not,” Maddy, Cassie, and Jules said.

 “I liked him a lot, even when you dated, I liked him and then he…he came onto me, maybe I deserved it.”

 “Y/N, no one deserves to get raped, no one, you did not ask for this,” Jules assured her.

  Y/N turned to lay face up. “Why does everything hurt so much? I just wanted someone to like me since loving me is asking for too much.”

  “No, it’s not,” Cassie hushed.

  “And we love you,” Maddy said.

  “I love you the most,” Jules said.

 Y/N smiled slightly. “But you know what I mean.”

 Y/N loved her friends and appreciated their love, but she wanted the fairytale. She’d convinced herself that maybe she would get some idea of that with Nate but she was so wrong. She wanted the dream and got a nightmare. It was a terrible f-cking way to learn how real life works, but it had to happen. Besides, we’re in high school and the love Y/N truly wanted was impossible to find in high school, especially East Highland. Y/N ended up pressing charges on Nate and that encouraged Maddy to open up about stuff he’d done to her during their relationship. Everything is different with Y/N now, I can see it in her eyes, they aren’t as bright as they used to be. Before the stuff with her mom, they would shimmer and after that, some glints remained. Now, it was like looking in a dark hole and I could guess what she was feeling since I’ve been in that place too----in fact, I’m still in it. I think the saddest part is she always had so much optimism and now it’s gone before she’s twenty and I don’t think she’ll get it back.

[ofendlesswonder]

what would it take to convince you to do all of the dialogue prompts? But if not how about 17 for supercat but with a happy ending if possible?

17. “Love is overrated.”

It’s the first time Kara’s ever been on a Tinder date(only downloading the app after caving to the pressure of her sister and her friends, insisting that she deserved to have some fun), and she thinks it might be the last, because it’s going horribly.

Nate had been nice when they’d been talking online,but in person, he doesn’t seem to be able to stop talking about himself for long enough to ask her anything about herself (unless it’s to proposition her), and Kara’s desperately searching her mind for an excuse to get her out of the bar when his phone rings.

“Sorry, I have to take this,” he says, and Kara nods,flooded with relief and wondering if she could live with herself if she ducked out the front door and hurried home before his return.

“Well, that was the most pitiful thing I’ve witnessedin a long time,” a voice drawls to Kara’s right – it’s both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, one that she’d used to hear every day, but now hasn’t in a long, long time. “Where on earth did you find him?”

Cat Grant slides into the bar stool beside her,looking as perfectly put-together as always, in a sleek blue dress that hugs her in all the right places, her hair, a few inches longer than when she’d leftNational City, curling around her shoulders, green eyes sparkling when they meet Kara’s as she raises a glass of red wine to her lips.

“Ms… Ms Grant?” Kara blinks at Cat in shock, wondering if her date had been so boring that it had put her to sleep, and she’s now dreaming.

“I know I’ve been gone for a while, Kara, but surelyit hasn’t been long enough for you to forget all about me.” Cat’s lips curl into a smirk as she sets her wine down on the bar, looking more relaxed and carefree than Kara thinks she’s ever seen her – stepping down as Press Secretary after a Republican she very much didn’t approve of had been elected seem to agree with her.

“I just didn’t expect to see you here.” Kara swivels onher stool to face Cat, resting an elbow on the smooth wood of the bar and settling her chin in the palm of her hand. “When did you get back?”

“A couple of days ago.”

“For good?”

“For now.” Cat purses her lips as she taps her fingerson the stem of her wine glass. “Until I decide what to do next. And you didn’t answer my question – where did you find Mr tall dark and boring?”

“Tinder.”

“God good, Kara, are your dating prospects really solimited?” Cat looks horrified by the mere thought. “I’m positive that someone that looks like you doesn’t need an app to find a date.”

“Oh.” Kara blushes and looks away from Cat’s gaze,fiddling with the straw in her long-finished cocktail. “Thank you, but I haven’t exactly had much look in the dating department.”

“Yes, well, love is overrated,” Cat replies, tippingher head back as she drains the last of her wine. “So I wouldn’t worry yourself too much about it.”

“Still a cynic?” Kara asks, raising an eyebrow, overjoyed that such a terrible evening had taken a turn for the better. “Didn’t find someone to settle down with in D.C.?”

“God no.” Cat shudders at the thought. “I learned along time ago that I’m much better off alone.”

“Do you not get lonely?” Kara does, sometimes,whenever she sees her sister and Kelly, so happy and in love, wants that with a desperation that makes her ache.

“Not really. Perhaps I will, when Carter goes off the college, but,” Cat lifts her shoulders in a delicate shrug, “I have a couple of years to prepare myself for that.”

“How is he?”

“He’s good.” Cat’s smile is warm, her eyes bright. “Glad to be back in National City, I think. D.C. grew on him, but… this is where he grew up.”

“And are you? Glad to be back, I mean?”

“Yes and no.” Cat tilts her head to one side, considering, and Kara has to try very hard not to let her gaze wander along the elegant slope of her neck – she’d always thought Cat was attractive, she wasn’t blind, and that hadn’t changed in thethree years since they’d last seen one another. “It’s nice to be back on familiar ground, to see familiar faces,” she inclines her head towards Kara, who triesto hide her smile, “but a lot of things have changed, and in some ways it feels like a step backwards. It’s certainly strange seeing the CatCo building andknowing there’s no place for me there anymore.”

“I’m sure no-one would complain if you came back.”

“Oh,” Cat’s chuckle is low, makes Kara’s throat tight,“I’m sure a few people would. I wasn’t exactly the nicest boss in the world.” She signals the bartender with a wave of her hand. “Can I buy you anotherdrink?” She asks Kara, as he makes his way over to them, and just a few minutes ago she’d been desperate to leave but now she’d do anything to stay.

“Sure.”

“What ridiculously fruity concoction were you drinking?” Cat eyes Kara’s empty glass, coupled with a bright umbrella, with no small level of disdain.

“A mai tai.”

Cat looks highly offended, but she orders one all thesame, along with another glass of wine for herself.

“So, tell me, what’s changed since - ”

“Kara.” A hand skirts along the small of her back, andKara whirls around with a glare, ready to forcibly remove it – Nate, returning from his phonecall, hastily lifts it when he sees the look on her face. “Sorry about that. Do you want to get out of here?”

“Um…” Rejecting people has never been her strong suit, but thankfully, Cat is only too happy to step in to be her saviour.

“No, she wouldn’t,” Cat cuts in, as she hands Kara her cocktail. “She’s had a much better offer.”

“Kara?” Nate looks like he can’t quite comprehend it,looking between Cat and Kara with a frown on his face.

“She’s right, Nate, sorry. I just… don’t think we havemuch in common.”

“Suit yourself.” He looks haughty as he grabs hisjacket from the back of his stool. “You weren’t a good date anyway.” He storms off towards the door after that, and Cat scoffs as he walks away.

“Ignore him, Kara.” Cat waves towards where he’d disappeared. “He’s clearly deluded.”

“Is he, though?” Kara asks the question around herstraw as she sips at her drink. “I’ve never managed to keep a stable relationship, no-one ever asks me out… maybe I am a bad date. Maybe I’m the boring one.”

“I can assure you that you’re not,” Cat tells her,reaching out to pat her thigh. “Or I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you, would I? Besides, how could a superhero ever be boring?”

Kara chokes on a mouthful of mai tai, and it’s amiracle that it doesn’t come out of her nose – she coughs, and Cat just smirks, looking pleased with herself, and Kara wonders if she’d timed it like that on purpose.

“What, no denials?” Cat asks, when Kara doesn’trespond. “My, my, you have changed.”

“There’s no reason to, anymore,” Kara shrugs, and it’s nice to be able to be candid about this with Cat for a change. “If you wanted to hurt me with it, you’ve had ample opportunity.”

“Oh, Kara,” Cat sighs, “I’ve never wanted to hurt you.I know I did, when I first accused you.” It seems like a lifetime ago, when Cat had demanded she take of her glasses on her balcony, when they were bothdifferent people. “And I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” Cat says with a shake of her head. “Iunderstand why it made you not want to trust me.”

“It was never that,” Kara replies quietly. “It wasmore… the second someone finds out about my identity, it makes them a target. It puts them in danger, and the thought of something happening to you because of me… I couldn’t live with myself.”

“Oh, Kara.” There’s that hand again, patting herthigh, and when Cat leaves it there just a second too long, she forgets how to breathe. “I’ve dealt with my fair share of enemies over the years. And besides,I know if anyone ever threatened me, Supergirl wouldn’t have ever let them get close.” Cat’s eyes are soft, trusting, and Kara can’t help but smile, enjoyingbeing back around Cat, the light way it makes her feel, like she could float, and it’s different from when they’d used to talk, back when they’d workedtogether – now, they feel more like equals, it feels more like those nights where Supergirl had sought Cat out, landing on her balcony and seeking words ofwisdom.

“I’ve missed this,” Kara says, getting distracted bythe way Cat’s throat works as she takes a long sip of wine. “I wish we’d have kept in touch.” She’d tried to reach out, a few times, in the beginning, but Cat had never returned her calls, and eventually, she’d stopped trying.

“My fault,” Cat admits, eyes leaving Kara’s to staredown into her glass. “I was afraid of holding you back. And of staying too attached.”

“Attached?” Kara echoes. “To me?”

“Mm.” Cat’s eyes are still on her wine, pensive lookon her face. “You have that effect on people, haven’t you noticed?” Cat looks up, then, her eyes locking with Kara’s, and Kara feels trapped under the weightof her gaze.

“How many glasses of wine have you had?” Kara asks, because surely Cat is joking.

“Not enough to cloud my judgement, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Cat counters, smile tugging at the edges of her lips.

“Are you sure? Because this is coming out of nowhere.”

“To you, perhaps,” Cat concedes, tilting her head toone side and watching Kara closely. “But I’ve always admired you, Kara, always thought that you were extraordinary – even before I found out about yourpowers.”

The words shock her, and Kara wonders again if she’s dreaming, because surely this can’t be happening? Surely, surely, Cat Grant isn’t really sitting in-front of her right now, telling her all of the things that, a few years ago, she would’ve givenanything to hear.

“I always kept my distance because you were myassistant but when I saw you tonight…” Cat shrugs again. “I’m back in town, you seem to be single, and you don’t work for me anymore – I just couldn’t helpmyself.” She lifts her wine glass to her lips and downs the remaining liquid in one easy gulp. “And now I’ve said far too much, and I don’t want to make youuncomfortable, so I’ll take my leave. My number hasn’t changed, if you want to reach me.”

Cat throws a few notes onto the bar as a generous tip, before shrugging into her coat and striding towards the door on four inch heels and a saunter in her hips, Kara watching her go, sure there’s a dumbstruck expression on her face.

Her phone is in her hand before the door has evenswung shut behind her, and it only takes her a moment to locate the phone number that she hasn’t used in over three years.

“That was quick,” Cat answers on just the second ring, and Kara smiles as she finishes her own drink and climbs to her feet.

“Well, I figured we’d already waited long enough,” she replies, pressing the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she grabs her jacket and follows Cat to the door. “But what happened to being better offalone?”

“I lied,” Cat replies, and of course she did. She’s still outside the bar, one foot on the pavement and one foot inside the towncar that’s idling by the curb.

“Want a ride?” Cat asks, sliding the phone into herbag as Kara hangs up.

“Why, that’s awfully forward of you, Ms Grant,” Karareplies, made confident by Cat’s honesty, and she grins when the other woman rolls her eyes.

“Kara Danvers, I’m shocked.” She doesn’t look itthough, a smirk on her mouth as she deliberately drags her gaze down Kara’s frame. “Although, I do have an empty apartment waiting…” She trails off, quirking a suggestive eyebrow, and this absolutely was not how she expected her evening to go, but god, is she glad it did, because she can’t think of a better way to spend the night than alone with Cat, even if it is moving a little faster than she usually would.

“Lead the way.”

[ambitionsource]

can we just talk about nigel... walk us through him please

i’m 2 months late to answering this, but yes. yes we can! i’ll try to give the same general portrait of him as i did in the past with like nate and stuff, hopefully it will be somewhat coherent bc i love him and he deserves to be appreciated and understood just as much as our other fave a class kiddos

so as we all know damn well at this point, nigel is an aspiring actor. he’s one of the few students in the a class who has a very core passion that he doesn’t waver from (like in the way maya, farkle, yindra, riley, etc. kind of just do lots of everything -- and eat up the opportunities in their wake LOL -- nigel is like zay in that they both have very clear areas of expertise that they dedicate most of their energy and passion to). and though he’s not as intense or vocal about it, acting is extremely important to nigel. actually, the whole process and experience of being an actor is, from the character work to the play reading and annotating to those moments of actual delivery. he’s an actor in his bones, equally as dedicated as maya or zay just significantly more outwardly laid back about it.

that being said, i feel like all you have to do to really get a sense of how deeply he cares about it is to... ask him about it. like if you get him talking about shakespeare, any of his plays, the kid who always seems so quiet and laid back will be talking a mile a minute and unpacking the nuances and brilliance of shakespeare’s works faster than you can keep up. he’s also like this -- tho not to the same degree as acting -- about classical music / jazz / a capella choirs / orchestra (since he plays the violin), local cafes + coffee, nostalgic story-driven cartoons like digimon that he watched on pbs when he was younger, and editorial cartoons. like he’s the friend that sends yindra and zay his favorite political cartoon from the new york times every sunday to their group chat (and after some time, jade gets these excerpts too). he’s also decently savvy about fashion, at least the lowkey hipster art deco pretentious chic type of fashion. i think he’s similar to asher, riley, and charlie in that he comes off a certain way and everyone assumes they know what he’s like bc he’s great a maintaining this calm persona, but those who really know him know that it’s all a charade and he’s extremely nerdy, excitable, enthusiastic, and impassioned, etc. if he’s comfortable with you, then you get the full nigel chey experience with all those quirks and eccentricities.

part of the reason nigel has the calm, unbothered persona, though, is mainly because of his family. he has a good relationship with his parents and his siblings, but he comes from a family where there’s a lot to juggle and so many things going at once that it behooves him and makes him feel better to be out of the way and not adding to anyone’s plate. as we mentioned on the income scale, nigel is one of the scholarship students at aaa, so much of his parents’ time is dedicated to making ends meet and looking out for all of the chey children. nigel has a few siblings, but the age gap for the most part isn’t that wide. he has an older sister who is one year ahead of him in school (but is not an artist, she’s studying to be a school counselor), a younger sister who is a freshman, a younger brother who is in middle school, and then the baby brother of the family who was unplanned and thus is quite a few years younger than the rest of them. so they’re a crowded, hectic little clan, and nigel feels like the best thing he can do is just stay out of the way as much as possible and be useful when he can. so he’s become very good at internalizing unpleasant emotions, letting things go, and not getting riled up (esp by provocation of younger siblings). in some ways, this has also made him a bit of a doormat, as we see in some scenes with yindra and zay where their personalities are just so much louder than his so he tends to default to them or try to keep the peace.

nigel also puts a lot of pressure on himself because of the money situation in their family as well as the unspoken expectations of his parents. both of them are supportive of him pursuing acting, and they always do their best to make it to at least one of his performances, but they’ve taken pains to make it understood that nigel is going to have to work his ass off simply because they don’t have the means or industry savvy to help give him a leg up (like half of his classmates do). like, they wholeheartedly supported his application to aaa -- especially his dad, who is a bit of a lit nerd himself and loves shakespeare / passed that on to him -- but they made it clear that if he couldn’t get a scholarship, it just wouldn’t be feasible. thankfully, that worked out for the best, but i think nigel lives very aware of that threat nipping at his heels at all times and that’s part of why he throws himself so deeply into the work and was basically oblivious to any other form of Teenagerdom (i.e., jade’s crush or his potential feelings for anyone) for most of his time at aaa.

there’s also a bit of an internal pressure in wanting desperately to make his family proud and feel secure about his future in such an unstable career. like his mom is an analytical mind, she was studying to be an engineer when she was in college but then she dropped out to help take care of nigel’s maternal grandparents and so she never got to realize that for herself and i think she has a lot of anxiety about nigel ending up in a similar situation where he isn’t as secure or happy as she wants him to be. but she doesn’t really like... understand in her head that thats where her hesitation is coming from + the fact that she just isnt an artist and doesnt really get why doing such a risky career would be worthwhile. she supports him, but doesn’t logically Get it. so i think nigel wants to be able to Prove to her he’s got it under control, that he’ll be okay, so that then they can just enjoy his passion as much as he does without worrying about him at the same time. he’s also the first son of the family, and so he has a sort of subconscious pressure as well from masculinity in terms of like coming out successful and able to help support his family, both his and the one he builds in the future with a partner. so big melting pot of anxieties and pressures going on in that beautiful nerdy head of his, but he doesn’t talk about it really even with people he trusts (like yindra and zay) nor do i think he truly understands himself that he’s carrying all that around. it will probably hit him eventually. guess we’ll find out someday!

(fun fact: nigel’s mom also does side work as a seamstress, so that’s part of why he has such a natural appreciation for that type of work. now who else do we know who is a masterful seamstress... hm... its on the tip of my tongue...)

all of that being said, at his core nigel truly is a very laidback guy. its somewhat a persona, but it also is true to his inner self. he’s passionate, but in a tempered and healthy way. i think that sometimes, despite how creative he is in many aspects, he struggles to think outside the box and off the beaten path because of how important measured success and competence is to him. so things like maya doing whatever the fuck she wants and yindra thinking about skipping college and just jumping into the industry don’t compute for him (the same way all of it doesn’t really click for his mom), and as we know, he sometimes becomes frozen in inaction because that feels safer or more logical. and he’s just never going to be the diva that zay or maya or farkle can be, and he’s content with that. if he’s going to make it, in his head, he’s going to achieve it through hard work, dedication, attention to craft, and being a decent person who people enjoy working with. and he also definitely understands the importance of knowing who to trust and having that tight inner circle, i.e., what he has with the true star squad of yindra and zay.

-- Maggie

[bigskydreaming]

thehollowprince said: And I also stand by the opinion that they could have just done a solo run of the O5 X-Men starting a new timeline with the information they got from the future.

thehollowprince said: Its not like Marvel doesn’t constantly do AUs and retcons

OMG Josh you have no idea how bad I wanted this. They could’ve done SO MUCH with that concept. Letting the 05 keep their foreknowledge and the world they could have created with that?

They could’ve averted the initial Krakoan mission and saved Darwin, Gabe, Petra and Sway in the first place. They could have all been X-Men from their Day One, Scott and Alex would have actually gotten to KNOW their brother and Gabe quite possibly would never have gone full Dark Side despite the writers apparently now seeming obsessed with the idea there’s just something innately bad within Gabe that’s always destined to bear fruit at some point, ugh, whatever, like who do you think you are, Kant?

They could’ve recruited the Giant Size X-Men lineup earlier, and saved John Proudstar, who side by side with his brother Jamie, are a force to be reckoned with. 

They could have convinced Pietro and Wanda to join them instead of the Avengers and been like no but seriously that way lies nothing but shitty storylines and bad decisions that will be blamed on you by your teammates despite the fact that any and all of the bad decisions that were ACTUALLY yours could have been averted if any of your teammates were capable of functioning as an actual support system. Come join us. We have actual support systems, except for the times when we don’t, but we recruited Deadpool to break the fourth wall and he and Logan are currently cutting through the ranks of every writer who would write as hating and fighting each other instead of being a loving fucking family goddammit.

Jean could have faced the Phoenix head-on when the time for that came, using her knowledge of the future not to fear an inevitable death, but rather to know she had nothing TO fear, that the power to not control this force, but just be ONE with it, with no NEED to control it or be controlled by it, a symbiotic union, two beings in harmony deciding on courses of action together. The Phoenix’s innate powers and prerogative of rebirth and destruction tempered by Jean’s mercy, aimed and focused by Jean’s reason, the double-edged sword that is fire capable of warming homes or destroying them completely combined with Jean’s conscience guiding it to use its power for the former rather than the latter.

They could have stopped the Legacy Virus from getting out and killing millions as well as spared us from migraines induced by an AIDS metaphor so shitty at being a metaphor most people forget it was literally written to be an AIDS metaphor.

The body swap would never have happened and Kwannon could have joined the X-Men as a full member from the time she was introduced, rather than dragged along in the wake of Betsy’s tangled storylines for a couple decades.

They could have stopped Fitzroy from killing the Hellions. Hell, if they train Illyana early enough and have her mentored by Wanda who is perfectly fucking competent when left to her own devices, then like, maybe they can even take a jaunt to the future to save Fitzroy from dying in the first place and being resurrected with no soul. Not gonna lie, ever since then I’ve kinda been seriously interested in what the hell would a hero version of Trevor freaking Fitzroy even BE like, y’know? Call it morbid fascination, but like. I kinda want it, guys. LOL.

Add to that note, they could have taken another jaunt to the future and rescued Rachel from being made into a Hound by Ahab. Through the power of some convoluted plot tangle I just made up for convenience, Scott still ends up in a relationship with Maddy briefly, in one of those self-fulfilling prophecy type things where he went into it with the full intention of just averting the future and saving Maddy from her fate as the Goblyn Queen, but somehow ended up in a love triangle with a very alive Jean and Maddy who is fully informed of Sinister’s shenanigans and quite displeased with that asshole, and look, I don’t know how all of this goes exactly, but let’s cut to the chase, my only real endgame with this is making sure that Nate’s born properly, saved from Apocalypse and the techno-virus by the combined efforts of Scott, Maddy and Jean as well as Uncles Warren, Bobby and Hank, and Jean calls up the Phoenix through some psychic bond or whatever and is like hey girl, can I hit you up for a loan real quick? Got some losers that need toasting. 

And in this AU the Phoenix totally has her back, and one brief cosmic power-up and gratuitous Sailor Moon transformation later, Jean glows and intones some epic one-liners with appropriate gravitas, and then just punts both Apocalypse and Sinister to the far side of the universe, never to be seen or heard from again. They like, hit a black hole on the way there I guess. It was very sad. Violin strings may commence with the requiem. Okay that’s enough, they can stop now.

So then through the plot contrivances of fuck you, I said so, Scott and Maddy ultimately part amicably and Scott and Jean get back together and the three of them civilly co-parent both baby Nate and Rachel, as Maddy keeps the healing powers she gained as Anodine and stays with the X-Men for her own reasons.

The telepaths are all better trained by the expertise Jean gained in her powers while in the future, so the next time the Shadow King comes bumming around looking to cause chaos, Betsy, Emma and Jean just look at each other and laugh and say nuh-uh before psychically squishing him into a marble.

Warren never becomes Archangel. Onslaught isn’t a thing. They make nice with Magneto and say okay you may have a couple points, let’s discuss. Bishop arrives in the past for reasons totally unrelated to his original story, has no traitor to seek out among the X-Men, and thus he and Gambit end up besties in complete defiance of that stupid fucking story and because I just think they’re neat together. Yes I said neat. Gambit and Bishop are just neat. Deal with it. 

Bishop still hates that Fitzroy guy though, he’s like, I don’t even know what it is about that guy, he just rubs me the wrong way, even though Fitzroy is not evil here and has always done good with his powers, which are channeled through a device Forge made him that lets him just absorb life force from a wide range around him, spread out and diluted enough that its like, the grass feels weird for a second, like whoa what even was that, and then its over. Actually, y’know what, scratch that. Fitzroy’s powers are stupid and unnecessary the way they are now anyway, so fuck it, this Fitzroy doesn’t need life force or whatever, he’s just a dude who makes time portals. He’s like Illyana with green hair and that ugly goatee. Hey I said this Fitzroy was non-evil, not that he was perfect.

Bobby’s out and proud since he was sixteen, and with actual competence and proficiency with his powers, which make him a Literal Unkillable Gay Icon, he’s an inspiration to LGBTQ+ teens everywhere and inspires other gay, bi and trans heroes to come out. He’s a big brother figure to all the baby gays that later join the X-Men, like, Rictor comes to him for advice back during the time equivalent to early X-Factor, when Rictor’s a trying-too-hard sixteen year old who thought college age Bobby was like the coolest, which is valid, because X-Factor Bobby was like A+ Bobby characterization and deserves more reads. 

So Rictor comes out earlier as well, and by the time they even meet Shatterstar, instead of a slow burn friends to roommates to lovers scenario, Rictor takes one look at the love of his life and wastes no time coming out swinging with an absolutely terrible pick up line. Look, I said his big brother figure Bobby was out and proud in this AU, not that he magically had a better sense of humor. Some things just don’t change, y’know? Luckily, Shatterstar is a weirdo, and thus he finds terrible pick-up lines charming. At least when its Rictor saying them. They walk off for a first date, already practically hand in hand, voices fading into the distance as Rictor asks “By the way, have you met Dazzler yet? According to Bobby, apparently she’s your mom. That Longshot dude with the mullet over there is your dad I guess. We should go say hi.”

Hank gets an assistant hand-picked by the rest of the original X-Men, and who has one job and one job only. To follow him around and observe all his experiments, and he has veto power over experiments that People With IQs As High As Yours Should Know Better But I Guess You’ve Got Reed Richards Syndrome.

Hank’s like, “Hmm, if I built a time machine I could go back to the Jurassic Period and observe whether my theory of - “

Hank’s assistant: “Veto.”

“Damn. Okay I was also thinking of making a deep space communicator that can reach into the farthest reaches of space beyond any known civilization and just say hi, y’know? See if anyone’s out there.”

“Veto.”

“If I combine these genetically modified antibodies here with this strain of of DNA from - “

“Veto.”

“Well Forge built this device that does this to mutant powers but I think I can make it do - “

“Veto.”

“These nanobots I - “

“VETO,”

“Honestly, at this point I think you’re just saying that just because you like saying it.”

“Dr. McCoy, I promise you, I’m really, really not.”

Logan finds out about his future clan of stabby children, and seeks them out. He rescues Daken from Romulus, somebody stabs that loser with the immortal-killing sword, I don’t even care who, and after a few tense months of Logan trying too hard, he and Daken eventually bond over how hockey just isn’t violent enough. If you’re going to make a sport all about hitting each other, just really go for it or don’t even bother, y’know? Logan claps him on the shoulder and sniffs. That’s my boy. Then they find and rescue Laura and Gabby and take a road trip to Earth 1610 to pick up Jimmy. They have a house on campus, and new students walking by it are used to hearing loud growling and even howls. They were assured during orientation that that’s nothing to worry about, it just means the House of Snikt are watching a game and are rooting for opposing sides. 

Emma’s recruited practically the day they get back. She’s only just started at the Hellfire Club and has only done a tiny bit of Evil when Warren schedules an appointment with her, and then he, Scott and Jean make a better pitch than Shaw and his ilk could ever match. They’ve been to the future. Come join with us and we’ll give you an all access pass to memories detailing exactly what’s going to happen in these particular areas and many more. All you have to do is ask. Oh and also please don’t seduce any married teammates. Its bad form. To be honest, I don’t think it’ll be an issue because Deadpool assures us Morrison has been taken care of, and don’t worry if that makes no sense to you, its a head-scratcher for us to. Just roll with it. 

Nate ages normally here so its not like he ends up besties with forty year old Wade, but the latter having his own plot-contrived knowledge of the future because He’s Just Like That, decides that he won’t be denied at least SOME kind of bond with The Bestie That Wasn’t. He becomes Nate’s official babysitter. Well, not official, seeing as how Scott, Jean and Maddy don’t hire him and are very clear that their son is not to be left alone with this man at any time, he is a terrible influence and he keeps giving our kid guns. But then Wade just shows up anytime they’re out because he just has a sixth sense for Making Trouble, and he terrifies away whatever babysitter’s there and greets the returning and exasperated parents with a cheery wave. 

“I know what you’re going to say, but don’t worry, we didn’t do anything dangerous or against the law. All we did today was I taught him to make bombs, but we were very careful, we wore safety goggles and really, they were very little bombs. Not even anything atomic. I honestly don’t think any of them could have even blown up this whole house, and I’ve been meaning to say, I’m not impressed with the structural integrity of this place. Couldn’t you have picked something with a sturdier foundation? Its like you don’t even expect random space mercenaries to attack your place out of the blue every other month. Have any of you even read a single issue of your own comics?”

Scott’s jaw twitches Ominously. Wade starts gathering up his things. Jean rubs her forehead wearily.

“Wade, what do you even think ‘dangerous’ means?”

Wade pauses and cocks his head. Gives it a solid twenty seconds of thought. Then he shrugs. 

“I don’t know actually. Don’t think I’ve ever really thought about it. I always figured it was just one of those things people just say. Like, ‘oh, it looks like rain today,’ even if they’re not a forecaster and have no real meteorological credentials to speak of. ‘Oh, this mission will be dangerous,’ and I don’t even have to use up all my ammo and I only get shot twice. Y’know?”

“Leave,” Scott says. More like intones. House shakes a little bit but that might just be Wade’s imagination. Its very active.

“Leaving!” He says hastily. He jumps through the closed window and then teleports away amid the falling shower of broken glass. Why didn’t he do that while he was still inside the room? No one knows. Not even Wade knows. Why did the chicken cross the road? Who the fuck cares, now is it Original Recipe or Crispy?

Scott, Jean and Maddy search the house while Nate angelically claims they won’t find anything, Wade doesn’t even bring him cool stuff anymore cuz he knows you’ll just take it.

Maddy finds a high-tech laser space gun under a floorboard in the closet. She holds it up with one eyebrow raised pointedly. Scott and Jean flank her and their own eyebrows raise in solidarity. Well Jean’s does. Scott’s probably does but its hard to tell sometimes. Depends on what glasses or visor he’s wearing.

“That was already there,” Nate tries. Most powerful telepath and telekinetic in the world, but the kid can’t lie for shit. There’s not much point in trying when one of your moms is the freaking Phoenix, and that’s a skill that takes practice he just doesn’t have. 

The three sets of parental eyebrows make a V, judgingly.

“One month of no video games or TV?” Okay, so terrible liar but quick on his feet. At least he knows when he’s beat and jumps straight to trying to shape his own punishment proactively.

“Two months. And no flying lessons either,” Jean says. “And don’t pout at me, young man. You know the rules. No weapons inside the house unless your grandpa Corsair is visitng and we’re too tired to fight him on keeping knives under his pillow. This is a Do As We Say, Not As We Do house. Deal with it. Now, this is going with the others and you can have it back when you’re eighteen.”

It would have been three months, but Jean and Maddy caught a telepathic sniff from Scott. He’s just so proud of his kid thinking so tactically. He’s growing up so fast. Both women mentally roll their eyes. Why is he like this.

“I don’t see what the big deal is anyway,” Nate sulks. “Its just a stupid laser gun. I mean, Uncle Gabe blew up our last house with his brain.” 

“Yes and it was an accident and he feels absolutely terrible about that which is why we’re not going to bring it up when he and Armando come visit this weekend, right?”

“You can have my full compliance for two weeks off my sentence.”

“Or we can have your full compliance or two weeks will be added to your sentence,” Maddy says.

“You guys suck,” declares the ten year old vessel of near unlimited psychic might. He goes to his room, stomping all the way up the stairs so his grievances can be heard even by the House of Snikt next door. Course, they’ve already been listening to the whole thing with their enhanced hearing. There was nothing good on TV. Jimmy made popcorn and chewed with his mouth open just to piss off Daken. 

‘The second Father leaves the room, I am going to stab you in such a slow healing place you’ll still be bleeding at bed time.’ Daken mouths at his little brother from another universe. Jimmy scrunches his face in confusion. 

‘What?’ He mouths back. He’s terrible at reading lips. Or anything that isn’t skateboarding, really. And yet Father’s so happy that ‘at least one of my kids is content with stupid normal stuff and doesn’t go around drawing cover fire just because a mission is going so well its boring and they haven’t even gotten to pop their claws out yet.’

“That’s only because you’ve coddled him. He’s barely ever even been shot at. Just the one time on vacation in Majipoor and he wasn’t even the target, the assassin was aiming for me. If you would just let me take him on a proper outing to gain some real experience - “

“Not gonna happen.” Logan shuts that down real quick.

“Really Father, just look at him. He has zero situational awareness. I’ve been glaring a hole in the back of his head for a full minute now and he has no idea. That could just as easily be an actual laser scope, you know. He’s a disgrace to the whole family.”

“Daken, we’ve been over this,” Logan says firmly. “You have your sisters to bond with over gratuitous violence. Leave your brother alone. I don’t want anyone traumatizing him until trauma finds him all on its own. It’ll happen sooner or later, he’s as much a part of this family as anyone and that means its as good as done already, so there’s no need to hurry it along. If later on he decides he’s got a taste for it, you can take him on all the outings to get shot at that you want. But he’s gotta figure it out for himself first, and he doesn’t need his big brother being the one who introduces him to all that. He idolizes you, you know.”

Daken scoffs. He can’t even get the brat to chew with his mouth closed.

“He cut his hair from that style he liked so much, just because you hated it so much,” Logan says obliviously. Daken nods like he’s conceding the argument and hastens from the room while he can still keep his mouth shut. It won’t benefit anyone at this point to tell their father that Jimmy really only cut his hair because Daken told him he would set it on fire if he didn’t. 

Ugh, families are the worst. Don’t even get him started on Laura stealing some of his clothes to wear without asking. And then has the gall to yell back at him when he yells “Silk! Its the finest cut of silk! Does that mean nothing to you?” at her.

“Oh get over it. Its not like I asked for killer robots to interrupt my date.”

“Of course they were going to interrupt your date with that Julian boy. I keep telling you, he’s a magnet for trouble. I can tell. I’m one too, remember?”

“Fine, whatever, you’re right and I should just expect every date with Julian from now until the end of time to end with fire and disaster.”

“Well now you’re being melodramatic. There’s no way that boy makes it past twenty five. He doesn’t even have a healing factor.”

“Why do you hate him so much anyway? If you’d just give him a chance - “

“What are you talking about? I give him a chance every single time he’s here and I don’t kill him.”

“Ugh, I can’t even talk to you when you’re like this. You always do this, you just decide on something and then you commit to that like the fate of the world depends on you standing firm on what’s usually a completely arbitrary decision in the first place!”

Daken sniffs. “I can assure you, there’s absolutely nothing arbitrary about my disdain for the Keller boy.”

“His name is Julian,” Laura enunciates with a glare.

“I don’t care,” Daken enunciates with an expression of lofty superiority.

“You two are so dumb,” Gabby says from the end of the hallway. They both turn identical glares on her. They’d noticed her arrive several minutes ago but they weren’t about to be distracted from their battle of wills. “Laura, you know Daken isn’t actually going to kill Julian. He doesn’t do that anymore except for really bad people sometimes and he just talks about stabbing people or killing them cuz he thinks he’s funny and then he gets all pissy because nobody ever gets that he doesn’t really mean it. He doesn’t even hate Julian and he used to be fine with him before he started dating you, its just he doesn’t think he’s good enough for you.”

Daken frowns at the petite would-be peacemaker. Meddlesome toddler. “What are you even babbling about? None of that is remotely true.”

Gabby rolls her eyes up at her brother from her much lower height. She taps the side of her nose with emphasis. “You do know we all have the same abilities to smell and analyze scents as you do, right? And you know everything you can tell from peoples’ scent, right? Of course I’m right, I can smell it as clear as anything and so can Jimmy and Dad and we actually all know this and talk about it all the time, and its why Dad never actually gets mad at you for talking about killing people because he can smell you’re saying it just cuz you’re used to saying it but really you’re too marshmallowy on the inside now to do half the stuff you claim you’re gonna do. Hate to break it to you bro, but you’re a closet softie and you’ve been made. The nose doesn’t lie. Only reason Laura doesn’t know it is because you piss her off like its your favorite hobby and its probably impossible for her to smell anything beyond her own scent of Royally Pissed Off.”

Ugh. Meddlesome insightful toddler. Who asked for her intervention anyway? Daken crosses his arms in a way that’s decidedly aloof and not at all sulking.

Laura’s staring at their sister assessingly. “That’s really what you think is going on? And Jimmy and Dad think so too? You’re not just saying all that?”

Gabby bats her eyes up at them. “Would I lie to you?”

“Yes,” Laura says without missing a beat.

“Without a shadow of a doubt,” Daken says dryly, right on her heels.

“For the sake of a candy bar,” Laura adds, because that really did happen.

“Or just boredom, because god forbid you pick up another hobby that isn’t just Chaos.”

“This from the guy who only has fun when there’s blood and bullets flying about,” Gabby fires back from a position of petite petulance.

Daken smirks down at her. “Didn’t you just say I don’t really mean it when I say all of that?”

Gabby narrows her eyes. “Touché. My own words thrown back at me. I am undone.”

“Yes, well - “

Daken’s cut off as Jimmy chooses that moment to walk past them down the hallway to the bathroom. He’s laughing and shaking his head.

“You guys are both so dumb. She plays you like this all the time, and you never see it.”

“Silence, mortal!” Gabby thunders at their brother menacingly. The effect is somewhat diminished by the fact that she can’t hit a baritone note to save her life.

“No, I’m interested in hearing what he has to say,” Daken says coolly. “For once. This is a moment without precedent and one unlikely to occur again, so let’s explore it a bit.”

Jimmy sighs and shakes his head without ever losing that amused smirk. “Had to tack on that last part, didn’t you. Just couldn’t help yourself.”

“I am a faithful student of the Truth,” Daken says, matching his brother smirk for smirk.

“The point, Jimmy?” Laura prods aggressively before that can erupt into a wholly separate thing she wants no part of.

“Oh, right.” He shrugs nonchalantly. “Its kinda her thing with you two when you get like this. You pick a fight with Laura, Laura gets pissed off and succumbs to the family curse of Tunnel Vision at the Worst Possible Time, and you both go back and forth endlessly and like you have all the time in the world for your stupid tete a tete, because on account of you both being practically unkillable and immortal, you kinda do and you know it. And then whenever she gets bored of listening to you two, Gabby swoops in and draws both of your attention until you’re both so focused on being annoyed with her you don’t even realize you’re actually side by side agreeing with each other, and she keeps it up just long enough til she’s sure she can just say she’s bored now and just leave the room, leaving you both annoyed and frustrated by a fight you can’t even claim to have won because she really just kinda...left, in the middle of it, and you’re so focused on that, you’ve totally forgotten to be pissed at each other. And by the time you do remember, like, the moment has passed and peace has been returned to the kingdom. Or at least as peaceful as this place ever gets.”

Daken stares at his mistake of a brother in the hopes that if he stalled long enough, his senses would arrive at a different conclusion. But nope. Scents don’t lie, unlike baby sis, apparently. He’s telling the truth. And Daken really does not....care for that conclusion.

Gabby stamps her foot and glares up at their brother.

“You are such a tattletale. I am providing a service, by keeping this family free of these two constantly at each others throats, and how is that service repaid? With betrayal! I hate you, you’re dead to me. Never speak to me again or at least not until I’ve stopped being mad at you, but that could be like ten years or something, I don’t even know right now.”

She draws up to her full height and squares her shoulders as she thunders this Mighty Mouse style at the still laughing Jimmy. Then, seeing she’d yet to make a dent in his armor of amusement and he was failing to take her pronouncement seriously, she punctuated her declaration by spitting on their brother’s shoe. Daken’s eyebrows shoot up again, this time in amusement of his own. Gabby then spins around on her heel and stalks off down the hallway, muttering more dire threats under her breath as she goes, the sound of them nonetheless carrying clearly to three siblings with enhanced hearing of their own. And apparently, little sis could be quite creative. Who knew she’d been hiding such talent?

Jimmy barely even notices; he’s still staring down at his shoe.

“Dude, you spit on me! That’s so not cool.”

“Some things need to be expressed so strongly, mere words will not suffice,” Daken says loftily, savoring a slightly renewed sense of superiority.

One quickly dashed, of course, because apparently he just can’t have anything.

“Bold words from the seventy year old who needed the sixteen year old to clue him in he’s being regularly manipulated by the twelve year old,” Jimmy fires back. As a return volley, its obnoxiously effective, and Daken’s still grinding his teeth and searching for an adequate rejoinder as Jimmy just grins even wider and then strolls off down the hallway as well. Whistling either an absolutely hideous song or else proof that he’s absolutely hideous at whistling. Tough call. With him it could be either.

Daken and Laura both stare after him in silence as he rounds the corner and disappears, leaving only the lingering scent of smugness in his wake. Daken hates the scent of smugness. It has a particularly....cloying feel to it. Well not his of course. But everyone else’s, especially little brothers? Acrid is the only word adequate for that.

“Sometimes I really do want to stab him. Just a little bit. And I’m not even lying,” Daken says. Laura just nods, her own nose scrunched up in distaste as well.

“Honestly? Me too.”

Brother and sister enjoy the rare moment of solidarity.

“You know what’s really bugging me?” Laura says suddenly, still staring off down the hallway. Daken turns an inquiring eye on her, prompting elucidation. She frowns.

“Where the hell did he learn a phrase like tete a tete? I mean. Its Jimmy.”

Daken does know what she means, and frowns as the nagging awareness of that leaps from his sister to himself like memetic chain lightning.

“And he used it correctly. That’s....unexpected.”

“Sometimes I wonder if maybe he’s not as completely airheaded as he pretends, and the fact that he’s got everyone so convinced of that actually means he’s running circles around the rest of us,” Laura says. She shrugs. “Of course, then I have to question everything and who has that kind of time and also the very idea of genius mastermind Jimmy disturbs me on a deeply visceral level. So then I just. Stop doing that.”

Daken nods and sighs. “Sometimes, that’s all you can do.”

“Okay, this is annoying. I kinda still want to fight, but now fighting with you feels kinda anticlimactic. Ugh, siblings are the worst,” Laura declares with a glower. “They ruin everything.”

“On that, we can agree. With allowances for temporary occasions of some of them being bearable,” Daken says. “Some.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve never said to me, big brother,” Laura says lightly. Daken swiftly scowls but she holds up a hand to forestall any rebuttal. “Sorry, don’t mean to ruin the moment. I’m thinking about how else we can put all that frustrated energy to good use. Wanna go pick a fight with the Summers’ kids?”

A slow smile spreads across Daken’s face. “Well now. Finally, a family outing I can get behind. I believe that’s precisely what we need right now. Care to lead the way?”

He still hates her boyfriend, of course, but he supposes he can let that be. 

For now, at least.

[misscrazyfangirl321]

80 for platonic friends Nathan and Duke? (If you wanna, no pressure since I know u wanted shippy prompts)

First of all... Listen. LISTEN. I’m always down for platonic prompts. Always. 

Second, please enjoy some pre-canon friendship! 

-

It’s not fair. He didn’t ask for any of this. He didn’t ask for a jerk dad, or for a mom that cared more about her drink than her own son. He didn’t ask for this life, or for the choices he had to make to survive. He didn’t ask to become like his father, selfish and alone, looking out for number one. He didn’t ask for any of this.

And yet. 

He doesn’t tell his mother goodbye. He thinks about it, briefly, when his truck is packed and he’s ready to leave. After all, for all of her (many, many) flaws, she is his mother. Maybe he owes her something. But when he steps into the room, hands shoved in his pockets, she doesn’t even acknowledge him. She’s too caught up in her bottle and her soap opera to bother with her only son.

So he does what he should have done long ago: He runs. He hops into his truck, slams the door behind him, and peels out of the driveway. If he’s lucky, it’s loud enough for her to hear. 

He drives mindlessly at first, desperate only to get away, but when he reaches the first stop sign, he considers. Should he say a few goodbyes before he leaves? To who? There’s Julia, or there would be, but she left for college last week. Most of his friends are passed out, sleeping off the party from the night before. If he’s honest with himself, he doubts any of them would even care. 

No one would care. 

That thought burns, and he slams his foot on the accelerator with far too much force. All of his time in Haven, all of his efforts to make people like him, to see that he’s not his father, and none of it matters. No one’s even going to care that he’s gone. 

That should be the push needed to drive him right out of Haven, and he doesn’t even realize that’s not where he’s headed until he’s already there. The house is exactly the same, though it’s been the better part of a decade since he’s been over there. He can’t say he’s exactly surprised. Garland Wuornos has never been a fan of change. 

He’s not altogether sure what he’s doing here. He and Nathan may have formed a tentative truce, mostly out of necessity-it’s a small town, and they have all the same friends, so actively hating each other takes too much work-but it has been a long time since the two of them have truly been friends. 

And sure, that’s his fault. He knows that. Not that it counts for much, but he regrets those stupid tacks every day. But kids are cruel, especially to those they don’t understand. Picking on the Troubled Kid got him popularity points, and back then, that had been all that mattered. 

He sits in his truck for a long time, just staring at the house. Should he even bother? It’s just that he’s leaving. This place has been his home for his whole life, and he’s leaving it behind. He just wants someone to care. 

The front door swings open, and Nathan steps out, brows furrowed. “Duke?” He asks, or at least that’s Duke’s best guess.

With a sigh, Duke rolls down his window and nods. “Hey, Nate.”

“What are you doing here?” Nathan’s eyes are sharp and suspicious, and it stings, deserved as it is. 

“I’m leaving Haven.” He’s known it, of course, but it’s the first time he’s actually voiced it aloud, and it takes him a moment to push past that to his next thought. “Just wanted to stop in and say bye.” 

Nathan scoffs, taking in the pickup. “Where are you gonna go?”

“Wherever I want!” He can’t help but grin, the sensation of freedom finally settling under his skin, tugging at his bones. He won’t be tied to this stupid town with this stupid life and these stupid expectations any longer. “Not like anyone can stop me now.” 

“Hm.” He hates the way Nathan says that, the way he can put so much judgement into that little sound. “And how are you going to pay for it?” 

Well, that stings a little, for all that it’s a fair point. He falls back on his one true friend: humor. “Y’know, I’d tell you, but your dad’s a cop, so you probably don’t want to know.” He shouldn’t have come. This was stupid. He and Nathan aren’t friends, and haven’t been for a long time. Why did he ever think-

“Are you wearing your seatbelt?”

“Excuse me?” Irritation rises up inside him at the nerve of this guy. What is he going to do? Get his dad to give Duke a ticket? That’s real mature. 

“Your seatbelt.” He braces himself for the dry comment, the rude remark, but none comes. Nathan seems weirdly serious when he adds, “Dangerous out there. Reckless drivers. People not looking where they’re going. And I know you won’t be following the speed limit, so…. At least tell me you’re wearing your seatbelt.” 

It takes a few moments for the words to register. When they do, Duke can’t help but laugh. “Careful, Nathan. That almost sounds like you’re worried about me.”

“Nah.” Nathan smirks. “Just don’t want anything to happen to that truck.” 

A weight on his chest he hadn’t even been fully aware of lifts, and he rolls his eyes, shifting his truck into reverse. He’s gotten what he came for. Time to go. 

He hesitates, though, before taking off. Ridiculously, he’s struck with the thought that he’s going to miss Nathan. Clearing his throat, he asks, “You’re going off to college soon, right?”

“Next week,” Nathan confirms. 

Nathan was born for college. Yeah, in highschool, that made him kind of a nerd, but highschool’s over now. And out in the real world, something tells Duke that Nathan’s going to thrive. If he could just lighten up a little... 

“I don’t want anything happening to your truck either, you hear?” 

This seems to surprise Nathan, just for a moment. Then he rallies with a shake of his head. “It won’t. I drive the speed limit.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Bye, Nathan.”

A short nod. “Duke.” 

Feelings a good deal lighter than he did only a half hour before, he pulls out of the driveway, shaking his head. It’s over. He’s free. He’s leaving Haven, and he’s never coming back. 

(His father’s voice echoes through his mind, insisting that he return to Haven if the Troubles ever do, but he presses it firmly down. It’s been a decade since the Troubles went away, after all. Clearly, they’re gone for good. Just like him.)

[jollyreginaldrancher]

Subtle changes that would have saved certain shitty story arcs in Pretty Little Liars

Not gonna lie, this show isn’t great and shittiness is true to its form, and while the A reveals are -at the very least- memorable, there was a lot of crap writing in between that just ruined certain hold-over storylines that were supposed to pretty much be filler until the next big thing. Here’s some subtle changes that would have vastly improved some of those storylines.

1. Talia: Talia swooped in when Emily was extremely vulnerable after the dissolution of her longest running, and most serious relationship. She had the potential to help poor Emily but instead just left her more damaged. And honestly we have seen enough of Emily getting screwed, especially in the romantic department (not that way though) and getting kicked when she was down was the last thing she needed. 

How this should’ve gone: Emily needed an Obi Wan, not an Ezra. In a brief span she lost swimming, Paige and Stanford. She was directionless and had no ambition. Talia (or maybe one of the moms. Ideally her own) should have taken her under her wing and helped her find a new passion. Through her tutelage, Emily should have finished her college arc and gotten into her dream school in California and for the first time in this goddamn show, had a relationship with a female character that didn’t eventually devolve into a romance. 

2. Hanna returning to Caleb after he came back from Ravenswood. It was cringy and fanservicey and just horrible regression on Hanna’s part. She had a great guy (Travis) who didn’t deserve to just get tossed like that, and as a slap in the face, insta-replaced by her ex, who just ditched her and left town for a while and moved on with his soulmate or whatever the heck, and just aloofly enabled her rebellious streak when he came back.

What should’ve happened: Her identity crisis should’ve ended with her realizing she was regressing to the ideals Alison instilled in her in order to control her, (ie that self worth was tied to how much people wanted you and needing to have a boyfriend and be wanted in order to feel validated) and that being near her was messing with her head so she should have cut ties with her, in the interest of self care, even if it meant cutting ties with the other girls as well. and she should’ve picked Lucas and Mona over Alison and low-key sided with them in the fifth season’s MonAlison war.

3. Spoby: What should have happened with them is a slow burn romance that was cut short in the third season with the reveal that he was on the A team. Spencer is cautious and finds it extremely hard to trust people so she shouldn’t have jumped into a relationship with him so quickly, especially considering she spent half of season one accusing him of murder. There’s no way she would get so deep with him in like, half a season alone, let alone have that on and off relationship and yet act like they were together all along in season three. It was just a mess. What should have happened is a really slow burn with them not really coming together until season three, just before the betrayal, in order to make it sting that much more.

And ultimately, she should’ve been left jaded by his betrayal and not been so quick to trust him or anyone else, and take him back. She’s Spencer, for god’s sake, not Aria! As it stands, all he did was sook a bit in order to win her back. Dude should have grovelled for a chance with her and ultimately worked up a tentative friendship with her by the end of the show, by being consistently loyal. Show should have left off in an optimistic ‘maybe they will get back together, maybe not’ manner and not straight up "yeah, I know my twin raped him but we’re banging again and I think we might be back together”.

4. Ezria. Just Ezria. There is no way that should have lasted after HIS betrayal. Not even sorry. He should have followed them to NY, got shot, and while trying to help him, the girls should have found a notepad, pen, and a voice recorder on his person. Livid, Aria should have written a message telling him never to contact her again, and not to even think about writing that book on them, otherwise she’ll go to the police and accuse him of rape, and then crushed his recording device, and starting out a dark!Aria arc. Cut to Ezra reading the message in a hospital room and angrily chucking it across the room before a familiar figure approaches (A) and draws his attention.

5. There should have been more focus on mental health, especially after critical meltdown points for the characters. Instead of just “Yup, went to the doctor and I’m fine now” they should have delved deeper into these traumas. Emily KILLED a person. Spencer blacked out in the woods out of grief. Paige was clearly suicidal! Mona’s mental state is so vague and someone should have diagnosed Alison with narcissism at the very least, years ago. The dollhouse should essentially have been followed up by at least half a season where they’re desperately trying to recover but failing because they’re rushing or just not dealing with what’s wrong up there. Radley should have played a more prominent role then, and maybe some or all girls should have been moved there for their own protection from that point on.

6. Alex Drake should not have been Spencer’s twin. At the very least it should’ve been Alison’s twin. Maybe passed it off as Spencer after extensive surgery OR by utilising those damn masks that have been showing up since about season three or four for no goddamn reason.

7. Alison trying to whitewash her story and play the victim, and Sara Harvey trying to do the same should’ve sent alarm bells shooting off in Emily’s head. She honestly should not have trusted her, and especially after all the crap she pulled, she should NOT have trusted Alison. It should have been a clue that she was A all along because her having feelings for Emily was just never on the table and they did not do the groundwork to set up an Emishit endgame at all. Alison wasn’t a love interest and she wasn’t a liar and she wasn’t a relative or a friend either so the only reason to show her as much as they did was if she was A herself, so they HAD to go that way OR kill her off. That’s literally the only way to rule her out at this point because of how they handled her in general.

8. Ezra should have come back as a villain who’s mad he didn’t get to finish his story, and not stayed on as Aria’s romantic interest indefinitely. That was ridiculous. He should’ve teamed up and provided surveilance and become obsessed with Aria and the girls and finding ways to cross them and ultimately he should have been killed off in an ironic way that involves a lot of cameras or something along those lines.

9. There were too many creeps and too many cops and too many creepy cops in Rosewood and honestly Garrett was just pretty superfluous. And the whole ‘Spencer should not make assumptions and jump the gun all the time’ message they tried to send with Ian being killed off didn’t really stick because of his involvement in the NAT club so I think instead someone else should have been responsible for those tapes like Jason perhaps, or Garret, and Ian’s name should’ve been cleared when he died, because it rings differently when an innocent man dies because of a misunderstanding than when a creep does. A lot of people tried to justify it with “yeah but he kissed Spencer” and maybe if he had an excuse like that he was blackmailed or threatened by Alison then his death would have been more dramatic. Jason for example, kept showing up but being a red herring and being generally irrelevant for the most part and this would have tied him in a bit better. It could have been a revenge thing or a ‘expose the town’s evil’ thing. He was an angry, disenfranchised young man who had substance abuse issues. It’s less of a stretch honestly for him to try to do a project where he tries to name and shame people around town for looking down on him for being a stoner, especially his sister. And he had those creepy ass pictures of Aria which hint at him stalking her, which he tried to explain away as Alison’s doing. It could be that he took them as well as the video of the girls changing, because he had the hots for her and just didn’t have the guts to tell her because she was younger and his sister’s friend.

10. Nate St Germain. Killing Maya off was bad enough but hinting at it being tied to the rest of the mystery through “Maya knew” and then coping out of it was just terrible. Maya should’ve just taken the greyhound out of town after waiting for Emily, and leaving her a ‘goodbye’ note that subtly revealed she was being stalked but didn’t leave enough information to find her or her stalker, and Nate should’ve come to town pretending he’s her cousin, and looking for her BEFORE her ‘death’. In fact her death should’ve alltogether been avoided, with Emily eventually managing to get in touch with her and finding out she’s hiding in that lighthouse and bringing Paige and Nate with her to find her and bring her home, but being led there by A in a failed attempt to get her away from him in order to warn her, by pretending to be Maya and that she wants to talk to her alone. Her recklessness should’ve caused Paige to get stabbed defending her and Nate being taken out by a cop while Maya thanked her and Paige and apologised for getting them involved, and explained that her family was moving back home and she was going with them, and her and Emily cutting things off but remaining friends, while Emily realises what a champ Paige is and how low her self esteem that she would take a knife for her, and forcing her to promise to never do anything like that again. Paige and Emily should have been trying their best at being friends at this point and working overtime to deny their chemistry, and with this scene where Maya and Emily finally end things for good, should have given Emily the closure she needed and finally enabled her to be honest and open with Paige and start something new again with her. 

More will probably follow.

[morfinwen]

#4 for Lanzo, 8 for Q, 16 for Niner, 18 for Nate, 19 for Connie, 25 for Ian, 35 for Susanna, 36 for Kira, 38 for Amanda, 45 for Darcy, and 50 for Lauren; if you please, and thank you! :)

I hope you don’t mind, but since two of these questions were already answered, i’ve swapped them with different ones.

4. Lanzo's favorite season?

Answered here.

Alternate question, what languages does he speak?

Lanzo’s native language is medieval German. He learned Latin in his youth, picked up French when he moved to France, and more than a few words of other European languages in the periods in-between leaving his manor in Germany and moving to France, and leaving France and moving to the United States.

There have been enough centuries between those days and now that he’d need to pause to think if asked for a word or phrase in one of those languages, but once he gets into the swing of it, he’s as fluent in French and German as he is in English. He almost never speaks either of them, but on occasion he’ll pick up a book or watch an undubbed foreign film in its original language.

8. What is Q's clothing style?

Jacket, t-shirt, jeans, tennis shoes. That’s pretty much it.

He wears the same jacket, and all of his t-shirts are band name t-shirts, whether or not he’s listened to or even heard of the band in question. A notable percentage of the bands are foreign, courtesy of his rich cousin who sometimes struggles with the concept that other people don’t import their food/clothes/furniture/etc. from other countries at a whim.

16. Niner's favorite comfort food?

Cheese. She won’t touch American cheese (and who can blame her), but any other kind of cheese, in any form, especially if it’s hot. If she’s in a particularly bad mood, she’s been known to spread cheese on a baking sheet and heat it in the oven until it starts melting.

18. Nate's music taste?

I can kind of feel the answer here, but finding the accurate terms is difficult.

Pop rock/punk -- Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Blink-182, Owl City, bands like that. Some synth, some electric, but not the full-blown artificial sound of techno or electronica. His favorite songs tend to be less loud and angry, and more sad and emotional.

He visits a lot of music sites to find new indie groups, too, mostly to find artists with more ingenuity or talent than tend to end up on Billboard’s Top 40. Not that he doesn’t like the sound of a good acoustic guitar well-played, but it means more intellectually than emotionally.

19. Is there a story behind Connie's name/meaning?

His full name is Conrí Rhys Lowell. Conrí is Irish, meaning “wolf king”. Rhys is Welsh, “enthusiasm”. Lowell is English, adapted from a French nickname meaning “wolf”.

It’s rare for a werewolf family to have a last name that doesn’t connect back to wolves somehow, or at least apply to wolves (Gray, Hunter, etc.). In most cases, giving your child a first or middle name that also refers to wolves or dogs is seen as poor taste, certainly leaving the poor kid open to lots of teasing. But clan leaders like Connie’s parents tend to use many of the same names that their families have been using for generations, some of which can be a bit on the nose. In Connie’s case, his parents were looking for old family names connected with royalty and leadership for their last litter, and liked the sound of Conrí. The “wolf” part was a bit inconvenient, like your child having a similar name to someone infamous or their initials forming something stupid, but not bad enough to put them off the name.

25. Does Ian have any allergies?

He’s not allergic to any animals, but that’s the only exception. Technically he’s not allergic to food either (‘intolerant’ is the better term), but his stomach doesn’t like fish or dairy, though he still eats the latter. But whatever the season, something in Nature seems to be gunning for him. Fall is the worst -- there are days he walks around so stuffed up he can’t taste or smell anything.

35. Does Susanna like musicals?

Nope. Partly because Kira loves musicals, and as an Official Annoying Younger Sibling™, Susanna feels obligated to dislike them, but also because they’re so unrealistic. Not because of the singing, but the plots of some musicals just seem to go from one incredibly unlikely situation to another with hardly anything connecting them. There’s also this tendency for characters to sing about stuff instead of doing something about it.

36. Does Kira like marmite?

I’ve never had marmite, so i can’t comment on my characters’ opinions of it.

38. Does Amanda believe in the supernatural?

In her junior and senior years of high school, Amanda was looking to develop her investigative skills and also for ways to defy her overly strict mother -- staying out past curfew, hanging out in the more dangerous parts of town, and trespassing on private property was a way to do both. (Incidentally, this is when she interviewed the drug kingpin mentioned here.) She had no particular interest in the supernatural, but some of her friends were believers, and as a thrill-seeking teenager with an underdeveloped ability to make good judgement calls, more than a few of the things she investigated were supposed hauntings, ghost sightings, aliens, etc.

She never saw anything explicitly supernatural, but some of the places had an atmosphere she couldn’t shake, and more than once there were odd coincidences or unlikely occurrences. By the time she moved on to college, Amanda was not a believer, but less of a skeptic than she had been.

45. Does Darcy consider himself popular?

No, especially not after moving.

He was reasonably well-known and well-liked back at his old elementary school, where he’d spent enough time around the same people that he felt comfortable with them. He still wouldn’t have said he was popular, but he did have a reputation as one of the smartest kids in school.

50. Is Lauren good at remembering significant dates? Anniversaries, birthdays, etc.?

Answered here.

Alternate question, what is her favorite thing to do after a breakup?

Roller-skating.

The first time she had a break-up, she was in high school. Looking back, the relationship had been a bad idea to begin with -- they were both fifteen, he was new in town and to the school, she had even less grip on her temper than she would as an adult, about all they had in common was attending the same church and siblings on the same sports team -- and it had ended very badly, with a lot of harsh words on both sides. Though Lauren refused to admit it, a lot of what her ex-boyfriend had said about her hurt her deeply, and had her doubting her ability to have friends, let alone find romantic love someday.

One of her friends was having her birthday party at a local roller rink, and Ian half-convinced, half-pushed her into attending with him. It was a small, low-key group, and they were all very happy she came, and the one time the ex came up, they all agreed that he was a jerk who didn’t deserve her. It came as close to fixing her emotions as a single event could.

Her second break-up was in college. It didn’t end as badly, but they didn’t stay friends, and in the immediate aftermath Lauren missed a few classes because she refused to leave her dorm. When her roommate reached out in frustration to Ian, he came and dragged her out to the first roller rink he could find.

She complained that he couldn’t expect her to go rollerskating after every single break-up, to which he grinned and asked why not.

Lauren hasn’t had a relationship since that one, but if she ever has to break up with someone again, roller-skating is probably a given.

Thanks for asking!

[super-trouper]

Detective Lara Langford (1/4)

Charming | Intimidating

Impulsive | Cautious

Sarcastic | Genuine

Friendly | Stoic

Easygoing | Stubborn

Heart | Mind

Optimist | Pessimist

Team Player | Independent

Love Interest: Mason

SKILLS

People 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100%

Combat 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100% 

Science/Technology  10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100% 

Deduction/Knowledge  10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100% 

PERSONALITY

Lara is a very happy person in general and she wants everyone to feel comfortable around her.  She tends to treat everyone with kindness, even if they don’t necessarily deserve it, and often puts people’s needs above her own. But while most of the time she’s sugar and spice and all things nice, if you push her enough she becomes someone you don’t want to mess with; what she lacks in combat she makes up for with smarts.

RELATIONSHIPS

Rebecca: Lara’s always been close to her mother, despite the absences. Family is very important to her and with her father out of the picture, her mother is all she has. She’s always tried to be the best daughter she could be because she doesn’t want to make Rebecca’s life any harder than it has to be, with her job being so demanding and all.

Atfer the reveal, nothing much changed; Lara still loves her mother very much and while she appreciates the attempt of keeping her safe, she’s incredibly glad everything is out in the open.

Unit Bravo

Adam: Lara respects him very much and thinks he’s doing an admirable job as a leader. At first she was a bit frustrated with him but in time, his actions started to make sense and now she’d like to think they’re getting along much better. In the future I can see them becoming close and having private conversations in French when they don’t want to be overheard (which could probably come in handy during missions too). I also can’t help but imagine Adam – big, strong and generally pretty intimidating – helping small smiley Lara with hand-to-hand combat because he doesn’t want to see her hurt she has to learn to defend herself.

Nate: Nate was Lara’s beacon of hope when she first met Unit Bravo haha. She appreciated his help in getting the rest of the team to work with her and she’s also come to respect how optimistic he remains despite everything – mainly because she knows how hard that can be at times. In fact, she finds a lot of similarities between the two of them and so she makes sure to check on him every once in a while, just to remind him to take some time for himself as well.

Felix: Lara thinks Felix is great fun! She really likes his more easygoing attitude and his sense of humour. In retrospect she decides she could’ve figured out the whole vampire thing just going by his jokes – and she endlessly teases him about it. A cute little headcanon I have is that eventually Felix starts calling her ‘Croft’ as a pun on her name which is kind of ironic since she thinks she’s nothing like her namesake (Felix tells her that’s not true though because she’s a badass too).

Mason: Where does one even start about Mason? At first Lara was completely thrown off by his hot-and-cold attitude. She had no problems ignoring it altogether and treating him the same as the other (i.e. with kindness and tolerance) until she realised she had feelings for him. While there was a brief period during which she believed it was simply attraction, it quickly became obvious it’s more than that. So now here she is, having feelings for one of the most confusing and closed-off people she knows. She doesn’t have any intention to act upon her feelings any time soon because she knows Mason isn’t on the same page and she herself isn’t interested in being friends (colleagues?) with benefits.

Bobby: Bobby is Lara’s ex-boyfriend. In college, he’d charmed her easily and she’d been quick to fall in love with him which turned out to be enough for her to overlook his flaws for the longest time. When she did break up with him, it hit her hard. Fortunately or not, she’s never been one to hold a grudge and so currently, she doesn’t mind Bobby. What she does mind is when he bugs her office and tries to get involved in things that don’t concern him.

PLAYLIST

Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves

Breathe - Jax Jones

For You - Rita Ora ft. Liam Payne

Into You - Ariana Grande

Touch - Little Mix

[izzielizzie]

Could you write a sad Maeve / Luis one-shot where they break up and Drivers License is from Maeve’s POV?? We can just pretend that she didn’t have her license in the books haha

yesss i freaking love this song so much thanks for the ask! This takes place when Maeve’s a senior in high school and Luis is a sophomore in college. 

I got my driver's license last week Just like we always talked about

“What’s the first thing you want to do now you can drive wherever you want to?” Bronwyn asked Maeve as she jumped on her bed. 

“Drive into hell and stay there.”

Bronwyn sighed and closed her eyes. Maeve had been pushing past her sister’s patience threshold for the last week.

“I’m being serious Maeve.”

“As am I.”

“Maeve.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. But I can’t stand thinking about my dumb license. We used to talk about me getting it for so long.”

“Maeve Luis is not the end of your world.”

“Then why does it feel like he is?”

'Cause you were so excited for me To finally drive up to your house

Maeve felt her heart break as she drove past his familiar house, the one with the flowers crammed into window boxes. She wanted to pull into the driveway, ring the doorbell that always stuck and make small talk with his mom before falling into him like she always did. 

But today I drove through the suburbs Crying 'cause you weren't around

But she couldn’t. She felt the tears pool in her eyes as she kept driving farther and farther away from her town and everything she had always known.

And you're probably with that blonde girl Who always made me doubt

Maeve didn’t like to think about who Luis was with. If she had to guess, it was Monica from his culinary class, with her bright blue eyes and blonde highlights.

She's so much older than me She's everything I'm insecure about

What was there to not like about Monica? She had beautiful long hair unlike Maeve’s cropped bob, and she had the kind of curves a person with cancer for ten years could only dream about. Maeve used to feel like a child whenever she stood next to Monica.

Yeah, today I drove through the suburbs 'Cause how could I ever love someone else?

“They’ll be other boys,” Maeve’s mother had assured her when she had burst through the front door sobbing like there was no tomorrow.

“No there wont,” Maeve had wailed into her pillow.

“There will be sweetie, trust me.”

Maeve didn’t answer, but as her mother stroked her hair, she couldn’t help but feel her mother was wrong. Who else in the world was like Luis Santos?

And I know we weren't perfect but I've never felt this way for no one

Maeve could remember the way they slammed doors and yelled at each other when their tempers got the best of them. Addy reminded her of those days when Maeve started to feel sad, but Maeve didn’t listen. Because no matter how much they argued and yelled and screamed, they always made it up to each other by the end of the day. 

And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone

“I wonder if his girlfriend remembered that he’s allergic to shrimp.”

“I’m sure she did honey, now please eat your dinner.”

“I will Dad, but what if he eats shrimp and dies?”

“Doubtful Mija.”

“But it could happen.”

“Maeve eat your food or I’ll stab you with a fork.”

“Don’t be violent Bronwyn. But your sister is right honey, eat your food.”

“What if he gets stabbed by a fork?”

“Maeve stop talking.”

Guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me

Maeve still had the song he wrote on the back of a napkin at Glenn’s diner. She could remember that day like it was yesterday. She had been gushing over how cute a new song was, and he had flashed her his easy smile.

“So what? It’s easy to write about people you love. I could do it in five minutes.”

“Oh yeah?” Maeve was laughing at his serious expression.

“Yeah.” Luis grinned at her. “Hand me that napkin.”

“Yes, sir.”

He held the pen over the paper. “Time me. In five minutes I will have written a masterpiece about the masterpiece in front of me.”

'Cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street

Maeve hummed the tune to the forgotten song as she drove past his house.

And all my friends are tired Of hearing how much I miss you but I kinda feel sorry for them

“Maeve I don’t care that Luis had a baseball card collection,” Phoebe whined. 

“And if I have to hear about the time he hit a homerun and won the game one more time I’m going to throw you out of my car,” Knox agreed.

“He wasn’t even that great. He was kind of stuck up.”

'Cause they'll never know you the way that I do

Maeve just pursed her lips and looked out the window. She didn’t bother to tell them about how he coached the little-league baseball team every week, or about how he volunteered at the animal shelter every Saturday and taught Sunday school the next day. Just because he didn’t tell everyone didn’t mean he wasn’t a great person. 

Yeah, today I drove through the suburbs And pictured I was driving home to you

As they drove past Luis’s house, Maeve closed her eyes and imagined herself leaning forward, tapping Knox on the shoulder, and asking him to “please drop me off here I need to tell my boyfriend something.” The fact that Maeve couldn’t do that make her want to curl in to a ball and cry. 

And I know we weren't perfect but I've never felt this way for no one

“Luis who are you staring at?”

“No one babe.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. The only person I could stare at is you.”

It was now that Maeve realized that he was watching Monica. It broke her heart to think about, but she could also feel the way she warmed up from inside out when when he turned those chocolatey brown eyes on her. 

Oh, and I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone

“Do you think she’s making sure he takes a break from cooking?”

“Maeve, frankly, I don’t care and neither should you.”

“But Nate-”

“But nothing Maeve.”

I guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me

Maeve could still think of those song lyrics, the only ones that were coherent in a jumble of words:

I love my Maeve

She’s so fine

With her eyes that shine

'Cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street

As Maeve drove past his house to get to the mall, she saw Monica’s car in his driveway. Did he think her eyes shone too?

Red lights Stop signs

Maeve stared ahead at the red light as she remembered the first time Luis drove in the car with her when she only had a learner’s permit and he took it upon himself to teach her:

“God Maevey, make sure you don’t stop a foot into the crosswalk” he had said.

“Sorry.”  

“Don’t be.”

I still see your face In the white cars

He leaned towards her and kissed her long and hard as the guy in the white car behind them honked his horn incessantly. 

Front yards Can't drive past the places We used to Go to

Maeve drove past a front yard and remembered the time she nearly drove straight into her mother’s hydrangea bush. “Try not to decapitate the flowers,” Luis had said gravely.

“I’ll try,” Maeve had laughed as she put the car in the reverse.

Maeve could still feel the giddiness the felt that day when they drove past the flower shop and Luis suggested they should get more hydrangeas just in case she decided to go on another killing spree. 

Now, as Maeve passed the store, she felt as if someone had ripped a hole in her chest. 

'Cause I still fucking love you, babe

“I love you Luis,” she whispered to the empty shop as she drove past. 

Sidewalks We crossed

Maeve could feel the weight of his hand in hers as she crossed the street to the mall. She missed how comfortable he made her feel.

I still hear your voice In the traffic

As the cars drove past, he could hear him saying to her “these cars had better be careful once you get your license Maevey. We should get you some sirens so when you start driving people will know to get out of your way, just in case.” 

We're laughing Over all the noise

Maeve smiled to herself a little as she remembered how Luis had to wrap an arm around her middle to keep her up as she laughed at his admittedly not-that-funny joke. There was something about being with Luis that made everything ten times better. Even his god-awful jokes.

God, I'm so blue

Maeve sighed a deep sigh as she thought about how much she missed. 

Know we're through But I still fucking love you, babe

Maeve would give anything to be laughing with him. Her mother had once told her that love was fickle, and that you could be in love with one person one day and another person the next. Maybe that rule applied to Luis, but it didn’t to Maeve. She still missed him so much it hurt. 

I know we weren't perfect but I've never felt this way for no one

Maeve could still remember the day he had locked her out in the rain. They had argued about something petty and she stood on the steps trying to figure out how to get home when the door opened and Luis stood with so much remorse on his face it hilled her. 

“I’m so sorry Maevey, I was an ass.”

Maeve hugged him hard and he rocked her back and forth, apologizing over and over again. 

And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone

Maeve wondered briefly if Monica was willing to go to cookware stores with him for hours upon hours as she walked past his favorite store as she left the mall. She hoped so. Luis deserved to be happy. 

Guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me

Maeve passed an ad for a song-writing class as she passed a street sign pole. The words to the song he wrote came flying back to her:

I love my Maeve

She’s so fine

With eyes that shine

'Cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street

Maeve turned those lyrics over and over in her mind as she drove through his neighborhood.

Yeah, you said forever now I drive alone past your street

“Love you Luis,” she mumbled as she passed his house.

God for such a happy couple I write so many sad one shots about them :( (I have fun though keep requesting stuff). Enjoy!!!