#every day my opinion of everyone and our company drops just a little bit lower

[crimsonblackrose]

The amount of dumb mistakes I'm finding this week is...mind boggling. Like, I thought the whole point was not to overwork everyone because as my boss said "holding everyone accountable by numbers (how many tasks they got done in an hour/15 mins ect) is childish" and we learned the hard way that rushing quantity over quality screwed everything over. (even though the head of the department and every boss said we weren't doing that that quality was king even though in practice it was a lie) And yet...every full time employee has left glaring errors in their stuff this week.

[winryofresembool]

Caleo fic: It’s all about the name

Chapter 6 (aka final ch)

Summary: Calypso is a barista at a coffee shop and one day she gets a customer who refuses to give her his real name. At first he seems really annoying but eventually Calypso finds out not all is what it looks like on the surface. (Coffee shop AU!)

a/n: Woop, finally it's time to finish this fic! It took way longer than I anticipated but hey, I'm still pretty happy I did it.

Thank you once again everyone who has supported me both here and on ao3, and special thanks goes to @caldez for the headcanons because without you this fic wouldn't exist!

Once more, I hope you guys enjoy, and please leave a comment if you like this! And keep your eyes open for a twlitf update soon enough because I am continuing to work on it again tomorrow! I've missed that universe a lot.

Words: 1700+

Genre: fluff, humor

Warnings: some slight *ahem* implications (just implications though)

previous chapter / AO3

...

A few weeks later, Leo was leaning against the familiar counter again while he was watching Calypso work. For once he didn’t interrupt her, instead quietly waiting for her to stop her work for the day so he could tell her what he had in his mind. Well, not entirely quietly; his fingers were tapping impatiently against the smooth surface, and eventually Calypso decided that she needed to ask him to stop because she could see some of the other customers giving him dirty looks. Not that she could call him a customer anymore; after the day when Leo had finally revealed his name and she had asked him out, they had been on several dates and things were going pretty well between them.

At first Calypso had been worried that she had been too fast in her decision to ask him out, but after a while she had realized that Leo’s company was exactly what she needed. Not because she /needed/ to have a boyfriend, but because his company made her happy. They could talk about anything and everything between the earth and sky, they had a lot of fun even when they were bickering about whether blueberry cake was better than strawberry cake - which wasn’t a feeling she had known in the past - and most importantly, they understood each other. Both were loners who had some bad experiences with people who were important to them and both were trying to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. And despite the mischievous surface, Calypso already knew that Leo was someone she could trust to keep his word. She could see it from for example the way he interacted with his work ‘family’ (Calypso had caught Leo calling Georgie his sister the other day when she had quickly dropped by at the garage), how dedicated he was in achieving his goals and how he still showed up at the coffee shop almost every day despite being busy.

“Leonidas,” Calypso had managed to make Leo confess his full first name and now she used it every time she wanted to chastise him. “You may be my boyfriend now…” The b-word made Leo grin widely. “... But I’m still going to have to ask you to try to be quieter because some of our customers don’t like the drumming.”

“Sunshine, not the Leonidas! That’s so cruel,” Leo fake complained. “I was just deep in my thoughts and you know I can’t help it with my random movements while I’m thinking…”

“Fine, then,” Calypso gave in. “What were you thinking?”

“How shiny your hair looks in this light…” Leo said with a low voice.

“Leo… please leave that talk to my off hours,” Calypso scolded him but couldn’t help but blush a bit.

“Okay, Coffee Princess,” he said but suddenly got more serious. “Listen, I do have some actual news for you. I just don’t want to tell it right now that you’re working.”

Calypso checked the clock. “Then you’re going to have to wait maybe 15 more minutes because I still need to take care of a few things once we have closed.”

“No problem. I can wait because Patience is my middle name,” Leo claimed.

“Leonidas Patience Valdez?” Calypso eyed him suspiciously. “Soon you’ll tell me that actually your name is Theophrastus Bombastus or something like that.”

That gave Leo a new idea. “Ooh, should we start a new game? Guess my middle name?” he asked enthusiastically.

“No,” Calypso said immediately. “I think we’ve had enough name games for a while. But maybe some other time.” Her mouth twitched a bit as she said that.

“Oh, alright,” Leo hid his disappointment quickly. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be waiting for you outside once you’re done.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon. And hey, just to be clear: I wouldn’t care even if your name really was Bad Boy Supreme. You’re still my weird but pretty great boyfriend.” Calypso smiled at him before he raised from his spot and waved her a goodbye.

... A bit later, Calypso joined Leo by a car he had recently obtained. It wasn’t the newest or fanciest but Leo had worked hard to make it function and even Jo had admitted he had done a great job with it. After getting the car Leo had taken a habit to drop Calypso to her apartment after her workshift so they had some extra time to talk - and more - which in Calypso’s opinion was a pretty sweet gesture, even if the make out sessions inside the small car sometimes got a little uncomfortable.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” Calypso asked when she was fastening her seatbelt.

“What… what would you say about working at Waystation?” Leo wanted to know, looking at the road instead of her.

“Huh? Cars aren’t exactly my area of expertise,” Calypso noted, wondering where he was going with his question.

“No, I don’t mean the car side,” he responded, shaking his head a little. “You do know that Emmie has a flower shop in the building as well, right? The thing is, she is getting closer to her retirement and an extra hand wouldn’t hurt her. I know you like gardening, and who knows, you might learn a thing or two from her. She knows a /lot/, trust me. You’ve told me you don’t really like it at the coffee shop so when I heard her talking about hiring someone to Jo… I was like, I gotta let Calie know about this.”

“So… did you already tell her I could be interested?” Calypso asked.

“No, because I didn’t know how you would feel about it. I think it’s better if you contact her personally; Emmie isn’t the kind of person who hires someone just because she happens to be her employee’s girlfriend,” Leo stated, and based on the earlier stories Calypso had heard of her, she could easily imagine that he was right.

“Yeah. That makes sense.” Calypso nodded. “I wouldn’t want to be hired for that reason anyway.”

“You already have a lot of experience in customer service and you’re interested in flowers and stuff so I feel like you could have a good chance,” Leo said, glancing at her briefly. “I mean… if you want to, of course! I don’t know for sure…”

“I’d love to!” Calypso exclaimed before Leo had time to finish his sentence. “At this point anything beats making a thousand cups of coffee per day. And, well, I suppose getting to see a certain someone during the breaks would be an added bonus,” she added sneakily. “I will make sure to contact her soon. Thanks for letting me know!”

“You’re welcome,” Leo replied. “I’ll have my thumbs up for you, babe.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t quite all, though,” Leo said after a while. “I’ve told you about my friend Piper, right? Well, she sings in a band and she knows a lot of people who play and study music as well… They have a gig nearby tomorrow evening and as it happens, I’m not working then so if you happen to have time… would you like to go and see them? And maybe we can meet with Piper and the others afterwards? I just thought, you once said you had enjoyed singing and playing but you had to stop… Well, maybe this could be your chance to get reacquainted with music. She could probably give you some tips too.”

“Do you think she would be OK with it? I mean, helping me out?” Calypso inquired.

“Oh, for sure!” Leo reassured her. “To be honest, she has been quite curious about you ever since I told her I have a girlfriend - it’s almost like she doesn’t actually believe I have one - so I bet she’d be excited to meet you.”

“Um, there’s one small thing, though…” Calypso noted. “You know Reyna, my coworker? From what I’ve gathered, she used to have a major crush on a guy named Jason, who coincidentally is now dating a girl named Piper. And I’m quite sure we are talking about the same Piper now because it’s not that common a name. Maybe I should ask Reyna first how she feels about me hanging out with her before I promise anything...”

“Ouch… Yeah, maybe you should. I don’t wanna cause issues between you and your friend.” Leo agreed.

“But hey, thanks for asking.” Calypso briefly lowered her left hand on Leo’s right one that was resting on the gear stick. “I’d like to meet your friends at some point, for sure. And I’ve never been to a concert so I would definitely love to see one!”

“You’ve never been to a concert?” Leo asked, looking surprised.

“No,” Calypso shrugged. “That was another one of those things that was a waste of time according to my father. But hey, there’s no one to stop me now!”

“That’s my girl. And I can promise that if you decide to go, you would have a decent company too.” Leo grinned at her.

“Hmmm… I still need to be convinced about that…” Calypso teased him. She wondered when she had become someone who flirts and jokes but she assumed that was the effect of the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’.

“Oh, I will convince you, alright,” Leo promised. Calypso couldn’t help but blush when she thought about the implications behind his words.

“OK, as long as we make it to my place first.”

A comfortable silence fell between the couple as Calypso took in everything they had just discussed. The more she thought about it, the more clearly she saw what she wanted to do with her future. She’d save money at a place that she was quite positive she would prefer over the coffee shop, hopefully find a way to get reacquainted with music - maybe with Piper’s help, maybe some other way - and eventually start studying whatever she felt passionate about. Maybe certain things would take a while to happen, but she was on the right path, and why would she have to rush anywhere when she had people like Leo by her side?

[timetoresurface]

secrets (5) / BBH

Y/N x CEO BAEKHYUN

final 5k words

PART 1 // PART 2 // PART 3 // PART 4 // PART 5

Hopping from one job to another, you really wanted to keep your position at Banking and Finance. If you would have to describe your perfect work environment, it definitely wouldn’t be at that stupid finance magazine that had the worst coffee machine in history. But hey, it did pay the bills, and that’s what everyone does, right? A perfect job doesn’t exist, right? A perfect life doesn’t exist, right? Only in cheap romantic comedies was life perfect, and you certainly weren’t in any. At least the last time you checked.

“Have you ever seen the movie ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’?” Chanyeol asked you during your second meeting that week. You dropped your pen and simply nodded your head for him to continue. ”Well, that’ where I’ve got my inspiration from.” His voice sounded uncertain, almost childlike.

“What do you mean?” You asked him softly. You had grown a soft spot for Chanyeol over the last couple of days. He was polite, funny, and a wonderful gentleman. He knew exactly what to say and how to make you feel good. Not in the way that Baekhyun made you feel, but he was kind enough to distract you for a while.

“At first glance, you’re just a pretty girl, but you actually know your stuff.” He simply stated, not daring to look into your eyes. He did just call you beautiful. That’s kind of embarrassing.

“Most people don’t dare to look behind the beautiful girl part. So, thank you for pushing through.” You thanked him, showing him your biggest smile.

“It wasn’t that hard.” He chuckled lowly, and you felt like you were going to melt into a puddle onto the floor.

“So, what about the movie?” You asked him, changing back the subject before the conversation got too awkward for you to handle.

"They had the lead have this column about banking stuff in easy terms. We’re not going to do it like that, but that’s what inspired me.” He explained, and you couldn’t help but find him cute. His big doe eyes were endearing, and you couldn’t look away. He might dress in fancy suits and is actually a big shot guy, but he was still human. He even showed his insecurities and weird thought processes.

“So, do you like watching romantic comedies?” You teased him softly while touching his arm gently. He looked a bit taken aback, but he let it happen nonetheless. Suddenly the door of the meeting room was forcefully pushed open, revealing a fuming Baekhyun.

“Oh, hello, Baekhyun! Are you checking up on our progress?” Chanyeol smiled at him. The two of them were more friends than colleagues you had figured out while working with Chanyeol. He could never stop talking about how great Baekhyun was, and what kind of crazy stories they got themself into. You did love Chanyeol’s anecdotes about Baekhyun, but you would rather hear them from the man himself. Which would be demanding as you were ignoring his presence.

“It doesn’t seem like you two are doing very much.” He stated firmly, and Chanyeol straightened his back. He had also once told you that when Baekhyun was pissed, you should watch yourself.

“We’re actually almost finished, mister Byun.” You told him dryly while removing your hand from Chanyeol's arm. Baekhyun noticed your retreating hand, and his eyes hardened.

“Show me what you’ve got.” He demanded while seating himself opposite you. He didn't even acknowledge Chanyeol as his eyes were too busy scanning you. His eyes never left your face though, he seemed to be looking for something, but you had no clue what that could be.

“We will present our idea next Tuesday as we promised.” You told him in your most professional voice. Surprise flashed through his eyes, but he quickly composed himself.

“Maybe I can help.”

“We’re presenting our project for you to agree. Wouldn’t it be against protocol if you helped us?” You tried to reason with him. Chanyeol didn’t know what was happening between the two of you but didn’t do anything to stop it. He seemed to enjoy the show you were giving him.

“There are a lot of things against protocol, but that has never stopped you.” His voice dropped lower, and you felt your knees go weaker and weaker. When he looked at you, it was as if every ounce of breath was taken from your lungs. You had a crush on Baekhyun, and your body wasn’t trying to hide it anymore. A crush is nothing more than a lust for someone, right? But still, he is always there on your mind. Whenever you see him, that’s it, you’ll keep thinking about him for the entire day.

“Likewise, isn’t that how you created this company?” Your voice stumbled over the first word, but Baekhyun seemed unfazed. He didn’t seem to be as affected by you, as you were affected by him.

“Seems like we both did our research.” He tilted his head and stared you up and down. His eyes weren’t shy anymore. We were quickly taken out of our trance when Chanyeol’s phone started ringing.

“Excuse me.” He stuttered while walking out of the room with his phone pressed to his ear.

“So…” Baekhyun said, trying to break the awkward silence that had fallen over you.

“So…” you repeated him, looking at your hands. You didn’t want to look into his eyes when you were alone with him. You were scared you would crumble.

“How have you been?” He asked you casually as if you guys were old friends trying to reconnect.

“I’m not doing this.” You thundered while getting up from your chair. At that moment, Chanyeol decided to enter the meeting room again, and he looked puzzled, to say the least.

“What?” Baekhyun and Chanyeol said simultaneously.

“Chanyeol, I think we're done for today, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.” You quickly bowed and made your way out of the hell hole. You grabbed your things from your desk and went straight home. You tried so hard to not be affected by Baekhyun, but your mind and body were not in sync.

You were casually doing your work when Chanyeol surprised you at your desk. He had taken off his tie and suit jacket. He had also rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, and he looked like a snack. Your colleagues eyed you suspiciously while pretending to do some work. Why did your colleagues even care about these handsome young men? Yes, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were attractive, but they were just too high up to even pretend you got a chance with one of them. You learned the hard way.

When one of them entered your floor, everyone seemed to go in acting mode. Like Chanyeol would even notice them, he had already made it perfectly clear to you that you were the only reason he was spending so much time here. Now that you think of it, Chanyeol had been really interested in you. Asking where you would go out for a drink, or where you’d like to eat. It was adorable that he appreciated your opinion for work-related matters, but also personal issues. It did make you feel a little warm inside.

“Hi, Y/N.” He beamed at you, and you couldn’t stop thinking about a happy puppy who was always excited about everything and anything.

“Hey, Chanyeol.” You returned his greeting with a big smile. Whenever Chanyeol was near, you just couldn’t stop smiling. He had that effect on people, and you’d like to follow the masses. 

“Can I ask you something?” His cheeks turned a little red, but it was a good look on him. It made him more approachable and even more adorable.

“Of course you can. For you everything.” You told him while taking off your reading glasses. He visibly swallowed before talking again. If you didn’t know any better, you would think he was nervous. 

“That’s nice to hear. I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner after work?” He mumbled softly. You had to pay attention really hard to understand what he was even saying. Just as your colleagues, who leaned more to your side to understand what he was asking.

“Oh?” Was all you could mutter.

“Nothing too serious because I don’t want to talk about work. I just don’t really know a lot of people in this area, and it would be nice to not dine alone.” He quickly explained, but you just smiled at him.

“I would love to show you around. When do you finish work?”

“When you’re finished.” He confessed, and you laughed. 

“I still have some work to do, but I can be done in an hour.” You told him.

“It’s a date.” He happily exclaimed, but his enthusiasm quickly disappeared after seeing your face. “Not really a date, but you know what I mean.”

“It’s okay. I’ll see you in an hour.” You told him while putting your glasses back on your face. Chanyeol practically skipped out of the office, leaving you smiling to yourself. You tried to contain your excitement before your colleagues would swarm your desk with questions.

The hour passed quickly. Luckily for Chanyeol, you didn’t take your work too seriously. The hour was filled with checking a report and scrolling through your horoscope website until you found the one you liked. 

“I’m leaving everyone.” You announced while grabbing your coat. Some colleagues hummed as a response, being too busy with their work. Luckily for your company, some people did take their jobs seriously.

When you made your way down to the entrance of your building, Chanyeol wasn’t there yet. The old security man was still working, so you made your way over to him.

“Long time no see.” You announced your presence, and he glanced up from the book he was reading.

“You must be really busy. I’ve heard you’re working on something special.” He put down his book to talk to you. If that’s not love, you don’t know what love is. Putting down a book could mean a marriage proposal in your world. You would say yes if the old security man asked you. It was a shame he was happily married, and that his wife was the kindest person you had ever met.

“I can’t really tell you, but yeah.” You said proudly while hanging over his desk like a little too excited kid.

“I’m really proud of you.”

“Thank you so much. How’s the book?” You asked him changing the subject.

“Boring.” Both of you laughed at his confession. Why were you even mad at him a couple of days ago? Your head really worked in strange ways sometimes. 

“If I don’t forget, I’ll bring you one of my favourites next week.” You happily told him, but he frowned.

“I appreciate the gesture as I know you’ll probably forget. I’m still waiting for your famous apple pie.” He joked with you, and you blushed. Why did you always forget everything? And why did you tell him you could bake? The last time you had baked something you’d almost set your apartment on fire. You really needed someone who could teach you basic household chores.

“If I don’t forget, I’ll also bring you some homemade apple pie.” You quickly lied to him. Supermarkets sold homemade apple pies too. 

“Y/N!” Chanyeol yelled before making his way over to you. “I hope you didn’t have to wait too long.”

“I almost wanted to leave, luckily for you, my favourite guy kept me company.” You teased Chanyeol, and he almost believed you wanted to leave. His eyes practically fell out of his head. Overacting was a good look on him. You started to think everything was a good look at him.

“Thank you so much for your sacrifice, sir.” Chanyeol joked while bowing.

“Nothing I can not handle. She can be sweet when she wants to be.”

“You never know how you’re going to find her.” Chanyeol agreed, and you rolled your eyes.

“Keeps the job exciting.” Both him and Chanyeol laughed loudly at the remark. Can people stop talking about you as if you weren’t there, that would be great? Thank you.

“Enough about me. Let’s go Chanyeol.” You waved at your friend and grabbed Chanyeol by the arm. 

“Where do you want to go?” He asked you while exiting the office building together. The sun was still shining, which made you really happy. 

“I always go to the same bar.” You explained to him. Baekhyun hadn’t really cared where you were going.

“Which is…?” Chanyeol tried again. 

“A secret.” You told him with your finger over your lips. 

“I don’t really like secrets,” Chanyeol stated, and you had to container your disappointment. Who didn’t like secrets? Everyone has secrets.

“You don’t have any secrets?” You asked him softly.

“No, I’m an open book. Do you have any?” It’s not like it is a bad thing to not have secrets, but you were a tiny little bit disappointed. Maybe he needed a sip of alcohol before he got honest with you.

“I collect secrets.” You joked with him, but it seemed to go right through him.

“How do you even collect secrets.” He asked you seriously, and you sighed. Maybe you could only converse with him about work-related stuff. 

“I scream them into a jar before sealing the lid.”

“Are you kidding?” He asked you uncertain. 

“Of course not.”

“Strange.” He ended the conversation. 

“A little bit, yeah.” You whispered under your breath before opening the door of your favourite bar. Maybe you should’ve gone to another as this place reminded you solely of Baekhyun. How conversation never went dull, and how his lips were a perfect fit on yours. You tried to shake the feeling. 

“What do you want to order?” Chanyeol asked after you were seated at the bar. You liked the spot better you had chosen when you’re with Baekhyun, but you couldn’t exactly tell Chanyeol that. 

“I only drink the signature cocktails. They’re the best.” You told him happily, never taking a look at the menu. You knew their cocktail list by heart.

“I don’t really like cocktails,” Chanyeol remarked while scanning the menu intently. 

“They have a lot of other options too.” You mumbled softly.

“Which one would you like? I’ll order us something.” Chanyeol asked you suddenly.

“I’d like this one.” You told him, showing him your favourite cocktail with your finger. You had to move a lot closer to him to do so, and it didn’t feel right. 

The conversation didn’t flow as you would have expected. And it’s not that Chanyeol wasn’t good company. He was a terrific company, but you just didn’t feel the part. You never really believed in that kind of stuff, but after your encounter with Baekhyun, you might be a believer now. 

“What are you thinking about?” Chanyeol asked you after a couple minutes of silence. 

“Nothing.” You told him off. 

“Is that nothing called Baekhyun?” He asked you waiting for your response. 

“Why would I be thinking about Baekhyun?” You scoffed, trying to hide your surprise. Could he read your thoughts? 

“He seems to be interested in you, and you seem to be annoyed by everything he says and does.” He explains to you, and you couldn’t look him in the eyes. Were you that obvious?

“If he annoys me, why would I be thinking about him outside of work?”

“Love and hate are practically the same things.” He reasoned with you. His face showed a beautiful smile, and you hated yourself for leading on such a wonderful man. 

“I only believe in hate at first sight. Love is something people made up because they weren’t satisfied with their lives.

“Wasn’t it hate at first sight between the two of you?” He asked you jokingly, but you couldn’t laugh. He was right, actually. And you really hated it when people understood something before you.

“Stop reasoning with me.” You told him.

“I really had high hopes for tonight.” He changed the subject again.

“Why’s that?” You asked him while playing with the straw in your drink. 

“Because I like you.” He confessed suddenly.

“Was it love at first sight for you?” You jokingly asked him, but he shook his head in disbelief at your words. 

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” He laughed softly. 

“I’m sorry.” You apologize.

“Don’t be. Don’t be sorry for being you. I like that about you. That you’re unapologetically you.”

“That’s so cliché of you to say.”

“I do watch romantic movies.” He proudly stated after taking a sip from his drink.

“And you let their stories guide your life.” You commented after also taking a sip from your fruity cocktail.

“I’ve known Baekhyun for a while now, but I’ve never seen him like he is now,” Chanyeol said seriously again. He could really switch from serious to jokingly in a second. It was confusing.

“And what is so different?” You asked him interested. You were tired. You didn’t really want to hate Baekhyun anymore. 

“He seems excited,” Chanyeol stated. 

“Excited?” You repeated him. Why would Baekhyun suddenly seem excited? What changed? 

“When I told him I was having dinner with you tonight, he came alive. He was asking where and when exactly, and not that Baekhyun is a bad friend, but he is never interested in my dating life. At least not like that.” Chanyeol began explaining his reasoning. He thought he had it all figured out. 

“…Also, your little exchange in the meeting room made me suspicious.” He continued his monologue, and you could only listen to his words. Baekhyun came alive when he discovered you went out to eat with Chanyeol. Baekhyun knew you were somewhere right now having fun with someone else. How did that even me you look?

“… It seems you do collect secrets.” He ended, and you half smiled at him. It was a lot to take in. 

“I told you.” You ended the conversation. Both of you said goodbye after the awkward confession/ analyzation of Chanyeol. You needed some time alone to figure things out.

The next couple of days went remotely smooth. You had gotten your hands onto Baekhyun’s schedule, so you knew when and where he was at all times. It was a life saviour. It was the only thing keeping you sane. You had finally taken his shirt back to the office. You didn’t want to keep it, as it held too many memories for you. But you also didn’t want to throw it away as it seemed to be a costly dress shirt. You and Jennie made a plan where you would just leave it in his office when you knew he would be out.

Today was going to be the day. It was finally Friday, and he had lunch plans with some big shot guy you didn’t remember the name of. But he seemed to be necessary , and Baekhyun would never skip that meeting. It was a solid plan because everyone would leave your office around lunchtime to get something to eat. You didn’t need to explain why you had a man’s shirt in your hands, and you didn’t need to tell why you were going to the top floor.

You quietly made your way up to Baekhyun’s office, working your hardest to not look suspicious. Once you closed his office door behind you, you could finally breath again. He wasn’t there, and somehow after all your hard work in avoiding him, you felt a little sad. You patted his shirt after you placed it on his desk. This was it. This is how it ends. 

“We had a good time.” You whispered to the lifeless shirt. 

“We did have a good time, didn’t we?” A voice behind you surprised you. You turned around and saw Baekhyun closing his office door. He wore a pastel coloured suit that complimented his natural skin colour, and you felt your cheeks redden. 

“I’m sorry mister Byun. I was just returning something that was yours.” You explained yourself softly. He didn’t say anything while walking over to his desk, standing right next to you.

“Thank you.” He finally said after looking at the shirt on his desk. It was freshly washed, and neatly folded. “Maybe you should keep it.” He shrugged while holding his shirt out for you to take.

“What?” You stuttered, not being able to control yourself around the handsome man. Why would he even give you his shirt? It didn’t even smell like him anymore, not that you checked.

“You did look good in my shirt. I still think about that moment when you entered the meeting room in my shirt with your cheeks flushed red.” A soft smile spread over his face, but his eyes darkened. If he continued this duality of his, you would get a headache. There was just no deciphering the man. 

“You did rip my shirt, and left me all alone in your room. What else was I supposed to do?” You asked him sarcastically, trying to keep your voice low.

“I really wanted to stay though.” He moved a little bit closer to you, but you backed up against his desk.

“Let’s not talk about it anymore.” You firmly stated while standing up. You didn’t look him in the eyes.

“You haven’t even given me a chance to talk about it.” His hand got hold of your wrist, but you quickly shrugged him off.

“What’s done is done, mister Byun. It is no good to dwell on the past.” You explained to him cooly.

“Is it this easy for you to let us go?” His voice grew angry, but you kept your cold facade. 

“Us? There is no us, mister Byun.” You corrected him.

“Please call me Baekhyun.” He pleaded.

“What do you want from me, Baekhyun?” You yelled at him, you couldn’t hide the frustration anymore. You couldn’t contain the anger you had for the man standing in front of you.

“I just want you.” He confessed quietly, and a part of you wanted his words to be true, but you couldn’t believe him.

“You made it perfectly clear that you can’t have me.” You took a step back, but he was quick to follow.

“I never made myself clear, you simply assumed.” He corrected you, and you glared at him. He couldn’t blame all of this on you.

“Seeing your wife acting all happy was enough proof.”

“Do you like me?” His voice could barely be heard, he was pleading you. His eyes were searching for yours, but you were trying to take a step back from Baekhyun. In a little over a week, he had made you obsessed with him. You wanted to know everything about him. You wanted to know his most deeply hidden secrets, but he just couldn’t give you what you wanted. He would always leave a part of himself invisible, that’s the kind of man Baekhyun was. You wanted a pure love without complications, but Baekhyun screamed troubles from miles away. Maybe it was best to end it before it could actually start becoming troublesome.

“That doesn’t matter.” You mumbled softly.

“It does! Do you like me Y/N?” He raised his voice while his hands landed on your shoulders. He was trying to make you look at him, but you refused.

“Why?” His hands found their way to your chin, and they demanded you to look up at him. You lost your internal battle the moment your eyes connected. His dark orbs, filled with passion, were enough to make you weak in the knees. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes were pleading you to stay.

“Because I have liked you ever since the first moment I laid my eyes on you. Ever since the moment you spilt your drunken secrets, you had me captivated. You’re like a drug, Y/N, and I can’t seem to get enough. I can’t stand seeing you flirt with Chanyeol when it should be me. I told you that I’m selfish, I want you all to myself. I want to spend the rest of my life with you even, I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you!” Baekhyun started. There was no stopping him now. He looked determined to make you stay.

“I ache when I see you smile. I want it to be directed toward me. For me. Because of me. I want to bring you joy. I want to be the source of those lit-up eyes.” His voice grew softer when he ended his confession.

“That’s nice Baekhyun, but last time I checked you were still happily married." Tears started to form in your eyes, and you couldn’t act like you were fine anymore. Baekhyun saw your tears and tried to move them away with his fingers, but it only resulted in you crying more. The soft side he had shown you that was solely dedicated to you, was too much for you to handle.

“Make me choose.” He whispered with his hands still covering your cheeks.

“I want you to decide for yourself. I don't want to ruin your marriage.”

“The marriage was already ruined before you came along.”

“Exactly. Why would you leave her now? You could’ve left earlier. The option was always there. Why now?” You asked him desperately while the tears kept falling down.

“It's not as easy as it seems.” He silently confessed. He had already thrown this words into your direction.

“You keep saying that. I will make the decision for you. Let's stop this game that we’re playing. Let’s just end whatever this is.” You told him while fighting through your tears. He let go of your face, and you saw it as a sign to leave. You quickly turned around and marched out of his office.

That’s why you were avoiding him. That’s why you wanted to hate him in your head. You couldn’t stop thinking about him, and you don’t know how he has gotten so comfortable in your head. And you hate the fact that he can mess up your mind so easily. To be honest, you’re afraid of love. You’re scared of feeling that someone keeps sticking to your heart, making you wonder at night if he had feelings for you too. Baekhyun had feelings for you, but he still broke your heart. You know that pain, where you give your heart and someone decides he doesn’t need it. Baekhyun needed it, and he wanted it, but it was just not possible. And if it’s possible, that’s even worse.

And here you are alone, heartbroken, depressed as fuck, and no way out. How could you not remember his shiny smile and his flawless beauty? How could you ever forget his teary eyes when he confessed his love for you? His little grey's anatomy moment where he wanted you to make him choose.

“Y/N!” Baekhyun yelled after you, but you quickened your pace. “Please wait.” He finally caught up with you, and grabbed your arm to stop you.

“Don’t.” You told him while tears were falling from your eyes. You had no control over your body in this moment.

“Don’t leave me. Not before we try to turn this into something.” A single tear left his eye, and you softly brushed his tear away with your thumb.

“What if nothing is there?” Your hand rested on his cheek, and he leaned into your touch. Some people were entering the office again as lunch time was almost over, but you didn’t care. All you cared for was Baekhyun in this moment.

“I would risk it because if you’d let me, I could make you happy.” He kissed the inside of your hand while his eyes remained on yours. The act was so innocent yet the fire inside you started to burn. You wanted more. You needed more of Baekhyun.

“I don’t care about your money, Baekhyun.” Your voice barely a whisper. You wanted your words to be heard by Baekhyun only.

“Let me buy you a drink tonight? Let me buy you dinner? Give me one date?” He started pleading again, but this time you couldn’t say no to him. 

“Where’s your wife?” You asked him.

“She only shows up when she needs money. She already left.” The explanation made no sense, but you didn’t care. She was gone, and that was all you need to know now.

“Okay.” You stated confidently. If your heart was meant to be broken, it was best to have it broken by Baekhyun. The only one who made you feel things. The only man who could turn your insides into mush, and make your cheeks permanently flushed.

“Okay?” He asked your surprised. He couldn’t believe your words, and you couldn’t really believe to yourself.

“I’m just as surprised as you are. Let’s try this once, and only one time.” You told him firmly.

“You won’t regret it.” He told you enthusiastically. 

“You better sweep me off my feet.” You joked with half a smile covering your face, but Baekhyun’s smile reached his ears. He quickly enveloped you in a hug where he lifted you off your feet. “Please put me down, Baekhyun. I didn’t really mean it that literally.” You laughed when he returned you safely on the ground, but he didn’t let go of you yet. His arms stayed draped around you while his eyes were searching for yours. 

“I like this.” He mumbled softly before kissing your cheek. He wanted to kiss your lips, but you quickly maneuvered your way out of his grip.

“No kissing until you confess to me like mister Darcy would confess.” You told him while taking his hand into yours. You motioned for him to follow you to the elevator. Maybe you should find a more discreet spot to confess.

“I already confessed to you like mister Darcy would do. He would be very proud.” He joked with you while his fingers were drawing small circles onto your hand, making your body instantly relax. All you needed was Baekhyun to make the biggest thunders in your heart go away. He told you that you were like a drug to him, but he was really your drug.

“You didn’t tell me that I bewitched you body and soul.” You pouted slightly, making him chuckle lowly. That wonderful sound you could listen to for days and days.

“I said you were like a drug, isn’t that the same sentiment?” He tried to reason with you, but by now he should’ve known better than to reason with you.

“I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules, mister Byun.” You laughed at him, and you could see the love in his eyes. Maybe love was a bit too strong, but you could see the fondness he had for you in his eyes. That was enough for now.

“What have I gotten myself into?” He jokingly asked the ceiling, and you quickly stomped him in the ribs. You could get used to this. You could get used to this side of Baekhyun. You didn’t know what the future would hold, but as you said before; it’s enough for now. And who knows what kind of secrets you could make with Baekhyun. You would be lying to yourself if you said you weren’t a little bit excited. 

[pentagonieslut]

type: reader x pentagon

genre: smut

warnings: dom!yuto, normal sex warnings, foreplay

word count: idk tbh

—————

you were sitting and watching tiktoks on your phone, the boys having to learn the dance for their new song. you were a secret dancer as well, dancing for aliensquad and your own company/team; airlite.

there were cameras in the large studio as well, supposedly filming the boys as they learned the dance- when in reality, it was for you. your teammates set up this hidden camera ages ago, wanting to catch the other’s reaction to the dance skills you had. you chuckled as they suddenly stopped the music and played ‘drop that kitty’ by tyga.

running up to where everyone was at and starting to dance, grabbing some of their backup dancers and moving them around to fit your dance as you twerked in front of the camera made them all surprised except for the “cameramen” and their dance instructor. everyone became flustered when sugar daddy by inayah started playing, the sexy lyrics and dance making the room hotter by the second.

once finished, everyone was surprised and flustered, especially yuto who was not expecting that from his quote on quote, innocent girlfriend.

the poor boy’s face was red as you paused for the camera, hovering over a backup dancer and smiling. your outfit was especially a surprise, seeing you in a crop top and shorts that showed some of your cheeks. “thanks for allowing us to do this, y/n. we will send you their faces later.” your right hand giggled- who also served as the co-captain when you couldn’t be there. you nodded and waved her off with a smirk, hugging the others as they left and hugging one of the males on your team- jaehyun a goodbye.

the boys all cleared their throats as you put the sweatshirt back on and pretended like nothing happened. “what’s the matter boys?” you asked teasingly as they all cursed you under their breaths. grabbing your phone and blowing kisses at them. “see you boys later, don’t want to disturb your practice!” you giggled out, leaving with jaehyun who returned for a meeting they needed your opinion on.

the minute you arrived home, you had some drinks with some of the members from your team, especially the males. as the four of you were drinking, yuto came back with anger oozing from him with every movement.

noticing this, the members were quickly ushered out and goodbyes were quickly said as they left. turning to yuto who was leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed and his eyes staring deep into your soul, his face grim. “so, you practically fuck the dancers during MY practice and you come back to drink with more men? huh. interesting.” he growled out as he took several steps towards you as you ran away- eventually being caught by the collar.

“y-yuto. listen, it was a prank. not even i knew what songs would be played!” you exclaimed as he spun you around and placed his large hands on your hips, gripping them harshly. “a fucking prank? you think i call having my members get hard and you fucking the backup dancers for our group is a prank?” he growled angrily as his fingers dig into your sides.

switching his grip to your hair, he yanked you up the stairs as he stomped his way up, kicking the door down as he threw you on the bed and got to work; ripping your clothes off your body almost immediately. “get out of my fucking face and on your knees in the living room. i have a surprise in store for you.” he hummed out as he took his belt off and played with it threateningly.

running off to the living room and doing as he says, you wait patiently for him to come but he doesn’t come after a while. you knew that if you moved, he wasn’t going to be any nicer. you heard the front door unlock and you raised a brow in curiosity. hearing the footsteps of your boyfriend and the voices of his members, your eyes widen in horror. “is he fucking kidding me?” you whispered as he came over and tied your hands behind your back. “be a good girl and don’t move or else i’m punishing you all night.” he hummed darkly as he stood back up and properly positioned you.

smiling and walking over to greet them, he lead them to the living room where you were. deciding to play along, you whined and shifted around as you grew red on your cheeks. the members froze and hui pulled yuto aside. “w-what are you doing?” he asked softly as he glanced over at you, eyes soft at your head that was hanging down and slight whines escaping your lips as the others gulped and were unable to take their eyes off of you. “punishing her. she wanted to practically fuck in front of everyone so i decided to grant her wish.” he chuckled as he looked over at your exposed body and back at his members who were exceptionally hard.

he walked back with hui and stood next to you after grabbing a leash and collar, attaching the collar to your neck and hooking the leash. “kitten, have you greeted our guests properly?” he asked as he stared at his band mates, listening to your purr as he chuckled and the other’s avoided eye contact. “oh fuck..” hyunggu groaned as he heard your voice, wanting wanting nothing more than to love all over your body.

“good girl. come, let’s get you pet. yeah? or do you want to play with them?” he asked as he leaned down and yanked on your collar slightly, causing you to crawl towards them on the couch. as you mewled, hyunggu pushed his way through and grabbed your chin, letting out his own purr as he stroked your cheek and leaned down to place a kiss on your lips. “such a pretty kitten yuto, share her with me one day.” he said as he stroked your head, causing you to mewl.

yuto let a slight nod and yanked you off the couch harshly, causing you to fall back. “fuck!” you cursed at him as he tilted his head to the side and pretended like nothing happened. “well, you can either get blowed or watch someone get blowed by my kitten.” he said as he sat down in front of you, man spreading and patting his thigh for you to lay across on.

as you stretched your small body out and laid down on your stomach, he caresses your ass and let out low growls here and there as his members shuffled around and sat down around the two of you. “i wanna see more cocks, master. see how many i can blow in one night.” you mewled out as everyone swallowed their pride, lumps, and horniness. “you heard my pretty little kitten. she wants to see you guys. show my little slut what she wants.” he chuckled as he lifted you up with one hand and used the other to lower his sweatpants just a bit for his cock to come out.

voluntarily and hastily they stripped, keeping their eyes on you as you giggled happily and crawled out of yuto’s lap sexily, over to hui and sat in his lap after pushing him down. “let me feel you.” you purred out with half lidded eyes as he gulped and felt you sink into him. “fuck, pretty girl, that feels so good.” he moaned out and it was enough for you to be an even misbehaving kitten- by moving.

needless to say, by the end of the night, your body became theirs and they have never gotten so messy before. the members cumming and fucking left and right with each other or all over you, made you smile and lean up to place a kiss on yuto’s lips as you all laid down still bare and his fingers slipping into your still dripping and tired out pussy, fucking you once more with just his hands. “kitten, you look adorable as a cum dump.” he whispered as he kept a steady pace and watched you cum almost immediately and fall asleep to their warmth and the blankets.

[asphalt-cocktail]

For the Sake of Content- Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Just Guilty Pleasure

Summary: After walking in on your long-term boyfriend, Harrison, cheating on you and then losing your job the following day; your find yourself broke, jobless, and single for the first time in a long while. In order to make ends meet, your best friend since college, Freddie, suggests you start soliciting explicit photos of yourself, not only to help boost your confidence but to help pay the rent for his band mate’s apartment you just moved into.

A/N: Heyyyy everyone, I know it has literally been forever since i’ve updated so thank you for sticking with me! I really appreciate you all checking in on me, honestly I have been a little down in the dumps because of some personal things going and also busier than all hell because of school, work, social life, working out, etc. But I finally got it done and i’m not going to lie but it’s all mostly porn with no plot so I hope you all enjoy! Also PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DM me if I have missed your tag! I feel like I am missing some people in my tag reblogs.

Pairing: Roger Taylor x F!Reader

Warnings: Language, mentions of sex work, smut, fluff, some friendly banter between roger and reader, clothing kink??? idk its really just sex, not proof read

Word Count: 3.6k

18+ if you are a minor do NOT interact with this post. This is fictitious content and I own nothing.

Your brain felt like a puddle of mush the following few days. It seemed as though your body and brain could not stop thinking about Roger.

How he touched you.

How he smelled like cigarettes and expensive cologne.

The noises he made as he fucked you against the shower wall.

You know, the usual stuff.

You were beginning to think you would be driven to the mad house if it wasn’t for Veronica shyly calling you up and asking you to accompany her shopping today. You hadn’t really talked to her since your last excursion out with Freddie and the boys and to be frank, it was nice to be in the company of a woman for a change.

You met Veronica down town in the food court of the mall; when you caught sight of her she excitedly waved at you.

“So, are you looking for anything special?” You winced as you sounded like a store employee while trying to hold a basic conversation.

Veronica’s face broke into a grin, “Well John and I are celebrating our one year and I didn’t know what to get him.” You could tell by the little sparkle in her eyes that she was in love “Freddie is nice, but we have,” she paused to think of the correct words, “Conflicting opinions on what to get John.”

You couldn’t help but grin back, Freddie always did have a penchant for lavish things. You pursed your lips, “Well what does John like?” You truly didn’t know him well enough to think of something right off the bat.

Veronica pursed her lips in thought as the two of you continued walking. She rattled off a few generic things which didn’t help spark ideas for either of you, “He’s just always so picky.” She mumbled.

As the two of you walked past window after window of shops, a flash of delicate lace caught your eyes and you paused your steps, “What if you bought some lingerie?” You asked. Veronica’s face flushed and you gave her a playful nudge “Come on, everyone likes a little lingerie; it’s practically the gift that keeps on giving.” You joked.

She let out a playful giggle and the two of you walked into the lingerie store, you began to look through the clothing racks and at displays with Veronica in tow “What colors does john like?” You asked looking at her from the corner of your eye.

Veronica pursed her lips, “I don’t know, I havent really ever worn lingerie for john before.”

“Well does he have a favorite dress or outfit that you wear? We can go based off that.” You suggested.

Veronica looked as though an idea sparked in her mind and she began to scroll through her phone, presumably to look at pictures. She turned to you and showed you two images, one was of her and John very drunk at the club; she was dressed in a tight leopard print dress, and the second was of her and John together, a casual selfie; this time she was in a simple blue sweater. Blue and leopard print. At least now you had something to work with.

In all honesty you didn’t peg John for a leopard print kind of a guy, but here you were. Veronica proved to be more picky than you expected, but you would understand why. A one year anniversary was a big deal in relationships. 365 days is a long time to spend with some one.

After much searching you and Veronica settled on several different styles and outfits that she was going to try on. While you waited you browsed the selection, maybe you too would go home with some new lingerie.

You knew that you would when you’re eyes fell upon a school uniform. It consisted of a mesh top that was cropped just below the mannequins breasts and had a little peep hole cut out in the middle and a cute little bow on the neck. The skirt (if you could even call it that) was the iconic red plaid and had matching suspenders attached to it. To top it all off, it came with a pair of crotchless panties that matched the top. You decided that you had to buy it. It would be a nice little treat for yourself; you hadn’t bought new lingerie since you first went out to stock up.

You quickly fished for your size and grabbed all the pieces to it as you heard Veronica calling you from the dressing room. She poked her head out “Wanna see?” She asked with an excited grin. You eagerly nodded and waited for her to step out.

The lingerie she had picked out was simple, yet sexy. It was a leopard print silk night gown that was adorn with black lace on the edges. “I love it!” You grinned, unable to hold back the excited and girlish giggle that slipped out.

———

After you jokingly told Veronica to let you know how her little surprise for John went, the two of you parted ways and you made it home before Roger did. You hurriedly ran into your room and eagerly dumped out the contents of the bag.

You spread out your new lingerie set on your bed and tapped your chin, “I have to try it on.” You mumbled to yourself and quickly stripped down and replaced your casual day ware with something a little more risqué.

You couldn’t stop looking at yourself in the mirror once you were fully dressed. You shifted, twisting and turning at various angles to get a full glimpse of yourself in the mirror, taking in every inch of your body.

“Jesus Christ,”

You turned to see Roger standing in your doorway. If it was possible, his jaw would have touched the ground. Your face flushed and you quickly let out a small squeak of shock and threw your hands on your chest.

Roger looked at you and licked his lower lip and shook his head before dropping his bags in the hall way and coming chest to chest with you, “Are we going to fuck right now? Because if we aren’t, please for the love of god change.” He practically begged you. His hands rested on your fore arms and he added pressure to them, allowing you to decide if you would lower them and expose your breasts beneath the white mesh fabric

You felt heat pooling between your legs and you slowly lowered your arms. Your nipples were already beginning to harden from the cool air in your room but seeing that look in Roger’s eye did something to you. You traced your finger on the his skin, outlining what wasn’t hidden by his button down and causing goosebumps to rise in the wake of your fingertips. Your fingers trailed up to Roger’s plump lower lip which was still hanging ajar. You lightly traced your fingers along its natural curve, “I think I’ve been a bad girl Mr. Taylor.” You whispered sensually.

Roger’s bright blue eyes immediately darkened and he closed his mouth, clenching his jaw tightly, “Have you now?” He asked, peering down at you through his long lashes. You gave him a pouty look, nodding your head. Roger groaned, bringing his hands to your hips and pulling you flush against him.

You could already feel his half hard erection poking at your bare thigh, “On your knees.” He commanded, suddenly stepping back and allowing a wave of cold air to bite your hot skin.

You obediently followed his commanding voice and sunk to your knees. Automatically your hands went up to his belt and tugged on it. He tutted at you, swatting your hands a way “Where are your manners, [Y/N].” He said, lightly cupping your face in his hands and craning to meet your gaze, “Ask permission first.” He frowned, squeezing your cheeks together and forcing your lips to pucker.

You winced as your teeth bit into the skin of your cheek, but didn’t ignore the shiver that crept down your spine and to the tips of your toes. “Can I please suck you off, Rog?” You whimpered as his grip tightened, “Mr. Taylor” you quickly corrected and sighed when he relaxed his hand.

Roger’s thumb slipped into your mouth where you greedily sucked on it and rubbed your tongue along the calloused pad of his finger tip. Roger pulled it out and nodded his head, “Yes,” He answered breathlessly. Your hands quickly flew up and began to unbuckle his belt and pants, “Say thank you,”

“Thank you, Mr. Taylor.” You answered, your lips still puckered together by his hand.

You slid his jeans and underwear down his legs, thankful that for once he decided to wear loose fitting pants. His half hard length slipped out and you lunged for it, letting out the most pitiful noise when Roger pulled his hips away from you.  

He squeezed the sides of your mouth once more and you took the hint, opening wide for him and sticking your tongue out. He gripped his length in his free hand and slapped against your wet tongue. The lewd smacking sounds filling the air and its heat heavy against your tongue before he slipped it into your mouth.

Graciously he let go of your cheeks and allowed you to work him. You swirled your tongue around the tip and moaned at the taste of him as he filled and stretched your mouth deliciously. Your head bobbed up and down in tandem with his hand, getting him now fully erect.

Experimentally Roger grabbed the sides of your head, burying his hands in fistfuls of your hair and slowly pushed you down. You moaned, telling him you enjoyed his actions and allowed him to use more force. He pushed you down as far a you could go before he felt your throat spasming around his length. You gagged and quickly pulled back, coughing and attempting to catch your breath.

Roger’s face was flushed with arousal and he swallowed thickly, “I’m going to fuck your mouth,” He said and you nodded you head in agreement, “Tap my thigh twice if you want me to stop, okay?” He asked, his expression softening for a moment when you repeated back to him your non verbal safe word.

After getting repositioned, your hands gripped Roger’s hips as he filled your mouth and held the sides of your head once again. His hips experimentally moved against you, his length sliding against your tongue while you remained kneeling.

You let out a small whimper as he dug his fingers into your scalp and began to grip your hair harder. The vibrations shot through him and his hips bucked sharply against your mouth as he began to pick up the pace.

Each of his thrusts was met with the sound of you gurgling and gagging on his dick as it sharply pounded against your throat. Saliva began to pool in the corners of your mouth and dribble down the sides of your cheeks and chin leaving your skin shiny.

You hummed against him, content with being used.

Roger peered down at you, his mouth hanging open, eyebrows knit tightly together, and cheeks dusted red. His thighs clenched and he twitched in your mouth when you met his gaze. Tears freely spilled from your eyes and mixed with your mascara, causing grey lines to streak your face and become smeared against his palm. He pulled out from your mouth abruptly after almost having lost himself.

You gasped as your lungs filled with air and coughed lightly while wiping your mouth with the back of your hand.

Roger quickly pulled you up by your arms and pressed a hot opened mouth kiss against your lips. Your teeth clanked together and the two of you desperately clung to each other. Roger’s back fell against the wall and he pulled your thigh up to rest on the side of his waist. He ground against you, letting out a shuttering and helpless moan when he felt your unclothed core grinding back at him.

Roger pulled away “Bed, now.” He said roughly turning you and pushing you in the direction of your bed. You gasped and involuntarily fell forward, catching yourself as your hands collided with the mattress.

Roger let out an audible groan as the split in your panties became very visible to him, your soaking core and bum peeking out through the slit in the lacy fabric. He pushed your skirt back and exposed your bottom half fully. Softly, he rubbed the roundness of your bum and kneaded fistfuls of the plush skin in his hand, “You need to warn a guy the next time you wear these.” He mumbled, watching as his finger slipped between the delicate fabric and disappear between your folds, “You’re fucking soaked,” He huffed, pumping his fingers easily in and out of your tight core. Your back arched and you pushed against him, needy for his touch, “You like being used don’t you?” He smirked deviantly.

You gasped, feeling his fingers curl inside you, “Yes, fuck I love it.” You let the sinful confession slip out of your swollen and abused lips.

Roger slipped the skirt off your hips and finished stripping himself down before he turned you over. His chest heaved as he looked at you. He’d barely even touched you and you were practically writhing for him on the mattress. Roger tapped the back of your thighs, “Come on, love, sit up for me.” He said softly kneeling on the bed and offering you a hand.

You felt a strange twinge in your stomach at his endearing tone and sat up. Roger helped you out of your mesh top, groping your breasts as they spilled from it. He leaned over and briefly took them in his mouth, sucking and flicking his tongue over the pebbled buds before he moved and sat at the top of your bed.

Roger held his arms open and beckoned you to sit in his lap. So clad only in your panties you crawled over to him and took your seat. Roger’s nose touched yours and his breath softly blew against your face. The smell of cigarettes and spearmint gum causing you to feel dizzy from the familiarity of it. His lips barely brushed over yours. You could feel the warmth of his skin radiating off and were pretty sure he could feel your heart threatening to beat out from your chest.

Roger captured your mouth in a much softer kiss. Grabbing the back of your head and keeping you close against him. Your mouths moved in tandem and familiar motions together; you whimpered feeling him moving his hands to your hips. He beckoned you to lift your hips and helped position you over his length, trying to break the contact with your mouth as little as humanly possible.

Roger hissed as he felt the smooth and delicate fabric of your lace panties brush against his cock as he slid into you. You sank down and wrapped your legs around his waist and he held you close with one arm crawling up your back and the other helping to guide your hips.

“Roger” You whined, burying your face into his neck and sighing as you felt him slipping in and out of you. The feeling of him filling you up and rubbing against your walls caused each and every one of your nerve endings to stand on end and his touches ignited a path of flames in their wake. You gasped and arched into his chest while Roger held you impossibly close.

He broke away from your mouth and trailed a peppered kisses along your cheeks and kitten licks down your jaw until he latched onto your neck, sucking and biting at the hot sweaty skin. He sucked on it until there was a deeply colored mark tainting your perfect skin; he let out a little whimper as he ran his tongue over it to soothe the tenderness that had built up.

Roger held your tightly against his chest, so tightly that your back began to arch uncomfortably. You were too distracted to notice the muscles cramping along your spine, “You take me so well baby,” Roger huffed in your ear, the hot breath moving your stray hairs and causing them to tickle your skin.

Your breaths got hotter and whinier and your nails raked down his shoulders “You like it when I fuck you like this, love?” Roger asked pulling your hips down harder and meeting you with his own thrusts.

Your mouth hung open and you gripped your breasts, pushing and kneading them together and pinching your nipples for added stimulation, “Fuck yes,” you gasped out in response.

Roger watched you bouncing on top of his lap, your breasts squished together, and your skin slick with sweat. His brows knit together as he tried to stave off his impending orgasm and his hand buried itself between your leg, skillfully rubbing rough circles around your swollen clit. You leaned against Roger and buried your face into his long, now damp hair and gripped tightly onto his forearms as he quickly brought you over the edge.

Your walls clenched and pulsated around his cock and he shuttered against you, choking out a whiny groan of his own before he buried himself to the hilt and filled you with his hot seed.

You gasped and your eyes shot open and Roger quickly pulled way. His face was red and his eyes were wide “I’m sorry, shit, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to- it-I just-” he sounded panicked as he pulled out of you.

The evidence of your actions began to leak down your thigh as you sat hovering over Roger’s lap, slightly shocked that he came inside you, “It’s okay, it’s okay,” You said softly.

He continued to babble, as he usually did when he was flustered and you gripped the sides of his face, forcing him to focus on you. “Roger, it’s fine I’m not upset we can buy Plan B later today, okay?” You said in a firm tone, hoping to ease his worries.

Roger swallowed thickly and nodded his head, “Yeah, okay,” He was only slightly put at ease by your words, “I’m sorry,” He said once more.

You felt emotions tugging at your heart from his sincere words, you placed a lingering kiss on his lips “It’s fine I promise.” You said and softly smiled at him, “We just have to use a condom next time, okay?”

———

After your whole little Plan B incident, you and Roger were more careful to say the least, but, it didn’t curb the sexual appetite the two of you had developed for each other. It was both good and bad; good because you had no shortage of content for your little side hustle and bad because you found yourself craving Roger. The two of you couldn’t keep your hands off each other and surprisingly enough, Freddie and your mutual friends hadn’t noticed anything.

“Hey, Rog?” You called as you entered the living room. After the two of you had finally finished up painting the walls the room, like you said, had managed to look much brighter and more open; though you could still some how see the outlines of the miss matched shapes Roger painted over the layer you put over them. It added character to the walls, you supposed.

“Yeah?” He answered back, pausing his game and setting his PlayStation controller on the table.

“Some guy sent in a video request.” You said pursing your lips and frowning.

Roger quirked his head at you, “What is it?” He asked getting up and walking towards you.

“A video in public,” Your face flushed at your words.

Roger’s eyes held a devilish glint, the opposite reaction you held, “Public you say?” He teased, “What’s he want us to do?” He pressed obviously getting a rise out of the personalized request.

You shifted, “I don’t know, like do stuff in public; like me giving you head under a table or you fingering me in a movie theater, or-”

“Having sex in a bathroom?” Roger quickly interrupted you.

You frowned, “No, I’m better than bathroom sex, Roger.” You said firmly.

Roger couldn’t help but laugh, “I never said you weren’t,” He quickly added, wrapping his arms around your waist and kissing your shoulder, “It would be hot though, wouldn’t it? All cramped up in a stall, having to be quiet while people came and went?” He tried to sound enticing, but you weren’t having it. He could tell from the expression on your face, “What about the closet after a gig? You haven’t been to one of our shows in a while.” He smirked against the skin on your neck, “I know how hot you get after one of our shows.” He teased.

You shivered, “I don’t know about that, what if Fred or Brian hear?” You looked away bashfully.

“All right then, what do you want to do?” He said, hoping you would make up your mind.

You pursed your lips in thought, “We can do it after one of your shows in the bathroom,” you sighed, secretly trying to suppress your excitement.

Roger grinned at you, “We’ve got that big show in a few days, is that soon enough?”

You nodded your head, before you felt your face heat up more, “Hey, Rog?” You questioned, playing with the hem of your shirt. Roger hummed in response, “Can you wear that white vest?” You asked feeling the head spreading from your face down to the back of your neck.

A grin spread across Roger’s soft features and the sides of his eyes crinkled “With the little tassels on it, right?” He couldn’t hide the amused tone in his voice or the grin that held it’s place when you nodded sheepishly in response

[haifengg]

The Dutch Room - Chapter 4

Find all chapters here!

“Did you solve your problem yet?” Johnny asked and fell into the armchair.

His boss sat on the other side of the office, hunched over a remarkable stack of paperwork. “Problem?” He asked without looking up.

“The … uh … thing that came up a few weeks ago.” Johnny said carefully, not sure if he really forgot about the incident.

“Oh, so you’re not talking about yourself.” One could hear Jaehyun’s smile even if it wasn’t visible. Especially if one’s name was Johnny.

“Why would I refer to myself as a problem?”

“Because you always show up when I'm busy and steal my time.”

“By doing what?”

“By talking to me and not working like everyone else.” He said and finally looked up from his paperwork, smiling.

Johnny sighed. “You suck real bad. Did you know that?”

“I’ve been told, yeah. Honestly tho, what problem are you talking about? There are so many lately.”

Jaehyun leaned back in his chair, crossed his fingers behind his head and put his feet up, looking at his oldest friend.

“The one that dropped dead on your floor.” Johnny scoffed and yawned. Once again it was one of those days they were working late, which basically described every other day in their field of work.

Every single one of them had spent at least a few nights in their office, which is why they all kept travel kits at their desks somewhere.

“Oh.” Jaehyun said and his relatively good mood faded within seconds. “That one.”

“I assume it is as always more serious than you’re telling us right?”

“I don’t need to tell you how serious it is. Everyone working here is qualified enough to know that for themselves. And if they don’t I should consider replacing them. But yes, it is gravely serious. It could ruin the entire project.”

“And I assume you found a solution?” Jaehyun nodded and took down his hands, resting them on his core.

“I did. And I will schedule a meeting as soon as it is set in stone.”

“As always. I’m here now so why don’t you walk me through it?” Johnny offered casually while playing around with the end of his tie.

“I’m really busy …”

Johnny snorted. “Dude, I don’t care. I haven’t talked to you in ages about work let alone anything non-work related. And if business talk is the only talk I get these days I will take whatever you got.”

“Fine. The solution we came up with involves Taeil.”

Johnny suddenly sat up straight in the armchair and looked at his friend in a very confused way.

“Taeil? I thought you decided against using the hostesses.”

“True. We won’t use BARbara. But Taeil is the one who came up with the back-up plan.”

Jaehyun paused to lean forward, leafing through his calendar looking for a specific event.

“On the uh … 4th he’s meeting with the owner of a few high class restaurants. Something japanese. To be honest I neither met the guy yet nor have I heard about his restaurants but Taeil apparently knows him for quite some time and I trust him. After they meet up and where he introduces him to the idea, we will schedule another meeting in which we discuss the specifics.”

“I thought you don’t want to involve more people than necessary? Why are you suddenly considering working with someone you don’t know? This seems chancy.”

“Because”, he began and groaned. “the original plan was the most irresponsible imbecile I’ve met in my career so far and whoever Taeil is talking to in two weeks can’t be worse. I don’t know if you noticed but we don’t have that much time left. And I told all of you before that we’re only doing it if we find a way to clean the money.”

“You did tell us that. Several times. But we always reassured you that we would do it even if you don’t know how to launder the money beforehand. Because we trust you.”

Jaehyun sighed and rested his head in the palms of his hands. “You shouldn’t tho.”

The other shrugged and got up. “We know. But we do against your better judgement.”

“You’re going home?” Jaehyun looked at him in surprise.

“What? No.” He chuckled. “I’m working late, boss. As always.”

***

“Someone home?” Johnny stuck the head through the door as he opened it carefully.

“Come on in!” Song shouted from the back of the studio, her voice weirdly muffled.

So he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, looking around for her but couldn’t find her.

The studio didn’t change much since the last time he visited. The dishes were clean and put up to dry, right next to it was a small stash of toiletries.

Everything looked fine and even more in order than Haechan’s cubicle so why did Jaehyun want him to come up here and check on her? And besides, why didn’t he just do it himself?

He shuffled across the room to take a closer look at the easel and the prints that were spread out on the huge wobbly table alongside with a variety of … ingredients and colors. The canvas was smudged with a mix of brown and green tones.

By this point of progress Johnny wasn’t able to see any resemblance or how the hell this would turn into what was on the prints.

“Oh. It’f you.”

Hearing her voice behind him he turned around to see Song in sweatpants and some threadborne sweatshirt. Just now he realized how late it must have been once again, since Song was brushing her teeth and didn’t bother to take out the toothbrush while talking to him.

“If I knew y’all would take the ‘come by anytime’ fo literally I wouldn’t have faid it.”

“Did someone else come by?”

She nodded and walked over to spit out toothpaste and put away the toothbrush. “Yeah. Haechan came to see me the day before yesterday. And Doyoung yesterday.”

“What did he want?” Johnny asked a little bit too hastily which made her turn around.

“Who?”

“Doyoung.”

The conversation forming between them was clipped and terse but not at all in an uncomfortable way.

“He brought the prints.” She said pointing at the table. “It’s a really good quality and very clean. You can literally see every little detail on it. Did you have a look?”

“Yeah, I did just now. Why was Haechan here?”

Since they were still standing around all dressed up and with nowhere to go, Song just walked over to the sofa and dropped down on it, grabbing a pillow to hold in her arms.

“Nothing too important. He just wanted to know how I am doing. Speaking for what reasons people are showing up here all the time: Why did you come?”

He pulled up the stool she was using to sit on while painting and sat across from her, one arm resting on the table and shrugged.

“Same reason. Just wanted to say ‘hi’.”

“Well, you did that. Something else?”

Johnny chuckled more to himself than to Song. Why wasn’t he able to figure her out? Since she was employed he caught himself wondering what the hell she was doing here and how she ended up being their coworker.

“Have you ever sat one foot on our floor?” He asked trying to change the topic but Song was quick.

She thought for a moment leaning her head to one side, then shaking it. “Why would I? Everyone is coming upstairs anyways. I don’t really have to leave this place.”

“Touche.”

Silence settled between them during which Song scanned the man carefully and Johnny tried to not curse himself for coming here. Nice gestures never were a thing at this company so why did he thought it would be a good idea to start being nice?

Right. He though. It was about what Doyoung said and how right he turned out to be. The girl … woman sitting across from him didn’t really fit in with all of them. And even though he corrected his thoughts from girl to woman he couldn’t deny that there certainly was something fairly young about her. She definitely looked her age and she probably had both whit and sass but … something didn’t add up.

“Do you want to drink? Something?” Song suddenly asked and got up.

Johnny jumped to his feet as well and gladly said: “Yes, please!”

***

Song chucked the last sip of wine and lowered her glass. Johnny reached for it to replenish her drink for the fourth time but she quickly covered with both hands.

“No no no, I’m good.” She laughed.

They both sat in front of the sofa, legs crossed and leaning against it. He had no idea of how long they had been sitting together like this but two hours probably already had passed since he got here.

“Are you sure?” He asked sliding the bottle of white wine back into the cooler.

“Yes. Absolutely. This is actually way more than I usually have. If you have questions you only want honest answers to: Ask them now.” She stated jokingly and waved away her sobriety.

Johnny laughed. “Okay, let me think.”

When he wasn’t saying anything for a few seconds she turned her head to look at him and found him actually thinking about what he wanted to ask her.

Song curiously and patiently waited for him to ask:

“What do you think of Panoma?”

Their eyes met and she could see how serious his question was. He really wanted her honest opinion about the company and/or the people working here.

“Well”, Song began but hesitated. “about the people or more about the entire thing?”

“Whatever you want.”

She sighed. “To be honest: I don’t think this is for me.”

Johnny’s eyes widened at an answer he didn’t expect at all. “What does that mean?”

“See, I feel like you all know each other so well. Yeah, sure I am the new one and y’all don’t know me and we don’t have a history but I am not sure if we will get along well eventually. And this is just the case for getting along well. Not exceptionally well or being a great team. Whatever that involves.”

He put down his wine glass ready to give her his unshared attention. This seemed to have bothered her for a while. “What exactly makes you think that?”

“This might sound weird but … to me you all seem like criminals.”

“You aren’t exactly whitecollar either. I chose your file out of 20 others because I like to think of you as someone who screws people over twice. First time by forging art and replacing it and the second time when you keep the original to yourself.”

“But compared to you that’s nothing.” She said, using one the one hand that wasn’t still holding the empty glass to empathize the arguments. “You are professional criminals. Working in a company devoted to launder money and steal shit. This is organized crime. What I do … every art-school graduate could do it. It all comes down to very basic things.”

Johnny sighed. “What makes you think you don’t fit in?”

She sat on her knees, putting aside the glass she was holding up until this moment and looked him directly into the eyes.

“I don’t know? Jaehyun is super scary and June is so … flawless? Doyoung seems a bit odd and I don’t know what to think of you but you are professionals. You work in an office, wear ties and suits, do paperwork, crunch numbers, have desks with files on them.”

“Is that how you define professionalism? That we appear to be harmless office employees but aren’t?”

Song nodded quietly.

“Under the pretext of commonplace?”

“Yes.”

There she was again. The girl Song that seemed so innocent and harmless as if she couldn’t hurt nobody and has no criminal record. As if they were two different personalities sharing one shell.

Johnny chuckled and suddenly the dramatic tension that had built up in the studio imploded and disappeared.

“I don’t mean to offend you personally but that’s very naive of you to think. Romanticizing our field of work is what writers do. And I have to ask you to neither put June nor Jaehyun on a pedestal because those two ain’t perfect. Also they’re not the cold and calculating professionals you think they are. “

He saw her face and immediately backtracked. “Don’t get me wrong: Both are evil masterminds and exceptionally at their jobs. But they have their flaws.” He leaned back. “Did you hear about Lucas?”

“Who’s that?”

“He used to work here before we hired you.”

“Why past tense?”

“He … quit. That aside: Lucas and June had an affair that was going on for quite a while if I remember correctly.”

Song gasped and choked. All Johnny did was laughing at her gasping which made things worse.

“Does everyone know?” She asked after catching her breath and being pat on the back by Johnny.

“I’m not sure but I assume at least Haechan does know. Nothing really goes past him. If you want to know things in the future I suggest you ask him.”

He returned to the semi serious attitude he had about himself for the entire evening as he said: “But my point is: Even though I don’t know if there were feelings involved or what exactly their arrangement was, it is what it is. An affair between two coworkers. And if that’s not the epitome of non-professionalism - I don’t know what is.“

Navigation

[sunmoonandeddie]

feelings are fatal (10/24)

pairing: bucky barnes x reader, past steve rogers x reader

word count: 3,731

summary: After the events of Endgame, you struggle to come to terms with what you’ve lost, though you’re learning that you still have something to gain.

chapter warnings: swearing, violence

masterlist

a/n: Here’s where it gets a little more interesting.  Let me know what y’all think!

The call came in the middle of the night.

The first mission since the Final Battle against Thanos.

Which is why you found yourself zipping up your uniform at four in the morning.  You’d been awoken by F.R.I.D.A.Y. with orders to be ready to go in an hour, and honestly, if it was possible to kill an A.I., you would’ve.  You’d forgotten what it felt like to be dragged out of bed with no sleep to save the world.

Or rather, a part of it.

As you pulled on your thigh holsters, your eyes fell on the picture frame on your vanity.  Taking a deep breath, you walked over and picked it up.  Your fingers gently ran over the face behind the glass.

“Hey, Nat,” you muttered, voice cracking a little. “We’ve got a mission that I’ve gotta leave for in—”  You checked the clock next to your bed.  “—twenty minutes.  But it’s weird.”  You swallowed as you felt your throat tightening up.  “It’s my first mission without you.  And I just keep thinking that you should be here.”  A laugh tore itself from your throat, though it felt hollow. Fake.  You were trying to fight the tears away, though it wasn’t going very well.  “You should be here anyway.  And I know if you were here right now, you’d tell me not to cry, but I can’t help it.” You wiped your eyes, sniffling.  “I don’t know how to do this without you.  I know that Bucky and Sam and everyone else will have my back but—it’s not you.”  You stared at the photo for a long time, an overwhelming feeling of emptiness in your gut. “Sam says it might help for me to talk to you.  He suggested I do it at your grave, but I don’t know if I could do that,” you said, thinking back on the therapy session that the older man had finally roped you into.  “If you were going to haunt anything, it’d be us. Not some slab of marble.”

“Agent L/N, Agent Wilson wanted me to remind you that you have fifteen minutes until take off,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.

Huffing, you took one final glance at the picture. It was a selfie the two of you had taken on the way to one of Tony’s fundraising galas.  You were in your fancy gowns, hair and makeup done better than it ever had been before.  Her bright eyes glittered like emeralds.  You two were happy.  It was a rare moment where you didn’t have to worry about the world possibly ending.  “I’ll be sure to be as safe as I can, but you know how our job can be,” you told photo-Natasha, wincing as you realized just how much she knew.  She’d given her life for it.  “I’ll talk to you later.  I love you.”

Even though Sam’s therapy had helped slightly, you wanted to ask him if he was seeing one himself, if he was doing anything to heal.

The two of you were incredible at pushing your feeling under the rug, after all.

Most of the team were already gathered in the hangar, sleepy-eyed and a little irritated.  None of you had expected the first mission to come so soon after everything, and had hoped for another few months of getting to sleep in.  You’d thought you’d at least have until October, if not November, but you wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Good morning,” you mumbled as you approached the group.

“Nothing good about it,” Wanda snapped, a little too harshly in your opinion.  But it was clear by the look on her face that she hadn’t had her coffee and had probably stayed up way to late the night before.

Probably crying about Vision.  You knew that she had hoped that he would’ve come back with everyone else when the Snap was undone and had been devastated when he hadn’t. After all, she’d been one of those to turn into dust.  For her, she’d lost him just months before, not five years ago.

Sam just smirked as he clapped a hand onto the redhead’s shoulder.  “Cheer up, Wanda.  We’re lucky this mission is only going to take a few hours at most.”  He looked good with the shield strapped to his back. There was a small twinge of pain in your heart at seeing the familiar piece of vibranium, but you were more proud than anything else.  He deserved the shield, deserved for the world to see how amazing he was.  

You crossed your arms over your chest, willing your body to wake up long enough to make it onto the quinjet.  If you could just make it to the bunks, then you’d be able to grab another two hours or so of sleep.

“You gonna make it?”

Jumping, you turned to see Bucky standing beside you. You’d been so lost in your own little world that you hadn’t even realized he’d arrived.  The black Kevlar stretched over his chest made your mouth water and you quickly turned your eyes away.  “Yeah.  ‘M just tired.”

He raised his eyebrows as he watched you for another long moment.  His blue eyes were as skeptical as ever as they searched your face.  “How are you feeling?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he said, giving you that look that told you not to argue with him because he’d call you out on it before you could blink, “that this is your first mission without Natasha.  How.  Are. You.  Feeling?”

You shrugged as you watched the ramp of the quinjet lower.  Rhodey was flying today, since he had the most experience flying a plane.  Plus, he still had limited use of his legs since the fight at the Berlin airport.  It was the best way for him to stay involved with the Avengers while not putting himself into unnecessary danger.  “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m feeling.”  Ignoring his eyes on you, you started to head for the jet.  “But it’ll hit me later.”

“How are you feeling?”

You looked up just as Natasha slid into the seat beside you.  “Shouldn’t you be flying this thing?” You asked, even though the smirk on your face made it clear that you weren’t serious.  You always enjoyed her company.

“This thing flies itself.  Plus, Steve’s keeping an eye on it,” she said.  Her flaming red hair had been tied into a ponytail. Her suit fit her in ways that you wished yours did, but you were still the rookie.  You got a standard SHIELD agent uniform.  It was itchy and ill-fitting, but you’d cried when it’d been given to you, unable to believe that you were actually being accepted into the little rag tag family.

“I’m nervous,” you admitted after a long pause. Rubbing your hands on your pants, you tried to ignore the hammering in your heart.  You got a little quiet, eyes dropping to the ground.  “What if I mess it up?”

Nat shook her head, nudging your knee.  “You won’t.  You’re just as good as everyone else on this mission.  You have just as much training.  It’s just…”  She bit her lip, trying to find the words.  “For a different team.  For the good guys.”

“It’s weird, being one of the ‘good guys,’” you said, amusement lifting the corners of your mouth as you leaned back against the wall of the quinjet.  The others on the jet aren’t paying attention to the two of us, too busy talking to each other or ‘getting in the zone’ for the mission.  “Granted, we never thought we were doing anything bad with the Red Room. Just maybe not right.”

She snorted, her nose scrunching up.  “I’m happy we can laugh about it now.”

“We definitely weren’t then.”

“We were just trying not to get murdered,” she reminded you.

And maybe it was a little fucked, that the two of you were joking about your time in the Red Room.  The both of you knew that Sam would most definitely get onto you for using humor to cope with what the two of you had been forced to go through, but hey, you’d taken comfort where you could get it.

“Besides,” the redhead said.  “We get better healthcare here.”

Steve looked up as you burst into laughter, covering your mouth with both hands as you snorted.  There was something in his blue eyes as he watched you from his seat.  Leaning his elbows on his knees, he asked, “What’s go you cracking up?”

“Nothing,” you said as you tried to get a handle on yourself.  Your cheeks were red from laughing, your chest heaving.  “Nat’s just being dumb.”

“Steve here would know exactly how great our benefits are,” she drawled with a lazy smirk.  “It’ll cover his hip surgery and his dentures.”

The blond rolled his eyes, a pout on his pretty pink lips.  “I’m not that old,” he grumbled as he leaned back.  His thick arms crossed over his chest, blocking the white star that adorned his uniform.  “At least not physically.”

“Says the man who’s in bed by nine every night,” you said.  The teasing gave you a little reprieve from your nerves.  You could pretend for just a second that you were back at the compound, in the gym or the living room.  The three months you’d spent with the team so far had been the best three months of your life.

Though there was one person you wish was there.

And you knew it was ridiculous, that you were thinking of him in that moment.  But part of you wished you could’ve seen him.  Could’ve made some joke that would’ve sent him rolling.

But that didn’t matter.

He was a part of your past.

“Hey,” Steve said, snapping you out of your trance as he sat next to you.  In your moment of thought, Natasha had slipped away.  Probably back to her seat in the cockpit.  The man beside you smiled comfortingly as he placed a hand on top of yours where it rested on your thigh.  “You’re going to do great.”

“Auntie Y/N!  Auntie Y/N!”

You turned, confused, to see Morgan running towards you.  She was still in her pajamas, her hair mussed.  Pepper was chasing after her with exasperation painted all over her. It was probably one of her most common emotions now-a-days.  “Hey, baby girl,” you said as you came back down the ramp.

She launched herself into your arms, wrapping herself around you.  “Promise me you’ll be safe?” She asked, her voice wobbling.

And that’s when you realized she was crying. “Oh, Morgan,” you hummed as you held her close.  Your eyes closed as her tiny hand tried to fist into the thick spandex of your uniform. “I’ll be home by tonight, okay?”

She pulled away then, her brown eyes glittering as she pressed one of her plushies to your chest.  You hadn’t even realized that she’d been carrying it.  “Daddy will keep you safe.”

Brows furrowed, you looked down at the toy, only for your heart to break.  She was giving you her Iron Man plushie.  “What’s this for?”

“Nothing bad can happen to you if my daddy’s protecting you,” she said, her face set with determination.  It would be adorable, if it didn’t hit you just how sad it was.

No one should have to be afraid that their loved ones wouldn’t return home.

Eyes welling up with tears, you pulled the mini Stark into another hug.  Your face burrowed in her dark hair as you tried hard not to cry.  “Thank you, baby girl.  I’ll hold onto him, okay?”  You squeezed onto her for another long moment before letting her go.  The little girl’s eyes swimmed with worry as you said, “You should go back to your mom now, okay?  I’ll be home by tonight, alright?”

Pepper huffed as she finally reached the two of you. You could tell that she was trying to appear much stronger than she felt as her eyes took you in.  “Come on, Morgan,” She said as she picked the four-year-old up, setting her on her hip.  “Back to bed.”

But the two of you knew that she most likely wouldn’t be able to sleep.  Not until you and the rest of your team were home.

The older woman locked you in place with a steely gaze, though you could see the fear behind it.  “Don’t be stupid.”

“I won’t,” you said, nodding to her once before heading for the ramp.

The others were already in the quinjet, settling in for the three hour flight.  Sam looked up as you walked up, the ramp closing behind you.  “You ready to go, darling?”

A sad grin spread over your lips as you held up the little plushie.  It was soft in your hands, still warm from Morgan hugging it so tightly.  “I have our protection detail, now,” you said.

The silence that enveloped the people around you was palpable.  Tense.

“Well,” Wanda said after a long moment, “I’m happy we have someone looking over us.”

Two and a half hours later found all of you gearing up.  The only sound in the air was that of tac suits and shoving guns into holsters. You looked at the gun in your hand, running your fingers over it in an almost loving manner.

“That Nat’s?” Bucky asked, his voice low enough that the others wouldn’t be able to hear him.

You swallowed around the lump in your throat, nodding as you brushed your thumb over the spider that was engraved into the handle.  “Figured if I can’t have her here with me, I’d at least have a part of her.”

“Good,” he said, his hand resting on your arm.  His touch was soothing, even if there was Kevlar and spandex between the two of you.  His sea blue eyes were locked on you, his dark hair pulled into a bun at the nape of his neck.  “She’d be proud of you.  I know I am.”

And fuck, that meant the world.  The entire time you trained with him in the Red Room, you’d been longing for praise, for recognition.  And knowing that he was proud made you feel like you were seventeen again.

“Can you two stop staring into each other’s eyes long enough for us to get a game plan?” Sam asked, shoving the former Winter Soldier.  There was a teasing glint in his eyes as he looked between the two of you, causing your cheeks to go a bright fire engine red.

Wanda pulled on her worn, red leather jacket. She clung to that thing like it was a lifeline.  Like it was a part of her identity.  “What have we got?”

Rhodey pulled up blueprints of a building on his tablet, throwing it up into the air in a hologram.  Stark tech, of course.  It was always the best out there.  “We’ve got reports of children being kidnapped from the local towns.  Rumors of experiments being done in an old abandoned shoe factory.”  He tapped on a spot in the hologram, blowing it up.  “Wanda and Sam will take the front entrance.  Your focus is getting all the children out.”  He then blew up the blueprint again before hitting a spot on the opposite side.  “Bucky and Y/N, you’ll go through the back entrance.  Your focus is getting information.  Find whatever hub there is in there and get everything you can.  If there’s a new set of bad guys running around, we need to be two steps ahead of them at all times.”

You drew your bottom lip in between your teeth as you approached the back entrance of the old factory.  It was a beaten-up loading dock, the garage doors left hanging half open. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird that there’s no kind of security?” You asked as your eyes scanned the area around you.  Bucky already had his gun at the ready as he walked ahead of you.  “If they’re kidnapping kids and conducting experiments, you’d think that they’d want to have some kind of guard.”

To his credit, he seemed to agree, even if he didn’t call in your suspicions on the coms.  “If this is some new kind of group, they might not realize how imperative it is to treat their bases like fortresses.”

But as you got further and further into the factory, you got more uneasy.  There was no sign of life except for the occasional rat.  Everything was covered in dust.  Broken glass and wood littered the floor.  There were signs of people breaking in, but it was more than likely a few homeless people looking for shelter.

“Have you two found anything?” Wanda asked, your com crackling.

“We haven’t found any kids or anything,” Sam added.

You looked to Bucky, both of you seriously considering turning back and leaving.  “No,” you said, eyes locked with the man ahead of you.  Something in your gut twisted, but you weren’t going to blow a mission just because of a bad feeling.  

Natasha would tell you to trust your gut.

“But we’ll keep searching for another ten minutes,” you said, steeling yourself.  “If we can’t find anything, we’ll leave.”

“Could be some wild goose chase,” Bucky said, irritation clear on his face.  He looked so menacing in his Winter Soldier garb that it kind of shocked you.  But also, it was kind of nice knowing that only you and a few others got to see how soft he actually was.  He paused as he noticed the door that led to the stairwell, nudging you and pointing to it.

It was the only part of the place that wasn’t covered in dust.

“Someone’s been here,” he said.

The two of you headed for the stairwell, and you let out a huff of air.  “Can we talk about how shitty it would be for us to have been dragged out here only for it to be a false alarm?  The lack of dust could be from a homeless person,” You said, still dreaming of your bed. It had taken the entire flight for your body to wake up, and the first thing you were planning to do when you got back was fall right back into it’s warmth.  “First call since the Final Battle.  Only for it to be nothing.”

“Thought we’d have longer,” he said as he peeked through the door leading to the second floor.  He led you through the door, and the two of you found what seemed to be just another abandoned bunch of machinery.  “I figured—”

He was cut off by a figure in all black jumping at him.  He’d been hiding behind a column, clearly biding his time until the two of you got there.

“GRAB HER!”

You went into battle mode as four more of those black-clad figures appeared.  It all felt like a blur as the two of you fought back against your attackers.  It was a frenzy of uppercuts, jabs, and roundhouse kicks. “Wanda, Sam—any chance you could get to the second floor?” You asked as your thighs wrapped around a man’s head, twisting until you threw him to the ground.

A scream tore it’s way from your throat as you were grabbed from behind, your arms twisting until you couldn’t move.  Thrashing, you tried to force yourself out of their hold, but it was to no avail.  The cold metal of a knife pressed against your throat and you froze.

“Y/N!” Bucky shouted as he noticed your predicament.  There was a bang that resounded through the air and the man holding you crumpled to the ground, his grip on your arms disappearing.

Your heart pounded against your chest as you stared at the men that littered the floor around you.  Their bodies were twisted at unnatural angles, blood pooling on the ground below them.  “J-James—”

He wrapped his arms around you, holding you close. “It’s okay.  You’re safe,” he said, rocking you back and forth.

“I’m sorry,” you whimpered as tears pricked your eyes.  “I-I just. Froze.”  At that second, all you could think about was how that knife felt against your throat.  How scared you were to die.  “I couldn’t think.  I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he reassured you, smoothing your hair down.  “Anyone else would’ve reacted the same way.”  Bucky leaned back, his eyes searching yours.  “Can you walk?  We’ve gotta get back to the others.”

“Yeah,” you said, getting to your feet with a sigh. Your muscles already ached from the hits you had taken.  You looked at the abandoned factory around you with a new light.  “It was a set up,” you said, brows furrowing as the two of you headed out the front entrance.  “But why?”

Everyone was deathly quiet on the quinjet, too afraid to speak.  The weight of what had happened weighed on everyone’s minds as they became more and more aware of the fact that it wasn’t some new group of villains for your team to take down.  No, it went much deeper than what you had originally thought.

“Are we not going to talk about the fact that for some reason, a bunch of goons just tried to kidnap Y/N?” Sam asked, fury lacing his veins.  His hands were clenched at his sides.  The Captain America shield had been tossed to the side, a little recklessly.

It would appear that Sam and Bucky’s protectiveness over you had only increased since coming back from the Snap.

Bucky was sitting beside you, a blanket thrown over your shoulders while you held Morgan’s Iron Man plushie close to your chest. “Those guys weren’t some new group. They were experienced,” he said, a growl in his voice.  His thigh, pressed against yours, was bouncing anxiously.  “Took us a lot longer than it should’ve to take out those men.”

“Who the hell could it be?” Wanda asked, eyeing you from where she was standing.  Despite the fact that you weren’t much younger than her, she saw you as the baby of the group.  The one that needed to be protected.

Even though Peter was still a teenager.

“I know who it is,” you said.  Everyone’s eyes turned to you, confused.  You wrapped the blanket around yourself tighter. Your eyes met Bucky’s, and he immediately knew where your mind was going.

He sighed, running his hand across his face. “HYDRA.”

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch 12: Fairy Tale of New York

Summary: In the run up to the Festive Period, Katie presents the Publishing Company proposal to the Stark Industries board, and our favourite couple spend their first Christmas together in New York. New Years eve is welcomed in with a bang at a Stark Industries Gala and Steve’s simply happy he has his girl by his side...

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: SMUT (NSFW!) So over 18s only please. And some teeth rotting fluff… and LANGUAGE

A/N: 

There is a smutty little companion piece to this called Love In An Elevator which sits as part of the Stark Spangled Kinks little mini series and expands a little bit more on the events before and after the New Years Gala. 

December 2013

Steve loved his girl. He would die for her if he had to, without a second thought. But the one thing he dreaded above everything was the thought of shopping, not least as it was the middle of December. Frankly, when she was shopping for herself Katie was a nightmare. Not on purpose, she was just so indecisive about whatever she was looking for, insisting that things made her look too wide hipped, short, big assed, big chested (which he’d told her cheekily wasn’t the clothes fault she had good assets which had earned him a slap around the back of the head). It was ridiculous, she was ridiculous, and he had no idea why she was so insecure as frankly she was gorgeous and would stop a room if she walked in wearing a sack.

“You don’t need to come!” she chuckled at him, shoving on her jacket “I know I’m a pain in the ass and it’ll take me ages, plus it will be busy as it’s nearly Christmas.” “You sure?”

“Yeah.” she smiled, dropping her arms round his shoulders from behind the sofa, her hands coming to rest on his chest. “I just need a break from that damned proposal and to be honest, I only make you come so you can carry my bags.” “Nice to see I have my uses” he said sarcastically, rolling his head round so he could catch her lips.

“Well it makes me feel special.” she said, shrugging as she straightened up.

And damned it, after she’d said that, how could he not go?

“You know what, it’s fine. I’ll come. Give me a second.” he said with a slight sigh, and when he glanced at her he noticed her turn around with a smirk on her face and he knew then he’d been played, well and truly.

“You’re so full of shit…” he said, shaking his head as she laughed whilst he went to retrieve his boots.

2 hours later he was beginning to regret his utter lack of ability to resist her charms. She was still flapping about her New Year’s Eve outfit for the Stark Industries Ball, worse than she normally did Steve noted. 6 dresses she had tried on. 6 and she hated every one. Deciding enough was enough, instead of letting her walk into the next shop he’d tugged her hand, his strength easily keeping her from following her intended path and pulled her up the escalator to the fancy, pretentious champagne bar that was placed on the floor overlooking the lower floors of the City Centre mall.

“Why can’t I find anything that looks good?” She muttered as he slid a glass of Bollinger over to her, handing his card to the bar tender.

“Katie, stop it.” he said, looking at her where she was perched next to him at the bar. “All of them looked great.” “You’d say that no matter what.” she looked at him, and she couldn’t help but smile at the affection on his face.

“Because it’s true.” he smirked taking a pull of his beer “But if you want my opinion the red one was my favourite.” And it was. It was a scarlet colour, straight cut satin number, which clung to every delectable curve of her body, flashing a peep of leg through the thigh high split on the right hand side, not to mention the neckline and back. It was a halter-neck with a cowl at the front giving a subtle flash of cleavage and left her upper back was bare. It was demure enough to keep most of what was underneath it to the imagination, yet also flashed enough skin to make him feel slightly warm every time he looked at her. When he’d seen her walk out of the changing room it, it had almost made his mouth water, and it had definitely made his trousers feel tighter

“The Galliano one?” she asked.

“If that was the red one.” he shrugged, he had no idea about designers or makes.

“Hmmm.” she said, contemplating what he said as Steve thanked the bar tender and signed his name on the check with a flourish. He didn’t even look at how ludicrously expensive the champagne and his fancy European lager was. He didn’t care, he earned enough from SHIELD to treat his girl every once in a while. In fact he decided then he wanted to buy her the dress too.

“Let me buy it for you.” he said softly.

“What?” She frowned “Don’t be stupid, not like I can’t afford it.” “That isn’t the point.” he sighed, rolling his eyes at her stubbornness. “I’d like to.” She eyed him for a moment before she smiled and reached out to gently brush his cheek with her hand “Ok thank you.” Well that had been easier than he had anticipated. Normally she argued like hell about paying for things, be it takeout, food, meals, dates. Instead, she leaned over to give him a soft peck on the lips and he smiled back. But then another frown creased her brow and she was back to brooding again. No, there was something bothering her.

“Sweetheart, what is it?” he said gently, his hand landing on her knee.

Katie looked up at him, before she sighed “I’m nervous.” “About the pitch?”

She nodded. And she was. She had been working on the Presentation and Business Plan for the Publishers since Thanksgiving. The Business Plan had been submitted to the board two days ago, and she was due to give the Presentation tomorrow morning. She had hoped that shopping for a new power suit and a dress for New Year’s would distract her for a few hours. It hadn’t.

“Doll, you’ve been working on it for weeks. Pepper says it’s great, even Tony didn’t find anything to pick holes in.” he said, soothingly.

“I just…I want everyone to vote on it because it’s a good idea, not just because of who I am.” she said softly, “You know?” “And they will. Honestly, you’re over thinking and over worrying. You’re going to smash it.”

He watched as a small smile tugged at her lips “You and your sudden obsession with street lingo…”

“What?” he frowned, mock annoyance on his face “Can’t Captain America be down with the kids?” “Ok, I never want to hear you say that, ever again.” she chuckled and he grinned. “Oh, but speaking of Kids…are you gonna make the Foundation Party?”

Steve took a deep breath. The Stark Foundation apparently hosted a yearly Christmas Party at the tower for local children who were either ill or in the care system. Last year’s hadn’t gone ahead on account of Tony’s near mental breakdown-slash-terrorist problem but this year they were full steam ahead. Tony would be there in his Iron Man get up, Katie as well (she loved everything about the party) and she’d asked Steve if he would mind coming along. And he didn’t mind per-se, it was just the idea of 50 kids running around that invited utter chaos.

“I’m gonna try.” he said, honestly. “As long as there’s no missions that go off.”

“Well don’t worry if you can’t” she said, smiling “We’re not telling the kids you are anyway, so if you turn up it will be like Santa himself has arrived. Only in a different suit. And with a shield not a sack.”

Steve let out a chortle before he dropped a kiss to her head “Ok Cinders, let’s go get your dress then we can go home, eat junk and watch trash.”

“You know how to spoil a lady.” Katie smirked, and Steve flashed her a grin, not least because he knew it was her favourite thing to do in the world.

***** Katie took a deep breath as she sat in Pepper’s office. She’d landed in New York little over an hour ago and was now nervous as hell. Really nervous. Steve had assured her she would be fine as he had dropped her at the airfield to catch the jet over. He had assured her she would be fine when he kissed her goodbye. He had assured her she would be fine when she landed and received his text message. And all that amounted to was the fact she now thought Steve was an optimistic fool because she was not fine. She was shitting herself.

“You ready?” Pepper asked as she walked into her office, effortlessly business-like but graceful as always.

“No.” Katie said honestly, looking up from where she had been sat reading over her cue cards again.

“Well, we’re about to start.” she smiled “I put you on first so you can concentrate on the rest of the board meeting once you’ve pitched.” Katie nodded and stood up, smoothing down her pencil skirt. “Ok, let’s get it over with.” She followed Pepper down to the Boardroom and stepped inside where one of the Interns was setting up the screen to the right. She smiled at the other members of the Board, all who she knew by name and took a seat to the right of Tony who held the head of the table, Pepper sitting opposite her to his left.

“You got this Kiddo.” Tony leaned over to whisper in her ear before he sat up “Alright Ladies and Gents, the last Board meeting of 2013…”

Katie listened as Tony spoke and then Pepper outlined the agenda and then way too fast she was being invited to speak. She stood up, cleared her throat, looked at the Presentation, to her cards and then froze before she smiled gently.

“You know what…” She said, looking round “I had a huge, posh presentation prepared but I know you’ve read all the statistics and the numbers” she took a deep breath and tossed her cue cards down on the table “So I’m gonna speak from my heart and share my vision…or in Tony’s words, I’m winging it….” Tony leaned back in his chair and watched as his sister held the room, occasionally glancing at Pepper who was smiling proudly. Katie spoke articulately, clearly but most of all passionately. He could tell that most of the board members were with her, the only one that was going to be an ass-hat about it was Jeremy Saul, their Finance Director. He had been the only one that had questioned the viability of Katie’s desire to go for un-published, un-known authors. Her proposal and vision wasn’t about making as much profit as possible, it was about encouraging talent.

“I just have one question…” Jeremy leaned back in his chair and Tony sat up, stroking his beard as he looked at the man who was staring up at his sister. Katie turned her gaze to him.

“By all means, please Mr Saul.” 

Arse-Saul more like… “I’ve read the business plan. You don’t intend to turn a profit for the first year…” he said, “And even after that you don’t seem to be focussed on any kind of margins or return on sales whatsoever.” “That’s correct.” Katie said

“Well, forgive me for asking but what benefit will this bring to Stark Industries from a money perspective?” Katie took a deep breath, and glanced at Tony who had arched his eyebrow. She could tell he was thinking the same thing as her - ‘Dickhead’.

“The same benefit the Stark Relief Fund brings. The same benefit the Stark Foundation brings.” Katie said, taking a deep breath “I’m not going to lie, my vision isn’t about profiteering. It’s about giving a springboard to those Authors who, like JK Rowling have had every door so far slammed in their faces.” she looked around the room remembering Peppers’ advice- Enthuse, engage, engross. “Granted, in the future it would be nice to have a decent turn over, and I don’t want to run at a loss. I’m a firm believer I can make it breakeven in the first 2 years as the numbers show, and the remaining 3 on the 5 year plan show a return on sales of just over 5%.”

“5% isn’t a huge amount.” Saul looked at Katie and she nodded.

“You’re right, it isn’t. But you know as well as I do that Stark Industries turns over a ludicrous amount of money every year so it doesn’t need another section which turns over profits in excess of 30%. That isn’t my vision here, and that’s not what setting up Stark Independent Publishing is about.”

Saul nodded and scribbled down something on his note pad and looked to Pepper who was leading the meeting to show he had no more questions.

Katie took a deep breath, thanked everyone for their time and sat down.

“Ok, let’s take a break.” Pepper said, glancing around the room “Grab a coffee, back here in 10 minutes for the Contract Status review.” she shot Katie a large smile as she stood up and walked out of the large Oak doors.

“Kiddo…” Tony leaned over as the various board members started to move about and chatter amongst themselves “You crushed it.”

Katie smiled at her brother as he squeezed her shoulder before standing up and shrugging on his jacket.

“Think that calls for a drink…hey, Pepper, can we…”

His voice trailed off as the boardroom door shut, leaving Katie alone. Leaning back in her chair she allowed herself a smile. That hadn’t gone too bad after all.

*****

Steve looked over to where his phone was placed on the bench by the side of the gym for what felt like the one hundredth time since midday. The meeting should be over by now.

“Expecting a call?” Natasha drawled as she sent a right hook his way which he dodged.

“It’s Katie’s pitch today.” he said, jabbing back with a forearm throw which Natasha easily twirled under “I thought it would be done by now.” In all honesty he wasn’t nervous. He knew she’d got this, the passion and the detail she’d put into it made it impossible for her not to. He’d told her as much when she’d zipped up that delectable grey pencil skirt over dark black tights and shrugged on a silky black blouse that morning after her shower. He’d told her as much when he’d kissed her goodbye at the air field. He’d told her as much when he had messaged her later that morning.

But he still wanted to know she was ok.

“The Publishing thing?” Nat asked and Steve nodded as they circled on another. “She’s a Stark, what she gotta pitch for?”

“There’s an entire board.” Steve said. “She can’t vote on it as it’s a conflict of interest. So even if Tony votes, his 35% isn’t enough against the boards 30% to hold a true majority. She needs them both onside.” “Huh.” Nat said, “No wonder you’re distracted.” “I’m not…” he began but in a swoop Natasha had his legs from under him, knee pressed against his throat, a shit eating grin spread across her face as he rolled his eyes.

“Wanna finish that sentence?” she smirked.

He took a deep breath as she stood up and then his phone began to ring. He effortlessly rolled out of Natasha’s light hold and crossed the room to pick it up.

“Hey doll.” he said, smiling. “How did it go?” “Well…” Katie began to talk, and Steve had to strain to hear her voice over the noise in the background, noise that sounded like a bar. “It could have gone worse…” “But it couldn’t have gone much better either Spangles…” Tony added from the back ground “She was fucking amazing.” “Told you.” Steve grinned, giving Natasha the thumbs up.

“Tony’s being premature.” she said “We won’t know if they’re going to agree until the end of the year but he insisted we come out for drinks anyway.”

“Pssht” Tony said in the background. “It’s nearly Christmas, can’t I treat my little sister to an afternoon on the Pier…hey, yeah can I get a…”

Steve smiled as the noise started to die down a little, Katie having moved to find a quieter spot.

“So it went well?” “Yeah. Was pointless me spending so much time on my presentation though.” she laughed “I didn’t use it in the end, went for the tried and tested Stark format of winging it.”

Steve let out a chuckle and looked back at Natasha who was watching him, an odd smirk on her face “I’m pleased it went well honey but I gotta go. I gotta finish this sparring session then I have one of those damned videos to film…” “What is it today?” Katie asked, and he could her the grin in her voice as she dropped it to mimick his own “’So, you had your first wet dream?’”

“Punk.” he shot immediately and she let out a laugh.

“Jerk”

****

“Ok, so, we all set?” Tony said, stepping forward and examining his repulsor gauntlets.

“As ready as we’ll ever be.” Katie said, straightening the Nova Star shaped buckle on her utility belt.

“Let’s just stick to the plan.” Steve looked to Katie on his right, then Tony on his left before focusing on the door in front “One group each…no distractions.”

The siblings nodded and Steve stepped forward, opening the large door. They were instantly hit with a barrage of noise as 45 kids swamped the 3 Avengers. But it was a small, olive-skinned, ebony haired girl that reached Katie first, and she bent down beaming.

“Emmy!” Katie said, pulling the small girl into a hug “Wow, you’ve gotten so big!”

“I’m 6 now.” Emmy said proudly, flashing a grin. Her front tooth was missing.

“No.” Katie shook her head “uh-uh, no way.” “I am.”

“You’re catching me up!”

Emmy let out a giggle and Katie stood up, glancing over at where Tony and Steve were surrounded by little people, all of them bouncing up and down.  Emmy, however, hung back slightly as the other children all pushed forward to hug or see Iron Man or Captain America, and she gripped Katie’s leg tighter.

“You ok?” she glanced down at the little girl who clung to her leg as she nodded.

“I want to meet Captain America.” she said quietly. “He’s your boyfriend.” “He is.” Katie nodded “Come on, I’ll take you.” Emmy took Katie’s hand and they crossed the room to where the crowd had now dispersed, the kids being shepherded into the various groups for the annual tour round the tower, which was basically one huge big supervised treasure hunt where each of them came back holding the latest games console or tablet depending on their age.

“Captain…” Katie said and Steve frowned, turning round, it had been a while since she had called him that, well outside of the bedroom anyway. As he looked at her, the tell tale flush spread up her neck into her face and he knew she’d had the same thought. Ignoring the heat in his own cheeks he looked at her and watched as she gently moved her gloved hand to the back of the dark haired girl’s head, as the kid’s hand curled round Katie’s. Her large, brown eyes glanced up at Steve shyly. “There’s someone here that wants to meet you.”

Steve smiled, his head devoid of his helmet, and he crouched down in front of the small girl as Katie did the same, dropping to her level. “Hi.” he greeted her.

“Hi…” she said softly “My name’s Emily.” “Emily, that’s a pretty name.” Steve smiled at her

“My friends call me Emmy.” she nodded.

“Can I call you Emmy?” Steve asked.

The small girl seemed to ponder for a second before she looked at Katie then back to Steve “Katie calls me Emmy. And as you’re her boyfriend I suppose that would be ok.” Steve looked at Katie who was biting her lip to stop herself from laughing and he nodded at the small girl, a smile crossing his face “Well how’s about you call me Steve then, but we keep it to ourselves. Only you and the grown ups can call me that today.”

“Mr Stark calls you Cap.” Emmy said, frowning.

“Yeah, he said grown ups.” Katie smiled “Tony is not a grown up.” Emmy let out a giggle “you’re silly Katie.” “She is.” Steve nodded and Katie stuck out her tongue  and crossed her eyes causing the small girl to laugh even harder.

“Emmy!” one of the attendees from the home called and beckoned her over “Come on or you’ll miss the treasure hunt.”

Emmy threw her arms round Steve and he momentarily paused before he gave her a hug before she ran off to join her peers.

“She’s cute…” he said, looking to Katie as they both stood up.

“Yeah I now you’re not supposed to have favourites but…” Katie sighed “I met her when she was 18 months old. She’s adorable.” “What’s her story?” Steve asked.

“Her mom died when she was 3 months old.” Katie sighed, watching as the kids were organised into a line “There were complications at birth that she never recovered from. Her dad then killed himself a few weeks later. She had no other family who were willing to take her in so she’s been in a home ever since.”

“That’s awful.” Steve frowned.

“Yeah.” Katie sighed, “Makes me realise just how lucky I was that Tony stepped up and became my guardian after mom and dad died.” she glanced at the young girl, the softness in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed by Steve as she spoke again “You know, every year I pray she doesn’t show up here. Not because I don’t want to see her but because it means she’s found a home and a family…” 

Steve smiled gently, looping an arm around her shoulders.

"Life can be shit.” he said, simply and Katie snorted.

“Yeah, it isn’t all bad though.” she mused, watching as Tony joined the front of one of the 3 lines the kids had been organised in and was looking at them all waving his hands.

“You want kids?” Katie asked, looking up at him. He took a deep breath and blew it out through his nose “Sorry…” she continued, shaking her head and rubbing her temple. “That’s a bit forward, I didn’t mean…” “I know.” Steve shook his head, understanding “And I did, before I joined the army. All I wanted was a family, stability, hold down a good job. Now, well, things went a bit crazy didn’t they?” “Tell me about it.” Katie chuckled.

“What, errr, what about you?” Steve asked.

“Eventually, maybe. But then I see all these kids here, like Emmy, who need homes and I…” she trailed off, struggling to put into words how she felt. Steve glanced down at her, a soft look on his face, but he was distracted as Emmy had returned and she was tugging on the dark material of his Uniform trousers.

“Can you be leader of our group?” she looked at Steve.

“Woah, what about me Emmy?” Katie said, her hands on her hips.

Emmy shot her a grin “You leader of my group for the last 2 years…” “Wow.” Katie smiled “You’re replacing me with Captain Dork.,.”

Emmy laughed and Steve’s mouth curled upwards.

“Captain Dork?”

Katie shrugged “The one that originally sprung to my head isn’t suitable for 6 year old ears.”

Steve let out a snort and then he looked down at Emmy and nodded. “Alright sweetie.” he said as the girl slipped her hand into his. “Lead the way.” As Katie watched them leave she was sure her ovaries had just exploded.

*****

45 kids came to the tower, 45 left. No one died, and Steve only had to throw his shield once for a demonstration. All in all the Stark Foundation Christmas Party 2013 was a roaring success.

The residents of the tower spent the next few days they had before Christmas lazing around, watching old Christmas films as Katie introduced Steve to her favourite one- “The Muppet Christmas Carol” her and Tony singing along like a pair of idiots. They decorated a tree in her apartment, headed through the streets of New York in the dark to see all the various Christmas lights, wrapped presents, spent evenings drinking hot chocolate laced with liquor and before they both knew what had happened, it was Christmas Eve and to Katie’s utter delight (and Tony’s it would seem as JARVIS informed them dryly that Mr Stark was demanding that they go outside to build snowmen) it was snowing again to top up the already substantial covering on the ground.

Steve hated being cold, a consequence of spending 70 years frozen but the childish excitement written all over Katie’s face was enough to make him brave the snow, and so, at half past 2 in the afternoon he was stood in Central Park, along with Katie, Pepper and Tony, building snowmen-which Steve was amazingly adept at, something that came as a surprise to Pepper and Tony, but not to Katie considering his artistic nature. Bruce called Tony half way through following the conclusion of whatever seminar he had been in and an hour or so later joined them, and was immediately told to judge the snowmen contest. He declared Steve the winner causing Tony and Katie to pelt the mild mannered Scientist with snowballs until his grown up façade slipped and he joined in, catching Tony with a perfectly placed lump of snow right between the eyes.

The light began to draw in and after purchasing a hot dog each from one of the stands the sounds of carols drifted to their ears so the 5 of them wandered towards the music. They found a group of singers not far from the Alice In Wonderland statue, each holding lanterns and sheets of music. They looked at one another and joined the crowd as they group began to sing Silent Night. Steve slipped his arms around Katie from behind, pulling her to his bulky, coated frame and she leaned back happily into his embrace.  His cold nose brushed against her cheek near her ear as he stooped to drop a kiss there.

“I haven’t seen a carol service since I was a boy.” he said softly.

She turned her head to look at him, the navy blue beanie he was wearing pulled down over his ears, matching scarf wrapped tightly round his chin. Yes, he hated the cold, but here he was grinning like a school boy as the snow began to fall again, because he didn’t hate any time spent with his best girl.

She placed a soft kiss on his lips. “Taking you back?”

“A little…” he smiled before she turned back to the band, as his nose nuzzled at my ear “Love you… gram mo chroi…”

The words phonetically registered in her brain, graw miu cree the Irish brogue he had spoke in made her shiver.

“Yeah that sounds really sexy and I have no idea what you just called me…” she said, tilting her head back to face him.

“You don’t speak Gaelic?” he teased.

“Italian, German, Spanish and French…but no Gaelic.” she smirked.

“Smart ass…” he rolled his eyes before chuckling slightly, his eyes leaving hers to focus on the singers again. “So what does it mean?” she pressed.

“It means you’re the love of my heart, my life.” “Smooth Rogers…” she grinned, catching his lips again.

The singers finished to a round of applause from the surrounding crowd, including wolf whistles from Tony, and the 5 of them set off back to the Tower, the streetlights bouncing off the white of the snow. Walking the 20 or so minutes back they all stopped to enjoy hot chocolates laced with lashings of brandy at a small Cafe on the corner of Park and 5th, along with roast chestnuts and mince pies. Katie smiled, remarking that it was about as clichéd a Christmas Eve you could get. And she absolutely loved it.  

Once back at the tower they all said goodnight and headed to their respective floors and apartments. Once Steve and Katie had shed their various outer layers of winter clothing, Katie instructed Jarvis to light the fire before she headed off into the bedroom before walking back out and across the hall to the larger bathroom where Steve heard her turn on the tap to the tub.

“You having a bath?” he called dropping onto the sofa.

“Warming up.” she called back, grinning as she dropped a Christmas Pudding shaped bathbomb into the tub, watching as it started to fizz, the gorgeous smells of cinnamon hitting her nostrils. Biting her lip she walked to the door of the bathroom and leaned against it calling down the hall. “Wanna join me?”

Steve heard her, and didn’t need asking twice.

He walked into the bathroom to see her drop her robe to the floor, flashing him a view of her bare back, ass, legs before she stepped into the obscenely large tub and he shed his clothes in about 5 seconds flat, climbing in behind her. She leaned back against him, his arms coming to rest naturally on the sides of the large tub.

“Why…” he began, looking at his skin “Is there glitter all over my arm?” “I used a bath bomb” Katie grinned.

“A what?”

“Things you drop in the water alongside or instead of bubble bath and they smell nice. I’ll show you another day.” she said, closing her eyes and leaning back into the warmth of the water, her head laying on his chest, her right hand gently playing with his, fingers delicately rubbing across his knuckles, palm, tangling with his.

They were silent for a while, Steve’s head lolling against the back of the tub, utterly contented to stay there until the water went cold, when Katie spoke.

"Say it again,” she said, softly, wanting to hear the words he’d said before.

He quirked a crooked smile. “Say what?”

She chuckled and bit at the corner of her bottom lip and tilted her head round so she could look at him. “The thing you said earlier… say it again.“

He didn’t’ say a word, instead he dropped his head to kiss her neck, lips laying soft kisses along her shoulders. Slowly, his right hand moved its spot on the tub to stroking her hip, down the outside of her, thigh, up again and then across to her abdomen, the subtle brush of his fingertips on her sensitive flesh set off chills of a very different kind to the one’s she’d been feeling all afternoon in the snow. Katie let her eyelids fall shut, a small sigh escaping her lips as his mouth trailed a line from her right shoulder, to the back of her neck, to her left and she swallowed thickly, a soft hum of contentment brewing in her throat.  

"Say it again,” she breathed out but still he said nothing, instead he moved his hand down her abdomen going lower and lower until he slowly began to tease her.

Katie shuddered, her breath caught again as her head fell backwards. “Say it…” she tried again, the words coming out as a desperate whisper.

His grinning face pressed to her neck and shoulder as he nipped gently. “Sorry, I’m an old man. I forget what I say sometimes.”

He knew exactly what she was after and Katie knew he did, he was just being a tease and it was driving her wild. So she decided to deploy the big guns. Her hand drifted down to find his, wrapping tightly around his wrist, stilling his touch and she turned to face him, gently straddling him, sitting on his thighs and sending a slosh of water over the side of the tub onto the tiled floor.

"You forgot that I’m the love of your life?” she said softly, eyes locking onto his.

“Doll,” he said, dropping his forehead to hers. “No one could ever make me forget that. Ever.”

Bingo. Katie felt the smile cross her face as she leaned in to kiss him. Hard.

“Then say it,” she demanded.

He reached up and tangled one hand into his hair, pulling her face down to his, kissing her hard and he muttered into her mouth, “Gram mo Chroi…”

“I love you,” Katie huffed out into his open mouth as his hands went down to her waist and he gently pulled her forwards, positioning her before he thrust upwards and she moaned, pushing down onto his lap, water lapping around them as he filled her. “I love you, more than anything” Katie nipped at his lip and coiled her fingers into his hair, drawing a hiss from his mouth as she moved again, rocking her hips, grinding down on him.

“I love you,” his ragged breaths snagged on the words as he pressed up into her harder, then harder again, his hands straying to her back, fingers sliding up and down her as he pulled her closer to him, kissing her hard before turning his lips to her neck then her chest, the trails of water and soap suds trickled down from between her cleavage to her navel. It made him groan as he looked at her, pulling her down, meeting her thrust for thrust, slowly, deeply, each loving the other in a way only they could.

He sat up, the change of angle making her purr as he hit her deeply, and he held her to him, close, chest pressed to chest as he kissed her, hands snaking up into the back of her hair which was piled messily on top of her head. Katie moaned into his mouth as he thrust upwards again, and again as she pushed down, rotating her hips against him. Slowly, deeply, loving every single inch of each other they could find. Eventually Katie felt the knot in her stomach beginning to unravel and she threw her head back in a soft cry, his name tumbling from her lips, before she fell forward, burying her head into the crook of his shoulder and neck as she caught her breath. A few more thrusts and Steve was right behind her, his body sliding down into the tub, head resting against the back, his girl tightly clutched to his chest. His hands ran up and down her back as she gave a low hum of contentment before pulling back, smoothing his hair back with her hands and smiling softly at him, before she kissed him gently.

“You know…” Steve said gently as she pressed her forehead against his “The amount of times you purr…I think I'mma start calling you kitten.“

"Thats kinda kinky…” Katie laughed and Steve grinned.

“Well, Kitten…as far as Christmas Eve’s go, this isn’t bad.”

She chuckled slightly and close her eyes. "Its been the best one I’ve ever had.”

*****

Christmas Morning was one of the few times Katie woke before Steve did. But she wasn’t surprised, it was Christmas. She was always up at the crack of dawn, had been since she was a child. Steve’s arms were wrapped around her, one leg tossed over hers doing his best koala impression as always, head buried into the back of her neck. She shifted, rolling over to face him, causing his grip to loosen slightly and simply watched him, taking in how much younger he looked with his face relaxed and how comfortable he was in sleep. She leaned over to gently place a kiss on his cheek just underneath where those ridiculously long eyelashes rested, before she rose, swapping Steve’s T-shirt for a long sleeved pair of Christmas pyjamas adorned with little snowmen and Christmas trees and headed into the living area. The tree was already lit (God bless Jarvis) as was the garland over the electric fire place and the lights in the kitchen. Katie would have fairy lights up all year if she could. Turning on the radio low, she poured some Christmas Roast into the machine and set about making pancake batter whilst popping off a cork on a bottle of Kristal to use for Bucks Fizz, the breakfast drink of champions

Steve heard her singing. Cracking an eye open he glanced at the clock, it wasn’t even gone 8 yet but he knew she would be dancing around, wide awake. He swore to God she’d been a Christmas Elf in a past life. He took a moment to stretch before he got out of bed, went to use the bathroom and came out, throwing on a pair of plaid sleep pants over his boxers before he made his way to the kitchen. He stopped dead when he saw her dancing around and had to stifle his laugh as he slipped his arms around her from behind.

“Merry Christmas sweetheart.” he said, his voice still thick with sleep as she tilted her head round to catch the kiss he was offering.

“Merry Christmas baby…” Katie said as he chuckled.

“What are you wearing?” “It’s the rules…” Katie said, turning to look at him. “On Christmas Day, in the Stark house, we all wear Christmas pyjamas and no one gets dressed until well after lunchtime and then we wear Christmas sweaters, eat dinner, lounge around and do absolutely nothing bar stuffing our faces, drinking and watching movies.”

“I don’t have any Christmas Pyjamas…or a sweater” Steve frowned. “Yeah you do…” Katie said, putting down the bowl of batter she had been whisking and grabbing his hand. She tugged him back down the hall and into the bedroom, Steve cursing her silently in his brain for as usual thinking of everything. She headed into the large walk in wardrobe and tossed him a Bloomingdale’s carrier bag. He arched an eyebrow as he reached inside pulling out first the sweater, and giving a loud groan as he examined the large reindeer on the front.

“Its nose lights up…” Katie said pressing it. At that he let out a chuckle and shook his head.

“I’m not wearing this.”

“Hey I don’t make the rules babes!”

“I never was one for rules…” he muttered, now examining the Pyjamas that were green with little red Santa Clauses all over them.

“Bullshit!” Katie laughed and he looked at her, as she fake saluted “Captain America reporting for duty, Sir!”

“Punk…” he said, shaking his head as his lips quirked upwards and he waved the clothes he was holding at her. “They’re awful.” he snorted.

“They’re supposed to be, that’s the point…” she looked at him, batting her eye lids “Don’t be a Grinch…” “I have no idea what that is.” he shook his head.

“Ok, a Scrooge then…” “I am not dressing like an idiot.” Katie opened her mouth to make a joke about stars, stripes and spandex but he cut her off instantly, spotting the look on her face. Holding up his hand he shook his head.

“Just don’t…”

After some cajoling Katie managed to convince Steve to wear the Pyjamas for the morning. Stockings were opened, Bucks Fizz and Coffee was drunk as they exchanged gifts sitting cross legged on the floor by the fire. But Steve had one last gift for her that he hadn’t wrapped as it wasn’t a Christmas gift realy, it was something he’d wanted to give her for a while now but he finally felt the time was right. He took the opportunity to retrieve it from his bag whilst she was dressing after they had eaten breakfast, grabbing the small item in his hand and crossing the room so he was stood in front of her.

There’s something else I wanted to give you.“ Steve said gently, unable to stop his eyes from straying down the top half of her body which was clad in nothing but a bra as she pulled on the large sweater. "Huh?” she her head emerged from the hole in the sweater and as she noticed him watching her she smirked, sticking her arms through the garment.  “You already did that last night Captain Sex Fiend, several times remember….” “I don’t mean…” he rolled his eyes as she started laughing before he crossed the room and stood in front of her. Katie watched as he was turning a small, circular leather box of some kind in his hand. “I found this when we were going through my stuff for the museum” he said, gently handing it to her. “I want you to have it.”

She looked down at the worn leather of the dark brown box, before pressing the small button which released the catch on the worn, dark brown leather and she carefully opened the lid. Her eyes widened as she glanced down at the delicate ring inside. The stone was a small, tear drop shaped emerald set into a yellow gold band with 3 small diamonds sat underneath the larger part of the teardrop stone. “It was my mom’s” Steve offered by explanation as she looked up at him, her eyes shining “Dad bought it for her before they left for New York, something to remind her of home …” “The Emerald Isle…” Katie said gently, smiling at him as she looked down again. “It probably isn’t worth much and I know you don’t really wear yellow gold but I was reading up that you could get it coated…” “Steve…” she looked up at him, silencing him “I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s beautiful.” And it was. All the more so because it had belonged to a woman she knew she would never meet but wished with all her heart she could. “Are you sure you want me to have it?” she asked. He nodded “She was buried with her wedding rings on but she gave me that specifically to pass to my someone special…” He trailed off as Katie smiled softly, taking the ring out of the box and slipping it onto the ring finger of her right making sure Steve knew she understood this wasn’t an engagement ring. It was a tad loose but nothing that was too drastic to stop her wearing it for the time being. “Thank you.” She said, her voice cracking slightly as she looked up into his eyes, those baby blues she knew so well were misting over “and for the record, regardless of what it’s worth or not worth, it means the world to me that you want me to have it. It’s the best Christmas present I’ve ever had”. She gently cupped his cheek in her hand before she leaned up and captured his lips in a soft kiss. “I love you.” She said gently as his nose rubbed against hers, their foreheads coming to a rest against one another. “Love you too.” He smiled, before giving her another quick kiss. “Enough to wear the sweater? She pulled back, her arms snaking round his neck as his hands dropped to her waist. He glanced at the one she was wearing which made her look like a giant Christmas tree and let out a long groan. He really didn’t want to wear the hideous Christmas sweater, but as he looked at her she made those eyes, those goddamned eyes that could get him to do whatever she wanted and he just couldn’t say no to her. "Fine I’ll wear the sweater…" 

******

“Katie looks nice.” Bruce commented.

"Nice,” Rhodey repeated “She looks unbelievable. Mind you I still remember her as an 18 year old student with blue streaks in her hair…”

Steve smiled as he watched Katie from where he was propped up against the bar talking to Rhodey and Bruce. She was mingling alongside her brother, talking to a group of people from Stark Industries. He saw her throw her head back in a laugh that was ridiculously over the top yet somehow she managed to make it look perfectly natural. He knew his girl was a knock out. But when he had seen her earlier that evening when her and Natasha had been getting ready he had been lost for words. The dress she had agonised over hung to her every curve, skin bare at her back. Her hair was set in soft, thick waves which framed her face. Her lips were painted in a smiliar red to her dress and the thick, smoky shadow and eyeliner over her lids made her green eyes stand out even more. As he watched, the dark haired, slightly overweight man she was stood next to dropped a hand to the bottom of her back and she turned to smile at him, gently patting his shoulder before she glanced over as Steve, rolled her eyes and mouthed “help me.” He let out a chuckle “Scuse me fellas…” and he strode across the room.

“Ah, the man of the moment.” Tony greeted him, “We were just talking about you.” “Oh?” Steve said, dropping a kiss to Katie’s cheek. “You ok sweetheart?”

He didn’t even have to shoot Mr Wandering Hands a glare, the man instantly moved away as Katie stepped gently towards Steve, his hand curling around her waist.

“Yeah.” Tony nodded “Sorry, Cap this is Jeremy Saul, Finance Director for Stark Industries. Jeremy was just asking where you were.” “I couldn’t believe for one second this gorgeous lady would be here on her own” Jeremy smiled offering his hand. Steve’s left hand gripped Katie’s hip a little tighter and she smirked into her champagne flute as he shook Jeremy’s hand with his right. “Good to meet you Captain Rogers.” “Jeremy is part of the board.” Katie said, levelling Steve with a look. A look that was blatantly telling him to be nothing but charming as Mr Wandering Hands could veto her proposal. So Steve was. He politely listened to the man, answered questions and nodded along until Wandering Hand’s attention was diverted elsewhere and he excused himself from their company, but only after dropping a lingering kiss to Katie’s cheek.

“Slimeball.” she muttered when he had gone “I swear to God Tony, it’s only a matter of time before someone files a sexual harassment case against him.” Tony snorted “Until he does something outta line he’s staying Kiddo. For one thing he is good at his job, and for another I don’t fancy the rigmarole and bad press associated with a tribunal.”

“Mr Stark…” Happy called to him. Tony spun round to see the man tapping at his watch and gesturing to the stage.

“Better go before Happy has a heart attack, can’t have my speech being 30 seconds late.” Tony rolled his eyes and he span on his heels, striding over to Happy, placating the man who as making furious gestures with his hands.

Katie chuckled to herself and grabbed another 2 glasses of champagne off a waiter as he passed, dropping her empties onto the tray. She handed one to Steve who dropped a kiss to her head.

“I know I said it before but you really do look incredible.” he smiled. He still couldn’t believe his luck at times. She beamed up at him.

“And you.” she smiled, and she meant it. He looked good enough to eat in a well fitted black tux and slightly off-white dress shirt, along with the cufflinks she had given him the previous year. She had watched him before as he looked himself up and down in the mirror and now, looking him over as he stood by her, she felt her stomach flutter again. A wicked smirk crossed her face “Can you leave the suit on later?”

He was about to quip back that he’d do whatever the hell she wanted if she left those heels on too, but there was suddenly loud music blaring out and the light on the stage all started moving around zooming in and zooming out.

Katie, upon hearing the music gave a loud scoff “Egotistical dick!” she said, unable to hide the laugh in her voice.

“I don’t…” Steve began but she shook her head.

“You won’t” she smirked “It’s by a band called Queen- One Vision. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand why he chose it!”

The introduction music finished and the screen sprang to life at the back of the stage showing Iron Man flying over the tower in New York, and as the first lines of the song sounded in Steve’s ear he let out a snort. One man, one goal, One mission. One heart, one soul, Just one solution.

Yeah, he knew exactly why Tony had chosen it.

The video continued, various bits of footage of Tony in the Iron Man suit, in the office, then there were some of Pepper in the office, Katie, the Avengers…it was all very showy for want of a better word, but at the end of the music it abruptly stopped and Tony stepped onto the stage, right hand held up, thanking everyone for the applause that had broken out. Steve noticed that Katie wasn’t clapping, instead she was shaking her head and trying not to laugh.

To give Stark his dues, Steve could see the man knew how to work a crowd. Just like he had seen Howard do many, many years ago. He welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming and talked about the company achievements for the year, the declared turn over, the charity work and thanked everyone for their continued work making Stark Industries a huge success. Katie however had zoned out until she heard her name being mentioned, and Steve nudging her lightly with his elbow.

“Where are you Kiddo?” Tony repeated

Katie’s eyes grew wide “Oh fuck…” she muttered shrinking into Steve as the spotlight found them.

Tony beamed, looking at his sister as she was flushing bright red from being the centre of attention. “I’d like to boast for a few moments about my sister if I may. As you will know, Katie and I lost our parents when Katie was only 7 years old and some wise guy deemed me responsible enough to become her legal guardian.” There were some chuckles “But I can’t have done too bad a job. She graduated with a first from Oxbridge and worked in England as our Head of Commercial in the UK, kicked some alien ass last year, and more recently left to serve if you will, as an analyst for an Intelligence Agency before resigning a few months back due to a difference of opinion with the boss…”

“That’s one way of putting it.” Steve muttered, causing Katie to smile a little.

“She seems to have sorted her private life out too, got herself a mother’s or should that be brother’s dream of a boyfriend…how’s it going Cap?” Steve rolled his eyes and felt his cheeks flush as the attention turned to him, chuckles ringing out across the room and Katie cringed even more, her face was smiling but her eyes were shooting daggers at Tony.

Tony didn’t care. He simply smirked, took a deep breath and beamed at his sister, continuing “As of yesterday the Stark Industries board voted in favour of a proposal Katie brought to the-” “What?!” Katie spluttered, loudly, as she glanced up at Steve who was beaming down at her, then to Tony who was on the stage, laughs ringing around the room at her reaction

“Yes Kiddo, they voted in favour of you proposal, which means next year sees the opening of Stark Independent Publishers, headed up by Katie. This is a great opportunity for anyone in the business who would like a change in direction and to be involved so we will be opening positions up internally before we advertise. Keep your eyes peeled.” Katie gulped, her eyes wide. They’d accepted her proposal. She was officially in business.

**** The party carried on through the night, and about 15 minutes or so before midnight Katie, feeling the effects of various drinks grabbed Steve’s hand and pulled him onto the dance floor. A dance with his girl is something he’d never disagree to so he allowed himself to be steered into the throng of partygoers. He moved a little closer to her, slightly put off by all the people surrounding them. But his arms found their way around her waist, hers snaked around his neck and they began swaying to the music. The song finished and the music changed pace slightly, but their slow rocking motion remained the same and then Steve realised what the song was.

“Hey…” he grinned and she looked up at him with a small smile. “This is our song.”

“I asked them to play it.” she said, a little sheepishly, but this only made him pull her closer so that their foreheads were resting together before he rubbed his nose gently against hers as the music crashed over them. Steve adjusted his and her arms so they were in a proper dancing hold and they swayed to the song, just as they had done those months ago in her living room.

Tony was watching them out of the corner of his eye as he revolved Pepper around the dancefloor.

“Stop it.” Pepper said, laughing at him.

“What?” he said, his attention suddenly 100% on his woman.

“Watching them.” she looked at him, knowingly. Tony smiled, not even trying to hide it anymore, as he looked over at where his sister was dancing, her cheek was resting on Steve’s chest, top of her head tucked underneath his chin, as she laughed at something he said, tilting her head up to look at him and the smiling captain dropped a soft kiss to her lips.

“I’ve never seen her so happy Pep.” he said fondly as he watched the pair of them dancing together.

“I reckon they’ll make great babies.” Pepper teased, causing Tony to choke on nothing and look at her.

“What…why would…is she…” Pepper let out a laugh and shook her head “Not that I know of but they’re in it for keeps. I can tell. He’ll have a ring on it by this time next year.” “Well, so might I…” Tony teased and Pepper looked at him, smirking.

“Yeah, don’t bank on that.” she laughed “I told you, we’re not ready for that yet.”

“Kiddo is 14 years younger than me.” Tony pouted.

“And 14 years more mature.” Pepper smirked as the song drew to an end.

“Miss Potts you are breaking my heart…” Tony said, dropping a kiss to her lips. She smiled and gently pulled away from him, patting his chest and heading to the bar.

The band finished that song and then there was a loud cheer as the large clock on the screen began to count down, Steve and Katie moved to one of the windows to get a look over the city. As the room erupted as the countdown finished, Steve turned to the woman in his arms and smiled at her gently.

“Happy New Year baby girl.” he said softly.

“Happy New Year Handsome” she beamed, as his lips met hers.

**** Don’t forget to check out Love In An Elevator- A Stark Spangled Kinks one shot which sits along side this chapter...and a little bonus drabble When You Know, You Know, for their morning after.

Tags

@the-Omni-princess

@momobaby227

@geekofmanythings16

[mara-tevith-solo]

Real Funny - part 2

Something I’ve been slow cooking for a few years, a little all over the place. Some plot pieces aren’t mine, just something I played with.

Trigger Warning; Contains swearing, violence, mentions of nudity

I grinned cheekily before we all left. When we got back, the war was minutes from starting up again. When we finally got the Separatists off of the planet, we were allowed to rejoin the rest of the fleet and I was allowed to walk around in something other than armor. "Isn't that against regs?" That all too welcomed voice practically purred as they finally made their presence known. 

I sat up from the crate I was laying on, smiling broadly "General Kenobi allows me a few freedoms." I retorted, looking up at Wolffe. His expression was particularly warm that evening. 

Without any warning, the particularly sarcastic clone pounced, collecting me into his arms and capturing my lips with his as though they were prisoners of war "Do you have any idea how hard it is to be so close to you and act like you're just another soldier?" He growled against my lips in our secluded little spot.

"I have an idea." I purred in response, smiling coyly "So, your place or mine, Commander?" I asked with a low, seductive tone as I looked up at him through my lashes. We both already knew the answer; as a Commander, he had his own quarters. I still shared a bunk bed with Waxer in the main sleeping area for visiting legions. He left our little spot first, and I followed a few minutes after, taking a longer way around to get to his quarters. As soon as the door closed behind me, he lips were on mine again, his hands holding me against his body tightly. We helped each other out of our clothes and laid in his bed, more interested in each other's company, than sex.

As usual, I woke up before everyone else and was out of the room and hid in the mess, sipping caf until everyone else was moderately awake "Missed ya last night." Hardcase yawned, plonking his tray down before joining it.

"Couldn't sleep." I gave him a tight lipped smile before turning back to my caf. I hated lying to my friends and brothers. But if it leaked that Wolffe and I were... it would end very badly for everyone. He gave me an understanding pat on the shoulder, thinking that my nightmares were acting up again. I mentally beat the crap out of myself for keeping a most trusted vod in the dark.

"Anyone up for Nega-ball?" Cody asked, Wolffe and Rex on either side of him. Three quarters of those in the mess stood up and made to follow the three commanding officers, Hardcase included as he tried to pull me up. When that didn't work, he threw me over his shoulder and made his way after the group.

"Caught a live one, didn't ya?" Fives laughed, slapping my thigh as Hardcase fell into step beside him.

My squeak caught the attention of a certain, maybe slightly overprotective, Commander "What are you doing to Sergeant Val?" Wolffe scowled, coming up from behind the two. He was very much not pleased with how the two were conducting themselves with me.

Hardcase couldn't put me down fast enough as he whirled around, blushing and saluting hurriedly "S-sorry sir, we were only fooling around." His scowl deepened into a glare and he had to put his hands behind his back because, bet you ten credits, he was clenching them into fists.

"It's alright Commander, they're on my 'top three most trusted' list. They didn't mean anything besides camaraderie." I stepped up, approaching him to show that I really was alright while essentially telling him that they were my best friends, topped only by him. I felt the two staring at me, wide eyed, as the Commander deflated a fraction and his expression softened. 

"Get to the gym." Was his parting order before he moved around us and down the abandoned hallway. 

"Dude!" Hardcase exclaimed when the commander had turned the corner, the three of us following at a slower pace.

"How did you talk him out of handing us our asses?" Fives finished, staring at me as though I had grown a third head.

"The Commander and I are friends. He and Master Plo were the first ones to find me and bring me to the Temple. Why do you think I have a grey Loth-wolf on my shoulder?" I tapped my shoulder piece to reinforce my point as they started freaking out, having never made the connection.

"So you're an honorary Wolfpack member?" Fives gushed as Hardcase practically jumped on my back and made me give him a piggyback ride. Bastard. 

"I think the more appropriate answer is that I was adopted by Master Plo as one of his many children." I groaned, my knees shaking with every step. I dropped him unceremoniously with the other troopers as Cody and Wolffe were picking teams. 

"Val, get over here!" Cody called, waving me over as I tried to retreat to a safe spot to sit.

"Nah, I think I'll sit out. Both Kix and Wark look like they'll fill me full of needles if I joined in." I laughed, warily watching the two glaring medics who had had to patch me up last time we had all played Nega-ball. 

He glanced at them, equally as wary "Sounds like a good plan." He nodded, clearing his throat as they resumed picking. "So what's the wager?" Cody asked, hands on his hips as he faced Wolffe and his team.

"Winning Commander gets Val to tag along next mission." Alright, so I was a bit of a floater. Sue me.

"No can do sadly, Skywalker already reserved her for the 501st's next mission." Cody frowned. Wolffe scowled and couldn't resist looking at me from the corner of his eye. "How about this, next time we get leave, winning team gets a day with her." Oh if Cody only knew. They shook on it as all of them stripped off their torso armor and Wolffe's team took off their blacks shirts. I blushed at the sight of Wolffe's barrel chested glory, several small white scars dotting his waist and arms. He knew I blushed at the sight of him, he puffed up almost as soon as I did. The game was certainly as hairy and brutal as usual. Sometimes it was like the clones just kind of disregarded sport safety rules.

Of course, we never went back to Coruscant, instead, moving cruisers so that we could have a better spread in our attack of Umbara. Of course, the Umbarans changed over to the Seppies after their Senator had mysteriously been assassinated.... most likely by the Separatists... but that's just my opinion. The Republic was outmatched, out classed, and out teched, but by Odin, we were going to fight the good fight. It wasn't until the surface of the dark planet that I realized just how much my warnings had gone over the heads of the Council. Krell swooped in and took over command of the 501st, saying that the Chancellor needed Skywalker for some benign reason. 

First thing I did as soon as I saw Krell exit his gunship was hide behind Fives and have a panic attack, bucket removed as I pressed my forehead against his back, mumbling numbers in as many languages I knew, as high as I could go and back. He just stood there, one hand squeezing the one that he had pried from trying to scratch at the chinks in my armor. "Stand in attention, in my presence trooper!" Krell barked in my general direction. Fives stiffened as I quickly put my bucket back on and stepped out from behind him.

"S-sorry sir." I stuttered, still trying to regain total control over myself. I knew exactly what that motherfucker was going to do, and my attempt to stop it, had been brushed aside. 

"What's your number, Trooper." His eyes narrowed as his lower set of arms folded behind his back and his upper set crossed over his chest. He moved so that he was behind me, ignoring the others as they tried to close ranks around me as subtly as possible. 

"Sergeant Val, sir." I couldn't let him know that he bothered me, that he was getting so far under my skin that I was shaking. My head was full of nothing but white noise.

"Are you such a deformed clone, that not only your height and voice are wrong? I asked for your number, Clone." He snarled, stepping closer. I was filled with sudden, blinding rage as he went on a racist rant "You can't even put your armor on correctly!" He spat. 

My resolve rocketed out the window at that last comment as I whirled around, taking off my helmet and getting closer to the vulgar behemoth "I am a woman, General! Are you satisfied?" I snapped, feeling Fives frantically hook onto my belt and attempt to pull me back closer to himself and Rex. But I was planted, I would not back down, willingly or not. "My name is Sergeant Valeri MacCloud, I am from a planet called Earth and I am twenty six years old. I asked, are you satisfied, sir?" I barked, using my best drill sergeant voice as I glared up at the rogue Jedi, daring him to court marshal me, or worse, kill me. 

[hvlfwygod]

strangers | ben & chase

summary: Chase finds someone he can understand. Both he and Ben get a better idea of what they’re up against.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Ben said into his phone. He was sitting in a cafe with Chase, sipping a coffee and trying to manage with the spotty wifi. He listened to Hazel talk for a few more seconds, nodding even though she couldn't see him doing it. "Yeah. Thanks, Haze. I'll talk to you soon." Reluctantly, he hung up.

They'd spent the last few days exploring the town, but it'd been a lot of dead ends and the same story, over and over. Fox was saving the town, but no one could really say from what. Ben thought every seemed exhausted, too, but it was harder to bring that up in casual conversation. At least, based on the brief phone call he'd just had, he wasn't alone in thinking this whole situation was weird.

"Okay, I talked to Hazel and Rae," he told Chase. "They think this whole thing is really fishy."

Chase sipped his hot chocolate and leaned back in his seat. "I don't know. It's weird that everyone's looking at him like a new Jesus Christ." He chewed his lip. "And I don't know what we're gonna do with the guy once we're done with the hag. Like you said, he's not breaking any laws, and it's not like we can just tie him up and cart him across the border without anyone noticing."

Ben sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, I don't know." He stared at the steam rising up from his cup. "I don't understand why people are so willing to believe in him, either. Now that Hazel and Rae explained it to me it just feels so, wrong? Like, he's taking all their profits for himself." He sighed again. "Maybe once the hag is gone it'll be different?"

Chase rubbed his hands together and sighed, shrugging one shoulder. "She might be using the mist to make him seem really good in their eyes?"

Ben nodded. "Or make everything look more dire?" He leaned back in his seat. "I don't really know how that stops him now, it's not like he'll just give everything back."

"Yeah." Chase sighed and ran his thumb over his lip. "Do you think we could... I dunno. We could freeze all his assets? I don't know how that works." He stood suddenly. "Do you want anything to eat? I think I'm getting a sandwich."

Ben shifted and reached for his coffee. "Um, sure. Whatever you're getting."

There was only one person ahead of Chase at the counter, a young woman gesturing towards the case of sandwiches in the midst of a conversation with the barista. 

“–don’t know what you’re saying.” The end of her sentence lifted in volume enough to be overheard and, oddly enough, understood. Each word was laced with frustration, but absent was the accent that had given them so many headaches. One finger tapped the glass. “Look, that one, okay? Please, god.” Chase walked up to the counter and tipped his head to look at the woman, giving the barista behind the counter a small, somewhat sympathetic smile. He waited until they were done with the woman's order before ordering his, and he felt as though the best way to get through might be to follow after her lead, though he didn't want to be rude. He wasn't sure if Ben ate meat, but didn't want to go back to ask. "Uh, hi. Can I just get two of the vegetable sandwiches?" He looked at the price that showed up on the register so that he wouldn't have to ask four times what it was and then paid, nodding along to the barista's chatter, and giving a small smile over to the woman as she waited as well.

She was already staring at him, though her returning smile did appear sheepish at being caught watching. "Sorry," was drawled to him in a decidedly American voice, at odds with the Newfoundland flannel-and-raincoat uniform she was wearing. Chase could guess she was his age, give or take a year on either side. "Didn't wanna creep you out, but– are you a tourist?"

Chase nodded slowly and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, the accent give it away?" He sighed and shrugged one shoulder. "Where are you from?"

The girl twirled one of her twin braids around a finger, a hint of a laugh in her expression. “Um, yeah, we’re speaking the same language. Austin, where the sun still knows how to shine. You?”

Chase laughed quietly. "It is kind of a different language, huh? I think even if they had a different accent I'd have a hard time understanding what they were saying," he said softly with a shrug. "Well, right now, New York. What brings you all the way up here?" He raised his eyebrows.

"My job." She rolled her eyes and turned to grab her sandwich from the barista with a quick word of thanks. "Mind if I take a seat with you? I'd like, kill for a conversation where I know we're talking about the same thing."

Chase ran a hand through his hair and bobbed his head as he stood up a bit straighter. "Oh, yeah, sure!" He nodded his head over in Ben's direction. "I'm with my—" He paused, looking for a word and then figured it was too much to explain, especially if they were still trying to keep a cover. "Friend over there." He nodded and then took his sandwiches once they were ready. "I'm David, by the way."

"Minnie. Pleasure to meetcha."

Chase bobbed his head and walked over to Ben. He placed one plate in front of him and placed the other in front of himself. "Uh, Luca, this is Minnie. She's from Texas so she wanted to sit with us, since, y'know, she can actually understand us." He took a seat and looked to Minnie. "You said you worked here?"

Ben had been watching Chase talk to the stranger with a steadily growing interest. That interest turned into faint concern when the stranger accompanied him back to the table. Ben sat a little more upright in his chair as the new person joined them. "Oh, um, sure." He tried to make eye contact with Chase, to silently ask, what the hell? He was unsuccessful; all of Chase's attention was on Minnie. Ben followed his gaze and offered a tight smile as a greeting.

Minnie twiddled her fingers at Ben as she dragged a chair from another table over. "Hey. I'm an artist so no, not here." A note of distaste stuck out in her voice, but she didn't sound offended. She smiled at Ben. "Are you from New York too?"

Chase shook his head. "Oh, no, I meant... You said you worked here in town, right? What kind of art do you do?" He clung to the ability to speak to someone who wasn't Ben.

Laughing at her mistake, she nodded. "Oh, sorry, yeah. Half a year now or so, kinda goin' with the flow, painting, sculpting, tattooing and the like. "

Ben felt a surge of annoyance. New York was a big state, but Chase couldn't have picked anywhere else? He nodded to Minnie's question but didn't say anything else, taking a small bite of the sandwich while the other two continued to chat. When Minnie mentioned how long she'd been there, though, Ben leaned a little closer. "Um," he interjected, "that's really cool. Was it um, hard? Finding work here?"

Chase glanced at Ben when he spoke, then looked back at Minnie. "Oh. Yeah, we heard that there was some sort of, I dunno, hard times lately?"

Minnie looked between the two of them. "Um, no, it was pretty easy. Things were kinda shitty here and then a bunch of new jobs opened up, so I grabbed one."

Ben frowned. "Where? Sorry, um," Ben reached into his bag and pulled out the notebook that he'd been using. "Were they at any of these places?" He showed her the first page.

Chase glanced at Ben and then back at Minnie. "We're doing a project on the local economy. For our business class," he clarified.

A crease appeared between her eyebrows, but she took the paper anyway and scanned the list. "Yeah." She pushed it back to Ben.

He nodded once and dropped the notebook back into his backpack. "Okay. Yeah, we noticed that a bunch of places are being bought up, so I was just... curious." Ben considered the risk before he decided to ask another question. "Do you know about the guy who's doing all that?"

"Yeah," she repeated and quirked an eyebrow. "He owns my job, small town, I've met him here and there. Whatcha want to know?"

Ben faltered. "Um. We met him, too, the other day. He was saying that he's been doing a public service?" He glanced at Chase, then back to Minnie. "I guess we've been trying to get, everyone else's opinion on that, too? Do you think he's improving things?"

She threw a quick glance over her shoulder and leaned on the table, lowering her voice. "Nah."

Chase looked from Ben to Minnie and ducked his head a bit closer. "Really? What do you think?"

"Okay, it's not that bad. Some things are improving. He's fixing up a lot of shit. But things weren't that bad to begin with, he coulda just not come in the first place and let the people living here keep working on it. Now they– we, I guess– all owe him."

Ben found himself nodding along. "I noticed that, too. From what we've been reading, there was nothing really, um, that bad happening. And I don't see how him owning all the profit makes this town better off?"

"Peelin' paint does not a charity case make. Now he just controls everything." Minnie seemed to remember her sandwich for the first time and picked it up to start eating.

Chase hummed in response and looked at Ben, quirking an eyebrow at him. He picked up his own sandwich to eat as well. "That's... interesting that you think that."

For the first time Ben found himself really appreciating how terrible this man was. He felt anger twist inside of him. This guy was using a monster to exploit an entire town for money and control. Ben finished his coffee. "Yeah," he agreed, a little late. "Thanks for answering my questions."

He got a shrug in response from her. "Sure. Thanks for the company."

Chase felt like that meant that she was going to leave soon, but was still desperate to be around someone who he could understand that wasn’t Ben. He swallowed the bite of his sandwich that he was chewing. “Do you know if anyone else feels that way? Or is everyone just too friendly to say anything?”

Her eyes flicked between Chase and Ben. “I imagine there’s others in the same boat. This is for a school project?”

"The question on the economy was." Chase nodded. "The rest is... I think we just want to keep you around because I can't understand a word anyone else is saying," he admitted sheepishly, with a small laugh.

Ben resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Chase, and nodded along with him. "Yeah, it's been... surprisingly hard to adjust." He returned to his sandwich, letting Chase have his time to talk to someone else, since he seemed so desperate to.

Confusion cleared from her face as Minnie laughed. “I get it. But it’s nice to have each other, I bet. How long’ve you been together?”

Chase blinked and shook his head quickly as he understood what she meant, the tips of his ears and roots of his hair turning slightly pink. "Oh, I... We're just... We're... He's my sister's..." He opened and closed his mouth and pressed his hand into his cheek as he shook his head again. "We're not together. It's... nice to have someone around though, I guess, yeah." He found himself very interested in his sandwich.

Ben saw the roots of Chase's hair slowly start to change and leaped back into the conversation, pulling the attention back to him. "That's so funny," he said, forcing a chuckle. "We've never gotten that one before. We're just classmates." Ben turned his body a bit so he was looking at Minnie more directly. "Did you come up here all by yourself?"

His effort to distract her from Chase’s hair seemed successful as she refocused on Ben. She laughed when he did. “Oh, sorry, must’ve misread that. No, some of my family came too- lifesaver on having people to talk to I can understand, even when they’re on my nerves. It’s just you two in town, or school trip?”

Chase's hair faded back to normal— or, at least to the normal colour of the disguised hair, as he got over the temporary embarrassment. "Oh, I bet a family trip here would be great." He sighed and turned his sandwich over in his hands, letting Ben answer the second question as he ate.

"Just us," he said, figuring if he lied it might be obvious to her when she failed to spot any other visitors after this. "We're researching a few towns around here before we head back to school."

“Oh, cool. Which ones?” Minnie smiled at him.

"Um," he tried to remember which towns Chase had said the other day. "We stopped in Cape Breton before this, and we'll probably go to, um, PEI after this."

She whistled. “Quite a road trip. Nowhere else in Newfoundland?”

Ben shrugged. “If someplace looks interesting, maybe. We’re kind of winging it.” Did people wing it on road trips? Ben had no idea, but he hoped she’d accept this answer.

Chase swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, we were in Quebec for a bit, but since neither of us speak French it wasn’t really, like... a thing.” He laughed a bit. “Just thought we’d explore the Maritimes.”

Between the efforts of the two of them, she seemed to accept the answer without trouble. “Fun! I’ve always wanted to do that, just get in a car and drive wherever the wind takes me.” She checked her watch, a simple accessory with a leather band. “Ugh, my break’s totally almost over. David and Luca, you said?”

He was almost a little relieved to see her have to go; at least it would mean no more questions he was unprepared to answer. “Yeah.”

Chase smiled and gave a bit of a nod, sad to see her go. "Yeah. It was nice meeting you, Minnie."

She wrapped up the rest of her sandwich and stood. “Yeah, pleasure. You wanna chat again before you skip town, I work down the street. Company’s nice.”

"Sure." Ben pulled up another smile and waved as she walked away, then focused back on Chase. "That was weird." 

Chase nodded, actually considering this, and turned back to Ben after he watched Minnie walk away. "Was it? She seemed friendly."

Ben frowned, finally letting his annoyance show. "Yeah, Chase, it was." He rubbed his face. "At least she also thinks what's going on is fucked, too. I felt like I was going crazy."

Chase frowned at Ben and leaned back as he lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Yeah, at least that means that some people might feel the same way that she does. Makes what we’re gonna do with him in the end a bit easier? Like let the town deal with him?”

Ben was quiet for a moment, his knee bouncing. Chase still had no idea that Nemesis had visited him, and he thought it was a bit too late to bring it up now. He picked up his sandwich and put it back down. "We need to get rid of the hag first, I think, before we can figure out how to deal with him."

Chase rubbed his jaw and nodded. “I think we’ll have to kill her after we destroy the totem, and I think we’ll have to do it in a dream.” He frowned and finished his hot chocolate, now cold from how long it’d taken him to drink.

"So our next step is finding the totem,” Ben sighed. “And destroy it in a dream. Super easy, right?”

Chase raised his eyebrows at Ben. “Never say that things are super easy. You’d die in a second in a horror movie. Let’s go investigate a creepy lighthouse, what could go wrong?” He shook his head.

Ben breathed out a small, humorless laugh. "Well, fuck, I guess I'm screwed, then."

[dontdietwd]

Don’t Die, day 60

The way the camp looked now made perfectly clear that long weeks had gone by. After being there for almost exactly two months, the group of twenty had made the clearing, woods and tents home. The RV had the plastic roof constantly up, folding tables and chairs under it with their aluminum feet stuck into the dry earth. Someone had placed wild flowers in plastic cups, trying to make things feel homey; by one side, lines were extended from tree to tree, wet clothes and bed clothing hanging from them; improvised stoves on tripods hung above the constant fires; tents had been rearranged to our comfort, clothes hanging and pairs of shoes left in front of each.

Routine had been settled. Shane and I had separated with clear limits what was each one’s job – Shane still took care of camp safety, organizing lookout shifts and guns, while I took care of pretty much everything else, like food and water supply, organization and maintenance of our gear, both previous possessions and new stuff Glenn would usually bring back with him from his weekly runs to Atlanta – but mainly, I took care of the people around. I had never known before, but I seemed to be good at listening and understanding problems they all would present to me, and with my common sense, was quite capable of finding solutions, or at least helping them find it themselves. I still didn’t feel comfortable at giving others comfort. I wasn’t a huger or spoke softly: I was more the tough love kind of person, who would always be honest and give my opinion, no matter what it was.

I still hadn’t lost the habit of keeping track of time. I knew exactly which day into the apocalypse we were – 59 days – and how far along I was with the accidental, unwanted pregnancy – 10 weeks. Still keeping it a secret, I had been feeling better these days, the nightly sickness reducing day by day to nearly nothing. I did feel hungrier now, but forced myself not to eat more than the others. It wouldn’t be fair. Conscious that I wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret for too long, I planned on how I was going to bring it up to Daryl, my decision to tell him first still firm, but still couldn’t picture a good situation to do that. I could feel my lower belly a bit grown, but it still didn’t show under my clothes.

With nearly two months into the end of the world, great part of the days were spent with hopeful attempts to get news, to get some contact over the radio, hoping Glenn would return from his last run bringing good news. None of it ever happened, though. The static of the radio was always our only response, and Glenn would always answer my hopeful looks with a shake of his head, tight lips, telling me he found nothing. He did bring back things – food, clothes, gas, he’d been able to find the salt, but not as much as we’d hoped, and everything he thought could be useful. All, except for information and rescue.

The day before the next run Glenn would make to Atlanta, he gathered Shane and I so he could talk to us about it. He reminded us what he had informed the last time he returned; he had found an abandoned department store that was still completely untouched, filled with clothes, kitchen apparels, camping, fishing and hunting gear, canned and dry food and maybe even more useful things he couldn’t spare the time to take a look. This week, he planned on going specifically there, to this store, and thought maybe he could use an extra pair of hands.

“Do you have someone in mind?” Shane asked him.

“One of you guys, maybe?” Glenn told him looking back and forth between us, a little unsure.

“Nah, I ain’t going,” Shane crossed his arms above puffed chest, a definite tone on his voice. “Not leaving camp alone, all the people and stuff. I ain’t going.”

“I’ll go,” I said with the same tone. Shane looked sharply at me. “I think we all gotta know how to deal with a run, ya know? Actually, Glenn, I’ve been thinking… You’re pretty good at it, I think you’ve killed more walkers than any of us at this point. Maybe you could take more of us with you.”

“Oh, Sam, I don’t know…”

“Look, I know you said you’d rather go alone,” I interrupted him. Shane still had his arms crossed, just listening. “And I know you handle yourself well, but we all have to be able to do it. To go on runs, to get things back to camp, and most importantly, to defend ourselves and the others. We’re not developing any of those abilities by staying in camp mainly sitting around all day.”

“She’s got a point there, man,” Shane opined. “It’s better if more than just one person’s able to do it, we could have more than a group going on runs at a time, keeping things in motion.”

“What do you think?” I asked Glenn, a bit surprised Shane was agreeing with me so readily. “You up for taking a group with you this time?”

“Alright…” he agreed reluctantly and then added a little bit more certain: “But you gotta make it clear to anyone who goes that I’ll be in charge. They’ll have to listen to me, if I say we move on, we move on. If I say we retreat, we retreat.”

“You got it,” I nodded sharply. “I’ll be there anyway, if anyone gives you a hard time.”

“Good.” Shane uncrossed his arms. “I’ll go ask people who wants to go. How many do you think?” he asked to both Glenn and I.

“Uh, I – Five. Yeah, about five. No, I don’t know. Less than ten.”

“Glenn,” I reached for his shoulder, “you’ll be this run’s leader. Make a decision and stay firm in it.”

“Sorry, yeah, uh… Six or seven. Yeah, seven, at most.”

“Seven it is,” Shane mumbled before turning around and leaving.

As Shane walked around camp talking to each adult personally, I went back to the tents to gather a few of my stuff in a backpack to get ready to go the next morning. I was met by Daryl, returning from the most secluded area of the woods, where they had dig holes in the most sanitary way possible, and told him about the recent decision.

“You sure ya gonna go?” he asked me carefully.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Why?”

“’Cause you was sick ‘til two days ago.”

“I’m fine now, Daryl.”

“Still think ya shouldn’t go.”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

He stopped talking for a moment to watch me dive into my tent and return after a few seconds with an empty backpack in hand.

“Then I’m going too.”

“Didn’t you say you were going hunting?”

“It can wait.”

“It can’t, Daryl, you know it can’t. We need food, real meat, not the canned crap we may find out there, and until you come back the dried meat will be over,” I saw Daryl start to speak in answer, but cut him out. “You know Merle can’t go hunting alone. He’s not fine, he’s withdrawing, and he’ll want to do something. He’ll want to go hunting or to go to this run, either way he shouldn’t be alone. One of us should be with Merle; the others can’t deal with him.”

“So we gotta baby sit on a fuckin’ grown ass man now?” Daryl asked bitterly, and I’m sure he knew the answer to that question was yes. “I don’t like it, Sam. Don’t want you going out there where I can’t help ya.”

Oh, how adorable. Weird to be calling someone like Daryl adorable, but it was the perfect word now.

“I know that,” my voice softened a bit. “It’s how I feel when you guys go out there hunting. I don’t go with you when we all should stay together, from the beginning, like we agreed,” he nodded and I continued. “But things ain’t like that, we can’t have each other’s backs all the time. I’ll go on this run and Merle will let us know pretty soon where he’ll want to be; hunting or Atlanta, and we’ll go with it.”

“How long do ya think it’ll take?”

“A day, probably, we’ll be back at night or in the morning, at most.”

Before he could say anything, Merle’s thundering, laughing voice broke into the tents’ space. “Hey, Sam! I’m coming with ya! Not gonna let those fucker’s get to ya, sweetheart! Got ya back!” and he turned around to leave once again, still shouting. “Atlanta, here I come!”

Sighing, I looked back at Daryl, his face showing just how annoyed and worried he was, biting his lower lip like he did. I reached out to touch his arm. “We’ll be alright, don’t worry.”

He shook his head and took a step back, opening space between us, my hand dropping from his arm. “Can’t help it,” he said and turned to walk away.

 * * *

 I had only been able to enjoy the other’s company around the fire at night twice before. It had become a habit; some of them would take their spots on the lookout while the rest gathered around a low fire. Strong enough to warm the chill night but low enough not to be seen from a distance. There, we sat for about a couple of hours to eat and talk until sleep took over and quieted the camp until the next morning. Having been sick every night until a few days before, I had never been really able to enjoy it, and was glad now I could. We had had chicken soup – it had been thinned with salted water to serve more people, but it still had tasted good enough – and were now quietly talking, tin mugs being passed from hand to hand. I was mostly watching and listening to the others talk, observing how the others interacted.

I could see Andrea and Amy had become quite close to Dale, who seemed to be some kind of father figure to them, though I honestly didn’t think Dale thought of Andrea paternally. Shane was always close to Lori and Carl, I had noticed it from the first day, and it had been intensifying these days. Jim and Jackie were good friends too, closer to the Morales then to any other. Glenn got along with everyone, except for the Dixons, who didn’t get along with anyone other than me. The Peletiers were always away, in their own little circle, Ed probably imposing that Carol and Sofia stayed with him, unable to get close to anybody else. I hated it, but I knew I could never force Carol to stand up for her husband, take her daughter and go sit with the others. She had to want to do it on her own.

Merle was on his watch duty, which he always accomplished by complaining a lot, but did his job. Daryl was around, sitting on a log a bit outside the circle, close to me and only listening, as usual.  By my side, Amy took a sip of a drink on her tin mug and then offered it to me, the blonde, young woman nodding wordlessly in my direction. Warm tea would do great right then. I took it with a smile as a thank you and kept listening to Dale tell the circle about his late wife and the time he gave her a kitten for her birthday, to only then find out she was allergic to cats.

Smiling as I thought of how I had never had any kind of pet in my life, I brought the mug to my lips to take a sip. The smell of wine hit me as strongly as a punch to the nose, and the liquid touched my lips, the nectarous burn of the cheap sweet wine making my mouth water, my taste buds coming hungrily to life, starving, ordering my brain to demand more, a full gulp, the whole mug, the entire bottle, deciding I should just drain it, drink it all, fall around drunkenly forgetting all the worries, all the walkers, the pregnancy, the responsibilities, the ghosts from the past.

Instead, as soon as the wine touched my tongue, I spit it out. I spit it strongly, loud noise coming out as the red liquid sprayed towards the center of the circle. All heads turned to me, startled. Behind me, Daryl nearly got up but refrained, remained sitting but attentive.

“What the fuck!!” I yelled, a hand rubbing my lips to clean them, my heart pounding painfully. “That’s fuckin’ wine!!”

“Sam?” Shane was the one to ask as he stood up just as I did. I’m sure my body language was foreign to all of the group. “What’s the matter?”

Instead of giving him any attention because this had nothing to do with him, I looked down at Amy, who had the same startled expression the others did.

“Did you just give me a mug of wine without telling me what it was?!” I yelled and threw the white painted tin mug to the ground, making Amy flinch, eyes wide in shock. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Amy stuttered, trying to answer, but her older sister was already by me. “Hey, back off! What’s the problem?”

“The problem!” I carried on yelling. Daryl was also up, as most of the circle was now, and approached me slowly, I could see from the corner of my eye, and I’m sure he was fully aware of mine and everyone else’s movements. “The fuckin’ problem is that you don’t just give fuckin’ alcohol to people without warning them what the fuck it is! I thought it was tea!”

“So what?!” Andrea still countered, now standing in front of her young sister, facing me.

“What the fuck is the problem, Sam?” I also heard Shane ask me and saw him approach with puffed chest, just as I saw Daryl get closer, now by my side rather than behind me.

“The fuckin’ problem is that this was the first time in three fucking years,” I paused and moved on, “three years, four months and seventeen fuckin’ days, that I’ve had any real contact with any drink! That’s what’s the fuckin’ matter with it!”

Nobody spoke. I saw the awkwardness fall over them all replacing the astonishment like rain, people exchanging uncomfortable looks. Andrea turned back to look at Amy, who looked down. The only noise was the fire crackling softly and I ragged breaths and sniffs. My mind was in a complete turmoil.

It didn’t take more than five seconds for Daryl to reach out and hold my arm just above myr elbow and, with a gentle tug, pull me away with him. I moved with him unthinkingly, allowing Daryl to guide me out of the circle towards the tents. We had moved halfway there with him still gently holding my arm when I stopped walking. He stood there, watching me. I had my unfocussed, lost into the woods, a single tear path on my face. I turned around then, Daryl let me go, and took a few steps back towards the circle, but didn’t return there. I stopped only close enough to be heard.

“There was no way you could’ve known,” I started and lifted my lowered hear to look at Amy. “I’m sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

With that, without waiting for any answer or gesture, I turned around again and walked over to where Daryl was waiting for me, and together we moved out of everyone’s sight, silence falling over the camp.

I sat down heavily in a log close to the tents, both my legs shaking nearly out of control, elbows resting on them making my whole body tremble. I breathed hard, licked my lips, dried the sweat from my face.

“Fuck!” I let out suddenly, head falling between my knees. “Fuck, why did it have to…” and I didn’t finish the sentence, though Daryl surely understood.

“You didn’t want nobody to know,” he affirmed.

“No,” it came out muffled by my hands that covered my face. “Nobody had to know. Ain’t nobody’s business. But I bet you knew.”

“Wasn’t sure,” and we were silent again for a moment and Daryl took the time to sit by my side, on the other end of the log. “Was just alcohol?”

I took a deep breath, hands releasing my face, and popped my neck. “Was mostly alcohol, whatever I could get my hands on. Cheap wine was the main choice… Just like the one I tasted just now. But… Drugs too, on occasion.”

Daryl nodded slowly, saying nothing else, and started biting on his lower lip. He understood my problem well, I was sure. He had Merle, his admittedly addict to every drug that was illicit and licit brother, and his own father who had been heavily alcoholic until his liver exploded, not to mention tens of friends and acquaintances. I was just one more of them.

“I had enough examples at home not to get into it too deep,” I heard him sharing in a very quiet voice. I turned my head look at him sideways, interested, glad to have a distraction, so he moved on. “Father died of cirrhosis, he drank so much… And Merle, you know Merle.”

“Yeah…” I answered in a whisper that was for his ears only. “Good… Good that you didn’t…”

“Almost did, though… For a while… But then I started seeing a lot of old Will on me so I backed out,” he confessed and snorted a laugh. “Merle called me all kindsa things.”

I smiled, “yeah, he would.” We shared one more long moment of silence before I spoke again. “My dad was a nice guy. Never saw him drink a drop of alcohol. Died of cancer.”

“Life ain’t fair,” Daryl told me as if he knew where my thoughts were going.

I nodded, looking down with a sad smile, my legs no longer trembling so much. “Spot on.”

“Well, at least in the apocalypse ain’t gonna be too easy to come across temptations…”

I smiled again and looked once more at Daryl. He looked shy, lips pressed together, self-conscious about his attempt to cheer me up a bit. The sight made me smile more. Ike I said, adorable.

“Yeah, I don’t think people will offer me mugs on unknown drinks too often.”

“You know what them parents say: never accept a drink from strangers., Daryl mumbled lowly, his voice grave but amused.

I laughed aloud now, a strange feeling on my chest that had nothing to do with the abstinence syndrome that had threatened to overtake me. My heart swelled knowing that Daryl was trying to cheer me up and comfort me, and I just couldn’t help but allow a large smile to lighten up my face.

“I think it was candy!” I laughed. “Don’t take candies from strangers.”

“Yeah, well, ya had a nice guy for a dad. Mine said that about drinks.”

I knew how sad this thought was, deep down, but still smiled. He did too, for a moment, and I could actually see teeth, something I wasn’t used to see too often, but he hid the larger smile again, looking down embarrassedly.

Silence fell again, but not at all uncomfortable. I still wanted to smile, but I still tasted the wine on my tongue, my mind confused about how I felt at the moment. I wanted to thank Daryl for talking to me, distracting me, and I wanted to ask more about his life, but was afraid to scare him away. I desired to go back to the fire and take the rest of the bottle wine and drain it down, and I wanted to scotch over closer to Daryl and just be there.

I did none of those things, though, instead I looked back over my shoulders, just like Daryl, at the sound of feet crunching dry leaves, and saw Merle approach, his imposing presence worsened by a thousand by the presence of a full bottle of moonshine loosely held on his left hand.

“Hey there, Boozer!” Merle thundered as he stepped over the log between Daryl and I and stood in front of us. “How come ya didn’t tell me, we coulda shared some vitamin water!”

“Oh, fuck off, Merle…” I said resting my elbows on my knees and hiding my face in my hands again.

“Oh, come on, Alkie! I know ya want it!” he sing-songed shaking the moonshine bottle.

“Yes!”, I yelled shooting up from the log. “Ya know I want it, so why are ya doing this?!”

“The fuck ya doin’ Merle?” Daryl was up too.

“It’s the end of the fuckin’ world!” he laughed and opened the bottle lid. “Bit won’t hurtcha!”

“But it will!” I yelled and took a step back from him and his bottle. “Ya know it will, ya know what’ll do to me if I take a sip!”

“I know. Ya gonna fuckin’ relax, is what’s gonna happen!”, and with that he took a long gulp out of the bottle, a deep, unpleasant ‘ah!” sound following it.

“Ain’t ya trying to quit it?” Daryl asked him as I turned my back to Merle, arms crossed. All the good feelings I’d been feeling simply vanished by then, my chest painful.

“Quitting on crystal and coke. Ain’t never said I’d stop the booze,” and another gulp followed it.

“Just leave me alone, Merle,” I told him quietly.

“Why? Yeah, I know why!” he drawled walking over to me. “Is cause ya know ya want it more than any fuckin’ thing right now. Ya want it more than ya want to breathe!”

“Merle!” I heard Daryl say in a firm, angry voice. He stood between his brother my back right before Merle reached me. “Back the fuck away from her.”

Before Merle could say anything else – which, by the look I saw on the older Dixon’s face when I turned, would be a pissed-off remark, the beginning of a fight between the brothers, which would make the situation even worse – I interrupted them both.

“I want you away from me, Merle,” I started and the dry tone of my voice made even Daryl turn and stare. “I thought you had become my friend those months, but I was fucking wrong. You are the worst person someone could have their life. I’ve met horrible people in my life, Merle, and you have just proved to be one of them. This thing you did now? It’s despicable. Ain’t something you do to your enemy. This thing here, that we had - this friendship, it’s over. Ya ruined it. Get the fuck away from me, Dixon.”

I didn’t wait to see or listen to any reaction. I rounded him and walked away a few steps, but didn’t leave the tent area since it was dark and unsafe to go wandering too far. Silence followed me where I stood, arms crossed, unseeing eyes staring into the darkened woods, trembling returned to my legs. After a moment I heard the leaves being crunched under careful, gentle feet. This information alone told me it was not Merle. Daryl entered my eyesight and stood there with me, silent.

“I didn’t think ya should go on that run tomorrow,” he started with a whisper after a while. “Now I’m sure ya shouldn’t go.”

“I’m fine, Daryl…”

“I know ya fine. Ya gonna be alright. I mean ‘bout Merle.”

“What about him?”

“He’s goin’. You said ya’d be the only one to look after him. Ya can’t now.”

“I’m still going. Glenn gonna need me there. I gotta be –”

I stopped talking when we heard steps again, both of us turning to look in silence. Among the tents, in the darkness, we saw as Lori tiptoed from her own tent towards the neighbor one – where Shane lived. Lori stopped there, looked around, her eyes sweeping over the spot where Daryl and I stood, not seeing us. Silently, the tent’s zipper was opened from the inside and we could faintly see Shane’s head come out of it, look around quickly as well, before his hand reached out to take Lori’s, pulling her with him inside. We heard the zipper being closed once more, and then he silence returned to the sleeping area.

“Yeah, they all’ll need ya,” Daryl broke the silence once again, completely ignoring what we’d seen, turning to look at me. He whispered impatiently, but softness still coated his voice. “But what ya gonna do when Merle starts actin’ out? Ya know he gonna.”

“I know that,” exhaustion took over my tone. “But that’s exactly why I wanted to go, and I still go, ‘cause of that. Fight or no fight, him being a fuckin’ asshole to me or not, nobody there will be able to talk him out of it.”

“And you will?”

“I don’t know, Daryl, I’ll just,” I shook my head, closing my eyes. “I don’t know… I can’t…”

“You ok?”

“No, I need to lie down. I’m going to bed.”

I turned to go and Daryl followed me automatically until we stopped in front of my small, bright orange tent. Arms crossed, I looked down.

“Thank you, Daryl…”

“For what?”

“Staying with me and talking and… Distracting me of the... You know.”

“’S nothin’.”

“It ain’t nothing and you know it,” I whispered decisively and looked at him. “And, I mean, mostly for trying to protect me from Merle.”

He smiled that shy, tight lipped smile Daryl had. “Ya hardly need protection, especially from Merle.”

I returned his smile. “I know. But ya did it anyway and…” I shrugged, looking down again. “Is nice,” I told him in a gentle whisper. He didn’t answer and, looking at him again, I knew he was embarrassed wordless. I smiled at the notion, again, and moved to the tent. “Goodnight, Daryl.”

I entered then and, just as I zipped the tent closed, I thought she heard him say “Goodnight, Sam,” but it was so quietly I wasn’t sure. As I lay down on my folding bed, my trembling legs and painfully pounding heart had given way to fluttering butterflies in my stomach.

[virmillion]

Ibytm - T minus 26 seconds

Masterpost - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter - ao3

Words: 1,965

Logan rubs at a sore spot on the back of his neck and wonders whether the rest of the day will continue in the same manner as the morning promised it could. Virgil, grumbling and annoyed, stumbled out of bed about thirty minutes after they were already meant to be on their way to the dealership. This in itself would be bad enough, but was only worsened when their Uber kept pushing back their arrival time every ten minutes. By the time they finally reached the apartment (and Virgil was finally ready to go), they were well on their way to being ten minutes late to the appointment, and that’s an optimistic view. The reality of the situation dropped them off out front about twenty minutes after the fact. So no, to answer your question, Logan is not having a good day.

He furrows his brow at the droves of new car smell hammering at his senses, wishing he could be like everyone else who actually enjoys the atrocious smell for some godforsaken reason. By an extended arm, he tugs along a very reluctant Virgil, forcing him to move past the shiny displays of brand new cars that they definitely won’t be able to afford.

“We have to make this meeting, love,” Logan is saying. “It’s crucial to follow through on any appointment you make, especially one so important as this, with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and has the potentially to hold major sway over a significant life decision.”

“And why couldn’t we just do this online at home, where we don’t have to deal with actual people?”

“Because hearing what they can offer in person gives them a sense of physical closeness to the consumer that might tip their offers in our favor, and it will give us a better idea of the type of company we’re working with. Now hurry up. We’re already late, and I don’t want to make a bad first impression worse.” Virgil hems and haws, but he does eventually follow Logan into the pristine white building. Every surface sparkles—no, seriously, every single surface, from the floor to the windows to the ceiling to the glasses around the neck of the lady that strides over to greet them.

“Hey, are you two Mr. and Mr. Sanders?”

“We are,” Logan says. “Can I assume you’re Ms. Poyani?”

“Yep! You can just call me Kathy, though. Pleasure to meet you!”

“I’m so sorry about how late we’re running today,” Logan apologizes, but she waves it off.

“I’ll hear nothing of the sort! Sometimes life just gets in the way, and you needn’t apologize for that.” She clasps her hands together and smiles brightly, turning on her heel. “If you’ll follow me, my desk is right this way. Give me just a moment to tidy it up and pull over another chair, and we can go ahead and get started!” Logan pulls Virgil along to the cluttered cubicle, the walls of which are swarming with pictures of a couple of toddlers—presumably Kathy’s son and daughter.

Kathy takes a seat at the far side of her desk and clicks around on her computer for a minute before turning to face Logan, then Virgil. “Okay, so we’re looking at y’all’s first car, right?”

“Yes,” Logan answers, hoping his practiced eagerness will distract her from the sheer attitude radiating from Virgil. “My workplace moved locations recently, and we’re just looking for an inexpensive vehicle to get me to and from work. Nothing fancy or added on or anything, just your most basic skeleton.”

“We can absolutely work with that!” Kathy pulls a sheet of paper off the mess of folders and binders on her desk—organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless—and points out a few highlighted bullet points with a manicured fingernail. “Based on your preliminary appointment information, I really like this model for you. It’s a little on the larger side, but—”

“We don’t need a big car,” Virgil interjects. “It’s just the two of us, no kids, no carpool, no nothing, so smaller is better.”

“But we’re still open to hearing your pitch,” Logan adds hurriedly, giving Virgil a pointed look.

Kathy blinks, opens her mouth, hesitates, then continues. “Okay, and I thought this one here would be your best bet for your needs while cutting down on gas consumption, so you’ll save money there in the long—”

“If we cared about gas consumption, we’d be looking at mopeds and motorcycles.”

“We are not getting a motorcycle, Virgil.”

Virgil pouts and crosses his arms, sinking lower in his chair as his eyes drift to the pictures on the wall. Kathy surges forward with her pitch, apparently undeterred, and Logan has to wonder how often she deals with people like them. “I tend to suggest new clients start with a two year lease, so you can get a feel for our company and vehicles without being roped in by a long term purchase. Of course, if, at the end of your two years, you like your lease enough to take out a new one, or even purchase the vehicle you’ve been driving, we can always—”

“That’s assuming we don’t change our minds about this company being worth it, too,” Virgil mutters. “Maybe we end up wanting a better place with better deals.”

“Yes, well—”

“Could you excuse us for just a minute, please?” Logan asks weakly. Kathy gives him an understanding nod and scoots out of the cubicle, presumably heading over to greet some people near the entrance. Logan turns to a sullen Virgil. “What is your deal?”

“My deal?” Virgil’s voice is nothing short of aghast as he sits up and points at the papers fanned out on the desk. “This is easily one of the biggest purchases we’re probably ever going to make, something that will literally transport you to and from your livelihood, and you’re just smiling and nodding along with everything she says!”

“She’s hardly had a chance to say anything at all, what with you interrupting so much! At the very least, you could listen to her pitch before you go and shut it down!”

“I already told you what I want, and you shot that down pretty quick, don’t you think?”

“That’s because you wanted a motorcycle, and the only supporting evidence you had for why we should get one was that you ‘really really want one.’ Desire is not a basis for major life decisions.”

“It’s not like you put up any evidence against why we should get one, either.”

“Fine, you want evidence for why I’m not spending our hard-earned money on a motorcycle? How about how they expose nearly all of your person to elements of weather and pollution, as opposed to the trace amounts that get past cracked car windows? Or how they’re more dangerous to operate on busy roads, where most motorists won’t even be able to see you, much less stop in time to avoid a collision? Maybe the little fact that a motorcyclist is thirty-seven times more likely to die in a crash than someone in an enclosed car, and nine times more likely to get injured?”

“Oh, right, like you just pulled those numbers out of nowhere? You didn’t think to share that information when we were at home, where there wasn’t some car dealership full of people hovering nearby to hear how much you want to ignore my opinion?”

“I never ignored your opinion! I took it into heavy and sincere consideration, looked at the facts and statistics, and decided I cared more about our lives than I do some silly dispute about what kind of car we should get, much less an unsafe motorcycle!”

“Is every argument we have now just a silly dispute to you?” Virgil’s voice is tinted with that achingly familiar venom, and it takes all of Logan’s willpower not to let the same toxins seep into his own words.

“Not if you would just keep a level head for once, rather than blowing up every time you hear a perspective that clashes with your own.”

“Name on time I’ve done that before.”

“Try when I last confronted you about your career choice—of which I have been nothing but supportive since, mind you—and you ran out of the house!”

Virgil gets real quiet, real quick. “That’s not fair.”

Logan forces some amount of poise and rationality into his tone, wondering just how much more calmness he can fit in there before he completely explodes. “It is a discussion we need to have, at some point or another, if only to reconcile our differences regarding the situation. Especially when the combined salaries we bring home might not support all the things we both want to achieve in life.”

“Things like what?” Virgil’s voice is soft, tentative, as he still looks off to the side, still refuses to meet Logan’s eyes.

“Well, things like a motorcycle, for one, I guess.” Logan looks at the papers Kathy left behind, scanning over the highlighted bits. “You’d need to get another license specifically for operating a motorcycle, not to mention the price point for all the necessary safety gear that you absolutely will not be leaving the apartment without, and we can’t forget the ticket on the bike itself. I don’t even want to think about how messy the insurance probably is, either.”

“You say all that like you’re actually considering it.”

“Wildly enough, I suppose I could be.” The unbridled hope in Virgil’s face as he turns to Logan is almost more than he can bear. “It’s not our top priority, and I certainly want to first get an actual car, but I’ll admit that I’ve never been one for clunky soccer mom vans. I don’t dislike the simplicity of bicycles and mopeds, but with that simplicity comes a sort of functionality that is just too irreconcilable with my lifestyle. It all really does come down to price, but if we can bend the budget right, maybe we can find a way to do both when we’re at a place where our finances will support it.”

Logan takes Virgil’s hands into his own, running his thumb over the wedding band. “I want us to work this out together, but these are the kinds of real world problems that, realistically, we’re always going to have to face, and keep on facing. From here on out, we’re in this together. We’re a team, and we need to face the world and believe that, not just as an empty platitude, but as a real, true, genuine partnership that strengthens us when we work together.”

“You’re getting pretty deep for an argument about some crappy little hypothetical bike,” Virgil says with a forced laugh.

“Because when we get to the major issues, the ones far more important than some crappy little hypothetical bike, I want us to both be ready for them.” Logan squeezes Virgil’s hands and inhales, wrinkling his nose at the ever-present new car smell still lingering between them. It’s almost like they soaked the building in bleach to give it that finished polish. “I’ll meet you in the middle here, but halfway is a far cry from me coming to you. You need to give a little, because you can’t just keep getting everything you want all the time. You need to be willing to make sacrifices if you want to make this work, and I’ll be the first to do the same.”

Virgil bites his lip, his eyes wobbling dangerously as they rise to meet Logan’s. They sit in silence for a long, long moment before he speaks up. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”

“Good. I’ll go get Kathy, and maybe we can discuss that crappy little hypothetical bike of yours.”

[trayvonfleary-blog]

General Assembly Software Engineering Immersive

Hello All, instead of posting my normal content relating to cars and/or trucks, I will be taking a deeper dive into my daily life, particularly regarding the software engineering immersive program that I am currently undergoing, which is a technology bootcamp. For a couple of months, I am going to sway away from discussing different sectors within the automotive industry while I focus strictly on technology, but automotive is not going anywhere so stay tuned for big announcements following;)

What Is It?

Currently I’m completing General Assembly’s Software Development Immersive, which is a “12 week award-winning program that has expert instructors and career coaches, and connect graduates with 19k+ hiring partners to get them jobs at A-list companies.” It is slated as your best course for career transformation. The company boats 9,000+ hires, as it states that they are the leader in placing their grads into high-growth, and high-pay tech jobs. Yes, this is all accomplished within 12 weeks. I’m sure you’re asking, “Are these jobs guaranteed?” Of course not, but the company is quite confident. Continue reading as to “why?” after this quick infographic below illustrating what you can expect from this program.

Im currently entering into my 5th week of this program. On our first day, a General Assembly employee bursts in our classroom, after getting another graduate hired, and asked, “Did you guys here about our last cohort?”, which had ended a couple of months prior. We had no clue what she was referring to but then she claims that their last cohort had a 93%+ hire rate. Impressive right. Thats a way to bring some motivation if you had any doubts before. Who knows if this was the truth, but they were all very excited and I have personally heard from some earlier attendees about the jobs that they received after the course and some even during the last week or 2 of the course ending. Before this starts sounding like a fantasy world where you can spend the 3 months and someone else can spend 4-5 years getting a computer science degree and you both end up with the same job (very possible), I’m going to break things down a bit.

Tuition Options?

First, starting with cost, I feel that the tuition share agreement is the best payment option and allows many people who can’t afford it to have a chance at something that can be life changing. It is not yet available in all states, but it’s a great option if you are not trying to pay $14k(approximate tuition cost) out of pocket and upfront(or in a few payments).  Focusing on the $0 upfront income share agreement, it is structured very fair in my opinion. You are only required to pay an upfront $250 deposit until you land a software engineering job (ex: web development, full stack, etc) and depending on your location, entry level is probably hovering around $60k and above.

So if you don’t land a job, you are not at the hands of a huge loan that you cannot afford and most importantly, you’re not out of $14k+ that many pay to take the program. If you have additional experience in UX/UI design, and/or other skills for that matter, your pay can be a lot higher.

Income Share Agreement?

As far as General Assembly not offering the income share agreement not being offered in all states, specifically New York at the moment, I believe that it has to do with the amount of jobs being offered and the amount that are vacant. Here in the Greater Atlanta Area, the tech scene is taking on massive growth along with an abundant amount tech jobs that have yet to be filled. Whether it’s startups, fintech companies, or larger corporations, there is a massive demand for tech jobs in many industries here. I’m not sure of the availability in other cities and states in respective to the amount of tech workers seeking employment.

Adding to the tuition share agreement option, applicants are also subject to a more strict batch of pre course work, along with an evaluation to see if you are prepared and can be successful at this program. My pre course work (estimated to take 40 hours if you have prior knowledge) took me at least 60+ hours, and thats literally. Going through the pre course work, I decided to take notes and continue to reference them even when the program started so that I could truly retain the information, just as I would with another language until I could demonstrate it effortlessly.

Negatives?

The only negative to this income share agreement is that the total amount paid for the course increases to approximately $20,000, instead of the $14,000 that you could sign up for up front after getting accepted. Although this $20,000 will be paid for over a multiple of years (small monthly payments ranging from $300-$800 per month), depending on how much income you are making per year with the lower end being around the $50k end and the upper being $100k+ end.

That is where the trade off comes in, as you decide whether you would want to pay $14k up front or $20k over a multiple of 3-5 years. Simply put, both options come with what some will see as a hefty price but when compared to the average college tuition for 3-5 years, it is significantly less. So is it worth it?  My simple answer: Yes, but its not for everyone and also depends on how much time you willing to dedicate!

What does it take?

Personally, as I’m approaching week 5 in the 12 week program, I would say that it is well worth it. This may not be the same for everyone else. There are so many factors that go into this decision and realizing if it is worth it for you or not. First off, the program is 12 weeks long and runs on a very strict schedule, from Monday – Friday (9am-5pm). All of my cohort(class) had to quit their jobs, and/or whatever else they were doing including school, etc. This IS NOT just a 9-5 job for three months. Ample time is required outside of class for this program to be worth it. You get what you give. Currently, it is very normal for me and my “codemates” to spend another 20-40+hours outside of class per week, on top of our current 9-5 days.

Being Prepared?

Handling this amount of work in such a short period of time is life changing mentally, physically, socially, and financially of course. Savings is required as it’s almost impossible to take on a full time job during this time. Knowing how to handle stress and pressure is also very important, as there will be a lot of ups and downs during the course. Another importance is your family and support. Your time will be very limited during this time, so just be prepared to be a bit disconnected during this time.

For me, personally, I had no real coding experience before starting the pre work for this program, but doing a lot of studying in the year prior to signing up for the program certainly helped with knowing different technologies and frameworks, and what they were used for. Regardless, free time gets pretty scarce during this time of development. It is extremely tough to stay consistent with a certain level of focus each and every day in this program, as it’s basically like learning a new language. So, being prepared is very critical.

The Daily Grind?

Each and every day has a structured schedule that we are given at the beginning of the cohort. The days normally start with lecture, or a quick meeting if it’s project week. Throughout the day, we go through enormous amounts of material, but it’s never just a lecture. Practice, practice, and more practice! Daily learning on how to structure, develop, and implement responsive webpages and applications from the ground up. This is where General Assembly separates itself from just trying to read and learn to code online, or even while pursuing a 4 year computer science degree while spending meaningless time on classes and material that you don’t need or ever use again.

As the saying goes, if you want to learn Chinese, the fastest way is to get dropped directly into the middle of China! This is the exact same. You’re being thrown right into the programming fire everyday, but in a good way. All of the new information learned is always directly followed by practice, as you jump right into the CLI(command line interface) and your IDE(integrated development environment). HTML, and CSS fly by within the first couple of days and then you will be jumping directly into Javascript. After that, you are off and running, and thats when the real challenge starts and the bulk of the course begins.

Is It Really Worth It?

All in all, I think it is definitely worth it if you have a passion to work in tech, whether to create your dream company or to work for another. This is the case, but this immersive program is not something that you spend a little time on and make it into a small side gig. If that’s what you’re looking for, then programming may not be ideal for you. It takes intense focus and dedication to be successful in the field. One mistake can crash an entire program, or maybe even delete an entire database and cause the company to crash. What if someone deleted the entire database of Uber drivers because they told the computer an incorrect command? Of course this would not happen, as their infrastructure has too much sophistication for that to happen, but the company would literally be out of operations for who knows how long and this would cause the end of one of the biggest companies that the world has ever seen.

If you’re not passionate about it, and that goes for anything in life, then you shouldn’t waste your time and/or money. It is also only worth it if you have time. This point needs to be emphasized. For example: If you have a family and can’t afford to quit your full time job, this is not a good idea. I’ve found that many who go through these programs don’t have many responsibilities at the moment, or they have wonderful supporters around them who help them throughout the duration. The immersive is very time consuming, and some may find it easier than others, but the amount of time that has to be put in is undeniable.

In a quick rundown, within 5 weeks, I have learned HTML, CSS, Javascript/jQuery, started creating our own servers, learning node, express, mongoDB, certain data structures and science, and so much more underlying information. This is not everything, and has taken massive work outside of class along with in class work and lecture. Just 5 weeks ago, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

Why Would You Put Yourself Through Such a Daunting Task?

For me, taking this leap was about being creative and bringing my ideas to life, as I push to provide immense value to this world for decades to come. My friends have always told me that I have all of the ideas, but to me they meant nothing if I could never bring them to life. I avoided obtaining these skills for the simple reason of believing that they were too time consuming, or that it was too old to start now, or simply because of me believing that I didn’t belong in that time of environment (the common imposture syndrome). Whether you’re a cook, waitress, sales associate, truck driver, garbage truck operator or whatever it may be, you can be successful not only in this program, but in this career field as a whole.

All of these technologies are fairly new, relative to our society, and if you spend 10+ hours a day on something while someone else maybe spends a hour every few days, you will be amazed at how far you can go. If you are thinking of a career change, or simply love the tech field and need this sort of structure to learn, I will highly advise taking General Assembly’s Software Engineering Immersive if time and your situation persists. You will also hear the phrases “Web Developer”, “Full Stack Developer”, etc associated with software engineering as a lot of the knowledge intertwines.

Youtube Series Update?

Last but NOT LEAST, stay tuned as this will be just an intro to these blog and content posts regarding my Software Development journey. I aim to produce this content for the remaining 7-8 weeks in the course, while also producing content beyond the program as I work on different projects and aim to connect with like minded people in the industry. In the upcoming posts, I will link a youtube video that goes into depth about my particular General Assembly Immersive location, in the Greater Atlanta Area. Stay tuned, and be blessed!

[dailytechnologynews]

I recently visited both a Microsoft store and Apple store for device repairs and my experience was wildly different

Short Backstory:

I am the IT Manager at my company, so I deal with a lot of repairs on all kinds of devices... I normally get pretty good service from most of the manufacturers that I deal with but every now and then I get really good service or really bad service, and I try to put my money where my mouth is and spread the good or bad experiences I have.

​

Microsoft:

At my job, I use a Microsoft Surface Book 1 as my daily driver machine. It gets a lot of use, and when I purchased it, I decided to go the extra step and get an extended warranty just in case. About 6-9 months ago, my Surface started acting wonky as a result of the battery in the screen no longer functioning. A few months ago, I noticed the bottom of my Surface was becoming detached from the chassis... It looked like the adhesive that was holding it together was wearing out. Not thinking too much of it, I checked my warranty status and I was literally 6 days beyond my warranty date... FML... so I figured I would just use the laptop until it died and replace it.

​

Apple:

We have a "heavy user" that goes through phones pretty fast... most of the time they get lost, but usually if there is an actual problem with the phone, it's pretty obvious what caused it (broken screen, etc.). So I purchased this person an iPhone X in June of 2018... In maybe the end of July, early August I get the phone back from him saying that it no longer turns on. I try a couple different recovery methods and get nowhere so I ask what caused it, and he says he thinks it may have got wet, but he says it was like splashed or dropped in a puddle or something to that effect... (He has no reason to lie, it's an owner of the company, it's his money, and he has confessed to WAY worse damage to phones and laptops)

​

​

Trying to get help and Visiting the store(s):

Microsoft:

The mall near me has both a Microsoft and an Apple store, so I made my appt at the genius bar for the phone and figured I may as well bring my laptop to the MS store and see if they can give me an estimate for repair, since if it's only a couple hundred to repair, it will save me the trouble of buying a new one and setting everything back up. I go to the store, tell the dude I am here to look at new laptops since mine is pretty much toast unless they can fix it cheap, and he asks to see it. We go back to the workbench, and a lady comes out and tells me that I have a bulging battery in the lower part of my Surface (they have 2 since there is a detachable screen) and that they will need to replace it.

I ask how much that would be, and she told me it's a safety issue and it would be free of charge. I explain to her that I am out of warranty, and she tells me that is ok since it's a safety concern. I also ask her about the other battery in the screen, and what that would cost... She tells me that there will not be a cost... I repeat that I am not under my warranty, and she tells me that she is going to simply replace the entire laptop, free of charge.... I was literally speechless, and after a moment, she asked if that was ok, and I jokingly told her I was prepared for a fight... Not only did they replace it, but she did not have my exact model in stock, so they gave me one with a better GPU in it. Filled out a single form, signed a piece of paper, and went on my merry way with a new (refurbished) Surface Book... I was dumbfounded...

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Apple:

I brought 2 iPhone X with me. One was clearly damaged.... the other simply would not boot. He told me it's a flat fee of ~$600 to replace the one with the broken screen which I had no argument against.... No problem. I then showed him the ~4 month old phone that no longer powered up. He hooked it up to his diagnostic tool and got nothing from it... No surprise. He then took it in the back and came back out with a bunch of pictures showing me water damage.... I then asked how that could be, since the iPhone X is IP67 rated... which is not waterproof, but it clearly states that it can be splashed and submerged up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes ... He then gives a blanket statement of water resistance is not waterproof, which I argued again that it can get wet... He then tells me that Apple will not cover water damage, and it will be a $600 fee to replace it. He then tells me that the user is too hard on their phones, and it's their fault. After trying to talk to him more, he basically just stood up and walked away, not wanting to talk any further... I left without repairing either phone.

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This phone had NO damage to it, no cosmetic wear, no broken screens, broken charger ports, broken speaker/mic ports, etc... It was less than 90 days old when it got wet. I am FULLY AWARE of Apple's policy of water damage not being covered under their warranty, but manufacturing defects are... If a phone has a rating that states that is protected against X, and then X happens and the phone breaks.. It should not matter what the warranty states... The certification states that it will be protected, and anything short of that should be considered a manufacturing defect/failure. The only thing that would have saved me was Apple care.. Another ~$200 for that, plus the ~$150 or so deductible... so half the cost of what they told me would be to replace it. It was truly despicable.

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I am no big fan of either company to be quite honest. I will say that I strongly prefer most products over anything Apple does, but I do see their value and understand why many people enjoy their products. However good or bad a product is, where companies really earn my business is support and customer service. I was actually ready to completely write off Microsoft as a hardware provider entirely due to saltiness from my expired warranty, but they completely turned me around with a simple act of good customer service.... They earned at least one return customer for sure... And, they didn't even pretend to try and sell me extra stuff, and I probably would have been convinced to buy something simply to thank them for not trying to fleece me.

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Apple is no stranger to bad customer service. Their genius bar that day was full of salespeople pretending to be service techs.. Basically every other person with a problem at that store was being told they needed to purchase new things instead of trying to fix anything... Apple care was pushed hard on everyone, and I just felt my skin crawling the entire time I was there. We are a company with a large iPhone user-base. We provide every employee with a phone, and I have been pushing people away from iPhones and iDevices as much as I can... I used to try and provide an unbiased opinion of what device they use, since supporting one device over another is not that much different.. We have a few Apple Zealots in our company, so we get a good amount of their products... With the money we shell out monthly/yearly for Apple products, though, I would expect a bit more confidence in the products I support, and I have little to no confidence left in them, especially after reading so many other "right to repair" and other scammy stories about Apple service all over Reddit lately.

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Call me a hater, a shill, a whatever-the-opposite-of-an-Apple-fanboy-is, etc... But I have a responsibility to the people I work for to make sure they get the best bang for their buck, and Apple is not on that list in any capacity for me, especially not after this.

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I really just wanted to share that not all companies are like this. Microsoft could have very easily just said "sorry, your battery is not covered, and also you are past your warranty date... the new laptops are over here, let's go pick one out".... The same is true for Apple... they could have said "hmm, well these are not waterproof, but since it's only 3-4 months old, it should not have had water damage from a simple spill/splash/whatever... let's get you a replacement."

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Thanks for reading (if you made it this far).

I would be interested in your good/bad stories from these or other similar companies!