#from here on out we shoot without a script

[flanaganfilm]

Good day Mr Flanagan. please what does "the rest is confetti" mean to you and in the context it was used in hill house??

Okay, here we go. Buckle up for a long read.

To answer this, I've got to explain a little bit about what was happening and where I was when I sat down to write episode 10 of The Haunting of Hill House.

Hill House was not a fun shoot. The picture above is from very early in production, when I was still chubby and happy.

It was my first foray into television. I was absolutely terrified that I'd mess it up. So I'd opted to direct all of the episodes myself, figuring that - if nothing else - I'd have no one else to blame if it went south.

It was the most grueling professional experience of my career. The shoot was by no means a smooth one, every day was an uphill battle from a budgetary perspective, and between the three giant production entities involved with the production, I spent a lot of time fighting over the creative and logistical elements of the series.

I began losing weight. I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

By the end of the shoot, I had dropped almost 40 lbs.

I was very depressed. Every day was a battle, and for the first time in my career, I wasn't excited to go to work in the morning. We were fighting for basic resources, fighting for the show we wanted, and even fighting amongst ourselves by the end. It was grueling.

We hadn't written all of the scripts when we started production. I believe we had finished through episode 7, but the rest of the scripts had to be finished while we were already shooting.

We'd mapped everything out in the writers room, and I had great support on the other episodes, but I was writing the finale solo. I'd thought I'd be able to juggle it with everything else. I quickly fell behind.

I finally got to the script about halfway through production. I'd work on it between takes at the monitor, and then get home to our tiny rental house in Atlanta, where Kate was waiting with our baby son. (One of the rare bright spots of this shoot came when Kate found out she was pregnant about halfway through production. We even named our daughter Theodora, in honor of her origins.)

I'd typically fall down from exhaustion when I got home, but I had to push through it and work on the script. My weekends were spent shotlisting and prepping for upcoming episodes. We didn't have enough time to stay ahead of prep, so every available day was used for that... I went three months without a single day off at one point.

I'd sit up late staring at the script. I was in a dark, dark place. Overwhelmed, exhausted, and feeling like I lived in an eternal present. Each day bled into the next and it didn't feel like there was an end in sight. That feeling of unreality was heightened because we kept returning to the same sets, same locations, and even the same scenes throughout the 100 shooting-day production. Stepping back into the exact room we had shot in days or weeks or even months ago made the whole thing feel absolutely surreal. Making movies is always an non-linear experience, but this one felt particularly so... it was like the days of our lives were happening to us all out of order.

I remember feeling something like despair creeping into my daily experience on the show. And I remember dwelling on that when I got into the scene work of episode 10.

As I worked through the draft, I recall that despair coloring a lot of what was on the page. My filter was breaking down. There's a monologue at the beginning of the episode where Steven's wife Leigh (played by my dear friend Samantha Sloyan) spews out a torrent of eviscerating insults about Steve's value as a writer. That is just me vomiting onto myself. She was voicing all of my deepest insecurities about myself at the time, and of what I was doing with this series.

She says "Is anything real before you write it, Steve? The things you write about, they're real. Those people are real, their feelings are real, their pain is real - but not to you, is it. Not until you chew it up, digest it, and shit it out onto a piece of paper and even then, it's a pale imitation at best."

This was the mindset I was in for a lot of the shoot. The writing became a reflection of a lot of that turmoil, and I knew who I was referring to in that monologue - I was talking about my family. I was talking about how much of their lives I'd used as building material for this show. I was talking about the fact that I'd lost two loved ones to suicide, and seen what it had done to my mother in particular. And I knew I was using - possibly even exploiting - those people for this series.

There's a lot of despair in this episode. The Red Room, as we conceived it, was a place that would feed upon those emotions. Grief, sadness, loss... those were the real ghosts of our series, and where our characters find themselves at the start of the finale. They're being slowly digested - eaten alive - by those feelings.

So finally, it came time to write Nell's final scene with her siblings. I knew from the outline we'd constructed in the writers room what this was supposed to accomplish - she was supposed to be their salvation. She was supposed to take all of these feelings that we'd been wrestling with and finally provide catharsis... finally say something that would free everyone.

I remember sitting with a blinking cursor for a long time. The Crain siblings had just turned and seen Nellie standing by the door, and suddenly were able to hear her speak. But what should she say? What would I say? What would I want someone to say to me?

What she ultimately says lays bare a lot of what I was thinking about when it comes to grief. It exists outside of linear time, much as I felt I existed at the time. That sense of eternal present, that sense of a nonlinear eternity of moments and memories - it all came out in her speech to her brothers and sisters.

I remember feeling, looking at my insane present and looking back at my past, how strangely overwhelmed I was by memories. That I wasn't experiencing time in a straight line, and hadn't been for a while - for the better part of a year, I'd felt more like I was standing in a whirlwind of moments. "Our moments fall around us like..." Nell said, and I recall sitting back and trying to find the words.

"Rain," for certain, but there was something too uniform about that. The moments of life as I experienced them weren't that orderly, they weren't that small. They didn't fall the same way. Some sailed by, fast and unremarkable, while others lingered in front of me, twisting and stretching. So it was a good word, but not the right word. I left it on the page though.

"Snow" was my next attempt. Better, in that I imagined the snow blowing in the wind, swirling and dancing and feeling more organic. More chaotic. More like life. But for some reason, the word that stuck with me, the word I felt Nell Crain would connect with was...

"Confetti."

And that was because I was thinking not of Victoria Pedretti at this point, but of Violet McGraw.

Violet played Young Nell, and I wondered what she might have said if she experienced time this way. As an adult, Nell was despairing. Nell was overwhelmed. But as a child... there was an innocence to the word. There was a joy to the word.

I imagined moments falling around her, this little girl with the big smile and the wide eyes. Her moments would be colorful. They would be of different shapes and sizes, some falling fast and some falling slow, flipping and turning and dancing in the air, independent of the others. Sparkling, whirling, doing lazy summersaults as they sauntered down to Earth.

I thought of myself, and of the members of my family. I thought of those we'd lost. I realized what I hoped for them, and for us all, in the end... was to look upon that mosaic of experience, that avalanche of days and minutes and moments... and to smile with some of the joy we had as children.

And this, I thought, was something that gave me hope. This gave me a glimpse of some kind of salvation for them. This was also how I hoped my life might seem if I was a ghost - a cascade of color and light and shape and movement, something I could dance in.

So Nell smiled and said... "or confetti."

It stuck with me. The rest of her monologue gets heavy again, and gets to the real point of the show - the point of the whole series, if I'm honest - and that's forgiveness.

I figured the only thing that would let the Crain children out of the Red Room was to be forgiven. I thought of the losses in my own family, and I thought of what I wished for my mother and for my aunts and uncles and cousins and I tried to pour that into her final words.

"I loved you completely, and you loved me the same," she said, "that's all." And this was the point I wanted the most to make. That at the end of our life, if we can say this about each other, the rest doesn't matter. The rest is that rainstorm, or that blizzard, that fell around this one central truth, and maybe built itself in piles around it, to the point we lost sight of it along the way.

And I thought again of that little girl, and almost as an afterthought, wrote "The rest is confetti."

I liked the way it sounded, but I was insecure about the line. I almost took it out, in fact. I remember asking Kate to read the scene and talking about that last line with her. "Is it too cute?" I wondered. She was on the fence. "Depends on how it's acted," she said, and I figured she was right. We could always take it out if it didn't work. The scene could end with "I loved you completely, and you loved me the same. That's all."

Why not shoot it and see what happened.

I turned in the script, we published it quickly so that we could start breaking it down and prepping it. And the next morning I was back on set. I'd deal with episode 10 when it came down the pipe again, sometime in the coming months. We had a lot of shooting to get through before I had to worry about it.

I recall Netflix asking me to cut a lot of that monologue, and I remember them also having questions about the "confetti" line. I pointed out that it didn't cost us any extra to shoot it all, it was only words, and fought to keep the script intact.

Ultimately, they insisted I make a series of cuts on the page. I begrudgingly agreed, but left Nell's speech alone. I made superficial cuts around it, throughout the draft, and even considered changing the font size to fool them into thinking it had gotten shorter (I ultimately was told I wouldn't fool anyone and not to risk starting a war). But Nellie's final goodbye stayed intact.

It must be said - Victoria Pedretti SLAUGHTERED this scene.

By the time we got around to filming it, things had never been worse for the production. There was almost nothing left for a lot of us. Tensions were sky-high, resources had been exhausted completely, and we were all ready to give up.

Filming in the mold-ridden Red Room was depressing, morose, and led to a lot of arguments and unpleasantness. The room itself just felt gross, always, and we were in there for days at a time. The last thing we had to shoot in there was Nellie's goodbye.

Victoria came to set having to push through pages of monologue, and she did so with captivating bravado. I recall being teary-eyed at the monitor watching her work. And when we finally made it to the last line, I watched her deliver it with... a smile. A sincere, innocent, longing, joyful smile. A smile informed by the sadness, grief, and loss of her own situation, of her own life... but a smile that finds forgiveness and grace after all. Pedretti knew how to say the line, and how that word would work.

And as she said it, I knew it would stay in the show.

Over the years, that sentence has become something of a tagline for The Haunting of Hill House. I'm always a bit mystified and touched when I see people approach me with the line on T-shirts, or even tattooed on their bodies.

I started signing it with autographs back in 2020 after enough fans asked me to. Now it's my go-to when I sign anything related to Hill House.

The line, for me, represents a lot of things.

It's about the insane, chaotic, non-linear experience of making that show. It's about trying to find and hold onto joy, even in the grips of despair.

It's about the way the moments of our lives aren't linear, not really, and how we may be unable to understand them as we exist in their flurry. It's about finding hope, innocence and forgiveness in the final reckoning.

And it's about how, outside of our love for each other, the rest is just... well, it's fleeting. It's colorful. It's overwhelming. It's blinding. It's dancing. And, if we look at it right, it's beautiful. But it's also light. It's tinsel. It flits and dances and falls and fades, it's as light as air.

The rest is the stuff that falls around us, and flits away into nothing.

It's the love that stays.

[love-quinn]

— CALL TIME

summary — a games shoot with your boyfriend mid-fight isn’t something that’s particularly appealing. but, in an effort to keep up appearances, you inadvertently find out the reason you’re fighting.

warnings — none

pairing — spencer agnew x fem!reader

pronouns — none (you/yours), reader is referred to explicitly as spencer’s girlfriend

featuring — spencer agnew, shayne topp, angela giarratana, courtney miller, alex tran, kortney luby (mentioned)

word count — 3.4k

note — honestly still trying to figure out what i’m doing here, but i guess i write for smosh now?? i hope you enjoy anyway <33

Shoot weeks were always stressful. They resulted in 12 hour days, sometimes you had multiple shoots back to back and you didn’t get a break. A lot of the time, you’d scarf down Uber Eats at your desk while looking over two different scripts, four emails and the shoot schedule and realising that you’re probably not going to get a whole lot of sleep that night.

Your boyfriend was in the same boat, though. Not only was he often on camera, he was also directing all of the smosh games productions. A lot of the time while you were devouring a subway over your desk, Spencer was right there beside you, the two of you chatting idly about whether or not either of you thought that you would have the time or the energy to see each other outside of work that week.

The two of you had been dating privately for a little over a year, everyone at the office knew but you hadn’t announced anything publicly yet. Neither of you had any interest in it, to be perfectly honest. Your audience knew the two of you were close, you’d occasionally post photos of the two of you out at dinner together or at the movies or something, plus you’d run into fans quite a few times. But also, Spencer hung out in public more with Alex than he did with you, so people didn’t tend to take it to a romantic place.

During lunch on the Thursday of a shoot week would usually involve the two of you sitting tiredly in the open office area, your head on his shoulder while he showed you a video of something. You relished any opportunity to spend time together during shoot weeks, because you both really would just leave work, pass out and then go back to work.

This particular Thursday, though, you were alone at your table. Not alone, Shayne and Angela were there, the three of you engaged in random chatter. People filed in and out, working crew trying to eat quickly so they could get back to their spot on set and prepare for the next shoot, crew that wasn’t working sets that day still having a lot to get done behind the scenes. A few people had come and left your table but none of them touched the seat beside yours, knowing that Spencer would inevitably arrive and want to sit beside you.

He wasn’t coming, though, and you knew that.

You and Spencer both really valued communication, and you were normally really good at it. But with how exhausted you both were, neither of you had the energy to have an argument lately. You’d gone two full days without speaking unless completely necessary. Your last text from him had been from the morning earlier; We need two, not one. It had been about batteries, you’d been sent on a run to the supply closet for an extra one.

You hadn’t even been aware of how it started. One night he’d been kissing your temple in the parking lot, preparing to go back to his apartment while you went back to yours and the next morning you barely spoke.

You couldn’t even corner him about it at work. You’d tried to approach him in the kitchen, assuming he’d just been too busy to text you or stop by your desk like he usually did in the mornings. “You okay?” You’d asked him gently, hand on his arm gently.

He’d given you a pinched smile, “Yeah, babe.” He turned back to the fridge, shutting it stiffly. “I gotta go, call time’s in ten and I need to talk to Alex about the Games video we shot last night.”

You’d stood there in the office kitchen as he walked away. He didn’t approach you the rest of the day, but you had been on the same set for a few hours.

No text that night, no kiss in the parking lot as you parted ways, not even a dumb tweet he thought you’d like. Hell, he hadn’t even messaged you on Slack.

Shayne watched you eat with his eyebrows raised. “You okay? You’ve been quiet all morning.”

You looked up to see both Shayne and Angela looking at you. You hadn’t even realised the conversation had dropped off. “Oh, uh.” You shook your head, more at yourself than at them. “Yeah, it’s fine. Just one of those weeks, y’know.”

“It’s almost over,” Angela rubbed your arm sympathetically. “Just today and tomorrow and then it’s the weekend. Do you have much on this afternoon?”

You had to pull out your phone to check your schedule. You had two more shoots for the day but they were spread out so you were still gonna be at work for quite a while. Maybe you could take a nap in the green room between shows. “Yeah, I’m doing You Posted That? and then we’re playing whatever game or something tonight.” You rubbed your eyes.

“Hey, tomorrow you only have TNTL and then reddit,” Shayne said encouragingly. “Early afternoon. Go home and get some rest, you look rough, dude.” It was all said with love, so you just grimaced up at him.

“Okay, can I tell you guys something in confidence?”

Both of them immediately nodded, abandoning their forks.

“I think Spencer’s avoiding me,” you admitted softly.

Shayne and Angela were probably two of your closest working friends. The three of you often sat in the back of groups and giggled together like you were ten. When you’d first started working at Smosh, you’d been somewhat awkward around your castmates when you weren’t filming. You guys made each other laugh but you weren’t sure whether or not they actually liked you or if they just laughed along with you on camera to avoid awkwardness. That hadn’t lasted long, though, and now you felt like you could actually have serious conversations with people.

“I was wondering why he wasn’t here,” Angela admitted. “Usually I can never get you alone at lunch, I have so many TikToks I wanna show you.”

You shrugged. “He’s been weird for a couple of days now, like, look at this.” You pulled out your phone and showed them your text history or now lack thereof. Shayne saw the one message from the past three days and his eyebrows raised higher.

“And you’ve tried talking to him about it?”

You nodded, locking your phone and putting it on the table. “He basically ran out of the kitchen when I asked him if everything was okay. By the time I was done for the day he was already at home, he usually stops by my desk if he’s leaving earlier than I am. I wasn’t in a shoot or anything.”

Angela slackened, leaning against her elbows on the desk and looking up at you with a frown on her face. “That’s definitely weird, yeah. Yeah, no, that’s weird. You guys didn’t argue about anything or anything?”

You shook your head, fidgeting with your nails. “Monday everything was normal, now I’m here.”

Your phone buzzed with your alarm that you’d set, you had fifteen minutes until your call time for the next shoot. You’d mostly finished eating but you picked up your fork again and poked at the remaining food on your plate. “And like, I don’t know. I’m not spiralling, like I know that he loves me and everything and I don’t think we’re on the brink of breaking up or anything, I just have no idea what’s going on.”

Angela reached over and squeezed your wrist. “Anything I can do? I won’t do anything unless you tell me too, obviously, but I can talk to him about it if you want?”

You let out a puff of air and shook your head. “No, but thank you for the offer.” You stood, taking your little container of food to drop it back off at your desk before you went to set. “I’ll see you guys later? Thank you for letting me talk.”

“Of course, babe.”

“Yeah,” Shayne said genuinely. “Let either of us know if we can help?”

You moved through the next few hours as best you could, putting on your most entertaining face for the camera. You didn’t win the game but you also hadn’t embarrassed yourself a supreme amount, so you took it as a win. By the time you had to be on set for your final shoot of the game, you’d had a coffee and you were ready to head home. You didn’t let being tired stop you, you were still bright and smiley, the way the audience was used to seeing you.

You definitely regretted not reading the call sheet beyond your own call time, though, because Spencer was sitting at the table on his phone.

You didn’t know whether you were allowed to sit beside him. You wanted to, and you were sure that he wouldn’t get angry with you, but would it make the experience awkward?

You pretended to go back to your desk for something, hoping that at least one other person would be at the table before you had to sit down. This was why you never showed up anywhere early.

By the time you got back, your prayers had been answered and Courtney and Shayne had taken the two seats on either side of him. You slid on the other end of the table, across from Shayne, who smiled encouragingly at you.

“Hi!” You hadn’t seen Courtney all day and she smiled widely at you. “I tried that recipe you sent me last night and I think I’ve decided that I want to marry you.”

“Aw man,” Shane put a hand on his forehead, shaking his head as he glared at the table. “Didn’t even get a year in, I owe Damien twenty bucks.”

“Oh my god, wait, we’re kinda on a cute little double date right now,” Courtney giggled. “Look at us go.”

Courtney hadn’t been present at the table during lunch, but they could definitely tell that something was going on between you and Spencer, if only from the fact that he hadn’t already leaned behind her to tell you a joke that only you would find funny.

She waited until Spencer and Shayne got up to be mic’d to turn to you, voice hushed. “You okay?”

You rehashed the story as quickly and quietly as you could and she frowned. “I was wondering why he came and ate at my desk but I just assumed you were busy or something. That’s weird. It’s not gonna make the video weird is it?”

“No,” you assured them. “We’re adults, and as far as I know, we’re still together,” you’d said the last part jokingly. You were adults, you wouldn’t have broken up over something like this, not without a lot of discussion first, but you still had no idea why he was basically giving you the silent treatment.

“Alright, guys,” Alex called out and Spencer slid back into his chair. He shot you a smile and you returned it while Alex outlined who was giving the intro, how many points you needed to win, etc, things that you didn’t necessarily think about until you were doing them on camera. “And we’re rolling in three…”

Shayne started talking to the camera and you fidgeted under the desk. You really enjoyed filming for Smosh Games, it was probably your favourite channel to film for. But also, it was hard to enjoy a board game when you were on four different cameras. You’d have to talk to Kortney to make sure you didn’t look completely tired and bummed out the entire time in the final cut.

You managed to get through the first few rounds okay, making the group laugh a few times and getting a few moments that would make the video. It had started when someone made a dumb joke, some sort of thing about a really sophisticated cat or something, and Spencer had bounced off it. “Yeah, my neighbour across the hall is like, moving in with their partner or something, and I ran into them in the hallway a couple of days ago and offered to help with a box they were kinda struggling with and the box was just labeled ‘Lemons,’” The whole table giggled at that, trying to figure out where he was going with it. “And I was like… “Okay, this person has a thing for lemons I guess?” but then I go into their apartment and I find out that they apparently both had cats, right? And so my neighbour had a cat and now their partner’s cat is also moving in. Apparently both of the cats are called Lemons!”

That really got Courtney, their head getting thrown back as she laughed. “No way!”

“They’re soulmates, dude,” Shayne nodded.

Spencer looked over at you, path completely clear now that Courtney had scooted her chair back. You knew the one of Spencer’s neighbours that he was referring to, he’d told you the story as the two of you walked to your cars the afternoon after it happened.

“Would that be something that you were interested in?” He’d asked after a second, taking out his keys with the hand that wasn’t holding yours.

You liked cats, but your apartment didn’t allow them, and you also didn’t know if you really had the energy or the time to deal with a pet right now. You shook your head. “Not really, I’m fine solo over there,” you’d said.

Spencer had nodded and kissed your temple, right beside your eye on the side of your face. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he’d said in a low voice.

Spencer, at the games table, seemed to watch you have the realisation in real time. Your eyes had drifted back to the table in thought for a second and they came back up to lock with his. You looked a lot more resolute than you had before, and he was a little bit nervous.

He hadn’t been ignoring you to be immature, it had been honestly wanting to back off so as to not make you uncomfortable. He’d tried to take a step and you hadn’t wanted to, and he respected that. But he also didn’t know if what he had previously been doing was also what you wanted, so he was trying to just get to the weekend when he knew you’d be feeling better enough to maybe have a full conversation about where the two of you were at. You’d celebrated your one year anniversary two months earlier, he saw a future with you. He’d been confident that you felt the same way, you showed him consistently, but now he was worried he’d overstepped in ways he hadn’t realised. He’d thought you’d have said yes, maybe he was wrong about other things as well.

Your eyes were soft as they met his, flicking away to listen to Shayne talk. You weren’t having this conversation in the middle of the shoot. He turned to listen as well, but the two of you had both relaxed in the shoulders slightly, hoping that maybe by the end of the night you’d be on the same page.

The shoot wrapped up pretty quick with Courtney sweeping the game. You were the one to run through the ending spiel, like, subscribe, all that stuff. Once Alex finally called cut, Spencer was quick to lean over and murmur. “I gotta talk to Alex really quick about some stuff, I’ll be ten minutes max.”

You nodded at him and he practically ran to Alex, opening up his bag and pulling out a folder of something probably important. Shayne and Courtney watched the interaction. “Guess he’s not avoiding you anymore?”

“I realised what happened literally in the middle of filming,” you sighed, rubbing your face. “Oh my god, I’m so stupid.” You had to laugh, it was silly.

“He asked me to move in with him earlier this week. I said no because I thought he was asking if I wanted to get a cat.”

Both Shayne and Courtney also had to laugh. “No, that’s so dumb, I’m sorry,” Courtney put her forehead on your shoulder as a sign of support for a second before lifting it up. “At least it’s something you can fix easily.”

“Yeah,” Shayne nudged you. “You’ll be fine. You got this,”

You nodded, more just relieved that you’d figured out the problem so you could solve it. You knew Spencer hadn’t intentionally kept it from you, he’d thought you’d known this whole time. Spencer still didn’t know that you were unaware of your rejection, he’d just seen the love-filled look you’d given him and assumed that meant you still wanted to see him.

Shayne and Courtney packed their stuff up and headed off, not without both giving you an equally cheesy thumbs-up as they walked through the door. Spencer and Alex were both still nodding seriously at whatever piece of paper they were looking at, but they both smiled at you as you left to go back towards your desk.

You grabbed all your stuff and then stood outside the pod for a little while, dragging the toe of your shoes across the concrete flooring as you waited for your boyfriend. “Hi,” his voice was quiet but not awkward as he approached you from behind.

You didn’t wait, you wrapped your arms around his neck and he hugged you back with no hesitation. “I love you,” you mumbled into his neck.

“I love you too,” he replied immediately. “You okay?”

You nodded, pulling back just enough that he could see your face. “Yes, just stupid, I think.”

He laughed, ducking his head. “Yeah you are pretty dumb, aren’t you?” You pushed him off you and he took your hand, the two of you heading outside to your cars. “What specifically led you to this discovery?”

You squeezed his hand and stopped walking, pulling him off to the side so you weren’t standing in the middle of the road, coming to a stop in front of his car. “I thought you were asking if I wanted a cat.” You explained. “Last weekend, you asked ‘do you want to do that?’ and I thought you were talking about me getting a cat.”

He just smiled, still looking slightly confused. You squeezed his hand again and it hit him that time. “Oh! No, no, that’s not… no, I wasn’t asking if you wanted a cat.”

You nodded as if that was obvious. “No, I know that now.”

“No, that’s on me I asked it super vaguely,” he reasoned, swinging your joined arms slightly. “I thought you were saying no and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t like, smothering you or whatever. I didn’t want you to think that you not wanting to move in with me was going to make me super clingy or something.”

“Not at all,” you replied honestly. “In fact, you’re gonna have a hard time getting rid of me. If we’re living together I’m gonna be all over you like grease on those weird pans you have. We’re throwing them out by the way, I refuse to cook with those things.”

He laughed loudly, it almost echoing around the small parking lot. “They might not be non-stick but at least I don’t burn my hand on them every week like I do with yours.” His eyes were filled with a comfortable happiness behind his glasses as your hands still swung. “Wait,” he stopped you. “Does this mean you want to move in with me?”

You didn’t even bother teasing him that time. “I would love to,” you said honestly. “But seriously, you can keep the pans. I won't make you get rid of them, but I can not use them.”

He groaned, looking at the ground as his eyebrows furrowed. “You’re the worst girlfriend ever.”

“I have a perfectly good apartment, you know.”

“No, you already agreed,” he pulled you in and pressed his lips to yours for the first time in what had literally been days. “You’re moving in with me and my weird pans.” You didn’t even bother replying to that, instead kissing him again slowly. He let you. You were overdue for one anyway.

[goldsbitch]

Just don't talk-

-if you can't hear me. p2 to Just don't talk

summary: Enemies to lovers on steroids. Lando can't stand Y/N, the first female driver in F1. He also can't stand not having her with her clothes on.

warnings: minors do not interact, biting, cursing...just generally don't take this one too seriously

It would have been too obvious by the media teams to put Lando and Y/N together in a video out of the blue without any obvious reasons. The brands were not connected in any way and had a completely different online strategy. But serious damage had been done by the two at their last joint interview, so there was a meeting between the teams and F1 media and the request to have them paired up together at a next bubbly F1 video was bargained for and agreed upon in exchange for some favors.

There was a long and very detailed briefing for each of them. At the end they even received something resembling a script. They were both quite good at public speaking and charming the crowds, but it only worked on a spontaneity and intuition base. They were far from actors and the more instructions they received, the more mad it made them, each one in a different way, of course, because hell would freeze over before these two had found something in common. Lando had to fight the urge in him to slam the doors on all of these people. All this media planning was making Y/N dizzy. Had it been anyone else, she'd be slaying this like a pro. But for some stupid reason the PR teams were just not going to let them go and bury their little feud down. She thought this was a bad idea anyway - nothing good could come out of this.

And yet, there they were. Getting ready for the shoot in an F1 hospitality centre, with twenty other people, mostly film crew members. The two barely looked at each other, let alone said hello, just casually pretending the other one is invisible. The director really tried to get them hyped up before the shoot, resulting in one of the most awkward silence the poor lady had ever had the misfortune to have on her set. Only once she gave up and excused herself pretending to be adjusting the camera shot, did Lando shoot a quick look at Y/N. She'd already been looking at him. In that one look they shared their own hidden amusement, obviously enjoying having people being thrown into awkward situations because of their own incompetence to manage each other. At least, this was what Y/N was thinking. Lando was thinking about the gap between her thighs. And only she saw the way his eyes shot down shamelessly to her chest and giving her a quick approving look, probably non verbally complimenting the way hot the race suit covered her chest tightly.

"Who does a whisper challenge in this day and age anyway?" was an unspoken thought that many people shared while getting ready for yet another whisper challenge video to complete the collage of several driver from different team duos, one of which being the pair that was secretly playing with each other under the bedsheets every other night.

Finally, after final touch ups, they were sitting on a couch, across each other and as far away as the couch allowed. That was a conscious decision, as their bodies were becoming so familiar to the proximity and contact, that they had to actively stop each other from mimicking each other's gestures. "Ok guys, I understand this might not be the most comfortable thing you ever did, but we will have to push through it. Lando, will you be ready to introduce the video concept?"

"Yeah, sure," Lando sighed, trying desperately not let anything he that was actually on his mind slip his mouth. Like for example how stupid this was.

He turned his full on youtuber style speech mode on within seconds, actually shocking Y/N.

"Welcome everyone, we're here with F1 and today, we'll be trying a cross team whisper challenge - you never know with whom you'll be sharing a team in the next years anyway!" he said, having the first line vaguely memorized.

"Cut," said the director immediately after that first line. "Thank you Lando, that was some great energy," she dug deep into her professional training and started on the one thing that was positive. "But, the line should be something like "because we rarely get to know one another", your version is opening up place for some unwanted speculations. And, Y/N, you were obviously not ready, as your expression in more of a shock that excitement." It took them five more takes on this before the director made a note mentally to shoot a back up version with a different driver pair.

All the questions had a weird undertone. They were competing more than this situations required. People normally laughed during the takes - Lando was an expert on this, he did videos like this with Oscar often, and he gave him almost nothing to work with. He still managed. Not with Y/N. Tension grew over time. Y/N got almost all of her guesses on the first go. When it was his time, he was opted for staying silent than taking a wrong guess, so she had to repeat everything three times at least. Nobody in the room was having fun. The media interns present were terrified of having to present this at their next meeting and were already trying to find the most upbeat song to pair this up with in their group chat. Few more questions to end this nightmare of an afternoon for everyone.

"Would you like drive with me or do you prefer Oscar?" Lando's face was blank. Not giving any reaction. Y/N took a deep breath and looked to Lando's eyes once again. Same look as she had that one time he tied her up. Frustrated. "Would you like drive with me or do you prefer Oscar?" Still nothing. Dry. She smiled and repeated, loudly as if that was to help. "Would you like drive with me or do you prefer Oscar?" Lando finally responded. Without a beat. "Would you like to ride with me to see who comes first? Brain reads what the mind wants. One would think silence does not have a volume. Anyone present in that room on that day would know better. There were levels to silence and this was a loud one.

Now, innuendos were fairly normal theme in whisper challenges. And they were fun, little things to spice a lonely afternoon for those who were watching. But there was just something in the chemistry these two had that you could not just laugh it off or go on the "will they won't they" route. Aggressive undertone overcame any other vibes. There were two other lines for Lando to guess, he did not get any of them and the whole shoot was quickly wrapped up after. Both of them exited, again, without a word to anyone. Y/N was fuming internally. She texted Lando to come and see her immediately. So her dressing room it was.

"What the fuck, Lando?!"

"Hello to you too, miss fun," he responded, annoyed as ever.

"Don't. Just don't."

Communication was definitely not something they'd win contests at.

"You're exhausting me! I'm like...so mad!"

"Eloquent. You should write poetry. Would be treat to read," he responded, unfased by her outburst.

"Fine. Fuck you then," she lost it completely, anger and frustration built up in her finally taking the best of her. He thought she was mad? He hadn't seen mad. She could not care less of what he thought of her. When she got closer to him, he thought she was going for a kiss. Instead she grabbed him arm and bit him hard. Shock wave ran thought Lando and he froze in the spot. She held her teeth in long and firmly. Shock was quickly replaced by pain, a lot of pain. He played a hero for few moments and then gasped. She stopped with the first sound he made. He stared at her, shocked, confused and weirdly turned on. The pain turned into adrenaline high. A really strange high. He quickly looked at his arm and saw a bruise forming, marking the shape of her teeth. She had a proud look on her face, finally getting it out of her system.

"Great. Better now. Hope it stays on for weeks."

With that, she walked away, leaving confused and dazed Lando behind in her dressing room. He could still feel her teeth in and the adrenaline as if he had just drank three double espressos in one sitting. Why was this turning him on. Why was anything she did the hottest thing anyone ever did. And how the fuck was he suppose to cover this up. He had a photoshoot scheduled for tomorrow. And when was he going get to fuck her again?

p3

[ruh--roh-raggy]

Home Sweet Home (William Afton x Wife! Reader) - Part 2

Hello hello! Welcome back to part 2 of my fully self indulgent delusion! This is a very fluffy chapter, we get a little peek inside reader and William's day to day life while they start unpacking! Thank you all so much for the support and the comments and the reblogs and the likes, all of it! I'm grateful every single one of you is here! If you would like to be added to the tag list please don't hesitate to let me know! I hope you enjoy, thank you for reading!!

WARNINGS: None

You can find my Masterlist here!

Word Count: 4,168

Part 1 - Part 3

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You stretched as you sat up in bed, smiling as you caught sight of the tall pines that seemed to stretch on endlessly outside your window. You looked around for William, feeling his side of the bed was cold, you knew he had been up for a while. You grabbed the sweatshirt you had been wearing the night before from where it had ended up on the floor. You smile as the smell of motor oil and your husband's cologne fills your nose, the warm, worn fabric of his college sweatshirt pooling around your waist. You wrap your arms tightly around your body, your hands fully swallowed by the sweatshirt’s sleeves as your bare feet padded across the floor. You scrunched up your nose, rubbing the bottom of your foot off on the side of your leg as you stepped in a pile of dirt, making a comment about how you'd have to vacuum later. You wandered into the kitchen when you heard William’s voice, finding him twisting the phone’s chord around his finger as he chatted idly. He smiles at the sight of you sleepily stumbling up to him. You couldn't stop your eyes from raking over his body; his fleece pajama pants sitting low on his hips, his salt and pepper chest hair carpeting his chest before gradually thinning out to the happy trail that was cut off by his clothing. “Woof.” You grumble, causing him to chuckle. He places a hand over the receiver and gives you a playful, warning look.

“Behave.” He whispers with a wink. You look around the kitchen, a few stray bags of groceries littered the counter in various stages of being put away, a moving box labeled ‘pans’ in William’s big blocky script. “Yeah, we were planning on swinging by later.” From that statement alone you knew he was talking to Henry. You slide your arms around his torso, his free arm immediately wrapping around your shoulders as he draws you in closer. “No, I'm not trying to sneak in so I can work.” William groans in an unamused tone. The two make a few more remarks to each other before he hangs up. “Well good morning.” His voice becomes noticeably more chipper as he greets you.

“I had to wake up all alone, without my husband in bed next to me.” You close your eyes and look away from him with a soft “hmph”, a kiss getting pressed to your forehead to try and alleviate your mock annoyance.

“Oh, my poor girl. Look at you, about to whiter away from lack of attention.” He shoots back a fake pout. “How about you and I go take a shower and I'll take you out for breakfast, would that make up for it?”

You hum as you ponder over his offer, “I think I can work with that.” You giggle as he stops down to rest his forehead against yours, peppering your face in kisses. The bags on the counter catch your eye again. “When did you go grocery shopping?” He sighs at your question.

“Well, I was supposed to have breakfast ready for when you got up.” He scoops you up in his arms without missing a beat, walking around and holding you close to him was second nature at this point he did it so often. “But, Henry called, and you know who that goes.” You nod with a small laugh. “So, why not use the opportunity to take my girl out to breakfast?” He smiles warmly at you, your heart still flutters in your chest even after almost a decade of seeing that smile. He sets your down at the top of the stairs, your hand instinctively reaching out to take his as you ambled down the hall towards your master bathroom.

“Can we go to that place I like?” William can't help but smile at your vague question.

“The one with the shitty coffee and the good pancakes or the one that makes those fancy omelets? He asks in an attempt to clarify.

“The one with the shitty coffee and good pancakes.” You decide with a nod. William internally remarked how cute he thought it was when you swore. Chuckling to himself when he thought back to the time someone had rear-ended his car. The two of you had been driving back from dinner at Henry’s house, both of you laughing as you recounted your favorite moments from the evening. The light had changed a lot quicker than William was expecting as you pulled up to an intersection, making you rock slightly in your seat as he hit the brakes a little harder than normal. You both let out a shocked sound as the car suddenly gets shoved forward. Before William could even fully process what had happened your seatbelt was off and you were flying out of the passenger seat.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Your voice grows deeper as rage bubbles up in your chest. “Are you fucking blind or just fucking stupid?” William’s eyes widen as he listens to the expletives fall from your lips with ease. Finally unclicking his own seatbelt and stepping out. You had powered up to the guy that rear-ended the car. A finger jabbing into his chest and pointing at the bumper, your voice unwaveringly stern as you ripped this man a new one. If he was being honest, he found this side of you pretty damn hot. Your whole expression softened as your eyes landed on him. “Honey, are you okay?” You practically shoved the man out of the way to get over to him. You immediately began fussing over him, asking if he had hit his head and checking him for seatbelt burns.

“I'm alright, bunny.” He pulls you against him, you finally allow yourself a moment to take a deep breath. “Why don't you go sit in the car and calm down? I'll handle this baby, don't worry.” He's snapped from the memory as your lips brushing over the back of his hand. “Sparky’s it is.” He smiles down at you. You helped William open up a few boxes, trying your best to dig out everything you would need to shower. “It has to get unpacked anyways, right?” He would remark with a pat on your head at the sound of your annoyed sighs. You sat on the floor organizing under the sink, William stood in the shower, securing the custom shelves he had built for you into place. He hummed as he worked, the corners of your lips quirking up in a smile as you recognized the song you had your first dance to at your wedding. You glance up at him, William giving you his trademark lopsided grin as his eyes lock with yours.

“So this is love.” The light, melodic sound of your voice floats through the room.

“So this is what makes life divine.” He joins you softly, his voice gravelly and slightly flat as he continues the next line.

“I'm all aglow.” He decides to continue with the humming, punctuating your lines. He steps out of the shower, taking your hand and giving you a slow spin before his arm wraps around your waist. You swayed in time to your singing, looking just as in love with you now as he did on your wedding night. His lips press to yours as he dips you backwards, your heart fluttering in your chest.

“I swear you look more beautiful every day.” He whispers. You lightly slap his chest, trying to hide the blush that has taken over your cheeks. The two of you finished setting up what you needed in the bathroom relatively quickly, you broke down the empty boxes while William got the shower started. He groans as the hot water hits his back, stretching his tired muscles.

“Wet your hair.” You command him softly as you step in front of him.

He raised an eyebrow at you, smirking at you playfully. “I'm sorry, what was that bunny?”

“Wet your hair.” You repeat a little louder, trying your best to appear confident despite the fact you wanted to melt under his gaze. “It’s my turn to take care of you.” He rests his hands on your waist, obliging your little request. You work the shampoo into his hair, earning a soft groan from him as you lightly scratch his scalp. “You always take such good care of me, you have to let me return the favor sometimes.” You smile up at him, placing a gentle kiss to his chest.

“But you're my little lady-” you cut him off before he even had the chance to argue. You have heard his reasoning a million times. You were his wife. That meant, if he could help it, you would never have to lift a finger. He was always opening doors for you, cooking breakfast, taking you out on dates, everything you have ever wanted or needed William has taken care of. Your job, according to him, was to look pretty and to let him spoil you. You, however, viewed things a little differently. You loved William to the moon and back and then some. No matter how much he would always try to fuss over you, he needed to be taken care of too, even if he didn't want to admit it. You made sure that there was always a hot meal on the table for when your husband would get home, even if it was just Chinese. When he had a particularly long day at work you would put in some extra effort into doting on him; taking care of putting away his jacket and work boots, gently guiding him to sit on the couch while you snuck off to prepare his plate for him, anything he needed you were on top of it before the thought even crossed his mind.

“I am your wife.” The sound of you so adamantly declaring that you were his threatened to bring William to his knees. “Fight it all you want, but since I am your wife, Mr. Afton…” your voice softens as you finish making your point. “It’s important to me that I take care of my husband however I can.” He smiles, stooping down to give you a caste kiss. “Now rinse.”

“Yes ma'am.” He responds with a chuckle.

You hummed softly as you dug through boxes of clothes, eventually deciding on one of William’s sweatshirts and a pair of his flannel pajamas pants. The soft fabric pooling around your ankles and making your hands disappear. William steps in the bedroom; drying off his glasses in a towel, his hair still damp from your shower, his beard neatly trimmed. “Well don't you look cozy.” You race into his open arms, letting him hug you tight to his chest. “You ready to get going?” You nod, your hand slipping into his as you allow him to lead you down the hallway. Throughout the drive you were both filled with laughter, recounting how days like this were a common occurrence when you first started dating.

“Well can you blame me? I was a full time student, working full time at Freddy’s, dealing with the absolutely scandalous lifestyle of falling in love with an older man.” He lets out a loud laugh at your dramatic tone over the last part.

“Did I ever say it was a problem?” He tries to defend himself. “There was nothing I loved more than picking you up after your Friday morning class. You would come stomping down to my car, quiet,” he tries to subdue his own chuckling by quieting your laughter, “you would throw all your stuff in the back seat, and you would lay down on my lap and fall asleep while I drove. It really doesn't sound like I had anything to complain about.”

“You were always so grouchy before your pancakes.” You mock his voice, sitting up straight in the seat and planting your hands firmly on your hips. Neither of you could keep a straight face, dissolving into fits of laughter as you pulled into the parking lot.

“Hey, Mr and Mrs Afton, welcome back.” You're greeted by the preppy red headed hostess. She leads you to your usual booth in the back corner, William always insisted a corner booth was quieter and more intimate. You had one of the paper placemats flipped over to the blank side in front of you. You passed a pen back and forth, playing tic tac toe while you waited for your food. You figured out a plan for the house, both of you excited to start settling into the space.

“I think we should start with the bedroom, it'll give us a nice little reprieve from all the chaos.” He chuckles, beating you once again at your game before putting the pen down. Your plates of pancakes clattered down in front of you, both of you rushing to dig into your meals so you could get the rest of your day started.

You pushed through your front door with a groan, arms filled with bags of cleaning supplies. You dragged everything upstairs, your husband not far behind as he unloaded the rest of your shopping. He places a quick kiss to your lips, the subtle taste of coffee still lingering from breakfast. When most of the heavy cleaning had been done you decided to take a break. You sprawled out in the middle of the empty floor, the hardwood cool against your back. You could hear the soft sounds of William jogging back up the stairs and down the hall before he re-entered the room. He set down a box next to you, before joining you on the floor. “What's this?” You grin excitedly, turning the box to see what was inside.

Your eyes immediately welled up as you ran your fingers over the worn, mostly faded marker. ‘The Good Parts’ was all it said, but you remembered this box vividly. When you and William had originally moved in together you didn't bring much with you. You were in college at the time, sharing a shitty apartment with even shittier roommates, most of your furniture aside from your bed was made up of large plastic bins and wobbly rolling drawers. However, William was very surprised when he opened up one of your moving boxes. The good parts, as it had been so cryptically named, was a catchall of your entire relationship so far; polaroids of the two of you together, any small cheap pieces of jewelry he had bought for you while you were out shopping, ticket stubs to movies you had particularly liked, letters he had written you, all of it. A box that had only been added to throughout all these years. “It was tucked away in the closet, I know you would've been upset if we had forgotten it during the move.” He smiles softly at you. You pull him in for a soft kiss. Wiping at your eyes, you then reach out to open it with shaking fingers. William reaches in first, pulling out a pair of ticket stubs attached to a couple polaroids. One was of you and William standing in the driveway of your old apartment. Your arms wrapped around William’s waist, his lips pressed to the top of your head, you could barely make out the figure failing to jump out of frame in time as Henry. “One of our double dates with Henry and Sarah.” He chuckles. You smile as you pick up the second one. William held you close, he was dancing you around the empty parking lot. You were laughing in the photo, practically falling into him. William looked so happy, so in love with you. He still had that same look in his eyes when your attention moved back to him. He holds out the ticket stubs.

“We went to go see Children of the Corn.” You laugh as you readed over the faded print.

“You hated that movie!” He exclaims.

“I didn't hate the movie, I hated how freaky those kids were!” You explain, throwing your arms wide. “You can't tell me they weren't unsettling!” You tried arguing your point but William was already laughing. You playfully push his shoulder with a groan, both of you giggling like idiots as you put the items back. One picture in particular catches your eye. Your eyes were assaulted by the too bright splashes of yellows and purples. You and all your coworkers at Freddy’s dressed up for a sports day. You found yourself in the picture, a soft blush on your cheeks as you smiled bashfully at the camera, a very rigid William at your side. “This was like a week after we met.” You grin. “Look at you, you're so awkward.” You tease, making your body purposely cringe up. He laughs at your teasing, he would never deny that he definitely was not the smoothest when you had met.

He wraps his arm around your shoulders as you lean into his side, fingers running over the edge of the photograph. “Do you remember the day we met?” You perk up at the question, moving your hair out of the way to reveal a thin silver line near your temple.

“Of course I do, I still have the scar!” You respond in a chipper tone.

“That's not what I meant!” He manages to get out through a fit of laughter.

“I know, I’m just never going to let you live that down.” You wink at him, causing him to roll his eyes. “Of course I remember the day we met honey, I started to like you the first day I met you.” You place a kiss to his cheek. You had just recently started working at Freddy’s, and as far as college jobs, it wasn't the worst place you could be. Sure the carpet was always sticky and the kids were loud, but you got along well with your coworkers and there were parts of working at the pizzeria that actually were quite fun. You had even grown particularly fond of the giant animatronic animals that performed their concert every 20 minutes.

“Can you do me a favor?” Your coworker Rachel rushes up to you. “That table's food is going to be up any second but I need to pee so bad, would you be able to grab it for me?”

“Yeah of course!”

“Thanks girl, I owe you.” She smiles gratefully before hurrying off. Your eyes dart over to a girl as she lets out a shrill scream, seeing it was just because she had won a lot of tickets you continue to push through the kitchen door. You felt a sharp crack to your head as everything went black. When you woke up you were laying on the floor, a warm hand slipped into yours. Your head hurt but other than that you felt fine. You sat up with a groan, a strong arm immediately supporting your back.

“Easy, doll.” A low, gravelly voice says. “You got hit pretty hard.”

“What happened?” You ask quietly.

“She's okay everyone!” The voice speaks a little louder. There's a collective murmur of relief. He leans in closer to you and whispers, “I'm going to help you up, I need you to do me a favor and hide against the side of me. You got cut by some plastic, I don't want anyone seeing the blood and panicking.” You nodded, allowing him to help you up from the floor, leaning into his side in a way that hid your face. He led you from the room, the usual noise of the pizzeria gradually starting up behind you. He opens a door and leads you into a room before immediately breaking into an apology. “I am so sorry, I was looking at a ticket when I was coming out. Are you okay? I'm going to clean you up here and take you to the hospital to make sure you don't have a concussion-” you wave your arms in front of you, cutting him off.

“Wait, I have questions!” You exclaim, demanding his full attention. His eyes widened slightly, shocked by your firm tone. “I still don't know what happened, I walked through the door and I woke up on the floor. So how did I get knocked out?”

“I was carrying a tray, I looked down at the ticket to check the table number again and I didn't see you coming through the door.” He explains bashfully.

“So you whacked me in the head with a pizza tray?” You ask to clarify. He nods, unable to meet your eyes as his face scrunches up in embarrassment. “Okay, I'm not mad. Accidents happen.” Your voice softened, you could tell he was beating himself up over the situation. “I also don't know who you are, so what's your name?” You ask with a small laugh.

“Oh, that's right, you're one of the new employees. I'm sorry we had to meet like this.” He states with a chuckle. “I'm William Afton.” Your eyes widened as you realized this was Mr. Emily’s elusive business partner.

“Sir I'm so sorry, I had no idea.” You immediately rush to apologize. He waves you off as he digs around in a drawer for a first aid kit.

“Mr. Afton in front of customers, other than that call me William.” You couldn't help but notice the playful sparkle in his eyes as he glanced up at you. You can't help but blush as you looked away. You took a second to take in your surroundings. Tools lined the walls, a work bench covered in blue prints and notebooks, various animatronic parts scattered in various corners. ‘This must be his workshop's you thought to yourself. Your attention was immediately forced back onto him as he steps in front of you, his massive form blocking out the bulb that hung from the ceiling. “I got you pretty good, didn't I?” He grumbles. His gold wire framed glasses glinted in the light as he sets them on the top of his head. He started to reach out in order to maneuver your face to look at the wound better, pausing before his fingers brushed your jaw. “I, um… is it okay if I touch you? I just want to make sure I get you cleaned up.” You nod, tensing up as you feel his calloused fingers run over your cheek. “I'm so sorry about this.

“It's okay Mr. Afton, really.” You were having trouble forming a proper sentence. His skin was so warm. The way he held your face so delicately in his large hand, like you would break if he moved wrong.

“William.” He corrects you with a small smile.

“William.” You repeat back softly. His eyes meet yours, the sound of you saying his name putting him in almost a trance for a second.

“This is probably going to sting a little.” He gives you an apologetic look before dabbing on the disinfectant. You wince, subconsciously reaching up to hold onto his arm. He got you all cleaned up, carefully putting a bandage on your head before stepping back and returning his glasses to their proper place. Butterflies erupted in your stomach as he gave you a lopsided smile. “You know I never got your name.”

“I was surprised you still talked to me after that.” You were snapped back to the present by the sound of your husband's voice floating to your ears.

“You had already beaten yourself up enough over it. Plus, seeing you all flustered and worried over me was really cute.” He pulls you into a kiss, you could still feel the smile on his lips, his mustache tickling your nose slightly. You set the picture back inside, closing up the top of the box and earning a curious look from William. “I wanna savor this… it's been a while since we looked in here.” You mutter softly, tracing a finger over the writing on the outside.

“Maybe we should unpack it with the rest of the stuff.” He gently squeezes your arm before his hand rubs over your back. “I don't know about you, but I think it would be nice to put all of this stuff out where we can see it.” You turn your head to face him, letting your forehead rest against his. “But I definitely agree we should make it last.” You could hear the playful tone in his voice. “Knowing you, you'd cry if we dug through this whole box today.” You lightly punched him in the arm, William faking a hurt expression, hissing slightly as he rubs a hand over the spot you hit. “Easy there, killer. You're going to rip my whole arm off.” He chuckles. He stands with a pained groan, his knees popping as he hoists himself up off the floor. “Come on, I think I know how we can make this a little more fun.”

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Tag List: @yellowbunnydreams @zoey5252 @redflowery @residentevilbeast @weirdoartist21 @loudchaosking (If I missed you or you would like to be added please let me know!!)

[vampgal202]

Lights, Camera, Action (James Franco x Female reader)

summary: James Franco and Y/n always hated each other on set. But everyone could feel the undeniable tension between the two. One day when the pair have to film a sex scene for their new movie, the scene becomes a little too real.

Warnings: smut, unprotected sex, public sex, lap grinding, degrading kink, slapping.

"No please I'm fine!" I say to my manager, bickering at me through the phone. "Today you are shooting a few small scenes and the sex scene, honestly Y/n if you're not comfortable-" My manager responds back to me breathlessly. "I'm fine! I got to go, I have to get to the hair and makeup trailer, I'll meet you on set." I say, hanging up the phone, annoyance laced in my voice.

I was definitely not enthralled by the fact I had to shoot a very nude, intimate scene with James, but that's what actors do! James and I never got along, but we have been in more movies together than I could count. Our on-screen chemistry seems to be the main thing that keeps the money flowing in our pockets. I hate James, and since we have spent so much time with each other working on projects, he knows exactly what to say to push my buttons.

***

"It looks amazing, thank you..." I say under my breath to the hairdresser doing my hair. She smiles at me and exits my trailer. My hair was let down, flowing down the back of my robe. As my hairdresser exited, James entered. I turn in my chair to face him, giving him a bored expression. He was wearing the same white robe as me, and his hair was all-natural, revealing the small curls in his hair.

"What?" I say to him, standing up to grab a cigarette out of my purse. "why are you always such a moody bitch?" He says to me scrunching up his eyebrows, a look of confusion and disgust all over his face. I pause my movement, pulling the now-lit cigarette away from between my teeth. "What the fuck is your problem, I'm sorry that I'm not crawling up your ass every second like everyone else on set," I say to him, walking closer to him. He laughs, looking down at me like I'm some idiot.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" He says to me, only a couple inches away from my body, looking down at me with so much hatred. I look at him for a second, scanning his face. "This is my trailer, you brought your sorry ass here to come to bug me because clearly, you got nothing better to do," I say to him, finding myself raising my voice. "My sorry ass? Good luck making your way around Hollywood without me, you self-righteous cunt." He spits back at me, now only an inch away from my face.

I slap him across the face making his head turn. He looks back at me, grabbing my jaw hard with his hand and slamming my back against the wall behind me. Before I know it his lips are on mine, forcefully kissing me, still tightly holding my jaw. My hand grabs the back of his hair pulling and tugging as he hungrily kisses me.

His tongue aggressively moves around my mouth, his body now fully pressed against mine. I can already feel the pool between my legs. Until he pulled off of me, letting go of my jaw and stepping back, looking at my body flush against the wall. He brings his fingers up to his now red, swollen lips, and drags his fingers against them, smiling, and walking out of my trailer.

***

"AND, ACTION." The director yells, and the camera starts rolling. I look into James's eyes as he's on top of me. I could feel his genital guard digging into mine, protecting us from actually having sex. I watched as he flicked his eyes down to stare at my unclothed tits. His large hands rubbed up the side of my body, grazing his thumb over my nipple. Although this is a scene, I can't help but feel aroused and I don't know why.

A sheet covers both of our lower halves, only exposing our naked torsos. James pushes his hand under the sheet, touching my genital guard. My eyes flick up at him, knowing that's not a part of the script, but I play into it. He removes my genital guard, looking up at me. My cheeks got hot at the thought of the whole cast watching, thinking this is just us 'acting.'

He removed his and looked at me, I nodded my head. I could see some confused stares from the people on set, knowing my head nod of approval was not in the script. I look away, trying to remember my line but hesitating as he slides himself inside of me. I say my line, trying to keep the sheet from slipping off of us. I tried to keep my moans minimal as to the script, but I couldn't help it.

His cock is thick and big, fucking me so good. I didn't care anymore, I pulled him down kissing his lips, completely moving off the script. The directors didn't stop us, because the acting looked too real to intervene. He swirled his tongue around my mouth, fucking me harder. I could feel the feeling building up in my stomach indicating I was gonna finish soon.

My moans become louder and the scene becomes more heated as I grab onto him, ready to finish, right here. "AND CUT." The director yells and James pulls out of me, putting his genital guard back on, leaving me under the sheets. "This is not done." He whispers in my ear as he gets up. "That was the most amazing sex scene of my life, I could've sworn you guys were really making love under there!" The director says to me and James making us both awkwardly laugh.

Getting up quickly, I walk past the amazed looks from my 'performance' and walk back to my trailer. What the fuck did I just do. I can feel my cheeks get flushed at the embarrassed thoughts. In one swift motion, my hand gets pulled from behind me, spinning me around and making my back slam flat onto the side of James's trailer. He stands in front of me, his eyes dark, filled with desire.

I grab his face and pull him down towards me inclosing his lips within mine. He pulls away, grabbing my wrist and pulling me into his trailer, closing the door behind him. His hands are quickly on my body, pulling off my robe and genital guard, cupping my tits. He discards his robe and genital guard, pulling me against him, and walking backward until the backs of his legs hit the couch, sitting down. Placing me right on his cock, I straddle his lap, kissing up his neck and jaw making him let out low moans of satisfaction.

I start grinding against the base of his dick, spreading my juices up his cock. "Yeah, you wanna ride it?" He says to me, licking his lips and smirking. I nod my head, giving him a devilish smile. His hands caressed my thighs and hips, guiding me as I grinded on his hard cock. He grabbed his cock, dragging it through my slit and rubbing circles on my clit with his tip, making me throw my head back in pleasure. "Fuck me." I let out breathlessly.

He brings his dick to my entrance and I slam my hips down making him let out a low groan. I start riding him fast and hard, my tits bouncing in his face. "yeah you fucking dirty whore, take it." He says to me between moans, digging his fingers into my hips, making me whimper. He grabs my jaw, turning my head. "Look at me. Look at me as you ride my fucking cock." He says to me, squeezing my jaw with his large hand. I lean in closer, smashing my lips against his.

He kisses me forcefully, biting my bottom lip as he pulls away from me. "Yes, James ah." I start moaning, loudly, wanting to close my eyes in pleasure but keeping eye contact. His eyes were half-lidded, his mouth releasing moans and cuss words. "Fuck I'm coming close," I say to him, becoming tired and sloppier as I ride him. He grabs my lower back and flips my back onto the couch. Now he's on top of me, fucking me with so much force.

I was practically screaming in pleasure. He leans in closer, making his body flush against mine and pulling my hair. I whimper loudly, cumming all over his cock at the time as he finishes inside of me. He quickly pulls out of me, grabbing the box of tissues and cleaning up. He looks me in my eyes for a second as he's cleaning me and see a moment of sincerity in there.

"Sorry for yelling at you," I say to him quietly."Which time?" He says to me, smiling. "Shut up" I smile back covering my hands with my face. "Sorry for calling you a cunt." He says in a serious tone. "You're just saying that because you were just inside of me." I start laughing to myself making him start laughing too. Maybe James isn't so bad after all?

[percheduphere]

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE CHOICE LOKI WANTED TO GIVE MOBIUS

Thanks for the comment, @sunflowerdigs!

I am also in HUGE debt to @loki-us for the below gifs that I could not find anywhere in Tumblr's gif search system. Thank you, friend! So many of my metas would not be possible without your help and support!

The poetic irony is definitely the point and is the reason why the S2 finale is as painful as it is.

I've previously discussed how Mobius would 100% absolutely choose to be with Loki at the End of Time and his decision-making history that points to this as being in-character here.

I also reviewed Loki's decision-making here.

Now let's discuss the choice Loki desperately wanted to give Mobius:

gif credit: @loki-us

gif credit: @loki-us

gif credit: @loki-us

(Original gif set post here)

What I love about this scene with Sylvie is that it is a perfect example of narrative subtext at work. The emotional thrust behind Loki's words may be interpreted as either platonic or romantic. Ultimately, it doesn't matter (well, it does, but it's a minor detail) because the definitive meaning behind the subtext is what the TVA means to Loki and what he actually wants, which is getting Mobius back.

WHAT LOKI WANTS: TVA = FRIENDS = MOBIUS

Let's break down the scene:

Sylvie asks what Loki wants. Sylvie, we must remember, is a Loki. She knows how Loki thinks, how he hides his vulnerability, and how he lies to himself. This allows her to suss out what Loki has difficulty admitting. I absolutely adore Sylvie for this.

1.) To stop HWR. - wrong

2.) To save the TVA. - wrong but closer; why?

3.) To save "all this" - too broad

4.) To save his friends. - correct

Ergo, stopping HWR is a means to an end, as it was for Sylvie. Saving the TVA could feasibly "save all this" from HWR, but who or what does Loki mean when he says "all this"? He means the timelines, certainly, but why does he care about the timelines? Because if all timelinee are destroyed, Sylvie and the TVA are destroyed too. Who is at the TVA? Loki's friends. Who is Loki's first and best friend? Mobius.

Therefore:

TVA = Friends = Mobius

Now, this isn't to play down the importance of OB, Verity, and Casey, but the series has been very clear about which friendship is the most significant to Loki. S2E1 -S2E4 builds up Loki and Mobius's closeness for the explicit purpose of likewise building up the cost of Loki's sacrifice. Their separation in the finale would not have been given as much attention nor hurt as much if they didn't become close.

The editing here is very intentional. In screenwriting, we call this technique "off screen dialogue", which is denoted by the character's name followed by (o.s.), then their line of dialogue.

In example, the shooting script might say:

On Don's reaction.

LOKI

(o.s.)

It was more about what I wanted.

If this wasn't formatted as such in the original script, it was likely formatted as such in the shooting script, which is a highly detailed version of the script with notes on how each scene should be shot in production and edited in post. The same cinematic technique is used in S2E4, after the pie confrontation with Sylvie, in which Brad, off screen, says, "Aren't you gonna say anything?" The dialogue overlays Mobius's reaction shot before cutting to the scene with Brad and Dox.

THE CHOICE LOKI WANTED TO GIVE (BUT COULDN'T)

It is also no accident that Loki very pointedly talks about Mobius, what he thinks Mobius wants, and how Mobius should have a choice. In making his point, Loki shows that he is actually quite confident that Mobius would choose the TVA and therefore, HIM.

But perched! The TVA means Loki's friends! How can the TVA also mean Loki?

THE TVA ALSO = LOKI

Well ...

(Thank you so much for your marvelous gif set @riotinyellow)

After the Loom explodes, everyone is returned to their original timeline except Loki. What is significant but not often discussed is that Sylvie is returned to her 1982 Broxton, Oklahoma timeline. She did not remain at the TVA despite being a Loki herself. The subtext of this is that Sylvie associates the 1982 timeline as where she belongs, where she feels at home. If we parallel this subtext to Loki, this means the TVA is where Loki feels he belongs and thus, feels at home. He only begins to timeslip once he realizes the people he cares about aren't there. Notably, Loki unconsciously timeslips to Mobius the most. I have a meta on Loki's timeslipping here.

As people, we define ourselves not only by our past, our talents, our weaknesses, our interests, and our dislikes, we also define ourselves by our relationships (good and bad). The implication, therefore, is that TVA symbolically represents not only friendship and Mobius, it represents Loki, too.

The most painful part of Loki's argument, which is never communicated directly but is subtextually inferred, is that not only does Loki want Mobius to choose the TVA (him), he is confident that Mobius would choose the TVA (him). And why shouldn't Loki be confident? Mobius has been his most loyal friend. Mobius has never abandoned him even when he was angry with him.

This sets up the meaning behind the subtext of Mobius's departure from the TVA in the finale. Mobius insists the TVA provides him with meaning, that he likes it there, and that he is grateful for whoever took him and "gave [him] this pie" (interestingly, it is Loki who recruits Mobius first, gives him his name, and offers pie to help calm Mobius down).

EVERYONE'S CHOICE & MOBIUS LEAVING THE TVA

Once Loki is gone, however, Mobius only stays at the TVA long enough to ensure it's changed for good and has appropriate leadership. What's striking is that, with the exception of Mobius, all of Loki's friends, given the choice, chose to stay at the TVA. This answers the question Loki posed with Sylvie: How many of them would choose to stay?

Verity, OB, and Casey all have purpose. Mobius's purpose has always been Loki. That purpose evolved into friendship once he stopped Loki's "reset" and uncovered Ravonna's corruption. Just as TVA = Friends = Mobius for Loki, for Mobius, the TVA = Loki. When Loki is gone, so is Mobius's purpose, his place of belonging, his home. Mobius loses everything, including (platonically or romantically) someone he deeply loves.

[helloimanavenger]

The Elven Mistake

Pairing: Legolas x Reader

Rating: all ages

Warnings: canon level violence, our favorite elf boy experiences some slight angst with a happy ending

Category: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining

A/N: This one shot is loosely based off 'The French Mistake' which is a fan favorite episode of the CW show Supernatural. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

"Legolas, get down!" you heard Aragon shout from across the battlefield, but it was too late. You watched helplessly as the ball of pure magic sailed from Saruman's staff, hitting the elf directly in the chest.

"No!" you shouted as Legolas crumpled to the ground. After fighting off the four Orcs that had you surrounded, you made your way over the archer.

"Y/N, get him out of here," Gandalf commanded you, also caught up in his own fight.

You quickly called one of the horses over. You positioned Legolas on it before hopping on yourself as Gandalf covered you from an incoming attack.

---

Back at the inn the fellowship was taking refuge at for the night, you refused to leave the bedside of a still unconscious Legolas.

When the door to the room opened, you rose to your feet as Gimli, Gandalf, Aragorn, Merry, and Pippin entered.

"Y/N," Aragorn greeted you, "How is he doing?"

"No change," you said solemnly before turning your attention to the wizard in your company, "What can we do?"

Without answering you, Gandalf made his way over to the elf, waving his hand over his dead-like form.

"This is strong magic," Gandalf began, "A reality spell."

"A reality spell?" you questioned.

Gandalf turned to you, "He is trapped within his mind," he explained.

"Well how do we set him free?" Aragorn asked.

"There is one way," Gandalf began, "But it is quite dangerous."

You looked to the wizard expectantly and he continued, "If I cast a similar spell, I can send one of you in to his dream. In doing so you may be able to pull him out of the trance."

"I will go," you volunteered immediately.

Gandalf shook his head, "You are a healer, Y/N, I will need you here with me in case something is to go wrong."

"Let it be me," Aragorn spoke up before turning to you, "I will bring him home. I swear it."

"You must convince him what he is seeing is not real, but be warned, ranger, the longer he stays in his mind the more he will forget this reality. If this happens - if you are to fail - you shall both be trapped in whatever world his mind has created, never to awaken in this one," Gandalf stated.

Aragorn nodded, "I will bring him home," he repeated.

---

Legolas was awoken suddenly, his eyes shooting open as he drew in a sharp breath. He immediately looked around and noticed his surroundings were unfamiliar to say the least. He sat on some sort of throne he had never seen before with a kind of book in his hands. Flipping through the book quickly, he noticed it detailed his adventures with the fellowship, but there was something about it. It was like a script from the play his mother had taken him to as a child...and his name was on it. He was being told what to say and do.

Looking around further, the Elven prince noticed many men and women surrounding him, each preoccupied with their own task.

Instinctively, Legolas reached for his bow, but found that it was not in its place on his back.

Worry flashed across his face. Where was he? Where was his weapon? His friends? You?

"Cut on Frodo and Sam!" Legolas heard a man call out, drawing his attention to the noise.

Frodo and Sam were here? He had thought they were off destroying the ring.

A million questions swirled throughout Legolas' mind, but he was broken out of his trance by an all too familiar sound: the sound of your voice.

"Orlando!"

"Y/N?" he questioned as he laid his eyes upon the woman approaching him. Something was off about you. For one, you called him by this strange name. Not to mention, you wore strange clothes, unlike the battle armor he had become used to seeing you in.

You had a carefree smile upon your face and your laugh was bubbly as you pulled him into a tight hug.

Although he was confused, he quickly sunk into your embrace, wrapping his own arms around you.

When you pulled away, your smile never faltering, you spoke again, "Come on. We've got a scene to do!"

Legolas cautiously followed you through the crowds of people until you stopped at a stage that resembled a battlefield much like the one he had just seen before he lost consciousness.

"Orlando," another woman addressed him by the name you had called him, "Here you go," she said when he turned to face her. In her outstretched hands, his bow as well as beautiful dagger.

Legolas took them gratefully as you stripped of your outer layer, revealing your battle armor underneath.

"Ready?" he heard a man ask. Ready for what?

You nodded and the man called again, "Action!"

You immediately drew your sword, turning your back to Legolas.

"They're here," you spoke in a hushed tone, "Do your elf ears hear them as mine do?"

Legolas strained his ears, but he could not hear what you were talking about. That was strange for him, his elf ears never failed him.

Suddenly, an arrow passed by your head, just barley missing it, and Legolas jumped into action. He stood with his back to yours, bow drawn, intending to help shield you from any attack that came your way.

It was then that a legion of Orcs appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Both you and your fellow elf were quick to jump into action, ducking and jumping, firing arrows and using swords, to take down the Orcs.

When you were satisfied that all the Orcs had fallen, you turned to face Legolas once more, sighing in relief.

That relief was short lived, however, as one last Orc appeared behind you.

Without wasting a second, Legolas drew his bow, ready to fire at the Orc who now had you in its grasp, a knife to your throat.

"Let her go," Legolas commanded the Orc.

"And, cut!" someone yelled again.

Upon hearing this, the Orc released you, even flashing you a smile before walking off.

Confused, Legolas kept his bow ready to fire.

"Orlando, you know you can put that down now, right, honey?" you laughed.

Not convinced, Legolas continued pointing his bow in every direction as the Orcs who had been slain, slowly rose from the ground and wandered off.

Laughing again, you spoke, "Really getting into the role today, aren't we?"

At your carefree attitude Legolas slowly and cautiously lowered his bow. You smiled, planting a quick sweet kiss on his lips, "I'm going to go find Elijah. I'll catch up with you later, love."

With that, you practically skipped off the stage, a huge smile on your face as you called out to your friend Elijah.

Legolas stood in place, dumbfounded and blushing like a young boy. Had you just kissed him? So casually as if you had a hundred times before.

As he continued to stand up on the stage, he made eye contact with his old friend Aragon, who was standing off to the side with a silent plea in his eyes to come join him.

As Legolas made his way over to the ranger, a woman stopped him, "Orlando, I'm going to secure your wig a bit better," she explained, reaching up towards his hair.

"Do not touch my hair," he sneered.

The woman half laughed before he grabbed her wrist, "It is bad form to touch an elf's hair without their permission."

The woman looked shocked, but nodded, walking away and muttering something about how there was time before his next scene anyways.

"Legolas," Aragorn's familiar voice spoke behind him.

Turning to face him, Legolas spoke, "My friend! Something strange is happening here. You are the only one who seems to be normal."

Aragorn nodded, "That is because I am me," he spoke.

"Then who are they?" Legolas asked, turning until he found you speaking to someone who looked like Frodo, unaware of the elf's eyes on you.

"A spell has been placed on you. You are trapped in your own mind as if it were an alternate world," Aragon explained, "None of this is real. You must return home with me."

"Return?" Legolas asked, "How?"

"You must accept that this reality is false. Will yourself to awaken," said Aragon.

Noticing Legolas' eyes on you, Aragon spoke again, "She does not know who you truly are. None of our lives is real to her. No middle earth, no ring, no war."

"Is that to make me want to return? Return to a world where we are in constant danger? Why would I wish to not stay in a place where she loves me?"

"She is not real. That is why. Even if she was, it is not you who she loves, it is another version of you," Aragorn tried to reason.

Legolas nodded, "I respect you in every sense of the word, my friend, but I can not simply will myself to return to a world where i could lose her at any moment. Not when here we can be together for a lifetime."

It was no secret the deep feelings Legolas had for you, nor the ones you had for him. No secret to anyone in the fellowship, except to the two of you.

You first met Legolas through Aragorn. Being Arwen's younger sister, the four of you had spent much time together, but you and Legolas were always friends, nothing more.

Aragorn sighed, he had promised himself long ago that he would not interfere with the natural course of your relationship with the elf, but he decided, in this moment, it was time to do just that in order to save them both from this reality.

"Who is to say the real Y/N does not have deep feelings for you? Who is to say, if you go back, you can not share that lifetime and more with the true version of her?" he asked.

This drew Legolas' attention away from you and onto the ranger, "Who is to say she does?"

Aragorn was about to respond to his friend when (not) you motioned the two over to where you stood.

After looking to each other, they made their way over to you.

---

As you sat by the bedsides of your oldest friend and the man you had grown to love, you said a silent prayer to any entity that might be listening for them to be okay. They had to come home...they had to come home to you.

---

"Hey, boys!" you called Legolas and Aragorn as they approached you.

"Y/N, hello," Aragorn smiled, but Legolas was focused on something else. It had caught the light and reflected on his face, immediately drawing his attention: an engagement ring.

Noticing where Legolas was looking, you raised you hand to show off the ring.

"You did well, my love," you smiled at Legolas, "Didn't he, Viggo?"

Aragon smiled, assuming he was the 'Viggo' you referred to, "You two are engaged." It was less of a question and more of a statement.

You nodded happily, "We were going to wait to tell everyone until filming was done, but I just couldn't wait. I'm so happy," you said, moving to stand next to Legolas and taking his hand in your own.

"Well, congratulations," Aragorn smiled. Truthfully, he had wanted this for you and Legolas for so long. He understood why the elf wanted to stay. This was a sort of dream world for him: no war and you by his side, but he had to stay on mission. He had to convince his friend to leave.

---

"Gandalf!" you called to the wizard. He rushed into the room to find you crouched at the elf's bedside, a cool rag on his forehead.

"He - he was shaking. I could not get him to stop, but when he did...Gandalf he is so warm, it must be a fever and it will not break," you stated shakily, trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill from your eyes.

"He's forgetting, falling too deep into whatever illusion he is in," Gandalf concluded, "How is Aragorn?"

You shook your head, "Whatever is happening is only effecting Legolas."

"Well it will not be long until it effects them both. We must hope they hurry," said Gandalf, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder.

---

"These movies have changed my life in more ways than one," you smiled to the reporter, taking Legolas' hand in yours, "I'm beyond excited for the fans to see Return of the King. Which is, of course, what we are currently filming."

"What has it been like being one of the only woman filming with all these men?" the reporter asked, smiling brightly.

"Honestly, it's been so rewarding. I've learned so much about my skills as an actor, especially from Ian...and the boys never made me feel like I was on the outside. We truly are just one big family. Even though this is the last movie in our trilogy, I know that bond will never be broken. We deeply love each other and we've already promised to get together at least once a year."

"Some love each other more than others," the reported stated, looking between you and Orlando.

You laughed that same bubbly laugh, "Yes, the rumors are true," you stated, "Orlando and I met on the first day of filming and quickly fell in love and now," you looked to your fiancé, before holding up you ring for the camera behind the reporter, "I'm happy to announce we're getting married."

"Oh my goodness!" the reporter practically shrieked, "Congratulations you two! Does this mean we will be exploring more of Legolas and Y/N's relationship in Return of the King?"

You smiled brightly, "Thank you. Y/N and Legolas share a special bond already being the only two elves in the fellowship and, of course, I'm sure everyone has noticed the chemistry the two share, but as far as romantic feelings...well, you'll have to see Return of the King in theaters December 16th to find out more!"

The reporter thanked you and Orlando (Legolas) for your time and went off to find Elijah and Sean.

"You were awfully quiet during that interview," you turned to Legolas when the reporter was out of earshot.

"I simply love hearing you speak," Legolas responded, slightly truthfully.

You smiled, placing a kiss on his lips which he quickly melted into.

---

That night, Legolas was awoken to a loud crash outside the trailer the two of you shared. You were snuggled into his side and he longed to not leave your warmth, but he knew he had to investigate what he had heard.

Quickly and quietly as to not disturb your peaceful sleeping from, he got up from the bed and padded outside.

"Aragorn? What are you doing out here at this hour?" he asked upon seeing his friend rummaging through a drawer clearly labeled: PROPS.

Aragorn looked to the elf, shock written on the rangers features. His normally long platinum blonde hair was short and dark. Also, his pointy elf ears looked more rounded and human. Not to mention, he was clad not in battle armor, but in clothing much like what not you had been wearing in between scenes.

"Legolas, is that you?" he asked.

Legolas nodded, "It was a costume," he stated, "Merely a costume. Can you believe it?"

Aragorn shook his head, "This is not something to celebrate, my friend. I fear you are becoming a permanent part of this world. The longer you stay here the more you will change and forget what is real and what is not. If that happens, we will never be able to get home."

Legolas glanced back to the trailer he had left you in, "What if this is my home now?"

"You do not mean that, Legolas. What about Middle Earth? Do you not wish to save it?" Aragorn asked.

"Of course I do, but...I have lived my entire life trying to please others. Never once have I done anything for myself. What if..." Legolas trailed off before continuing, "I assume you are trying to find another way home. I will help you do this, but then...then you will leave me to be at peace."

---

Aragon understood where Legolas was coming from. The elf had seen so much death and destruction in his life. He saw this false reality as his second chance. A way to move beyond that and live a peaceful life with the one he loved. What if the war could not be won? What if this was Legolas' way of saving himself from further misery? Was it selfish? Maybe. However, the elf was correct. He had done everything in his life for someone else. Did he not deserve to be happy himself?

Of course he did, but what about you? The real you? The you who was still tending to the elf's sleeping form, unsure if you would ever see him again. The you who was wishing you had shared your true feelings before it was too late. Or what about the fellowship? The fellowship who needed his help to stop Sauron.

He wanted his friend to be happy. but he also knew something Legolas did not: that the you waiting for him back home loved him so. Aragorn knew that Legolas had a chance to be happy no matter which reality he stayed in. He also believed with all his heart that the fellowship would destroy the ring and win the war. He had to believe that.

So, Aragorn left a note in the pocket of a costume labeled with your name. He did not know if it would reach you, but he had to hope.

---

"They are not getting any better, Gimli," you told the dwarf as he had come to check on the three of you.

It was evident that you had hardly, if at all, slept a wink since they had been gone.

Legolas' fever continued to rise and Gandalf was right, it was not long before Aragorn experienced the same symptoms.

"They will, lassie," Gimli stated.

"Do you truly believe that?" you asked, tears streaming down your face.

"Aye, lassie. I must believe that," Gimli said solemnly before something caught his attention, "Y/N, what is this?"

Drying you tears you turned to see what the dwarf had in his hands: a note...written in Elvish.

"I have no idea where that came from," you said, confusion lacing your voice.

"Fell out of your pocket there. Go on then, what does it say?"

You scanned the note, "I need to get to them...now."

---

You woke up in a soft and rather warm bed. It was a welcome change from the inn you had been staying at. Immediately, however, you got up to go find your friends.

"Aragorn," you stated, finding him. It was still early in the morning and no one else was awake save for you, Aragorn, and Legolas.

"Y/N?" he questioned, upon hearing you say his true name.

"It is me," you smiled as he pulled you into an embrace, "It is so good to see you."

"You received my letter, then?" he asked.

"That I did. Now tell me, where is Legolas?"

---

After splitting up to go search for him, Aragorn found the archer sitting by a shallow river, deep in thought.

Aragorn cleared his throat as he approached, but before he could say a word, Legolas spoke.

"How selfish I have been," the elf sighed, "You were correct, my old friend, I must return to Middle Earth and help win this war. As much...as much as my heart longs to stay here."

"It is wonderful to hear you say that, Legolas," your voice startled the elf as you walked up to your two friends, "I, for one, would miss you greatly if you were to stay here."

"Y/N?" Legolas questioned.

You smiled, nodding your head.

Legolas was quick to close the distance between you two, wrapping you in a tight embrace.

"I am sorry," he apologized, "I wanted this life...I was foolish," he said.

Pulling away slightly, but still staying in his arms, you spoke, "it is not foolishness to wish for an end to all this. I, myself have wished it many a night."

"It was not real, however," Legolas conceded, "No matter how tormented it might be I choose reality. I choose our lives. I choose you, Y/N."

"Legolas," you sighed, moved by his words, "I choose you too. I - I love you."

Finally, after months of holding back your true feelings, Legolas kissed you. It felt warm and safe, comforting, even. As if all your worries melted away and in the world it was only you two. The kiss was slow and passionate as you two shared all your feelings without saying any words. When you finally had to pull away for air, Legolas spoke, "Sal aestar va." (I love you too.)

---

You woke up first, relieved to be in the dimly lit inn again. Aragorn woke next to find you at Legolas' bedside already. He placed a hand on your shoulder, smiling down at you.

Finally, Legolas woke as well, looking up at you with pure love in his sparkling blue eyes. He wasted no time pulling you in for another kiss.

---

The battle was won, the ring destroyed, and you were free to live your lives once more.

You, personally, chose to live that life with Legolas.

Your wedding was grand, though you should not have expected less as you were marrying the Prince of Mirkwood.

"Slow down, salen lyth!" (my child) you yelled to your son as he ran through the halls of the castle you had made your home.

Heavily pregnant with your second child, it was difficult to keep up with the boy.

When you did catch up, his giggles echoed through the room. There was Legolas, holding his son and spinning around.

You smiled at the sight of your husband and child, so carefree and happy.

Upon seeing you enter the room, Legolas gently put your son down, making his way over to you and planting a sweet kiss on your forehead.

"How are you feeling, aestar?" (love) he asked, gently rubbing your belly.

"Like your daughter wants to come into the world any day now," you laughed lightly.

He smiled back at you, "Are you still up for dinner tonight?"

"Of course," you stated, "It will be lovely to see everyone after all this time."

"Get some rest," Legolas suggested, "I will prepare everything for their arrival."

You kissed Legolas sweetly, earning an 'ewww' from your son, and padded off to do just that.

---

When you woke up, you made your way into the great dining hall to find the smiling faces of Gandalf, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Frodo, Legolas, Gimli, Aragon, Arwen, their son, and your son.

Your sister noticed your presence first, standing to wrap you in a tight embrace.

"Thank you for hosting us at your home, my lady," Gimli smiled, when you pulled away from Arwen.

You rolled your eyes, "We are far fast the formalities, Gimli. It is good to see you."

After sharing a few more 'hellos' and hugs with the rest of the group, you took your seat next to your husband.

Stories were shared and laughter was heard all night. You could not thank whoever was listening enough for the life you were given. You could not thank them enough for your family.

THE END

[1-49]

송은석 : Tell the cameraman there’s no good side, they’re both attractive.

❝ your ace, your king, your double diamond. your jack of all trades, your 100 and one shades.

ᴘᴀʀɪɴɢ: actor! song eunseok × actress f!reader.

ɢᴇɴʀᴇ: romance. on set / gambling undertones as far as the film storyline goes. w.c 5k

two actors fatally ‘meet’ at a ‘casino.’ with the narrative centering round the ‘value of the moment,’ as the story advances, the ‘love on set’ becomes more evident thru the cameras. as the director realizes this early on, all of his retakes serve as both the actors’ main obstacle and unifying force in achieving their individual & character’s goals.

ᴛᴀɢꜱ: slight mutual pinning (?) both are kinda confused; mixed signals, ofc flirting. makeout :) i had MMA Eunseok on mind while writing this... the gloves and all.

ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇ: why i feel like everyones on sum Eunseok current rn? as if we re collectively riding that wave? am i not right? am i not!? it’s like homeboy was only getting comfortable up until now. or elsee y are his contents as of lately sooo attacking? idk why, but i feel like this type of situation goes so well w him?

this goes back and forth between the film’s plot and the real* on set setting. hope it’s not confusing

It feels like you’re wearing your seductive velvet dress just to let him down one more time. The never-ending takes of filming this movie and wearing the same clothes don’t help Eunseok at all; in fact, your attire has made him even more confused and hell crazed.

Drama, slash thriller, slash…

“Romance is for the weak,”

reads one of the script’s lines. Of course, there is nothing romantic about the way he has to portray the charismatic rival who must rob the same kingpin as you. You both need to be like loaded guns to figure out who will outsmart who. Without a doubt, this isn’t a game for the weak of heart.

Side from the fact that long shoots and endless days blur together, his constant presence both on and off set also distorts your perception and wounds your judgment. Though you know for a fact that it’s a waste of your time to catch vibes.

As you’re getting started & Eunseok is an A-list hitter, it is also completely out of the question. Moreover, even now, you find it surprising how you were cast for this role, but that was exactly what spurred you on to continue & demonstrate your abilities.

Though the weeks of filming went smoothly, as you 2 approach ‘a’ scene, tension is mounting.

But, now that you’re here, you’re reshooting and pacing around the same set of scenes, over and over. There is a clear build-up in tension and skin ship as the film goes. The way his hands would sometimes tighten around your waist, it seems like an old game. Practically, it’s the same same daily. 

It’s as if you have been thrown into a loop for a week. Monday through Saturday, which seems excessively intense because you have to look into his big eyes and act unaffected, just like your character. To pretend that you’re razor-sharp when you two touch and to act as though nothing is happening.

The latest take you took was three hours ago, before your lunch. Venue: the casino.

The casino set is unique in that it has distinct widths and depths, & it’s a character unto itself.

You’re shooting at a real place—a candid gambling place with walls painted in every hue imaginable, which is the main ‘bait’ factor. Nevertheless, the place’s real undercurrent is that it has the power to literally tear apart a person. Here, time and space are merely ideas, and much like love, everyone in the plot keeps playing in the hopes of hitting a jackpot. 

On the periphery are the people who have come here to escape reality, vibrant lights, music, drinks, and all things magnetic.

However, the more people indulge in these casino games, the more they immerse themselves in sin. The games have a concentric hierarchy, and the degree of wickedness increases gradually until it reaches the heart of the casino, where the money is kept in bondage and bound with a bloody ribbon.

In essence, the characters you and Eunseok play dance and mingle in the depths of hell.

As you both keep colliding in the games you play, what begins as an individual hunt becomes more focused. It’s the way that your objective in this round is to win jointly by lying. Still, at some point in the round, Eunseok’s character betrays you, but that is currently irrelevant, as you’re currently sitting on his lap.

And doing so, you scan the players in front of you. There are eight of them in total, some of whom have girls sitting on their laps as well. Some kiss, some clink their glasses, and some flirt with the person across. A ton of chips, cards, and cash are spread out across the poker table. 

Your character remains silent, just like Eunseok’s does. Distraction is something that neither of you wants. However, the fact that you’re sitting on his lap makes this already a deranged situation.

Players sling remarks about your character around the table in an attempt to break Eunseok’s character’s nerve.

“When will it be our turn to have our round with her, at last, exactly when?” Gesturing you both, one of the group members says, perched on the edge of the poker table. “Hm? We may need to take some action because you don’t really share your food here. We may need to bring bad luck to attract her.” The actor laughs narratively, but there is seriousness in the corners of his bright eyes that makes it seem like he is really after you, and there is nothing Eunseok can do about that. It is an amazing acting delivery from him.

And while his remarks are only meant to irritate Eunseok’s character, why does it feel like they also irritate the real Eunseok? Because his leg begins to twitch uncontrollably under you.

In order to stop letting his emotions show and to keep his mind to the job in hand, he needs to snap back into character quickly. He remains to cage you in a respectful manner, though, as his arms aren’t in contact with you because they’re both on the table.

So you have no choice but to put up with the sensation of his breath tickling the back of your neck, and the heat that seeps from his thighs and settles into you.

You feel imprisoned in his cage... On this set.

And, you start to appreciate the little things, like the thicker material covering your flesh, since it seems like your skin is getting uncomfortably slippery under your dress. 

Your back is glued to his chest, and his calm demeanor calms you down from the words and deeds of everyone around you—including the real extras from the close-up tables that swarm the set, adding realism to the scene and heightening the atmosphere.

You feel him place his hand on your thigh, something he has never done in previous takes of the scene, but he immediately lifts it. And as he moves his hand, the smooth surface of your dress wrinkles at the drag, making your heart want to leap out of your rib cage.

You lean forward until your elbows rest on the table in an attempt to escape the heat transfer that is becoming too strong between your bodies. More than that, there seems to be an off-energy between you two today that you can’t quite put your finger on. In either case, you’re unable to escape as his hand wraps around your waist and draws you back toward him. Simultaneously, it feels like his cold breath is making love to your throat as it swoops around your neck.

And so, you stay like this… in his arm... until he decides it’s enough, but Eunseok isn’t one to give up easily, so things continue this way. You simply can’t protest because that would ruin the scene.

However, even after going over the same scene several times, it didn’t stick, so the director agreed to let you unwind for the next few hours so that you could focus on the following scene.

And as absurd as it sounds, you might need to expend all of your energy on the next scene. You’ve become tired not just from your long work hours and endlessly repeated dialog lines, but also from being in too much close contact with him. And not to mention that the scene that follows is—

A loud “Action!” comes from somewhere across the room, past the cameras. You’re even deprived of the opportunity to summon all your bravery and take a deep breath. There is nothing you can do about the scene that is already in motion except follow your sync with Eunseok wherever it leads.

This time, the location is a 2nd floor room inside the casino with a glassed view of the floor below where all the ‘magic’ happens. In technical terms, the space you’re in right now is referred to as a ‘control room.’  

Control…..

With just the two yellow-toned lamps—one in the corner and one on the metal desk—the room is completely soundproof and somewhat dim. Additionally, the window glass also only sees out but not in, which promises that all intimacy will be trapped inside and not let out. 

…. If only you were allowed the right amount of privacy, 

but this is a film set, so naturally there are people inside who practically monitor every move you and Eunseok make in great detail.

They… Control…..

His suit jacket, which he had on earlier in the casino, is now draped across the brown leather couch, giving you more intimate time together and expanding his range of motion. And it’s all done purposefully. Everything is a part of the plan, as he’s deliciously in tune with your dress, too. 

His glistening velvet suit with diamond motifs fits the ‘rival notion,’ making him an ideal opponent—a fierce equal match for you. This is also reflected in the movie’s concept, which is to give the impression that this is a ‘pair game’ in which both of you are lying in order to get to the big ‘price.’

And all it takes to get there is for you to hurt each other in the process. There are jokes exchanged, teasing remarks, some lighter, some harsher, some even more vulgar, and swear words are thrown around, but neither of your characters ever lets up their confident façade. For they would be falling behind and losing the game if that were to occur.

As you gaze out the window, Eunseok is leisurely leaning against the desk, moving a silver-foil Ace of Hearts card between his black leather-gloved fingers and watching you. 

The games themselves give an adrenaline rush, and the lavish, spacious hall downstairs draws in gamblers, but the whole point of the script for him is that you’re a thrill sight and his object of desire. For someone made of steel, your whole sense of appeal lies in the fact that you steal his breath. 

The sleek black strapless velvet dress you’re wearing seems to be romanticized by the fake diamonds around the base of your neck. Your smoked eyes and glossed lips are your core points. You don’t long to impress. Your power lies in your strength and independence, but it’s also in elegance, solace, and trance. Another line says, ‘Simplicity is a killer,’ and you certainly are.

However, beneath it all, only you’re aware of how much of a mess you are because he is currently examining you.

... Still, it’s only acting. Eunseok is merely performing in his role as an actor. And, when acting, one can’t really let one’s true self show. As a result, cameras won’t be able to capture how hot you really feel inside or how confused; all you can hope for is that you don’t mess up your next set of lines.

And it’s that scene in the script where everything has built to a climax, and nothing is held back!

When neither of you can decide what brought you together—your shared dislike or your shared goal—and neither of you can explain the bad cues and inexplicable tension.  

Where your personal schemes about who will get the ‘shiny stones’ first are screwed by your shared greed and cynicism. 

When you two almost simultaneously blow up each other’s plans. 

And wherein, in order to make this work for at least one of you, you have selected a room to talk about the remaining options. In this case, the smarter one will really only be the meaner one.

This finally concludes the exchange of hurtful comments; there will be no more!

The door is the most attractive option, and the room is perfectly silent. However, it simply indicates that the first person out has raised the white flag and signed their lost. It’s impossible for either of you to succumb so easily.

Simultaneously, your character is the first to break the dense silence.

“Do you know where we’re going?”

With a rephrased and pointed question, “Where are you going with this?,” you look up at him then, looking a little disappointed and angry at the same time.

Coolly, Eunseok teases, “I’m trying to figure out if I should call it quits.” 

As an actor would, his hair is styled to perfection, and the two hair strands that fall into his eyes and give him a luscious appearance are actually just the result of the tireless efforts of the hair and makeup artists who never stop running after him. 

You find yourself ‘out of set’ for a split second, wondering what he’s like by himself. How he appears when he wakes up in the morning, how his hair looks after taking a shower, and how his body is dressed in a baggy, worn-out shirt rather than rich pajamas. However, that’s rather a ‘faraway’ Eunseok.

But the present, Eunseok, does he read you?

“You’re only saying that. But I won’t take the bait from you.” Your character is merely attempting to remind his of how he deceived you during the previous poker round. “In fact, I wish you saw you from my view. You ain’t all that, you know?”

Eunseok’s cool and calm demeanor remains unshaken. In fact, he just keeps on getting cocky. Given that you’re affecting him in ways he doesn’t understand, it’s in his character's self-defense mechanism as a means of continuing to taunt your character.

“Really,” he responds, crossing his gloved hands. His vest lifts at his tiny waist, and he tilts his head to one side in a seductive manner. The tone of his voice has been pre-calculated; every syllable has been worked on in detail. His precision in looking at you, moving, and facial expressions is unparalleled. 

“See, I’m good for the ego,” his words come across as too sultry, even though he’s the most soft-spoken he has ever been, “but I’m bad for the soul.”

If you two weren’t in front of the cameras, you’d have closed your eyes and allowed his words to give you goosebumps all over your body, but now isn’t the time to do that.

Not that they aren’t doing it already, either...

They’re actually doing that in real time. His voice, his eyes, and his tongue that digs and crawls at the inside of his cheek.

Just a cold-blooded actor. With every take, this terrifyingly skilled individual sends chills down your spine. You almost get the impression that he’s seriously flirting with you because of how excellently he is delivering his role. Nevertheless, the line is exceedingly thin, and the narrative is already in the script. Is it not?

You protest, looking frustrated, saying, “Your games are endless,” yet still simultaneously approaching him more closely to show that you aren’t afraid of him.

Actually, you and him are on the same level. And to add spice to the situation, you say, “However, this time, we both know that you’re going to lose.”

Waving the metallic Ace of Hearts card in your face, his quick silver tongue catches your attention as it runs along his lips. In an attempt to look impressive and put an end to the questions, Eunseok nonchalantly admits, “I like the games I play.” 

Although you must maintain your image and stay in character, all you really want is for all of this to end. You can’t take this and him anymore, like the weeks of filming together have reached a breaking point. You want to scream, ‘Cut!’ to put an end to this suffering, but you can’t fail your dream or let your character down either.

It’s as though you’re developing feelings for someone who isn’t even real. As though you are losing all feeling of reality as you observe him from up close. And because you know what is coming up next, you’re damn sure that Eunseok will take a piece of you with him when the lights go out and the cameras stop rolling, and everything is said and done.

Trouble…

It’s in his perfectly lethal-hued dark eyes. In the way the lamp light hits his eyes that makes him look so enticing, like a glass of whiskey on a thirsty day of never being enough. Intoxicating. Mysterious. Dangerous. A glass of trouble, really, and you’re fastly becoming a growing alcoholic. 

The narrative he tells you hurts as his words continuously fall from his gorgeous lips and seep into your thoughts and emotions like melted wax.

“The truth is, you can’t get enough of me.” Eunseok’s same eye-level with you decreases as he straightens up from the desk and now gazes a little down at you, imposing a slight dominance. He lifts his gloves, causing some veins in his arms to bulge between where the gloves end and his white rolled dress shirt begins. 

Without consent, his gloved fingers begin to crawl upward the inside part of your naked arm, waking goosebumps on their way. The trace is slow and faint, but that is exactly what he wants—for you to disintegrate bit by bit.

“Admit it,” he prompts.

He’s being pretty sadistic and adamant by insisting that you know that he knows how you feel about him; which is precisely the situation, and it leaves you feeling so exposed.

And it’s as if his proximity, presence, and dominance have completely eroded you, your character ‘breaks character’ as it succumbs to his dark charms.

You two are so close that you can understand each other perfectly, even in whispers right now. So you fire back in a private voice, “If I cared more about the truth,” miserable and defeated, “I’d be too aware of who was using who.”

In response, all he does is smirk,

and after making his way to your shoulders, he subtly brushes his thumb along your collarbone. Heat is generated by the tiny friction, and much like a fire match is struck, it ignites sparks in the air.

His hand then moves to brush some hairs away from your face and tuck them behind your ear. The black leather of his glove begins to skim first, then caress your delicate skin and the left side of your face. 

His eyes pierce your soul like a knife, so you look from them to his lips, breaking eye-contact. They lust for touch and have a unique, attractive shape.

“Stop!” You voice out in shock at what he’s doing, but do nothing. His gloved fingertips continue to graze your face. 

“Wonderfull,” he comments silently.

Your brain is fried...

And while in a daze, you notice that his tie is a little loose around his collar.

For some reason, this makes you feel compelled to tighten it, sealing the last bit of separation between the two of you. Eunseok’s brows furrow in concern as he realizes that this isn’t at all included in the script. Although this is blatant improvisation, the performance must continue as long as the director doesn’t yell cut.

You can understand why his free hand, which lends on your waist, is gripping you so tightly and nervously. He kind of breaks his neck shyly smiling away from you before turning back to face you...

Again, something the scene steps don’t cover.

“It was out of pl—” 

‘ace,’ it’s what you attempt to offer as an explanation while the camera is rolling, but you don’t finish saying it... Your mouth stays agape in contrast.

You opened it with an intention, got distracted, and now you hold it open with a fresh thought.

...Him.

Your lip gloss is a mirror of his tiny diamond-studded vest’s sparkle, as are his eyes, which reflect your phoney diamond necklace. 

‘How’d you get so pretty?’ Your mind stutters and your body shudders, yet the line is plain to see as it’s painted on your lips—ready to perform, ready to be spoken. How do you allow yourself to say it, though? 

But for real, when did his lips become this pretty?

It’s challenging to discern which aspect of yourself feels and which acts. There is a messed-up intersection where your character throbs with the need to kiss his character, and you throb with the need to kiss him.

Can he feel it? Are you obvious? Does anyone in the room have the ability to see right through you, as though you’re a transparent bottle filled with all these bottled wicked wants and needs?

Under the necklace, the skin on your neck contracts, relaxes, and contracts once more.

Your lips begin to quiver as the cold leather finally slides beneath your chin. Lifting it, your eyes are drawn back to meet his. You’re painfully aware that it’ll only take a single kiss to weaken a million truths.

“Fuck,” he utters as he begins to brush your lips, causing the leather to become sticky from the shiny gloss. 

Taking back his hand, he starts to rub and then separate his thumb and index finger, examining the degree of stickiness between them. He sighs, “You’re making me want to suggest that we steal those stones together.”

“I’m not stealing any stones with y—”

“I know, I know,” he says, interrupting. “But almost…” 

Eunseok looks directly at you and presses his tacky gloved thumb to his lips.....

The flawless pair of strands that get in the way of his eyes symbolize his seriousness while his tongue begins to pick up and taste any bits of whatever is still on his lips…

The intimacy is revolting, but you aren’t even given a chance to die from all the obscenities he’s doing as he continues.

“You are,” his voice becomes quieter as he speaks, “almost making me want to do it.” 

His lips draw nearer. His breath is what you inhale.

“Almo—” 

As soon as his lips touch yours, the rest of the sentence disappears. Just as your glittery, dark eyeshadow is captured in perfect detail on camera, his splattered letters perfectly entangle in your mouth.

Unsurprisingly, he gives you a desperate kiss with hands that dig into your waist.

The greatest corruption imaginable is a kiss that says, “If you aren’t mine, then I’m making you mine!” A kiss that puts your life and breath in danger. A kiss that tears through the façade and the acting mask, growing ever more dangerously real. 

What’s worse is that having spent so much time with him, it’s so evident when he’s unable to pretend. And currently, he surely cannot! 

He cannot act as though his lips aren’t needy or that his skin isn’t becoming hotter. Or that when he pulls your body more into his and presses his tongue deeper inside your mouth, his body isn’t trembling just a little bit.

Your hands slip off his shoulders and latch onto this vest, tugging on it just a little bit, even hanging on to it desperately for the life he’s stealing from you. 

His heart is pounding beneath your hand, which is hard to comprehend considering that an actor with his level of training shouldn’t even flinch when filming a kissing scene. More so than anyone else, Eunseok exudes an air of magnetism despite being largely composed of steel. The fact that you’re seeing him partially fall apart for the first time is mind-boggling. 

It’s truly insane what only a kiss can reveal. And of anything, it isn’t fast. For this is something that you should feel, just as the audience should when it’s their turn. 

You whine his character’s name in between kisses, only slightly conscious that you’re still in the heat of filming this scene. However, he just hushes you, nuzzles your nose gently against his, and continues. His low, pretty pants and foul moans layer at your throat, just as yours in his.

Given how far out of script you two are at this point, you’re certain the director has had enough by now and will call it quits at any moment, but that never happens.

It’s gross how much of Eunseok’s tongue encircles yours while his cute nose wrinkles and brushes against yours. It all makes you want him even more. For the worst part, he smiles through it. It’s quite vile since he knows exactly what he’s doing.

You can feel his lips burn from the constant, wild collisions. And his scent seeps into your nostrils. That much is certain: it’ll be difficult to forget this—to forget him.

“Do you—Do you?” he stammers, pressing his lips to yours as he breathes heavily and squeezes your waist so forcefully that you fear his hands will split you in two. 

Since it’s an entirely improvised line, he eventually comes up with the right combination of words. “Have you indulged in this fantasy before? Have you—Have you ever thought about kissing me?” 

Even though Eunseok’s words are already weighing heavily on your heart and lips, he adds even more bitterness by saying, “You definitely have.” He answers his own question by not even giving you an opportunity to respond.

But then, is it untrue? 

Of course not, as you feel the weakness in your knees. You find it somewhat unfair that he has granted himself a space where he’s fusing reality and fiction.

You fight, “It’s—” while making an effort to escape and resist his lips, “It’s just this time,” but it’s mediocre at best.

As you step back away from him, his hands hopelessly slip off your waist and slide back to his side. They appear empty-looking, as though they don’t own anything of value, like something was snatched from their possession.

Now, empty handed, Eunseok is back gripping the metal of the desk. It isn’t like it’s just you who is feeling the effects of those frenzied kisses; he has definitely lost his breath too. His lips are pretty roused and ‘used-looking’, much like after an intense makeout, while the tips of his ears throb as they peek out from under his dark hair.

He somewhat manages to come up with another line even though his fairly strong defensive system is down.

“Then perhaps it’s just been my imagination all those times I thought I felt you thinking about me.”

Your mouth drops open at the same time as the director cries out,

“CUT! Beautiful! Beautiful!” He waves his hands in all directions proudly. “That take was spot-on perfect; we’re done here. I got everything I want here”, he says, tapping the big camera that some other guy is holding, and also exclaiming, “One take. It only took one take!” with excitement. “Excellent improvisation! Reshooting would only sour the spark.” He then successfully clasps his hands and says, “That’s a wrap, everyone!”

You’re left standing in front of Eunseok, glassy-eyed, quite sensitive, and shocked, but optimistic that what the two of you just did is still partially justified by your acting profession.

It looks like he’s blinking more than normal; and blinking is undoubtedly one of the patterns Eunseok exhibits when he’s nervous, which you’ve noticed throughout the months that you’ve been working with him. He also seems to be in denial, with confused lines painted on his temple.

Both him and you stay motionless while looking at each other as the director talks about the scene with a different staff member, his voice only sounding faint and far away in your ear.

“I like a good chase in a scene. To me, that’s everything. The actors must have a compelling chemistry and be aware of their roles. They must have trust in each other and their actions, because making a film is similar to a construction site, it must be built. It’s more than a camera, lights, and action.” Taking off his baseball cap, he gives himself a head stretch. “Trust me… what these two have is lethal.”

The longer the director keeps making observations, the more of the ‘real’ Eunseok is in your presence. Adorable, nervous smiles, head turns, and motions; knitted brows that enlarge his eyes even more. It’s as if he has softened his human side, opened his heart, and ‘thrown his metallic armour away.’

Finally, after hearing the comments, he sort of hisses with a ‘Really?’ while tilting his head to the side and putting on a cute, sarcastic look of suspicion.

“Are you okay?” You ask him in a gentle tone, concerned because it appears he’s thinking through and repeating every step of the scene.

He nods, but his face still wears that expression of shock mixed with denial, and a slight, but still noticeable, shy spark in the far back of his ever so silver persona. It seems like he’s coming to terms with everything that just happened, and he’s still quite riding out the wave.

Now that he has had a taste of how you kiss, it’s quite impeccable how you can bite down like an enemy and later be tender to all of those marks like a friend. 

You’re high-key giving him so much more to think about—so many more thoughts to deal with than what the sight of you in your dress had already done for him up to this point.

‘Romance’ slash ‘No Control’ slash ‘Trouble!’

So many twists and turns until the conclusion, but the scene is now over. 

The drama is done. The ‘acting’? 

Done! 

You’ll be taking off your makeup and dressing down, but the characters you just played will still exist within the both of you. That despite the fact that it seems like you two will be avoiding dealing with this for the time being, you’re both actors, and currently, the cost of your acting is your sanity. 

Starting today, heartthrob actor Eunseok won’t only continue to cause headaches to the millions of girlies who have his posters hung above their beds, but to you as well.

‘.....Nice.’

© 𝟭-𝟰𝟵. do not copy, translate, repost, and modify my works.

[itsangelicasworld]

*･῾ ⁺ Welcome to My Teen Titans DR 🧨 .*

💥 ˗ˏˋ DESCRIPTION .ᐟ

In 2003 Jump City, a team of six teenagers called the "Teen Titans" fight against supervillains threatening their beloved metropolis. Along the way, they must face issues even worse than superpowered antagonists who want them captured; emotions, romance, and navigating the bumpy road of impending adulthood. My DR follows the plot of the show except with my own headcanons, scenarios, etc.

Like the show, there are no secret identities; so our superhero personas are quite literally just us. WHICH MEANS WE'RE TREATED LIKE CELEBRITIES!! People ask for photos/autographs, we have merch, and there's even an entire Teen Titans fandom with forums and fanarts and theories!! Not super relevant to this reality's lore, but thought it'd be cool to mention🤭.

🔆 ˗ˏˋ ABOUT ME .ᐟ

NAME : Angelica Sterling

NICKNAMES : Quin, Angel

AGE : 16-years-old

PRONOUNS : She/her/hers

ETHNICITY : Black and Mexican

MBTI : INFP-T

PERSONALITY : Optimistic, courageous, charismatic, empathetic, humorous, witty, mature, impatient, cautious, idealistic

HERO ALIAS : Quanta

POWER : Quantum Manipulation (basically the ability to manipulate the very foundation of the universe/matter because I'm the main character actually🤭)

SUB-POWERS : Healing, telekinesis, quantum empowerment, shapeshifting

DRAWBACKS : Using too much of my power at one time can lead to fatigue; symptoms range from mild (grogginess, irritability) to severe (headaches, unconsciousness). Additionally, under incredibly high-stress situations or potent emotions, my powers may become unstable or erratic

COMBAT SKILLS : Hand-to-hand, mixed martial arts, kickboxing, and of course using my powers, which include shooting projectiles and making defense constructs

🍕 ˗ˏˋ RELATIONSHIPS .ᐟ

I made moodboards + added some quotes for all of them here, so check that out if you wanna see their aesthetics🤭

ROBIN : My s/o!! I could write 100 paragraphs about this man but I'll list our tropes instead💪

Tortured hero (on his side, he gets it from Batman ftgyhuhgtfg)

Friends to lovers

Slooowwww burn

Mutual pining

Healing together

STARFIRE : Me and her are SUUCHH girly-girls. Having sleepovers, going to the mall, exploring the city, etc. is literally all we do and I love it. She also really likes ranting about Tamaran to me. Hearing her childhood stories is so sweet🛐

RAVEN : Initially, Raven needed time to warm up to me, but now we have a really close bond. UGGHH I can't wait to meditate with this girl and talk about spirituality. AND I SCRIPTED I'M THE ONLY ONE SHE ALLOWS IN HER ROOM, SO IT'S LIKE HAVING VIP TICKETS FFGHFFG BEAST BOY : This dude is such a jokester but he's so insecure I just NEED TO HUG HIM😭😭. He's like the little brother I never had; super annoying but I couldn't imagine my life without him

CYBORG : Although I'm not as close to Cy as some of the other members, he really means a lot to me!! He's kind of like my big brother. He really likes to teach me about mechanics and I know he's always got my back, and I have his. Even though we can squabble over his attitude sometimes💀

🦇 ˗ˏˋ OUTRO .ᐟ

Feel free to send in asks about this DR (and really any of them if your curious), they'd be greatly appreciated!! Thank you for reading THIS far <333

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 *+:｡.｡ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ. . . . . ╰──╮

Aesthetics inspired by @/shiftingwithjaidyn's fame DR intro | Dividers by @/strangergraphics-archive

[sissylittlefeather]

A Little Less Conversation: an Elvis One-Shot

A/N: Another smutty one-shot for the people! This one is actually for Elvis, though, during the filming of the movie Live a Little, Love a Little. I hope y'all enjoy this one too. I am infinitely grateful to everyone who reads my stuff! I love you all dearly.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI, kissing, cussing, fingering, oral sex (f receiving), p in v penetrative sex, unprotected sex, ejaculation

Word count: ~2.3k

You've been on a movie set before. This isn't your first acting job. It's not even your first speaking role. So why is this one so difficult for you?

Perhaps it's the presence of a certain Mr. Elvis Presley that's got you all in a tizzy. When you got the job for Live a Little, Love a Little, you assumed you wouldn't have any scenes with him, but when you arrived on set they told you otherwise. You're playing a receptionist and you have three scenes with Mr. Presley. Your stomach drops out and it feels like you've forgotten how to breathe when he comes over to you and shakes your hand.

"Hi honey, I'm Elvis Presley. I heard we have a couple of scenes to shoot this week." You swallow deeply and finally get some words out.

"Yeah, I heard that too. I'm y/n." You pull your hand away from him and he smiles, his eyes wandering down over your body. He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he obviously enjoys what he sees. Instead, he licks his lips and takes a step closer just as someone hollers from across the set.

"Hey, Elvis!" He rolls his eyes and looks over to the direction of the voice.

"What?"

"Can you come here a second?" He scoffs a little and then turns back to you.

"I'll see ya later." He winks and then walks away.

******

The first scene you shoot together is one where you're at the desk and he's just talking to you. You're supposed to be getting annoyed with him, but you're having a hard time shaking the doe-eyed daze that comes over you every time he looks at you.

"Cut! Y/n, you're still not getting it." The director is less than pleased with you and you're starting to get frustrated with yourself.

"Here. I think I know what the problem is." Elvis walks around the desk to you and takes your hand, standing you up. "Do I make you nervous, honey?"

There's really no point in lying.

"Yes."

"That's what I was afraid of." He turns to the director. "Can we take a break?"

"Oh, um, sure Elvis but not too long-"

"It'll take as long as it takes." He grabs your hand and walks you to a place at one of the sets you aren't using today. He gestures for you to sit down on a bench and he sits beside you.

"What are we doing?" You look up at him nervously.

"We're getting you used to me."

"Used to you?"

"Y/n, I'm just a guy. I eat. I sleep. I'm a man, just like any other man. I'm assuming you've been with men before." You blush a little, but he's not wrong.

"Yes, I have."

"See? Good. Just a man." He turns to face you and takes your hands and puts them on his chest. You nod and move your hands to his shoulders. This makes him so much more real to you and for some reason you're not afraid anymore. "Now, we have a scene later where we have to get up close and personal. I say we practice that a little."

"Okay. That sounds like a good idea." You've read the script and been terrified to do the scene he's talking about, so practicing without the camera will be helpful. He stands up and puts your hands on his chest again.

"Remember: just a guy." You nod and hold your hands next to your shoulders like you're supposed to in the scene. He steps toward you and presses his body against yours lightly. Fireworks go off somewhere behind your bellybutton and you swear it just got ten degrees hotter. "Now, there will be stuff all around us, so we're really going to be in there tight. So it'll be more like this." He puts one hand on your lower back and one on your upper back and pulls you into him so that yours breasts are pushed up against him and your hips are aligned with his. You stand like this for a good thirty seconds, just feeling him breathing and resisting the urge to set your forehead on his chest. Finally he looks down and you look up so that your faces are only inches apart. Next thing you know his lips are on yours and your arms are around his neck. He opens your mouth with his and his tongue slips in to dance against yours.

"Elvis, are you- oh shit! Sorry!" Joe had been sent to fetch you both to get back to filming, but he quickly turns his back. Elvis pulls away from you slowly and notices that his pants are starting to feel tighter. He steps back quickly and tries to stand nonchalantly so that you won't notice.

"I think that's enough practicing. Let's get back to work." He turns you to face away from him and walk in front of him. While you walk away, he dips behind a set piece and arranges his cock to be up under his belt. The last thing he needs is another Girls Girls Girls fiasco.

When you sit back down at the desk to resume filming, you nail the scene in one take. He winks at you after you finish and you try not to blush. Filming is done for the day. Your big scene will take place tomorrow, but you're not nervous for it anymore.

******

"Alright, let's try it again." The director calls for everyone to go back to the beginning of the scene. This is the 9th take, but this time you're not the problem. It's Elvis. Every time he presses up against you, something happens. He either clears his throat or looks away or tries to back away. You're not sure what's going on. It's almost like you make him nervous.

You run the scene again, but this time when he's pressed against you he just hollers, "CUT!"

Before he can pull away from you though, you grab onto him and hold him in place. You put your hand on his cheek and make him look at you.

"Hey. I'm just a girl."

That's when you feel it against your hip. He's rock hard. You can feel the tension as he looks at you and you know he wants to kiss you so badly that it almost hurts. Your eyes flick back and forth between his and then down to his mouth. He inhales deeply and looks up to the ceiling.

"We need a break."

"Elvis, we-"

"We're takin' a break." He turns to you and whispers in your ear, kissing your neck where no one can see. "Trailer. Now."

You nod and he takes your hand and drags you off the set. When you make it to his trailer and up the steps into the little living area, he turns to face you.

"You're killin' me, y/n!"

"What am I doing?!"

"Absolutely nothing, but I cannot get rid of this." He gestures to his crotch and you put your hand over your mouth to try to suppress your giggles when you see his very obvious erection. "It ain't funny! How am I supposed to work with this?!"

"I'm sorry." You rearrange your face to stop laughing. He walks toward you and puts his hands on your hips.

"Well. Are you gonna help me get rid of it?"

"How?"

He takes his suit jacket off and undoes his tie, unbuttoning his dress shirt and untucking it. Then, he removes your jacket and turns you around to unzip your dress. He presses up behind you and pushes it down your front, wrapping his arms around your waist as your dress falls to the floor.

"I'm sure we can come up with something." He turns you to face him and removes his shirt from his shoulders. His hands go to his belt and he looks over your body in your bra and panties.

"Take those off." He instructs, removing his pants and shoes. You reach behind your back and undo your bra and then let it and your panties hit the floor next to your dress. When you're both naked, he reaches out and runs his thumb over your nipple.

"You're so pretty, honey." You throw your head back in pleasure as he takes your whole breast in his hand and squeezes it gently.

"How do you want me, daddy?" You moan as his hand continues to roam over your body.

"Mmmmm. I like that. Lay down on the couch." You do as he says and he arranges himself between your legs, kissing the soft and supple flesh of your inner thigh. "Now, you be a good girl for daddy and don't cum until I tell you to."

"Yes sir." You gasp as he presses his mouth to your center and begins to move his tongue on you. Your back arches and he swirls over and around your hardened bud. He pulls back a little to push his tongue into you several times. Then, he drags it up your slit and slides two fingers into you. You're right on the edge of your orgasm, but you're trying to push it off. He can feel your walls start to tighten around his fingers.

"Not yet, baby. Daddy's not finished yet." You nod frantically and begin to sweat as you stave off your climax.

"Now?" You whimper. He blows on your clit lightly and nods.

"Soon." He flattens his tongue and moves it side to side over you. When he tightens it to a point and licks hard across the sensitive button, you cry out.

"Please, daddy!" He smiles and then sucks on you lightly.

"Now." He moves his tongue in one last circle around your clit and you tumble over the edge into one of the most incredible orgasms of your life. The pleasure is overwhelming as it courses through you and you lose the ability to hear out of your right ear.

"Oh, God! Oh, God! Yes!" You call out as you ride the high of your climax. When you finally come back down to earth, he backs off of you and stands up, his hand stroking his cock up and down. He runs his thumb over the tip to gather the precum that's gathered there and then goes back to pumping himself.

"Mmmm." He leans his head back, glad to finally be feeling some relief for the hard on he's had most of the day. "Are you ready for me, honey?"

"Yes, daddy." You nod frantically and open your legs for him to lay down on top of you. He pushes your legs up until your knees are on his chest. Then, he lines his cock up with your entrance and teases your clit with his tip.

"Tell me how bad you want it, baby."

"I want you so bad, daddy. I need you inside me."

"Good girl." He pushes into you, slowly filling you up as your pussy stretches around his length. He picks up a steady rhythm, pumping in and out of you. You bite your bottom lip as he fucks you, hitting just the right spot inside you. "God, baby you're so tight for me, honey."

His eyes roll back and his mouth opens slightly. You take some pride in the fact that he seems to be enjoying this as much as you are.

"You like that, daddy?" He grunts in response and then moves your legs to wrap them around his waist. He starts to fuck into you harder and faster and kisses your neck up to your chin and lips.

Out of nowhere, he pulls out and uses your legs to flip you over onto your stomach. He spanks your ass lightly.

"On your knees, honey." You follow instructions again and get on all fours. He slides his middle finger from your clit back to your pussy and pushes it into you. You whine at the sensation of his finger instead of his dick. "You want my cock, baby?"

"Mmm yes, please, daddy." He pulls his finger out and then pushes his dick into you. He holds your hips tightly and begins to fuck you from behind.

"Such good pussy, baby." He groans as his cock slides in and out of you. You can tell by the way he pounds you relentlessly that he must be getting close to his own orgasm. It feels so good as he slams into you, hitting the spot inside you that makes you wild. Without much warning, another climax overtakes you and you cry out again in pleasure.

"Yes, baby, that's what I was waiting for." The sound of you cumming on his dick is enough to push him over the edge and he pulls out as quickly as possible, pumping himself with his hand as he shoots his cum all over your ass. "Fuck yes, y/n, yes!"

He stands up and walks to the bathroom to get a towel. He cleans you up and then pulls you onto his lap and you sit together naked for a while. Just then, there's a sharp knock on the door. It's Joe again. Apparently, he drew the short straw today.

"Hey, uh, guys, they really need you back on set. I'm sorry to... interrupt..."

Elvis smiles and kisses your shoulder before he hollers back.

"We'll be out in a minute!" He pats your bottom for you to stand up and you both get dressed again. You make your way back to the set and though everyone seems to know what happened, no one says anything. Just like the day before, you successfully shoot the scene in one more take. The director notices the way Elvis smiles at you during the scene, but decides it's in character for Greg and leaves it in the shot.

It lives forever in the film, but only you know for sure why it's there. And it's something you'll never forget for as long as you live.

******

The End

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

Taglist:

@ccab @elvisfatass @elvisalltheway101 @aliypop @18lkpeters @dkayfixates @tacozebra051 @your-nanas-house @deniseinmn @joshuntildawn13 @lookingforrainbows @60svintage @littlehoneyposts @epthedream69 @rjmartin11

Want to be added to my permanent tag list? Let me know!

[geotjwrs]

Can I request a platonic Jenna x male reader where r is a writer and like one of his screenplays like gets picked up and Jenna stars in it and they both realise each other are incvled in project and just a sweet look into their friendship?

invisible string

Pairings ; Jenna Ortega x Male!Reader

Warning/s ; none

Y/N had always dreamt of becoming a screenwriter. From the days spent scribbling stories in his worn-out notebooks to the nights staying up late typing away on his laptop, he poured his heart and soul into every word. It was his passion, his escape, and now, finally, it seemed to be paying off. One of his screenplays had been picked up by a major production company. The excitement was overwhelming, but nothing prepared him for the shock of finding out who would be starring in his film: Jenna Ortega.

Jenna and Y/N had met a few years back at a film festival. They had hit it off immediately, bonding over their mutual love for cinema and storytelling. Despite their busy schedules, they had kept in touch, exchanging messages and occasionally catching up over coffee whenever they found themselves in the same city. Their friendship was a comforting constant in Y/N's ever-changing life.

When Y/N received the news, he couldn't believe his luck. He was both thrilled and nervous about the project, especially with Jenna being involved. He knew how talented she was, and having her bring his words to life was an incredible honor.

The first day on set was a whirlwind of activity. Crew members buzzed around, setting up equipment, adjusting lighting, and preparing for the day's shoot. Y/N arrived early, wanting to soak in every moment of this experience. As he walked onto the set, he spotted Jenna talking to the director. She looked radiant, her enthusiasm contagious as she animatedly discussed her character.

"Y/N!" Jenna called out, her face lighting up with a bright smile as she saw him.

"Jenna!" Y/N replied, grinning as he walked over to her.

They hugged tightly, both of them laughing with excitement. "I can't believe you're here!" Jenna exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. "When they told me about the project, I had no idea it was your screenplay. This is amazing!"

"I know, right? It's like a dream come true," Y/N said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I can't wait to see you bring the character to life."

"Well, I promise to do your words justice," Jenna said, her tone sincere. "Your script is incredible, Y/N. It's one of the best I've read in a long time."

"Thank you, Jenna. That means a lot coming from you," Y/N replied, feeling a warm sense of pride.

As the days turned into weeks, Y/N spent a lot of time on set, observing and learning. He was amazed at how Jenna immersed herself in her role, bringing depth and nuance to the character he had created. They often found themselves discussing scenes, bouncing ideas off each other, and refining the dialogue.

Their friendship deepened during this time, built on mutual respect and admiration. They shared countless moments of laughter, inside jokes, and even some late-night brainstorming sessions when inspiration struck. Jenna's dedication and talent inspired Y/N, and he felt grateful to have her as both a friend and a collaborator.

One evening, after a long day of shooting, Y/N and Jenna found themselves sitting on the steps of her trailer, sipping coffee and enjoying the cool breeze. The set was quiet, most of the crew having left for the day.

"You know," Jenna said, breaking the comfortable silence, "I'm really proud of you, Y/N. You've come a long way since we first met."

Y/N smiled, looking down at his coffee cup. "Thanks, Jenna. I couldn't have done it without your support."

Jenna nudged him playfully. "Don't sell yourself short. You've got talent, and you work hard. You deserve all the success that's coming your way."

"Well, it helps to have amazing friends like you," Y/N said, meeting her gaze.

They sat there for a while, enjoying each other's company and the sense of accomplishment that came with seeing their hard work come to fruition.

As the filming progressed, Y/N and Jenna continued to support each other, both on and off set. They celebrated the small victories, like nailing a difficult scene or receiving positive feedback from the director. They also leaned on each other during the tough times, offering encouragement and reassurance.

One particularly challenging day, when everything seemed to be going wrong, Jenna found Y/N sitting alone in a quiet corner of the set, looking stressed.

"Hey," she said softly, sitting down next to him. "You okay?"

Y/N sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Just feeling overwhelmed, I guess. It's a lot of pressure."

Jenna put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know it's tough, but you're doing an amazing job. Remember why you started this journey. Your passion and talent brought you here, and you've got a whole team behind you."

Y/N looked at her, feeling a surge of gratitude. "Thanks, Jenna. I needed that."

"Anytime," she replied with a warm smile. "We're in this together, remember?"

As the final days of shooting approached, there was a bittersweet feeling in the air. The cast and crew had become like a family, and it was hard to believe that their time together was coming to an end. On the last day of filming, emotions ran high as they wrapped up the final scene.

After the director called "Cut!" for the last time, there was a moment of silence before the set erupted into cheers and applause. Y/N felt a mix of relief, pride, and sadness as he looked around at the people who had brought his vision to life.

Jenna made her way over to him, her eyes shining with tears. "We did it," she said, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Yeah, we did," Y/N replied, his voice choked with emotion.

As they stood there, surrounded by their friends and colleagues, Y/N realized how much this experience had meant to him. Not just because of the success of his screenplay, but because of the incredible journey he had shared with Jenna. Their friendship had been a source of strength and inspiration, and he knew it would continue to be, no matter where their careers took them next.

In the weeks that followed, Y/N and Jenna kept in touch, their bond stronger than ever. They celebrated the film's success together, attending premieres and interviews, always supporting each other. Despite their busy schedules, they made time for their friendship, knowing how important it was.

One evening, as they sat on a rooftop terrace, looking out over the city lights, Jenna turned to Y/N with a thoughtful expression. "You know, this is just the beginning for you. I can't wait to see what you come up with next."

Y/N smiled, feeling a sense of excitement and possibility. "And I can't wait to see you in your next role. You're going to keep amazing audiences, Jenna."

They clinked their glasses, toasting to the future and to their enduring friendship. As they sat there, talking and laughing, he would always have Jenna by his side.

And that, he realized, was the greatest gift of all.

[david-talks-sw]

Since people were talking about it recently: is there any official reason given of why Padme forgave Anakin immediatly after the Tusken Raider massacre? I always see a lot of diferent reasons given on the internet, from long and deep analises of theirs characters to "the writers didn't think about it".

Okay, folks (or single person who messaged me three times) I'm finally talking about this XD !

I got no official answer.

That said, here's a few points that I do think merit consideration, and I haven't really seen them mentioned anywhere.

1. Anakin is more regretful in the script.

If you look at how the scene is portrayed in the Attack of the Clones July 2001 draft of the screenplay, in Scene 118, pages 83-84...

... he's sorry and ashamed. He is in absolute shock of what he did. We get a bit of this, in the film...

... but in the script it's much more explicit. It starts out with him lashing out at Obi-Wan, at his own lack of power, but it ends with him breaking down and just apologizing over and over.

He didn't just kill them, he went Wolverine-style berseker and murdered EVERYTHING in his path, and he's thinking back on it with a clear-ish head now and realizing the gravity of his monstrous act.

When it's on paper, it reads very differently, to me. He's more remorseful, so Padmé's reaction makes more sense.

But there's a big difference between what you write in a script and what comes out in the film. Once you're shooting, myriad other factors come into play. So Anakin's dialog changes as the delivery and the rhythm are narrowed down, the beats in the scene shift around... but Padmé's reaction stays the same.

And that's where you get the disconnect.

Because what sticks with the audience more is this moment, now.

The anger. Not the shock and remorse.

So why the change? Well, George Lucas had this to say:

"He's very unhappy about that. Very sad and depressed. There was some dialogue here before that I took out, because it seemed to get in the way of the emotional moment of this scene where she says, "To be angry is to be human," and he says, "But to control your anger is to be a Jedi." And so that issue was actually laid out in dialogue at one point, and I decided to pull back from it... because it seemed to me that it was pretty obvious that was what was there. And I didn't think I needed to state it quite as boldly as I did. And that issue will come up at a later time, and I just felt it took away from the moment of his sadness. And I thought the sadness pretty much said the same thing without words." - AotC, Commentary Track #2, 2002

The reasoning was: too much dialog takes away from emotion.

An audience member will have a stronger emotional reaction from Anakin crying than Anakin crying while screaming "woe is me!"

I get (and generally agree) with the reasoning. But, personally, I have mixed feelings about this particular artistic choice.

On the one hand... if the intent is to show that Anakin made a big mistake and is sorry and sad because of his actions, then I think it's safe to say that it's not what most people took away.

Which then leads to things like John Ostrander writing Anakin as thinking he'd kill them all over again.

Also, it makes the viewer question the wisdom of Padmé's judgment.

But on the other hand... whether Anakin was feeling apologetic or not, he still did it. He still effectively massacred a whole tribe, he made that choice.

And whether the intent in that specific scene is conveyed efficiently or not, Anakin's character flaws (which the Prequels are really about) aren't really impacted and still tie together perfectly.

The only real change to that scene is that Padmé goes from having a more understandable reaction to "missing a lot of red flags".

2. Padmé thinks she can fix Anakin.

Here's what Natalie Portman had to say on the scene, which I think is an interesting take.

"She's this very powerful woman, and I think Padmé is sort of intrigued by this darker side she sees to him, especially because she's such a person who tries to fix everything. She sees problems in the world and she still has that idealistic passion… to think she can change everything, and she can change people who have darkness to them. And she sees goodness in him. She sees this passion. And she sees that there's a lot of anger in that passion, that it's not just the goodness and purity of her passion. So I think that is definitely attractive for her- that there's something that she can try and help heal or mend. That might be a big surprise for her when she can't." - Natalie Portman, AotC, Commentary Track #2, 2002

A part of Padmé is intrigued by Anakin's darker side, the "handsome bad boy" part... but that's coming from a place of "I can change him".

But the only thing that can change Anakin... is Anakin himself. Unfortunately, he keeps:

indulging his darker selfish impulses because he lacks discipline, acting on emotion despite knowing better,

regretting it for a moment and acknowledging that it was wrong,

starting again, never learning from his mistakes.

Which is part of the reason why their relationship is sort of doomed from the get-go.

[kirishimasbabygirl]

The Ring

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

A/N: Hey Guys!!!! Sorry this is so late, I've been super sick since Christmas and i just now been able to finish this.

Here's Pt.1

TW. Yelling, Swearing, and my usual angst

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

As you walk towards his office, your heels softly click on the tile floor. You'd have to be deaf and blind not to see or hear what people are saying, the office goers whispering behind folders and sharing knowing glances. The news of your partner's affair broke that same morning he came in; he thought he was so fucking brilliant, had everything planned out, and how he was going to get away with it. Well, little did he fucking know that the paparazzi were following their every damn move. The paparazzi took pictures of them at that club, him driving her hold, her pulling him into her house, him grinning the whole time, him leaving early that morning. His PR team is scrambling, begging you not to speak to news outlets and gossip blogs, reaching out to you once they have a script.

You glance at his secretary, who gives you a pitiful smile before nodding for you to go in. You push open the frosted glass door, finding his office lights out, blinds closed, the office phone off the hook, his face on his desk, shoulders shaking. "Bakugo?" you gently brush your knuckles on the door frame; he doesn't pick his head up. "I told you extras not to fucking bother me." You shut the door quietly behind you and sat on the leather chair in front of his desk. "I thought you might've wanted to talk about what you did, " you spoke softly, bearly over a whisper.

His head shoots up at a neck break speed, startling you; he breathes your name as he scrambles out of his seat and rounds his desk. "Oh!" is all you can say as he throws himself at your feet in a deep bow, forehead pressed to the floor. "I'm sorry, I'm so so so so sorry," he mumbles, his fingernails digging into the carpet under him. 'Now what?' you thought to yourself; you would come in here, degrade him, demand an explanation, then dump him, but seeing him like this? Groveling at your feet, it broke your heart even more.

"Bakugo," you spoke, reaching down to touch his shoulder "NO!" He looks up at you, eyes bloodshot from heavy crying, still full of tears, face red and blotchy, and swollen lips "Please don't call me that, please!" You pause for a moment, considering it, before caressing a hand on his face. "Bakugo." "Oh god, no, please!" He sobs, pressing his face into your hand, scared you might pull it away. "We need to talk."

He nods slowly, sitting up on his knees; he wipes his face with the back of his hand before shakingly standing up. "Yeah…yeah, we do" He leans on his desk for support. The two of you sat silently, unsure of what to say. "I feel -" "I know that-" You both stop and stare at each other; you throw your hand over your mouth as you begin to laugh, and he smiles and chuckles himself. "God, I'm still bad at this." "You've always been bad at this." Your laughter slowly subsides as the reality of your situation dawns on the two of you again. Right.

"I…" He starts, eyes refusing to look at you as he plays with his hands, tracing the scars. "I think- I know," He corrects himself "That we…Can move on from this." "Move on?" You question, folding your arms across your chest and leaning back in the chair. "Move on how?" "I mean," he clears his throat. "I mean, I want us to do whatever we can do to stay together."

You throw one leg over the other, tilting your head to the side, sneering at him. "And how would we do that?" He pushes himself off the desk, falling to his knees in front of you, grabbing your hands. "I would do anything. Therapy, I'll do it, I was stupid, and I have no excuse for what I did." His voice cracks as his red eyes well up with tears "I-I want to wake up next to you every morning without any regrets; I want to hold you without any reservations, I…" He pauses, lips quivering "I bought a ring two months ago." You snatch your hands away from him, wide-eyed "What?"

He stands, moving behind his desk, opening the middle drawer, and pulling out a small velvet box, pushing it across the desk towards you. You look at him, then the box, then back at him, silently asking him if this was some sick joke. "My…My mom went with me to pick it out; the two of you were the same ring size, so…" He trails off. You reach for it; the fabric tickles your fingertips as you open it. You gasped; it was a beautiful golden ring wrapped around a blue sapphire and a red ruby. "I remember how you'd compare us to that stupid gem show you watched back in high school."

Your heart tumps against your chest. Why? Why now? After all these years, why did it take him putting his deck in someone else to make him decide? Tears stream down your face; you slam the box shut and chuck it at his chest.

"How DARE you?!" he fumbles to catch the box, and you scream at him. "It took you fucking someone else to want to marry me!?" His eyes widen as he clutches it to his chest. "No! No, no, no, no, no, I - no, That's not what I'm trying to do!" He rakes his hand through his hair. "I-I'm trying to say that I love you! And I fucked up. I fucked up, baby, But I want to fix it." He looks at you with pleading eyes "You don't have to forgive me, but please, let me try to fix it."

You sat there quietly, going over your options in your head. "Therapy." You finally spoke; you wiped your eyes with the back of your sleeve. "Therapy, we'll see if we can make this work." He grins. "I will." You nod. "I'll see you at home."

_________________________________

Tag List: @samkysnks

[foggysroom]

What do you expect from Born Again? I for one am cautiously excited. It's a shame Foggy is going to die, but I don't think he would have much meaning anyway. Don't get me wrong, I like him. But I love Matt, Karen and Frank more. I think it's time for his story to end. I'm sure Foggy's sacrifice will give Karen the anger she needs to pick up her gun in revenge and Matt a reason to let the devil out so I think it will be worth it. Or maybe his death will be poetic and beautiful and temporary. Although I don't think he really fits the tone of the series. Karen has a more dramatic appeal and Frank too. Foggy is only cute and sweet. I hope you don't get upset with my question And my opinion on Foggy

I thought a lot before deciding whether to answer this question since I don't know if it's valid or just another one like the millions of hateful asks about Elden and Foggy that I've received over the years.

And even if the reason for this ask is to hurt me, I believe that all opinions need to be heard, even when I disagree.

I've said this more than once: I don't plan on watching Born Again. Period.

I don't want to re-watch, revisit a scene I've seen thousands of times on the internet. I don't want to see Foggy on the concrete, getting a shot that wasn't aimed at him.

Even if it is a temporary death. Even if he just gets hurt. No, I don't want to watch that.

I don't want to see Matt and Karen (without Foggy) reminiscing about old memories. I don't want to see Matt living life as if Foggy isn't an important person to him. I don't want to watch a show where Foggy, who used to be the heart of the show, appears in one or two episodes.

I know, I know I'll end up watching bits and pieces here and there because people won't get tired of posting edits, scene cuts, photos, gifs etc. And I don't like blocking people just because they have opinions that go against mine. I only block haters, etc.

Believe me, I'm glad Karen has a lot of heart in the show. After all, I fought for years for Elden and Deborah to return alongside Charlie for this show. I'm really happy for her and her fans. And I think it's beautiful that Jon cared so much about her to the point of saying that he would only return to the role if she was also on the show.

I just wish the Born Again writers knew that Foggy is also a crucial character. Not just because he's Matt's friend. Foggy has a rich history and is very capable of having a good plot even without a weapon, even without powers, without sexual appeal. I just wish (and hope) that Born Again doesn't erase all the importance of the original Foggy. In Elden's words: "Even though he's a little clumsy, Foggy is not an idiot." Foggy is smart, good, and intelligent.

I'm sure the directors did the best they could to fit Foggy into a plot that was almost complete. We need to remember that Foggy was going to die off-screen in the first script. And Karen wasn't even mentioned. So, I believe it was easier to fit Karen in there, giving her more scenes.

It's wonderful that Karen is a badass, has a gun, and is her own hero. I love Karen so much! But Foggy, Foggy was always the heart, and nothing survives without a heart.

Good-hearted people are strong in their own way. (this part makes me start crying, hell, I hate being so stupid)

And it's naive to think that a hero show will only be good if it has shooting, blood, sex, and things like that.

I don't know about you, but what made me love the show was the human and fragile part.

It was seeing that the girl wasn't so fragile and weak, that she is flawed and tries her best despite everything. She found a family (two idiots) and fought tooth and nail to protect Foggy and Matt from Fisk.

That Matt, the hero, is fragile, silly, pathetic. Sexy in his sweatpants and socks. That he feels pain, he cries, he feels angry and feels incapable most of the time.

That the silly friend (and useless in most opinion) is brave, strong, the one who goes for sex for consolation. Who has a family like everyone else.

These things, this human part were what made me love the show. Although I've been a Daredevil fan since childhood and admittedly an Elden fan since childhood as well.

These characters were like family to me.

The three of them!

Will I change my mind about Born Again? The second season, perhaps. But again, out of respect for Elden and Foggy, no, I don't intend to watch a scene that I've seen thousands of times and that has sometimes been mocked. And it still hurts me.

In Elden's words: The show is going to be amazing! I'm sure. But not for me.

[rinasunny]

The Lavatory scene in Red Eye's final shooting script and the movie

One of my previous posts was about how much the first script draft of Red Eye differed from the final product. The draft discussed in this post is more or less final. This draft has all the changes made after Rachel and Cillian were cast as leads and after the test screenings. But there are still some features which didn't make the cut into the final product. I'm not gonna analyse the whole script here, but shippers' favorite scene - the lavatory scene. Yeah, you can always rely on this scene to bring some juicy stuff.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Okay let's start from the moment Lisa enters the bathroom alone.

Frankly speaking, for now, I prefer the movie version. Especially the line "Okay, get up" instead of "Oh my God..." Wes Craven said in the DVD commentary about this moment:

This was tricky, between making her totally collapse, but not have her totally pathetic. And she very quickly gets herself under control.

Next, there is an interesting description of Rippner:

Also, the message on the mirror was meant to be revealed slightly earlier, but whatever.

I'm not sure about Rippner's lines here, because half of it is barely audible in the film. Also quite ironic that the underlined part is not in the movie at all.

Okay, now really important stuff starts kicking in. Rippner practically spills out the fact that he is ATTRACTED to Lisa right at her face. The script makes it clear, that she now knows this and tries to use his attraction (and his regret) to persuade him to give up on Keefe assassination plan. Funny enough, she almost succeeds until he notices her scar. Personally, I think "You're beautiful..." line (and hair brushing) should have stayed in the final cut. Not only for the sake of the ship, but for the fact that without it Lisa's "You don't have to do this" sounds really naive.

Some of you may argue that this is all relevant for the movie, they just made it more subtle. Well, Movie-Lisa's best guess that Movie-Rippner might be attracted to her is the way Cillian looks at Rachel. On one hand many people point out that they do have chemistry and sexual tension, on the other the movie on its own leaves watchers to wonder whether the characters had any romantic feelings towards each other or not. And I probably stumbled upon a comment on YouTube, which interpreted the "You don't have to do this" line more as "You're so pretty, why do you have to be evil?" (or something along these lines)

Also I think that clarification would make Lisa a more nuanced character (by the fact that she tries to manipulate a villain into giving up on his villainy).

Also, as you may have noticed, the scar was meant to be on her neck, makes sence, given her backstory (He held a knife to my throat). I guess they moved it down just so Rippner wouldn't notice it earlier (though the script also mentions, that Lisa was meant to wear a sweater). I, personally, on the back of my horny mind, think he wasn't looking for scar when he gazed on her breast ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

A little note: Script-Lisa looks away saying "No" while Rachel looks straight into his eyes, but starts trembling instead.

By the way, Rippner wasn't meant to slam and choke her just yet.

I guess he just let her out to wipe out the messege. Here Lisa gives up on conving him.

Only after he finished wiping he starts to choke her. Also, pay CLOSE ATTENTION on what Rippner's lips do here ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Yep, he almost kisses her.

I guess the changes movie made here were for the sake of pacing.

Another important difference: Rippner fixes both their outlooks to be more presentable. Lisa protests a bit.

I guess the movie crew decided they don't need to fix their look that much.

Also, I prefer the movie's "Peachy" instead of just "Good", though both lines are in the movie lol.

On the final note, I guess "Thanks for the quickie" line makes a bit more sence given we have Rippner's crawling lips there ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

So, these were the differences of the lavatory scene between the script and the movie. Hope you had as much shipping excitement as I did.

P.S: The link to the script. If you're a fan I strongly suggest to download it, it may easily become a lost media, like an earlier draft.

[obsessivestar]

'What If It's All A RomCom?' - a Ted Nivison x Reader

{{- Welcome to Chapter 4! Gonna ditch the Story Description from here on out. If this is your first chapter, I'd recommend reading Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 first! Or just read this one if you want the good shit, up to you ;^) -}}

//General Warnings: 18+ fic, Reader implied to be afab and under 5'5.

Chapter Warnings: Heated language. Heavy kissing. Mentions of Jackbox (Idk if that should count as a warning but the game is in this chapter so if you don't know of it you might get confused)\\

> Word count: 4.7k (I'm so fucking sorry LMAO)

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@k-k0129

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Chapter 4: You Don't Wanna Kiss Me?

The shots we had just done looked very pretty, actually. The crew had gotten this one beautiful shot of the extras throwing around the ball on the left with Ted and I along the flagpole on the right, the bright sun giving this shadowy effect to us all. Good. This way, you can't see how absolutely embarrassed I was with how close Ted was to me; practically had me pinned against that pole. It did make for an excellent shot though, and I could tell Tanner was proud. I didn't want to ruin that for him.

Once we all moved inside, Ted and I finally got to take part in some scenes where we'd be speaking to one another. These next scenes had extras moving around with packed bags and boxes, simulating a large group of friends helping each other move in. Ted and I would be discussing graduation in the scene over by the kitchen table. He and Tanner had apparently made some adjustments to the script earlier in the morning as the personality of 'Mason' needed to be tweaked for Ted's more extroverted personality. I didn't mind it, any new context didn't change my own lines and we were free to improv if need be. Ted would even start the scene by picking up a box from the front door to bring to the kitchen table to make the scene feel more natural. I liked how much Ted was willing to adapt to everything for the production, I'm sure Tanner appreciated it too; and I appreciated getting to see Ted move some more.

Oh man, I'm not actually starting to like this guy, am I?

I have to control my thoughts for the scene to continue. These casual takes are relatively easy to get through when my brain isn't arguing with itself. We shoot several different scenes together, some where we're talking alone and some where we're in a group setting, once again doing any necessary retakes until the sun starts to set once again and Tanner decides to call it for the day. As the film crew once again packed up and dispurse to their own accommodations, I found out who that 5th mystery member of the editing team was. It was Dan, the guy that had almost hit me with the football earlier. He apologized to me more, but I reassured him all was okay and that I wasn't upset with anyone. The interaction had got me thinking about how to wind the night down without us all retreating to our bedrooms. We had ended the 2nd day of filming a little earlier than we wrapped up yesterday, so we had the free time. I pitched the idea to Tanner once everyone else had left, and he loved the idea, so we got everyone else together and met up in the living room.

Tanner was the one to suggest bringing his PC down from his room to play Jackbox, a party game where you use your phones as controllers to connect and play some entertaining mini games. We'd all have to be together for the next 3 weeks anyways; it felt like the perfect ice breaker. At this point, everyone had changed into their own clothes, including Ted, who was wearing a black sweater and some casual dark grey pants. He looked pretty comfy, actually. The couch we were all on was like one giant sofa, all connected together in the shape of a sharp U with a large flat screen TV mounted up on the wall adjacent to us. I had sat myself near one of the corners on the left side, pleasantly surprised when Ted chose to sit next to me. The scent of pine I had caught on him earlier was a little stronger now, even though he wasn't sitting all that close to me.

"Did you put more cologne on?" I ask with a smirk, sitting up a bit more on the couch as he got comfortable next to me. "Yeah. I sweat a lot sometimes and I don't want to smell." Ted admitted, sounding a lot more relaxed than I'm used to hearing. He might've been a little tired from the long day we've had.

"That's actually why I'm sitting over here. Tanner smells like shit, like, almost all the time, so..." Ted jokes, giving a tired grin to Tanner who was setting up his PC to connect to the TV. "That's cap, chat. That's so cap." Tanner casually responds, plugging an HDMI cable to the side of the TV, then moving to sit at the far left end of the couch. Dan had chosen to sit somewhat in the middle part of the large sofa, more on Tanner's side so Joe could sit next to me.

"If you want to sit next to (Y/N), you can just say that." Tanner speaks up again, moving his mouse and keyboard onto the coffee table. I blush to myself, pulling my hands into my own long sleeved shirt. If Tanner of all people is starting to comment on...whatever's between Ted and I, it must be noticeable to literally everyone else. So it can't just be my imagination. "No, see, she doesn't smell like gym socks, so that's fine. I'll take vanilla over gym socks."

"I smell like vanilla to you?" I scoff, turning my head to him and raising a brow.

"It's not 'to me'. I just know you use vanilla."

"What do you mean I use vanilla?"

"You have a little spray bottle that says 'warm vanilla sugar." Ted spreads his thumb and his pointer figure to estimate the size of the bottle. I'm flabbergasted because he's right.

"How the fuck do you know that???" Joe asks, sounding about as confused as I am.

"Because I saw her put it in her bag!"

"Why were you--" a chuckle escapes me. "How do you know exactly what it's called?"

"You left it on the counter this morning and it scared the shit out of me because I thought it was, like, a little container of piss at first, so I looked at it!" Ted admitted, gesturing over to the kitchen with his arm. Everyone in the room starts laughing, myself included. His logic makes no sense sometimes. "And then I saw you put it in your bag, so I know it's yours!"

"Imagine it was actually was a container of piss though. Like, sorry, I left it there." Joe jokes, grinning over at Tanner. "Yeah, sorry chat, I was saving it for later." Tanner continues the joke, laughter once again filling the room. "Man, we should start a podcast." My friends are an interesting pair, I tell ya. I was surprised to see Dan and Ted weren't phased by our strange humor. They seemed to fit right in our strange friend group.

Tanner got the first game up so we could test some of the types of minigames this series had to offer. We quickly realized the trivia ones weren't very fun for us, mostly because we didn't know what any of the answers were. Quiplash gave us some good laughs but got old very quickly, and Tee K.O. was fun, but the creativity didn't last. The ones that really entertained us were The Devil's And The Details, Talking Points, and especially FixyText. There was something about the more cooperative ones that were an absolute blast, especially if I was ever paired with Ted. We'd be pushing and yelling at each other whenever one was trying to stop the other from committing a selfish act in one game, then get close together and share the screens of our phones as we created the funniest text replies in another, snickering and whispering to each other to plan ahead. I think we really blew everyone away with our fake presentations, too. Whenever we were paired up for a game, we'd be inseparable. Sensational, even.

But as always, time is fated to pass and it eventually got rather late in the night. As the last awards of the night are given, I realize just how much closer I had gotten to Ted. I wasn't leaning on his shoulder or anything, but we were practically stuck side by side together with our knees up to our chest, sharing the award we were giving out. I could tell Ted was getting tired as his voice was the lowest I had ever heard it. It was kind of...hot, actually. Especially this close. Dan is the first to say goodnight and head upstairs, with Joe helping Tanner pack away the PC to bring upstairs as well. For a little while, it was just Ted and I.

On that couch.

In that living room.

Downstairs.

Alone.

"You look tired." I speak softly as I look at Ted, who had put his hood up earlier. I could see the subtle bags under his eyes from this close.

"You kept me up past my bedtime.." Ted muttered with a tired smirk, keeping his eyes on his phone. He was checking all of his social media for the night, switching from Instagram to Twitter. "I didn't mean to keep you up.." I chuckled a little, sticking my own phone into my baggy pockets. "You're a big boy, you can make your own decisions."

"I know, but you were staying up, so.." Ted sniffles to stifle a yawn, looking over at me as he wipes one of his eyes with his hand. "Your fault."

"My fault?"

"Mhmm.."

"It's my fault you chose to stay up with me?"

"Yeah. Exactly."

"It sounds like you wanted to stay up with me, Teddy.." I shoot him a gentle grin, taking the opportunity to tease him. "I wanted..." Ted pauses to allow himself to yawn, stretching one arm out while covering his mouth with his free hand before continuing. "I wanted to make sure you'd lose."

"You wanted to make sure I'd lose."

"That's right."

"That's it?"

"That's about it."

"You wanna know what I think?"

"Prolly not a whole lot..."

"I--fuck off, I think--" I let out a cackle, lightly smacking his shoulder. "I think you wanted to stay up with everyone, not just me."

"Not just you?"

"No."

"No?..."

He stops stretching and looks at his phone one last time to close Twitter, then slips his phone into his sweater pocket and turns his head again to look at me. Our eyes meet and the room goes quiet. Ted has this relaxed half-smile as he looks at me, his eyes subtly moving left to right to suggest he's looking at both of my eyes. I return the tired smile, taking the quiet moment to gaze into his earthy orbs. As our gazes stay fixed on one another, I can feel a pit of anxiousness grow in my stomach like a slow, blooming flower. He just admitted it, didn't he? He wanted to stay up for me, with me. I can't deny this any longer. Ted is...a very handsome looking man. I can't break my gaze away. I turn my body a bit more towards him to make my neck more comfortable. His eyes wander along my blushing cheeks. I wonder if his gaze would go any lower, but he returns his stare to mine. I shouldn't. I can't even find the willpower to say anything, but he isn't speaking either. He isn't speaking, he isn't teasing me, he's stopped teasing me. Why has he stopped teasing me? He's so...he's so...

"(Y/N)"

I hear my name come from Joe's voice, startling Ted and I a little. I look over the couch to see Joe standing at the stairs, giving me a knowing smirk. How long has he been standing there? I look at my phone and realize it's nearly midnight. We should all be going to bed. I look over at Ted again, but he's already off the couch, cleaning up the empty bottles and cups to the kitchen. Son of a bitch.

I get up to help clean up, as Ted missed a cup since his hands were full. "Hold on." I tell Joe, heading into the kitchen with Ted. It's all one big room, so Joe can still see Ted and I in the kitchen. As Ted's putting the bottles in the recycling, I start putting the cups in the sink. There's a moment where we both reach for the same cup and his hand slightly rests on top of mine. His hand is surprisingly colder than I anticipated. We look at each other and chuckle quietly, then Ted removes his hand so I could put the cup in the sink.

"Clearly I am fuckin' tired.." He mutters and looks at me with a tired smile. "Don't stay up so late next time.." I pester him a little, returning the smile as I move away from the sink.

"I probably will.."

"Right, and it'll be my fault, yeah?"

"It'll absolutely be your fault."

I roll my eyes at his response, not even making an effort to hide the blush on my cheeks.

"Goodnight, Ted."

"G'night, stinky.."

A little laugh slips out of me, finally joining Joe at the stairs. Before we're even out of Ted's sight, Joe is already badgering me about that exchange. He whispers in a criticizing tone, but I can barely hear him over our stepping until we get to the upstairs hallway.

"I literally told you. I literally told you not to flirt." Joe huffs, picking up his tone now that we were likely out of earshot. "No no no, you didn't tell me not to flirt." I shake my head and waggle my finger in Joe's direction. "You told me not to sleep with him, I'm not sleeping with him."

"That's not what it was about to look like." Joe's whisper becomes raspy, like he's quietly yelling at me.

"What do you mean?? I didn't start flirting, he did."

"Did you not feel how fucking close you two were the whole night? He looked like he was about to kiss you just now!"

I look over at the stairs, as if I'm able to look at Ted through them. I think about his eyes and his smile. God, his smile. His stupid smile. "He was?.." Once again, I find myself smiling. It seems I can't even hide these feelings from Joseph. Not sure why I thought I could, Joe's see's everything, especially if I'm involved. He may know me better than I know myself. He's my best friend.

He snaps his fingers in my face to wake me from my gaze, furrowing his brows at me in frustration. I let out a huff, shrugging my shoulders at him. I'm not going to dance around him anymore. I know he has good intentions, but I see him as a brother, not a father. "Well, so fucking what? What do you want me to say, that I think he's ugly?"

"I'd know you're lying to me."

"Exactly! What are you gonna do if it actually happens? I have to kiss him tomorrow anyways. If something else happens, it happens. I don't know what to tell you that'd make you feel better other than I'll be fine."

Joe takes a deep breath, turning his head away from me for a moment. I could see his thoughts through his body language. He was unsure at first, but a mischievous smirk began to take over his expression. I saw Protective Brother Joseph leave his body in favour of Gossiping Best Friend Joseph.

"...okay, you two would be pretty hot together."

I let out a louder laugh than I probably should've, quickly covering my mouth as Joe playfully shushes me. I know Joe just doesn't want me to get hurt, I acted the same way with him when he met his husband. We love each other like family. "But you have to promise me you'll tell me first if anything happens. I need the tea."

"Oh you know I will.." I grin at him, moving over to my door for the night.

"Night, Joe." "Night (Y/N)."

I enter my bedroom and plop right down on the bed, letting out a content sigh. I take out my phone to glance over social media one last time. I see Ted had posted a photo of the 5 of us earlier, and I see just how close I was to Ted. I take a screenshot of it and rest the phone down on my chest, unable to contain my smile. I giggle to myself, knowing what's coming. I fall asleep wondering if I'll be ready tomorrow. There's a very good chance I could freak out.

Turns out, we both might've been freaking out.

The morning comes and goes, mostly because some of us had slept in. By the afternoon, we're having to turn the lights down and close the blinds to simulate it being much later in the night. We've got a bunch of RGB lights and even a light-up disco ball on the ceiling to make it feel like a party. This is the first scene in which Ted and I will be sharing a kiss. I actually really like how the scene is set. Ted and I are sitting in a circle with a bunch of the extras playing Spin-The-Bottle. Of course, after a few spins, the bottle will be pointing for us to kiss. We have to act like we're nervous, which probably wasn't helping. When it came to filming the actual kissing scene, we had to sit down beside each other, turn our heads and kiss, but it had to be slow. We have to linger on it, really show the tension building up just for it to burst with that very first kiss.

But for nearly a whole hour, we couldn't do it.

Maybe it was all the extra eyes, maybe it was the weird angle we were at, I had no idea. Sometimes Ted would be ready and I'd mess up, sometimes I'd be ready and he'd mess up. It was a whole ordeal. I felt bad for everyone that was waiting for us to get this. No one appeared to be mad, but one kiss was taking over an hour. Even I'd start to feel a little frustrated if the leads couldn't wrap it up. We almost get it at one point, but I choke at the last second and start laughing, which makes Ted start laughing as well. He grabs my face and starts shaking me, chanting. "We have to kiss, (Y/N)! This is our job! You need to kiss me, God damnit! Look at my lips and kiss me!" We both were becoming hysterical, so much so that Tanner finally decided to call for a break. I was relieved, actually. As hard as I was laughing, I was embarrassed. I thought I'd be more prepared for this. Perhaps getting this comfortable with Ted was a mistake, now I can't do my job.

As everyone's leaving to grab lunch or touch up their hair and makeup, Tanner approaches Ted and I as we get up from the floor. I half expected him to encourage us to get the kiss over with in front of everyone, but he has a different idea. "Okay, this is going to sound insane, but hear me out..." Tanner begins, gesturing to the both of us. "I'm gonna get the camera rolling...and then I'm just gonna leave it there."

"Leave it there?" I ask, raising a brow. "What do you mean?"

"I just...I feel like all of the eyes watching are making this a little harder for you guys.." Tanner admitted, clasping his hands together. "I can bring another camera and go outside with everyone, I want you two to be comfortable. You can take your time and, yknow, Ted could look at the shot afterwards.." Tanner trails off, probably looking for a specific reaction out of either Ted or I. Ted didn't seem to mind the idea at all, looking over at me with a shrug. I look down at my shoes, sort of clicking them together. So Tanner wants Ted and I to kiss on camera...alone.

"But if you want to wait, we can film something else..." Tanner speaks up again, looking at me with a concerned expression.

"Are you okay...?" Ted pauses, lightly touching my arm with one of his fingers, almost like he was...caressing me. I turn my head up to look at Ted, watching as he tilts his head. "....with that?"

"Yeah, I can do it this way." I finally answer, giving Ted and Tanner a smile. "He probably needs a refresher on how to kiss a woman anyways..."

Ted chuckles and shakes his head at me, though Tanner is satisfied with the answer. "Alright, I'll just set it up and give you two the reigns.." Tanner speaks, moving over to the camera. He adjusts a few things on it, then takes a step back and shoots us some finger guns. "Shout if you need me."

Ted and I watch as Tanner collects the rest of the team and brings them outside, watching one of the bigger crew members pick up an entire camera and hoist it on outside.

Now, it was just Ted and I.

In the living room.

Alone.

On camera.

"Alright, go sit where we were before, I'll make sure the camera's in focus.." Ted instructs, pointing over to the floor. I can't help but blush, only because It sounded like a command. I wonder if he's the type to talk you through it...

Stop it. It's just a kiss.

I go and sit back on the floor, criss-crossing my legs as I watch Ted fiddle with the camera. After a moment, he lets out a sigh and steps back. "Alright. You're in focus. It'll adjust to us." He speaks, coming over to sit next to me. I can feel my heart start beating out of my chest once he sits down. This is really happening. I know I have to do this for Tanner, I want to do it for Tanner, but it's...harder now. For some reason, it's harder now.

"If you want, we could just...talk first.." Ted spoke to me in a condecending tone. Our eyes meet once more and I get that same pit in my stomach that I had last night. No. I'm not gonna let him have this. He got me yesterday on that fucking pole, I'm getting him today. "We could...talk about last night.." I offered, shooting him a little grin. He cracks a smile, gliding the tip of his tongue along his top teeth briefly.

"You wanna get into this on camera?" Ted asks, nodding at me with am embarrassed little smile.

"What!? You're the one that offered to talk!" I start laughing, tilting my head at him mockingly. "You don't wanna kiss me, Teddy? You afraid to kiss me?"

"Fuck you."

"You don't wanna kiss me?"

"This film is going to fail because of you--"

"You don't wanna kiss me?"

"and your--and your giant fucking ego."

"You don't wanna kiss me?"

"Are you done, princess? Are you fucking done?" Ted's swiveling his head in my direction to mock me back, a permanent grin on his face. "Shut your mouth, I'm comin' in."

"You're not doing shit! That's not the tell!"

"Hey."

"'Hey' what?"

"Hey."

"What?"

"Shut your mouth."

I raise both of my eyebrows at him and scoff. Before I can think of another sarcastic remark, he does it. His eyes wander down to my lips, lightly nibbling on the end of his own bottom lip, then he returns his gaze to mine. That's the tell. He's about to lean in, but I don't let him.

My body moves on its own, darting towards him so our lips could finally meet for the first time. All of the tension that had been building between us finally begins to melt as our lips continue to connect, slowly at first. It's not enough. I unravel my legs and sit up on my knees. Ted reacts by placing both of his hands on my waist, pulling me in closer to cause a breathy moan to escape into our kiss. My hands reach up to hold both of his cheeks, his glasses caressing my face as our lips caress each other's tenderly. I can feel the heat radiating off his cheeks, my own warm blush making my breathing pick up. I can't pull away. It feels like his lips were meant to be attached to mine. I can feel his breathing on my chest, his stubble along the palms of my hands, his fingers gripping my lower back, his tongue gliding along his lower lip into mine, his cologne, the tension. The tension. All of it was making me stir crazy. His lips, his kiss, I could lose myself in him. I could truly lose it. I don't want to stop. I want to run my fingers through his hair, I want to bite his stupid lip, I want to be louder.

But we're on camera. Tanner's camera. We have to stop. I have to...

I'm the one to break the kiss, hearing a quiet pop and an airy moan from Ted in response. I connect my forehead with his for a brief moment, keeping my eyes closed until I pull away to look at him. The tip of his nose tickles mine, his hands still wrapped around my waist. We share a quiet moment, steadying our breathing. I don't even know if this kiss was supposed to be this heated, but it's what Tanner's getting. All he wrote was 'Kara and Mason kiss' in the script. He can work with this.

"...I think we got it.." Ted is the first to speak up, but he doesn't remove his hands from me just yet. I can't help but let out a laugh, leaning my head back for a moment. "What? What did I say?" Ted asks, smiling through his teeth.

"No no, I just..." I take a few breaths through my laughter, letting go of his face to wave my hand a little. "I-I think that's the quietest we've been together so far.."

"Oh yeah? We should probably get louder then.."

Now that. That is something I didn't think I'd hear out of Ted, certainly not to me. Did he forget we're supposed to be shooting a scene?

"Camera's still rolling, Teddy.."

"...FUCK!"

Ted nearly throws me off of him and struggles to get up to go turn off the camera. I'm absolutely killing myself laughing as I pick myself up off the floor. No way did the fucker forgot we were filming. He JUST said 'we got it'.

"You forgot!?"

"Can you cut footage on this!?"

"You fucking forgot! Oh my god, you sad fuck!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Ted laughs, trying to sound angry with me as he pauses the film on the camera. "Tanner's gonna see that!"

"Hell yeah he is! Great Job, Teddy! You sleazy mother fucker.."

"Me? Me!? He's gonna see you being a fucking slut!"

"Oh I'M the slut!? Really?!"

"Yeah!"

"Really!?"

"Yes!"

"Your hands on my fucking waist? I'M the slut!?"

"Your tongue in MY mouth!"

"You started with it!"

"I did fucking NOT! I felt yours first!"

"I felt YOURS first! YOU started with it!"

"Started with what?"

Tanner suddenly steps into the room, startling both of us. He must've just stepped in from outside, I didn't even hear him close a door. He's got no idea what we're yelling at each other about. "Have you guys kissed yet?"

Ted and I look at each other again as I struggle to contain my laughter. All I can do is nod, pointing in Ted's direction. "Ask him about it. It's on there." I manage to speak after a little while, walking passed them to head outside. I lightly touch my lips as I open the screen door to get outside. The last thing I hear is Tanner asking Ted about all the yelling, and a final huff from Ted himself.

Truthfully, I needed to head outside to compose myself. I could still feel his hands on my warm cheeks, placing my own hand on it to feel just how hot they had become. I couldn't believe he forgot he were filming, he seemed very into...all of that.

What would've happened if the camera wasn't there?

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