#fun fact i did NOT turn in a course selection sheet when i was supposed to. bc i forgot

[astronomy-two-worlds-apart]

as someone whos about a month and a half away from their senior year of high school i am losing my mind

[vexillumalbum]

MLQC boys being interrupted while having sex w/Reader

I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. 

All I want to say is that I wrote it long ago so there might be some mistakes. Also please bear in mind that English is not my native language. Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy!

NSFW below!

Gavin

The orange rays of the setting sun warmed the naked skin of your back pleasantly from behind the windows. Your boyfriend's white button-up casually framed your waist, barely clinging to your forearms, previously sliding off your shoulders. You had to hold it with your hands to keep it from sliding completely off. 

In fact, in that position, Gavin had a perfect view of your bare curves, with the shirt or without it. 

He was lying on his back facing you, propped up on pillows with his arms behind his head. His watchful gaze never left your body, even for a moment. His amber eyes scanned your figure, gliding over your perky breasts, smooth skin glazed in orange and silky strands of hair dancing near your neck and collarbones with your every move. 

He licked his lips.

“Come here.” It wasn’t an order, but also not a plea. It sounded more like a request of a man so in love with his girl that he couldn’t bear not touching her anymore. 

You giggled - and Gavin could’ve sworn it was the prettiest sound in the whole universe - before wrapping your fingers around his outstretched hand, letting yourself be guided to his solid body. 

Minutes later you were a moaning mess, your hips pinned to the mattress by two calloused hands, the devilish sounds coming from between your legs mixing with heavenly whimpers of your boyfriend’s name that were leaving your bruised lips. 

The grip you had on Gavin’s hair tightened when he sucked on your clit in time with his fingers working magic inside your heat. In response you heard a growl as his hips started assaulting the mattress even faster. The beast has been awoken

Tingling on your skin came as a warning for the pleasure that was supposed to arrive next. Your muscles were squeezing Gavin’s fingers hard and he couldn’t wait for his cock to be enveloped by your wet warmth next. Heels dug into the mattress, fingers gripping white sheets, head thrown back with parted lips and ragged breath and—

Thump thump thump

“Are you guys okay in there?!” Minor’s concerned voice sounded from outside of the bedroom right after knocking. It startled you to the point where you jumped up, covering your bare figure with anything you could reach for, even though you were sure the doors were closed and the intruder wasn’t able to come inside the room. “I’ve heard some weird noises and I thought I���d check on you! You know, better safe than sorry!”

Gavin immediately looked over you, checking if you were alright, before turning his head to the door with a look that could kill. He palmed himself through his boxers, his erection still evident and painful. 

“We’re alright! Thanks, Minor.” After a brief moment of silence you managed to say, not knowing if you should laugh or cry or maybe both. You heard a quiet “okay” and some shuffling - the intruder left the area.

In a moment of passion both you and Gavin had forgotten that Minor was temporarily living in your apartment due to AC disfunction at his place. He wasn’t a perfect roommate but at the same his presence wasn’t overbearing and you didn’t have any complaints… up until now.

“I’ll beat him up.” Through clenched teeth Gavin’s voice was low as he was putting on some shorts he took out of the drawers, and he now resembled the Super-Scary-Officer-Gavin more  than Your-Loving-And-Doting-Boyfriend-Gavin. 

“Don’t be so harsh on him. He was concerned.” You giggled only to be met with a doubting look from your boyfriend. “As he said, better safe than sorry.”

“I’ll give him something to be sorry about.” Poor Minor

Victor

The last few weeks have been pure torture. You were very open about how much you hated these business trips that both you and Victor had to take all the time to different places in the world. Your boyfriend was less outspoken, however the days of longing were taking its toll on him as much as on you. Sleepless nights, lonely dinners, unfulfilled lust…

Therefore, when there were no meetings, reports and proposals to write or filming sites to visit on the horizon, you jumped almost literally at the opportunity and took Victor to the wellness center. 

It was a pleasant evening, the sun had recently set, but the heat was still there, aligned from time to time by the cool breeze. The white bathrobe your only cover as you and Victor relaxed on the private terrace of the apartment, with the sound of the bubbling jacuzzi in the background.

Sitting in his lap, your boyfriend was caressing your bare thigh with one of his hands, while the other was stroking your hair. It was an intimate moment shared between two lovers finally reunited and ready to spend some much needed relaxing time together. 

Until…

It started as an innocent kiss between sips of fine dry wine selected by Victor himself.

He had you almost fully naked on his lap, with your robe slipping down your back, threading fingers in your silky strands and tasting your lips - which he had to admit - were even tastier than his favorite crimson beverage.  

You were determined to get him naked, to free these gorgeous muscles from beneath the soft robe. With your nails scraping his skin lightly you were revealing more and more of his toned body earning sweet sighs from Victor as a reward. 

His skilled fingers moved from your hair to kneading your butt, making your already wet pussy to rub on his clothed hard length. The added friction was like a cherry on top of the whole make out session but you didn’t want to stop there. Why would you settle for just a cake when you can have a full four course meal, right?

“Victor, I need it, please.” You begged when he didn’t want to give you what you wanted well knowing what was it that you desired. 

“What is it, babygirl?” His question was whispered into the damp skin of your neck where Victor was leaving love bites. “Tell me what you need. You know I’ll give you everything.” He sounded so seductive, his low voice was making you shiver and you were sure your pussy was getting wetter and wetter with every word he said. “Just say it.”

“You.” You crumbled. “I want your cock. Please.”

He fulfilled his promise a few seconds later when you felt his girth stretching you out in the best way possible. Victor gripped your hips and with a look that was telling you to prepare for a ride, he started thrusting up while roughly bringing you down on his cock over and over. 

You gripped his shoulders with one hand while the other was clamped over your mouth to make sure no-one could hear the moans your boyfriend was bringing out of you.

So close, you were co close, and when his thumb pressed on your clit, you could swear you saw stars and—

Bzzt bzzt bzzt

You jumped at the sudden sound, fear taking place of lust and passion. With a quick look to the side you saw that Victor’s phone was ringing and the caller’s ID was “Financial Director”. Thinking it was important you exited his lap, sliding to the next chair. 

A low growl escaped him when you pulled away, his member still as hard as ever. His furrowed brows were the indicator of how much he didn’t like what you did, but you only smiled to him sheepishly and gestured to his phone. 

A part of him was impressed of how much you valued his work and that you knew how important it was. Yet, the other part was furious that your love making fucking got interrupted. 

He took a second or two or more who knows if he stopped time to admire your rosy cheeks and bruised lips and how you were panting after minutes of passion, before picking up his phone from the table and answering the call.

“Be quick.” The tone of his voice so much different than when he was talking to you, eyes narrowed and teeth clenched - he was mad. But that didn’t stop him from giving you a look that you could only describe one way: I’m not done with you yet.

Shaw

At times like this, you were immensely grateful for the almost deafening music that could be heard in the Live House all the time. 

Usually, it annoyed you that the rumble from the speakers drowned out any other noises - like when you were talking to others, but now you liked that you had the freedom to moan as Shaw's hips were pounding into you to the rhythm of the club song. 

Hands clutching his muscular arms, head tilted back repeatedly hitting the wall behind you, you were braced for a wild ride. Your boyfriend's hands tightly squeezing your ass supporting your weight, his hot lips nibbling at your neck marking you in every place he had access to, his cock driving into you with a reckless abandon.

And all of this caused by your short dress that showed a little too much skin in Shaw’s opinion (and he would never have thought that something like “too much skin showing” would be a problem for him but seeing every guy in the club eyeing you had his blood boiling) and your teasing ways.

During the break between songs, when Shaw had a chance to rehydrate himself for another hour on stage, your boyfriend decided to satisfy a different type of thirst. For your pussy

Sex with Shaw was always fun and wild and everything you ever wanted. But it was the best when he was hot and bothered and when envy was seeping through his body like a venom making him see red.

To be honest, you weren’t surprised when he grabbed your wrist right after exiting the stage and pulled you into the back room. You weren’t surprised when he pinned you to the wall, his lips already marking your collarbone as his hands were skillfully pushing your panties aside. You weren’t surprised when he unzipped his pants and pushed them down, freeing his hard cock.

And you sure as hell weren’t surprised when he slid into you with one sharp thrust while sucking on the sensitive skin below your ear.

“Tell me,” he panted in between the thrusts while his tongue was exploring your neck. “Do you enjoy making me jealous? Do you think it’s funny or something?”

As you were able to only whimper and moan, you didn’t respond. Of course you were enjoying making him jealous once in a while, especially when you were rewarded with his hips snapping into your in the back room of Live House.

“Answer. Me.” You swore he wanted to kill you with how intensely he was impaling you on his cock.

“Yes! Yes oh god yes!” You managed to choke out right before his fingers pinched your clit. Loud scream elected from your throat and you didn’t fail to notice the smirk Shaw was having plastered to his handsome face.

“Let me make this clear, baby.” He slowed a little as he leaned into you to have his mouth right next to your ear. “You are mine. Only mine.”

You wanted to respond. Say something, anything, but then—

“Shaw! We’re going back on the stage!” 

Adam’s voice broke through the music and your pants along with a few pound knocks. You jumped at the sudden intruder, your eyes wide and lips parted. 

Shaw on the other hand was totally unfazed when he started thrusting into you with a full speed again. And again. And again. And again. 

He didn’t even say anything back, he just went straight back into fucking your brains out.

“I told you, you’re mine.” He murmured into your sweaty skin when he saw how startled you were. “So focus on me and only me.”

Lucien

You liked surprising your boyfriend. For example when you visited him at the university with some tasty lunch and a big smile plastered to your face, or when you learned how to brew tea so you could make him the best beverages when he was particularly stressed with work, or when you memorized all scientific names of his favorite butterflies to feel closer to him through joined hobby…

Or when he came back to his office at the Research Center after a tiring laboratory work only to find you wearing very skimpy purple lingerie and his lab coat, sitting in his chair with a smug grin and a twinkle of mischief in your eyes.

Part of him wanted to chide you for being reckless like that. After all, he would as much as kill, without even batting an eye, anyone who stumbled into his office with you being inside looking like that. 

But other part of him the freaky part already imagined taking you in various positions, against different surfaces during his whole lunch break. 

And so he started with face-fucking you on his desk, while pinning you to the mahogany wood with one hand as the other was palming himself through his trousers. Your panties torn and long forgotten on the floor, the lab coat loosely hugging your form with your legs wrapped around Lucien’s shoulders and hands grabbing his hair tightly. 

This man’s mouth could not only recite poetry and name every flower in the garden, but also it was able to make you cum in a record time. You had to bit your lip very very hard to control the volume of your moans.

Your second orgasm was delivered to you by the scientist’s long nibble fingers exploring your warm sensitive flesh like his life depended on it. And in a way it did, because you were the sole purpose of his existence and making you feel good was his mission, so…

Lucien was preparing you for the third one, when you decided that enough is enough. After all, you came there to make him feel good, not the other way around. 

So before your boyfriend could react you pushed him onto his chair and dropped to your knees with a grin, and when he stubbornly wanted to got up again, you batted your eyelashes a few times as you stroked his member through the fabric. He got the message and relaxed into the seat. But don’t be fooled, he was still in control.

“Such a good girl.” He praised you when you were undoing his belt. He gripped your hair guiding your face closer to his crotch.

You’ve given Lucien a blowjob so many times already, you knew exactly what to do. You licked, sucked, bobbed your head and massaged with your hands what you couldn’t fit into your mouth. 

Every sigh from the professor was making you shiver so you worked even harder to hear more of them until—

Knock knock knock

“Professor, excuse me…” From behind the door the head of one of Lucien’s assistants peeked out and before you could do anything he saw the position you and your boyfriend were in and immediately panicked. “Oh my— I’m—I’m so sorry!” 

He was long gone before you could even pull away from Lucien, but you didn’t miss the murderous stare professor had while looking at now - fortunately - closed door. You didn’t know if you should laugh or collapse into the ground from embarrassment. 

You were sure your face was redder than a tomato. Luckily, knowing Lucien’s reputation no-one would be so stupid to tell anyone about this situation. Or so you hoped so.

Before you decided on your final reaction to the intruder, Lucien’s palm grabbed a handful of your hair and he brought your head closer again so that your nose was brushing his hard moist cock. 

“I believe we have some unfinished business here, butterfly.”

Weirdly, you never saw this assistant in the Research Center ever again…

Kiro 

Kiro loved music almost as much as he loved you and his snacks.

So he was taking every opportunity he could to show you around his studio, write music with you and compose. 

And do other, less appropriate deeds.

For the longest time Sunshine Boy couldn’t find inspiration for his newest song. He tossed and turned in his bed every night and skipped meals because of it. He didn’t want to disappoint his fans and you, his greatest biggest fan!

But only if he knew that bringing you with him to the studio would be the cure for his lack of inspiration, he would’ve done it already days ago. Why didn’t he think of it sooner? You were his muse after all! Your moans were the greatest music to his ears!

So that’s how you ended up with Kiro pounding into you from behind tightly gripping your hair to guide your head nearer to the microphone so that every one of your whimpers could be recorded properly. 

The speed of his thrust was setting a rhythm that he wanted his new song to be in which gave him a plethora of sounds escaping your mouth. Oh how much he loved those sounds.

Gripping your hips he angled you a little more so that he could go even deeper, take you even better. He was sure he was leaving bruises on your skin with the force of his grip, but he didn’t care. He would smother them with kisses later. 

“More, Miss Chips. I wanna hear you more.” He murmured as his hand circled your waist and his fingertips pressed onto your swollen clit. If you didn’t know better, you would think that he wanted to kill you from the sheer amount of pleasure he was causing you. 

Your moans were getting higher and higher and Kiro knew it was because you were getting closer to your release. He loved that moment, right before your orgasm when your muscles were clasping around his cock trying to milk him from everything that he had, and your eyes were rolling onto the back of your head and you legs were shaking like leaves on a windy day and—

Bam bam bam

“Kiro, what are you doing in there?! Our recording session starts soon!” Savin’s voice sounded from the other side of the door and Kiro cursed under his breath that he was interrupting his own recording session.

You on the other hand squealed and tried to move away from your boyfriend but he didn’t let you.

He slowed down his thrusts and clamped a hand over your mouth.

“We’ll be there in a minute!” Kiro answered but his agent didn’t seem to be convinced because he insisted on waiting for you two at the door.

When you wanted to move away again, disappointed that you wouldn’t be getting the realest that you wanted, Kiro brought you closer to himself again and started snapping his hips into your once again. His hand still clamped tightly over your mouth. 

“Well, maybe our recording is over but we can at least finish this.”

____________________________________________________

thank you so much for reading!

if you want to read more of my works they are here

[andypantsx3]

war paint | 3 | captain

pairing: Bakugou Katsuki / Reader

length: 27,765 words / 10 chapters

summary: Desperate times force you to disguise yourself and join the kingsguard. When a suspicious string of crimes strike the palace, however, Captain Katsuki Bakugou starts paying extra close attention. (spin off of in cinders)

tags: mulan AU, secret identity, romance, reader-insert

warnings: aged up characters, some violence, eventual smut

The first few weeks of your enlistment were inarguably the worst you’d ever lived.

If not on patrol, soldiers were awakened before dawn every morning and marched to the training pitch behind the castle where you drilled in different formations with various weapons. You were run through exercises that seemed designed to drop anyone with less than iron willpower, then set to menial tasks like cleaning the barracks or repairing any damaged weapons or equipment. The midday meal was the first break in your day, followed immediately by training in basic first aid and survival skills, then by more weaponry drills that took you until the dinner bell.

Between your extra training with Nishimura and the time you had to invest in sneaking off to use the lavatory or a spot to bathe in private, you were hardly resting. Even the time you did spend bathing, you spent in a constant state of anxiety, wondering if a random bunk check would reveal you missing. You hadn't chanced more than a wild, lightning fast scrub down in weeks.

At the end of the first week, you’d collected your enlistment fee with hands blistered from sword work, and it took you longer than you’d ever admit to count it out, stopping every few seconds when your eyes drifted involuntarily shut. You’d been happy to send it off to your family, though, with a short note that told them you were doing well.

Which was, of course, a lie.

You weren’t exactly the most popular among the kingsguard thanks to the show you’d put on when you arrived, and you had the misfortune of dorming in the same room as Nishimura. Despite Captain Bakugou’s warnings, he’d gone out of his way to make life uncomfortable for you, slipping bugs into your sheets and loudly discussing you in less than flattering terms well within earshot.

More than that, you were terrible at nearly everything and it was obvious. Kaminari helped you to the best of his ability, and so did Sero, the guard who’d poked fun at your age at the castle gates. Neither of them, however, could make up for the fact that as a woman, you were somewhat smaller and slighter, and hadn’t had the same opportunities building up muscle mass as men your age. Every sword felt like an anvil in your hands; lifting a mace like hauling a boulder.

The only thing you seemed to excel at was the first aid trainings. You found yourself listening with rapt attention as the court physician walked your battalion through wrapping injuries and cleaning wounds, noting which easily obtained herbs and flowers could slow blood loss or ease pain. Kaminari was always eager to pair with you during the practical exercises, as you were among the least likely to accidentally poison him with the wrong herbs. It was gratifying to be good at at least one thing.

Your favorite part of castle service, though, was the patrols.

After your first month of training, you’d been assigned thrice-weekly patrol routes and found that it was like wading into a cool river on a hot day. Patrols got you out of whichever drills were happening at the time and took you out from under Captain Bakugou’s purview and behind the relative safety of the castle walls.

Though monotonous, you only had to walk a specific route throughout the castle with a partner, and you were rarely supervised. On your first patrol with Kaminari, you also found that patrols were - for him - more of an opportunity to make social calls.

“L/N,” he said, nearly the minute you stepped inside the castle walls. “We’ve got an excellent route today.”

You raised an eyebrow in question.

He chuckled, gesturing you along. “Come on, our first stop is right over here.”

“Our first stop?” you echoed.

Kaminari grinned and grabbed your sleeve, pulling you into a side door. On the other side sat a cramped office stuffed with bright fabrics and colorful spools of thread. A woman with shocking pink hair hunched over a spill of pretty silk, working tiny, perfect stitches into the fabric.

“Mina!” Kaminari boomed and the woman sat up with a smile.

“Denki!” she said, reaching over to hug him. “It’s been a while since patrol took you over here! I have so much to tell you!”

Kaminari laughed and pulled you forward. “Me too. Mina, this is L/N! He lied about his age and wormed his way into the kingsguard.”

You whirled on him. “I’m old enough to be in the guard!”

The absolute wrong gender, but definitely the right age.

He gave you an innocent look. “I’m just passing on the popular opinion.”

Mina chuckled. “Oh, ignore him, L/N. We all do. It’s quite nice to meet you.”

Kaminari whined but Mina just laughed again, redirecting his attention to the dress she was making, saying it was for the princess-to-be. Apparently, Prince Shouto’s bride had been a kitchen girl that Mina and Denki had both been acquainted with, and they talked eagerly of the wedding they’d both been invited to and the food that would be there.

“Think old Bakugou will show up?” Kaminari asked at one point, making himself comfortable at Mina’s workstation. Mina met this with a shrug.

You gave them both a questioning look. “Why would the captain be invited?”

Kaminari turned to you conspiratorially. “Captain Bakugou and the prince grew up together - they’re something like old friends. Plus, Bakugou’s a marquis, he’s probably got an invitation just for political reasons.”

“He’s a marquis?” you asked. That explained the Lord appellation on your contract, then. “Why join the palace guard if he’s titled?”

Kaminari shrugged. “Probably not enough opportunity to torture innocent civilians in Musutafu. If he wants to hold the land, he’s got to be nice to them, hasn’t he?”

You grimaced, thinking of all the drills he’d run you through since you’d gotten here. That definitely wouldn’t endear him to anyone.

“Speaking of our favorite captain,” Mina said conversationally, “I heard he’s been meeting with the prince more often than usual.”

“Wedding stuff?” Kaminari asked, but Mina shook her head.

“As if he’d touch that mushy shit with a ten foot pole. He wouldn’t know romance if it pranced in front of him wearing a soldier’s uniform. No, I heard it’s because a bunch of papers and other valuables went missing from the prince’s study last Thursday night.”

Your mind wandered back to last Thursday, wondering if you’d been on patrol when it had happened. You only dredged up a memory of snuggling down into your bunk, relieved that Nishimura and his goon friend Hasumi were out on their own patrol and your bed was thankfully bug free.

Kaminari’s eyebrows went up. “Important papers?”

Mina raised a thin shoulder. “From what I heard, it seemed to be a weird selection. A couple letters, some wedding arrangements. But a land treaty disappeared as well. They think it’s a spy.”

Kaminari whistled. “Bet old Baku is pissed this happened on his watch. No wonder he’s been in such a foul mood lately.” He turned to you. “Don’t you think he’s been a little too happy when one of us gets clipped by the wrong edge of the sword?”

You thought back to his threats in the mess hall. “He seems normal enough to me.”

Kaminari mulled that over. “I suppose he’s usually that awful.”

Mina smiled. “Talking of which, shouldn’t you be getting on with your patrol? I’d hate to find out what he’d do if he found out you were in here gossiping.”

A spike of panic stabbed through your heart and you grabbed Kaminari’s sleeve. “Excellent observation, Mina. We really should be going. It was wonderful to meet you!”

You tugged Kaminari roughly back through the doorway. You thought it was a testament to his own fear of the captain that he went willingly enough.

The rest of your patrol proved uneventful, however, Bakugou thankfully never being alerted to your social stop. Your patrol ended just after the dinner bell and you ate quickly in the mess hall, then rushed off to the training pitch.

Today was also the last day of your punishment for fighting in the mess hall on your first day, and you thought dreamily of all the rested muscles and extra time you’d have on your hands once extra training ended. You might be able to sneak off to bathe at a normal time of the evening instead of in the dead of night, starting tomorrow.

Your good cheer faded quickly, however, as you arrived at the pitch to find Captain Bakugou there.

Nishimura was just behind you and he stopped short at your side. “Where’s our usual drill officer?” he demanded.

A horrible grin cut into Bakugou’s features, bearing his sharp canines. He looked like a wolf ready to tear into a nest of rabbits, and your stomach flipped. “Ojiro’s off duty tonight. Thought I’d see if you’d learned your lesson myself.”

You inhaled sharply, and Bakugou caught it, laughing. “Thought I’d forgotten about you two fucks, didn’t you?”

You lowered your gaze and took a deep, steadying breath. Just tonight. You just had to get through tonight and you would be free.

Nishimura seemed to steel himself as well, sweeping a hand through his dark hair. “What are our drills tonight, Captain?”

Bakugou’s crimson gaze flickered over you both. “Fight me.”

You looked up, startled. “Fight you?”

He looked you over disdainfully. “You’re a goddamn soldier, you telling me you can’t fight? Didn’t seem to stop you in the mess hall.”

You bit your lip, but Nishimura stepped forward, that violent gleam in his eye. “Yes, sir.”

Bakugou grinned. “I’m gonna fucking wipe this field with you.”

Nishimura didn’t dare correct his superior, but his hand went quickly to his sword and he leaned forward eagerly. Before you even had time to blink, the clash of metal rang out across the field and Bakugou had Nishimura on the defensive, pushing him back into step with you. You hadn’t even seen him go for his sword.

Swearing, you fumbled for your own blade, whipping it out just in time to catch the swipe Bakugou aimed at your side. You stumbled under the force of the strike, tripping backwards.

Nishimura growled and lunged again, but Bakugou was faster, parrying his attack and following up with his own. A low chuckle escaped him as he caught Nishimura with the back edge of his blade, winding him and sending him staggering back.

Bakugou whipped back to you, targeting you with another fast swipe that you barely caught in time. The strength of his blow almost knocked your sword from your grasp, shuddering up your arm and leaving you gasping.

“What the fuck are you in the kingsguard for if you won’t fight?” he snarled. Another swipe came your way and again you barely caught it. Your heart beat frantically in your chest and you tried to duck out of range of his arm.

“Come back here, pretty boy,” Bakugou taunted, advancing on you, but Nishimura cut in with another attack. Bakugou whipped the edge of his blade up again, faster than your eye could follow, catching the strike. You caught the curl of that savage grin on the corner of his mouth again before he moved, ducking under Nishimura’s arm and twisting his blade. It slid along the edge of Nishimura’s sword with an awful screech, then caught the hilt at an angle, ripping it straight out of Nishimura’s grip.

A kick from Bakugou had Nishimura on the ground and just as quickly he twisted back around, stalking back towards you. Your heartbeat quickened in fear as he approached, crimson gaze burning into you.

“You don’t belong here if you can’t face me,” he ground out. “Fight me or I’m discharging you. That’s a fucking order.”

You trembled, but lifted your blade. You needed the money to send back to your parents. It was too early to be discharged - if you left now, they’d have no way of clearing the debt.

You thrust your sword forward but Bakugou dodged easily. You quickly flicked through all the maneuvers you’d been drilling the past month, and followed up with a lunge. Bakugou grinned, flicking it aside with a quick twist of his wrist.

“Put your back into it, shrimp,” he demanded.

You gripped your sword with both hands, bringing it down on him with all the force you had in you. Bakugou deflected, and before you knew what was happening, your sword was rent from your grasp, skidding along the dirt of the pitch behind you.

The flat of Bakugou’s sword came up to tip your chin up to him.

“Pathetic,” he spat, “you fight like a damn woman.”

Your hands curled into fists at your sides. Bakugou’s sharp eyes caught it and he smirked. “You gonna punch me, pretty boy?”

You struggled to tamp down the hot anger bubbling up inside you like a spring from the earth. “No, sir.”

He eyed you distrustfully, pressing the flat of his blade into your chin a little harder. “I’d think seriously about what the fuck you think you’re doing here. This is the kingsguard and I don’t need weak little shits like you endangering the royal family or your fellow soldiers.”

You stared back at him, not daring to speak. Your blood rushed in your ears and your heart hammered wildly in your chest.

After a long moment he lowered his blade, sheathing it back at his hip. He looked over at Nishimura, who was delicately picking himself up off the ground.

“Disappointing,” Bakugou said roughly. “I’ve seen enough here. You’re both dismissed - back to your dormitories.”

You nodded, backing away from him. Nishimura stalked off, and you turned and picked your way gingerly back across the field, stopping only to pick up your sword and tuck it back into the belt at your waist. You set off slowly for the barracks, something like hot tears stinging at the back of your eyes.

You didn’t look back, but you swore you could feel a pair of crimson eyes on you as you slipped quietly through the dark.

[elisaphoenix13]

Never Too Old (Or Young)

It was a rare morning that Tony got up before Stephen or the girls, so he took the opportunity to get up and go downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee. He may have been awake, but he wasn't quite aware, which was something the coffee would help with. Tony yawns and pours the coffee into a mug when it finishes brewing and he walks over to one of the windows to blearily look out as he drinks his...what did Harley call it? His anti-murder juice.

Each sip he took woke him little by little until he noticed a white smudge on the window in front of him. What the hell? Tony tries to rub it away with his finger, and that's when he realizes that the smudge was on the outside. It looked nothing like bird poop, in fact, it was a solid white. It had a specific curve to it…

The engineer takes a step back when he notices another white smudge out of the corner of his eye, and he sighs heavily when he sees the smudges all over the windows. They were everywhere. It took a couple more thoughtful sips of his morning coffee for things to finally click and Tony realized they were stickers.

"These damn kids," Tony huffs as he walks into the living room.

The likely suspects were Peter and Diana. He considered Harley for a brief moment, but not only would it be hard to place so many stickers on the outside of the tower windows in the Rescue suit...but he was also passed out on the couch. Textbooks were all over the coffee table, the floor, and even a couple were on the teen himself which was a dead giveaway that he had been studying all night. Why he was in the living room instead of up in his room was beyond Tony, but he shrugged it off before carefully taking off the boy's glasses and setting them aside.

Stephen was the one to suspect Harley's far-sightedness a couple of years ago, and the boy had been so relieved that there wasn't something seriously wrong with him. The sorcerer had kept a close eye on Harley after almost a week of complaining of headaches, and the boy would squint while doing homework or reading, pull the book farther away, and even rub his eyes.

Maybe in the hopes of fixing his vision.

So Stephen took him to a specialist since he and Bruce didn't exactly specialize in optometry. The doctor confirmed Stephen's suspicion and they got Harley some prescription glasses which clearly made a difference when he started wearing them. No more furrowing brows, no more headaches, and he got his homework done faster since he wasn't using most of the time to try and see it in the first place.

Tony had a suspicion that William liked them too.

Just as Tony was about to throw a blanket on his oldest son, Levi beat him to it and draped itself across the teen. "Why didn't you do that before?"

"It can only do so much without me." Stephen says as he descends the stairs holding Lucy and with Athena trailing behind him.

"One of our kids decorated the windows." Tony tells him as he puts his coffee down on a book free surface to take their youngest. "And the tree is miraculously still standing."

"That's because Tibbs is in Peter's room. We have a whole day of prying him away from it ahead of us." Stephen rolls his eyes and heads into the kitchen to make himself some tea and a bottle for Lucy.

That was made and handed to Tony before breakfast was started. Thomas and William join a few minutes later and the younger of the twins joins Stephen in the kitchen to help as Thomas retreats into the living room. It turned into a typical morning after that. The rest of the kids woke up, some of the Avengers came up to join the family for breakfast, and sometime in the middle of that chaos, Harley woke up and cleaned up his study mess. Breakfast was eaten and Harley and William made plans to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

It definitely wasn't a date.

Peter and Cassie had their own plans and Peter was currently showering while his girlfriend went back downstairs and got ready. It was relatively calm then...at least as calm as it could be with as many people as there were. Stephen was reading on the couch with Athena next to him with her head in his lap, and he periodically pet her head as he read. Tony had disappeared down to the lab with Lucy to undoubtedly turn her into a grease monkey, and Valerie was coloring on the floor with Diana. Thomas...was somewhere not dying or getting into trouble so that was enough for them. Harley disappeared as well which was weird since William was still in the living room with the girls.

Stephen nonchalantly turned a page in his book when Peter screeched. The wolf lifted her head at the same time Stephen, Valerie, Diana, and William looked up toward the bedrooms, and Peter soon came out of his room with only a towel around his waist with blue splotches all over his skin.

"HARLEY!" Peter shouts and Stephen sighs.

A prank. Specifically the one where a showerhead was filled with dissolvable dye capsules or Kool-aid powder. Harley was nowhere to be seen and to Stephen's surprise, William burst into hysterical laughter. Peter gave the younger teen a look that was a mix between annoyance, bewilderment, and what looked like glee. Probably because William was actually laughing about something.

"I-I'm sorry!" William sputters through bouts of laughter.

Peter huffs. "Mom, have you seen Harley?"

"Nope." Stephen says as he flips a page in his book and Athena lays her head back down.

Peter looks at William. "Tell your boyfriend it's on!" He disappears back into his room to scrub the blotches off his skin, leaving William to sputter.

Stephen chuckles and returns part of his attention to his book when William ends up blushing bright red.

"You should kiss him." Diana finally says and William's eyes widen.

"Wh-what?!"

"You should kiss Harley. You both like each other." She repeats. "You're worse than Uncle Quill and Uncle Scott."

"He doesn't-"

"He does." Stephen says and turns another page.

"Hey, Will! Come on!" Harley says from the elevator.

William turns a deeper shade of red as he gets up to join Harley, and Stephen hears the older one ask him if he's okay as the elevator doors close. Maybe his and Diana's little confession would be just the push William and Harley needed but then again…

"Boys are stupid."

"Diana." Stephen scolds lightly.

"They are." She mumbles.

"Who's responsible for the stickers?" The sorcerer asks.

"Petey. He crawled on the windows outside and put them on."

"I suppose you supplied them?"

"Nuh-uh. Valerie."

Stephen looks back up from his book and raises an eyebrow at Valerie who definitely looks a little guilty. She pouts up at him with her big blue eyes, and he sighs in defeat. One would think that with seven kids he would be immune to the puppy eyes but he fell for them every time. He was pretty sure the kids knew it too.

No. He was positive.

"Bye Mom! Be back later!" Peter calls out as he races down the stairs and through the door to the stairwell.

"Have fun." Stephen manages to say before the door shuts.

"Mama, look." Valerie holds up the paper she was coloring on and reveals endless scribbles that covered the whole of it.

"It's very beautiful. Do you want to hang it up?" He smiles when her eyes widen in excitement and she nods.

The two year old gets up and walks over to the cloak floating nearby and holds it up to Levi. The cloak happily takes it, and with a cartoonish flourish that briefly made Stephen feel like he was in one, Levi tacks it to the wall with the other drawings. When it claps the folds of its collar together, Stephen knew they were in far too deep. Even his cloak was domesticated.

"My children have turned an ancient relic into a nanny." Stephen bemoans.

"Daddy said you started it." Diana says and Stephen huffs.

"It was one time and that was when Peter was turned into a baby. The cloak was the only one that could reach Peter when he was climbing the walls and the ceiling." Stephen closes his book. "Speaking of your daddy, since he smuggled your sister into the lab, why don't we go to the store?"

"Can I come?" Thomas suddenly says from next to him.

"Get your coat."

In the meantime, Stephen takes the girls upstairs to get them dressed and once they all have their coats on, he opens a portal to the store. Thomas of course returned while the girls were getting ready, and went through the portal after picking up Diana. Stephen huffs fondly when Diana giggles loudly and picks up Valerie to follow them. It took a couple of years, but the twins were finally comfortable asking for things but it was usually still necessities. It was still kind of rare for them to ask for things they wanted.

"'tena?" Valerie asks and waves at the wolf behind Stephen. "'Tena, here!"

Athena comes through the portal and Stephen rolls his eyes as he waves his hand to get her service vest on. It would at least lessen the looks, which only left the 'is that a wolf' whispers. Yes. Yes she is.

"If you weren't so shy of strangers, I'd say you would grow up to be a politician or a world leader."

"Nah, Val?" Thomas cackles. "She's too nice."

"Also a good point. Push the cart please?"

Thomas nods and puts Diana down so he can grab a cart and they walk through the aisles of Target. Diana was happy to 'ooh' and 'aah' at every piece of clothing she saw and Valerie soon ended up in the seat of the cart when Stephen's hands began to tremble a little too much. He then had to attempt to redirect Diana's attention away from the clothes because he was pretty sure she had twenty versions of the sundress she was looking at. Cassie was the one that took her shopping for clothes anyway. It was their thing.

"Aww…" Diana pouts but goes without a fuss to the bedding aisle.

"Why don't you help me pick out some sheets for your sister?"

"There's one with stars on it." Thomas points out and grabs the set to hand to the seven year old.

Diana rolls the set around in her hands with a scrutinizing gaze and then shakes her head. "No. She needs animals."

She looks up at the selection of bedding and finally points up at a set with little brown rabbits. Thomas grabs it for her and after she scrutinizes it like the one before, she smiles and nods and holds it up for Valerie to see.

"Do you like it Valerie?" She asks and the two year old grabs it and scrunches her brows at it before smiling.

"Bunny!"

Stephen chuckles. "I'll take that as a yes." His phone then rings and he takes it out of his pocket to answer it. "Yes love?"

"Heyyyyy Honey…" Tony starts and the sorcerer instantly narrows his brows in suspicion even though his husband can't see.

"What did you do Tony?"

"What? Nothing! Everything's fine! FRIDAY just told me you were at the store and thought I'd tell you that we're low on diaper wipes." Tony answers casually.

"Lucy is covered in grease again isn't she?" Stephen asks flatly.

"It suits her."

"She is two weeks old! Give her a bath. A proper one."

"Yes Duchess." The mechanic chuckles. "We do need more wipes though."

"Noted."

Stephen hangs up and rolls his eyes as he directs the kids to the baby section. Wordlessly, he grabs at least three packs of wipes before grabbing a fourth just in case. Tony had a habit of wiping down Lucy with diaper wipes whenever she was down in the lab with him and she got dirty, but Stephen didn't even know how he managed that. Her motor skills were still nearly non-existent and he wondered if maybe his husband used her as a rag.

He wouldn't put it past Tony. He got tunnel vision whenever he got invested in a project. Stephen couldn't complain though. Lucy loved being in the lab with her father and Tibbs, and whoever else happened to be in there with them. Granted, she slept through most of the chaos, and when she didn't, she was very helpful to Tony.

Baby noises were apparently helpful.

"We better hurry and finish up so we can go save your sister." Stephen says.

"It might be too late." Thomas jokes.

They finish their shopping and Stephen opens a portal back to the penthouse where they find Tony giving Lucy her bath. Before Stephen can even open his mouth, he sees the baby tub in the sink and makes a strangled noise when he finds the water in it nearly pitch black.

"I'm afraid to ask...but what happened?" He asks through clenched teeth.

Tony looks up and actually looks a little sheepish. "Domino effect I think? Something backfired, Tibbs was startled...and I think he knocked over a box of dust."

"I wouldn't be surprised. You barely clean the lab." Stephen sighs. "I hope you found a baby underneath all that filth."

"I did. She's very cute too. Can we keep her?" Tony holds up their naked baby daughter and grins.

Stephen can't help but chuckle.

"You get to change the diapers."

"Always stuck with the dirty work." Tony grumbles.

[merryfortune]

Saving the Best for Last

Relationship: Asuka/Manatsu

Fandom: Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure

Word Count: 2.1k

Tags: Canon Compliant, Missing Scene Fic, Fluff, Pre-Slash, Pining, Coda

Synopsis: Manatsu wants to thank Asuka for inspiring her to try something new with her eating habits.

  Manatsu could almost feel her reflexes fighting against her as she moved her chopsticks towards the simmered pumpkins that she had prepared over her usual selection of eating her favourite meat patty first. It was so incredibly tempted to switch back to her normal habits but Manatsu was strong and it was totally worth it. Both for Asuka’s sake, of trying something new, but also for the sake of her mother found it amusing but welcome to see Manatsu change things up.

  Her mother delighted to enjoy the simmered pumpkins between them both first. She beamed as she enjoyed them; they were a little wonky regarding flavour and texture but as Manatsu’s mother, Aoi couldn’t have been prouder that her daughter wanted to take up more responsibility around the house and was even taking so much initiative. It made her heart swell and so, she happily ate the simmered pumpkin. Seeing how much hard work Manatsu had put into making it all made it all the tastier.

  Very quietly, to herself, Manatsu was aware of the flaws in what she had prepared for herself and her mother, but she ate eagerly regardless. It mightn’t have been her mother’s cooking, but it was her own and she was proud of that. Not to mention, when she had finally eaten through all her side dishes – the cherry tomatoes and the broccoli and even the omelette – the hamburger patty really did taste fantastic at the end of it.

  Manatsu couldn’t believe it. Asuka’s advice was unreal. Maybe patience really was a virtue after all. She had been a little bit worried that her meat patty might have cooled down too much but she guess that wasn’t really a problem given how she had devoured her side dishes in preparation of her main course. And it really was worth it. It was a little bit burnt on the underside but Manatsu ate it enthusiastically, nonetheless. It was super tasty with all the other merged flavours of the previous side dishes on her palette.

  She just had to thank Asuka later. Her smile permeated the whole of her demeanour as she swallowed down her meat patty.

  “You look happy with yourself.” her mother chipperly piped up – and interrupting her reveries.

  Manatsu’s eyes went wide and she could have choked on her own spit. She could feel the warm blush in her cheeks and now her ears and it was just getting worse as she realised, she was daydreaming about her friend before her mother had spoken. Aoi, however, only laughed.

  “Nothing wrong with enjoying your own food, it’s a good skill to have, believe it or not. Especially when you’re just starting out and experimenting, you don’t want to waste food after all.” Her mother made blithe conversation.

  Manatsu giggled awkwardly, pinching tightly onto her chopsticks and tried desperately hard not to think about the fact that she had been thinking about Asuka. She very much wanted to believe the hot blush she felt was because she had been interrupted daydreaming and nothing else. And its not like it was a weird daydream or anything.

  She was just thinking about Asuka. Asuka and her pretty, shiny, long, red hair. And her pretty purple eyes which were always so sharp and intense. It was intruging. But enough of that. What Manatsu was really thinking about – and definitely not Asuka’s nimble hands or her tall, fit physique – was that she wanted to practice saying thank you to her very friend. It was kind of important, after all as Manatsu wasn’t exactly the most patient person in the world so Asuka being that anchor of serenity meant a lot to her. She hadn’t enjoyed a meal like this in so long and being so busy, especially with her own family, which was so much bigger than Manatsu’s, she just had to say thank you.

  “Thanks for dinner, dear,” her mother said to her – Manatsu blinked, when had her mother cleared the table like that?! – having finished her plates, “I’ll wash up, if you like, it’s only fair.”

  “N-No way!” Manatsu rebuked her, rocketing to her feet, making the dinner table tremble and rock in her wake. “You clean up all the time after all the tropica-shining dinners that you make so its only fair that I clean up after tonight!”

  Her mother blinked. She hadn’t expected being roared at but given that Manatsu was offering to do chores, she didn’t mind too much. She laughed and let Manatsu go about to the kitchen to do the clean-up.

  Manatsu grabbed all the crockery and cutlery off the table to all but immediately dump it in the sink. She all but ripped the faucet out as she tried to turn it on and was incredibly aggressive as she scrubbed them down with hot, soapy water. But at least the job got done quickly and more surprisingly, thoroughly. Her mother was very impressed to see the various plates sparkle once Manatsu was done with them.

  “Good job.” she praised her.

  Manatsu sighed. She drooped with exhaustion. “Thanks, Mum.”

  “Off to bed now, I take it?” she asked.

  Manatsu nodded.

  She had wanted to do more but scrub the dishes clean, she wanted to scrub her mind of all her over-thinking. It was totally unlike her, but it was really frazzling her. It was bizarre just how thinking about and daydreaming about thanking Asuka for something so cosmically insignificant in the grand scheme of things was doing this to her. So, just as exuberantly as she had marched to the kitchen, Manatsu marched to her room to go to bed.

  Even Laura found it strange.

  Manatsu tore off her evening clothes and got into her pyjamas, trying to force her head through her sleeve before realising that she had it around the wrong way – and also inside out.

   Laura sighed. Humans were a different species to mermaids, and she found them rather incomprehensible and then there was Manatsu. Manatsu, Laura was fairly certain, was another species against compared to the other humans that she had since had the mixed pleasure of observing since emerging from the depths of the ocean in search of the Pretty Cure.

  So, rather than flopping out of the Mermaid Aqua Pot to have some quality time with Manatsu who had finally, blessedly, figured out that her head was not supposed to be going into the sleeve of her sleep shirt, Laura settled back down into her own, clam shell-like bed with Kururun who yammered aloud with happy snoring. Laura felt the same. It had been a long day filled with good food and there was nothing better than going to sleep after a day like that.

  Even Manatsu, for all her vigour and boundless enthusiasm, had to agree.

  Though, she did wrestle with her sheets and her pillow a lot that night as she tried her very best not to think about how she was over thinking something as simple as wanting to say thank you to Asuka.

  To no surprise at all, Manatsu woke up the following morning looking like a visible wreck. She had bags under eyes and the usual pep to her step wasn’t quite there. Fortunately, unlike most people who had had a horrid sleep the night before, Manatsu had the advantage of being Manatsu and by the time she had her breakfast, drunk some water, and brushed her teeth, she had more than perked up.

  With little resistance, Manatsu was ready for school so she grabbed the Mermaid Aqua Pot from atop her desk and bolted out the door thereafter. She heard Laura shrieking in protest of being manhandled so carelessly Manatsu hardly cared. It was far too important that she arrived at school early so that she could catch Asuka before classes.

  With the Mermaid Aqua Pot stuffed in her schoolbag, Manatsu came flying past the school gates and in the blur of the wind and the scenery, she caught a glimpse of red. Shiny, sparkling red. And her heart leapt to her throat. Asuka.

  Manatsu smiled a wriggling smile as she cooled off her hot heels. She swerved hard at the tip of how straightforward careening through the quadrangle so she could catch up to Asuka who was still standing by the gates, looking bewildered and gobdmacked at the tornado that had just past her by.

  Manatsu smiled wonkily as she ignored Laura’s complaints about her royal chariot was treating her this morning as she approached Asuka. Stiff-legged and eyes wide.

  “Okay…. Someone’s acting a little strange this morning,” Asuka said in lieu of a greeting.

  Manatsu laughed, straightening up her back and toying with her hair, all shoddily putt up in her usual ponytail but there was bubbles and streaks amid it. “Good morning, Asuka.” Her tone was dragged on.

  “Good morning to you to, Manatsu,” Asuka replied, and she folded her arms, her brow quirked, “I have a feeling you want something from me? Something that can’t wait until club activities, it seems.”

  “Yep!” Manatsu chirped. “I, er, wanted to say thank you. For yesterday.”

  “Oh, yeah, no worries.” Asuka said and she flashed a simmering smile. “I had fun too, teaching everyone to cook.”

  “Oh! Um, not that specifically but thank you again for doing it.” Manatsu said. “I tried it last night. Saving the best ‘til last, that is. And it was super-duper delicious. More delicious than usual. Thank you.”

  Asuka’s eyelashes fluttered as she was thanked for such an unusual but small thing. She smiled shyly.

  “Thanks, Manatsu, and, um, funnily enough…” Her voice trailed off, so she had to clear her throat. “I tried your style of eating last night too.” She confessed quietly.

  “No… way…” Manatsu gasped.

  “Yes, way.” Asuka laughed awkwardly. “And it turns out, I do prefer my style of eating my favourite things last but its really cute how you put your passions first rather than making them last. I feel like I understand you a bit better now.”

  Manatsu blinked. “Really?”

  “Really.” Asuka smiled.

  “Thanks…” Manatsu smiled too. A big and huge smile that made her eyes truly shine – and that almost detracted from the fact that her cheeks had gone a bit red too.

  “Anyways, I was going to help out with the soccer club this morning, they wanted an extra hand to re-pump up some balls and, well, I couldn’t say no for some reason so if you would excuse me but you did catch me at a good time.” Asuka said.

  “Yeah, sure go ahead.” Manatsu replied.

  Asuka’s arms slipped down from in front of her, she put one hand on her hip and said, “See you later at club activities. I’m looking forward to them more and more.”

  “Me too.” Manatsu agreed eagerly. “See you later.”

  Asuka smiled and she nodded her head. She sashayed off and Manatsu watched. She felt her heart throb in her chest and was becoming all too aware of just how red her face was getting. Almost as red as Asuka’s hair, she would reckon.

  Sighing, Laura poked her head of both Manatsu’s pocket and the dimensional window of the Mermaid Aqua Pot, “You are behaving rather irregularly this morning, Manatsu, just what has…?” Laura’s voice trailed off as she took note of Manatsu’s demeanour. She nodded her head sagely. “Oh, I see now. Someone’s been pinched by the crab.”

  “Huh? What crab?” Manatsu asked, all but jumping out of her skin. She didn’t feel pinched by a crab.

  Laura just laughed knowingly. “You know… the crab. The one that makes people behave irregularly, even people like you, Manatsu.”

  “I don’t get it.” Manatsu whined.

  “In due time,” Laura said, “now don’t you have a classroom to get to? Perhaps some homework to do, I don’t recall you doing any last night and didn’t you mention, the day before, there would be a pop quiz today?”

  From one extreme – tomato red – to another – white as a piece of paper – Manatsu’s face changed. She had totally forgotten about that pop quiz; she was originally planning to study last night but then things changed because of the Yarane-da and, of course, because she couldn’t stop thinking about Asuka. Manatsu groaned and felt all her energy deflate.

  “Let’s go to the library and study there, yeah?” Manatsu suggested.

  “It’s your test, not mine.” Laura pointed out before disappearing back into the depths of her mobile home.

  Manatsu then wandered off, just hoping she wouldn’t fail if she threw everything that she could at that test but it sure was weird these past couple days. She was happy too though. She had tried Asuka’s way of eating and apparently Asuka had tried her way, even if it did fail her a bit. It still got her heart racing, perking her up even on the brink of scholastic disaster.

  She still didn’t get what Laura meant by being pinched as Manatsu most definitely did not feel pinched. Even in a pinch like this one.

[writersplanetarium]

Facade: New Beginnings

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 11 Part 12

Aelin and Rowan: The Burning Hatred Between Them

Aelin sighed as she spotted another article about her and Rowan. It’d been a few months since she’d gone and spilled the beans, and the news sites were still talking about it. She and Rowan had since developed a... friendship of sorts. After they’d confessed to each other what they hadn’t dared tell anyone else, they found themselves in a sort of in between place with each other, not sure whether they were going to settle for being friendly coworkers, aquaintences, or close friends. Aelin was trying for friendship, and he wasn’t pushing back, which was a good sign.

Now that they were actually getting along, the articles were pointless, but Aelin knew if she went out now and said they’d made up, it’d seem like a publicity stunt. Oh, who was she kidding, she knew no matter when she did it, it’d seem like a publicity stunt. It had worked in their favor though. They were still the hot topic, especially since everyone was loving the new season of the show and their character’s budding romance.

She had even missed him a little when he went home to spend the holidays with his family. However, with Rowan gone, Aelin could have a party at her house, so she had everyone over for the holidays and not risk upsetting the delicate balance of their relationship. It was a nice, family-friendly party filled with all her favorite people. And yet somehow she found herself looking out the window and sighing at the empty house next door.

She tried not to let her mind linger on the man. Tried not to think of how he’d started waving at her when she’d drink her coffee on her porch before his morning run. Tried not to think about how she’d catch him taking the garbage out at ungodly hours of the morning rather than the night before like a normal person. Or how he’d always get his mail after he’d been working out, so he was sweaty and shirtless. She definitely wasn’t letting herself think about any of that.

But now Rowan was back, the holidays were over, and they’d gotten their new scripts. He’d come right over once he’d put his stuff away and eaten dinner for the reading. And despite their new friendship of sorts, Rowan scrunched up his nose at the first scene, and Aelin finally set her phone aside, putting the articles out of her mind.

“Really?” He asked, “A sex scene right off the bat?”

“We’re supposed to be in love, Rowan, what did you expect?” She laughed, “They’re giving the people what they want.”

“But why does it have to be sex? There are more ways to show affection, to show they’ve grown closer.”

“Yes, but this is the most fanservicey,” Aelin said. She prodded his leg with her foot. “Don’t worry, though, I’ll be gentle with you. I only bite a little.” He rolled his eyes but seemed to be fighting a smile.

“Let’s just get on with it. Your line’s first,” he said.

“You mean the various sounds of pleasure?” She teased. He gave her a flat look. “Okay. Okay. Let’s see.” She flipped open the script. In the middle of their intense moment together, a loud knock on the door startles them both. Charlotte speaks, breathlessly. ”Who is it?” Aelin called.

“It’s Henry,” Rowan said, reading Fenrys’ part. Charlotte and Daemion give each other a panicked look as they see the time and notice they’re late.

“Just a minute!” Aelin said with a bit of franticness in her voice. They both jump out of bed, Charlotte clutching the sheets around her, and Daemion grabbing his underwear from just beside the bed, the both of them racing around the room to get dressed. “Dae, where’d you throw my underwear?”

“I didn’t throw them anywhere,” Rowan replied, “You did. Check by the dresser.” Charlotte continues to look, not checking by the dresser.

“Seriously Dae, I need-” She turns, finding Daemion half-dressed, holding her underwear up by a finger.

“I told you to check by the dresser,” he said.

“Whatever,” she laughed. Charlotte quickly dresses and pulls her messy hair back before turning back to Daemion, who’s dressed as well. She steps closer to him, lacing their fingers, pulling him down to her. “I’ll catch you later.” She kisses him intensely, and when they pull apart, neither seems to want to let go. “I love you.”

“I love you more,” he replies.

“I love you most,” she says. They part fully and Charlotte grabs her bag and puts it on. She makes her way to the door where Henry is waiting. “I do expect you to finish what you started.”

“Always,” he says. He presses a quick kiss to her neck before letting her slip out of the room to meet with Henry. We see him give a fond look at the door, thinking about the girl who just slipped out of it.

“Aw, that’s cute,” Aelin comments. Rowan makes a small sound of half agreement, clearly just wanting to keep working.

So they did. They went through the rest of the script, reading through their lines. It was... odd, now, though. It was easier to read scripts and act with him when she hated his guts, but now... Now it had a different energy to it. Now... it was more tender. Awkward. They were practically friends now, and she had to pretend to be in love with him. To want him. Though if Rowan picked up on the feeling, or felt anything was off himself, he didn’t mention it.

So Aelin brushed it off.

“You want something to drink?” She asked as they finished off the episode.

“Sure,” he said, reclining into her couch, “What have you got?”

“Water, wine, apple juice, and milk.”

“Water’s fine,” he said. She nodded, grabbing him a cup of water and pouring herself a glass of wine.

When she returned to her living room, she caught sight of Lysandra in her kitchen window, grinning like a lion that just caught a gazelle. Rowan was flipping through his phone, so he didn’t notice her staring, but Aelin most certainly did. She saw her best friend lift her phone, and Aelin knew she was texting her.

“Thanks,” Rowan said, his eyes still on his phone as she set the cup down. Aelin’s phone buzzed, and she scowled at Lysandra but picked it up anyway.

It looks like a certain SOMEONE is getting quite comfortable on your couch

He came over to run lines, Lys. Trust me he’s not getting too comfy.

Well he didn’t just run out as soon as you were done. That’s a good sign

It’s weird being nice, and then having to pretend we’re in love. 

You two have a new dynamic now. You just have to adapt your acting to suit it. Which you’ll get the hang of in no time. I mean if you can pretend to be in love with him when you hate him, you can do it when you like him. You’re both professionals, so if you’re worried about him thinking you LIKE like him, remember he knows you’re acting.

Aelin rolled her eyes.

I can see you rolling your eyes, you know.

Aelin laughed lightly.

I’m not worried about anything. It’s just... different. 

Embrace the change, Ace, embrace the change.

Aelin looked up at Lysandra through the window and her friend winked before heading deeper into her house where Aelin could no longer see her.

“You want to watch something?” Aelin asked, taking a long sip of her wine.

“Do you have anything good?” He asked.

“By your standards? No,” Aelin said, “But even grouchy old men like you need to enjoy a movie so bad it’s good every once in a while.”

“I’m barely older than you,” he said with a flat look.

“Old. Man,” she said again with a grin, poking him in the arm with her foot just enough to nudge him. He rolled his eyes.

“We’re going to watch an awful movie,” Aelin said, “And you’re going to love it.”

“Are we to the point yet that you can force me to watch bad movies?” He asked. She picked up the remote.

“Just got there, Buzzard.”

********

Rowan glanced at Aelin as she watched the movie with mirth in her eyes. It was awful. Cheesy times ten with the most Rom Com dialogue he’d ever heard. It reminded him of his first movie, an awful thing that filled him with regret every time he thought about it. But... he liked watching it with Aelin. Despite the fact that he’d never admit it out loud, she was actually pretty funny, and her commentary amused him to no end.

“Yes, of course I’ll go on a week long vacation with you, man I’ve only known for three days.”

“Yes, definitely walk up and stand that close to me while I’m not looking.”

“Of course I’ll marry you after not even knowing you three weeks! We’re soulmates.”

It actually made him smile. It was a nice shift from the awkward tension earlier while they read their lines. It hadn’t gone badly, but it sure as hell just felt... different. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but where things used to be all spark and anger fueling them to try and be better, they were just... there with each other. Somehow, the comfort brought discomfort that the movie helped to reduce.

“You enjoyed that,” Aelin said, moving closer to him.

“I did not,” he lied.

“You did too!” She laughed, “You liked that! You thought it was fun. Look, you’re smiling.” She poked his cheek and he rolled his eyes, dropping the smile.

“I’m going home.”

“No!” She said, grabbing his arm, “You have to stay and watch more bad movies with me.”

“I have to do no such thing,” he said, “Besides, it’s getting late, and you’ve had a whole bottle of wine.”

“One more movie,” she said, “Just one more. This one’s the best.”

“Aelin-”

“Too late, it’s already playing,” she said, picking up the remote and selecting the new movie. He rolled his eyes, but watched anyway.

Usually when he went back home for the holidays, he was glad to be away from Aelin. His family could get crazy, for sure, but they didn’t blast their music so much he could feel it in his feet over a hundred feet away. But this time... He’d actually wanted to come back to her.

She didn’t move back to her spot as the movie started, having made herself comfortable with barely a foot’s worth of space between them. So close he could smell the mix of her jasmine soap and the wine she’d downed. He promptly ignored it. 

She was going strong for the first thirty minutes with her witty remarks and full laughter, but at around forty five minutes it started to die down and her laughter turned to huffs and her sentences turned to words, trailing off to less and less until her head hit his shoulder.

“Aelin?” He looked over at her. She was out cold. He let out a sigh, grabbing the remote. He hit pause on the movie and shifted, gently laying her down on the couch. He tucked a pillow under her head and pulled the blanket off the back, laying it over her.

He turned on his phone’s flashlight as he shut off the TV so he’d be able to find his way out. He paused when he looked at her sleeping, peaceful figure in the dark, only the moonlight coming in through the window illuminating her. He patted her head gently, pushing her hair out of her face, before making his way back home, collapsing into his bed to find himself with dreams filled with that familiar bubble of laughter.

Tagged:

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LMK if you want to be tagged!

[foxy-exy]

Minyard & Doe - Twinyards Appreciation Week

@twinyardsappreciationweek Day 1 - Misunderstandings

AO3 Series

Aaron Minyard had a class to get to, and he didn’t know why the fuck he was here, waiting in line in the cafeteria with a strange, redheaded, scarred man who’d called, “hey,” sidled up to stand much too close beside him, and started holding his hand for no apparent reason.

Aaron, of course, immediately withdrew his hand and glared, and the man’s inexplicably fond gaze melted into surprised confusion.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I — Neil. Andrew, we’ve been dating for months.”

If Katelyn could see Aaron now, she’d joke that his sneer could get stuck that way. But she would also probably just keep holding this guy’s hand, to be polite. So, whatever. “I’m not Andrew, idiot.”

Neil’s eyes widened as he searched Aaron’s face, pulling back. “No…you’re not.”

“You don’t even know the face of your own boyfriend?” Aaron turned to where the vegetarian dish had opened up, hastily shoving helpings onto his plate. The quicker he could get away from this guy, the better.

“I guess not…”

Aaron only spared one last contemptuous glance at Neil as he walked away, but he felt Neil’s thoughtful gaze burning on his back all the way across the caf floor.

-

Andrew Doe had a class to get to, and he didn’t know why he was here, on the receiving end of a far-too-warm smile from the coffee shop barista who was mixing his hot chocolate as she called him…baby.

“I’m surprised, baby. You never ask for sweet drinks.” She curled a stream of whipped cream into the foamy chocolate and slid it across the counter to him. Her nametag read Katelyn. He thought that maybe Katelyn should mind her own business and leave him alone. “Not that you need any extra sweetness, though.”

She was much taller than he was, and could actually lean across that counter, which she proceeded to do, lips puckered, like she was going to drop a kiss on him — he stopped her with a hand directly to her upturned button nose.

“A-Aaron?” she faltered, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

“I am not Aaron.”

Her jaw worked in shock, speechless, and she stared him up and down. “But…but you look…you’re just like…”

Andrew left her to her life-questioning-meltdown that seemed to be brewing. He had other things to do.

-

“Andrew?”

Andrew flipped the page of his criminal justice textbook and hummed quietly. Neil was spread across his couch, fiddling with his half-worn-down sneakers for track, like he thought duct tape would actually fix the holes. It was dark outside, and raining, and this was the kind of cozy routine they had. In a while, Neil might pull out his calculator and start tapping away at it while he worked on his own math assignments, and the persistent clicking and the patter on the roof might lull Andrew into enough of a peace that he would convince himself and Neil to put everything away, turn on the TV, and pull a blanket around them both until they nodded off.

“Do you have any family?”

Andrew stilled, felt a tremor in his hands as they paused in their following of the line of text. Neil and him did not talk about family. They both knew without sharing details that the other had had enough of “family.”

“No.”

“You don’t…” Neil sat up now, to look at him. He sounded apologetic, but urgent. Andrew wouldn’t return the gaze. “You don’t have…a brother, maybe?”

“I’m a fucking abandoned foster child, Neil. And I don’t have anyone I’d count as a goddamned brother.”

“I just —” Neil’s voice was faint, spoken into the back cushion of the couch. “I saw someone who looked…just like you, today.”

“Isn’t that fun,” Andrew bit out.

Neil looked at him, and Andrew stared unseeingly at his book, and when the silence snapped, the tension was too much, Andrew slammed his book shut and went into his bedroom, wrapping his sheets around himself until he could not hear the rain, or maybe the beginning of calculator keys being pressed, or the sound of Neil’s quiet feet when he came in and knelt down next to the bed. He heard the mumbled, “I’m sorry,” and let the hand resting on his blankets stay there, until he was no longer awake to hear his boyfriend’s quiet breaths even out in sleep, too.

-

“Aaron,” Katelyn whispered, and her finger tracing at his chest roused him from almost sleep.

“What,” he mumbled, turning to wrap arms around her, pull her closer. She was very soft and cozily plump, his Katelyn, and always smelled nice. God, he was so fucking lucky…

“Aaron,” she said again, more insistently, and he opened his eyes to frown down at her.

“You didn’t come to the coffee shop today.”

“Was I supposed to?” He let his hand skim her hip, and she swatted at it, laughing quietly.

“No, baby. There was just a man there who was your spitting image, I swear.” She pressed full lips to his chin, and left a smattering of yet more soft kisses across his face, ending with a smooch on the tip of his nose, because she liked when he wrinkled it.

“Huh.” He couldn’t dedicate a ton of brainpower to the thought when the fact that she had scooted up in bed to kiss him meant that her very impressive boobs were right there, but he processed it after a minute. “Wait, what?”

“It was weird. He looked nearly identical to you.” She nestled into his collarbone, and Aaron blinked into the darkness.

“Somebody came up to me and called me a different name,” he offered. “I don’t know who the fuck he was. Tried to hold my hand.”

“You have some kind of doppelganger on campus, huh?” she teased. “We need to find him, line you two up next to each other. You’ll see. It was uncanny.”

Aaron lay awake for much longer than he should have that night, thinking about uncanny resemblances to complete strangers.

-

Andrew did not want to be among a crowd of screaming, jumping people that seemed to be way too invested in sports. Neil, however, was in his track uniform of tight orange shirt and shorts and seemed intent on cheering for some even more sporty friends of his, and Andrew would be damned if he missed the chance to see his boyfriend’s ass in those shorts.

***

Aaron would rather skip this pep rally. He’d never had school pride, he was here to study and make it into med school. But Katelyn was in the mass of cheerleaders shouting and waving their pom-poms down on the field, and he wasn’t gonna be the boyfriend who didn’t show up.

***

Andrew decided halfway through the first quarter of whatever game it was they were playing that nothing was more important than obtaining some terribly sweet and appallingly overpriced snack from the vendors. Neil shook his head, still enthralled with their home team, when Andrew asked if he wanted anything. So down the bleachers he went, catching sight of a cart and attendant down by the front.

***

Aaron has abandoned his seat not long into the game, preferring to lurk behind the cheerleaders’ bench where Katelyn occasionally turned and smiled sneakily at him, even reached up to blow a few kisses at him. He glared at the food vendor who slowly walked past, bellowing snack advertisements and giving him a stink eye. He would stand wherever he wanted to, this wasn’t some professional game. They were in college, for chrissake.

Somebody stopped the vendor right next to Aaron, however, and began ordering what sounded like the entire selection of candy in a remarkably apathetic tone. After the fifth item in the list, Aaron’s jaw twitched and he leaned around the attendant to kindly tell the customer he’d die of a heart condition if he didn’t eat right only —

***

Andrew made eye contact with his slack jawed mirror image and let his own voice peter out.

He did not think Neil was lying. But he had not prepared for…this.

“Asshole twins, huh?” the man holding out the candy to him said, but Andrew shoved the money at the man, snatching his food, and pushed him bodily out of the way.

Aaron — it must be Aaron, that was what Katelyn said — breathed an incredulous, pathetic kind of laugh at the look that the man must have shot his way, and returned Andrew’s gaze, searching and disbelieving.

“Eating that shit’s gonna kill you, you know,” he said, weakly, like he did not care in the slightest.

“I know,” Andrew said, and bit off the end of his Snickers, before offering it to his twin.

Aaron pressed his lips together, to try and fail to suppress a smile, and took it.

[antiadvil]

What Phil Saw

summary: After their first night together, Phil knows he made a mistake sleeping with one of his students. Dan disagrees, but he's too busy having a crisis about his major to press the issue too much.

Or, the conversation Dan and Phil had after their first night together in Electrify my Heart, from Phil's point of view.

rating: PG13

wc: 2.8k

read on ao3 or under the cut

Phil woke up to a thud and an alarm ringing. He poked his head out of his sheets to see Dan, fallen on his floor, angrily tapping at his phone screen.

“Dan?” Phil asked, just as the alarm finally went silence.

“I have a class,” Dan said, pulling his clothes on, his jaw set.

Phil had no idea what time it was, but he was exhausted, so it must have been insanely early. “It’s so early,” he said.

“Yeah,” Dan snapped. “That’s how 8 am’s work, Phil.”

“Sorry,” Phil apologized, “Sorry.” He hesitated. “Can I get you anything?”

“How long does it take to walk to the main quad from here?” Dan asked, yanking his shirt over his head.

“Maybe half an hour? I can walk with you if-”

“Fuck,” Dan said, looking at his phone again. “I’m going to be late.”

“You can skip,” Phil said, before he could think about how he really shouldn’t be encouraging college freshmen to skip their classes. “I want to talk to you,” he pressed on.

“No, I can’t,” Dan said, not offering an explanation. He had his shoes on now, and walked towards the door.

“Okay, but Dan, we really need to-”

Dan closed the door.

“Talk,” Phil finished his sentence, sighing. He groaned, falling back on his bed. If Dan wasn’t going to talk to him, he might as well get some more sleep.

When his own alarm went off, he turned it off and went to sleep again. He finally woke up at almost noon. He had slept through his morning class, was half an hour from missing his afternoon class, and really needed to get his shit together.

What did functioning people do in the morning?

Breakfast or something, probably, but since it was so late, Phil thought he could get away with lunch instead. He could eat quickly, get dressed, make it to his class, and then make it to the lab he was supposed to TA this afternoon.

Where he would probably see Dan again. Great.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Dan again. There were few things he wanted more than to see Dan again, but so soon, so publicly, after the way Dan had run off this morning? No thank you.

Maybe Dan would skip. He certainly didn’t seem like he wanted to see Phil right now. Hopefully Dan would skip.

Phil made it to his afternoon class a few minutes late. He took a few notes, and tried to focus, but he couldn’t stop thinking about that morning. The previous night.

It had been good. It had been so good. Dan was cute and fun to talk to and the fact that he was apparently fun to have sex with too was a definite plus.

This professor was so boring. This class was so boring. Why was he even taking this class? His advisor had recommended it because psychology was important to his field of study, but he could not be less interested in the material.

Maybe it had just been too long since he last got laid. He was losing his mind over one hookup.

It was more than a hookup.

But that was all it could be. All it was supposed to be. And it could never happen again.

Phil hadn’t had a serious boyfriend in years. He hadn’t wanted a serious boyfriend in years. He was too busy. And for god’s sake, couldn’t he at least catch feelings for someone who wasn’t one of his undergraduate students?

God, he hated this class. Was he even in the right focus area if this was supposed to be important to him?

Too many crises at once. Phil buried the heels of his hands in his eyes.

***

Phil normally liked teaching lab. It was a more slow paced environment than office hours, and he got to spend longer with his students. Today, though… was not normal. Phil suddenly wished he had called off sick. They could’ve found someone to cover for him, surely.

They probably couldn’t have. His lab would just have gotten cancelled. And then these students would move on through the CS curriculum never having implemented selection sort. And it would be all Phil’s fault.

It wouldn’t be his fault, a small, indignant voice in the back of his head insisted, it would be the fault of the department who wouldn’t give them enough funding for enough TAs and the university who did god knows what with the mountains of tuition money handed over to them every semester and the crumbling state of higher education in this godforsaken country.

It didn’t matter. He was here, even if he didn’t want to be, and he was going to do his job, however unpleasant his job might be today.

“Alright,” he said loudly, clapping his hands. The room stilled, faces turning in his direction. “Today’s lab is on the course website, as usual. I’ll be around to take attendance and then I’ll be going around again and helping with any questions you might have.”

Phil pulled his CS 115 folder out of his backpack, pulling out the attendance sheet and papers he had pre-prepared for today’s lab. He couldn’t help but grimace at the list of names on the top of the stack of papers. Today was a week before the drop deadline, and he was supposed to finish doing check ins on students who were struggling. Dan was the only one he hadn’t already spoken to. It was a bit of an awkward subject to broach with someone you considered a friend. But... Phil really did need to talk to Dan. As soon as possible, and not just about his grade in the class.

He started taking attendance, stopping for a few extra seconds at Dan’s table. “Dan? Can I speak with you after class?”

Dan was resolutely avoiding eye contact, his cheeks rosy. “Fine.”

“You and your boyfriend fighting, Howell?” one of the boys at Dan’s table said.

Phil froze. He didn’t know. He couldn’t. He was just messing with Dan. Right? “That was inappropriate, Nathan,” he managed. He hoped he didn’t seem as upset by the remark as he really was.

Nathan rolled his eyes and turned back to his computer.

Phil quickly moved on, and spent the rest of the lab avoiding Dan’s table. There were plenty of other students who needed help, and whenever someone in Dan’s area looked like they were struggling, he sent a CA over instead.

Unfortunately, avoiding Dan could only last so long. Soon, the class was over, and Dan was trying to walk out the door.

Phil grimaced, steeling himself. “Dan?” he called, hoping he sounded normal.

Dan jerked to a stop, then slowly turned around. “Yes, sir?” His voice was mocking. Heat flooded into Phil’s face.

“I hope you didn’t forget about our meeting,” Phil managed.

“How could I forget?” Dan’s voice was beyond mocking now. It was cutting, even cruel.

Phil took a deep breath, trying not to get angry. He put on his best stern voice. “Dan. I’m trying to give you some leeway, given the situation, but that is not an appropriate way to speak to your TA.”

Dan didn’t reply. Phil took that as his cue to move on. “Alright,” he said. “Dan, you’re not doing very well in this class.”

Dan still didn’t say anything. Whatever, Phil decided, the less Dan talked, the faster he could get through his script. “I’m not encouraging you to drop the class, though that’s certainly an option. Hopefully this is a temporary issue we can work through. We have a lot of resources available to you; we want you to succeed.”

“That’s nice,” Dan said stonily. “Anything else?”

Phil toyed with the idea of saying yes, that was all, of letting Dan go, but he couldn’t. “Dan… can we talk?”

“About what?”

“I think you know what.”

Dan just stared at the floor.

Phil pushed on, wincing into the awkward silence. “You kind of ran off this morning. I just wanted to say- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m your TA. You’re my student.” Phil hesitated, but Dan didn’t seem to have anything to say, so he continued. “But you’re also my friend. And I just wanted to make sure that… you were okay with what happened.”

Dan stared at the ground, and Phil’s stomach started to sink.

“I would never want to hurt you, but you need to tell me if I did,” Phil said softly.

Dan finally looked up in the briefest of glances. “You didn’t,” he said quietly.

Phil allowed himself to relax a little bit. “That’s good. But I’m still sorry.”

“It was that bad, huh?” Dan rolled his eyes.

“Dan, no, I just meant- I really like you. But you’re my student, and I can’t do this right now. I don’t know, maybe later but right now I just can’t.”

“Great,” Dan said flatly.

Phil tried again. “I hope we can still be friends.”

“Friends.” Dan looked pained.

Phil’s stomach sunk a bit further. “It’s okay if you don’t want that. It’s okay if you never want to see me again. You can switch lab sections, you can-”

“No,” Dan interrupted. “No, I… You’re basically my only friend. I’m not losing you over something stupid like this.”

“Aww,” Phil said. He hoped Dan was exaggerating. He had to have at least one other friend, right? Or at least acquaintance, or roommate, or something? “That’s really sweet, Dan, but you need to make more friends.”

“I know,” Dan mumbled.

“But Dan, really. If we’re going to be friends, I need to make sure you know I’m sorry. It was my job not to cross any boundaries, not yours, and now I’ve made everything all weird.”

“Stop acting like this is all your fault,” Dan snapped. “Stop sitting there apologizing like you did something to me I didn’t want. I’m 19, I knew what I was doing, and if I didn’t want it, I wouldn’t have fucking said I did.”

God, he had no idea what he was saying. Nineteen felt so distant to Phil, he realized with a stab of guilt. “I- Dan, I just mean-”

“Just stop.”

“Fine,” Phil said.

“Fine,” Dan repeated.

“I guess we’re done then. Unless you have anything else to say.” Please let this awful conversation just be over.

Dan glared. “No.”

Phil breathed a sigh of relief, reaching for his coat. “Well then, I guess I’ll see you next week, unless you decide to switch labs.”

“Wait,” Dan said.

Phil froze.

“I have a question.”

“About what?” Phil asked warily.

“Computer science.”

Phil turned back towards Dan. This was something he could handle, then. “What is it?”

“Do you like CS?” Dan asked, his eyes shining.

Phil sighed. So much for handling things.

He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen it coming. He had taught hundreds of intro to CS students, and Dan checked a lot of the boxes for students who would either drop CS 115 or drop out of the CS program later down the line.

There wasn’t anything wrong with that, he reminded himself. It wasn’t his fault or the students’ fault. Sometimes people just decide to do one thing and then decide that that thing isn’t for them and decide to do another thing instead. And that was fine.

He took a deep breath. “It’s, well, it’s a love-hate relationship. And when I hate it, I really hate it. But when I love it, it’s like the best thing in the world. And even when I don’t, I really do believe that CS has the power to change the world. And I want to be a part of that change.”

Dan nodded, still staring at the floor. Phil wished Dan would look at him instead, so that he could explain to Dan with his eyes what his words couldn’t. The way it felt when a complicated concept finally clicked into place. Finally passing that one test case you’d been stuck on for hours, or even days. Finding a bug, and then fixing it. Being able to help someone else, seeing another person’s eyes light up with understanding. But Dan didn’t look up.

“I know a lot of people go into CS for the wrong reasons,” he tried. “It sounds cool or the starting salaries are so high or they want the power to reshape the world in their image. And then they get here and it turns out computer science is hard, and frustrating, and time consuming, and sometimes, it’s just not for them. And that’s okay. It doesn’t make them any less valuable or any less intelligent.”

Phil waited again. No response. He switched tactics. “Are you thinking of changing majors?”

“I don’t know,” Dan said, his voice watery. “What would I even change it to?”

“You can figure that out,” Phil said, trying his best to be encouraging. “It’s okay if you do; CS isn’t for everyone.”

“It’s not,” Dan said, finally breaking down into tears. “It’s not.”

Phil had never wanted to hug someone so badly. “Dan, I’m really sorry.”

“For the last time, Phil, stop apologizing,” Dan exploded.

Phil bit back another apology. “Dan, I just want you to be happy. I hate seeing you like this.”

Dan laughed bitterly. He sounded almost strangled through his tears. “That must be really hard for you. Want to tell me more?”

It was like he was determined to misinterpret everything Phil said. “Dan… Computer Science is hard. Especially in your first class. Computer science is frustrating and confusing and hard, and no one’s code ever works on the first try, and if you’ve never had a breakdown over an assignment you either have incredible time management skills or you’ve only been doing CS for like a month or you’re a liar. And I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t suck, but you come out from it a better version of yourself each time. I’m the programmer I am today because of all the times I failed.”

He held his breath, waiting for Dan’s response. “Great. Thanks. That’s so helpful. It’s all going to be fine, because even though I’m fucking miserable, I’ll be a better person at the end of the day.”

Phil sighed. “If you’re really that miserable, you should drop,” he said.

His words echoed into the room. Dan stared down at his shoes.

“The drop deadline is in a week,” Phil said, trying to be encouraging. “You have some time to think about it.” But not a lot, he thought.

Dan nodded, wiping his face. Phil ached for a tissue.

“Can I help you with anything?” Phil asked.

Dan shook his head. “I don’t think so.” His voice sounded so small. “I don’t think we should talk anymore,” he added, and Phil’s heart stilled, and then sank, slowly.

But asking Dan to stay wouldn’t change anything. When Dan left for the second time that day, Phil didn’t follow. He just sat in a nearby chair and cried, until the next TA awkwardly shuffled in and asked him to leave.

He managed to hold it together on the walk back to his apartment, where he locked himself in his room and cried some more.

He spent the next two weeks in a haze. He didn’t miss any more of his classes, but he was barely present. He had been through enough heartbreaks by now that he had learned to struggle through school when his world was falling apart, but it never seemed to get any easier.

At least he didn’t have to see Dan. Dan had dropped the class, Phil knew from the sneak peek at the class roster he hadn’t been able to stop himself from taking. But even though he didn’t have to see Dan, he couldn’t stop thinking about him. His face as he ran out of the room. His determined glare, the tears still falling from his eyes. How Phil had ached to touch him, to hold him, to comfort him.

Maybe it was selfish. There was a Dan-sized hole inside of him. It would fill with time, he knew, but the wait was killing him.

It would be better, Phil realized one day in the middle of a lecture, if Dan had at least been consistent. He had opened the conversation by reassuring Phil that he wanted to stay friends, and ended by running out of the room in tears saying he never wanted to speak to Phil again. Not that Dan wasn’t allowed to change his mind, but it couldn’t hurt to double check, could it?

It had been long enough, he decided the next morning. If Dan never wanted to see him again, he’d just ignore the text and block him (if he wasn’t already blocked). If there was the slightest chance Dan did want to see him again, it would be worth it.

He took a deep breath and picked up his phone to text Dan.

[evalinkatrineberg]

Unexpected

A/N: Yet another RP with @arin-schreave :)

Life had gone back to normal for the most part since I had left Clemence’s room four nights ago. I had settled back into my routine as if nothing had happened. Wake up early, run, shower, breakfast, read, lunch, study, dinner, relax - wash, rinse, repeat. The monotony of it all was kind of comforting. It wasn’t that I hadn’t enjoyed the ever-changing atmosphere of the palace at all since getting here, but there was a familiarity about having time to myself, to get done what I needed to do. To think.

I had a good bit of thinking to do, and yet, here I was, procrastinating on thinking by working on some summer readings for my fall classes. I had gotten the go-ahead from all of the professors of the classes I had planned on taking to complete their classes online for as long as I was away. The only issue that had arisen was the laboratory portion of my biochemistry class, but the professor had informed me that she was going to reach out to Proctor and see if she could get the lab work I had done under Proctor’s supervision to count for the lab work I was missing out on while I was here. I had thanked my professor profusely for offering to do so, though I didn’t have high hopes that she would succeed. I hadn’t spoken to Proctor since leaving, hadn’t even heard her name since my last phone call with Lukas, but from what I had gathered, she was still rather unhappy with my decision to come here, as well as my decision not to assist her in reaching her non-academic pursuits.

That was one of the things I was trying not to think about. The other was the proposal that each of the Selected were going to have to submit by the end of the week. I had a topic, thanks to my conversations with Itzel and Safiya in the gardens not too long ago, but I wasn’t content with the feasibility of my proposed plan yet. I would’ve felt more comfortable if I could somehow have gotten access to the royal budget, just to see the numbers, but there was no way that was happening. It was for good reason, but at the same time, it was a mild inconvenience. I didn’t want to look like a fool if there weren’t nearly enough funds for my proposal. There was also the fact that I wasn’t sure my proposal was nearly as impactful as it could be. Again, having access to official numbers would have helped me to conceptualize it a bit, but I’d have to go without, I was afraid.

I put down the black pen I had been using, switching to an indigo color to signify a different carboxyl group in my notes as the next song started to play through my earbuds. The light, airy tones of a violin floated through my ears as I finished writing, looking down at the page in front of me. I took great pride in my notes. They were like an art form for me - a way to express myself and organize my thoughts on one neat, lined sheet of paper. My siblings had always joked that I could sell my notes for money, and maybe they had a point - the extra money would also certainly help fuel my caffeine addiction, I was sure - but I didn’t plan on ever following through with it. They were my notes, after all. I was the one who had put in the time and effort. Yet, it was nice to know that other people saw and appreciated that.

I smiled down at my notebook, satisfied at the quality of my work so far today, before sitting up and twisting in my chair, cracking my back. Only fifteen more pages to go by the end of the week! Done with stretching, I reached over for my water bottle, finally looking at the library around me as I took a sip. It was empty, for the most part. The majority of the people living here must have decided to take advantage of the nice weather and spend some time outside. I couldn’t blame them, but I had work to get done, and the peace and quiet was a welcome change.

My eyes narrowed as I looked to my right. I wasn’t alone, after all. There was Arin, emerging from the stacks with a book in hand. His footsteps were light - almost silent - as he walked towards the door, like he didn’t want to be seen.

I frowned. Would it be worth it to say anything? What good would come of it? If he didn’t want to be bothered, me saying anything would likely just put him in a bad mood, and yet, that possibility in and of itself sounded kind of entertaining to me. He had made it pretty clear when we had last spoken that he didn’t want us Selected girls here, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy myself while I was here.

I took out one earbud, intent on keeping my voice quiet, as we were in a library, after all. “Hello.”

His shoulders tensed up at the sound of my voice, despite my low volume. Did he think someone was going to attack him in the library, or something? Why would a potential attacker even greet him to begin with? Any good assassin would stab first and ask questions later, in my opinion. It only seemed rational.

His shoulders fell as he looked over his shoulder and caught sight of me. “Hi, Evalin.”

His startled expression set me laughing for a brief moment. I’d never seen him caught off guard like this, even when I had literally collided with him in the hallway. It was kind of refreshing, actually - like it made him more human, somehow.

Composing myself once again, I paused my music and took out my remaining earbud, gesturing with my free hand towards the book he was holding. “Doing some light reading?”

He paused for a moment, sizing me up with his eyes, as if he was debating whether or not to respond. I had to admit, that stung a little bit. After a few seconds, though, he lifted the book he was holding, waving it through the air in a small motion. “A bit.”

“Anything in particular?” I put one of my pens in the spine of my textbook, which was sitting open on the table, to mark the page. I could come back to biochemistry later, I supposed. Turning to face him, I swung my legs towards the side of my chair, crossing my left leg over my right.

He hesitated for a second, but then took a few steps towards me. Why was he acting so cautiously? Is he afraid of me? The thought almost had me laughing again, but maybe I was on to something. I could understand if he might think that I was upset over what he had disclosed to me in the hallway when we had last seen each other.

That was one of the other things I had been trying not to think about.

“Systems of Necessary Authority and Power by Ian Mondeli,” he answered, glancing down at the book in his hands.

“Ah, I see,” I replied, nodding slowly and pursing my lips. The name of the book was familiar, though I was certain I had never read it. It sounded like something off of the syllabus of a political science course, but I had never taken one, so I didn’t know for certain. Sure, we had to take two social science classes as a general education requirement at my university, but I had elected to fulfill that requirement with history courses. History was almost straight memorization, which I could do well. Plus, it was more interesting to me than most other social sciences, and didn’t encourage the same level of introspection as a course like psychology.

Still, maybe I could use this as a talking point. I had been telling the truth when I had told Arin that I would like to get to know him better. “Are you a fan of nonfiction, then?”

He nodded slowly, taking a few more steps towards the table. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Me too,” I responded with a sheepish smile. I enjoyed some fiction, sure, but even as a kid, I would beg my father to buy me books about topics such as dinosaurs or marine animals, instead of just reading one of the many fiction novels my siblings had offered me. Political science was quite different from dinosaurs, though, I mused as I glanced back at my notebook for a moment. Maybe he did have an interest in other topics, though. The only way to find out was to ask. “Though I assume you tend to stick to the social sciences?” I looked up at him, inclining my head slightly to the right, bracing my right arm on the back of my wooden chair.

“It depends. It’s good to know about different subjects.” He set the book on the table, taking care to make sure that it didn’t make any noise, and that the edge of the book was perfectly lined with up with the edge of the table. It was oddly particular. So he likes things done a certain way, then. Maybe.

The fact that he had other interests outside of political science and its related fields shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did. He was human, after all. It was only natural for him to have a wide variety of interests and hobbies. However, every time I had inquired as to what his other interests might be, he had brushed me off. I hummed thoughtfully, looking at the book and wondering if this might be my chance to finally get to know something more about what he was interested in. I turned my gaze upwards, meeting his eyes once again. “Such as?”

He shrugged. “Anything. Everything.”

Okay, so, my mission had been unsuccessful after all.

I rolled my eyes at his non-answer, still smiling at him, though. Maybe a joke would work, then. “Mm, somehow, I have a hard time picturing you reading about math.” I picked up one of my other pens, tapping it lightly against my chin as I attempted to imagine him reading Fermat’s Last Theorem. The mental image fizzled out before it ever focused, though, like even my subconscious knew there was no way it would happen.  

“Well, it’s a graduation requirement at all schools, so…” he trailed off, rocking back and forth on his heels.

So he actually did his assigned readings, then. I raised my eyebrows at him, before I realized that him doing the readings for classes made a good deal of sense, assuming he did actually enjoy reading nonfiction. Course syllabi must be like a free list of book recommendations to him, then.

“True, but most math classes tend to focus on problem solving instead of theory. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course! It’s a useful skill.” And problem sets are more fun than memorizing theories, anyway. My eyes were drawn once again to the book he had set down on the table, and my curiosity got the better of me. “Dare I ask what that’s about?”

He hesitated once again, looking down at the book as he answered. “It’s about the caste system.”

Ah, so maybe that was why he hadn’t wanted to be seen then. What was he doing reading about the caste system, anyway? Proctor’s parting comments to me nagged at the back of my mind, but I tried my best to mute them, raising my eyebrows a bit at him. “Oh, neat!”

I probably sounded way too intrigued for my own good. I was tempted to explain myself, but I nixed the idea, deciding it was better to stay quiet. How many times had my mouth gotten me into awkward conversations since I had been here? I had lost count.

He didn’t seem to notice or care, though, simply nodding as he shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing over at my books. “What are you reading?”

Ah, that. I laughed once lightly, my head angled down as my eyes peered upwards at him. “My biochem textbook.” God, it sounded so lame. Who read textbooks - besides me, apparently? “Pretty dry content, I’m afraid.” I bit my lip, more curious as to why he was reading out the caste system than I was willing to explain glycolysis to him. My own curiosity began to mingle with Proctor’s words in my mind, but still I kept my mouth shut. It was too dangerous of a topic. I shouldn’t.

“Ah, well, you’ve got me there.” He nodded again, a slight frown forming on his face as he continued to look at the textbook.

I nodded once. I couldn’t take the awkwardness of this conversation anymore. If it was going to be tense, I might was well make sure my own yearning to know more was satisfied, for the sake of me being able to sleep at night without the questions lingering in my mind. I gestured towards his book, asking, “So, what made you choose that book in particular?” An innocent question. Nothing more. Nothing treasonous about it. Yet, I could feel my heartbeat picking up.

His gaze shifted from my book to his as he considered my question for a moment. “The author has some very interesting opinions - but I’ve read it already.”

“Interesting,” I mumbled under my breath, furrowing my brows as I studied the cover of the book again, making a mental note to look into reading it at some point. It looked pretty innocuous - plain cover, typical fancy lettering - and yet the book seemed to give off a sinister air. I had to be imagining it.

I looked back up at him again, smiling. “It’s nice to re-read books sometimes - to look at them again with a different perspective.”

“Yeah, it can be,” he answered with a nod, watching me for a moment before looking away.

Don’t think I didn’t notice that, Arin.

I followed his gaze, narrowing my eyes slightly as I turned my head. I had been expecting to see someone else coming our way, or at the very least, something of interest, but the library appeared to be empty, besides the two of us. What was he looking at then?

I felt his stare on me once again, and looked back at him in time to see him blink once. Right, it’s my turn to speak. “So,” I began in a ploy to buy myself some time to think of something to say, of what direction to take this conversation in. Clearing my throat, I considered my options. The caste system or biochem appeared to be my only two choices, judging off of what was on the table. Biochem was familiar to me. I didn’t need to hear his opinion on that. I brushed my hand over my notebook and looked back up at him, my mind made up. What was life without a little risk, anyway?

Less stressful.

“Do you ever wonder why the caste system formed in Illea, but not in other countries?” Was this too far? No, calm down! I looked down and shook my head, as if I could knock my fear right out of my brain. It was clearly something he was interested in, which should make it fair game. “I mean, maybe it’s only crossed my mind because my grandparents are from Swendway, and they’ve never really understood it, but…” I trailed off, unsure of where I had even planned on going with this.

He sighed, and immediately something in my chest fell. Maybe he hadn’t been that interested in it after all. However, he then came around to the edge of the table, leaning back on it as if he wanted to take a seat without fully sitting down. Looking down at me, he stated, “It’s a complicated issue.”

“Right.” Was he talking down to me? Bold of him to assume that I was incapable of wrapping my head around anything that wasn’t a science. I avoided social sciences and humanities because other topics interested me more, not because I couldn’t comprehend them. I looked up at him, tapping my pen against my chin again one more time. “I’ve gathered that much from the history courses I’ve taken.”

His head tilted towards the side as he watched me, considering what I had just said to him. “And what did they teach you? Other than that it’s complicated.”

I looked to the side, trying to dredge up as many details as I could from my memory before looking at him again. “I know it started after the first war with New Asia.” I could remember nothing after that, though, and not because I had forgotten it - I was sure of that much. I frowned. “Professors never really explained much beyond that. They were always pretty vague about it. To be honest, I don’t even know how my grandparents were -” I searched for the right word “- assigned, I suppose, their caste when they immigrated here. I would assume it was based on occupation, but…” I didn’t want to finish my sentence. Maybe he had been right - not in talking down to me, but in recognizing that this really was something I knew very little about.

Maybe I should’ve listened to Proctor a little more closely.

The thought sent chills down my spine.

He raised his eyebrows at me, unfazed by any visceral reaction I may have had to my own thoughts. “Well, we have a lot of good history books in here.”

I hesitated for a moment. Between him and Reggie, I might just have hit the book recommendation jackpot. “Can you recommend a few?”

He peered over at my textbook as he nodded. “If you want.”

“That would be great thank you. Of the social sciences, history was always my favorite.” I was still looking at him, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention at all, completely enamored by whatever had caught his attention in my textbook. Surely he wasn’t that interested in protein synthesis.

He nodded once more at my words, squinting at the small font of my textbook. Was that genuine curiosity I saw on his face? I followed his line of sight, trying to figure out what part, in particular, he was reading. Did he find my biochem textbook more interesting than me? I wanted to laugh, but I cleared my throat instead. “If you want, the notes I’ve taken might make more sense than the book itself.” I gestured to my notebook, my color-coded molecule drawings seeming to smile back at me, surrounded by little blurbs of text with the necessary facts and formulas, any words that required definitions highlighted.

“I’d…” he paused, looking at me and frowning a little, “appreciate that.”

Well, it was something. I pushed my notebook in his direction, offering him a small smile as I did. This was certainly not how I had ever pictured my note-taking skills coming in handy. My siblings were going to have a field day with this one.

He picked it up gingerly, as if it might break under his touch. Good. I had worked hard on those notes. He had better not wreck them. I watched as he began to read, a look of genuine interest plastered on his face. We sat like that for a few minutes, him flipping through the pages and me just watching him do so, until he eventually paused on one. Turning the page to face me, he pointed to one of the drawings and asked, “What does this mean?”

Well, this was my time to shine! I took a quick glance at the diagram he had pointed to, my smile growing immediately. “Oh, okay, so that parts about DNA mutations! This is actually related to what I used to work on in the lab.” This could not be more perfect! I began to explain each diagram, pointing to them one-by-one in turn. “That first one is insertion or deletion, which is basically when one or more nucleotides are added or subtracted within a sequence of dna. The second one is point mutation, which is one when nucleotide is changed - like if an adenine turned into a thymine. The third is translocation, which is the movement of one segment of dna from one chromosome to another. That last one at the bottom of the page is inversion, which is essentially just a 180 degree flip of the DNA, so it’s basically reversed to what it was originally.”

He blinked, and I could see through his eyes that the wheels within his brain were turning in overdrive as he tried to process what I had just said. “You’re really smart.”

I looked down at the table, my face turning red as I tried to keep myself from laughing at his oh-so-intelligent response. Fidgeting with my hands in my lap, I waited until I was sure I could speak without snickering, and then looked up again, offering him a smile. “Thank you.”

He turned back to my notebook, continuing to read through the pages. I couldn’t help but wonder what in particular he found so interesting. He seemed a tad confused by the science, so was it the notes themselves then? Did he like my handwriting, or maybe the care I put into each page of notes? My organizational skills were definitely on good display, at the moment. Maybe he was impressed with that. God, I wished I could read his mind as I peered over at each page he scanned over, my focus alternating between that and his face, searching for any sign of recognition or questioning.

“Aren’t you usually the one who asks me why I’m staring?” Ah, crap, he had caught me. He was looking right at me, in fact.

“Yes, I am.” I let out a breathy laugh, feeling the tips of my ears turn red. “I’m just a little surprised that you’re interested in this, is all.”

“Why's that?” There was no malice in his words or face, just genuine curiosity.

I frowned as I considered his question. “I guess it’s just never come up before. Plus, most people I try to explain this to tend to blank out once I start talking - you know -” I began to gesture with my hands as I spoke “- the whole, blank face, glazed-over eyes look.” I laughed lightly, even though the more I thought about it, the more upsetting the truth became to me. Most people just didn’t care to hear what I had to say on the topic. With people outside of my major, the complaint was that I was showing off, or that I made no sense. When dealing with other biology students, I found that I was very rarely taken seriously, or had to justify every thought and idea I voiced aloud, and at that point, everybody had already moved on to some other task.

He ran his fingers over a line of words I had written. The gesture felt intimate somehow, and had my stomach doing cartwheels, as if he was touching my arm or something, instead of only my notebook. Why? “And did I do that?”

“No, not at all.”

He blinked, his eyes widening for a fragment of a second. “Well then, maybe I'm not as bad at acting as everyone said, because I didn't understand a word.”

Oh. Ouch.

I laughed it off, trying to rationalize what I had seen from him with what he had felt. “Understanding and listening with interest are two different things, and the fact that you didn’t understand probably reflects more on my poor teaching skills than anything else.”

“Evalin.” I could’ve sworn my name was accompanied with a sigh. He looked over at his book, and then back at me.

I looked right back at him. “Yes?”

He opened his mouth, words on the tip of his tongue, when my notebook slipped out from his hands, tumbling across the floor.

“Smooth,” I teased, laughing at him as I stood up. Within the span of a few seconds, I had walked over to it and picked it up, my eyes on his as I made the walk back to my chair. “You were saying?”

“Thank you,” was all he said as he took the notebook from my hands. Not done with it yet, then. Interesting. Before I could retake my seat, he added, “You didn’t do a bad job.”

“Oh.” The corners of my lips tugged upwards in a small smile. That was oddly nice of him to say. My thoughts lingered on it as I smoothed out my dress beneath me, taking my seat again and recrossing my legs before looking back up at him. “Thank you.”

He stared at me again, his expression similar to the one that had frustrated me with its elusive meaning every other time we had interacted, but there was a little something more to this one. It was as if he was seeing me for the first time - all of me. It was like I was finally more than just an unwanted guest in his home, more than just some girl invited here for the sake of tradition, from his point of view. I followed his eyes as they moved from my hair, to my own eyes, and then down towards something a little lower on my face.

My lips? Oh, God.

Suddenly I was fifteen years old again, sneaking my brother Gabriel’s friend out to our backyard, leading him behind the oak tree by the shed, and asking him to kiss me. He had been my first kiss. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but it really hadn’t been a very good kiss. It had been sloppy, and rushed, but absolutely exhilarating at the same time. It was a part of my teenage years that I’d always looked back on with nostalgia.

I was eighteen years old again, attending my first college party, a little tipsy for the first time ever, the warm August air mingling with the heat of the bodies around me. June and I had moved to the back deck of the house, an empty beer bottle in her hand. A few people followed us, including a few rather attractive boys. I spun the bottle. I lost track of how many times I had kissed and been kissed that night, more drunk off the rush of someone else’s lips on mine than on actual alcoholic beverages.

I was nineteen years old again, at a Christmas party in the lab. Lukas and I had walked in together, as we almost always did. Someone had hung a piece of mistletoe over the doorway -  a trap laid just for us, I was almost entirely certain. “Kiss!” they all yelled at us. Lukas had shrugged, his eyes fixed only on my lips as he had closed the distance between us faster than I could even think. I had allowed him a little peck on the lips before I had jerked away. I had felt nothing, except embarrassment. It had meant nothing to me. I had never told anybody about it.

I was twenty years old, and the prince of Illea was looking at me like he wanted to kiss me.

I tilted my head slightly to the side, smiling back at him. Maybe I was overthinking this. Maybe I wasn’t. Either way, I couldn’t get enough of the way he was looking at me. I wanted to capture this image in my mind like a photograph and hold on to it forever, a memory in a shoebox that my grandkids would find one day.

I stared into his eyes. “What is it?”

His expression didn’t change in the slightest. “What’s what?”

So we were playing this game again. I leaned forwards a bit, placing my arms on the table. “Nothing,” I answered, shaking my head, my smile growing every so slightly. Maybe I had been imagining it, but I still wasn’t so sure of that.

“You’re staring at me.”

Indeed. I raised an eyebrow at him, retorting, “You’re staring at me, too.”

“Am I?”

Very much so. “You are,” I informed him, chuckling lightly and nodding once.

“You don’t seem annoyed by it this time,” he mused, his eyes still on my face.

I had to laugh a little at that. “A very astute observation. Are you bothered by it?”

“Hmm?” He moved a little closer, clearly at least a little spaced out.

He was staring at my lips again.

“You’re hopeless,” I informed him, chuckling. Clemence had been right when she’d said as much, but I didn’t think she had quite pictured this scenario when she had called Arin hopeless.

“About?” His eyes met mine again.

Now I was the one looking at his lips, my one-track mind useless as all of my brain power was channeled into imagining what it might be like to kiss him. I had a gut feeling he’d be a good kisser. Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was the look of his lips, or maybe it was my own naivety that led me to believe that - I didn’t care. I had to conduct an experiment to draw a conclusion on the matter, if he would let me.

I laughed, meeting his eyes again. “Are you going to make your move, or are we just going to sit here?”

His eyes went wide at that, his mouth fluttering open and closed like a fish out of water. “Evalin, I -” He didn’t finish the thought. Fuck, maybe I had read the situation wrong.

I raised an eyebrow at him, still smiling. All my doubts dissipated as he leaned in closer, keeping his eyes on mine for only a moment before looking at my mouth once again. The anticipation was killing me, but I refused to be the one to make the first move. I had to know that he wanted to do this, to kiss me, not just to be kissed by the first girl he had happened to run into. God, did I want him to kiss me, though. I leaned in a bit, my eyes focusing only on his mouth as the distance between us shrunk with each passing heartbeat. So close. So fricking close.

He finally closed the distance, leaning down and planting his lips on mine as he placed one of his hands on the back of my head, the other still braced against the table. His lips were just as soft as I had imagined them to be. The realization filled me with no small amount of satisfaction, but that was washed away as I closed my eyes, kissing him back, moving my hands to his shoulders, my fingers resting against his back. My mind shut down, my body going on autopilot for moments that seemed to last an eternity in the best way possible.

He pulled away first, lingering for a few seconds before leaning back a bit. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me breathlessly, a smile growing on my own face as I watched him in return. I knew my own breathing was a little heavier than normal, but I didn’t care. That - that kiss - had been amazing, indescribable, really. It had left me at a complete loss for words, my mind still empty as we held each other’s gazes.

This. This had been what I hoped for when I had filled out the application for the Selection.

I had never been more glad that I had.

He leaned back a little further, opening his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t yet form the words. “I-”

I exhaled lightly, my smile only growing. “Yeah.”

We sat like that for a few more minutes, simply drinking in the sight of each other, attempting to reboot our own brains and form a coherent sentence. I had never been great with words, but they had never been this elusive, either.

I leaned back now, the gears in my brain turning once more. “I, uh…” I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

“I should have asked,” he stated with a frown, leaning back even more.

I wanted to agree, but I had also clearly invited him to kiss me. Or at least, I had thought I was pretty clear. I shook my head. “No, it…” He’s right, though. He should have asked. “Don’t worry. Sorry if I didn’t make it clear enough that I was okay with it.”

“Don't apologize.” Right, we had talked about that a few night ago. Now it was his turn to shake his head.

“Right, well…” I trailed off, narrowing my eyes at him as I tried to find the right words. “Don’t you apologize either, then. No apologies are warranted in this situation.” I let out a single laugh, my eyes searching his face for any clue as to what he might be thinking. Did he not enjoy it?

He kept his eyes on me for only a brief moment longer, and then pushed himself off the table, bending over to pick something up. Oh, we must have knocked something over when we were kissing. That was only mildly embarrassing. At least there was nobody else here. When he stood up, he had my notebook in his hand, which he held out in my direction wordlessly.

“Oh.” My cheeks were flushed red at this point, and a nervous laugh accompanied my words. “Thank you.”

“Here you go.”

A little late to the draw there, Arin.

“Right, thanks.” My fingertips brushed against the bare skin of his hands as I grabbed my notebook back from him, my cheeks flaring red again as I slowly pulled my arms back, pulling my notebook into my chest. What to say in a moment like this? “So, uh,” I tried, clearing my throat, “that happened. Nice.” Another nervous laugh escaped my lips before I added, “Um, we could do it again, sometime - if you want to, of course.” The words left my mouth in one rapid-fire jumble, a succession of waves quickly crashing over each other as they raced to leave my mouth.

Earth to Evalin! Get your shit together!

He looked lost in thought, but he nodded. “Yeah, sure.” He began looking around then, though for what, I had no clue.

I couldn’t control my face from falling. Had it been that bad, for him? I didn’t think that was possible. Worse, if he didn’t realize where he was, was it because he was picturing someone else, in another place, when he had kissed me? What had I done?

“Right, well,” I began, fidgeting with my hands in my lap as I looked down at the table, “I uh, didn’t mean to keep you from your reading. Though, this was a very welcome study break.”

“Evalin?”

So, he knew who I was then, at least. That was good.

I looked up at him, a small close lipped smile on my face. “Mhmm?”

His smile was nothing short of shy as he said, “Thank you.”

I blinked. “You’re welcome?” I had never been thanked for kissing somebody before. That must be a good sign, right?

He quickly stood up then, straightening his tie and walking around to the other side of the table. I followed suit, gathering up my own books and pulling my backpack out from under my chair. How many times had I run into Arin when I had this backpack on me now? Twice? Once was random, twice was a coincidence. Were we aiming for a third? I kind of hoped so.

“That was nice,” I said earnestly, looking up at him as I zipped my backpack. Then, pushing in my chair, I decided to go for it. “So, see you around, I guess?”

He nodded. “I’ll see you around.” He walked towards the door of the library then, pausing in the doorway to give me one more nod, before exiting completely.

A few seconds later, I left as well, my thoughts still an incomprehensible, garbled mess of emotions and exclamations. Had that actually happened? I must be dreaming. Yet, if I wasn’t…

This might have just been my best day here so far.

[neni-has-ascended]

Persona 4 Fanfic: “You Wouldn’t Expect” [Commissioned by spiralstorm]

Characters: Teddie, Labrys

Type: Romance

Description: Teddie takes Labrys out to the beach.

Read on Fanfic.net: HERE

Read on Ao3: HERE

Author’s Note:

A commission piece. Since I personally love this pairing to bits, I had a lot of fun writing it, though it took me a lot longer than anticipated... Mostly because I had trouble deciding what to do with the requested setting.

If you want to commission me as well for art, writing or translation, please check click here.

I also have a tip-jar.

Most people considered him an extrovert. Most people thought of him as a person who was incapable of taking anything serious, regardless of the situation. Most people had trouble imagining him with anything resembling a sense of shame. Most people would also assume that such a shameless, unserious extrovert would not experience any sort of anxiety going to a social outing they, themself, had suggested and set up in the first place.

Most people were wrong.

There Teddie stood, drenched in a mixture of sweat and some overprized body spray he’d snuck from the hygienics department (on Yosuke’s tab). His bike stood angled and leaned against the wall right next to him. Ever since the incident with the pine tree and the rubber tape he wasn’t allowed to use the rollerblades anymore, so fixing up Yosuke’s old ride was his only way to get out here on his own. Probably a good idea anyway; he was well aware of the enticing properties these fabled ‘rides’ were supposed to have on cute girls. Though, didn’t the bikes he’d seen in Yosuke’s magazines look quite a bit different from that bicycle next to him? Not to worry unnecessarily, but this distinct aura of lameness he could feel radiating off the beat-up thing now that he wasn’t on it seemed a bit… troubling.

Ah! Focus, focus! Teddie clapped his hands onto his face and took a deep breath. Now was not the time to lose his nerves! Not here, not today! No, not when this was the moment, the one, his irreplaceable and very special, very first… date.

His breath stopped even just thinking the words. M-Maybe the air was just especially thin today? Who would be surprised, geez, with how unbearably hot and humid it was, good thing he hadn’t come in his beautiful fur, all the moisture would just have ruined his shine, but now his poor head-hair had to deal with these conditions, and his skin was all wet and his foundation was dripping, and his clothes were wrinkled, and the flowers were wilting, and he couldn’t stop biting his lip-

“Hey. Sorry, did I make ya wait?”

-He snapped to attention and froze up like a popsicle in a straight jacket.

Without him realizing, he’d been approached by a slender figure dressed in a light, flowing summer dress, a pale-yellow ribbon holding her long, azure hair together in a ponytail. Fuuka had really done amazing work in restoring those cloaking features. If he hadn’t known better, Teddie would have assumed it was a regular human girl that had just greeted him so kindly. However, he was sure that the face and voice he saw and heard could only belong to one person in this big world.

“O-O-Ohhhh~~!! L-Labby-chan!!”

He could force melodic inflections into his words all he wanted; it didn’t keep him from stuttering. He found it so hard to not stumble over his words whenever Labrys was around. This, too, he wanted to blame on the infernal heat today. It dried up his tongue and made it so hard to articulate! Yes, that was what was going on here, clearly, without doubt.

“‘You okay, Ted? You lookin’ kinda frazzled.” Labrys’ head tilted slightly as she spoke. Oh no, now the hot weather had gotten her worried for him, too! Not that he minded being cared for, of course, but… No, no! Today was not a day to be anxious and worried. Not for him, and definitely not for her! With a hearty shake of his head, Teddie tried to throw off the many oppressive feelings weighing down on his poor little head and laughed.

“Oh no, mon ami, what are you talking about? I’m doing just bearfectly fine! Especially now that I am in such stunning company~!”

“…If ya say so.”

She rolled her eyes a little, giving a slight sigh. While Labrys wasn’t necessarily the best people-reader, she did consider herself fairly perceptive, and the fact that Teddie right now didn’t appear to be at the height of tranquility was obvious to everyone but himself. Then again, hyperactivity was barely out of the norm for the little guy, now, was it? Giving Teddie a gentle pat on the head, Labrys began to scan the area around them a little.

“Whoa, it sure is packed. You sure it was a good idea to come today? Maybe we shoulda rescheduled, huh…”

The doubt in Labrys’ voice was like a lightning strike to Teddie’s motors, and at once he was bouncing along eagerly in front of the young gynoid lady, shaking his head in utmost denial.

“Nonsense! Don’t you know that getting lost in the crowd is part of the charm of this kind of event? Walking down the beach together, hand in hand, in a sea of blissful couples, gazing at the night sky above, and then--!”

“I… I was kinda hoping we’d be going for a swim.”

That sentence killed the scenario in Teddie’s head quicker than Yukiko could kill a man’s self-esteem. Labrys continued talking, her hands tugged away behind her back as she considered her surroundings. When had she ever found herself stood in a large gathering like this before?

“Y’know, since that whole Beach Party thing we were talkin’ about in spring didn’t end up happening yet, ‘cause everyone got busy, when you said we were meeting at Shichiri Beach, I just kinda… assumed.”

His face went through at least 5 different emotions upon the realization that whatever miscommunication he had allowed to happen had caused Labrys to come here with wildly different expectation from him. Teddie eventually settled on a boisterous laugh that came out more awkward than intended, trying to right the wrongs of what he had suggested.

“Ah… AHAHAHA! Of course, of course!! Swimming, at the beach, what beautiful maiden wouldn’t want to swim at the beach, it’s bathing suit time after all!! Summer, sun, pin-up poses! Never you fear, I always carry an emergency bikini just for cases like this, right on my-“

“…Going swimmin’ in a crowd like this would kinda blow my cover. My cloaking device can’t project into water, y’know.”

“-Oh.”

Well, that was quite unfortunate. And though she tried to hide it, a certain sense of disappointment on Labrys’ face couldn’t be denied. Teddie, for some reason, felt put on the spot by this. Embearrassed, even. And there he’d been mapping out this whole, unforgettable evening in his head already. What a debacle.

“Em… Should we…” he didn’t mean to, but he ended up having his head sink in between his shoulders on him. “Should we go home?”

Fast, unusually quiet and short was how Teddie’s question came out sounding. Still, Labrys seemed calm.

“Nah, let’s stay. It’s sorta my own fault for not researching the event before sayin’ I’d come. ‘Sides, I’ve never been to a ‘festival’ before. Maybe it’s gonna be fun.”

Teddie’s enthusiasm was restored.

“Of COURSE it will be fun! You’ll love it! We’ll buy snackies and weird thingie-dings, and write wishes on tiny sheets of paper, and catch goldfish and watch the fireworks and the stars…”

A young, gold-blond boy was excitedly jumping around in front of his azure-haired friend, continuing his descriptions in such a manner that it was hard to believe he was ever going to stop. Labrys chuckled. As nervous as it made her to be around these many strangers, as long as she had Teddie just being Teddie, she knew all was still right in the world. She took a deep breath of salty beach air mixed with the scent of fried meat and Takoyaki and looked out to the festival site stretching out before them.

“Shichiri-Tanabata Festival, huh.” she mumbled to herself. “Let’s see…”

★

Teddie hurried to drag Labrys along to every little point of attraction that grabbed his attention, his excitement unbroken even as the hours marched along. Calling his way of selecting the booths they’d spend their time at ‘erratic’ would have been flattery. In a hurry he jetted from one site to another, from a saleswoman selling star-themed charms to an ice cream stand, to a pair of performers, to a fishing game, to a stand selling cold drinks, and so on. It definitely helped that Labrys didn’t mind his guidance, much to the contrary. She was glad to have something resembling a line to navigate along this chaotic gathering of people, whose countless voices constantly threatened to overload her sensors. Her 5th generation hardware simply wasn’t optimized for complex social situations like this one. Following Teddie’s lead and focusing on his voice helped drowning out the noise. Holding his hand to not lose track of him kept her from getting distracted. Eventually, she found herself sitting by a table put up next to a little tree with lots and lots of colorful papers hung on it, sipping from a plastic cup of iced tea (her systems could handle tasting and excreting liquids; it was only solid foods that caused problems.)

“There sure is a lot to do here,” she said with a sigh, gazing at the mass of people she’d been walking through all afternoon and wondering how she’d survived it. She turned to Teddie. “You’ve been to a festival before, haven’cha?”

“Yes, but never to this one,” Teddie admitted, still a bit flushed from the excitement of all the games they’d been playing. “The one in everyone’s town is very different from here. It’s a lot smaller and a lot less romantic. This one here makes me feel like I’m being swept off my feet!”

“Hm…” Sip, sip, sip, Labrys worked her way through her drink, considering Teddie’s statement. For someone who had never been to this festival either, he sure seemed to sure his way around. There was a lot she could learn from him, especially considering that he hadn’t been living in this world for that much longer than her. It probably paid to be as wide-eyed curious as him when it came to this sort of thing. It was then that a small stack of tourist brochures on the table next to them caught Labrys’ attention. She reached out, took one and began to read it. Of course, Teddie looked over her shoulder.

“Ohhh, English! Fancy.”

“It’s frickin’ broken as heck tho,” Labrys frowned at the grammatical mess before her eyes.

“You speak English, Labby-chan?”

“Came pre-installed with ‘nuff to read most of it. Can’t exactly speak it tho. Well, not withoutta soundin’ like an, um, y’know. Robot.”

It took Labrys some mental effort to stop her language processing programs from going bonkers trying to deal with the monstrosity presented to them. Eventually, however, she had processed the text enough to read out some of it.

“Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival, originates from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the stars Vega and Altair, who’re thought to be embodied by the deities Orihime, the Celestial Weaver, and Hikoboshi, the Celestial Cowherd. According to legend, the two lovers were forbidden from meeting by the Sky King, who thought their relationship prevented them from performing their duties. Only once a year, when their stars meet on the 7th day of the 7th month, the two can meet, and it is said that wishes written down and bound to bamboo or branches on this day will come true.”

“Ohhhhh, that’s so romantic!!” Teddie almost squeaked hearing the story, making wide eyes at the paper in Labrys hands. She laughed.

“Sure, you’d like that. You’re into mushy stuff like that, aren’cha?”

“Hm. It would be even better if Ori-chan and Bosshy got to meet whenever they want,” Teddie declared after taking a few seconds to process the story. “I mean, it’s so sad! I thought true love was supposed to be forebear! Not giving them a happy ending when all the other fairytales get one just screams of discrimination, if you ask me! They should complain to the management!”

Somewhere halfway through Teddie’s critique had stopped making logical sense, but Labrys didn’t mind that. She’d expected as much. In fact, she kinda found it cute. She ruffled his hair.

“It’s probably a really old story, ya know. I reckon’ by now they’ve long got it worked out,” she suggested. “Like, maybe they quit their jobs and moved in together? That’s what I think woulda made sense, at least.”

“Mhm…” Teddie replied surprisingly half-heartedly as Labrys stroked his hair. Lowering his head, he mumbled. “If it were me, I’d do everything, so-“

“Hm?” Labrys tilted her head. Teddie’s voice had been too low for her to pick up all of what he’d said. However, he wouldn’t repeat the words. Instead, he swung his legs and leapt up from the bench the two of them were sitting on.

“Aaaaaalright! Where shall we go next, milady!?”

A 180° turn to the tree next to their table gave Teddie his answer.

“Oh, I know! Let’s write some wishes!”

★

It wasn’t Teddie’s first time writing wishes on Tanzaku paper. He’d done it the year before with Yosuke’s family, though then he hadn’t known the legend. However, it was Labrys’ first time, and she was struggling a little. To her it felt awkward trying to put any wishes she might have into words, especially knowing how many people there were around that could possibly be looking over her shoulder. The fact that Teddie kept loudly vocalizing every single thing he wrote down, proudly announcing his wishes to the world (he was up to tying his 10th Tanzaku to the tree now) didn’t help. Just how was it so easy for him to come up all these things to say? Maybe she just ought to stop thinking and just write down the first thing that came to her?

Eventually Labrys found a wish and wording she was happy with and put it on the paper in neat, clean handwriting, tying a perfectly symmetrical bow as she hung it to the branch. Yeah, this was okay. It reflected her hopes for the future, and she didn’t feel weird about the fact that someone else might read it. She was satisfied.

“Oookay!!”

Hands on hips, Teddie looked over his army of 27 Tanzaku Papers merrily fluttering on the tree, Labrys’ sole wish mixed right in with them. He seemed proud of the image, miming the hand-gestures of a photographer looking for the perfect shot again and again, though never actually taking a picture of the scene. The one to really take a photo was Labrys. The way Teddie was hopping around in front of that tree was just too cute.

“Careful, ya gonna tear ‘em down with all the wind you’re makin’ wavin’ ya arms ‘round,” she laughed.

“Wind? My lady, I will have you know, this is no orbearnary wind I’m kicking up here! It’s the cosmic shock-wave that will carry our wishes to the heavens! HMMMMMMM!” And he threw his finger up in the air and struck a pose, yelling. “ORI-CHAAAN! DID YOU GET ALL OF THIS!?”

Teddie’s display of unabashed confidence drew the attention of bystanders. A pair of college age girls could be heard chatting.

“Whoa, that kid’s Japanese is pretty good… And he’s kinda cute, too, isn’t he? Hee hee.”

“Careful what you say, I think he came with his big sister. You see that foreign-looking girl next to him?”

“Whoa, she’s pretty good-looking as well, check out that figure! How come foreigners get to have all those curves, huh?”

“Calm down, you’ll bother them. Hey, let’s move on, alright?” The girl took her friend by the hand and walked away, though she could still be heard adding. “It sure is nice, seeing that some siblings don’t feel like they need to ‘grow out of’ being cute together…”

Labrys and Teddie waited until the college girls were out of earshot. Then, they turned to each other, a little stunned.

“…Big sister?” Teddie asked, tilting his head a little. “Whatever did she mean by that?”

Labrys shrugged. “I guess we looked like siblings to them?”

“Oh, sort of like how Yosuke always says that all foreigners look ‘the same’? Geez, how rude!”

He didn’t look offended at all.

“We ain’t really foreigners though,” Labrys pointed out.

“So, we look the same to them because we’re both not human? Hmm, people are weeeird sometimes.”

“Yeah, can’t argue with that…”

“I mean…” Teddie put his fingers on his chin pondering. “It’s not like we should come across like siblings! After all, you are my fair Princess! And I am your Royal Knight, Sir Teddie, coming to your aid in shining armor.”

“Well, I dunno a lotta stuff ‘bout knights. But some of them were princes, right?” Labrys said. “And a prince can be a princess’ brother, I think.”

“Wha—No, no, no! None! That’s not it at all!” Teddie stomped one of his feet in the sand a little, not hard, just enough to kick up a dramatic dust cloud. “I mean… I maaaay be quite princely in just bearly all aspects, but! That’s not the nature of our relationship at all!”

“I mean. Yeah.” Labrys didn’t know what there was to get dramatic about, but on a purely factual level, she had to agree. “I do got some siblings, but last I checked, you weren’t one.”

“Right!?” Teddie seemed vindicated by that statement. He crossed his arms. “And… And anyway! If anything, I’d definitely be the older brother!”

At that, Labrys could only snort. “Really?”

“But, of course! In fact, ever since Sensei has gone back to the big city, I’ve done my beary best to stuff that sad, bro-shaped hole in Nana-chan’s life,” he told her. It’s not like I could ‘replace’ Sensei. Not even moi could ever do that. But! I’ve been visiting her lots and lots! We’ve been going shopping and watching TV and playing in the park and making music…”

Teddie’s mood went from high-strung to almost tranquil as he talked. His face visibly relaxed.

“Actually, you know, I wanted to bring Nana-chan here too! But… She was busy with school today, so she couldn’t come.”

“Why didn’t you just call me to reschedule then?” Labrys asked curious. “I wouldn’t of minded comin’ a day later so we can bring her, y’know.”

“No, it’s okay.” Teddie shook his head. “I’ll come with her another time! Besides… I thought it might be nice to come, maybe… just with you.”

Labrys accepted that statement, though she wasn’t quite sure what he meant by it. Generally, she found him rather unreadable at the moment. His expression, the way he didn’t really look at her but more at the ground behind her, that slightly pink tinge on his cheeks… Was he okay? If he was human, she would have guessed that he was showing early signs of a fever, but…

“Hey, hey, Labby-chan, look, over there! I wanna try that!”

And thus ended a brief, quiet moment.

The ‘that’ Teddie was referring to turned out to be a large stretch on the beach without booths, where people were currently gathering to perform some sort of folk-dance. Onlookers were evidently allowed to join in. Labrys was hesitant, after all, who’d ever heard of a dancing combat device? However, it didn’t take much coaxing for Teddie to get her to join. Despite their exotic appearances the two of them didn’t stand out among the dancers nearly as much as they could have. The crowd was diverse, some people having come in Yukata, while others were in casual clothing like Labrys and Teddie. There were even a few westerners, probably tourists, mixed into the bunch. Chaotic as it was, nobody noticed how many steps the two of them missed in their attempts to follow the shrine priestess and middle-aged man leading the dance. It was all in good fun. Some parts of the dance were performed in pairs and these were the parts that made Labrys most nervous. The idea of having to synchronize with the moves of a total stranger in order to not disrupt the event sent her logic circuits into disarray. However, Teddie kept close to her and immediately paired up with her whenever he heard the musical cue to, and though Labrys knew he probably had his own reasons for doing so, she was thankful. ‘He’s always been pretty clingy around girls, huh?’ she thought to herself. ‘Well, I’m glad he’s having fun.’ It was only fairly late into the song that it occurred to Labrys how many other good-looking girls her own age actually were in the crowd of dancers. Yet, throughout the entire song, Teddie hadn’t strayed from her side even once. When she realized that fact, Labrys fell silent.

“…”

“Labby-chan, what’s wrong? The music isn’t over yet.”

“Wha—O-Oh right.”

Labrys had been so lost in her thoughts, she’d stopped dancing on the spot. Now it was just Teddie and her standing still in the mass of dancers, small wrinkles forming on his forehead as he looked at her in worry.

“Are you tired? Should we take a break?”

“…Yeah, maybe. Thanks.”

Holding her hand gently, as if taking extra care to not hurt her, he led her to the edge of the beach’s waters, a little off from all the music and commotion. It was here, where the crowd was thinner and the noise less prevalent that, for the first time, Labrys could take a moment to breathe and process the events of the day so far. Her sensors registered a high content of sodium-chloride in water vapor in the air… Sea salt. A nice scent. In the distance the sun had begun to set, dyeing the sky and ocean in a dazzling red color. Carefully, Labrys stretched out the bottom parts of her legs to let the waves splash them a little. What appeared to be her ‘feet’ wasn’t real, of course, those parts of her body were a pure projection of her cloaking device, but it still was nice to pretend.

Watching Labrys stretch her legs out to the water like that, Teddie began to pout a little. He buried his face between his legs. “I’m sorry I didn’t take you swimming. You’re probably beary disappointed still.”

Labrys laughed at that. “What’cha even talking about? Today’s been great! I’ve been havin’ a blast.”

“O-Oh!” Surprised, Teddie looked up. “I was just thinking… You’ve been looking so nervous ever since we’ve come here, so maybe you weren’t actually having any fun.”

“Mhm… I’ve never really been ‘round this many people before. So, it’s a tad strange still, ya know?” Labrys admitted. “But a gal’s gotta get out sometime, right? I’m thinkin’, I wanna make friends that ain’t Persona Users too, some time. So, I’d better get used to seein’ more people around like this... You’ve already got that part of livin’ down to a tee, don’cha?”

Labrys grinned at Teddie as she said that, which he visibly took as permission to feel pride. Wearing her statement as a badge of honor, he puffed up his chest a little.

“Weeeell, if you ever need anybody to show you how to bring ALL the hot studs in town to the yard, you can come to me! I’ll be your wise and powerful mentor in the art of socialization and bearing it all to the world!”

“I’m sure ya will,” Labrys pet his hair a bit, partly to get him to dismount that high horse of his for a while. “Look. The stars are comin’ up.”

★

As the day drew to a close, the scene was lit by lights, both around and above them, all reflecting colorfully in the ocean before them. Labrys and Teddie spent the time talking, about themselves, the time they’d known each other, their friends. There was so much to say, the minutes seemed to pass much too quickly, and by the time Labrys had googled and pointed out the locations of Vega and Altair in the sky to Teddie, the festivalgoers had gathered around where they were sitting to gaze up at the stars as well. The fireworks began.

They were were even prettier than the last time Teddie had seen them, painting the sky in all possible colors, lights raining down above them in this pleasantly warm summer night. There were so many people around them, and – Labrys recalled – there were endlessly many more watching up to this same sky right now in this world. It was a concept hard to understand for someone who’d spent so much of her existence isolated from people, so why did she feel so at peace right now?

“I woulda never expected looking at some lights in the sky could be this beautiful,” she said quietly, almost a whisper.

“…Me neither,” Teddie said in much the same tone. And, whether he realized it or not, his hand was on top of hers.

In this moment, regardless of all the people and voices all around, it almost felt as if nobody but the two of them existed in this entire world. It was just like how, during the dance, Teddie had stayed only by Labrys’ side, like she would have never expected him to. That thought on her mind, Labrys found it easy to move closer to the boy next to her, her fingers intertwining with his, before she slowly drew him into a kiss.

“Next time, I’ll take ya out swimming,” Labrys told Teddie, breaking their lip-lock to bop his nose.

Stunned as he was, even if Teddie had had something to reply, he wouldn’t have known how to say it.

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Trying out bookbinding kits!

This week’s arts and crafts theme is bookbinding! Last year we tried a bunch of art kits, including a book making one by CraftyCrafty. Since everyone had fun with the craft kits, I figured why not have a day where we try out various kits relating to a certain art project? Bookbinding won by a landslide!

It took about a year, but Butch and I managed to find five different bookbinding kits that met our standards. And by that, we mean kits that have all the supplies, aren’t too pricey or complicated, and have fairly good reviews that are three stars or more. There’s not a lot of bookbinding kits out there so it’s a bit of a challenge finding good ones. Luckily, we managed to find five different kits that we can’t wait to try out!

Knifty Knits What makes this kit catch my eye is the fact is it’s from Knifty Knits, which involves knitting. In terms of bookbinding, it’s for a coptic stitch book with a plain chipboard cover. The kit also comes with three different colors of yarn - jewel tones, water lilies, and rainbow -  and a pair of knitting needles. Since it’s for a book cover and it’s not supposed to be bulky, the yarn is super fine and the needle size is quite small. 

As for the bookbinding itself, there isn’t really anything that sticks out. The paper quality is like a $10 sketchpad, so it’s pretty good. There’s the usual tools like an awl and bone folder - both are decent quality too. As for the knitting portion of the DIY, I was impressed! Since the yarn and needles are small, it takes quite a bit of time to make the book cover/sleeve. But if you’re like me and find something like knitting relaxing, then it’s all good. The colors of the yarn are pretty and the quality is pretty good - especially since super fine yarn isn’t really something you find in stores. As for the leftover yarn, I’m gonna use them to make two more journals! 

Rating: 4 skeins of yarn out of 5 

Plushiemania Like the knitting one, this kit focuses more on the cover than the actual bookbinding itself. So you get to make a cute plush animal cover, which is super cute! There’s six patterns for six animals - dog, cat, bunny, elephant, duck, and alpaca - and they’re easy to follow. The kit comes with the usual bookbinding supplies minus the bone folder, along with squares of plush fabric in various colors. The fabric feels soft and durable - though I won’t really know for sure how wear and tear will affect it until time goes on but according to online reviews it seems to hold up well. As for paper quality, it’s noticeably thinner than the previous kit - but still good enough for writing and sketching without too noticeable or distracting ghosting. I guess the thinness of the paper is to make up for the bulkiness of the book cover since the front will have a bit of polyester stuffing to add to the plushie appearance.

Overall this kit is fun and cute! I enjoyed making the cover and the patterns are easy to follow - though if you’re a beginner at sewing it’s best to do some practice runs so you’re comfortable with the stitches. There’s so many cute designs to choose from as well as colors of fabric - and like the previous kit I plan to make the other designs with my own supplies. However the only thing about this kit is that the front cover will be a bit bulky - not by too much as I initially thought, but it’s noticeable. It’s a cute front cover, but is is practical for use? Guess I’ll find out when I put this journal to good use!

Rating: 3.5 plushies out of 5

Pleather Crafts A traveler’s notebook kit with saddle stitch booklets and a leather cover! This kit’s on the pricier side - mainly because of the pleather quality according to the website. The kit comes with two large sheets of pleather in brown and black, a pad of decorative paper for the inside of the leather cover as well as covers for the booklets, charms, elastics, and the usual bookbinding essentials. What’s different about this kit compared to the other two is the paper. It’s thicker and a lot higher quality- the kind of paper that can be used for painting - and it’s cream colored with rounded corners. And of course, there’s instructions as well as dimensions for the cover. There’s enough paper to make three booklets, which is how many books the cover can fit. 

I love everything about this kit! From the high quality pleather to the pretty patterned decorative paper to the whimsical charms - it’s my favorite kit out of all the five we tried out! The size of the traveler’s notebook is perfect for putting in a handbag without being too small or bulky. I also love the simplicity of the design along with its whimsical touches. A pricey kit, but worth every cent! 

Rating: 5 butterfly charms out of 5 

Travels Beyond Another traveler’s notebook kit! This is for a passport size book and the cover is made from laminated cardstock instead of pleather. Also, the paper for the inserts are dot grid instead of blank. And since it’s smaller sized, the paper is noticeably thinner than the previous kit - about the same quality as the plushie kit. The paper for the covers are maps - which are a very nice aesthetic that fits in with the traveler’s journal theme. Like the pleather kit, this one also comes with all the bookbinding essentials. There’s enough paper to make three inserts - you just need a paper cutter so they’d be passport sized.

This kit is pretty simple - something you can make at home of you have all or most of the supplies. However the tricky part was laminating the cover, which took me a couple tries. There were a lot of air bubbles but I didn’t want to waste supplies so I did my best to pop them with the bone folder and that ended up working better than I thought. There’s not too much to say about the kit except that I love the aesthetic, especially the airplane charm! 

Rating: 4,5 airplane charms out of 5

Secret Belgian Binding After watching a tutorial on this method of bookbinding, I was intrigued. There’s not a lot of kits for this binding so it was like finding a rare bug or fish when we came across it online. The binding looks complicated but the actual process is easier than we thought! Also the cover bends all the way back, which is cool! So we’ve got the essentials as well as high quality chipboard for the covers. There’s colorful paper for the pages - all pretty decent quality and colors of the rainbow. The selection of decorative paper for the inside cover is colorful too, adding a much needed pop of color to the cover. 

The front cover is a cutout, so the kit also comes with patterns and templates as well as blades. Basically you cut the templates, tape them on the cover, and cut out the shapes. It’ll take a few tries to go through the chipboard and it’s best to practice on a scrap so you’ll be comfortable with the blade. I love how the cover turned out - not bad for my first time doing something like this! And the binding was pretty fun! Like I said, it’s not as complicated as I thought it would be and it turned out very nice! However it does involve quite a bit of prep - like making a spine and stitching the cover first then the signatures - so I recommend using a cutting mat to make sure the measurements are even or else the cover will turn out wonky.

Rating: 4.25 cardboard flower cutouts out of 5

junebug|previous|ao3|next

[justanoutlawfic]

The Christening: An Original Story

This is the short storyof mine that was selected to be put in my school’s literary magazine. Trigger warning: mentions of suicide, homophobia and depression.

Also on AO3

Raven was messed up long before she had met Jasmine. She couldn’t remember a time when she had been happy for more than a couple of days. Middle school began the time that she’d rather spend her days underneath her heavy purple duvet, reading romance novels and ignoring the sunshine that attempted to stream through her heavy cream curtains. It was easy to ignore the world and bury herself in her sadness. She didn’t want to think about the bullies that poked at her fat rolls or pulled her tangled curls. By the time she got to high school, she added music to the mix. The sounds of Evanescence and Panic! At The Disco would drown out her parents’ high decibels as they argued over their financial struggles and how best to raise the children.

Church was more often than not a huge catalyst between the two. One Sunday afternoon in particular, Raven’s mother started up the argument over how it wasn’t that important they attended. She thought all of the children were upstairs, but Raven had lingered in the living room. Raven knew better than to ask not to attend service, it wasn’t worth the argument with her father. Outside school, it was the only place she would go.

“Church shouldn’t come before everything else in their lives,” her mother said. “Can’t there just be one Sunday where we spend it doing something else as a family?”

“God is what helps keep this family going. We need to thank him for all the bounty he delivers.”

Raven’s younger brother and sister were always more active than her, though they learned after a while to stop asking her to do things because she’d just say no. Her depression never allowed her to climb out of bed and get out of the house, do something or be something. Her mother never saw it for what it was, just thought that she was lazy. It wasn’t until after her high school graduation that she broke down and told her mom that she didn’t want to go on anymore, that her mother decided to get her some help.

The doctor gave Raven three bottles of medication. He described them at length, but she saw them all the same, just with different objective. They were all tiny white pills, circle and smooth around the edges. Each had different numbers and initials all over them, but Raven couldn’t figure out what significance they had. One was supposed to control the voices in her head. The other was to help her ignore them so she could actually get some sleep. The final bottle was to make sure that even if she heard them, she’d get out of bed and face the day. Raven wasn’t sure if they were really working or if she was just pretending that they were. Either way, she began showering again and going outside. She enrolled in college was once again and started to put herself out there.

She met Jasmine a year into her treatment. She wasn’t beautiful in the American traditional sense. Jasmine had a few extra pounds on her and frizzy brown hair. She wore t-shirts with holes in them and skirts that didn’t match them. Her glasses were thick and fogged up easy, she was blind without them. She spoke of conspiracy theories and made sure you knew about her gluten allergy. By all accounts, Jasmine was a mess. Raven was one too. She spoke too fast, shared too much and whenever she stepped on a scale, her doctor gave her a lecture about healthy eating. The parallels between them made Raven fall for her, head over feet.

The two bonded over their love of scary tales such as Slenderman, making fun of horror movies and being buried so deep in the closet they were practically tripping over shoes. Most of all, the two talked about being afraid to come out to their very religious parents. Both agreed that they assumed their mothers would be okay with it, they watched Queer Eye and had gay friends themselves. Their conservative fathers, however, would never understand. They had forced the girls to go to church throughout their lives, saying “amen” whenever the priest would discuss the sin of a man having sex with another man. Both Raven and Jasmine agreed it was a bit ironic to listen to a man that had never had sex before, judge those who did.

“I feel like guys have an easier time dating,” Jasmine said. “Especially gay guys. They meet, they fuck and they move on. Lesbians flirt for what seems like forever and then don’t realize they’re dating until they actually are.”

Raven didn’t know if she was talking about their relationship, which possibly was Jasmine’s point. All she could think to respond to that was, “Yeah.”

They had three more conversations similar to that, before Raven finally leaned in and kissed her. Jasmine tasted like the peanut butter sandwich she had just inhaled (on gluten free bread of course) mixed with the cotton candy lip gloss she had messily applied to her lips. The interesting concoction was intoxicating and Raven never wanted to let go.

The two couldn’t go on dates like every other couple. Instead, they were viewed as best friends. If they did go out in public, they’d hang out with their friends, going to coffee shops and the beach. Sometimes, they could get away with going to the movies, holding hands once the lights dimmed. None of their friends were suspicious, they just assumed that Raven and Jasmine were close. Mostly, however, they’d go to each other’s houses and lock their bedroom doors. They’d lie side by side on Raven’s bed, listening to loud music to drown out the sounds of the noises they made as their lips touched various parts of each other’s bodies. For once, Raven didn’t feel guilty lying in bed for hours as Jasmine’s head laid on her lap beneath the sheets. She carded her fingers through her thick curls, for once the voices in her head subsided. She no longer felt that she couldn’t be loved. As long as she had Jasmine, she knew that she would never be alone again.

They hadn’t bothered to play music that afternoon. They had been so caught up with one another, they hadn’t locked the door, noticed the car door slam or the arguments as Raven’s parents stormed up the stairs. The door swung open and Raven pulled from her spot, leaving her girlfriend’s shaven vagina on pure display. Her cheeks turned the shade of a shiny tomato as Jasmine pulled up her underwear and skirt, looking anywhere but at her parents.

“It’s time for you to go, Jasmine,” Raven’s mother said.

“Mom…” Raven was cut off by the sharp look she received from her mother.

“I never want to see you here again,” her father told Jasmine. His brows were furrowed, his father turning brick red. The smell of the oil from the cars he fixed for a living on his sweatshirt spread across the entire room and for a moment, Raven wondered if it was possible for a person to actually explode. She had a feeling that wouldn’t stop him from sharing just how he felt about this situation. As he physically shook, the golden cross around his neck shook along with him.

Jasmine didn’t argue. She just jumped off the bed, grabbed her bag and ran out of the house. Raven’s lip quivered as she continued to look at her parents. Of all the ways she could’ve come out to them, this wasn’t supposed to be it.

“Let’s just discuss this,” she said, unsure of where her sense of calm was coming from.

“There’s nothing to discuss,” her father said. “You’re not gay.”

“That’s not exactly something you can control.”

“If you want to live in this house, then it’s definitely something I can.”

Raven looked at her mom for help. She had never told her mother what was going on, but she always assumed that she would be the one to defend her. Why was she being so quiet? Why wasn’t she looking her in the eye. She had always been the level headed one, the understanding one. She hated her husband, staying married him purely for the kids and the fact that he had destroyed her credit. Instead, all Raven saw in that moment was disgust.

“I knew there was more than just talking and music going up here, but why did you have to confirm it? I can’t protect you now that he knows,” her mother said. While she wasn’t looking at Raven, she wasn’t looking at her husband either, acting as if neither of them were in the room.

Raven got out of bed, straightening her skirt. “I’m going to keep seeing her.”

“We’ll see about that,” her father said, before walking out of the room.

Raven looked at her mother. “What does he mean by that?” “I don’t know. Why did you have to bring her here? Why couldn’t you have just kept it where he would never see?”

“Why didn’t you fight for me? You hate him!”

“I need to think about everyone here. It’s not just about you, but we have your siblings to worry about. If he throws me out for siding with you, what will happen to them?”

Raven didn’t know what to say in response to that. She watched her mom walk out of the room, leaving her standing alone. What had once felt like a romantic getaway, now felt extremely dirty.

The days that followed, Raven tried to contact Jasmine but she never answered. There were never those three little bubbles letting her know that she was starting to reply. Jasmine didn’t post on social media, not even to subtweet about the situation. Raven drove by her house after work and saw that her car wasn’t even in the driveway. She circled around three times, waiting for her to come home. Jasmine didn’t work and she only had morning classes. There was no reason why Raven shouldn’t see her getting out of her beat up yellow bug, in a floor length paisley skirt and a tie-dye tank top.

Raven waited outside Jasmine’s classroom, but she didn’t seem to show up there either. When she asked the professor, he said that she had withdrawn from the class. She went by Jasmine’s house one last time and saw the bug parked in the driveway. Raven ran up the steps, knocking on the door. Jasmine’s little sister answered the door and told Raven that Jasmine wasn’t home. When Raven looked up at the window attached to Jasmine’s room, however, she could see her peeking out. Before Raven could say anything, Jasmine’s father appeared behind his youngest daughter, folding his arms over his chest. He wore a cross that was very similar to her father’s.

“It’s time for you to go, Raven.”

Raven went home and decided to check Jasmine’s Facebook for the fifth time that day. She realized that she had been blocked from it. Raven realized that just as she had come into her life, she was ripped from it.

Raven spent the next weeks beneath the purple cheetah print covers, trying to remember the feel of Jasmine’s fingers on her body. She wanted to remember that taste of cotton candy and peanut butter, the rants about how no one took gluten allergies seriously and that George Bush was definitely in on 9/11. Instead, all she could seem to think about was the day they were caught. Jasmine not fighting for her, running out the door and leaving her to face her parents’ wrath. She had abandoned her, pretending as though their love had never existed.

This time, Raven didn’t read romance novels, they were filled with straight people that took what they had for granted. Music just seemed to grate on her ears, whining about how no one loved them, as if they were alone in that. When she did get out of bed, it was because she could hear her parents whispering, rather than arguing. She snuck down the stairs, pausing on the middle step.

“We could send her to a camp,” her father said. “Father Sam was telling me about this place they sent his niece.”

“She’s 19,” her mother replied. “We can’t force her to go anywhere.”

“We could always kick her out.”

“Is that really what you want to do, Paul? Could you live with yourself knowing that our daughter was on the streets?”

There was a pause and it made Raven realize that he was actually considering it. She knew he was mad, but how could he really want that for her? “I just can’t believe that we have a dyke for a daughter.”

“We can’t do anything to change who she is. All we can do is decide how much of it we can handle.”

Raven’s medicine wasn’t helping any longer, even when she began to take it in larger doses. When she went to go see her psychiatrist after overhearing her parents’ fight, her doctor told her to try to see it from her parents’ point of view and Raven decided that she didn’t want to see her anymore. She felt like she was drowning, like the weight of the world was trying to pull her down once again. There was nothing that was going to save her this time.

Raven wore the white dress that her mother had purchased for her for her Confirmation, 5 years earlier. It was a bit tight and her boobs spilled out of it a bit, but that didn’t matter. The cross that her father had gifted her on that event hung in between her cleavage and she clutched onto it, wondering where she would end up-if either Heaven or Hell existed.

Raven left the home where she had been struck with more than hands. She drove past the school where she had learned more than just how to read and add. As she turned the corner, she passed the hospital where she had received treatment for her depression. It was next to the church she had attended for most of her life. She had been told about the day she was dipped into water, the day she was supposed to be protected by God.

It was time for a new baptism, a second chance to give Him the opportunity to protect her once more.

She parked her car in the lot and walked across the grainy sand. The moon hung in the sky. It was quiet, no people around. Even the lifeguard stand was empty, no one would be able to save her. Not that anyone had ever really tried.

Kicking off her flip flops, she dipped her toe in the water. It was cold and caused a chill to run up her spine. Raven took one step forward and then another. By the time she was waist deep in the murky, salty sea, she could smell the peanut butter and cotton candy calling her home.

[imaginemycroftholmes]

Whenever you care to answer this. Imagine talking Mycroft into doing a mud mask with you, and he enjoys them so much that you catch him doing them on his own.

“Come on sweetheart, just do this just once with me? Please,” you wheedle holding a pair of face masks you’ve just received from Amazon, “They’ve got the highest rating ever on the site and approved by 9 out of 10 dermatologists to leave your skin feeling rejuvenated.”

Mycroft does that thing with his eyebrow; the same eyebrow that Sherlock uses when Molly is trying to sell him on getting his own cat so that way he’ll stop “stealing” Toby away from her and the one mimicked by John when Rosie begs him to do some princess stuff with him.

It was an eyebrow you rarely saw directed at you personally but man oh man did it speak volumes.

Like the kind of volumes that are combined between the Harry Potter series and Lemony Snicket and then some.

“And why, pray tell, would you want me to try these face sheets when you could more for yourself if they’re so highly appraised?”

Trying to really sell it you turn coy. “Well, Cosmo and Good Housekeeping said it would be a good way to bond with one another while relaxing in each other’s presence.”

“Darling, I am always relaxed around you.”

“You weren’t when I was driving that Mazda when we were visiting your parents,” you snipe remembering just how tense the whole affair had been.

It was hardly your fault that the pair of you were running behind because Mycroft couldn’t let the blasted phone voicemail alone for another day but you had swore you would get them there in ample time if he let you take the wheel and you kept your word.

Got there right on the dot just in time for Violet to light the candles on Siger’s cake and none of the gifts were rumpled. Hardly what you had called a tense affair but Mycroft required some Tylenol and a quick “lie down” before he rejoined the festiveness.

.”That was a one time affair,” Mycroft argued.

“And so will this if you just do it with me once,” you pleaded in earnest.

“Promise?”

“Of course Darling. When have I ever lied to you,” you ask in mock hurt.

“Do you want to go Chronologically or Alphabetically because if we’re talking about recent events telling me that “the water is fine and jump in” to be one of them followed by “Don’t worry, this position is easy.”

Rolling your eyes and waving his complaints you reply, “Fine. I get it. But this time I mean it. Just this once and I’ll never make you do it again.”

Then with little much fuss you were able to get the face mask on Mycroft and yourself while just enjoying the fading afternoon rays on the screened patio.

It was one and done just as you had promised however, you were beginning to find a lot of those face masks in the bathroom weeks after the last time you used them with your husband and you know you didn’t buy them all.

Maybe he bought them for me, you think as you go through the selection to see if there was one you’d want to try.

Caught between tearing off the seal to the latest Korean face mask with honeydew melon extracts Mycroft makes an entrance into the room with the most horrified look on his face begging you to “WAIT!”

“I’m sorry” you say confused stopping the motion short of truly opening the package, “were these not supposed to be used?”

“Ah yes, but,” Mycroft pauses to take a breath looking very embarrassed before continuing at a quieter tone “those were actually for me.”

“You?”

Now he looks even more red as he tries to explain himself. “Its just that that mask you had me try on was very soothing so I wanted to try out other brands to see if they had the same effect.”

Smiling at your bashful husband you get up from the counter’s side and hug him. “Honey, there’s no reason to be embarrassed, lots of guys do stuff like this,” you say trying to comfort him, “Hell, I know for a fact that Sherlock does hair masks with Molly and John’s routinely let’s Rosie paint his toenails.”

Mycroft pulls himself away from you to look at you, “Truly?”

“Yes, babe,” you confirm, “This face mask thing is hardly something you need to be ashamed about and quite frankly I’m happy you’re into it.”  

“You are?”

“Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I want to try out face sheets with my one best friend and husband of two years? It’s fun, easy and cheap to get,” you say with a beaming smile until you notice Mycroft avoid eye contact.

“These were the cheap ones weren’t they Mycroft,” you ask suspiciously.

The two of you already had a talk about not spending money on frivolous things as you guys were hoping to start a family soon and purchasing a box full of face sheets, especially the more expensive brands would definitely put a dent in your baby bank money.

Still avoid your eyes Mycroft expresses, “I may have dabbled with purchasing the higher end brand of face sheets…”

“Mycroft!”

“It was only for the melon brand I swear!”

[emeraldfic]

04

Stormy:

     Miami, Thursday, April 25 2018 1:22 P.M

My eyes were closed tight but I could still feel the room spinning around me. I was nauseous, exhausted and so mad. I was supposed to go see Emmy in less than an hour and here I am stuck in bed barely able to move. I tried to call for Chris a few times but the subtle moans coming from the next room must mean that he and Milan are making up just fine... Hopefully that means she’s okay with me being here now.

“Stormy?”

Chris opened the door and let himself in. I sat up and could feel how weak my body was... welcome to withdrawals.

“Is it time to go?”

“Just about. Are you okay?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“I will be... This is just a little harder that I thought.”

“Being sober is the right choice Storm. I’m proud of you.”

I found the strength to muster up a smile and pull myself from the now sweaty sheets. Taking a deep breath I walked into my bathroom and washed my face over with some cool water. I had to make myself feel better. After brushing my teeth and pulling my big curls into a bun I was ready to go.

I could feel my hands getting sweaty with nerves as we pulled into the parking lot. I was so excited to get in there and see my baby girl it was almost like I wasn’t just sick in bed half an hour ago.

“Hi, we’re here for a two o’clock. Stormy and Chris.” I informed at the front desk.

“They will be right out for you.”

“Thanks.” I smiled and turned around to Chris.

“Oh, man. I can’t believe I’m gonna meet my daughter!”

“Are you ready?” I asked.

“I hope so.”

“Chris, Stormy.”

We turned around to see our worker Stephanie waiting on us. We were walked back to a small room but before she would open the door to let us in she stopped us.

“She’s a little nervous, and she’s been through a lot so just be careful with her.”

After she was sure we understood she pushed open the door and let us in. The room was so colorful and bright with so many toys and fun things but what stood out the most was her smile when she saw me and instantly I was filled with so much regret and hate towards myself. How could I go so long not seeing that smile?

“Hi mommy!” 

“Oh my... Hi my baby. I’ve missed you so much..”

She snuggled into me for a tight hug and I was so happy that I cried. It felt so unreal that I almost forgot the situation around us.

“Baby... baby listen. I have someone here with me that I want you to meet.”

“Who?” 

Chris walked up and smiled at her she didn’t think twice to smile back at him. She was so amazing.

“Emmy, this is your daddy.”

“My daddy? I have a daddy?” she questioned lowly more to herself. “Hi daddy!” She wiggled out of my arms and was reaching up for him.

“Hi baby girl. Wow. You’re beautiful.”

My heart felt so full. I just couldn’t believe that for so long I chose a quick high over this, over love. I’m just so happy I get to have it now.

Two hours had gone by so quick and I didn’t want to say goodbye. Chris had a smile from ear to ear the entire time and I could see the love in his eyes. It was easy to say neither of us could wait to have her home.

Before we had to go Stephanie came back in. The grin on her lips said she was pleased.

“How did it go?” she asked pulling me off to the side while Chris and Emmy colored.

“So good.” I smiled. 

“How  would you feel if I said I spoke with a judge and he’s treating this an an emergency case and we have a court date for next week?”

“I would feel like killing you if it wasn’t true.” I said with a small laugh.

“Next Friday. How does that sound?”

“Perfect. Thank you!” 

“You’re welcome. But thank yourself. We don’t ever tell parents but we do observe the visits through our two way over there and given the circumstances it was just remarkable to watch. I’ve seen many cases similar and different that have gone so horrible that it’s nice to have one go so well. Come by on Thursday and we’ll brief over everything. Two o’clock.”

“We’ll be there.”

“Miss Emerald, come. Let’s go get some dinner.”

“Okay. I see mommy and daddy again?”

“Yes. I promise.” 

We gave our love and said our goodbyes before they took her out of the room. I was still in a state of disbelief. I felt so happy I didn’t know how to accept it all.

Neither of us said a word the entire way back and that was fine with me. I just kept replaying the time in my head over and over. I can’t wait to bring her home!

“You missed the turn.” I said pointing out the window

“We’re not going home.” he said with a grin. “We’re going shopping!”

“What for?”

He didn’t answer me he just kept his sly smile plastered on his lips. Not long after we pulled into the parking lot of a furniture store. I followed him in and we went right to the kids department. 

“What do you like?”

“What?”

“Our baby girl needs her own room.”

“Oh. Okay. Well I can take the couch until I get on my feet.”

“No.” he sucked his teeth “Storm you’re missing the point here. I have another room. It’s just been storage since we moved in but I want you to pick everything out and we’ll put it together this weekend.”

“Really? But Chris this stuff looks expensive and I don’t have a dime to my name.”

“My signing bonus is just sitting in my bank account right now collecting dust. What better what to spend it than on her?”

“Signing bonus?” I questioned raising a brow

“Yeah, I just got selected. A legit NBA team is going to sign me. My coaches will reveal where we were signed once our training camps are over.”

“Wow that’s amazing Chris.”

“Thanks. Now go shop woman!”

I walked up and down the aisles admiring everything. I felt so wrong spending his money when I myself had nothing to contribute but I don’t think he was going to take no for an answer. Everything looked so nice it was a little hard to chose but once I saw the rose gold bedroom set, I knew that was the winner. It looked fit for a princess and Chris agreed it was perfect for our baby girl.

I walked away when it was time to check out because I just knew I would throw a guilt trip on myself when that total would come up.

“Everything will be delivered Saturday.”

“Okay.”

“Storm for real, stop. I want to do this, in fact it actually makes me so happy to do this. Our baby girl is gonna love it.”

I nodded and followed him back to the car, and yet again he has that up to no good smile on his lips. I just sighed to myself and sat back for the ride, I know there’s no telling him no. When we pulled up to the hardware store I raised a brow.

“Why here?”

“The spare is an ugly lime green. We need some pink paint for baby girls room.”

“Oh. Okay.”

After a quick trip in we had the paint and all the supplies and we were finally on our way home. My stomach was grumbling but after all he had done already I wasn’t going to dare ask to be fed so I rested my head black and closed my eyes.

“Storm. Wake up we’re home.”

I prayed my eyes open and the scent of Chinese filled my nose making my eyes water.

“Come on sleepy head. Mimi is waiting on us.”

I nodded and grabbed the bag of paint and supplies while he carried the food. I felt like a big fat mooch and it wasn’t sitting right with me. I definitely need to find a job and get on my own two feet quick. I can’t keep doing this.

Once we were inside I wandered off to find this other room. He’s right, the green paint was so ugly it made me laugh. I set the stuff down and pictured tucking my baby girl in and I couldn’t stop the smile on my lips.

I walked back to the kitchen to see them eating and a plate already made up waiting on me. It looked so good I wanted to tear it up but I was embarrassed.

“Eat before it gets cold.” Chris reminded

“Oh I’m not hungry.”

“I heard that stomach growl all the way home. Sit down and eat. What are you afraid of?” He asked putting his fork down

“I just.... Chris you’ve done so much and I can’t repay you guys for any of it...”

“We’re all family here. That doesn’t matter. Please sit down and eat.” Mimi said

I nodded and took my place at the table to eat. I felt a warmness in my heart that I haven’t felt in so long and it was nice to feel wanted somewhere... but regardless I have to find some way to make it up to them, no matter what they say.

“Chris showed me the stuff you guys picked out it’s so beautiful. I can’t wait to meet her.” Mimi said smiling over at me

“Really?”

“Yeah of course. I know I said some shitty things because I was jealous and upset but I’m sorry for all that. I’m excited.”

“That’s means a lot to me. It really does. Chris was so great with her today.” I said glancing over to him “She loves him already.”

“Oh I bet. She sounds like such a a sweetheart. But I really am sorry for all that I said.”

“It’s okay. I understand.”

“Well I have to Fly to Georgia in the morning so I think I’m gonna go pack and lay down. Thanks for dinner baby.”

“Woah woah, wait just a minute. Georgia?” he asked following after her.

I took advantage of the alone time and devoured the rest of my food until I felt like I was going to bust out of my pants, and then I ate just a little more for the hell of it.

After I was finished I cleaned up and put the left overs in the fridge, did the dishes and wiped off the table. When everything was back in order I headed off to my room to change into some comfy clothes so I could breathe again.

A good ten minutes later and I was showered, in pj’s ready to relax. I crept back out to the kitchen for a glass of water and realized they stayed in their room so I took advantage of the empty couch and sprawled out with the remote in one hand and ice water in the other. I movie surfed netflix for a few minutes until settling on the strangers. It was a classic and I’m a sucker for horror movies so it was an easy pick.

Hearing a door slam made me jump a little. I sat up straight as Mimi was walking out with a jumbo suitcase rolling behind her. I raised an eyebrow to myself but kept quiet. Had I been the cause for another fight? 

“I’m sorry I have to miss Emerald coming home. It’s just that I was offered a huge opportunity to sit in on this case. This opportunity will open up a lot of doors for my career. Chris doesn’t understand, but I really hope you do. Here.This is for you.”

 She fished into her purse and pulled out a small white box. My eyes widened when I realized what she was trying to hand to me.. I shook my head no as my mouth hung slightly ajar. 

“Mimi, I’m sorry I cant take that.”

“Yes you can. It’s a gift. From me to you. I wasn’t very nice or understanding when we first met and with me being gone a lot this is a sure way to get a hold of me if need be. Trust me, I know Chris isn’t always easy to deal with.”

“...But an Iphone?” I questioned “This is expensive. There’s no way I can pay you back for this.”

“Well good thing it’s a gift. My number is already programmed, keep in touch okay? I’ll be home in about a week or so.”

“Okay.” I sighed finally giving in and taking the box. “Thank you. Have a safe flight.”

She gave me a quick smile and was quickly out the door. Now I really felt like a  mooch, and it was seriously a gross feeling. I shook off the bad thoughts and focused back into the t.v. It had to have been about an hour later when Chris stumbled into the room in nothing but a pair of sweats. I raised an eyebrow at him when he literally fell into the spot next to me.

“Ya know..” he slurred “sometimes I really just wanna call it quits on that girl.”

“What? Why?” I asked confused

“Man. I’ve done everything to always support that girl in everything, all the damn time... but she stay putting her job first... I mean, shit. It’s fine sometime but this whole situation with Emmy man... She knows how important this is for me and she still left man.”

The more he vented the more I could smell how drunk he is. I felt awkward hearing all of this. It didn’t really feel like any of my business... but I listened anyway.

“And you know, you know what... I’m loyal, man. I’m so fucking loyal to that woman... But you know, maybe it’s time to change that and show her that I won’t wait forever for her to act right.”

“I mean I guess, but what will that solve?” I asked with a shrug

“My loneliness” he muttered matter of factly as he pulled me into his lap “Like, look what I got right in my face. I mean, god damn Storm, you’re beautiful.” he slurred biting his bottom lip. 

“And you’re drunk.” I reminded starring back at him.

He brushed my now dry curls from my shoulder and pressed a gentle kiss to my skin. The way it excited me was so wrong but I couldn’t help it. He spun me around so I was now straddling him and he made sure to grab a firm hold on my ass. Everything was happening so fast...My mouth went dry as I felt him start to suck lightly on my neck. He didn’t stay in one spot for too long though, and he was quick to keep me quiet by kissing my softly. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t even try to fight off the kiss, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer as our kiss deepened. I was so caught up in him that I didn’t even realize he had moved us into his room until I was falling back to his bed. I took in his all black decor as he kissed over my body making himself comfortable between my legs...

[owl-elementary]

Fearless Queen + any cheesy fluffy adorable Christmasy thing you feel like doing :)

I like the “first family Xmas” trope, so I went with that!

Read “Once Upon a Christmas” on Ao3.

Regina ticked off another day on her calendar. She knew that, upstairs, Noah Benson was doing the same. Unlike hers, however, she was pretty sure that his was some sort of countdown. A way of keeping track of the days until he and his mom could go back to their old life. It had been a year since Henry had left with Emma, and Regina had just been getting over the sting of loss when Charming had shown up at her door. The magic border had been disturbed - and when they went to investigate, they’d found Olivia Benson and her son Noah. Charming hadn’t known their history, but he’d been wise enough to give Regina space when he knew there was no danger to protect the town from. And, after some explanations over cinnamon rolls at Granny’s, Olivia and her son had moved to Storybrooke. They had been living in a house just down the road until an unfortunate incident with a dragon about two months back…. Now, they shared the Mayor’s mansion with Regina. Regina liked it that way, but she knew Noah was having trouble adjusting.

“Hey.”

Regina turned at Olivia’s voice. “Morning,” she said. “There’s coffee by the stove. What are the plans for today, Sheriff?”

“I’m going to do a few rounds in town…get some paperwork done at the station. Then a few last things to shop for for Christmas. I can take Noah with me, if you want,” Olivia offered.

“Whatever you think would make him happier,” Regina said. “I know he’s not…entirely fond of me.”

“He just needs time to adjust. New York was all he knew.”

“Ever going to tell me why you left?” Regina asked. She knew there had been some kind of trouble, but Olivia had been quiet about the whole thing so far.

“At some point,” Olivia said. She was smiling, though, so Regina was sure she wasn’t upset. “I’ll leave Noah here. Give you two some time to bond.”

Regina nodded, and watched Olivia head out for the day. With a sigh, she set her coffee mug down and walked upstairs. She could hear Noah playing with his toy airplanes just inside the room. “Noah?”

The boy glanced up when she entered. He averted his eyes quickly though, and scooted back almost imperceptibly. “Hi,” he said, in a small voice.

“I…I was wondering…. I could use your help today.”

He glanced up at her again. “With what?”

“Storybrooke’s Christmas Fair is this weekend. I need to make a lot of cookies today. Your mom says you’re pretty good in the kitchen. I could use a hand.”

He stared at her, and Regina had the feeling she was being sized up. By a seven-year-old. Finally, he nodded slowly. “I’ll help. Um….”

“What is it, sweetie?”

“I saw you that day,” he whispered. “When the dragon came. You did magic. You made it go away.”

“I did. I’m sorry if it scared you.”

“It didn’t!” Noah rushed to say. “I’m not scared. I just…I didn’t know anyone could do it. Can you show me?”

Regina smiled and held out her hand. “Let’s get started on those cookies, and we’ll see.”

*

Olivia heard laughter when she walked into the house that evening. She hid the presents in the front hall closet before heading further into the house. She stopped just outside the kitchen to watch the scene unfolding.

Noah and Regina were racing to decorate what looked like a thousand cookies. Noah was lagging behind, but his looked worlds better. That was because Regina was trying to decorate hers by magic. Olivia bit down on her hand to stifle her laughter as sprinkles went flying across the kitchen, much to Noah’s amusement. It was only when she spotted her son eat a huge spoonful of icing when Regina wasn’t looking, that she made herself known.

“Looks like you’re having fun.”

Both Regina and Noah looked like they’d been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Noah grinned at his mom.

“Hmm Mmmmmrrr,” he attempted through a mouthful of icing.

“Hi baby,” Olivia chuckled. “Why don’t you go change clothes while I help Regina clean all of this up? We’ll go for a walk after dinner.”

As Noah skipped off to his room, Regina gave Olivia an apologetic smile.

“I don’t think he had too much sugar?” she supplied.

Olivia just shook her head. “We’ll find out in about an hour, won’t we? If he’s bouncing off the walls during out walk, he’s your problem to try and get him to bed.”

“Please…like I haven’t dealt with a hyperactive seven-year-old before,” Regina said.

Olivia’s smile faltered at that. “Does…Do you hear from Henry often?” she asked gently.

“…no…” Regina said, finally. “He’s a teenager. It’s to be expected. Plus, I hear Los Angeles is wonderful. Last I heard…he’d taken up surfing.”

“And,” Olivia said slowly, “when was the last you’d heard?”

“It’s been three months. He’s got the life he wants - with Emma.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Regina said. “It was…never right. I invited him for Christmas, but I don’t think he’ll come. That’s okay, though. I’m sure we’ll have a great time - the three of us. I just…I wish you could’ve met him.”

“Me too. Can I…change gears a bit?”

“Of course, but try a cookie. We got right to decorating, and didn’t do any quality testing.”

Olivia selected one of the Christmas trees and took a bite. “Amazing. So…I want you to teach Noah magic.”

Regina had been sweeping up the sprinkles when she registered Olivia’s words. “You…you do?”

“It’s why we had to leave New York,” Olivia said. “He’s special - and he doesn’t even know what’s happening. I could tell, though. There was an…an incident at his school. I knew there was no way they could trace it back to him, but I knew I had to get him somewhere he could grow up…knowing about all this.”

Regina smiled. “Of course I’ll teach him.”

Olivia let out a relieved breath. “Great. Thank you,” she said.

“Anything for you.”

*

Noah woke up and turned to look at his airplane clock. It was two in the morning on Christmas, but he knew he heard something downstairs. Based on the fact that he heard it coming from the kitchen, he guessed it wasn’t Santa. He’d only been practicing his magic for a week, but he knew how to move little things. He silently summoned his slippers to him, and pulled a hoodie on as he crept out of bed.

The house was quiet, other than the rustling in the kitchen. He peeked around the corner to spot a tall boy with dark hair. The older boy was currently making a sandwich, and even though he didn’t look up, he said,

“I know you’re there.”

Noah gasped, and stepped back from the doorway.

“Come on,” the older boy called. “You can have half of my pb&j.”

Noah crept out from around the corner and shuffled into the kitchen. “You’re him. Henry.”

“And you’re Noah - Regina’s told me about you. She says you’re a natural at magic. So a good replacement for me,” he mumbled.

Noah didn’t understand a lot of things adults and big kids said and did. And, frankly, he didn’t much care most of the time. But he did understand…the shape of things. He knew his mom and Regina had been friends before he was born, and that they grown up liked each other. He knew that this big kid, Henry, was pouting. He knew he wasn’t supposed to have heard that mumbled comment - and he also knew it wasn’t true. “She likes me, because she likes my mom,” he insisted. “And I think she likes teaching me magic. But…she misses you. I’m not you.”

Henry stared at him pensively for a long moment, and then held out half of his sandwich, as promised. “When I was little, I used to camp in the living room on Christmas Eve,” he said. “What do you say we build a fort and wait up for Santa?”

Noah nodded eagerly, and held up his hands.

Henry watched, smiling slightly, as the younger boy’s hands glowed fluorescent purple for a moment. Nothing happened at first, and Henry was about to offer to get whatever Noah was trying to summon, when the little boy tried again.

This time, it worked. Sheets came zooming down the stairs, and Noah was socked in the face by five pillows from the linen cupboard.

Henry sniggered, but helped his younger… adoptive kind of step-brother? to his feet. “Let’s go.”

*

Regina knew Henry was home. She could feel it the minute she woke up. He’d never taken to magic, beyond a few simple spells, but she could always feel his magical signature when he was closeby. Olivia was pulling on a hoodie when Regina sat up in bed.

“I think our sons stayed downstairs last night,” she said.

“Ready to meet Henry?” Regina asked. To tell the truth, she was a bit apprehensive. She and Henry had a complicated relationship on the best of days, nowadays, and who knew what this Christmas would be like.

“Ready when you are,” Olivia said, smiling and reaching out to her.

Regina took her hand, and they made their way downstairs. When they reached the living room, they stopped just in the doorway to watch the scene. Henry and Noah were still asleep, snoring under a pile of blankets, just in front of the fire. Noah had an action figure in his arms, and Regina recognized it as one of the superheroes that had papered Henry’s walls when he’d lived here.

“We’ll start breakfast,” she said, feelings of peace and happiness flooding her consciousness. “Let them sleep a while longer.”

[rilenerocks]

Every time I travel by car, by train or by air, I always feel like I’m in a time capsule. I’ve always thought about how strange it is to go into a mobilized enclosed space, stay there for varying periods of time and then emerge, still yourself, into a completely different place. Maybe it’s more of a space capsule than a time capsule. I can’t quite decide. Hours definitely tick away while you’re packed in your container. Little change happens inside, especially if you’re responsible for getting yourself where you’re going which is what car travel is like, particularly when you go alone. There are few distractions, no chores or tasks other than the driving itself.

Revery usually occurs in my head when I’m driving between the place where I came from until I arrive at the place where I’m going. Sometimes though, it’s stranger than revery. Despite the speed of travel and the need to focus on the road, I turn on music for a little company. Generally it’s my own music, pre-selected playlists with my favorite artists, sometimes accompanied by AI additions chosen based on my musical taste.

Things get both comfy and evocative inside my rolling container. And there are numerous moments when I feel like I’m not really in my current self, but back in other spaces that the music has released from the storage space of my memory. Last week I took a seven hour drive to visit a dear friend whose time with me goes back 50 years. As I rumbled along, thinking about all we knew about each other and how much of our seminal adult life we’d shared, I didn’t feel like I was doing the rote steering and braking and reading signs, following directions. I felt almost out of my body, back in the vivid memories which are so much a part of how my brain works. I don’t just think my memories. I see them, smell them and touch them. The sensory experience feels alive to me. I talked about this with my friend when I arrived at her home. She told me that she experienced memories in a more one-dimensional way and that one of the things that she thought most about what made me unique to her was that my pain, my joy and my memory were so powerful. And she said she was interested in the fact that I could transcend the emotion of them and use my intellect to override some of the more emotional aspects of those experiences. I appreciated her insight. The truth is that during my long drive to see her, I caught myself feeling that I’d been hallucinating events from long ago, in a good way as opposed to a scary way. I know something about hallucinations.

Back in my youthful days of drug experimentation, I approached the supposed cosmic experiences that people claimed they had with hallucinogens from a skeptical point of view. All around me, people were talking about how if you tried this drug or that drug, you would raise your consciousness or alter it, possibly forever. I never really believed that. Although I wasn’t as knowledgeable about the human body back then as I am today, I figured that whatever happened was just some chemical reaction and that you were who were no matter what drugs you did. Of course there were people who developed habits that were toxic and life-altering. Life damaging is perhaps a better description. Some made it back from those dark places and others didn’t. Other people had few if any side effects from what they ingested. I always believed that a real change in your consciousness was a deliberate intellectual process and I approached drug experimentation in that way.

The first time I decided to try LSD or more commonly, acid, I was armed with a yellow legal pad and a pen as I intended to record everything I was experiencing, using my mind to transcend the drug. I still have the sheet of paper I wrote that first time. It started out pretty clearly but it was obvious that staying focused was going to be tough considering the physiological effects happening in my brain and body. The one line I remember the most from that long night was that all that was happening to me was an exaggerated reality. Nothing was otherworldly. Everything was based on real life. I was, however, quite taken with the hallucinations that came along with tripping.

In my case, sizes and textures were visibly altered and I loved watching things move around in unusual ways. I guess it felt most like Alice going down the rabbit hole.

I remember watching my blue jeans swirl around in a paisley-like wiggly way and being enamored of the patterns. I could barely contain my laughter as I tried buying something, all the while watching my dollar grow and grow until it looked a giant bag. When I listened to music I was convinced I was hearing every instrument individually and simultaneously. For the most part, I had a lot of fun when I did those trips but they took a long time to do and a long time to recover from. And nothing really was any different when they were over. I was still just me. So that was a short-lived period in time.

But my memory hallucinations are a whole other matter. As I drove along, I was suddenly back in the kitchen in Michael’s apartment in 1971. By that time he and I had become the best of friends and although we were each involved with other people, we spent a lot of time together. We were standing side by side at the kitchen sink, washing and drying dishes and laughing at some story or other. He who so much taller than me, bent down on my right side to give me an affectionate kiss on my cheek. But I’d suddenly turned my head so his mouth landed on the corner of mine. And trite as though it may sound, I literally felt electricity course through my body. It was stunning because until that instant, I hadn’t given a moment’s thought to him as anyone other than a friend. I’m surprised I didn’t fall over.

That was an altering moment in my life. And as I zoomed along to Iowa, I was in that memory, from its start to its finish, feeling the same powerful surge in body that I felt then. So what’s up with that? Is it a flashback? Where’s the science behind it? I think there must be some but I have no idea what it might be, as I’ve tried as hard as I can to think how that could happen. And it wasn’t the only incident like that which happened during that car ride. The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album came on and I was standing in our family apartment at 2019 East 81st Street in Chicago.

I was waiting for Danny, the boy who I had a mad crush on, who told me he was bringing me a present. The year was 1967 and I’d turned 16 in May. The album was released a week later and I remember my joy, both at having it and having it come from him. I was feeling the quick hug he gave and literally staring down at the album jacket in my hands.

All the while I’m barreling down I-80, Iowa-bound. I had a lot of other moments like these on this journey. I’ve talked with my son-in-law who’s a chemistry professor about what may make someone like me have these odd moments that feel so alive in real time even though they’re long gone.

He talked about the evidence that now supports the idea of wavelengths being real and verifiable. He suggests that we still lack the technology that might answer questions like mine about memory, and others such as why people view certain events as examples of ESP. Maybe there just too much we don’t understand about how the brain works. All I know is that my mind is open to some of the off the beaten path experiences I feel. For example, I think I must emit some pheromone that helps induce sleeping in people. When someone rests against me for awhile, invariably that person will pass out. I come in very handy for crying, irritable babies. My kids nicknamed me “novocaine” for making their little ones numb out from their discomforts and just fall into deep sleep. It works on adults too.

I like my hallucinations. The good news is that they never are reflective of negative memories. I remember those more in black and white and in a cerebral way. Maybe that’s my brain’s way of protecting me. Otherwise, life could be too overwhelming. I don’t expect I’ll live long enough to ever have the answers I long for. But as the song goes, what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Hallucinations from a Time Capsule Every time I travel by car, by train or by air, I always feel like I’m in a time capsule.