#gina I made you a present

[leascorner]

j.b.b. | Fake it ‘till you make it

Summary: Y/N’s ex-boyfriend will be at the Christmas party she will be attending. Bucky poses as Y/N’s +1.

Pairing:  Modern!Bucky Barnes x f!reader

Warnings: Use of Y/N and feminine pronoums, a few mentions of food and alcohol, mention of cheating and ghosting people and breaking Y/N's heart, mention of christmas and the dear corporate world, loads of mention of anxiety/stress, some vulgar language

Word Count: 4k

A/N: This is the 3rd Xmas OS of the series. It was a bit thougher to write than I imagined, but I'm quite happy out it turned out. Please do share and like if you enjoyed it, it means a lot!

2024 Christmas Masterlist | Main Masterlist

Y/N’s hands were so sweaty that she had to wipe them on her black coat every five minutes. The air in the car was warm and cosy, a sharp contrast with the cold and dry weather outside. If it should have relaxed her, it wasn’t enough. Instead, she couldn’t stop her right leg from shaking and her heart was beating so fast that it made her blood ring in her ears. She couldn’t believe that even after all this time he was making her this nervous.

Though, it wasn’t him exactly; it was this whole situation…

The he in question was her ex. An ex that, one night, had decided to throw away a four-year-long relationship with a note left on the kitchen counter of their shared apartment. An apartment from which he had planned to move out without facing her. Too bad for him, that same night, Y/N had gotten back from work earlier than expected and had, of course, walked in on him moving out. In the end, she had been the one to kick him out. Nevertheless, the shock had been real when, one week later, Natasha, her dear friend, had seen him at the supermarket, hands in hands with some other woman.

He had broken her entirely: her heart, her trust in this world, her self-esteem and probably everything else. More than one year later, she was still fixing what he had done to her. So naturally, when she heard that he was going to attend the Christmas party of the firm she was working at, she did the only thing she thought she was capable of… She decided not to go.

That was without counting on Natasha, who was determined not to let this slip that easily. He was the bastard that broke her friend. He would be the one daring to attend the Christmas party of the firm his ex was working on for more than six years now. He was only a small accountant from the accounting company to which finance had started to outsource their activities a couple of weeks ago. He was insignificant, while Y/N was expected to take on the role of head of her department after the retirement of her manager. Y/N couldn’t simply decide to not attend. She was going to be there and showing how much better she was doing without him.

Thanks heaven, she wasn’t going to do this alone. When Natasha had succeeding in convincing her to go to this party, Y/N had admitted she didn't feel like going alone. Sure, there would be her coworkers – she had become good friends with a few of them and all were aware of her romantic situation ship (or lack of, therefore). However, between Gina and her three kids, Maria on maternity leave, and Zach who she knew was going to hit on every waiter present, she needed more support. Y/N had made puppy eyes to Natasha, trying to get her to come with her. A look in her agenda later, the redhead had declared with a huge smile on her lips that she would be in Europe that week, closing the most important deal of the year for her own company. That was how Bucky had offered to be her “+1” for the night.

Ever since, Natasha had made up this fantasy of Bucky posing as Y/N’s fiancé for the night. She wanted Y/N’s ex to know Y/N was doing better, much better indeed, now that he wasn’t in her life anymore. At first, Y/N had embraced this idea, it was only payback for the way he had embarrassed her. However, thinking about it again, it definitely didn’t feel like such a good idea. How pathetic was she to try and make him jealous when the simple thought of him should make her indifferent…

Y/N had gotten cold feet a million times. If it wasn’t for Bucky insisting to call a cab to pick them both up and then have it drive them to the party, she would have spent her Friday evening ordering pizza and watching Netflix or if she would have had the courage to get out in the cold, testing this new winery bar that opened downtown to drink away her sorrow.

Even now, on her way to the party, she was only a second away to ask for the car to turn around and go back home. It would be a shame with all the money she had put in her outfits, make-up and hair, and with how Bucky had dressed up too, but she could still pretend to be not feeling well or be sick, no?

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed that the car had stopped, and her door was already opening. A wave of panic washed over her.

She did not want to be here.

She wanted to be anywhere, but here.

“Hey,” Bucky spoke, and she was surprised to see that he was the one to have open the door car. She had not realized Bucky had already gotten out and was offering her his hand to help her get out as well. “Just like we said,” he searched for her eyes as he took a deep inspiration. Eyes lost in the blue of his eyes; she copied him instinctively. It was just one night; she reminded herself to try to ease her nerves. As did Bucky, she breathed out. “It’s going to be okay,” he promised. She nodded weakly, still hooked to his eyes as if they were buoys.

They continued to breathe together for the time she needed to successfully calm herself and her heartbeat. When she was ready, she grabbed her handbag and took his hand. She couldn’t help but notice how her heart fluttered in her chest and how her cheeks heated up when their skin touched, but she quickly pushed the thought aside.

This was how Bucky was, not only with her, but with everyone. He was very well mannered and always nice; opening the door, pulling out the chair for the person he was with to sit down, offering his coat or jacket were anyone too cold. One smile and everyone would fall for him. Y/N couldn’t lie, Bucky was also very good looking. Tall, but not too tall. Definitely muscly under his button-up shirts. Flashing bright smiles. Piercing blue eyes.

Y/N had met him through Natasha. At that time, she had just moved to New York, and they worked at the same company. Natasha had introduced her to her group of friends; people she had been to university with: Wanda, Clint, Sam, Steve, and Bucky – and she was quick to be a part of the group.

While they had always been in the same group of friends, they had never been particularly close. Bucky being Bucky, he was always eager to know what was going on in her life, always interested in discussing about her hobbies, but they had never hanged out outside of their little group gatherings.

Y/N only really acknowledged him after her break-up. It was as if she had worn blinders for all those years. Suddenly, she realized he had been there all along. He continued being nice to her and much more than that. He became a really good friend, showing up at her place with ice-cream so she could cry her heart out. He listened and dried her tears. More than anything else, he made her feel important.

Like he really cared.

And in this past year, it had been everything to her.

As they walked into the building where the party was happening, Bucky spoke to her about the plans Steve and him had over the weekend. He spoke to her as if they were only going to the supermarket do groceries on a Tuesday night. She realized what he was doing – he was trying to clear her mind – and she was grateful for it. It did stop the easiness in her stomach and thankfully, the cold of the night made her hands dry.

In the hall, Bucky took her coat to leave it in the cloakroom. It was the exact same moment her phone decided to ring.

Natasha, less than one minute ago: Don’t forget to send me a picture of the two of you.

Natasha, less than one minute ago: And have fun!

Smiling, Y/N send her a quick answer, a mix of ‘yes mom’ with a rolling eyes emoji and ‘have a good day’ wherever she was – Natasha’s schedule was so hectic it was a bit difficult to follow sometimes; she could have been in London in the morning and Moscow at night.

Y/N put her phone back in her handbag as Bucky walked back to her. With a motion of his hand, he invited her to lead the way and enter in the reception room. His right hand rested in between her shoulder blades that her backless dress left naked. His palm was barely touching her skin, yet the touch of his fingertips grounded her, made her focus on him rather than what was happening around them.

“Y/N!” Gina called out as soon as they entered the room. She left her husband with her boss and nearly came running in their direction.

To Y/N’s disappointment, Bucky’s hand left her back as he let her go to greet her colleague. Gina didn’t lose time to hug Y/N as if the last time they had seen each other was not in the HR meeting that same morning. From the empty glass in her hands, Y/N assumed she had already started to celebrate the end of the year. Gina had never been one to handle alcohol well.

“Bucky, right?” Gina questioned as she turned to her left, to him.

“And you must be Gina.” Bucky stated in return. Gina giggled like a middle school girl – that was typically Bucky’s effect and even if Y/N knew him for a good decade now, it still amazed her. Gina went for a hug and Bucky happily obliged, barely touching her though.

“Hot,” Gina mouthed not so silently to Y/N, who was standing behind them.

Y/N only gave her a stern look and watched as Gina took her sweet time to let him go. If she had thought for a long time already that she would never let Natasha and Gina meet, she knew now that she was indeed right. The two of them in the same room would be the death of her.

Thankfully, someone going up on the stage in front of the dance floor was enough to put poor Bucky out of his misery. The CEO of the firm was about to give his traditional end-of-year speech, and everyone was invited to listen. Gina’s husband was quick to get her to join the crowd who was quickly gathering around the stage.

Y/N turned to Bucky who still wore his typical soft smile and acting as if the interaction with Gina had never happened. Maybe it happened to him more often than Y/N would know. “She is… something. I’m sorry.”

Bucky chuckled to wave it off and only offered her his arm, “Shall we?”

As they stand next to each other, in the crowd of the firm employees in front of the stage, Y/N only listened to the speech with one ear. She couldn’t help watching around the room. She saw the faces of all the persons in the crowd, some she had never seen before and a few familiar ones. Somewhere in the crowd, her eyes met with Zach who raised his glass to her, and she nodded in return to acknowledge him; considering who he was with, she knew she was most likely not going to see him again tonight. Thankfully, she didn’t see her ex and release a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

When her eyes turned to Bucky, he was already looking at her. For the first time, she saw a very subtle frown on his face. He was worried about her. Even if he had agreed to it – and he did so willingly, she felt bad for having him spend the night with her, attending a Christmas party where he knew nobody even more so. The company he was working at must also have its own Christmas party and everybody knew that one company Christmas party a year was much than enough. She wanted him to have a good time, not remembering this night in a bad way. So, she needed to relax.

She was so lost in her thoughts that Bucky had to nudge her in the ribs so she would applause at the end of the speech.

“Do you want a drink?” Y/N said more for herself than Bucky at her side. Without waiting for him to answer, she continued: “I’ll get us some drinks.”

And just like that, she had left him on the spot and was walking in direction of the bar. One second later, she was turning back and walking to where Bucky was still standing. He looked at her, surprised.

“Thank you so much.”

Bucky smiled, sweetly. That was probably what she liked the most about him, he knew exactly was she was on about. “Doll, pleasure is all mine.”

Doll… Bucky wouldn’t stop calling her by all those sweet nicknames ever since the break-up. It somehow made her stomach fluttered. She wished he was only using those with her, but she knew with how he was, he did it with everyone else.

“No, really,” she insisted. “You didn’t have to do it.” Bucky was going to answer something when she cut him off. “You must think I am pathetic to do this. I swear, I do not have any feeling for him anymore. I just don’t want him to think he won. He can’t be the one to have thrown away a four-years-long relationship and be the one to walk away happy. Not after all he put me through.”

Slowly, Bucky took her chin into his right hand, his eyes meeting hers again. She had not noticed, but they were yet again so close to one another.

“Love, we are going a hell of a time tonight. Screw him. You are much better without him. You would have to be blind not to see it.”

And what a time they were going to have indeed…

After a couple of drinks, Y/N was much comfortable about being here that night. Bucky had somehow managed to get them a full tray of appetizers for them both to share as their dinner. They had been joined by Zach afterwards, who against all odds spent a part of his evening with them. They shared some shots of vodka, took a dozen of silly pictures at the photobooth that was set up, and once the DJ had started to play actual music, they had been quick to join the dance floor. In the crowd of employees, Bucky had made Y/N spun around herself more times than she could count. His hands had been on herself at all times – on her hips, on her arms, on her back, definitely leaving Y/N aching for more.

“I need to take a break.” Y/N announced after a while as she started to walk away from the dance floor. Zach was too busy with some other man to care about her and Bucky was quick to follow her.

“You good?” he asked. As the music was too loud, Y/N only saw his lips moving without hearing what he had said. Bucky stepped closer and had his lips close to her ear to repeat her question.

“Yes,” she nodded, moving her hands in front of herself as a fan to have some air. She had this hotness on her cheeks and nose; her backless dress was now clenched to her features. At this point, she didn’t know anymore if it was from all the dancing or from him being so close to him. She was hot, needed some air and probably also a drink. “I’m thirsty. Do you want something?”

Bucky had to lean in again onto her to let her know what he wanted to drink. Y/N gave him a thumbs-up before walking to the bar. She was wearing a big smile on her lips and was feeling absolutely content. As she walked away from the dance floor, she thought this night couldn’t have gone better… except her feet in those heels and she would have to drink water at some point if she didn’t wish to wake up with a massive headache… And that, as if destiny was playing with her, her eyes landed on the only person that could spoil her night.

Y/N’s smile faded when she was her ex, waiting for his drink at the bar, hand pianoing on the wood of the counter, eyes scanning the room. Bucky’s presence had finally made her totally forget what she had asked him to come for in the first place.

Sighing, she decided she wasn’t going to turn back now. She didn’t have to talk to him, let alone have to look at him. She went to the bar side on her left, at the very opposite of him. Focusing on the barmaid that smiled when she stood against the bar, she repeated Bucky’s whisky order and ordered a soft drink for her. She was about to get back to Bucky with their drinks when a shadow overed on her.

“Y/N, how nice to see you,” his snide voice called her out.

Her two drinks in her hand, she turned to look at him with a stern sight. Still the same charming smile. The same malicious eyes. That same dimple. It had made her heart flattered in the past, though now it only made her want to vomit.

“It has been a long time, how have you been?”

“I am awaited,” was all she answered. Her tone was not rude – though she would have very much like to throw her glass to his face; it was only very firm to pass on the idea that she did not want to talk to him. At all.

“Oh, so you’ve been able to coax someone to come with you?” he said, grabbing on her elbow to keep her from moving away from him.

“Her boyfriend, actually.”

Bucky appeared at her side, out of nowhere. The surprise made him drop his hold on her, making Y/N lose her balance. Thankfully, Bucky firm hand found the exposed skin of her lower back in a second and she gently crashed onto his side.

Unsure of what to do, Y/N looked back at Bucky, who was now getting his drink out of her hands.

“Thank you, doll.”

He smiled at her, and she smiled back, loosing herself in his blue eyes, totally forgetting the room around her and the fact that her ex was right in front of them. The physical contact of his skin on hers was started to make her head fizzy. Or was it the multiples drinks of Champagne finally making it to her head?

“Nice to have seen you again, buddy.”

And without waiting for an answer, Bucky brought Y/N with him to a cocktail table, not so far from the dance floor, but a little bit calmer where they could talk. A couple of steps away from her ex, when he knew they weren’t within earshot, he leaned on Y/N to mutter:

“See, wasn’t that bad.”

Y/N smiled weakly and took down the glass of orange juice she had ordered in one go, now wishing she had ordered vodka with it. Her heart in her chest was pounding and she felt his eyes on her back; he was watching them. All her energy seemed to have left her body. Their encounter had been like a wake-up call, and she didn’t want to be here any longer.

Yet, she didn’t want to be the first one to leave, she didn’t want to let him win. So, she tried to calm herself and she stayed at the limit of the dance floor, watching her colleagues dancing the night away before her eyes. Bucky stayed at her side. He did not say a word, probably because he had understood she did not want to talk.

It was only when the DJ played a slow dancing song that Y/N seemed to wake up from her trance and turned to him.

“Would you dance with me?”

Bucky didn’t need much persuading and was quick to grab Y/N’s hand to lead her to the dance floor. He found them an empty space, where he had her turned to him. His hands immediately found a place on her naked back, sending shivers down her spine, and her hands found their way to the back of his neck.

They moved slowly, body pressed against one another. Y/N let her head fall on his chest while he slowly stoked the skin of her back. Her belly tingled in such a strong way that she finally had the courage to look at him in the eyes. When their eyes met, he was already looking at her, a small smile on his lips that inadvertently draw Y/N’s eyes. His lips were so close, so reachable, that she was tempted to just lean in and see what would happen. The fire in her stomach wanted her to do it. After all, she had already lost so many things this year, nothing worse could happen, right?

She bit her own lips and tried to come back to earth. Bucky was a good friend and if it meant losing him, she didn’t want to risk it. He was too precious to ruin everything, even if she wanted him more than anything.

“What would you say of getting out of here?” Bucky asked when the song finished. Even though the next song was not slow-rhythmed, they had stayed in the same position. Body pressed together, moving slowly.

“Yes, please.”

Yet, none of them moved.

They kept eyeing each other, Y/N’s gaze going from his eyes to his lips and back again. Finally, Bucky made a move. Her breath got caught in her throat when Bucky’s hand took a loose string of her hair and put it behind her ear. The air seemed to have thickened and the time to have paused.

His hand hot on her cheek, he leaned in slowly.

“Please,” she begged him to put her out of her misery.

He chuckled deeply and leaned him more, their lips barely touching. Y/N didn’t waste a second more and brought him closer, crashing their lips a bit too brutally together that they could hear their teeth crashing together. Y/N withdrawn, eyes wide, worried she had hurt him.

“I’m so sor-” Bucky was quick to kiss her again, this time much gently. A second first kiss that they would remember. One of those kisses that would electrify their whole body. One of those kisses that would leave their lips swollen and them asking for more.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Once again, Y/N let Bucky grab her hand and lead her to the cloakroom. He asked for their coats with the ticket he had kept in his wallet as Y/N stood her back against the wooden counter, trying to realize what was going on. She was going to go home, with him of all people.

“Well, that was one hell of a show out there,” Zach whispered as he stood next to her. He too was waiting in line to get his coat and go home with the person at his side, a man from the Californian office she had seen twice in her life. “Couldn’t figure out if you were faking it or not.”

Y/N turned to Bucky at her side, whose hand was still holding her hip, as if he was scared, she would slip away. Then, she turned back to Zach, a big smile on her face.

“Definitely not fake.”

[philcon-programming]

Philcon 2024!

Do you love Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror? Are you a Writer, a Gamer, a Costumer, or a Filker? Are you looking for a weekend of distraction in your life? If you’re in the vicinity of Philadelphia- or more specifically, Cherry Hill, New Jersey- there’s an event coming up on November 22 – 24, 2024 that we’d love for you to come check out. If you aren’t already familiar with PHILCON, here’s what you should know: * We started out as a literary-centric SF convention in 1936, but have grown to embrace all mediums of storytelling (movies, television, comics, podcasts, etc) as well as expanding to cover the Fantasy and Horror genres. Most of our participants are authors, and there will be Readings by them and Autograph sessions all throughout the weekend, in addition to their participation on discussion panels. * While many of our Literary panels are about SF, Fantasy, or Horror topics in general, we also have an emphasis on panels discussing the craft side and business sides of writing, for those looking to develop as authors. * One of our content tracks for the weekend is dedicated to Science & Technology itself, not just how it is used in fiction. * We will be screening several movies over the weekend, and Anime will also be shown in our Anime & Animation room at certain times. * There will be Workshops and Demos for Costuming (including "Fabric Manipulation", "How to Make Foam Armor", "Make-up for The Stage", and "A Pox on Patterns!") and Art (including "Using Alcohol Inks", "Block Printing With Your Own Designs", "How to Make A Controlled Color Palette", and "Making Wire-Wrapped Jewelry"), and if you’ve got an outfit you made that you’d like to show off on stage, we’ve got a yearly Costume Contest. * If you are a Filker- or just enjoy listening to other people sing and play music- Philcon has a room dedicated Filk room, and this year’s Musical Guest of Honor is Cecilia Eng. As Cecilia is not often on the east coast, if you’d like to see her play in person, now is an excellent change to do so without flying to the other side of the country. Lynn Gold, another west-coast Filker, will also be joining us this year. There are also Concerts scheduled for Sirens & Liars, Half a Slime Devil, Brenda and Chuck Shaffer-Shiring, and Sara Henya. * Since the Gaming track moved from an upstairs suite to the “Gallery” room on the first floor, it’s had the literal room to expand the number of games it can run, and we’ve got a bevy of them on the schedule for 2024, as well as a bank of games for you to choose from during Open Gaming hours. There's also a LARP Workshop Series being run by Spectacle INK. * Our Artist Guests of Honor for 2024 are Gina Matarazzo and Matthew Stewart. Each will be giving a presentation on our Main Stage on Saturday afternoon, as well as having their art displayed in our Art Show. * Our Principal Speaker for 2024 is MAX GLADSTONE, and we also have Nghi Vo as our Special Guest. Both will be doing Readings, Autograph Sessions, panels, and a main stage Q&A session. An interactive version of our schedule can be found HERE. While a simplified, static overview, organized by track, can be found HERE. Our LinkTree can be found HERE. We would especially value your support this year, as Philcon’s Covid-19 policy in previous years (which required both mandatory masking and proof of vaccination in an attempt to avoid becoming a super-spreader event as several other conventions had) has led to a slow but noticeable decline in attendance. While masking in public spaces is still heavily encouraged, neither proof of vaccination nor masking are required to attend the convention in 2024. We’d love your help in making this year a success, so that we’re in a good position to bring you all something really fantastic for our upcoming 90th anniversary. We’d also love to give you a great weekend right now, for reasons I doubt we need to explain. Here’s to surviving the next few years! ~ Lynati Head of Programming, Philcon 2024

[thomaslittlegirl]

Hi love!

you could write something about Tommy where they are a bit possessive of the reader but a non-toxic sweet possessive type that is all the time saying 'my wife' every time he says her name he makes sure to say that she is his wife🥹 If you could put a little bit of jealousy where maybe someone sees her too much and he makes sure to move his hand down a little further than her back so they know she's definitely his wife🙂‍↕️

And the reader is SO proud to be his wife! She even leaves him a kiss on the tip of his nose and he turns red and tight because well it's Tommy '😤'

Sorry I have cramps these days and I just want something sweet🥺🥺♥️♥️Please take it only if you are comfortable, I send you love!🫂

ps. I love your work, you are amazing at this!🫶🏻

i hope your cramps go away! also hope you like this. sending you love back 🫶🏻🩷

his wife. thomas shelby

warnings; jealous thomas, michael wants u lol

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

everyone who knew you, knew that you were thomas's wife, because that's how he introduced you: "y/n, my wife."

on your finger lays a beautiful golden ring, a promise that you would soon become his property forever… it's not like you weren't already; you belong to shelby from the moment he laid his eyes on you and worked hard to conquer you. the ring was simply a promise to make it official.

you two were engaged, but he already presented you to everyone as his beautiful wife.

sometimes you even thought you might forget your own name since everyone called you "shelby's girl."

the gypsy was proud that everyone knew their place well. no man who wanted to keep his eyes spent more than five seconds looking at you, not if they truly valued their lives.

there were many bad men outside, many dangerous people who would not hesitate to hurt you to get to him... that's why he was always watching you, keeping you close where his eyes could see you.

everyone knew their places, except for someone: his damn cousin.

michael was centimeters from your body, making some jokes that he couldn't hear due to the distance in which he was from the two of you, but jokes that made you laugh out loud.

his hand clenched tightly around his glass of whiskey, watching the exchange of laughter between the two of you.

no one at the party had noticed his anger, except arthur. his brother looked at him seriously, giving him a nod, showing him that he also understood what was happening.

he thought it was enough.

thomas slammed the glass hard on the table and seriously addressed you, the music ringing in his ears with annoyance.

as soon as he reached you, his hand went to your hip. "doll." he said, squeezing the skin that your dress hid. "michael." he greeted his cousin too.

"cousin." gray greeted, making a grimace with his mouth that imitated a smile.

"is something wrong, love?" your sweet and naive voice reaches his ears and made his serious gaze finally detach from his relative and address you.

"no. just wanted to be close to my wife." he responded, smiling at you for a second before turning completely serious again and looking back at michael.

the youngest noticed how thomas's hand on your hip went down to your ass and stayed there, holding his palm firmly against you.

"you should go, michael." shelby spoke again. "gina was looking for you." his eyes and hard expression told gray everything he needed to understand, and the boy looked into his eyes for a moment before nodding.

"see you, mrs shelby." he murmured in a tone of voice that you couldn't understand but thomas did. he fucking did understand.

when you were both finally alone, you turned to look at thomas with a smile, totally naive and oblivious to everything that was happening.

his blue eyes looked at you fondly, with desire. you couldn't help but leave a small kiss on his nose, watching him smirk.

"my wife." your fiancé uttered, giving you a squeeze. "i can't wait for everyone to leave so i can have my doll all to myself."

[polkadotpenguin16]

Subtle Hints

Fills the Only 1 Bed square for @storiesofsvu's Holiday Bingo 2024

Pairing: Sonny Carisi x female reader

Tags: smut (that might be a strong word for this—smut lite?)

Word count: 2K

Beta'd by: @misscharlielulu + @escapingrealtiylovinginsanity

A/N: my Christmas present to you – my first attempt dipping my toes into smut! I’m very much a beginner writing in this genre, and want to improve my skills so I can do my saucy ideas justice. So please bear with me as I’m learning <3

Also posted on AO3

Today was your first holiday spent with Sonny’s family. While you’d already met his parents and sisters individually, this was your first time fully immersed in the Carisi clan. Sonny wasn’t worried about it, but you were irrationally concerned about making a good impression. It was important to you that they thought you were a good match for Sonny. 

His sisters seemed to like you, and his nieces and nephews thought you were pretty cool. But you had a hard time getting a read on his mother. She was cordial, smiling whenever you chatted. But her demeanor seemed guarded, if not a little cold. Definitely not the enthusiasm you’d hoped for. But you were dating her one and only son, her baby boy, so her trepidation was not unexpected.

It was getting dark outside, and the snow was falling much harder than forecasted. Because of the late hour and the unfavorable weather, Sonny’s parents offered to let everyone stay at their house for the night. When Mrs. Carisi divvied up the rooms amongst all the guests, somehow, the only one left for you and Sonny was Gina and Bella’s childhood bedroom. Which you wouldn’t have minded, except for one thing…

Gina and Bella had shared bunk beds.

Mrs. Carisi tried to play innocent. “What do you want me to do? It’s the only bed left. You wanna sleep in the closet?” But you strongly suspected this was her not so subtle way of hinting that she didn’t want any out-of-wedlock shenanigans happening under her roof.

You and Sonny entered the bedroom, dumbfounded how you found yourself in this situation. The walls were covered in pastel floral wallpaper that reminded you of the 80s. Next to the closet sat a well-worn oak dresser with scuffs along the side—probably from having the closet door slammed into it. The window was adorned with pink striped curtains that appeared to have been homemade, perhaps by Mrs. Carisi. And at the back of the room stood the dreaded set of bunk beds. 

The closer you got, the smaller the beds seemed. 

“You have got to be kidding me.” Sonny rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He’d like to say he was surprised, but this honestly wasn’t even the craziest of his mother’s antics. “I, uh, I could go talk to Ma…” he trailed off as he glanced at you hesitantly, looking for you to tell him what to do next.

You thought about it for a split second, but the defeated look on his face told you that Sonny didn’t want to fight with his mom tonight. “No, it’s fine. It’s just for one night, anyways.” As utterly silly as this was, you were still worried about making a good impression with his mother. You thought there was the slightest chance you’d earn her respect if you went along with this madness.

Relief washed over Sonny’s face. He made a mental note to thank God at Mass tomorrow for blessing him with such an understanding girlfriend. He looked back at the bunk beds, reminded of the uncomfortable night ahead of him. With a deep sigh, he accepted his fate. “Okay, roomie, which bunk do you want?”

“Which would you be more comfortable in?” You wanted to be mindful of his size. You weren’t necessarily tiny, but certainly smaller than him.

His eyes darted between you and the beds before gesturing to his lengthy frame. “Babe, it’s not gonna make a difference.”

“Well…” A wicked smirk crept onto your lips. “I’ve never slept in a bunk bed before.” You mischievously climbed up the ladder to claim the top bunk as yours.

Sonny rolled his eyes, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t charmed by your childish spirit. “Alright, doll, you can be on top tonight.” You glared at his immature joke, but desperately tried to suppress the warmth rising in your cheeks. “Why don’t you get down from there so we can get ready for bed?”

Sonny stripped down to his boxers and undershirt, offering you his dress shirt to sleep in. He had worn his blue and white polka dot one, which was your favorite on him. You shamelessly held the shirt to your face. Breathing in its musky scent, enjoying the warmth still clinging to the fabric.

While getting ready, you turned to see Sonny struggling as he tried to squish himself into the bedframe. He regretted he hadn’t taken you up on that offer to join your yoga class. He bonked his head against the wall and jammed his knee into the bedpost. Too exhausted to be fighting a literal piece of furniture, he resigned himself to sticking his feet off the edge and resting his arm on the floor.

Swallowing your giggles, you tiptoed to the bed, kneeling to look at a very defeated Sonny. “Are you going to be okay down here?” You had to whisper otherwise you’d bust out into a cackle.

“Oh, yeah, just like a five-star hotel.” At least he was able to fit his sense of humor in there.

You exchanged “I love yous” and a quick kiss, then you climbed up to your own bunk. It took a minute of tossing and turning, but you found a comfortable position for the night.

Fifteen minutes later, you were on the edge of sleep when you heard Sonny let out a disgruntled groan. The bed started to shift. Before you knew it, Sonny was up the ladder, crawling into your bunk.

“No, no, Sonny! What’re you doing?” You quietly tried to shoo him, afraid he’d break the bed. Ignoring your protests he tried to squeeze in beside you.

“Doll, it’s cold down there,” he whined. You knew that was a lie. Sonny, true to his name, radiated heat like the sun. He was never cold.

You playfully tilted your head and raised your eyebrow. “You sure you weren’t just lonely?”.

Sonny was grateful the darkness hid his boyish blush. It was an awkward dance trying to get you both to fit. Giggles erupted as your legs and arms tangled together. Eventually, Sonny pulled you on top of him, wrapping his arms around your waist. You curled up under his chin, finally settling.

You tried to fall asleep but were distracted by the gently snoring man beneath you. You felt enveloped by his warmth, intoxicated by the smell of his cologne. You knew this was quite possibly the worst time and place to be horny, but you couldn’t ignore the heat growing in your belly. You needed to relieve the tension, so you slowly ground into Sonny.

You felt a groan reverberate in his chest. “Doll, whatcha doin’?” His voice was low, thick with sleep.

“Well, you were complaining about being cold.” You ground your hips harder into his, hoping he would get the message.

Sonny’s laugh was cut off by a wanton moan. He slowly tightened his hands around your hips. You felt him growing hard beneath you.

Your message was clearly received.

He gently flipped you onto your back. “You're gonna be the death of me, ya know that...possibly literally.” He looked over the side of the bed, gauging how far the ground was.

He knew this was a bad idea. But you were so effortlessly beautiful laid out beneath him, wearing nothing but panties and his shirt. His desire for you had been building all night. Watching you blend in so easily with his crazy family, strutting around in your green party dress. He’d barely been able to keep his hands to himself. Now, hovering above you, his resolve was quickly slipping away. Your skin was soft under his fingertips, and he could smell remnants of your gingerbread perfume. You felt like the perfect Christmas present—handpicked just for him, waiting to be unwrapped. How could he resist?

He pulled you into a searing kiss. You kissed him back with the same intensity, rubbing your hands up and down his back. You moaned into his mouth, louder than you’d intended. Sonny shushed you, reminding you that you had to be quiet. You carefully peeled Sonny out of his undershirt. A goofy smile spread onto his face as he watched you struggle against the fabric. He realized how juvenile this was, but he was enjoying every minute of it. He looked deeply into your eyes, feeling the closeness he’d been desperately craving the whole evening.

He balanced himself on his forearms, wanting to make you as comfortable as possible. He hiked up your shirt just enough to gain access to your chest. He gently massaged your sensitive breast. His calloused fingers dragged gently against your skin and across your nipple, making it harden beneath his touch. You gasped as you arched your back to meet his hand. The whimpers coming from your throat were nothing compared to Sonny’s.

He enjoyed giving you pleasure infinitely more than receiving it.

He tried to ignore the burning in his shoulders. But suddenly his muscles gave out, throwing him off balance. Making a split-second decision to avoid collapsing on top of you, he tumbled over the side of the bed. He landed with a comical thud that echoed throughout the silent room.

“Sonny!” you whisper yelled, as if you hadn’t just awakened the entire house with your raunchy escapades. You quickly climbed down to check on Sonny where he lay groaning on the floor. “Are you okay? Is anything broken?”

He propped himself up on his elbows, taking stock of his body. “Besides my pride?” Wincing as he rubbed the back of his head. “I think I’ll live.” You kissed his forehead. Thankfully, the bed hadn’t been that tall, so a serious injury was unlikely.

As you sat on the floor looking up at the bunk beds, a thought popped into your head. “Hey, Sonny?”

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t we just put the mattress on the floor?”

Sonny’s face went blank at the realization. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips tightly. He groaned in frustration as he laid his head back on the floor, and you busted out into a fit of giggles. You pulled the mattresses off the bunks and lined them up next to each other on the floor. You couldn’t help but feel incredibly stupid that you hadn’t thought of this in the first place.

Well, hindsight is 20/20…or about 5 feet off the floor.

You cuddled up under the blankets, much cozier on the floor than in the beds. Sonny’s eyebrows were laced together deep in thought.

“You doing alright, sunshine?” You brushed the hair away that had fallen into his eyes.

His face relaxed under your touch. “Yeah, I’m just wondering why I couldn’t be the favorite child.” You shook your head in amusement, a smile tugging at the corners of your lips. “Bella would never have been asked to share a bunk bed.”

You scooched in close to teasingly whisper in his ear, “That’s because Tommy popped the question.”

Sonny threw his head back and laughed so hard, you worried it would wake up the house yet again. “Ya trying to tell me something, doll?”

“All I’m saying is maybe some new jewelry could get us better accommodations next year.” You wiggled the fingers of your left hand.

He took your hand and lovingly kissed each of your fingers, pausing before your ring finger. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

You snuggled deeper under the covers, happily entangled together. You closed your eyes, playing back the evening’s events in your mind. It was certainly a night you wouldn’t soon forget. You wondered how big the lump on Sonny’s head would be. Or if maybe you’d be engaged by next Christmas…

And how to explain all of this to his mother in the morning.

[superhaught]

Incurable Cravings (Chapter Six)

Pairing: Regina George x Reader

Warning(s): brief references to sex.

Word Count: 1500, Part 6/6 - Final Chapter (better late than never!)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

Regina and reader discuss Harvard and their future together.

You immediately covered your eyes with your hands trying to avoid Regina’s reaction, so it wasn’t until she gently pulled your hands down again that you saw the blonde beaming back at you. 

“Is that all?” She asked.

“What?”

“Baby, come on, I’m so fucking proud of you! Did you think I was going to be upset?”

“Well, yeah… If not for the fact that I’m moving far away then because I waited this long to tell you.” You averted your gaze, your eyes were still watering and you didn’t want her to see.

Regina sighed and then shook her head, “I’m not upset. My darling is going to Harvard. I’m ecstatic, and you should be too. I’m going to miss you like crazy while you’re away, but you can bet your ass that I’m going to visit you every single chance I get! Hell, I can visit Leighton in Vermont, too.”

You sniffled and looked back at her but you were still nervous.

She tutted at you, “I know that look. What’re you worrying about?”

“Me going away… I thought… I thought that it would mean you’d break up with me.”

Regina raised an eyebrow and frowned, “why would I go and do a stupid thing like that?”

You stared at her in shock, “t-the… distance… other people… all of those things.”

“Do you want to split up when you leave for school?”

“No!” You grabbed her arms, tighter than you maybe should have.

Regina reached up and touched your jaw gently, “then there’s nothing to be worried about, okay? I know I don’t say everything that I feel out loud… but believe me, I never want to be without you. So what if you’re going to be moving? You’re still mine.”

Whatever dam that was inside of holding everything back crumbled at that and you fell forward into Regina as you sobbed. 

She held you while you cried and eventually slid down the bathroom wall, pulling you both down to the ground to sit until you recovered. She whispered quiet affirmations to you while kissing your hair and rubbing your back. 

You finally were able to get in a few deep breaths and then you pulled back to look at her again.

Regina dabbed at your eyes and whispered, “I love you, okay? And… there is so much life that I want to live with you, still. So, stop your crying because you’re going to get puffy and because we are going to celebrate this accomplishment.”

“Celebrate?”

“Oh, yes baby. Just you and me tonight…” she smirked at you in a way that made your stomach flip, then continued, “and then I’m going to throw you the biggest fucking party ever.”

You laughed incredulously, “you’re… going to throw me a party?”

Regina nodded, biting her lower lip, “yes, I am.”

“A party… with people there?”

Regina laughed, “people are usually present at parties, yes.”

“No, I mean-”

“I know what you mean, but I want to do this. I want everyone to know how amazing you are.”

“Gina…”

Regina simply leaned in and kissed you, saying all that needed to be said. 

That evening, Regina took you home with her, confidently holding your hand in hers as she brought you inside and up to her room. If you noticed any kind of reaction from Ms.George, it was immediately forgotten as Regina ate you out to within an inch of your life in her bed, and then fucked you again in the bath, and then gifted you a gorgeous strapon that she has been saving for a “special occasion” that you used to fuck her until you were both too spent to do anything but go straight to sleep. 

A couple weeks later, Regina invited Janis to get coffee with her. You encouraged Janis to accept the offer, and thank God she did, because they finally talked and worked through everything. You watched as Regina and Janis forgave one another and a supportive friend group formed. You, Regina, Janis, Cady, Damien, Gretchen, and Karen all ate lunch together everyday and hung out outside of school. 

Regina figured out that she didn’t have to make a big deal out of coming out, she could just be. Before long, she was using her powers of influence to shut down classmates’ homophobic comments, got teachers to start talking about queer history in class and got a portion of the Senior Prom profits donated to a local shelter for queer youth. Then, in the week before graduation, Regina threw you a massive party celebrating your Harvard acceptance and she kissed you in front of everyone.

You were on cloud nine all summer. You and Regina spent nearly every day together, sometimes joined by your friends. You went swimming all the time, took a weekend trip to Chicago, saw drive-in movies, and barely slept at your own house. 

When it came to leaving for school, Regina insisted on driving you to Boston herself. You made a list of all the sites in Cambridge and Boston that you wanted to see and Regina smiled even when she was bored out of her skull while you rambled about the State House and the Great Molasses Flood. Regina was far more interested in thoroughly investigating your dorm and campus, stating that she needed to know you’d be safe without her. Your roommate, Daphne, was so nice and didn’t even get upset when Regina grilled her about her high school experience and college ambitions. 

You both cried when you had to say goodbye because you had to give in to the dramatics of it all even though Regina called you twenty minutes later when she hit the freeway. 

Days turned to weeks, then months. Regina was taking a gap year to figure things out and work and she made sure to visit you and Leighton and her other East Coast residing friends as often as she could (Cady was settling in wonderfully at MIT and the two of you hung out often, and Janis was very happy at RISD). 

Before you knew it, your sophomore year was around the corner. You had stayed on campus for a research internship over the summer and one day when you got back to your dorm, a certain blonde was standing there waiting for you. You dropped your bag onto the ground and ran into Regina’s arms, kissing her cheeks frantically. She laughed and said, “I needed to tell you in person - I’m starting at the fashion institute in New York this semester baby!” 

You laid in your twin size dorm bed with Regina curled into your side while she drew nonsensical shapes onto your bare chest with her fingers. 

“We’ll be able to see each other so much more often, the bus between Boston and New York is so cheap!” 

Regina shuddered and made a retching sound, “you can take the bus, I will be traveling First Class on the Amtrak, thank you very much.” 

You laugh, “you say that now but just wait until you spend all of your allowance on eating out instead of succumbing to whatever they’re serving at the dining hall.” 

Regina looked up at you, "I love you, I really do but I’m sorry, I’ll die before I take a Megabus out of Port Authority. For literally so many reasons.” 

You chuckled at the blonde and rolled over to be on top of her as you began kissing down her body and made her shut up about the transportation options.

So you stayed in Boston, Regina moved to New York which was a massive improvement, but still not close enough sometimes. 

Things really started to feel settled when a couple weeks into the semester, you got word from Regina that Leighton was transferring from Essex to MIT. Regina started coming to Boston so often that she ended up signing up for a clinical trial on POTS being run at the Harvard Medical School so you got to see her a lot and she started to feel so much better even through all the complaining that you guys did about how shitty the transit system in Boston was. 

You went down to New York to see Broadway shows and concerts with Regina. One night while out for dinner she said, “just move here, will you? I hear Columbia is fine. I hate Boston.” 

You laughed and responded, “no you don’t, just last week you said that New York overstimulates you and that you love that you can actually see the leaves change in Boston.” 

“Ugh, didn’t I tell you to stop using the things I say against me?” 

“Mm no I don’t remember that. At least we know that we’ll never move back to Illinois.” 

Regina smirked and clinked her drink glass against yours, “that, my love, is very true.”

[oneforthemunny]

blue christmas |older!dilf!eddie munson x reader|

prompt: a look at two very different christmases in eddie's life.

apart of munny's merriest masterlist which you can read here!

contains: sad!eddie. parent guilt. divorce. gina. mainly just very lonely christmas angst but some fluff at then end.

Fourteen Years Before

“Hey, have a good one, Munson!” Phil waved a gloved hand, locking the body shop for the night. “Have a Merry Christmas!” Even Christmas Eve held its fair share of wrecks, cars breaking down in the snow, plenty of business even on the holiday. 

“Yeah, you too!” Eddie waved back, hands shoved deep in his utility jacket, heavy and warm for the colder months. His hands fiddled around with the cigarette carton in his coat pocket, pulling out his keys with the cigarette, letting it hang from his lips as he slid into the truck. 

The roads were empty, cleared of any traffic on his way to his apartment. The twinkling lights in the yards, strung merrily and proudly for all to see mocked him, a dull reminder of what wasn’t waiting for him at home. 

Home. He used that term loosely. 

The apartments were cheap for a two bedroom, close to Brielle’s school and Eddie’s work. Gina had got the house in the divorce. Eddie didn’t want it, couldn’t afford it on his own after she’d cleared out what little he had. His thumb rubbed over his ring finger out of habit, meeting the calloused skin there instead of the gold band he wore for eight years. 

Eight years. Eight Christmases spent with Gina, with Brielle. They were far from perfect. He and Gina usually fought from Thanksgiving to New Years Eve, but at least he had a tree. At least it was decorated, and there were presents under the tree. 

At least he wasn’t alone. 

Eddie’s heart ached, a jabbing pain that spread through his chest, leaving his throat stinging with an uncomfortable burn. He knew the divorce was the right thing to do, when your seven year old asks Santa for her parents to stop fighting, it’s time. Still, he didn’t think it would hurt so badly, that it’d be this lonely.

That he’d miss it this badly. 

Maybe he should have toughed it out, should have ignored Gina so he wouldn’t be sitting here, in a pitifully empty apartment, in a deafening silence, nursing a beer on Christmas Eve. 

Eddie had put up a ‘tree’, a lighted spiral cone shape he found at a second hand store, after Brielle commented on his lack of decor. “You don’t like Christmas anymore?” 

She’d made him an ornament in art class, which he couldn’t hang on the spiraled lights of the tree, so he taped it on. She was happy with it regardless, grinning and telling him about how her art teacher let her make two. “Since you and mom are divorced.” Eddie’s stomach turned. There was something so sickening about hearing his little girl say those words in such a cheery tone. Made him feel like a complete sack of shit. 

Eddie looked at the clock on the stove, flashing bright, green numbers back at him. He worked later than expected, it was nearly eight, but knowing Brielle she was far from ready for bed- Santa's coming tonight. Eddie’s chest tightened at the thought- he was missing that. 

He grabbed the phone, punching in the numbers carefully, he knew them by heart. The phone rang, and rang. 

“Hello?” Gina’s huffy voice came over the other line. 

“Hey, Gina.” Eddie said awkwardly. “I, uh, I just got home. I was gonna talk to Brielle if she’s still up.” 

“Yeah, she’s still up.” Gina huffed, and he could practically see her eye roll, snarled lips. “You were supposed to call at seven.” 

“I know, I know. I just- I got busy at work. Had to stay overtime.” Eddie ran a hand down his face, knee bouncing. 

“Great. She’s gonna be even more wild now. She’s already losing her damn mind- Brielle, get out of your stocking or I’m throwing it away!” Gina pulled the phone away, shrilling. Eddie’s lips curled, hearing the cackle in the background, she was his daughter. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-” Eddie started. 

“-Just, whatever. Don’t get her fucking wild, Eddie, I swear to God.” Gina snapped. The phone rustled. “Here.” Gina’s voice was muffled, before the phone settled. 

“Hello?” The little chirp on the other end had Eddie’s heart swelling. 

“Hi, Munchkin.” Eddie grinned softly, voice lilting higher. “Merry Christmas.” 

“It’s Daddy!” Brielle shrilled. “Hi, Daddy. Merry Christmas.” 

“Are you still up?” Eddie sighed softly. “You’re supposed to be asleep. Santa’s coming soon, Brie.” 

“I’ll sleep in a little bit.” Brielle huffed lightly, she sounded like her mother. “When are you comin’ home? I saved you one of the Snowman cookies before Santa eats them, and I have reindeer food to put on the roof. It has glitter in it this time so they can see better.” 

Eddie paused, words choked around the lump in his throat, heart sinking low into the pit of his stomach. 

“Daddy?” Brielle asked, pulling the phone back. “I think it got undone-” 

“-No, no, I’m here, Brielle.” Eddie’s voice was tight, hand pressed into his eyes. “Um, I-I’m not coming home tonight, remember?” A ragged breath shook out of his chest, and he hoped she didn’t hear it. “I’m coming to get you tomorrow afternoon, and we’re going to Grandpa’s.” 

“Oh,” Brielle’s tiny voice was filled with disappointment, it tore Eddie’s heart right out of his chest. “Even on Christmas?” 

“Yeah, baby. Even on Christmas. Remember me and mom told you, you’d get two Christmases. One with each of us.” Eddie tried to keep his voice steady. 

“But not together?” Brielle muttered, a complete turn around from her previous excited tone. 

“No, not together. I’m sorry, Brie.” Eddie pulled the phone away, taking a deep breath in to keep his emotions in. 

“That’s ok.” Her tone told him otherwise. 

“But I’ll see you tomorrow, ok? And you can tell me all about what Santa brought you, and then we’ll go to Grandpa’s and you’ll have even more gifts to open.” Eddie hoped his tone was convincing. 

“Ok.” Brielle muttered sadly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Daddy.” 

“Yeah, you will, I promise.” Eddie swallowed the lump in his throat, nose burning with tears. “Good night, Brie. Dream of those sugar plums, alright? Love you.” 

“G'night. Love you.” Brielle repeated solemnly. 

The phone rattled for a moment, Eddie clearing his throat lightly. The line settled for a moment and he waited for Gina’s voice. A harsh dial tone came instead. 

Eddie tried to ignore the hurt that pounded in his chest. He felt grimy, gross, and disappointed in himself. He felt alone, most of all. 

Shaky fingers punched the buttons on the phone, knee bouncing as he lit a cigarette, pulling the ashtray closer to him on the kitchen table. “Hello?” Steve Harrington’s accommodating tone came through the line, a loud screech of children’s laughter in the background. 

“Hey, Steve.” Eddie cringed at the shake in his tone, swallowing. “Sorry to bother you, I, uh, I just wanted to-” 

“-Daddy! One present, please?” 

“Yeah! Just one! One!”

“Hang on,” Steve huffed. “No, ok? Mom said no, and you know she’s the boss. You better stop, alright? It’s not too late to get on Santa’s bad list. I’ll call him right now and tell him to skip the Harrington residence-” 

“No!” A chorus of cries in the background made Eddie smile, his chest aching even more with an unfamiliar feeling. 

Tiny stampedes of feet cleared in the background. “Sorry, it’s a zoo over here, Ed.” Steve snorted lightly. 

“Yeah, no, I get it.” Eddie laughed lightly, stopping himself gently. “Well, actually, I don’t. That’s, uh, that’s actually why I was calling.” Eddie exhaled deeply, rubbing his forehead. “I, uh, I just called Brielle, and she’s-” 

“-Steven! I need help in here!” Nancy’s voice pierced through the phone, sharp even in the background. 

“Fuck. Hey, Ed, can I call you back? We’re trying to make cookies, and they’re decorating the baby.” Steve sighed. “I’m telling you, these kids are insane. I’m about to rip my hair out, and I still gotta make a fuckin’ dollhouse.” Steve’s voice dropped to a low whisper. 

“Yeah, no, I get it. Don’t worry about it, man.” Eddie felt his waterline flood. “Go be with your family.” 

“Alright, I gotta go. Merry Christmas, Munson.” Steve hummed over the line. 

“Merry Christmas.” Eddie muttered, the dial tone cutting him off again. 

He leaned back in the dining room chair, cigarette burning between his fingers. Alone.

Present

“Eddie!” You called, wrangling the squirming one year old in your arms, Delilah was determined to get to the shiny presents, squealing and cackling. She was just crawling, thankfully, toddling but not as sure, but she was fast. 

“Ed, get the phone!” You yelled, the trill of the landline Eddie still had around filled the house. Brielle in front of you, in pajamas that matched her little sisters, phone dangling from her grasps. 

“She’s gonna open a present tonight.” Brielle giggled, recording her sister happily. 

“Yeah, or tear the tree down.” You grumbled, rolling your eyes. “I told you a candy cane was too much.” You glared at Eddie playfully. He’d snuck her tastes of a candy cane earlier at your parent’s house, laughing at how her eyes lit up. 

Eddie grinned, snagging the phone off the hook. “Hello?” 

There was a silence, the tiniest hitch of a breath on the other line. Eddie frowned, looking down at the caller id. “Hello?” 

“Is Brielle there?” The huffy, snide of a tone that he’d know anywhere. Gina. Why she was calling him on Christmas Eve, he wasn’t exactly sure, but he had an idea that it was due to Brielle’s silent treatment towards her after Gina’s rage filled rant about Lilah’s birth.

“Hello, Gina. Merry Christmas to you.” Eddie clipped, eyes rolling. “Yeah, she’s here.” 

Gina paused, and Eddie could picture her even now, nails tapping against the table furiously, anxiously. “Well, can you- can I talk to her?” 

Eddie’s head turned, his gaze meeting Brielle’s. She shook her head, brows raised nearly in offense at the suggestion. “Uh, Gina, she-she’s kinda busy right now-” 

“-Right.” Gina scoffed, tone harsh but Eddie could hear it, the traces of hurt lingering in the defensiveness. “Guess she likes the child bride more than her actual mother-” 

“-Alright, Gina.” Eddie huffed. “You have a good one. Merry Christmas.” 

“Wait!” The shrill in her tone, desperate and alarming. 

Eddie waited, holding the phone back to his ear. Gina huffed, taking in a deep breath. “Can you… Can you talk to her?” Her voice was small, quiet. “Just-Just tell her I want to see her, and I have gifts for her, and-and,” There was a pause, a shaky breath. “Tell her I miss her and I love her?” 

Eddie’s chest ached for her sympathetically. He knew she deserved it, that Brielle was probably in the right with her cruelty. Still, Eddie sympathized with her. The bitter loneliness of being alone during the holidays. 

“Yeah, Gina. I can do that.” Eddie nodded slowly, his voice dropping. “I’ll, uh, I’ll tell her.” 

“Thanks.” The word was clipped, drowned in disdain and followed with a sniffle. 

“Have a Merry Christmas, Gina.” Eddie sighed softly, hanging up the phone with a final click. 

He turned back to the living room. You and Brielle were still desperately trying to distract Lilah from the shining ornaments with her toys, rattling and shaking them in front of her so she squealed, only to turn back to the tree. 

Eddie smiled, scooping up the baby, tossing her in the air gently so she screeched in laughter. “She’s never going to sleep.” You grinned warmly, starry eyed watching Eddie cuddle your baby. 

“Nah, she’ll sleep in a little bit.” Eddie shrugged, snuggling her close to his chest. Delilah turned into his touch, face pressing into his chest, rubbing her face sleepily into the soft cotton of his Christmas pajama shirt that matched with his girls. 

His brows shot up, grinning triumphantly. You snorted, rolling your eyes lightly. “Alright, Santa. What kind of cookies do you want?” 

“Whatever kind you wanna make me, bunny. ‘M not picky.” Eddie hummed, rocking Delilah against his chest gently. 

“I bought the Snowman sugar cookie ones.” Brielle smiled brightly. “I can make them.” 

Eddie’s chest filled with warmth, looking down at the tiny girl in his arms, heavy lids pulling shut with sleep, knuckling at them. The lights on the tree seemed brighter and brighter as the years passed. A real tree this time, filled with ornaments and memories hanging on the branches, room for more as the years went on.  

[infamouslydorky]

Why I think Mael Stronghart can be an interesting character:

Stronghart is often regarded by others, especially in a western audience, to be a boring antagonist. Most often I see aa fandom put his enjoyers in one of two categories:

1. You find him physically attractive or

2. You love to hate him.

I'm here to propose a third option: perhaps he is, in fact, interesting. He isn't necessarily the most openly expressive individual, and that seems to make people inclined to think him boring, but it's more that is his outward presentation to people. Like Damon Gant with his jovial persona, Stronghart wears a veneer to give a sense of invulnerability, a resoluteness, security, and impartiality, which would probably be required in his mind of someone not only a judge in authority but a person who is representative of a larger governmental judicial whole.

Ace attorney is no stranger to the concept of antagonists serving as representative symbols of a larger systemic corruption, Stronghart being part of this lineage, though if discussing what makes him individual, it would be that he needs control. He needs security. He mentions himself that he likes things to run smoothly, like the gears of a clock.

This brings the point of the clock analogy being relevant to his character. If ever encountering a traditional clock, the mechanations operate by an elaborate system of gears. The maintenance of which requires particular maticulousness, the likes of which, if neglected, begin to show wear on the machinery and the clock begins to slow and fall apart. His chronic tardiness is also reflective of this idea, as it shows his negligence. He adds more gears and systems to the elaborate mechanations of his plans that he can not keep up to attend to them all and begins to show signs of deterioration by his delays being unable to keep up with the mess he's made to keep as much in order and control as possible.

Truly, Stronghart's journey as a character is one of obsession with control and by putting all responsibility of everything on himself because he finds difficulty in putting trust in others, he bites off more than he can chew, and Sholmes exploits that to take him down. It certainly doesn't help that "Chunosuke" decides to hickory dickory dock up and down said clock, further throwing a wrench into these unsustainable plans, exacerbating the original issues in the first place.

He serves as a foil to all of the protagonists for this reason. Ryuunosuke is ultimately successful because he relies on others. Likewise with Sholmes, Barok, Susato, Iris, Gina, and others. Stronghart can't do that because he can't trust others for loss of control, and a key component of trust is vulnerability. He will not give his vulnerability. He can't. He can not trust a broken system that allows guilty individuals to get away with their crimes by means of corruption, so he takes matters into his own hands. It's that inability to trust that brings his downfall and allows Ryuunosuke and friends to actually bring about positive change.

The last time we see Stronghart, he is laid bare before all the consequences of his actions and only when he is finally caught, does he display any act of vulnerability, not because of giving trust, but because he's given up on everything and the one person he had any sort of trust in: the queen because, in his mind, she betrayed him. He's a royalist because the Queen represented the ultimate symbol of control and security. "The benevolent force guiding the empire." So when she leaves him to rot for his misdeeds instead of rewarding him for doing what he believed was justified for the betterment of Her Majesty's empire, he dies alone, a broken, lonely man.

[faghubby]

Always

It started 14 years ago. Gina and I were celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. We had a nice house three kids and a cat. Life was good. Except in the bedroom. It had become routine, boring even. Then one night we watched a movie. I didn't think much of it till we where getting ready for bed.

"Would you?" Gina asked me.

"Would I what?" I asked confused.

"In the movie they had a threesome" she said sheepishly.

"I don't know, never thought about it" I replied. Total lie it was my biggest fantasy.

"I don't know if I would want you to have another woman. But" she smirked.

"So you want to men?" I laughed. Kissing her neck.

"Well it could be another woman as long as you didn't get to have her" Gina giggled. "Like to watch another woman and me?" I kissed her breasts. We had great sex that night. And the conversation didn't end there. It kept coming up. Over the next few weeks.

"We would have to find someone, no one we know" I told her one night. "We could try a man first" I told her. She was elated. She set to work looking for a man. It didn't take long before she came to me with several options.

"I found them on these dating apps. For you know" she smiled. There where profiles but also alot of pics. Especially of their cocks. They all seemed big. I down played it but think I wanted this more then she did. It was 3 days later that we met Lawerence at a nice Hotel out of town. I rented the room and left a key at the desk for him.

We had spoken to him twice at length. Till we all felt comfortable but that didn't make me less nervous. I may have had one two many drinks. Before he arrived. From the second he entered the room he was in charge. Gina wore sexy new lingerie for him. He stripped and presented her with his cock. She tried to suck on it. He was even bigger then I had thought. Gina was struggling to suck even the head. I stripped as well and crawled in bed beside her. I got close and kissed her cheek. When his cock popped out of her mouth. I didn't hesitate to stuff it in mine. I ignored Gina as I went to town on this man's cock.

"That's so hot baby" Gina cooed.

"You didn't tell me you were a faggot bitch" Lawrence laughed I tried to pull away but he kept me there. My eyes watered my jaw hurting when he finally shot his load. He held my head forcing his cock down my throat. At the same time I came all over Gina's leg. When he let me go Gina kissed me tasting his cum in my mouth. Lawrence then pushed me aside and I watched as he used Gina like a rag doll. Fucking her in several positions. Before he just got up and left leaving her pussy leaking and stretched. We held each other as we passed out.

I woke with a splitting headache, my lips still covered in dry cum. Gina was in the shower. I got up and joined her. She said nothing. Even as I grew hard and presses against her. She finally turned and looked at me.

"Last night was the gayest thing I have ever seen, but he made me so wet" she told me grasping my dick. "Do you suck alot of cock?" She asked.

"No I was drunk and I don't know" I told her she stroked me very slowly.

"Would you like to explore that more with me?" She kissed me. I just nodded. She jerked me off before we got out of the shower.

Gina did what she always did drove right in. Reading doing research. She was hooked. Everything moved quickly. The very next weekend she told me we had another date. This time the scene was very different we met him at his house. And right away it was obvious he had no interest in Gina.

"Relax and enjoy" Gina told me. As she watched me suck this man's cock. It was thinner. But prehaps a bit longer Maybe 9 inches. I couldn't take it all even with Gina encouragement. But after he came in my mouth he wasn't Done with me. He filled me over and lubed my ass. As he fingered me. Gina told me to relax and push back. I buried my face in her pussy as he worked his cock into my ass. Gina was so wet. But I paid little attention as this man fucked me. Hard. He filled me with his seed and I passed out.

I woke to him pushing his cock back in my ass. Gina was asleep on the couch. I leaned in and kissed him as he pushed his cock into me. He made love to me. Slow and soft. Kissing and caressing each other. I had not even noticed that Gina had come and sat on the bed next to us.

Everything changed after that. My wants, dreams, desires took second place to Gina. We became "girlfriends" as she calls it. I was no longer her sources for anything sexual. She found lovers for that. But more then that. She made me her girlfriend, confiding in me about the men she was sleeping with while painting my nails. She would take me shopping buying me lingerie. Her career soured while I was stuck. So if the kids where sick I took off. Teachers, homework, play dates, costume design, cheerleading, it was always me. I became the mom. To our three daughters. It was obvious we weren't like most families. The girls learned early that Daddy was more girlie then manly. And mommy had boyfriends.

Gina once a month or so would have me dress up and fuck me with her strapon. But I was forbidden to date anyone else. Male or female.

Now I sit sometimes In the basement playing with myself as I listen to not only my wife getting fucked but my teenage daughters as well. Knowing I can't say anything because I don't understand the needs of real men.

[galaxyedging]

You asked for it @magneticecstasy @missredherring @yorksgirl @inkededucatednnerdy

I take no responsibility for this fic. I didn't even proofread it.

Reed Richards x f!reader.

Warnings: Smut and powers and weird smut. Also, peer pressure. It's not in the fic. I'm just a sucker for it.

F is for...

The dirty bass line of Pony thunks through the thin walls of your changing room for what feels like the millionth time. It is a classic.

“Hey. That shady guy is back. How much does he pay you? It must be a lot, if he won't even take his hat and shades off in the club. You can't even see his face. Who knows what's under there.” Gina doesn't stop for an answer or stop picking through your things for the perfume of yours that she likes to steal.

Before you can process Gina is gone and all that is left in her place is a cloud of pilfered floral mist. The reflection in the mirror that looked so pleasing a few moments ago now is all wrong. Your hair needs to be tied back. The sequins and jewellery have to go. The high heels too. You don’t want to risk hurting your highest paying client. While you're at it, you remove the make up you'd layered on for the stage. He doesn't seem to go in for all that. He seems like he wants a girl he can take home to meet his folks. Which is probably why he ended up in here in the first place. It's the last place on earth you would find his type of girl, so it stands to reason it's the best place for him to hide.

“Hi. Did Gina tell you that you have someone waiting?” Adele fills the doorway of the dressing room.

Adele has been the manager for the past year. She's five foot nothing, all curved and attitude. She needs every ounce of it to keep the staff in check. Not one person here has a dad who didn't come back from buying milk or any substance abuse issues or any of those bullshit reasons to work the pole that people use to look down on dancers. They are here because they want to be. The pay is good for the hours. It fits around schooling and building other careers.

Days like this though you wonder if it's worth the pay. With Adele standing impatiently, you'd changed and made your way to room six, the one she'd told you, your regular was waiting in. He paid well and his request wasn't that weird considering his…situation. Slowly opening the door, the sleeve of his brown trench coat came into view. It always amused you that he thought that thing made him look less conspicuous. With the fedora and the shades he might as well have a neon sign about his head saying ‘I am hiding something.’

‘Hi, Reed.’ You greet him once the door is firmly closed behind him.

‘Hi.’ His posture relaxes once the door is locked and you two are alone, he even takes his hat and sunglasses off.

“How's your research going?” You hang up his hat and return for his coat.

“It's going.” You've learned that that's what passes for humour with Reed.

He's very straight laced even when things get…heated. It's all enjoyed with an under current of restraint.

“What would you like today? A regular dance…” you glance toward the pole “....or your special dance?” You come to sit beside him.

Reed was always a little timid at first. Once he was relaxed, he was confident and in control, he just needed a moment to acclimate.

“I'd like my dance, please, but…can I ask you something first?” His brown eyes study your for any hint of discomfort.

“Sure.” You shrug, you don't have to answer him. Besides, it's Reed, he'll probably just ask you about college.

“When you dance for me, do you feel that I appreciate it? That I'm present?” It's a genuine enough question. Only with your knowledge gleaned for Buzzfeed articles did you know that it was more than likely to do with his wife asking for a separation. If the rumours are true, he'd been even more obsessed with his research since that accident that gave them their powers.

Against your wishes, your heart clenches. “I do and you are very present, Reed.”

A smile tugs at his lips. “Thank you. I try and I do. Appreciate you, I mean. Sometimes my brain just won't shut off and these powers make my body feel…I don't know…needy?”

Years of training your face to not get you in trouble snap in place and stop the smile that threatens of Reed feeling horny without his wife and his first logical solution is to buy some relief.

“Well, what do you need now, Reed?” You perch on the edge of the sofa with your legs crossed, making sure he gets a good view of everything you have to offer in your tiny cutout bathing suit. “The usual?”

Reed nods eagerly and his hands practically fly to his belt buckle. In fact they go so fast that they fly past his belt buckle and stretch out another couple of feet in front of him.

“Sorry.” His sheepish smile is endearing as he wills his hands to return to their normal size.

“It's alright. Why don't we skip the foreplay tonight? You seem ready to go.” You couldn't help but notice the tent in Reed’s pants before he’d even ‘let it out’.

“Yes, please.” Reed sighs as he tugs out his already impressive cock.

As it is, it's long, thick, cut with a slight curve. It makes your mouth water but there is no way you are taking it in your mouth, or anywhere else with Reed’s current predicament. Speaking of, his cock begins to stretch. The girth doesn't change but the length is slowly rising. Even with the extra weight of the new inches, Reed is still hard and standing to attention. Eventually, three foot of cock sways before him.

Remembering that you are supposed to be a professional, you snap out of your gawking to get the lube and press play on your track. The first notes of ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ play as you straddle Reed’s thighs and pour a generous amount of lube over your chest and torso. As the song really gets going you shuffle closer to him, pressing your barely clothed pussy against his balls and start to grind to the beat. Reed whimpered at the contact. Normally you would tease him for more of those sounds but today you take pity on him. Looking him straight in the eye you lean forward to run your tongue up a section of his shaft. He tastes clean yet musky. It makes you determined to catch as much of his cum as you can in your mouth even if it does prove difficult.

“Again, please?” Reed pants while his hands find your hips.

He really is worked up today. Usually he allows a bit of teasing. He understands the concept of delayed gratification. He usually only takes control near the end. “Reed? Do you want me to make you come quicker today?”

“Yes but only if you do too. I want to feel you.” Reed is not the only one of your regulars that insists on your pleasure. He is the only one that you feel would completely give up his own for yours.

“I will. This really works for me, too, remember.” Reed can feel your sincerity as you move the flimsy piece of material covering your pussy to the side.

Reed’s incredible length slots between your folds and the valley of your breast. His arms wrap around you to pull you close. The two of you bounce up and down in tandem. Reed’s cock is trapped between you as your body jerks it off. The slick slide of your clit across the veins of his thickness builds your own release. The viscose sounds of body fluids and lube almost rivals the powerful cords of the song. Reed gets more vocal the closer he gets to the edge. His babbled pleas are muffled against your neck. His plush lips against the skin there is the closest you've ever come to kissing. It feels nice and a small part of you dares to dream. Whether it's the dream of the lewdness of jerking off a huge cock with your whole body, you come, and you come, and you come. Wave after wave of pleasure washes over you after your initial climax like jumping into the ocean. A gasped groan at your neck is all the warning you get to tilt your head up and stick out your tongue. Reed’s angry red head is shooting ropes of cum above you like a perverted confetti cannon. This time you manage to catch some on your tongue. It tastes just as you imagined. More importantly since you managed to catch it shooting out of a three foot cock into the air, it tastes like victory.

[wise-rainfalls]

The Professor Case - Three Sad Faces and Three Dead Men

There is a man in your life you love, admire and respect more than anything. Your greatest desire is to follow in his footsteps, and to eventually make him proud. However, before that can happen, he tragically dies under obscure circumstances. You’d do anything to know what happened; to give him some sort of justice. But the more you know about the truth, the more you realise that maybe he wasn’t as noble as he always appeared. Before his death, he left you a letter that you didn’t receive.

Are you Barok van Zieks, Asougi Kazuma or Gina Lestrade?

The heart of the drama of the Professor case is made up by this series of cascading tragedies, where each is both a repetition of and directly caused by its predecessor. The cycles of betrayal, disillusionment and grief play out in delayed motion across time, the same story with different characters wound to different speeds so they all come crashing to their endpoint at once. The spiral of repetitive continuation joins the three tales both into one continuous history, and also the same tale interposed three times upon itself. Kazuma’s story cannot begin without Barok’s coming to its first temporary end, just as Gina’s cannot without Kazuma’s catalysis. Yet as we line up Gina, Kazuma and Barok, we see the same face, displaced across time – tearful and shocked, furious and vengeful, bitter and resigned. In the same way, we see Klint layered over Genshin layered over Gregson: deeply loved, sharply fallen, and dead.

This triangulation, more than anything else, emphasises the game’s thematic throughline that the past cannot be put to rest without the truth. Klint’s lies become Genshin’s lies become Gregson’s lies, just as Barok creates Kazuma creates Gina. Past, present and future collapse into a grief that endlessly reproduces itself. The impossibility of moving forwards when the threads of bewilderment and doubt remain manifests itself in the literal reiteration of the event, again and again. Time loops between the courtroom and the graveyard. The years pass. The years do not pass.

In this temporal overlap, Gina articulates the grief that wells beneath Barok’s bitterness and Kazuma’s sharpness, while Kazuma’s single-minded vengeance is a warning as to how easily that grief might be shaped into a sword, and Barok shows by example what lies at the end of that path: ten years later still unhappy, still chained. As they come together in the courtroom, Gina in the witness stand, Barok in the dock and Kazuma at the prosecution’s bench, it is a symbolic trial of not the self, but the role. To leave one of them still trapped in the morass is somehow to leave all of them – their shackles, after all, are the same. The question that passes between them, from corner to corner is this: is it a crime, to have grieved so deeply that your grief became a weapon? The outcome of the trial doesn’t quite answer this question. It asks another instead: is grief grounds for justice? And crucially: who was holding the weapon that grief made of you?

However, of this unhappy triangle, Barok is the only one to have actually completed the climactic, mistaken, mistrial of justice. He is the only one to have received closure at the cost of integrity, and to have lived with the aftermath. He is the only one to not only have believed he knew the truth, but also that he had delivered justice. While Kazuma stands on the cusp, and Gina is literally at ground zero, Barok has both the advantage and misfortune of hindsight. Hindsight – and reflection. He hasn’t escaped his story. But he has walked out the other way, into what he believes is the long epilogue, when it’s in fact just the sagging middle. It’s what allows him sharp, pointed insight into the other two: he recognises himself in their faces.

Van Zieks: I say nothing of whether or not I'm the Reaper. That's the task of this court to decide. But there is one thing I can say unequivocally: That girl is no detective.

Gina: Eh? Wha...? Nah, that's right, I ain't. I'm an inspector!

Van Zieks: Repeating rumours heard around the Yard... Reading entries from a notebook of unconfirmed origin... That's not testimony. It's practically a script. No doubt the rest of this trial will go exactly as you've clearly planned.

Kazuma: .........

Van Zieks: Your hatred of me is understandable. In your mind, I'm sure I am the Reaper...who sent your father to the gallows all those years ago.

Kazuma: ...!

Van Zieks: But you're in danger of becoming a far more sinister Reaper yourself... ...by attempting to have me condemned with this feeble excuse for testimony.

The ease with which Barok identifies the truth is striking. This is a scripted trial. Gina’s grief is causing her professional integrity to fall apart, a fact that Kazuma is using to indict Barok. Kazuma’s anger is causing his professional integrity to fall apart as he treats the courtroom like his personal arena for revenge. Kazuma’s anger, Barok demonstrates, is something he understands, deeply. Gina’s grief is something to this day he mirrors. Yet, Barok harshly points out, emotion is no excuse for a miscarriage of justice. It’s a show of both deep understanding and scathing judgement. The cool-eyed detachment with which he evaluates the situation is admirable. It is also something Barok from ten years ago would not have been able to do.

However, there is a fatal flaw in all this, which is that it’s much easier to recognise when an accusation is false from one end than the other. As ever, Barok stops just short of applying the same tier of insight into the events of ten years past, looking just to the left of the gaping wound that the trial left. Even as more and more irregularities come to light, it is only at the final push that he truly faces to the idea that this one trial could have been a massive pile of lies. This is an incredible blind spot, coming from the man who espouses he ‘trusts no one’, who has the both the suspicion and the deductive ability to find out Gregson’s position as the Reaper. It is an incredible blind spot, coming from the man who had the clarity to suspect, even for a moment, his own, dear, brother.

It's here that we see Barok’s true weakness – and the damning piece of evidence of how deeply he is still chained to that moment, ten years ago. Can a prosecutor of Barok’s calibre truly never have suspected, if not at the time, then ten years later? Even as Sithe’s lies came to light, even as Gregson’s involvement in the Reaper became apparent? But as Barok rejected Klint’s guilt, so he rejects that the events were not as he believed them to be: on the basis of evidence, to be sure, but evidence given disproportionate weight for how much he did not want it to be true. Even as Kazuma desperately links every piece of evidence, no matter how unfitting, into his certain conclusion that Barok is Gregson’s killer, so Barok takes what evidence he receives and slots them neatly into the narrative he most wants to believe: this man died so my brother cannot be guilty, the ring was found so Genshin must have committed the crime. He refuses to entertain alternative pathways, even as doubt creeps in. Even as things stop fitting. Until the very last moment, when he is forced with damning evidence to change his stance, he clings to his brother’s innocence. Within him grind the cogwork of his truth-seeking logic machine mind against the bloodied flesh of his heart. After ten years, that flesh is wearing thin.

It's this that brings him to the exact same level as Kazuma and Gina, who fight for Genshin and Gregson’s innocence respectively. However, it cannot all be true at once. All three cannot be innocent together: something has to give. As each of them beseech Ryuunosuke for comfort, they find instead the truth.  

But let’s step back a little. The similarity between Gina, Kazuma and Barok make the differences in how they are treated startling. Barok, on displaying a lapse in professional integrity following the worst events of his life, receives full prosecutorial authority from Stronghart to go head-to-head in the trial of his brother’s death. Meanwhile, Stronghart allows Kazuma to slide in sideways, using Gregson as a cudgel to pin Barok for Genshin’s death. But Gina, when she breaks down in court and cries out that Gregson is innocent, is harshly reprimanded and told to hand in her badge. Why the difference?

The answer is obvious: a noble young prosecutor is a much more useful tool to Stronghart than a barely literate pickpocket from the streets of East London. The debt Barok owed to Stronghart protected Stronghart from suspicion for nearly ten years, while enabling Stronghart to centre an entire conspiracy around Barok in the blind spot that debt created. Similarly, Kazuma is a useful tool to wipe out the Reaper conspiracy’s last members and exonerate Stronghart once and for all while being easily disposed of as a foreign exchange student. But what’s Gina got to give? What value does Gina have that Stronghart might find useful? The answer is: nothing. Gina has nothing, and so it’s her that Stronghart lets loose on his distaste, his condescending dismissal. It’s her that he belittles and talks over – that his true feelings for those he has used comes out.

Barok is the first and most perfect paradigm of the narrative that the other two emulate. Immediately after his brother’s death, he seeks out the culprit (so he thinks) and prosecutes him successfully in court for the crime which he seeks vengeance for. Kazuma is a little shakier: ten years after his father’s death, he seeks out the culprit (so he thinks) and prosecutes him on the basis of an unrelated crime while barely hiding that his real reason is his father’s death. It’s with Gina that the real tears in the fabric show: disoriented and grieving, she’s dragged into court and gives emotional testimony that implicates someone she’s not even 100% sure is guilty. She isn’t even the one doing the prosecuting. These are different stories, with the difference in perfection scaled primarily by how perfect a tool Stronghart sees in them. But they are also the same story, dressed better or dressed worse. And they reach the same ending.

When the dust finally begins to settle, we zoom into how each of them react to the momentous change in their understanding of their own lives. Standing before Klint’s portrait, Barok takes the painful step to acknowledge that his brother is truly ‘no more’, even as he wears his prosecutor’s badge with mixed feelings to the complex legacy left behind. Kazuma entrusts Karuma to Ryuunosuke with the promise to retake it after mastering the violence he suddenly realised he was capable of. But Gina, surrounded by her friends, takes back Gregson’s pocket watch and vows to uphold his legacy by becoming a great detective herself.

At first glance, this raises a lot of question marks. Has everyone forgotten that Gregson was involved in a double-digit number of murders? Well, to some extent, yes. However, from another perspective, while Barok has to grapple with the person he became in upholding a false legacy, while Kazuma has to grapple with the person he felt the potential of being in chasing a false vengeance, Gina had not yet taken the steps towards becoming an upholder of falsehoods herself, wittingly or unwittingly. It is with this uncomplicated sincerity that she can take on Gregson’s legacy, since it never yet had the chance to twist her into bitterness or hatred – as it did to Barok, and as it did to Kazuma. While she may have to grapple with Gregson, she does not have to grapple with herself. In the worst time of their lives, Barok had Stronghart, who plunged him into a ten-year long darkness and scapegoated him as the Reaper. Kazuma had no one, only memories, and anger enough almost to kill. But Gina had Ryuunosuke, and through him, the truth – for all.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.239 thoughts

[The Greatest Ending Ever]

(Topics: thematic analysis - joy, character analysis - Andy/Fuuko/Union, narrative analysis - narrative utility, speculation - epilogue, appreciation)

Congratulations to everyone reading this review!

You did it! You pushed through all of the hard times in your life, everything that made you wish you weren't around, and lasted long enough to see the conclusion of one of the best stories ever told!

I'm so proud of you, and I hope to see you at the end of the next great story as well!

I rewrote this intro half a dozen times, trying desperately to find the right tone to set. I tried being somber, but that felt depressing. I tried being goofy, but that felt disrespectful. I tried being straightforward, but that felt detached

In the end, there was only one way that was ever going to feel right: I had to match the tone of the finale itself. I don't want to end this series feeling like we're at a funeral or in a lecture hall, I want to end it the same way Tozuka did: feeling like we're at a party!!!

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

This chapter is a celebration of the series, a wrap-party for the cast and setting, a curtain call to give the audience one last hurrah with everything we loved so much about the series!

We get a little "where-are-they-now" for all of the Negators, with everyone living out their dreams or putting their pasts behind them. Some of them are living large as professional athletes or business owners, some of them are more humble and bringing up the next generation, but everyone is clearly enjoying their life!

Seeing everyone living normally and happily, whether they're already successful or working their way up, is so rewarding. It's certainly a deheightening from the excitement of being superhumans and immortals, but knowing that people I love are no longer suffering and have become comfortable with themselves and their lives makes the tradeoff from being "cool" to "mundane" more than worth it

Besides, our main couple's lives are still anything but what I'd call mundane

Be the Change You Want to See

Andy and Fuuko's new lives create such perfect foils to where they started their respective stories

Where Fuuko started her story alone and locked away in isolation, dreaming of seeing the world, now she explores it without reservation with a lifelong friend by her side. She can go where she wants, she can wear what she wants, and she can touch who she wants

Andy, meanwhile, has always been traveling, but where before he did so aimlessly and alone, now he does so with purpose as part of a team (named Wind, after the "Fuu" in Fuuko). Instead of hoping to stumble upon his own end, he now seeks to create a better world, protecting people from injustices and giving them the means to improve their lives. No longer ignoring the needs of others for his own death, he now uses his life to provide others those very needs

Both now actively want to live their lives, and now, though currently apart from each other, are surrounded by people who love them, and are thematically the most important people they could be with. Fuuko travels with Gina, Fuuko's best friend standing as representation of the bonds forged along the way, while Andy travels with Rip and Nico, two of his greatest rivals representing the internal conflicts that have been resolved along the way

While other characters definitely got similar attention from the narrative, like Julia, Shen, Chikara, Feng and Sean, this group in particular really feels like the true core team. They were the most consistently present in the narrative, and even ended up being the ones focused on when removing The Heart from Fuuko (though Latla had to stand in for Rip for medical reasons), so I think it's safe to say this is how Tozuka views them at the very least

Of course, just because they're all so tight-knit doesn't mean that they can't misjudge each other at times. Their respective teams were aware of the upcoming wedding, and had faith that the newlyweds-to-be factored that into their planned tours, only to realize...

Both of them forgot

What a Shame the Poor Groom's Bride is Stupid

Fortunately, they know each other well enough that they know they aren't the only one to make that mistake, and decide to make a game out of it: whoever gets to the altar first gets to lord it over the other for the rest of their life!

This is a great moment of characterization for both of them, as not only are they comfortable enough with each other to spend so much time apart without worry, they also have absolute faith that the other, for all their faults, loves them with all their heart. Because they both messed up, neither of them can be called "the irresponsible one," while still allowing them both to be the same goofy and endearingly stupid couple they've always been

The fact that both of them make it to the altar at the exact same time, in the same spectacular fashion, establishes them as on perfectly equal footing in the relationship (despite the fact that they were both trying to make a powerplay out of their mutual screwup)

I can see how some people might dislike the choice to have them both forget the wedding, though. Where to me it reads as comfort and faith in each other, others may read it as flippant disregard for an extremely important moment in their lives together and for the sheer amount of time that they're wasting for their friends. Some folks have even suggested that this means they're going to be bad parents, which...is possible, but I just can't get behind that thought. I think they'll be odd parents, but not absentees a la Naruto or Yoh

No, I don't think this ridiculous turn of events was meant to establish that they'll be a forgetful couple or anything negative like that, I think it was yet another masterful example of Tozuka's greatest skill as a writer: narrative utility

4D Chessmaster

First of all, the panel where they realize they both forgot the wedding is, without exaggeration, the funniest panel in the whole manga to me. It's great comedy while also injecting highly personal if low-threat stakes into the final chapter

Secondly, it presented an opportunity to work Billy and Tatiana in as active members of this final story without simply having them mingle in the crowd at the wedding itself. Having the two of them specifically fill the same roles in parallel lets them act as a duo (even when separated, like Andy and Fuuko) while also reinforcing the visual of Fuuko being surrounded by her best friends and Andy reconciling with his greatest enemies

Finally, it facilitated the most important straggler making an appearance at the wedding. No, not Sean or Feng being late, they could easily have just been written to be on time in the first place, someone more thematically important and absolutely vital to painting an iconic vignette to end the series on:

Luna

The full moon is, without doubt, the most important recurring visual motif in the series, so there was absolutely no way that Tozuka was going to let Andy and Fuuko get married without it adorning the sky

It would have been easy to just write their wedding happening at night, but again, we needed to get a glimpse at everyone's lives and some much-needed levity after the rollercoaster of the final Ragnarok. Setting the wedding during the day, under the Sun that oppressed humanity for eons, only to have their ridiculous antics and disregard for tradition stall long enough for the Moon that gave them the means to fight that oppression to come out creates a wonderful microcosm for the series as a whole

The visual of Andy and Fuuko riding off into the moonlight, now surrounded by stars rather than alone in an empty, rather than the more traditional sunset is a symbol of their liberation, their freedom to live their lives as they please for as long as they please with whomever they please

It also serves to fulfill Luna's ultimate goal: to see the value of the Rules that was previously unknown to her. Yes, the Union showed her the power of love when overcoming Sun, but that wasn't the end, it was just the beginning. That moment is what paved the way for the Negators and all of humanity to make of the world and its Rules what they need to live The Greatest Life Ever

This is also why I'm happy to admit that, appropriately as usual, I was wrong in my prediction: Undead Unluck did not, in fact, end with Andy's death

Life After Love

I've said since chapter 1 that the point of Undead Unluck was to teach Andy that life was worth living, and that The Greatest Death Ever would be one that follows a life well-lived. I always figured that we would get to actually see the literal death, but looking at it now, I think that this was the better choice as a final note to leave the series on

As I said in the intro, this chapter is a celebration, not a funeral. In much the same way that Oda has difficulty killing characters in One Piece because it would put a damper on the party that follows a huge battle, Tozuka may have wanted to avoid a bittersweet ending because it would be harder to push the theme of enjoying life while in mourning

Not that it would have been impossible, and it certainly would have been impactful to force us as the audience to wrestle with that dichotomy, but a complex ending is not necessarily the best ending. We aren't stupid, we can infer that Andy and Fuuko will one day die, and that when they do, all of the people they love will still be a part of their lives to see them off and remember them

But knowing that they'll die is completely different from seeing them die. Showing us the death in person would be asking us to grieve, to accept, and to move on, but the acceptance of death has never been one of Undead Unluck's core themes, at least not directly. Instead, accepting death was more of a subtheme to the greater theme of embracing life, and that is what the final page is really asking us to do

This is the story of Andy, Fuuko Izumo, and everyone living in this world, and their quest for The Greatest Death Ever

We aren't shown The Greatest Death Ever because that death isn't actually for Andy and Fuuko: it's for us

It's for us to interpret what that death would entail, for us to enjoy our lives, and for us to complete the quest

Andy and Fuuko gave us an example, but they didn't tell us what to do. They didn't give us a cheat code, there's no way to speedrun it, we just have to take the long way and have fun figuring out how to play the game all the while. At best, Tozuka (and Akira, in-series) gave us a strategy guide to get us started, but much like the Union didn't change the Rules of the world and instead wants to empower people to better themselves, only we can decide what Our Greatest Life and Death will be

Of course, this is all assuming that this is actually the final note Tozuka is leaving us on

What Comes Next

It just wouldn't be a 4Y1A Review without some speculation, now would it?

For the last several months, I've been saying that UU would end on ch.241 in order to give the final volume the usual nine chapters (which would also have given it the 5-year anniversary Jump cover, but whatever...), but ending on ch.239 means that there would be a bit less content than usual

It's not unheard of for a final volume to be a little shorter than usual, but it's also very common for final volumes to include one or both of two options: a bonus chapter and the pilot chapter

Given that Undead + Unluck is an actual plot point, there is a very good chance that it'll be included in the final volume, and I would definitely be excited to see an official translation of it. Moreso than that, though, I'd really like just one more chapter to tie up some loose ends

The way I see it, there are three possible routes for a bonus chapter to go:

Andy's death

Ruin and Soul's life in the final world

A full exploration of Sun and Luna's backstory

The first, as I said, would likely be bittersweet, but would at least fulfill the narrative promise of Andy's dream while also giving us a nice opportunity for a little bit more AnFuu content. A lot of folks were upset that we didn't see Andy and Fuuko kiss at their wedding, and there wasn't even any discussion about how Fuuko can touch people without fear anymore, so an epilogue detailing their later years and their family life would be welcomed

On the other hand, covering Ruin and Soul would give us a look into how well the world is living up to Fuuko's vision and would give Ruin his much-needed capstone since he didn't get one during Ragnarok. How is he holding up without Blood and Shadow? What does his happiness look like? What kind of relationship does he have with Soul? I would hate to think that these two are the only ones Tozuka doesn't care to give a happy ending to

Finally, the least likely but possibly the most interesting, getting more details on Sun and Luna would just be a fun way to revisit Tozuka's world-building one last time. The world that they come from is the biggest remaining mystery, and I still don't fully understand what Luna's real goal actually was, so I think getting a little more perspective on it would be helpful, even if it still ends up being somewhat vague

However, Tozuka might want to leave it vague. It doesn't matter to the cast, it doesn't inform anything about their lives, so why does it matter that there's a greater cosmology that they'll never interact with? Furthermore, leaving a dangling thread like that means that we still have something to wonder about, a little knot for the curious to spend the next few years trying to untangle in our minds just for fun. Tying up every single detail in a neat little bow is satisfying, but satisfaction doesn't leave any room to play around in the space, so that may have been Tozuka's last little gift to us for the sake of enrichment

Volume 27 won't be out until April it looks like, so we'll have to wait a bit longer to know for sure what route Tozuka will take if he does any of these at all. Heck, theoretically he could do all three if he has 50 pages to work with, but I'm definitely not putting my money on that horse (bluffing specifically so I'll be wrong)

There is one thing I do know for sure though: this is not my last review for Undead Unluck!

Not only do we have the Winter Special coming up (eventually...), we also will be receiving a third light novel! I'm absolutely going to review both of those when the time comes, so whether or not we get an epilogue chapter, you will be hearing from me again!

Until then, it has been an incredible honor to have you all read these reviews, respond to them, riff on them, and most importantly, enjoy them. This has been one of the best fandom experiences I've ever had, and that's thanks to all of you

Thank you all for making my favorite manga something bigger than I ever dreamed it would become

Thank you all for reading my work and giving me reason to dive deeper than I might have all alone

Thank you all for being my friends

Now

Let's enjoy life

[risingshine]

@thesweetestsupervillains

Gina immediately pauses, her eyes narrowing. "Did you fuck with causality in order to move yourself back to a previous point in time? Because if so, know that you can't interact with yourself. Also, you should be familiar with the concept of paradoxes, but since you're not one who knows anything about that kind of thing at this point..." Her minds immediately begins constructing scenarios. "Right. You came to future me and future me told you how to do this. That explains why you're not out of place; you're operating with the same stuff as the present." "But you are correct. You never asked me about the specifics of my work. Because to grasp it would be to grasp things that challenged your ideas of what was possible." "In any case, while I enjoy making people into candy and food, the reality is that it's very difficult. Lots of people figure out how to turn things into metal or stone; but I'm doing something far more difficult."

"I tried to alter the timeframe of the..lab space you gave me." She never remembered the name Gina called it. "But instead, I ended up swapping with the Iyana that fiddled with your gift this morning. I am still sorting out why. And haven't had my teeth kicked in yet."

The woman's scenarios roused a light laugh from her. "I should have asked you, but I was expecting a speech about the nuances on casuality and perception and whatever else. And with the kind of pride I had, I wanted to figure it out myself."

"I wonder if the myths of turning people to stone makes it easier for people to do that now - though I suppose that doesn't matter when you're in your reality bubble."

"What makes it more difficult? The fact that food is usually made up of more than one compound?"

[hcfiles]

The PR stunt with the latest PR (used as a diversion) adopted many strategies present in the other PRs. But, I want to call attention, not exactly to strategies, but, to the reasons they have been adopting them. For so, I need to point out a fact.

But, before the fact, I need to say you won't like nor accept what I'm about to point out, 'cause it threatens your belief and the adoration (not admiration) you have for him, which makes you blind. But, once you realize it, this circus becomes weak, unsuccessful and loses its meaning. And NV will lose her latest popularity.

He was expecting just one more PR stunt as many others he had done before (Lucy, Gina, KC and you name it). But, someone made him a fool and used it on behalf of NV. Did he end up getting sexually involved with some of his PRs? Maybe. He thinks these deals are also a way he can bang women safely, without further headaches. For me, it's a glamorous way to practice prost****"***on.

She became the main character for having this intention all along (what he didn't realize until he was trapped) and that led to this shenanigan damage control, which he had a choice to avoid, but preferred to accept. - That shows how his moral standards work.

The entire time, NV was used as a shield, a cannon fodder, a diversion and a tool against fans, in exchange for a blue check mark on IG and easy popularity.

As the reaction they had of the PR stunt with her was overwhelming compared to their expectations and they had lost control of the idiotic fandom, damage control was imperative. The PR had already started her own self promotion and they thought that ending the plot would cause him much more damage. The Me Too Movement could accuse him of misogyny.

But, the strategies used to regain this control was to provoke animosity among his fandom. First, to keep a part of it believing his persona and also, to use this part against the others, who they called haters, toxic and accused of jealousy. They intentionally, put fan against fan, so a part could do their dirty damage control job.

Many fake fan pages and fake chats were created to influence and manipulate you. Pages started blocking and reporting each other. Many were the pages using NV as a target and diversion. She, actually, put herself available for that to save his ass. This was partially predicted and expected by whoever was supporting her, planned this PR stunt and had a certain control of his social media (with his consent).

The goal was to confuse and gaslight, to make you believe he was out of job, fired by TW production and not being called to big and iconic roles. Being out of service was a strategy. This way he would continue as a victim and that would motivate you to fight and ask for him in social media, to campaign on his behalf.

The rumoured articles about his behavior on set or against women were planted to generate algorithms, commotion and make fans fight for him so he could regain your sympathy.

That's why he has been avoiding social media and has only been in cameos and accepting insignificant roles. The goal now, is to recover the credibility of his old image, but slowly. Making you believe he's being unfairly treated by the industry is a strategy. This way, you would ignore his lack of morality while priotizing escorting.

But, continuing silent, with dubious and contradictory comments on interviews, such as the one about his IG being fictional and playing the fake paternity plot is not helping. On the contrary. Instead of damage control, he put more fuel to fire and discredited himself.

It is clear you are here to make his likes and algorithm grow, most, to portray him as a victimized boy used by a slut and rejected by the industry. That's a fallacy! That's why he's into and in agreement with everything. He needs to deceive and recover the fandom he despised back there.

Well, the problem with all this damage control was that they not only threw the PR under the bus. They threw him! They had the intention to cause rage against the PR so he would be protected, not criticized for his lack of morals and seen as her victim. But, the rage not only was directed to her, but to him, reasonably!

HE was the reason for all of this circus. This PR stunt was to boost his image as straight, self-confident womanizer man. But, it had a mandatory change (as damage control) promoting the PR as a diversion. It is IMPOSSIBLE to believe his team didn't see it coming. And I believe whoever is behind this PR plan had that intention all along.

He not only ended up being used by this woman and her troupe, but also exposed as a coward liar and hypocrite. Maybe this trap was a Me Too Movement set up. He lost credibility and the respect of fans. By accepting this damage control strategies he put himself in the place of a guy who sees his fandom as a step.

Fandom has been immorally manipulated, gaslighted and used in this dirty damage control. He's slowly trying to go back to the old AVATAR, expecting his fans will forget and ignore the fact he sacrificed them for spotlight, vanity and fame.

He staged this indecent plot, accepted the immoral strategies, is using a fake paternity as self-promotion, to promote movies and a woman .....let's say, of a bad reputation, to avoid being honest, to avoid accountability and afraid of the gay rumours and The Me Too accusations.

The fact is he's not the AVATAR you sigh for. Yes, "he's gorgeous as a God, sexy as hell, sweet as honey" (something I saw on an IG page). But, that's a mask. This self-confidence, moral, good family man AVATAR doesn't exist. He may have a few features of the AVATAR, but, he's not it.

This AVATAR is a character to gain your sympathy, your love and adoration so he can be famous, rich, make you ask for him in every movie and spend your money in box offices. He's giving the fandom a big f**k. So, before defending his integrity ask yourself: Was this circus dignified?

"Dignity comes before fame. Dignity always comes before fame". His words on a podcast. So, where is that dignity now?

[jinxedshapeshifter]

You know what I'd love to see? More TGAA content that explores the character dynamics of everyone post-canon. Everything that happened in the last 3 cases of Resolve would fundamentally change most of the dynamics, and canonically they do but it's not explored in depth because the game ends before it CAN be explored.

Ryunosuke, prior to 2-4/2-5, saw Kazuma as a picture of professionalism in the courtroom. Seeing that break down in real time would heavily affect his view of Kazuma. I don't think it'd be in a negative way necessarily, but I do think it's something that'd be interesting to explore.

Barok's entire worldview was flipped on its head with the revelation that Klint was the Professor and Genshin killed him in a duel that Klint didn't even think he deserved. That'd completely change his dynamic with Kazuma and Ryunosuke.

I'd be surprised if Ryunosuke and Susato don't have lasting issues in regards to trusting Sholmes. He lied about their close friend's death. Yes, he proved his trustworthiness afterwards and explained why he lied about Kazuma’s death, but personally I'd still have issues fully trusting him and I'd be surprised if they don't.

For a more positive one, Iris acknowledges Ryunosuke and Susato as older siblings now, and they seem to hold a similar sentiment, viewing Iris as a younger sister (and I think they have since they met her honestly). Give me ALL the sibling shenanigans lol

Another more positive one, Iris acknowledges Sholmes as her dad and he's so happy about it that he cries. He says that she's the best thing that happened to him. I genuinely think the father daughter shenanigans between them would increase a LOT once Iris acknowledges Sholmes as her dad.

GINA. Gina was BEGGING Ryunosuke to disprove Gregson being one of the people involved in the Reaper conspiracy during court. She didn't want to believe her mentor was part of it. That would make her feelings about him complicated, then her feelings would get even MORE complicated when she finds out she was the reason he didn't want any part of it anymore. I also think Ryunosuke not disproving Gregson being involved in the Reaper conspiracy would affect Gina's dynamic with him.

Iris and Barok. If you assume Iris knows her dad is Klint, you have so much potential for the most surprisingly heartfelt conversation Barok has ever had, as well as him potentially trying to be more present in Iris’s life now that he knows she's his niece (whether she knows that or not).

It's another thing that makes The Great Ace Attorney so much fun to think about in regards to post-canon stuff compared to the other Ace Attorney games. These characters have been so deeply affected by everything that happens in the last 3 cases of Resolve that their dynamics at the end of the game and their dynamics in Adventures are almost completely different and probably complicated (especially Barok's views and dynamics with Ryunosuke and Kazuma, and Kazuma’s views and dynamic with Barok). Additionally, it, to a certain degree, has an open ending. We don't know if Sholmes ever made it to Japan or if Ryunosuke ever made it back to England, only that they made plans for it.

Anyway, I will never get enough of post-canon TGAA content that explores how character dynamics changed as a result of the last 3 cases of Resolve.

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina :) i felt very happy today about a small thing i did and wanted to share my happiness a little bit :D;

i bought myself a hand made version of Harry’s bear ring (where bears dance). I don’t know why but i really loved that ring since i saw it. I never buy anything that is personalised or anything, but when I saw it on Etsy I just said “I have to have this 🥺”.

I want to say this; it’s really important to also take care of yourself and buy small presents to yourself. You know yourself better than anyone else. And you deserve it ;)

this goes to everyone who is working hard and very busy with their personal lives, fandom is like our little escape sometimes. And I think having a piece of your comfort zone (as a ring or as Harry/louis’s merch) in real life really helps..

all love to you xx

Aw, I'm so glad you did that for yourself! I agree...we so often put ourselves last. We deserve nice things, too. 💖

[blues-valentine]

HSMTMTS Final Season Spoilers:

Ricky and Gina’s first relationships (Nini/EJ) prepared them for their own trials this season.

The thing about Ricky and Gina going thought similar situations as PW and Rini is to showcase not just why they’re different but that they’ve learned from their previous relationships too.

Because that’s the whole point.

Ricky’s relationship with Nini failed not just because they outgrew each other but because Nini wanted bigger things for herself and didn’t feel like she needed Ricky to get that anymore. She herself said on the pilot that being away from Ricky actually made her come out of her shell and pursue leading roles. And Ricky wasn’t ready to accept that change so in order to protect that relationship he started to become too attached and making Nini feel pressured about balancing YAC and Ricky. He thought he had to put Nini’s dream on hold only to realize not only did it made him selfish but not a version of himself he wanted to be. This is why he corrected all of those mistakes with Gina when presented with the same issues. Not just this final season but last season as well. (X)

It was stablished last season, Ricky’s love for Gina changed what he thought he knew about love. Gina is the representation of change.

For Ricky, the idea of Gina and him growing apart and walking different directions terrified him — he has seen this before and it didn’t end with people choosing him. But he wasn’t going to be the old Ricky that would delete Instagram posts and be like “I want you to leave the movie and stay here with me” and that’s because he now knows that’s not how you love. And he isn’t going to make Gina feel guilty about living her dreams. And that’s why he was the most supportive and attentive boyfriend she could’ve asked for. And Ricky knows it could cost him losing Gina but he is ready to deal with that as long as Gina is doing what she’s meant to do.

For Gina, she was living her dreams but Ricky is also part of her dreams. Gina’s arc has never been just about finding success but finding a place to belong and she found that (with Ricky, with East High). By holding the whole movie offer from Ricky, she understood why EJ did what he did last season and I think it was a very good learning experience for her and closure for the two of them. Gina was very naive and new in her relationship with EJ and going thought that allowed her to understand other points. I feel like if she hadn’t been in a relationship with EJ first she wouldn’t have known how to handle this issue with Ricky. But as opposed to Nini, who basically told Ricky she didn’t come back for him. Gina would fight for Ricky. Because she wants both the fame and him and I’m glad they didn’t have her compromise on either of those.

The contrasts and differences in all of those relationships needed to happen. It would’ve been too easy if Ricky and Gina were just in a perfectly honey moon stage even with all of those circumstances. And I would say they handled it gracefully and better than others would have (including PW and Nini). The thing about Ricky and Gina is not just that they both give the other something they need (stability, propose, ambition, understanding) is that PW and Rini gave up on each other too easy. Maybe because they just weren’t the right person. And if anything the season shows is that whatever happens next Ricky and Gina will find a way to make it work together and unlike Troyella (“who are not a real couple”) Ricky and Gina are.