#girl beats up guys to become top gangster of the school

[loafkingdom]

<BL> 伪装学渣/Fake Slackers

Novel: Completed (Mandarin)

Manhwa: Ongoing

BL audio is available on Maoer/M Station. (Mandarin/Cantonese)

After "The guy inside me" Imma talk about "Fake Slackers" because they are from the same author and both stories happens in the same world.

Main character: He Zhao x Xie Yu

These two are the school famous "problematic teens". Their are very good with academic studies but always pretend like they don't know a thing their teachers are talking about and never turn in homework. Of course, no one know that they are really good academic wise.

Our He Zhao's bottom, Xie Yu, is what the students called the "Boss" of the west part of the school ground. He's good at physical combat, and appears to be cold to people around him. The first fight he did it 1v5, and the gangsters had to call the police. (they are gangsters, but they can't beat a high school kid... wtf)

Police station- Xie Yu: "I didn't do anything." (looking innocent)

He Zhao, the most shameless top in most of the danmei novels. Boss of the south part of the school. He's combat style is a bit different than his partner... He humiliate people the same time he beat them up.

XXX who got beat up: "Please, just kill me." (gradually become a M in the SM standard)

At the same time - He Zhao: I don't like violence, so I usually solve the problem in a peaceful way.

SO HE PEACEFULLY PULLED OFF THE RAPIST'S PANTS & PEACEFULLY LAUGHED AT HIS D*CK SIZE & AND PEACEFULLY MADE HIM RUN A MILE PANTS-LESS

More He Zhao FaMoUs moment: #1 turned in an essay about how handsome his SHADOWS are. #2 plays girl's dress-up game during class.

Not only are they classmates in real life, they are also enemies online. They both play this game but it's basically Olympic style test-preps...

After they started dating, Xie Yu went on google: what do you do when your bf have bad grades at school.

there's so much more I want to share about this novel, but I will leave the rest for you to discover.

[laprincesazorro]

@fieldofbeans and I watched all 12 (short) episodes of "Girl Beats Boy" and the nakama spirit made us both cry manly tears 😭

[sscarletvenus]

Pushing my FemDaniel agenda by asking for Fem Danny hcs 🙏

fem daniel headcanons!!!

i think it would be really fun to see the other students guess daniel’s s/o after her identity reveal… like just gossiping about who the j high goddess is with.

is it that architecture department alleged-gangster weirdo, who keeps hanging around her and buying her chocolate milk? is it that ex-bully boxer? (some say that he already has gf… others say that after meeting hyungseok, his heart melted and he stopped bullying cuz the power of true love… we’ll never know.) is it the fashion department prince, who’s so cold and intimidating and aloof in general, but behaves like a literal golden retriever when she’s around? there’s also a rumour about this tall dark handsome guy in ray bans picking her up in a white corvette after school… lots of bets being placed.

daniel somehow becomes zoe's bi-awakening

crystal and daniel end up becoming besties tho

like there’s also lot of pervs hitting on big daniel, and she’s just too nice to kill them even if she could in a heartbeat. crystal, who has a similar shitty experience with men sees one particular incident that crosses the line and beats the guy’s ass all while saying something like “ughhh this annoying bitch. kick his balls or something why’re you just standing there.” and BOOM bffs. (crystal doesn’t realize her beloved bodyguard oppa is perv-in-chief all the while lmao)

i headcanon big daniel and mitsuki having the same hairstyle, or big daniel’s hairstyle being like lee jihye from orv. smol daniel’s hair’s short bob and bangs with a range of super cute hairclips!!! (horrible descriptions here we go)

big daniel’s wardrobe is literally all fashion week collections (thank you jay we luv u), while smol daniel would probably dress like na jinsol from loser life (another ptj webtoon lol)

also johan and daniel would be such an iconic duo in this au. like they’re sort of each other’s ride or die (johan reluctantly comes around). johan is also weirdly protective over her which leads to a storm of gossip that “oh. did you hear? the gangbuk goddog has lost it over some pretty chick. i bet she’s something, having tamed that dog.” it’s safe to say they’re both fighting for their lives against this untrue rumor, and johan also rises up the ranks on several ppl’s hitlist… (ahem gun, that is)

WHAT IF YAMAZAKI YOUNG MASTER GUN HAS A RYUHEI MOMENT? like he tells crystal something like “behave properly, your sister-in-law’s here” at school and she’s like WTF???

sadboi hours but if big daniel didn’t hide her identity, zack would’ve still been hostile towards her when they first met. probably cuz u know, he would assume that she’s one of “those” ice-princess iljin popular kid who will hurt and bully mira if given the chance. mira would also be constantly compared to her and get a lot of shit… (there’s really no universe where zack and daniel are meet-cute sigh)

lmaooo also dg gets asked a cliche interview question — what’s your ideal girl? And he just. describes daniel (the smol one bcz the tall one's actually famous? and that would cause quite a scandal) in excruciating detail. cut to weeks later and there’s somebody posting on facebook about the employee at their local convenience store… who exactly fits dg’s ideal type description.

i’m also gonna take some liberties and make jake a girl in this au to push my fem!jake agenda. because WHAT BETTER THAN 2 GIRLBOSSES MAXIMISING THEIR JOINT SLAY??? The only thing better than a pretty girl kicking ass is 2 pretty girls kicking ass.

i can totally see jake and daniel being like dabin park and na jinsol from loser life… like the contrast? jake in her form-fitting suits, 9 inch heels and sinu’s coat, and daniel in an 80’s tennis skirt, tank top, and an oversized jacket. i want them to slander the men in their lives over some soju and fried chicken. club vivi arc would also hit so much different altogether omg

ALSO RUNWAY ARC would be so much different to see if daniel was a girl, because some asshole would’ve uploaded her pics on sns too. would love to see her and mary team up. also that one scene after jay saves danny and zack from chuck and justin, and danny asks “why’re u here jay? oh, for your sister right?” and jay would be mortified and flustered… just red all over because he CANNOT admit that he’s here to avenge his uhhh crush? loml?

in conclusion i have fem daniel brainrot, yeah. I’ll continue later because I HAVE LITERALLY SO MUCH MORE LEFT TO SAY.

[yokohamabeans]

hello yoko!! can i ask for your opinion in the tenjiku boys' education? (what kind of school they went to, their grade level, how frequently do they attend their classes, that kind of stuff) ty in advance already ╰(*^▽^*)╯

Hi Anon!! Ahhhh omg I'm so glad you asked this, the education background of the TR boys have always been something I wanted to explore. 😄 So sorry it took me so long to answer this!

Before I start, I just wanted to say that I'm not entirely knowledgeable about the Japanese school system. Again, most of what I know are from Google and animanga (especially yankii manga like Crows and Worst by Takahashi Hiroshi). Nonetheless, considering how TR takes some liberty in portraying high-school kids, I'll be answering this in the same vein! 

In general: even though the Tenjiku boys don’t seem to go to school in the ‘Day in the Life’ section in CB3, all of them should’ve at least received a middle school education because it’s compulsory in Japan, even if they were awful students. (If they are expelled, then another school was obliged to take them in.) By the way, most junior high schools in Japan are public, and private high schools are usually expensive to attend.

That said, here goes my headcanon about the Tenjiku boys’ education! 

IZANA

Middle School

Went to a public middle school near the orphanage, which had helped him to enroll.

Appeared at school just for the attendance but skipped classes a lot to hang out with Shinichirou, wander around town or to do whatever he felt like. Even if he was in class, he’d mostly be zoning out, and all his teachers have given up on pulling him back in. 

Indifferent towards his studies but could still score fairly decent grades. Occasionally turned in a piece of homework when he got bored every now and then. His best subjects were music (duh, though he hated the recorder) and English, which he was somewhat interested in because he thought it could relate him more to Karen. 

I think Wakui meant for him to be pretty in-universe, so quite a few girls and other students thought he looked cool (especially when he was playing the guitar), but none of them really crushed on him because he probably seemed like trouble. 

High School

It seems that he got released from juvie just in time to graduate from middle school, so he at least got the qualifications to attend high school. I think he made the decision to continue his education with a ‘why not?’ attitude, and enrolled into a lower-ranked public high school that would take him and his criminal record in.

However, he dropped out shortly after when he found it to be a waste of time, so he could focus on building up the 8th Gen. Black Dragons and his activities with the S-62.

KAKUCHO

Middle School

The orphanage wanted to enroll him into the same public school as Izana, and Kakucho was initially all for it until Izana came and shared his plans to dominate the gang scene in Japan. Kakucho then resolved to become his strongest soldier, so he insisted to be enrolled at the worst ‘delinquent’ school in the area, where all the toughest ruffians attended. 

This all-boys’ school was basically just a place for delinquents and gangsters to pass time in the education system. (Think Suzuran or Housen High from the Crows Franchise!) Practically no studying took place and all they did was get into fights—perfect for Kakucho, who only wanted to beat people up and become the strongest. That is exactly what he did and he eventually emerged as the top dog at the school, which was also where he found most of his guys for Tenjiku. Therefore, if anyone needs help with schoolwork, Kakucho definitely won’t the first person they’d turn to...

It was because of the school’s lax requirements that he got to say he completed middle school, even though he was hospitalised for most of the graduation period after the Kanto Incident (which happened in February; graduation happens in March). 

High School

Went to another notorious all-boys’ delinquent school, but was mostly a ghost there in his first year because he was still hung up on Izana’s death. 

Then, he got inducted into Rokuhara Tandai by South, so he had no choice but to round up the ruffians at his school to boost the numbers for RokuTan. 

RAN & RINDOU

Middle School

Attended the same private school together, though they were in different grades. It wasn't a prestigious school but still a fairly decent one with most students coming from upper-middle class families. Ran chose to go there simply because he liked its uniform design (lmao). 

Both brothers were disinterested in their studies, though Ran tried to get into literature just to ‘be’ cultured but always ended up falling asleep after picking up a book (LOL). Between them, Rindou got better grades because he puts in more effort into passing his tests as he’s generally more disciplined than Ran. 

At school, the Haitani’s were probably admired for their ‘coolness’ but their classmates tried not to get too involved with them because of their status as gangsters and juvie record. Ran was more popular with the girls and teachers because he knew how to use his glib tongue when he needed to, while Rindou was more popular with the guys because of his toughness, even if he tended to piss everyone off with his blunt and snarky comments. 

I think the Haitani Brothers didn’t actively try to stir up trouble at school and mostly minded their own business, but trouble just found them anyway because of their reputation and large following. Random punks were always seeking them out to fight. Ran rarely responded to them, and Rindou usually ended up being the one to beat and chase them away. 

Both brothers definitely skipped school as and when they liked, enough that the school has issued them warning letters. But because of their money, the school let them complete their education despite their poor grades and juvie record. 

High School

Like Izana, they decided to enroll into high school for the sake of it, and also because they were aware that everyone needs a high school diploma at least in society. But due to their criminal record, they only managed to get into a lower-ranked private high school, which worked out well because it could accept their lax attitude towards school and incredibly high absenteeism.

One day, they decided to just stop showing up at school because they also realised that it was a waste of time, and they could pick up more relevant skills for their futures by actually being in the nightlife industry and learning the ropes there. After awhile, the school just expelled them for their truancy, so they didn’t actually finish high school. 

MOCCHI

Middle School

Like Kakucho, he went to a rather notorious middle school for gangsters and delinquents in Kawasaki with the goal of fighting strong guys and being the baddest ass around. 

Therefore, not much studying took place with him either. It didn’t matter what kind of grades he got because everyone was performing badly (lmao). He loitered around in school a lot only because it’s simply where he hung out at, and he even set up a makeshift gym in the courtyard using scrapyard junk. If he wasn't at his school, then he was at someone else’s calling them out to fight.

Eventually, he founded Jugem with the following he’s gained and decided to spend more time on it, so his truancy rate shot up as well. Like Izana, he returned from juvie just in time for graduation, which was made possible despite his terrible records because the school just wanted to get rid of him.

High School

Entered another ‘delinquent’ school, this time an all-boys’ vocational high school, because he heard that yakuza often recruited new members from it. Pretty much repeated his lifestyle from middle school, though now he’s more involved and driven towards the S-62 activities.

Tried to take his studies a little more seriously when he found out that yakuza needed ‘smarter’ people (to handle businesses) but struggled. Shion made fun of him relentlessly for this, even though Shion himself didn't go to high school. Mocchi eventually gave up and reasoned that he didn’t need to prove himself to anyone or join the yakuza if he was following Izana. He was able to scrape through graduation, eventually.

MUCHO

Middle School

Attended a public middle school in his district that championed strong traditional values, which somewhat influenced him. 

Joined the Judo Club and was one of their top fighters until he went too far and grievously injured an opponent during a match with another school. He was kicked out of the club then.

He was stoic and mostly kept to himself too, and was usually surrounded by the other delinquents who admired him. He was also selective with his teachers; he’ll have no qualms disrespecting or picking a fight with a teacher who pissed him off, but would try to control himself around teachers he respected. Once, he’d overheard some girls in his class discussing nice cafes. One of them asked if Cozy Corner was good, and he replied that it was. Because of how abruptly he’d joined and how imposing and scary he looked, the girls were freaked out and ran away, and Mucho never tried to engage in such conversations again.

Unlike his other gangmates, he actually realized that he did need some of the knowledge taught in school (like language, math and basic science and physics), so he tried to attend classes as much as he could and managed to get relatively average grades. I think his best and favourite would’ve been Social Studies. Scholastically, the school board didn’t have much of an issue with him; they are mostly bothered by rumours about his violence outside of school.

The last straw came when he got sentenced to juvie, and his school had no choice but to expel him. He eventually finished the little bit of his junior education at another school that took him in, where he mostly kept a low profile until graduation.

High School

After juvie and being in on Izana’s plans, Mucho decided to enroll in a commercial high school so he could learn and study more about business and commerce, which is undeniably useful if he was to engage in criminal activities and industries because it’s all about the money. This commercial school is also on the rougher side, so he occasionally got into fights there too.

Eventually, he realised that real-life experience taught him much more, so he ended up skipping school quite a bit to deal with the other gang activities and drug trade that the S-62 had going on. Still, he hung on enough to graduate, but skipped out on the graduation ceremony like any good delinquent would.

SHION

Middle School

Went to a fairly average public school in the neighbourhood, and raised a huge ruckus on his first day by declaring he’ll rule over everyone there as banchō (gang leader). This school didn’t have many delinquents, but the few it had immediately sought him out to teach him a lesson. He somehow beat up all of them by going nuts on everyone, and he effectively established his position like he said he would.

Absolutely hopeless academically, also gets his kanji and vocab wrong (but at least he's better than Baji). Probably bullied a nerdy classmate into doing his homework for him just so he could pass his school requirements. 

He actually spent quite some time at school, but only because he liked the feeling of being feared by his classmates and teachers. He was an all-round menace and picked fights whenever he felt like it, and basically lorded around everyone. 

Because of his terrible attitude at a school that couldn’t tolerate extreme delinquent behaviour, they expelled him the moment he got sentenced to juvie. Like Mucho, he simply finished his education upon release at a ‘delinquent school’, where he got even worse from the environment.

High School

I don’t think he went on to High School because of how useless he found education to be. Probably believed that he could survive perfectly fine without a high school diploma. Besides, he would rather spend his time on the 9th Gen Black Dragons, and couldn’t be bothered to invest himself in school.

As you can see, I took LOTS of liberty with my headcanons in these, based on the few snippets we have of these boys! I hope you found them acceptable or believable, in the context of TR at least! 

[crowdvscritic]

round up // JULY 21

‘Tis the season to beat the heat at the always-cold theatres and next to fans set at turbo speed. While my movie watching slowed a bit with the launch of the Summer Olympics on July 23rd, I’ve still got plenty of popcorn-ready and artsy recommendations for you. A few themes in the new-to-me pop culture I’m recommending this month:

Casts oozing with embarrassing levels of talent (sometimes overqualified for the movies they’re in)

Pop culture that is responding or reinterpreting past pop culture

Stories that get weEeEeird

Keep on-a-scrollin’ to see which is which!

July Crowd-Pleasers

1. Double Feature – ‘90s Rom-Coms feat. Lots of Lies: Mystery Date (1991) + The Pallbearer (1996)

In Mystery Date (Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 6/10), Ethan Hawke and Teri Polo get set up on a blind date that gets so bizarre and crime-y I’m not sure how this didn’t come out in the ‘80s. In The Pallbearer (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow try to combine The Graduate with Four Weddings and a Funeral in a story about lost twentysomethings. If you don’t like rom-coms in which circumstances depend on lots of lies and misunderstandings, these won’t be your jam, but if you’re like me and don’t mind these somewhat-cliché devices, you’ll be hooked by likeable casts and plenty of rom and com.

2. The Tomorrow War (2021)

I thought of no fewer movies than this list while watching: Alien, Aliens, Angel Has Fallen, Cloverfield, Interstellar, Kong: Skull Island, Prometheus, A Quiet Place: Part II, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and World War Z. And you know what? I like all those movies! (Okay, maybe I just have a healthy respect/fear of The Silence of the Lambs.) The Tomorrow War may not be original, but it borrows some of the best tropes and beats from the sci-fi and action genres, so much so I wish I could’ve seen Chris Pratt and Co. fight those gross monsters on a big screen. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6/10

3. Dream a Little Dream (1989)

My July pick for the Dumb Rom-Com I Nevertheless Enjoyed! I CANNOT explain the mechanics of this body switch comedy to you—nor can the back of the DVD case above—but, boy, what an ‘80s MOOD. I did not know I needed to see a choreographed dance routine starring Jason Robards and Corey Feldman, but I DID. All I know is some movies are made for me and that I’m now a card-carrying member of the Two Coreys fan club. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

4. Black Widow (2021)

The braids! The Pugh! Black Widow worked for me both as an exciting action adventure and as a respite from the Marvel adventures dependent on a long memory of the franchise. (Well, mostly—keep reading for a second MCU rec much more dependent on the gobs of previous releases.) Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

5. Liar Liar (1997)

Guys, Jim Carrey is hilarious. That’s it—that’s the review. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

6. Sob Rock by John Mayer (2021)

It’s very possible I’ve already listened to this record more than all other John Mayer records. It doesn’t surpass the capital-G Greatness of Continuum, but it’s a little bit of old school Mayer, a little bit ‘80s soft rock/pop, and I’ve had it on repeat most of the two weeks since it’s been out. Featuring the boppiest bop that ever bopped, at least one lyrical gem in every track, and an ad campaign focused on Walkmans, this record skirts the line between Crowd faves and Critic-worthy musicianship.

7. Double Feature – ‘00s Ben Affleck Political Thrillers: The Sum of All Fears (2002) + State of Play (2009)

In The Sum of All Fears (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), Ben Affleck is Jack Ryan caught up in yet another international incident. In State of Play (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), he’s a hotshot Congressman caught up in a scandal. Both are full of plot twists and unexpected turns, and in both, Affleck is accompanied by actors you’re always happy to see, like Jason Bateman, James Cromwell, Russell Crowe, Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, David Harbour, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, and Robin Wright—yes, I swear all of those people are in just those two movies.

8. Loki (2021-)

Unlike Black Widow, you can’t go into Loki with no MCU experience. The show finds clever ways to nudge us with reminders (and did better at it than Falcon and the Winter Soldier), but be forewarned that at some point, you’re just going to have to let go and accept wherever this timeline-hopper is taking you. An ever-charismatic cast keeps us grounded (Owen Wilson, Jonathan Majors, and an alligator almost steal the show from Tom Hiddleston in some eps), but while Falcon lasted an episode or two too long, Loki could’ve used a few more to flesh out its complicated plot and develop its characters. Thankfully, the jokes matter almost as much as the sci-fi, so you can still have fun even if you have no idea what’s going on.

9. Double Feature – Bruce Willis: Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) + The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Before Bruce Willis began starring in many random direct-to-DVD movies I only ever hear about in my Redbox emails, he was a Movie Star smirking his way up the box office charts. In the third Die Hard (Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson to decipher the riddles of a terrorist madman (Jeremy Irons), and it’s a thrill ride. In The Whole Nine Yards (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10), he’s hitman that screws up dentist Matthew Perry’s boring life in Canada, and—aside from one frustrating scene of let’s-objectify-women-style nudity—it’s hilarious.

10. This Is the End (2013)

On paper, this is not a movie for me. An irreverent stoner comedy about a bunch of bros partying it up before the end of the world? None of things are for Taylors. But with a little help of a TV edit to pare down the raunchy and crude bits, I laughed my way through and spent the next several days thinking through its exploration of what makes a good person. While little of the plot is accurate to Christian Gospel and theology, some of its big ideas are consistent enough with the themes of the book of Revelation I found myself thinking about it again in church this morning. (Would love to know if Seth Rogen ever expected that.) Plus, I love a good self-aware celebrity spoof—can’t tell you how many times I’ve just laughed remembering the line, “It’s me, Jonah Hill, from Moneyball”—and an homage to horror classics. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10

July Critic Picks

1. Summer of Soul (…or, When the Television Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

Even director Questlove didn’t know about the Harlem Cultural Festival, but now he’s compiled the footage so we can all enjoy one of the coolest music fest lineups ever, including The 5th Dimension, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, and Stevie Wonder, who made my friend’s baby dance more than once in the womb. See it on the big screen for top-notch audio. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

2. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Robin Williams takes on the bureaucracy, disillusionment, and malaise of the Vietnam War with comedy. Williams was a one-of-a-kind talent, and here it’s on display at a level on par with Aladdin. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

3. Against the Rules Season 2 (2020-21)

Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, adapted into a film starring Jonah Hill), is interested in how we talk about fairness. This season he looks at how coaches impact fairness in areas like college admissions, credit cards, and youth sports. 

4. Bugsy Malone (1976)

A gangster musical starring only children? It’s a little like someone just picked ideas out of a hat, but somehow it works. You can hear why in the Bugsy Malone episode Kyla and I released this month on SO IT’S A SHOW?, plus how this weird artifact of a film connects with Gilmore Girls.

5. The Queen (2006)

Before The Crown, Peter Morgan wrote The Queen, focusing on Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) in the days following the death of Princess Diana. It’s a complex and compassionate drama, both for the Queen and for Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, who has snuck up on me to become a favorite character actor). Maybe I’ve got a problem, but I’ll never tire of the analysis of this famous family. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

6. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

This month at ZekeFilm, we took a closer look at Revisionist Westerns we’ve missed. I fell hard for Roy Bean, and I think you will, too, if for no other reason than you might like a story starring Jacqueline Bisset, Ava Gardner, John Huston, Paul Newman, and Anthony Perkins. Oh, and a bear! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10

7. New Trailer Round Up

Naked Singularity (Aug. 6) – John Boyega in a crime thriller!

Queenpins (Aug. 10) – A crime comedy about extreme coupon-ing!

Dune (Oct. 1) – I’ve been cooler on the anticipation for this film, but this new look has me cautiously intrigued thanks to the Bardem + Bautista + Brolin + Chalamet + Ferguson + Isaac + Momoa + Zendaya of it all.

The Last Duel (Oct. 15) – Affleck! Damon! Driver!

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Nov. 11) - I’m not sure why we need this, but I’m down for the Paul Rudd + Finn Wolfhard combo

King Richard (Nov. 19) - Will Smith as Venus and Serena’s father!

Encanto (Nov. 24) – Disney and Lin-Manuel Miranda making more magic together!

House of Gucci (Nov. 24) - Gaga! Pacino! Driver! 

Also in July…

Kyla and I took a look at the classic supernatural soap Dark Shadows and why Sookie might be obsessed with it on Gilmore Girls.

I revisited a so-bad-it’s-good masterpiece that’s a surrealist dream even Fellini couldn’t have cooked up. Yes, for ZekeFilm I wrote about the Vanilla Ice movie, Cool as Ice, which is now a part of my Blu-ray collection.

Photo credits: Against the Rules. All others IMDb.com.

[darlingpetao3]

Miss Independent (Nash Wells x Reader)

Rating: T

Summary: You’re a tough and independent and oftentimes stubborn member of Team Flash, almost to the point of self-sabotage. But when Nash Wells pops onto the scene and beats you in a fight, you refuse to accept any form of help from him in the latest Team Flash mission.

Tag List: @fandomdancer​ @bluesclues-1234​ @blogforhoes​

You’ve always been a do-it-herself kind of girl.

In school, when you carried your books to class, sometimes boys would ask to carry them for you.

“No thanks, I’m good.”

And there’s always that one item at the store that’s on the top shelf, just out of reach. A fellow customer or a stock-boy will check to see if you need assistance in reaching the pesky missing piece of your grocery list.

“Oh, that’s fine, I got it,” you’d say, and proceed to scale the shelves and channel the essence of your stretchy teammate and friend to reach it.

You may even reach a new level of stubbornness when you decline to accept help to carry said groceries up and into your downtown Central City apartment.

“I’m nearly there, thanks though!”

And you by no means need a man to save you.

Since the infamous Particle Accelerator explosion of 2015, and subsequently gaining your new-found abilities, you can do it all yourself. You can take care of yourself. Team Flash has lovingly dubbed you Miss “Indy” Independent.

Of course, one night of working your second-job as a vigilante for smaller crimes (muggings, corner store thefts, that kind of thing), you come face to face with a man who will turn your life upside down.

As if it hadn’t been turned upside down already.

***

You’re patrolling a different section of the city than usual tonight, near the Ivo Labs building, when you spot a figure in the alleyway at the side door to the premises. You press your fingers to your domino mask to make sure your identity is secure for this upcoming bust.

“Hey, you!” you shout. “Get away from there!”

Fully expecting the tall shadowy figure to flee, you are surprised to find the opposite. In fact, they step out into the dim light of the street lamps. It’s a man. It’s…

Oh hell, it’s another one.

You catch him stash something into one of his pockets. So this Wells is a thief. Huh… that’s different.

You’re still not going to take it easy on him.

“Whatever that is,” you call out, making careful advancements toward him, “you better hand it over.”

“Let me guess, ‘or else?’” This new, apparently cocky Wells replies. You laugh.

“You better believe it.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Then you’re in for a world of hurt.”

You break into a run, effectively charging Wells the Thief. Only, what you didn’t expect was for the man to shoot a grappling hook at a fire escape up above. He uses the propelling motions to fly over your body and land on the other side of you.

“Neat trick,” you say with a growing annoyance. But why don’t you fight me for what you took like a real man?” To emphasize the figurative throwing down of your gauntlet, you get into fighting stance and put up your dukes.

Wells walks back towards you, not even attempting to leave the situation. You can already tell this one loves a good fight. Hell, maybe they all do. This ought to be good.

You throw the first punch - pulling back tightly like a master archer - and letting it fly. What should have been his face, your knuckles meet his palm as he catches it.

How-?

“Gotta do better than that,” he says. You continue to throw a flurry of punches, all of which this Wells manages to block. And then, on your last one, disarms you and renders both your hands incapable of moving.

“You have beautiful eyes,” Wells remarks. “Are you married to that mask, or…?”

“Shut up.”

By hooking a leg around his you get him to stumble down to his knees, but he lunges at your middle and knocks you both down to the ground. Luckily, your head didn’t hit the pavement, but the crash is still not at all pleasant on the ol’ tush.

You take your chance and attempt to rifle a hand into the pocket you saw Wells stash the mysterious stolen object. Only…

“Call me old fashioned,” Wells says with a sideways smile, “but I’d rather you buy me dinner first, my dear.”

After being momentarily confused, you realize what you are rooting around for in his pocket is not, in fact, the thing he stole.

“Give it to me, now!” you demand before you’re forced to use resort to using your special abilities on this crook. This Wells’ eyes twinkle with mischief.

“Sorry Beautiful, I’m not that kind of guy.” The pair of you scramble to get up and just as you lift your hands to power up your energy blasts, Wells flashes the item he stole at you. He shoots you a wink. “Rain check?”

Suddenly, there’s a loud noise, followed by a dense fog of smoke. You run into the haze, hoping that didn’t just happen - that a thief didn’t get away from you. You’ve fought big bad metas! How could you lose against a cocky, ability-less, cat-burglar with second rate magician’s tricks?

Still stunned at your failure, you head home for the night while replaying everything about the fight in your head until it nearly drives you mad. You can’t believe you lost. You never lose! Consider yourself clocking out of this night shift. You hope you see that bastard again because when you do, you’ll be ready. 

And he’ll regret the day he messed with you.

***

“(Y/N), meet Nash.”

You can’t believe it.

You cannot believe Barry is introducing you to him.

“You.” Your voice seethes with disdain. Of course this Nash, the Wells from that night that shall not be referenced, lights up like the sun at seeing you. He points in your direction.

“I’d know those eyes anywhere,” he says smoothly. “How’ve you been?”

“You two already know each other?” Cisco asks, scanning you both on opposite sides of the main monitor desk. You give a flat “no” the very second Nash says “we sure do.”

“‘Know’ is such a strong word,” you explain vaguely. “You know he’s a thief, right?”

“Yeah, he kind of helped us with our own heist…” Cisco says.

Great, so now we’re thieves?

“Anyway,” Barry continues hastily, “we’ve come up with a plan to catch Pinstripe at last. But there is a catch…”

“Let me guess. I serve as a distraction?” It would only seem fitting. You happened to have had a brief relationship with Pinstripe, one of Central City’s biggest gangsters. To be fair, though, this was before he ‘made it big,’ so to speak. You had no idea so long ago that your boyfriend at the time would become a heinous villain.

“Actually…” Barry scratches the back of his neck. Oh, great. “You’d be the bait.”

Welp, this might as well happen.

“Okay,” the word comes out as a sigh. “He’s been trying to track me down for years anyway. Just let me know the when and where and I’ll get it done. I’ll bring him down.”

“We’re going to send Nash in with you,” Barry tells you, “to keep you safe. Meanwhile, Frost and I will-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” you interrupt your friend. “I don’t need anyone, let alone him to keep me safe.”

“I can help,” Nash steps in, “I have experience in-”

“-No, thanks. I got this all on my own. I don’t need your help.”

The Wells doppelganger holds his hands up in surrender. Barry and Cisco’s cringing expressions don’t go unnoticed as they exit, leaving you with Nash. As if to dissolve the extremely palpable tension, Nash leans against the wall.

“So, how about that dinner?”

***

You should have figured your ex-boyfriend would have shot you.

Really, the blast from his top of the line energy rifle nicked your shoulder, but it still hurt like hell. Part of the sleeve of your jacket has a singed hole. You could probably see the smoke coming off of it if you weren’t booking it up the stairwell of this office building. Pinstripe must have seen you dart inside…

“You won’t get away from me this time, (Y/N)!” the gangster calls up to you.

You press a finger to the comms in your ear. “You guys, I’m leading him to the rooftop.” There’s no reply. “Guys?” Well, shit.

Pushing through the exit door on the uppermost level, you keep running until you reach the ledge. You need to think fast. Maybe you have enough energy stored up for a good blast at Pinstripe? You have to try.

Pinstripe, with his suit that matches his Cisco-given villain name and slicked-back hair, he finally swaggers through the door. He’s no longer in a rush to capture you. There’s nowhere to run for you and still no sign of Barry or Frost.

“So, it’s come to this?” Pinstripe asks with a gross smirk. “Running away from our love again?”

“You’re a bastard. And I don’t love you.”

“Tell you what? You get away from that ledge, come home with me, and I won’t shoot you?”

“As if.”

You thrust your hands forward to let loose one of your energy blasts from your hands, but nothing happens. You have no stored energy left…

Pinstripe raises his rifle and aims. “I gave you a chance.”

Just then, your comms short-circuits in your ear, taking you by surprise and causing you to stumble back and hurtle over the edge. But an exhilarated shout grows louder, and before you know what’s happening, something catches you mid-fall. And now you’re… swinging through the air?

“Aw, (Y/N), are you falling for me?”

Looking up, you find yourself in the firm grasp of Nash Wells. The man smiles at you, but you are still in shock. You’re finding it hard to breathe.

When the pair of you finally touch ground again, Nash makes sure to set you down gently.

“Are you alright?” he asks you.

You do a quick self-check. “Yeah, yeah I think so.”

“Indy, are you safe?” Barry’s voice chimes in your ear. The comms are back online, it would seem. “We’ve captured Pinstripe. I’m taking him to Iron Heights.”

“I’m safe,” you confirm. “...Thanks to Nash.” The Wells beside you smiles at the recognition. “Seriously, thank you. I’d be pancake if you hadn’t…”

“Don’t worry about it.”

A wave of guilt and realization washes over you. “Listen, I’m sorry for biting your head off before. I was just bitter at having lost to you that night. See, I never lose. Apparently I’m on a downward streak.”

Nash simply nods, letting you get everything out.

“I was blind before, but now I know it’s okay to have help from others. Especially when you’re about to die!” You laugh awkwardly. “I don’t know why it took me so long to see it. I’m on a team, and I haven’t been acting like it.” Now you’re talking more to yourself. You proffer a hand to your saviour. “Welcome to Team Flash, Nash.”

“Thank you.”

You know, now that I think about it, this guy’s not half-bad looking...

“So,” you start, “how about that dinner?”

~

Requested by @emilyfandoms​: So the readers personality is more of a do it herself type of girl. She doesn't need a man outlook on life because she can do it herself. She is a strong meta and knows how to handle herself even without her powers. So on first meeting Nash maybe they get into an actual fight and she ends up loosing which she gets super salty about it and can't stand Nash after that with his cocky personality and all. So once he finally( flirty with her) joined the team they have to use her as bait to catch a villain who is specifically after her. She ends up getting hurt and Nash saved her literally sweeping her off her feet afterward. So she falls for him then because she never had a man actually save her and yeah she wanting some Nash booty after if ya get what I mean. 🍑 👀 😏

[atlas-of-a-human-soul]

The Bad Guy’s Sacrifice - pt.2

Summary: Dealing with the aftermath of Mikhail’s kidnapping, Grayson was more than ready to retire and legalize his gang related work. However, his readiness to pull out of the business is met with a new bloodthirsty rival which puts a wedge between Grayson and Y/N just when they thought they could live a peaceful life together.

Warnings: fluff, angst, SMUT, VIOLENCE, DEATH, drinking, swearing

Word count: ~ 23k

The Bad Guy Masterlist (Gang AU)

He opens his eyes, the darkness around him seemingly moving through the cracks and pushing in. His right arm falls open to the side as he struggles to breathe, blindly reaching out for his nightstand, the top drawer where his inhaler resides. While his right hand struggles to grasp what nature intended to be his cure, his left one taps around the bed for his real remedy - his saving grace.

Finally finding the pump, he takes one puff for the wheezing to stop, allowing his mind to function properly.

His left hand comes up empty, void of what he holds dear and he sits up madly, looking around the room in a daze.

She's not there.

His already wild heart beats fast, letting his hands and feet numb further then when he awoke from his sleep.

But was it all a dream? Was Y/N ever real? If she is, did Mikhail really take her from him?

The questions in his mind drive him up the wall, his arms shaking and legs no longer able to hold him up, so he remains seated. Gripping at his hair, he feels the panic seep in, overtaken with cold sweat and trembling chin.

She must be real. He felt it in his heart. She wasn't just a dream, but her being gone could be more than his imagination.

She's not here.

Had she been there, she'd surely be tucked into his side, her cold feet warming on his calves or at the very least she'd drape a leg over him.

She's not here.

It's more than panic, paralyzing him. He can't breathe, his lungs are heavy. He feels the air around him, pressing in, overwhelming. He finds his phone, pressing number one on instinct, knowing he had put her in because she's his number one girl. If she is his, she is always his number one dial.

The line goes silent, his mind unable to process the generic response of the caller not being available, eyes widened and a lump forming in his throat.

Wanting to scream, he chuckles because there he is, a man who fears nothing and yet he's absolutely lost in his fear of losing one girl he is no longer sure exists.

Columbia.

"If she's real, that's where she'll be." He whispers to himself, scrambling to his feet without putting on any clothes. Only in his briefs, Grayson runs out of his mansion and sits into his Porsche, driving at an illegal speed toward where he might find her.

One of the cops recognize his car, not stopping him. As if he would stop.

Finally on campus, he parks in front of her dorm and rushes out.

Room 23, he thinks, already finding himself before the red door and his heart stumbles on itself when he realizes she must be there. He can't be imagining everything, believing he isn't that creative.

Connecting his fist with the door, he pounds on it impatiently. Until the lock is heard and the door creaks open, her nose and her right eye the only parts of her peeking out.

He sees her eye widen in recognition, the door opening instantly and her worried face meeting his unsteadiness.

"Gray?"

In one move, he grabs her smaller form and presses her into his chest, folding his arms around her. His nose buried in her hair at the top of her head, his hands at her sides, crossed at her back, her arms wrapping around him as well.

"Shhh. It's okay. I'm here." Her voice is muffled by his chest, but the sound of it alone makes his heart calmer and the smell of her hair puts his mind at ease.

She doesn't fight his embrace, for this isn't the first time he came to her room completely out of his mind. Physical touch is what he needs now and not the sexual kind. He needs to feel her, breathe her in and she allows him.

Slowly pushing him in, she kicks the door close and moves him to her bed. She notes the warm, naked back and the muscular built going up and down under her fingertips, realizing he must have had a bad dream. She told him to call her if he needed her, come what may she'd be there. But here he is, in all his glory, trembling like a scared child in her dorm room. Many men would take this state of his as a once in a million chance to kill him, so she thanked every god in existence for his safety in this moment.

Laying him down, Y/N snuggles into his side, enjoying his strong arms as they push her into him and the way his palms go up and down her skin to assure himself of her existence.

Tenderly, she presses kisses into his chest and neck, reminding him she's with him as she promised to be.

Ever since Mikhail nearly killed both of them, despite the man being dead, Grayson had been restless. They didn't talk much about his gang related work anymore, knowing it upsets both of them as result. But it didn't stop Y/N from insisting Grayson finds help for his nightmares that usually led him to her door at ungodly times and all in his underwear.

Although she insisted living on her own in a dorm, she's become quite aware he needs her with him. She's been splitting her time to the best of her ability between his bed and her own, not wanting to permanently give into his requests of her moving in. She wanted some independence, to give them both a chance to be who they are without holding back. It's hellish; making a decision between having all she wanted in the accelerated med school programme and having Grayson, what she never thought would be an option.

"You're really here." He mumbles, eyes closed and already drifting off, failing to notice the tears in her eyes as she chooses him above all. She always chooses him in the end.

"I am. I always will be."

Once the morning came, Y/N's alarm wakes them both in the most frustrating way possible.

The "I like to move it" song blares, startling them and as big as Grayson is and as small as Y/N's bed is, he nearly dropped Y/N on the floor when he jumped up. Catching her mid fall, pressed against the bed frame with his arms, a scream dies in her throat and her hands grab at him for support.

"You good?" Grayson chuckles, half thinking how he's too old, too rich for dorm rooms and half thinking how lucky he is to be in her dorm room.

"Think it's time." She grumbles, helping him pull her up into the safety of his chest, draping her leg over his stomach for a better hold.

"For what?" Grayson leaves a kiss atop her head, running his fingers up and down her arm, his ring grazing her skin lightly. She can feel his half hardened cock press against the inside of her thigh, already setting the mood for morning dorm sex. But as scandalous as that is for a man of his stature, she had more pressing matters to deal with.

"For me to move back in with you." She sighs, enjoying the feathered coldness his ring brings to her warm skin. She's always cold when she sleeps alone, yet sleeping with Grayson, a human volcano, she finds herself burning up.

Grayson's lips part, trying to hold in a confused, but excited gasp. She always makes him feel like a high school girl with a crush, still going through puberty: senselessly blind and constantly confused, wanting to gush about his feelings for her and write poems even if he's not particularly good at it.

"Didn't you say it would take you forever to get here and it would affect your grades because you wanna sleep in?" Grayson asks, still holding in his true feelings. He respects how hard she works, her ambition and drive endlessly, even admires her for it, but he also wishes she'd just be with him...all the time. God knows he had more money than he can spend in seven lifetimes, she need not work a single day of her life, yet he knows how important it is for her which is why he offers his home to her every month, but never pressures her into accepting.

"Yes. But I also want to wake up in your arms every morning like this without falling on my ass. I'll just have to take my Impala and put it into good use for the drives. A few hours lost is better than being away from you so long." She excuses, refusing to tell him the truth; that she's worried for him.

After all, Grayson is the head of the most formidable criminal organization, a gang as some would say, and he can't afford to show weakness and these dreams might come across as such. When she's there, the dreams tend to go away. Most of all, she makes sure he takes his prescription and attends his therapy sessions. But if someone would pry enough, they’d find he’s no longer as ruthless as he used to be. She might not be a gangster in the actual sense of the word, but she knows enough to be aware how dangerous that discovery would be for him and she can’t let that happen. Ever.

"You know I'd love that, but only if you're sure. It's a big move in a relationship and neither of us have much practice there. It's also a strain on you, so if you're absolutely sure, I would love nothing more." Practical, very self-aware and extremely protective response put in the sweetest, most gentle way possible. There's the charming, magnetic man she loves so much. Right underneath the rubble. But she found she loves the rubble too.

"I'm sure." She lifts herself up, just barely enough to peck the tip of his nose because that always made him scrunch up and his lips whirl to the side into the cutest smile she had ever seen and that's what she loved the most - having such an effect on him that she discovers new things about him that not even Grayson himself knows.

Lazily, his hand slides down her back and rests upon her bum, squeezing it a little too hard but not enough to make it painful, although she never opposed to a little pain. Releasing the flesh he wanted to take a bite out of, he taps her gently, like a summer breeze.

"In that case, get that cute ass to class and I'll call a few people to help me move all this by the end of the day." Grayson taps her butt once more, getting a happy giggle in return only prompting a crooked smile of his own to appear.

She tumbled over to her side, barely managing to survive the fall from grace she considered his chest to be, only to throw on the first thing she could find - a deep green summer dress, falling to her ankles where a tattoo rests; one she got after being saved by the members of The House Of The Rising Sun. As her eternal gratitude, the rising sun tattoo on her right ankle will forever be there to remind her why she's able to giggle with her boyfriend while running late to class.

"And take a banana and an energy bar with you!" He commands, the change in his voice now evident to her. She could always tell when he simply suggests something in comparison to when he orders her to do something, when he dared to do such a bold thing.

“Okay, dad!”

Y/N didn't mind this particular demand, knowing this is just another way Grayson shows his love for her because she does forget to eat on time and his nagging helps keep her healthy and at the top of her game.

Quickly pecking his lips, she stumbles toward her door and turns around to take him in. Just for one moment longer her eyes remain on his faintly lit sculptured body, the sun rays dancing on the tan skin. His hair is a mess, his eyes tired but bright and his lips curled into a self-satisfied smirk because he knows she's checking him out.

"Clothes are in the drawers." She begins, Grayson joining her for the last part to be said in unison.

"Second one from the bottom." Both smile, giving them enough soul food to survive the day.

Some would consider this a mundane thing, but for Grayson it was extraordinary, magic even. For a man who didn't think he'd live to see his thirtieth birthday, this was the epitome of happiness.

The men came quickly, packing all Y/N's things except her underwear, for Grayson had packed that before anyone even showed up. Maybe being jealous over his men seeing the sexy underwear he liked to provide her with is silly, but he wanted to be the only one with such privileges.

Just as they're leaving the day at its end, Grayson finds Ethan rushing in with a crazed look in his eyes.

"Where the fuck have you been all day?!" Ethan speaks through gritted teeth in hushed voices.

"Why?" A dark look befalls Grayson as he already knows something is happening and it's bad. It's always bad.

He spent the past year trying to make right of his wrongs, legitimize his work, but that can't ever be entirely done.

"Silver Snakes heard you closing up shop, and declared New York an open season." Ethan hissed, finding Grayson's face harden like stone.

"I am still the leader. I am still the Capo." Grayson's jaw clenches, only now seeing he and Ethan aren't alone.

"What does open season mean?" Her voice is determined, but the fear in her tone doesn't go unnoticed by either of them. She’s gripping her book bag so hard her knuckles paled, but her face holds determination they both admired.

"It means they want this territory." Ethan answers instead, seeing his brother had gone back to the cold person he was before he ever met Y/N. Grayson instantly reverted his mind to the killer instead of the gentlemen – a warrior without a cause as some would call it. But that’s in the past. This killer, this warrior now has a cause – to protect his family and the love of his life.

Grayson still considered New York his playground and he definitely had no intention giving up such a prized possession many died for him to keep. His fathered died for him to keep it.

"The Silver Snakes must have found out Gray has you now and in our world that means weakness. When one has a weakness, he can be dealt with. You're a liability." Ethan continues until Y/N starts to shake her head, her chin trembling instead of her lips because her jaw is clenched tightly enough to prevent that from happening.

"What does that mean? How does he get the territory?" Y/N insists, walking toward Grayson.

"It means Grayson has to die. Both of us. Heirs if there are any as well." And that's when her world comes crashing down once more.

"We can fight this. Them." She quickly moved ahead, standing on her tiptoes to cup Grayson's face and bring his eyes to her instead of the faraway place this piece of information took him to. She needed him rooted, with her.

"We will prevail. As always." He noticed her speak in plural, meaning she would fight with him and although he loved her for it, that is exactly why he's so scared now. That's a part of her magic; she sees the sun even in the darkest days.

"You will NOT be a part of this. Am I making myself clear?" Grayson all but growls, the change in his eyes from gentle hazel to nearly black instant as is his mood, but it doesn't frighten her. He doesn’t frighten her anymore, even when he puts in considerable effort to do so.

"Everyone already knows I'm your girl. There is no way in hell I'm sitting this one out, especially when I'm going to be under the same roof as you." Y/N puts the tip of her index finger against his chest, poking him as she speaks, the resolution in her mind clear in her voice; it doesn't tremble, not even breaks, the sound of her being in charge both frustrating and appealing.

"I can't, in good conscience, allow this to happen. If something were to happen to you...I'd rather not be alive to see it. I'd rather I die a moment before you so I don’t have to face another sunrise without you in this world." Grayson speaks from the heart, discarding the cold he was taken with because he can't be that man around her. He has to be an ocean breeze, gentle and loving, all consuming and promising. But in order to be that for life, he has to put his mask on for now - the same mask that shows how ruthlessness became his second nature and why his nickname has been Hellhound ever since he turned twelve.

That part of him was tucked away safely ever since she caught his eye, even when Mikhail appeared. Snippets of his persona wanted to ravage Damien, all of him wanted to RIP Mikhail to shreds every moment he spent under the ground in that bunker with their future uncertain, yet he never had the chance. And that's when Grayson realizes she has never truly seen that side of him, the never ending darkness that pulls him under until there is no good in him left and all reason is lost. She pulled him out of that, gave him air to breathe and a warm, safe place to rest his head. He can't go into the shadows again and not wash away, lose a part of who he is and quite possibly lose her in the process. That would be his ruin.

"You trained me for a year." She reminds him, tenderly placing a hand on his cheek, forcing his jaw to unclench and his face to relax as he looked like he'd grind his teeth from existence.

She's been treated so wrong for so long before meeting him, believing she'll become untouchable. She thrives in the dark. Without him, she's a slow dying flower. He is her sun. She needs the darkness, the sweetness, the sad, the weakness, a kiss from the love of her life, the angel she saw him be.

"Grayson...I'm not leaving. No matter how dark it gets." She says quietly, gently tracing his jaw with her thumb and that small scar on his chin she adored.

Grayson looks down, placing a finger to her chin; that stubborn little chin with a proud sternness and defiance like he never saw before meeting her. He loved that chin.

"Even if we go full dark, no stars? Y/N, you're scared of the dark. You still sleep with a nightlight." Grayson smiles against better judgement, remembering when he had to install lights into his bed so she'd be able to sleep peacefully without her anxiety getting the best of her. He loved that about her too, the essence of innocence in the purity he tainted.

Maybe that's God's ineffable plan, pairing angels and demons to create balance on earth as it is in heaven and hell.

"Shut up." She giggles, unable to stop herself from reacting to his teasing tone, heartily welcoming any light he can afford to give.

"I'm more than capable. Taming your darkness was never an issue. This time I just have to let it snuff out the light." She says carefully, glancing at Ethan who stood at her door with a nervous look on his face. He clearly knew better than her, some details she wasn't aware of, but the love she shared with Grayson was strong enough to handle anything that comes their way.

"But you're the light. We are the light." Grayson sighs quietly, leaning down. His forehead touches hers, the weight of his head almost entirely supported by her and she didn't crumble like he thought she would. Instead, her eyes flicker from his now closed ones to his rosy lips, her hands both resting on his face to keep him in place.

"And we will shine again. Till then, you need to let me help. I'm in danger just by being with you as it is and I accept that. I can’t afford to lose you now. Not ever." Her reassuring touch and words give him enough strength to open his eyes and face the world once more, giving her a warning ahead of time for he knows it will be more than necessary.

"You won't like who I become. I'll be swimming in a pool of blood by the end of this."

Her heart jumps at the notion, her mind giving her an unwanted visual and it's one of those times she hates her imagination being so developed. Despite her rational thinking screaming to turn around and leave, she can't help herself. She'll always be there for him, shamelessly so. Darkest thought he ever has, the worst thing he ever does...she'll be there.

"As long as it's not our blood, I don't care."

Once they returned home, she found him giving her complete freedom on decorations. While she definitely wanted to change some things, she still had a few weeks of school left and she swore she’d get a team of her own to work things out once school was out.

So, the next night when she returned from class, just a little over ten, Y/N was surprised to find their room empty and the light dimmed in his office. The house was quiet, guards at their posts and Ethan clearly out for the night. It left her feeling cold, alone, so she decides to see where her man ended up.

Peeking through the door, Y/N’s eyes glided over the dark room. From her position, she saw an arm, clad in a dark coat sleeve with wide white cuffs sparking golden in the firelight, hanging over the side of the wing chair facing the fire she never saw him start before. The arm hung limply, long fingers almost reaching the floor and between their tips hung a crystal glass, its base balanced on the polished boards. It was empty, meaning he’s been drinking himself to sleep again and that either meant he was hiding important information that would worry her or he was having issues with his PTSD. He’d never admit to it, but his dreams and anxiety still catch up with him from time to time and with the looming threat, it must have increased tenfold.

Drawing a calming breath, Y/N waited for her heart to slow, then, carefully silent, glided forward and rounded the chair. Sprawled in the chair, his long legs stretched before him, his waistcoat undone, his tie untied, he still managed to look elegant. Elegantly dissolute, elegantly dangerous. His chest, covered by a fine cotton shirt she picked out for him, rose and fell regularly.

Y/N's gaze roamed then lifted to his face; she studied the lean planes gilded by the firelight - his face more relaxed than she'd seen it. With his eyes shut, it was easier to concentrate on his face, on what it showed. Strength was still there, glaringly apparent even now; the hint of not sadness, but a lack of happiness that hung about his well-shaped mouth was not something she had noticed before. Inwardly frowning, she committed the sight to memory, then shook herself and turned her mind to a way to make him feel better and forget what worries him...even if it’s just for the night.

Taking the glass from his hand first to prevent it from shattering, Y/N felt him move behind her. The black crescents of his lashes flickered. Then rose. He looked directly at her. His lips curved, kicking up at the ends first, then curving fully into a beguiling smile. 

“You’re home.” The genuine happiness for her presence nearly knocked the very breath out of her. Daring to breathe, just a little, Y/N slowly straightened and finished turning to stand before him. His eyes followed her, as his lids lifted farther, it is clear he is out of his wits and completely under the influence still. His pupils are huge, his gaze unfocused, not sharp and intent as it usually was. His charming smile, both inviting and evocative, deepened.

“I’m always surprised to see you around. Someone like you deserves better than me.” The words hurt her, hating him for even thinking such nonsense.

“I’m exactly perfect for you. As you are for me. I promised to stay, didn’t I? Now, I’m here to take advantage of you.” Her smile grew, turning his into a wicked grin.

“Isn’t that supposed to be my mission?” He quirked an eyebrow, tilting his head slightly so the fire reflected in his right eye in such a manor he transformed into a god before her eyes.

He seemed in no hurry to rise from the chair, smiling still. Y/N holds out one hand. Retrieving his right arm from over the side of the chair, he reached out and grasped her fingers; before she could urge him up, he drew her closer. His gaze swept over her, far warmer than the fire at her back.

"You need to get rid of that robe." She recognized the need in his voice instantly, deciding to play coy for the night instead of being completely at his disposal.

She hesitated for only a second; any argument might bring him to his senses and with his senses the lingering stress would take over as well. Drawing her fingers from his, still smiling, she raised her hands and lifted the loose robe from her shoulders then let it slide down her arms. His dazed, black gaze followed it to the floor, then slowly, very slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, rose, caressing her legs, her thighs and especially her stretchmarks, her stomach and by the time he reached her face her cheeks were flaming. A situation not helped by the wicked glint in his eyes or his openly lustful smile.

She loved how free, how wild he is with her, yet so careful and giving that she could never get enough of him.

“So perfect.” He purrs, wanting her in every way a man could want a woman.

His gaze slid from her face down her body hungrily again and Y/N realized that with the fire behind her, the silky nightgown he splurged to buy her would be translucent.

"Come to the bed." She held out both hands for him to take, hoping to guide him back to their bedroom with less danger of someone walking in on them. His gaze still on her body, he lifted his hands, every movement slow and heavy, as if his limbs were leaden. His fingers closed around hers, then he lifted his dark gaze to her face, to her eyes, and she saw the wicked laughter flare.

"Not yet." He pulled her into his lap.

She wanted to shriek, but managed to swallow the sound. She wriggled in his lap and managed to face him. His thighs felt like solid oak beneath hers, his chest when she placed both palms against it, felt like a warm rock. Around her, his arms lay heavy and relaxed - they might as well have been steel bands holding her trapped. They shifted; she felt his fingers slide up the back of her neck, splaying into her thick hair. He angled her head, his lips closing over hers. Lustfully, savoring.

She was kissing him back, exchanging breath for breath, caress for fiery caress, before she had a chance to think. Heat rose, pooling within her, radiating from him. As her wits whirled and desire danced in the air, she didn't think staying where they are considering what they both wanted to do would be a good idea. With an effort, she drew back from the kiss. He let her go, her head tipped back and back as he trailed kisses down her throat.

"The bed," she gasped. "We have to get to the bed."

“I’m just kissing you. It’s completely innocent.” Grayson pauses to say only to attach his lips to her neck again for an open mouth kiss.

“When have we ever just kissed without it leading to sex?” She cocks her eyebrows, running her fingers through his hair.

Instead of a response, she only felt long fingers, hard palms, tracing her body, investigating every curve, subtly caressing yet with a deeper purpose, as if he was searching for any possible changes since the last time he had her.

“Grayson.” She licks her lips, now dry thanks to him.

“Hellhound.” She calls out, using the nickname he’s known for in the underground. His movements halt, she senses his attention.

“That’s the first time you’ve ever called me that.” He breathed the words against her jaw, then feathered a kiss across her already swollen lips. 

“Say it again.” He commands gruffly, the Capo in him coming back to the surface.

Y/N dragged in a breath too shallow to steady her mind; she lifted a hand and brushed back a lock of hair falling across his forehead. "Hellhound?"

He kissed his nickname from her lips while his hands continued to roam, tracing the long muscles of her back, the backs of her thighs, and her bottom. Slowly arousing her and himself. When next he lifted his head, she was quivering.

"Someone will walk in. We should move this to our bed." She had no difficulty investing the plea with believable feeling. His reply was a deep chuckle, a sound that wreaked havoc with her overstretched nerves.

"Not yet. What's the hurry?" He tipped her chin up and nibbled his way down her throat. "We have all night.” And although that is true, she didn’t want to give a free show to any of his men.

“And what if one of your men walks in? Sure you want all of them seeing me naked?” She toyed with his sense of possessiveness, the primal need to protect her from everything - his men included. Especially in this case.

“They wouldn’t dare come close when you’re here. No one in this house has a death wish.” She looked down and saw long fingers, dark against the white of her nightgown, artfully slipping the tiny buttons free. Her eyes flew wide; she sucked in a desperate breath and lost it in a shuddering, achingly desperate sigh as his hand flicked back the open bodice and his fingers brushed the peak of her swollen clit. Cool air caressed her heated breasts as he pressed back her gown and bared them fully. One hand closed firmly, gently kneading.

She bit back a groan, cracking open her lids, she studied his face, lit by the fire's glow. She saw the sleepy smile of lustful anticipation on his lips, felt the heat of desire in his gaze, fixed on her, on the throbbing, aching clit his skilled fingers teased and taunted. He sensed her gaze, and glanced at her only to smile, oddly confiding, and returned his attention to her.

“So many women dream of this. So many of them will never feel my hands upon them.” His knowing fingers played over her aching flesh - never forceful, always teasing. His lips twisted, wryly triumphant.

“They better not.” Y/N breaths out, whimpering once his hands move to cup her ass, the gown now falling enough to entirely set free her chest.

She couldn't suppress the impulse to squirm, and felt his fingers firm about her bottom. He held her still and continued to play, tracing the long lines of her legs through her fine gown. His touch was tantalizing, she was breathing rapidly, her heart thudding in her throat when he reached down and caught the gown's hem. He lifted it slowly, then slid his hand beneath. The gown rose on the back of his hand as he traced, caressed her ankle, calf, knee, and thigh. He pushed the gown up over her hip, then, with complete and utter absorption, fell to caressing the inside of thighs he exposed. Beneath his fingers, a thousand fires sprang up, heating her skin. Very gently, he stroked the soft flesh between her thighs, which had parted of their own accord. 

“No one ever will. Not while I live and breathe will another woman lay a hand on me.”

She closed her eyes and felt her body surrender, felt the slickness he drew forth. Felt his fingers slide and glide, over and between the throbbing folds. Then his lips brushed hers. On a gasp, she kissed him back sliding her hands from where they laid passive against his chest, around and about, holding him to her. The kiss reached deep, then he drew back and chuckled, a wickedly devilish sound.

Eyes closed, her body so heated she felt liquid. Y/N felt him open her, felt him press gently, then slowly, deliberately as he slides one long finger into her. He shifted within her, gently stroking; the sudden tension that gripped her eased. She softened about him, about his probing finger, relaxing against him, sinking into his embrace.

“I am yours. Yours until I take my last breath.” She heard his words, and felt them, a breath across her temple, and a deep reverberation in his chest. That’s when he adds a second finger. He’s preparing her for what’s to come, she knows it. She tightened her hold on him, spreading her hands across his back, hanging on for dear life as if he was a rock anchoring her. Waves of pleasure he incited with every smooth slick stroke, every subtle twist of his fingers, every probing caress. 

She cracked open her lids just enough to find his head, to drag his lips to hers. She kissed him deeply, urgently, lustfully. Letting her thighs part farther, she urged him to reach deeper. Instead, he drew back. And chuckled wickedly again.

"Not so soon." He withdrew his hand from between her thighs. Breasts heaving, Y/N laid back in his arms and stared at him.

“Gray, I need you.” She whines, just as he loves it. It’s always a dance of who will submit first, allowing the other to take control and he always told her he loves the sound of her begging for him.

With that, he lifted her and set her on her feet between his thighs. Her legs quaked; his hands steadied her. Her gown slithered down to cover her legs and as she steadied, he rose, frowning as he immediately tottered.

His frown is fleeting, replaced by a chuckle as he mumbles against her lips.

“Never drinking so much that I can’t safely take you to our bed again.” He could barely set one foot before the other. Certainly not in a straight line.

Three more lurching steps and they reached the room she insisted on, barely giving her time to slam the door behind them as he took her to his side of the bed. Swinging him around so his back was to the bed, she placed both palms against his chest and shoved. He obligingly toppled back across the bed, but took her with him. Landing half-across him, she couldn't manage even a squeak. She immediately wriggled, fighting free of his arms but not of his hands, they were everywhere. She tried to ignore them long enough to undress him.

Y/N narrowed her eyes at him and tugged his tie free. She flung it over the end of the bed, then, kneeling beside him she tried to take off the jacket of his suit. No matter how she tugged, she couldn't get it even close to his shoulder. Exasperated she sat back only to notice that his chest is quaking, even though his expression remained innocent.

She glared at him. "If you don't help me undress you, I'll leave you with blue balls for days."

Laughing softly, he rolled onto one shoulder, then sat up. "It's impossible to get a well-cut coat off me without my help."

She humphed. She watched as he shrugged the coat off and sent it to join his tie. Driven by desire, she reached out and ran her hands over his chest, pressing aside his waistcoat to explore the wide expanse. Beneath her curious hands, muscles shifted, rippled, and then set only for her to catch a quick look of new ink right over his left rib cage. He caught her wrists and yanked her to him, then bent his head and kissed her. She sank into his embrace, felt the pleasurable waves surround her, rise within her, lick tantalizingly up her spine as he pulled her closer. With a mind of their own, her fingers quickly undid the buttons of his shirt, then slid inside, spreading wide over warm tight skin, over ridged muscles, hard bands of hair covered skin. He broke from the kiss with a soft curse.

From beneath her lashes, she saw him fight free of both his waistcoat and shirt and fling them aside. She also saw one hand drop to his waistband, undoing the buttons there. She reached for him, relieved when he captured her lips with his and kissed her witless, deciding to ask about the ink later. He shifted, coming up on his knees and guiding her back, down onto the bed. She sank back obediently, eyes closed, silently willing him to be faster. His weight shifted on the bed; she heard the dull thwacks as his shoes, then his pants hit the floor. Then she felt him beside her; he leaned over her, and his lips covered hers. He kissed her deeply, commandingly, more intimately than ever before. The claiming was complete, unrestrained for he knew she was his even in this state. His for the taking. And he took.

The next morning came with a new plan, one Y/N had every intention on carrying out. She carefully pulled down the covers, watching her sleeping man not move an inch as she does. Nearly gasping, she covers her mouth as the slightly red, but clearly stated inked skin stands out from the rest of his chest, giving her a clear view of what’s changed about him in the last week.

Her initials displayed on his rib cage, right over his heart had left her speechless, her heart pounding as if his hands were still wandering her body and he was still sinking deep inside her.

“Got it a few days ago.” His voice scares her into a small yelp, but not as much as the definitive ink on his skin. She had never thought someone would have her etched into them for all eternity before and although she was more than aware of how serious she and Grayson got, it still brought uncertainty to her mind and soul. What if he regrets it?

“I…I wanted you to be safe. I tried so hard.” Grayson’s voice changes, delving into a pained tone she hated on him. If anything, she wanted him to be happy, always.

“What do you mean?” She knits her eyebrows together, her lips parted in concern of all the things he could have done in her name that would taint his.

“I tried to legalize my work. I closed a lot of the illegal branches and started the same work on many more and I think that’s what drew them to us. The Silver Snakes wouldn’t have even considered this turf is up for grabs if I didn’t try to change everything so drastically.” Grayson swallowed thickly, pursing his lips. Sobering up is never an easy job, but this morning is proving to be particularly difficult and not because his head is pounding or his dry mouth and even less about his stomach turning like a washing machine…it’s about all the worries that seemed to multiply over night as he tried to dull them. It’s about the demons he tried to drown, only to find they learned how to swim.

Seeing his inner turmoil, Y/N places the tip of her index finger to his jaw, tracing it lightly before gasping and quickly retracting her hand.

“What? What happened?!” Grayson jumped up, catching her hand in his bigger one to examine the finger she hurt only to find it’s completely fine. Lifting his eyes to meet her gaze, he saw the mischief behind her beautiful orbs and the smirk on her lips.

“Ouch. Cut myself on your jawline.” She giggled at her own joke, seeing his usually intimidating glare and firmly pressed lips unravel. That intimidating flare is substituted with a ‘that's so cheesy’ chuckle of his where he's basically choking on air and his own spit and not many people got a chance to see his face light up like she just did, nor did they ever hear his laugh like she just did. There’s nothing better in this world than what she just witnessed, nothing she’d ever want more than to have that a permanent part of her mornings.

Once his laughter died down and he prepared to stand up and dress himself, a soft touch of her hand on his shoulder stopped him from moving so fast. It called for his attention, keeping him in his spot for a moment longer.

“I appreciate you wanting to protect me, Gray. I do. But I knew what I signed up for when I chose to be with you. I knew once we were plastered on magazines that night you came to pick me up at my dorm. I knew and I willingly walked out with you. Life is short and if I get to live it with you by my side, a gun at my head won’t stop me from doing just that.” With her reassurement, Grayson swallowed back a lump growing at the back of his throat, certain she meant what she said, but determined not to put her in that position once more. A gun at someone’s head shouldn’t be something they’re used to as much as she is.

“And I want you to take me to a shooting range or something today. You and I both know I might need it.” She adds, already holding up her hand, palm open and turned to him to stop the assertive ‘NO’ he had prepared for her. This entire year was filled with their training sessions and that included guns – but he didn’t think she needed any more exposure to violence, even though she takes it better than anyone expected. For a woman who never faced the gore before she did with him, she took it all better than he did – and he was raised in this business.

“Just in case.” She bites the lower left corner of her lips nervously, watching the storm in his eyes shift from the assertive, dominant man to a puppy-like uncertainty and then finally, caving.

“Okay, but we won’t be doing target practice like usual then.” Grayson smirked, his lips curving to the right as her eyes narrowed at him in suspicion because that smirk paired with that sneaky glint in his eye is known as his ‘I have something planned’ smirk in her mind, meaning she should be ready for everything.

“What do you mean?” She drags out carefully, her eyes remaining narrowed and head tilts to the left ever so slightly.

“You’ll see.” He winks at her, the hazel in his eyes returning and the brown swims in green once more with the mischief he’s prepared for her. But she’s learned how to deal with his mischief by now.

While she pouted, Grayson sent a few quick texts and went into the bathroom because he had his routine and she used that opportunity to prepare her own trap for him. Once he walked out, his eyes nearly bulged out their sockets and his face contorted into a ‘hell no, don’t even go there’ kind of a look, but she just stood proudly by with a smile on her lips and her hands on her hips.

“Finally! I need to pee so badly. Your clothes are laid out for you on the bed.” She snickers, trying to run past him in her baby blue pants and white tank top, matching exactly the baby blue shorts and white tank top on the bed. Grayson manages to catch her by the arm as she attempts to maneuver around him, turning his head toward her and lowering it so they are at face level.

“We. Are. NOT. Matching.” Grayson emphasizes each word, his voice low and threatening to which Y/N only chuckles and raises both eyebrows.

“You’re my boyfriend. You’re matching outfits. Or you won’t get any for a long, long time.” She threatens on her own, matching his tone.

Grayson narrows his eyes at her, clicking his tongue. “I’m a leader of a gang. I can’t be seen matching outfits with my girlfriend…plus, you’re bluffing. You want me as much as I want you, doll.” His self-satisfying smirk only causes her to rip her arm out his hold and her face to darken significantly.

“Have I ever bluffed on any threats I made in the past?” With that, she leaves him alone in the room, missing out on his pensive face and the sudden realization she was most certainly not bluffing.

Long story short…

“You guys are matching!” Ethan screamed out, fishing out his phone so fast he nearly dropped it in his excitement.

“This is the best day of my life!” Ethan chuckled, snapping photos of a very grumpy, defeated Grayson and a grinning Y/N who posed for pictures.

“I will dropkick you, bro. Try me.” Grayson states, making Ethan raise both hands in mock surrender while he actually used the position to send the photos to a group chat he had with his mother and sister.

It took them an hour to drive out the city, taking them to an undisclosed location Y/N never knew about. She was confused for the most part, wondering why Grayson took three SUVs of security with them, but she didn’t question him. However, once they arrived and the situation was explained to her, she nearly lost her mind.

“I’m not shooting ducks!” She exclaimed, shaking her head vehemently.

Grayson rolls his eyes, folding his arms over his chest instead of taking the gun one of his men held out for him. While he’s used to Y/N’s stubbornness, he never once realized it would always be a tug of war with her. He enjoyed that on most days, but when things are serious like they’ve gotten, he needed her to be compliant and she was anything but.

“You have to practice on moving targets and ducks are both a moving target and good dinner!” He raised his voice ever so slightly, his irritation evident to all who surround him. Despite his hope of her cracking, all he got in return is a defiant shake of her head and the gun in her hand loosely pointed at his chest.

“I will not shoot cute baby ducks.” She repeats herself, this time more commanding.

“Can you not wave a loaded gun around like that?” Ethan pipes in, only to get ignored by both parties who were in a standoff of their own.

Grayson’s eyes take on a darker look, one that pushes the hazel out and the brown takes over until his eyes look almost black.

“You say you want to be a part of this, but you can’t even shoot a duck?” He challenges, sure this is the way to make her back down and start listening to what he has to say. In fact, this plan of his made him believe she’ll finally realize what shooting a gun actually means and drop her constant attempts at being the Bonnie to his Clyde. He knows he’s being unreasonably difficult, but he refuses to let her get mixed up in all his crap and this is one way to make her understand what’s truly at stake.

“The ducks haven’t done anything to me. Those men would. They would hurt me, you, Ethan”, she pokes his chest with the barrel of the gun at each word, her voice more determined than before and that’s when Grayson knows he can’t fight her on it. She’s far too stubborn.

“And if they dare to do so and I have a way to fight back, you best be damn sure I won’t sit back and watch all I love be put in harm’s way.” The words sounded as if they'd been said through clenched teeth, staring up at him, her gaze collided with his.

Only to have him kiss her voraciously, ravenously, until her wits whirled and she lost touch with reality. Then he drew back.

“Flying plates then?”

Grayson is a fool for her, he knew that very well and today he has been fighting her on it. So, instead of keeping his act up, he made a different decision. He wasn’t going to spend the day pushing her to abandon him, because she had made it very clear she had no intention of leaving. It both calmed and terrified him.

While she proved to be a perfect shot even with a moving target, he watched her with glee and a growing light inside his chest. If anything, she’s capable of defending herself as long as she had a gun on her and he would make sure she carries one at all times. Just not in the way she expects. Their hand to hand combat sessions rarely worked since they always led to defiling his home gym and in the end Ethan took over, but he made it clear she’s not a natural.

Satisfied, his hand around her, Grayson strolled out the little reserve with his woman on one side and his brother on the other, feeling like he’s on top of the world.

Until the first gunshot sounded.

Y/N’s POV

The man beside me is the first to fall. The bullet hit him in the chest, propelling him backward in an awkward cartwheel before he fell to his death on the grass. I can sense an arm around my waist, a hand resting on my outward hip as fingers dig into the skin so hard I’m certain I’ll bruise. I’m twirled into a firm chest, my vision blocked as all I see is white before I’m pulled off my feet and thrown behind one of our cars. The smell of Grayson’s cologne assures me he’s with me, his body over mine as his chest rumbles. He’s barking orders left and right, the words missing me as I hear only ringing in my ears.

Blinking, I tilt my head to the side, seeing Ethan leaned against the car with his gun in his hands. He takes a quick shot over the hood, hiding back under the cover right after.

The ringing in my ears is drowned out by the sound of my own heart hammering, Grayson’s raw voice next.

“I don’t fucking care, Brad. Lead them the fuck away from us!” His order snaps me back to reality, feeling my own gun pressing against my back. Trying to move my hand enough to grab the handle has been made impossible with the pressure of Grayson’s body pinning mine in what he’d consider safety. But I saw it as a mistake. I’m a perfect shot. I should be helping, not hiding.

However, the shots died down, cars screeching substitutes them as a chase we aren’t a part of begins and Grayson’s weight shifts away from me. I grab at the chance to drag in a deep breath, feeling as if I wasn’t breathing at all during the reckoning.

“Fuck! Doll, are you alright?” His hands cup my face, eyes searching for answers in his desperation. I nod to reassure him, licking my lips as I turn my eyes to Victor, the first man to fall. He’s been my ‘shadow’ for the past year, a man Grayson made sure was close by so I’d be safer. He didn’t know I knew about him, but I did. I crawl toward Victor, hoping he’s alright and we can save him. I know basic field aid, perhaps I could keep him alive until the real help arrives?

Grayson allows me to move, using it as an excuse to check on Ethan as I make my way to an unmoving Victor. His eyes are open, almost living. For a few seconds I could have sworn he looked up at the sky as if trying to admire it one last time, but the moment my fingers pressed against his carotid, I knew he was gone.

I feel tears prick at my eyes as my hands begin to shake. But I have no time to mourn.

“Y/N! Look out!” Ethan shouts and I whip around in fright, grabbing my gun on instinct as I am faced with three men – all pointing a gun at us – one at Grayson, one at Ethan and another at me. However, I hold a gun too and unlike what they thought, I had no issue pulling the trigger. The underestimate me, paying the price.

The bullet hits its mark, straight into the man’s chest, forcing him down and giving the guys a momentary distraction to fight back as well. And they used it wisely, bringing down both men in one swept, well-coordinated move.

I stand up, smiling as I move to step over the man’s body, not sparing him a second look. Until I see Ethan rushing toward me, throwing himself at me and another shot is fired.

Slammed down into the ground, my breath is knocked out of me. I gasp for air, my eyes wide and arms at either side of me as Ethan moves off and nods back to what I can only assume is Grayson.

“Doll?” His handsome face comes into view, his worry lines showing.

“How did he? How? I shot him!” I shout out, coughing. Ignoring the ache in my back, I sit up and look at the man in confusion, but that’s when I realize the truth.

“Those were blanks.” I frown, my jaw clenching as a surge of anger overtakes me and I find myself wishing I had enough strength to do actual damage to my lovely boyfriend who clearly has no regard for my feelings and opinions.

“You fucking asshole!” I slam my right fist on the ground, rage within unstoppable as a hurricane takes over my heart.

“You put fucking blanks in my gun?! I could have been killed because you don’t fucking trust me enough to handle a weapon?! You could have been killed!” Grayson’s face remains emotionless, just as it was when we first met. The worry lines are gone, his skin smooth and his intimidating mask back on. He remains quiet as I shout, only offering a hand for me to use in order to sit up. I refuse to take it. I refuse to give him the satisfaction.

I have every right to be furious. I have every right to scream at him. I have every right to want to rip him to pieces right now. I have the right because we were ambushed and we could have been killed and he gave me a gun with fucking blanks instead of real bullets. It’s reckless and downright stupid and I have the right to be upset with him.

Standing up on my own, I throw both hands in the air in exasperation before my left one lowers to reside on my hip and the other’s palm presses against my forehead. Taking in a deep breath, I stop and close my eyes before racking my mind for proper words to say.

“Your need to control me and every situation at hand almost killed us all. I’m a good shot Grayson and if I can help protect you and your men, you can’t bench me. Especially not when I’m in the pit of hell with you and I already told you I’m not leaving. Either give me proper ways to defend myself, because I’m a target whether you like it or not, or…Or be prepared to mourn me, because you won’t always be there to save me.” With that, I walk past him and enter the car, lying down in the back seat with tears welling up in my eyes.

What else can I do to show him the right way? I’ve become a target since the first night he chose to turn on one of his ‘partners’ to come to my rescue. I’ve been dragged out of his bed in my underwear, held at gunpoint and tortured. I’ve been to hell for him and I’d do it again, because whether we’re together or not, they will use me as a pawn against him. Might as well be the angel with a shotgun by his side, instead of a damsel in distress. He might be blind to it, but I have been smelted into a warrior since we met and though I cling to some of my old ambitions, he and Ethan are the only things I care about in this world. I can’t afford to lose them.

Sometime during the anything but silent drive back, I’ve fallen asleep. The twins bickered as twins do, only these ones did it about life or death situations.

I have no recollection how I found myself in our bed, nor how I was changed out of those dirty clothes smeared with blood and grass. But I woke up clean and comfortable, despite the painful bruises that lined my body. I could tell the purple hip that peaked out under my shirt is the least of my injuries as they looked like Grayson’s fingertips and we were no strangers to rough sex, so hip bruises weren’t new. But I knew immediately my back is black and blue, the result of Ethan’s body slam.

And then I realized I forgot to yell at him. The idiot jumped in front of me! He could have taken the bullet meant for me! He could have died and it would be all my fault! Dammit! What is it with these guys and their need to sacrifice themselves for me?!

Rubbing my temples, I sigh at the empty spot beside me. His side is made, unwrinkled and spotless. He didn’t sleep next to me last night. Perhaps he didn’t sleep at all.

My stomach growled and I squirmed to try to silence the rumbling. I glance at the clock; there are only two more minutes until noon. I slept through half the day. Great.

Unable to stay in bed, I give up on my stubborn need to avoid human contact and wrap myself in a robe to properly cover up. Who knows how many of Grayson’s men are walking around the premises.

Expecting people in the hall, I find myself frowning when I see it’s empty. I can’t remember the last time the halls were empty like this…I can actually, but that night I try not to remember. Grayson always says I’m incredibly brave and he says he’s proud of me for not being too affected by the ‘incident’, but in truth, all I do is repress the memories. It’s how I survive – push it all down as emotional baggage and help him.

The door to his study is wide open, revealing his desk to be empty and the fire out. There are no signs of life whatsoever and I can’t help but shake the nauseating feeling in my guts that something isn’t right. He always says goodbye before leaving, so why am I alone right now?

Swallowing the lump growing at the back of my throat, I ignore the pang of hurt inside my chest. It’s funny how humans feel actual pain when their heart chips away.

I walk into the kitchen, there's no-one around. Opening the refrigerator, I am greeted by a cheery light and feel that pleasant wave of coolness. My stomach snarled and howled and from it came the not-so-subtle undertone of pain. It came in waves and it seemed as though my stomach was slowly digesting itself. I clutched at it, looking over the food for something I could eat, smiling once I locate a melon previously cut and prepared which meant Grayson DID come to the house last night. And even better, he did this for me, knowing I love melon more than anything when I wake up.

“Sleeping beauty is finally up!” I jump, turning to the intruder with narrowed eyes and lips pressed together.

“Not cool, Ethan!” I say through gritted teeth, setting the melon bowl on the counter.

Ethan chuckles lowly, nearly choking on his own spit in triumph. I would describe his laughter as warm and hearty, a little wicked but hey, it also applies to his personality.

“Where is everyone?” I question, sitting to munch as he takes a seat across from me, the smile from his face fading.

“Oh, uh. The attack on us wasn’t the only attack.” His words chill me to the bone, cold sweat collecting at the back of my neck and a violent shiver runs down my spine. The melon in my mouth barely manages to pass through my tightened throat as I struggle to breathe.

“What does that mean?” My voice is quiet, fragile in its shakiness, surrendering to the shock.

“We’ve lost a lot of men. Some close to us.” When the frustration builds and I think I might explode - I take a deep breath. Is this what Grayson meant when he said I’d be in danger again? How is he even dealing with this? Why had he let me sleep instead of coming to me?

“And Grayson?” I manage to speak, wanting to scream and shout, but what good would that do? It won’t help now.

“He’s doing damage control. Y/N, you need to realize the Grayson you’ll see for the foreseeable future won’t be the Grayson you fell in love with.” Knitting my eyebrows together, I frown and bite into the soft flesh of the inside of my bottom lip.

“The ruthless, coldblooded leader will take over and you might not like what you see.” Nodding, I decide to keep his warning in mind. After all, he’s his twin brother and he knows him better than I ever will. But I also know there is nothing Grayson does that would push me away. He made concessions to be with me, but so have I. I’m no longer the innocent little girl he met and maybe that’s a bad thing, but I wouldn’t survive in his world otherwise.

“Okay.” I pipe up, focusing on the melon. I hear a chair creak and steps move toward me, an arm wrapping around my shoulders and pulling me into a familiar side hug Ethan usually offers.

“It’ll be fine. The worst is over. I’m sure of it.” Ethan’s soft lips press into my temple, remaining a few seconds longer before he lets me go.

The days that followed were empty and lonely, filled with classes and missing Grayson. Even though we live in the same house now, I haven’t seen him at all since the shooting. Sometimes I’d find the place next to me wrinkled like someone laid beside me, his scent lingering on his pillow, but no Grayson.

Deciding to leave him a message if I can’t seem to find him, I leave it upon his desk to read.

I've poured warmth into you for so long and you love it, I know you do. Then you turn on the cold to shut me down. It hurts. Every time is a new wound, a new scar to add to the collection. You know it never stops me from loving you, but I need you to try real hard, try not to go cold in that way.

With a sigh, I turn around and walk out, using my Impala to get to class in time.

The hurt is like a spider web, intricate, yet strong. I know in time it will pass and the sun will regain its warmth, but the joy from my heart is gone. I cannot cry, cannot grieve for Grayson, for he stole himself away. I am still angry at him for his actions, but I don’t hate him. In fact, I need him. How are we to solve these issues if he refuses to be in the same place at the same time as me?

3rd Person POV

The day dragged on for both Y/N and Grayson. The distance between them feels insurmountable, but that’s only because neither made the step to close it. Grayson is too wrapped up in the war The Silver Snakes started, wanting vengeance. But he wants Y/N to be safe too. He needs her to be protected and if cooling their relationship for a little while is the price he pays, he’ll pay it tenfold.

Little did he know he’d feel his heart shatter once he returns home, finding the heartfelt note on his desk.

“Dammit!” Grayson throws the crystal from his hand into the fireplace, watching the glass shards litter the study. It’s the same room he last had her in, held her so close he could feel every beat of her heart against his chest. She longed for him, melted into him and although his mind was intoxicated by alcohol, he was drunk on her for a lot longer and she was a lot stronger poison.

She was always his whiskey on the rocks in a world drunk on cheap wine.

But that’s when his phone rang and her beautiful face lit up the screen. Unlike the previous days, he couldn’t send her to voicemail, longing to hear her voice even for a moment – even if she yells at him. Hell, he loved it when she screamed at him because that’s when he’d see how deep her feelings run, just how much she cares. The problems start when she stops yelling…when she starts leaving heartfelt notes instead of angry voicemails.

“Oh, doll.” He begins, cringing at his choice of words.

“What do you want from me?” Grayson grew quiet, his eyebrows furrowing and his forehead wrinkling at the odd reply. Didn’t she call him?

“I want your allegiance.” But then another voice joined the conversation and Grayson stilled, his fingers tightening on the phone and his eyes staring blankly at the fire he started.

“You know I have no intention on betraying The House Of The Rising Sun.” Her defiant answer is followed by a dry chuckle, one that forms rocks in Grayson’s stomach that cause a sharp pain of pure fear. Someone’s with her and she must have dialed his number in hopes of him knowing it. And Grayson had a pretty good idea who it is that’s so brave to break all rules. He once promised her anyone who tried to take action on his soil would die screaming, but he keeps failing her. First, it was Mikhail and now Scott Richards has done the same.

“The Hellhound? Oh, little one…he’ll be dead by the time his charity ball is over and I, for one, plan on being the last man standing. New York will be mine.” The determination in his voice is enough to make Grayson move fast, grabbing a confused Ethan on the way. He covers the microphone as he speaks.

“Get the men ready. We need to go to Columbia. Now!”

Listening to her voice again, Grayson’s heart clenches in his chest.

What if he hurts her? What if the last thing she knew of him is his coldness?

"You're sorely mistaken. You are here, threatening what is mine and while you have fashioned yourself a fantasy where you are something more than a pest, I must remind you Grayson may not wear a crown, but he is king and he rules with an iron fist. And I...I am his queen. A snake needs only one swift move of a blade to lose its head and the danger will pass, but the sun? The sun will always rise no matter how hard you will it not to." She’s stubborn and proud and incredibly obstinate. She’s giving him every reason to kill her and it rattles Grayson to the core. And she is reckless. So damn reckless and careless, as if she doesn’t care for life at all. She’s doing everything he wants her not to, putting herself at risk for him.

"Alright, darling. If that's what you want, I'll be on my way." Grayson draws in a sharp breath, eyes widening as he wonders if he’s about to listen to his love die and he can’t do a single thing about it.

"You're not going to kill me?" She speaks his mind, making him roll his eyes and lick his lips before sticking his tongue out as adrenaline keeps him going. He’s already on the road, so close and still too far for it to matter.

"You're a beautiful woman, loyal. I appreciate beauty, admire loyalty. The latter one will kill ya. Not tonight, though. I’m not known to be a wasteful man." The sneer is almost visible, even through the phone. It’s palpable, the sheer arrogance he displays in all fields – speeches, battle…all of them.

"Why not?" Grayson shakes his head, thinking how badly he wishes he was there to shut her up. It’s like she’s wishing for death.

"Because I want to see your beautiful face when I bring you your king's head." Scott sneered once more. In a subconscious gesture of disgust his nose wrinkled and he drew his head backwards. What little color he had drained and the pear drop remained quite stationary on his tongue. It was a threat and a jibe in one.

"Or maybe he'll bring me yours."

And that’s when the line dies.

“NO!” Grayson’s scream ripples through the coms, his entire team witnessing the pain behind it. Tormented with what could have been and what should have been, words and regrets taunt him with a savage intensity. The images are so acute, so crystal clear, it feels like living with her ghost.

Did she provoke him enough to lose her life? Did she really just engage in a fight of her own, even if her weapon of choice was words? Did Scott use more than words?

Eyes widened, breaths ragged and harsh. Grayson’s foot had long pressed onto the gas and his speeding had given him a view of Columbia rather fast. Just as he’s about to enter campus, he’s met with a sight of an Impala he once ruined, seeing his Y/N behind the wheel at that.

Slamming on the breaks, he swerves the car just enough to block her way, almost causing a crash.

“What the fuck?!” He hears her swear in anger, but then the silence takes over as she sees who caused her to stop so suddenly.

Without a second to waste, Grayson is getting out of his car, pulling her with all his might through the window instead of waiting patiently for her to move the car enough to exit like a normal person.

“What?” Is all she manages to say as he drowns out any sounds she wishes to make with his lips pressing against hers possessively, so urgently she knows it’s best not to challenge him.

And she kissed him. With a devastating sweetness, an innocence—as if this were the first time. Strong fingers curved about her jaw and warmth seeped into her bones, her skin, driving out death's chill that remained after Scott walked out. The lips held to hers, reassuringly alive. Grayson had reassured her by the strength of his arms surrounding her and the steady wilderness in his chest, beat of a heart not her own.

She was no longer alone in misery. Someone was here, keeping her warm, holding the memories at bay and dangers of the world could no longer get to her. The ice in her veins melted. Her lips softened; tentatively, she returned the kiss with all her heart.

“Great to see Tinkerbell is still alive. Now, we gotta move because the paps are closing in!” Ethan interjects, not particularly sorry about ending the shameless PDA they had no issue showing the world.

Breaking the kiss, Grayson’s arms leave her, the warmth going with him. She stumbles, catching her breath as the brothers engage in a hushed argument few feet away.

“Get in the car.” Grayson turns around, facing her with his jaw clenched and an emotionless coldness on his beautiful features. The Porsche moves behind them, allowing the freedom of doing what he asks of her.

He looked down at her - then stepped closer, towering over her. He took another step; eyes locked on hers. She halted, raised her hands and pushed against his chest. "Stop that! You're deliberately trying to frighten me."

“I’m not trying to frighten you, doll.” he growled through clenched teeth. “I’m trying to intimidate you. There’s a difference. Now, stop being so damn stubborn for once in your life and just do as I say.”

He opened the door to her Impala, watching the flames in her eyes dance as she sends a glare his way. But she does as he says and that’s all he cares about, feeling the anxiety that took over him finally dwindle.

She’s safe.

She’s alive.

She’s here.

That’s all he can focus on.

“I didn’t expect you to be here.” She mumbles, starting the drive back to Grayson’s mansion between two black SUVs, like that’s not suspicious at all.

“You called, didn’t you?” Grayson retorts, tilting his head to watch her – the wind pushing her hair back as it gushed in through the open window, the way her nose crinkles when he responded to her, even the way she swallowed thickly and tightened her hold on the wheel.

“You don’t really have a great track record of taking my calls lately.” She snaps back and Grayson shakes his head, biting on his lower lip to stop himself from swearing because starting a fight now wouldn’t solve anything.

But she’s fighting at least. She’s not giving him the silent treatment which would mark their ending, rather baiting him because she does care.

“And I fucked up. A lot lately, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Doll, I’m sorry I keep putting you in danger.” To his words, she snorts. He watched her in disbelief as an ironic smile pulls at her lips and stretches them into a sour looking smile with venom brewing inside her.

“I’m not upset you put me in danger. I fucking knew danger was a part of your world. Hell, you’re danger itself Mr. Hellhound! I am upset you pushed me away! You left me to deal with what happened alone and refused to be in the same room as me! You just checked out. You can’t check out when you’re in a committed relationship, Grayson! Not when I’m concerned. For crying out loud, you have the word tattooed on your body!” She screamed at him the whole ride home, not pausing to even take a proper breath. She didn’t stop screaming until she was red in the face and the vein on her forehead looked like it would pop in anger.

And he just smiled. He loved every minute of it. Her anger meant there was something there to cling to and that his actions didn’t alienate her entirely. He knew just how to convince her to stay.

So, after her little remark about him smiling and being completely inconsiderate, he followed her upstairs. But not before warning his brother and guards to stay clear of the second floor.

Grayson sat down on his bed, already naked, waiting for her to come to him. The moment she entered the room, her eyes found his and her heart gave in. Her lips lifted in a crooked smile that had him stiffening. Lifting her hands to her shoulders, she slid her robe off and let it fall, revealing all the things about her he loved.

Grayson loved every crevice, every scar she tried to hide from him. He loved the birthmark she had right above her right bum just as much as loved the one nestled between her breasts. He fought the urge to reach for her; he couldn't stop his gaze from devouring her. She sensed it, looked at him, and smiled once more.

While Grayson got under the covers, she lifted the covers and slid in beside him.

He turned and drew her into his arms before she could touch him. She sighed softly and sank against him, then lifted her face to his. He kissed her gently, unhurriedly, content to savor the soft warmth of her body pressed freely against his, content to explore the soft warmth of her mouth, his to claim as he willed. As was she. He held the thought back, channeled his aggression into anticipation, and kept every touch languid.

So he held himself back and let her urgency build, let her grow hot, her skin fevered, her kisses increasingly demanding. He sank back on the pillows and let her take the lead - or at least, let her think she did. Grayson knew his doll liked to feel in charge, to take on the more dominant role in bed and he didn’t want to take it away from her so fast.

Half atop him, she kissed him wildly, and squirmed. Heated, soft as velvet skin of hers is pressing caress after intimate caress upon his.

He grits his teeth - and enjoys every minute.

But he keeps her hands high, lacing his fingers through hers to prevent her speeding up this night – the night he intended to be in charge of. He seemed content to wallow in the heatwave; with a mental snort, she tugged her fingers from his, framed his face, and kissed him eagerly. Greedily.

She sank into the kiss, caught in a sudden flare, her limbs heated still until she melts against him. Wanting to melt beneath him, have him finally be one with her. Sliding her fingers into his hair, she let her lips, her tongue, taunt him, and challenge him. Incite him.

Despite responding ardently, he remained beneath her – giving her the dominance without a fight this night. She avoided his hands and set hers to trace the ridges and hollows of his chest, the heavy bones of his shoulders, the tensed muscles of his upper arms. His arms locked around her, heavy and warm across her waist, denying her quest to reach lower. Not that she needed to touch his cock, he was already fully aroused. The steely length of him rode against her hip, hot and urgent. That much of him, at least, was cooperating. The rest of him was not. She wanted him to fight her for dominance as they always do. She wanted him to care enough to push her limits like he always does.

Shifting, she lay fully atop him, settling his erection between her thighs. She rolled her hips, experimenting until she found the particular shifting slide that most evocatively stroked him and the muscles in his arms shift, tensing, relaxing, and then tensing again, as if he couldn't make up his mind.

Swallowing a curse, she trapped his lips with hers and put her heart and soul into a slow, deliberate pace, moving her thighs - even the curls at the base of her belly - coming into play. Deliberately suggestive, she called to him.

And he answered. She felt the wave of response building in his body, felt the need she baited flare and swell. Felt hard become harder, felt tense muscles turn solid like rock.

With a gasp of relief, of anticipation, she dragged her lips from his and half wriggled, half slid to the side. Puppet-like, his body followed; as she turned on her back, she grasped his upper arm, tugging him over her.

The reins of his lust locked in a grip of iron, Grayson followed her lead, let her shift, let her tug, let her believe he was dazedly following her directions as she urged him over her. He complied, moving heavily, unhurriedly.

While she panted, he smirked, enjoying the view.

“Hello there, my Queen.” Using the name she called herself in his absolute, mind numbing passion, Grayson couldn’t help but agree. She is his queen, always was. She’s been the one he waited for since the dawn of time and he couldn’t let her slip away.

At his touch, her thighs parted. He swung heavily over her, then let himself down between. Taking his time settling himself and her, Grayson watched her frown. Impatient, she arched, and he felt her heat calling him, touch and cling to that most sensitive part of him.

He caught his breath and felt, in his chest, something shift, something lock. With a soft, desperate gasp, she arched again and he could no longer refuse her need, so he eased into her, completely forgetting to use a condom in their mind-numbing need for one another. He sunk deeper, slowly, savoring every inch of her hot softness as she stretched to accommodate him, savoring the subtle easing of her body as she accepted him. She sighed as he sank even deeper, then her hands, tensed on his arms, relaxed. And skimmed down his sides.

He caught them; first one, then the other, letting his weight down on her as he trapped them. And gently but firmly removed the reins from her grasp as he claimed his dominance. Beneath him, she shifted, sinking deeper into the soft mattress, angling her to cradle him more effectively.

Tentatively, she lifted her legs, sliding them over his sides.

"Queen." He breathed the word against her lips as he settled fully upon her. He found her lips with his and took them, took her mouth, then pressed deeper into her.

He drank her instinctive gasp - a gasp of pure pleasure. Inwardly smiling, he drew back, then sank deep again, and felt her eagerly respond.

With each slow, controlled thrust, the pleasure tides within her rose higher; he held to a steady, rolling rhythm until she was burning. Until, hot and heated, awash with desire, she rose beneath him, meeting every thrust, her body caressing him, clinging to him, cleaving to him. Until she was aflame, urgent in her wanting, and desperate in her need.

Frantic.

She flexed her fingers, trying to slip them from his grasp, frantic to hold him, desperate to draw him to her, to dig her nails into his skin, to reach the physical bliss that hovered on her. Sunk deep in the mattress, she squirmed and panted, trying to get that last inch closer, trying to get him that last fraction of an inch deeper. His fingers clamped about hers, didn't give, but, to her relief and expectation, he raised his chest slightly, just enough so her nipples brushed his chest.

A scream welled in her throat, struggling to lift her heavy lids, she swallowed it as he moved his face higher, breaking their kiss. He was a dense shadow looming over her, shoulders and chest surging in a slow, powerful rhythm, a rhythm she could feel in her marrow. In her womb. She knew he didn’t use a condom, not caring one bit. In this moment, all she wanted was to feel him fill her with every inch he’s endowed with, to hear his moans in her ear as he presses kisses under it.

With her hands still anchored, one on either side of her head, she gripped his sides with her thighs, gasping, arching, as he thrust harder, deeper.

Then he drew back farther; lips parted, senses whirling, she waited, quivering, for the next stroke. Only to feel him rock lightly, penetrating her with just the tip of the hard length she wanted buried inside her.

“Stop teasing me.” She growls, feeling her mind is on edge with her need.

She opened her lips on a second protest - instead, she gasped anew as he bends his head and takes one nipple into his mouth. Hips rocking gently, teasingly, he feasted on her swollen nipple, until she started losing herself in the pleasurable sea he sent her adrift.

After lavishing her hot skin, his lips burned when they again brushed hers.

“Don’t give up on me, doll.”

She wasn't, at first, sure whether he had spoken, or she'd simply heard the words in her head. But his hips stopped rocking; he lay, hot and hard, just parting the swollen folds about her entrance.

“I won’t. I won’t ever.” She pants, lips trembling with need.

After an instant's pause, he started rocking again, once, twice - then he slid into her again. She sighed, then lost what breath she had left as he pushed deep, then nudged deeper, and let his weight down on her once more.

Grayson rode her, just a little deeper, just a little harder, just a fraction more intimately. He was having a hard time clinging to his reins, only rock-hard determination, and his strength of will - of endurance allowed him to do it; to see her panting beneath him, her hair a veil spread across the pillows, her thighs gripping him urgently as he loved her. She responded without guile, without reticence, without hesitation - with a complete lack of reserve, the strongest feminine spell he'd ever encountered. And he had countless women before her, but none felt as good as she did. None of them truly loved him as she did.

Her welcome, every time he sank into her, was bone deep. The temptation to lose himself in her arms, in her body, grew with every passing second.

But he needed to know she wasn’t leaving him. He needed to know that his coldness toward her hadn’t pushed her too far away from him. If it had, he’d never forgive himself.

Gradually, he slowed, letting the rhythm not die but slow to the point where her frantic need, a need he knew well how to manage, rose again.

When she whimpered, and squirmed, trying to urge him on, he brushed a kiss to her temple.

"Tell me if you hate me. If you want to leave me.”

A frown passed across her face, then she shook her head and it was gone. She knew he used sex to get her to speak the truth, edging her on to insanity until she told him what is truly on her mind. She knew it was his method, the only way he knew how to get the darkest truths from her and she didn’t blame him. She accepted that part of him wholeheartedly.

“I could never hate you. Never leave you.”

She lifted beneath him, wriggling more urgently; swallowing a curse, he impaled her fully again, then kissed her breathless.

“Good. Cause you’re mine.” He growled out.

And he gave her a little more, rode her a little faster. Despite his weight, she moved beneath him, rising, meeting him more fully. Letting go of her hands, he grabbed a pillow; releasing her from their kiss, he eased back, lifted her and stuffed the pillow beneath them.

Tilting her up so he could sink deeper, without stimulating her to completion. Her breath fractured when he thrust deep, an urgent sound. He shut his ears to it. "Wrap your legs about me."

She did, immediately; arms braced, he held himself over her and drove her up, up, and on to the next level of passion. Eagerly, she clung to him, her hands, now free, trailing over his chest and arms, then gripping tight as he delved deeper and pushed her on.

“My Queen.”

Fingers sinking into flexing sinews, Y/N let her head fall back, lips parted as she struggled to breathe. Senses lost, her wits long gone, she surrendered to the whirlpool of sensations he commanded, surrendered to the power she could feel in every thrust that joined them, in every synchronous beat of their hearts. A sense of beauty, of delight, of joy unimaginable hovered just out of reach.

A soft moan surprised her, she bit her lip, determined to be quiet because his men could hear. Then gasped as he surged more powerfully, faster, deeper.

She caught her breath on a strangled gasp, then cried out in shocked disbelief when he pulled back and left her. Fighting to raise her lids, she saw him lift fully away from her. Stunned she reached for him, half-sitting, but before she has a chance to truly complain, large hands caught her and flipped her over, then locked about her and pulled her back onto her knees.

And they were everywhere, those large, hard hands - stroking, squeezing, and probing. Until her back ached, until her skin glowed, until her nerves were taut and tingling. Until she wished for the night, the intimacy to never be over despite being in pain in her need for release.

Kneeling behind her, reaching over and around her, a dark, aroused presence in the night, he bent his head and nipped her ear lobe, then soothed it with his lips. "Lean farther forward."

His hands clamped about her as she did, steadying her. Then he nudged her thighs wider, and caressed her - stroked her slick, swollen flesh until it was throbbing again, until she sobbed his name.

He slid into her, smoothly, easily filling her deeply, until she was so full of him she could sense him throughout her body. Eyes closed in rapturous delight, she pressed back and took him all.

Grayson felt her clamp tight about him; features set, etched with passion, he couldn't smile, not even smugly. She needed him inside her now, if he was not there, she'd feel empty. This way, he could fill her without risking her willfulness getting the upper hand. She couldn't reach climax this way, not without his active cooperation. Taking her from behind, with her on her knees, he could keep her locked in the sex induced craze for just a little longer, keep her inside the web he'd woven.

But first…

He was going to love her until she couldn't think, until she had no will left. Until he was sure she knew no man could ever offer pleasure he can. Until he knew her promise to stay was secure.

So he caressed her inside and out using his body, hands, and lips, consciously bringing the full force of his expertise and experience to bear.

He intended to be ruthless.

He filled his hands with her swollen breasts and she whimpered with desire; he shut his ears to the sound, and dotted kisses along her exposed nape. Locating her nipples, he teased and tweaked, until she moaned and sobbed. Nuzzling aside the heavy fall of her hair, he pressed hot open-mouthed kisses along her shoulder, then down her spine.

And all the while he filled her, to a slow, steady rhythm guaranteed to leave her both satisfied and wanting and ready to sell her soul in order to get more.

He was going to be ruthless.

He had already studied her curves, inch by inch, he knew them well. Now, with her on her knees before him, he took in other aspects of her beauty - her delicate bones, the sleek, supple strength of her very feminine curve of her spine. The sweet hollow between shoulder and throat, the long sweep of her neck and the stretch marks covering both her bums – his favorite.

Hands trailing farther, he traced the long muscles of her thighs, braced, lightly quivering, flexing slightly as he rode her. His gaze, however, had fixed on her bottom meeting his body with satisfying force every time he thrust into her, on his cock rigid and engorged, gleaming with her slickness, sliding effortlessly into her, deep into the embrace of her waiting vagina. It’s not the first time they went bare sex, but it’s the first time he needed to fuck her to oblivion so she’d never forget the sensations he offered.

The sight held him entranced. She moaned softly then rotated her hips, clinging to him. Grayson gasped, he closed his eyes and tightened his death grip on his impulses. Opening his eyes again, he drew a ragged breath - and leaned forward. And reminded himself to be ruthless.

But the instant his hands curved about her shoulders, then trailed down to cup her breasts, he knew the best he could hope to be with her was ruthlessly gentle. Lavishing attention on her. Helplessly in thrall, drawn deeper with every heated thrust, every caress he pressed on her and she pressed on him - he was a victim of emotion that bound him to her through this act and yet more deeply, reaching to his soul. Demanding his obedience, his acceptance his surrender.

Little did she know he was always hers. He surrendered long ago.

When next he straightened, his breathing was beyond ragged, his control badly frayed. Chest swelling, he set himself to take her up the last stretch of their road. Grayson dragged in a deep breath; fingers sinking into her. Grayson anchored her and thrusted deep. Again, and again, pushing her high, then higher swiftly taking her toward the shattering orgasm that he'd deliberately designed for her. On and on, higher and higher, she panted, then sobbed in her need.

Raising one hand, she reached back and traced his lean cheek. “Please, Grayson. Now.”

His face was beside hers; she heard a soft hiss, then a smothered curse. He wanted to hear her beg, meaning he had not only won, but also driven the stubbornness and attitude out of her. Then he reached around her, grabbing first one pillow, then another. Piling them before her, even as his other hand pressed on her back and guided her down. Swiftly, he drew her knees back, and she was lying on her stomach, the piled pillows beneath her.

And he was behind her, between her spread thighs, his cock pressing against her bottom. Against skin flickering with heightened nerves, her inner thighs excruciatingly sensitive to the brush of his tattooed legs.

With one thrust, he surged into her.

She screamed with sheer delight. Horrified, she grabbed handfuls of the twisted sheets and held them to her face. And heard him groan, braced above her, his hands planted on either side of her, he drew back, and surged deeper and deeper, no longer holding back as his own moans filled the room.

In bliss, she screamed as her high finally caught up with her.

Eyes closed tight, braced above her, Grayson drank in the lovely sound. Half muffled by the sheets, it was still pure magic; the sound of her ecstasy was pure ecstasy to him. Sunk to the hilt inside her, he held still, rigid, tense as a coiled spring, and savored her contractions, the rippling caress of her body as release swept through her.

He waited, not patiently, but with steely determination, until she eased beneath him, then, gritting his teeth, he leaned forward, grabbed two more pillows, lifted her, and raised her still higher.

So he could ride her on, up the next high. When she realized it was there, she joined him, eagerly, as focused as he. Heated once more, flushed, her skin covered in sweat, she writhed beneath him, urging him on not with words but with deeds, with the flagrant encouragement of her lush body.

And when he sent her over the edge again, the effect was cataclysmic. He heard it in her unrestrained scream. The sound caught him up, tugged at his heart, his soul. Closing his eyes, he filled her completely and swiftly followed her in the undeniable pleasure of such acts – their minds and bodies as one, their relationship hopefully mended. Or on the road to it.

Exhausted, Grayson watched her sleep in his embrace, smiling to himself. People called him ruthless before, but they have no idea who he truly is. Scott has no idea who he really is. If they think he was ruthless before, but Y/N softened him – they are sorely mistaken. She didn’t soften him, if anything, she made him more ruthless. She is why he has to be merciless, because there is nothing and no one in this world that would stand between him and his doll…his queen. She is why he’d do anything, kill anyone – just to come home to her at the end of the day.

Y/N drifted off to slumber, not knowing her handsome prince already set things into motion. While they reconnected, Grayson made sure to paint the streets red that night – his revenge exact, swift and unforgiving.

Waking up in Grayson’s arms, his lips pressing feather light kisses across her jaw, hand lingering on her left thigh – it didn’t feel real at first.

“Open your eyes, doll. I know you’re awake.” His husky, sexy morning voice is what makes her groan, already horny for him and the intimacy he showered her in last night. Feeling his lips enclose on hers, only to abandon her a moment later, forced her to whine and open her eyes, receiving a satisfied chuckle from her favorite bad guy.

“You make the cutest whines when you want more of me. It’s adorable.” Brushing his nose against hers for an Eskimo kiss, Grayson gives in and plants a second kiss to her lips.

“And you still use sex to convince me to forgive you for fights.” She remarks, slowly regaining basic control over her mind and body.

“Didn’t hear you complain last night.” Grayson cocks an eyebrow, a smug smile taking up half his face, but his eyes showed a hint of guilt she wanted to extract to the surface.

“We have to talk about it eventually. The whole blanks in my gun situation and you ignoring me since, the fact Scott showed up yesterday…” Grayson presses his index finger to her lips, stopping the oncoming river of words that would overwhelm them both.

Cupping her face, he presses his forehead against hers lightly, just enough so his lips hover over hers and she’s rendered speechless by the proximity.

“I messed up with the blanks. I thought Ethan and I could protect you no matter what happened. I was wrong and I am sorry about that. I fucked up when I allowed my need to kill Scott with my own two hands for almost taking your from me put a barrier between us. I didn’t want you to see me like that – wicked, psychotic even…hands covered in blood and people’s hearts in the palm of my hands. I wanted you to see me as the CEO, the bachelor who can’t seem to even look at another since you came into his life and set his dark skies aflame. And as for yesterday…I think a part of my heart died from sheer fear of you taking whatever he meant for me. You provoked him…said all the words a proper Queen would, but never should if she doesn’t have the troops at the tip of her fingers. He could have killed you. Which is why hundreds of his men died last night.”

From an apologetic start, to incredibly soft and mushy, down to the coldblooded, sharp, venomous ending. Y/N would be lying if she said her blood didn’t run cold with his words, but she reminded herself that he’s at war and if he’s to live and come back to her, she has to accept that part of him that does what’s necessary. Without him, she’d wither. Without him, nothing would matter. So, yes, she shuts her eyes and endures, smiling up at him as the forgiveness takes over and she lets it go.

“But I’m still hoping you’ll come to the ball with me this Saturday. I don’t usually go, but now I have some eye candy to share with the world. Want to show you off, doll.” Kissing her ear, Grayson moves down to her neck and waits for her resolve to crumble. She ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest.

“Gross! Wasn’t last night enough?! I swear, it’s like you’re bunnies!” Ethan’s disgruntled shouting is enough to end the sweet moment that would definitely end in some seriously missed morning sex. But, even in their enamored state, they know being so close to the ball means new dresses and new plans for security with the looming threat still being so abundantly clear to everyone in the gang.

“I think I liked it more when you were at odds with each other!” Without a second thought, Ethan settled on the bed beside them, not even caring that they’re both naked under the sheets and Y/N’s mortified facial expressions as she hid her head under too.

“Awe, come on! Look what you did! You broke my little munchkin!” Grayson exclaims, giggling like a school boy with his brother only to groan once she pinches his arm as revenge.

“Baby’s got some claws, huh?” Ethan laughs only louder, loving how his two favorite people are finally happy again. He knew The Silver Snakes would be a hard blow for them both, but it looked as if the sky was finally clearing up and the clouds were gone.

“I hate you both!” Muffled by the sheets, her voice is still able to reach them as they coo.

“Awe!! Aweee! You love us!”

It was a good day in a month filled with bad days. But neither were too foolish to believe it would last. The day of the reckoning was soon upon them.

**

Grayson decided to gift Y/N with the most lavish ball gown and jewelry he could offer. She didn’t shy away from it as much as she used to, but she did put up a considerable fight. Of course, he managed to bend her will with a quick fuck in a changing room of the boutique, realizing he enjoyed bending her will to his in such a manor far too much. Of course, he’s not blind to the fact that if she wasn’t inclined to accept, this quick fuck wouldn’t really get him anywhere, but he wanted to lie to himself for as long as possible that he was the alpha in their relationship.

So, in a long, angel white ball gown with thousands of diamonds embedded in the silk, Y/N looked like she descended from heaven itself. Of course, she insisted the top to be all lace and see through so the blood red brassier she chose would be a clear message where her allegiance lies. And a fresh tattoo of five black birds across her left collarbone got a chance to shine as well.

She nearly cried when she found Grayson in a matching white outfit at the bottom of the stairs, a blood red handkerchief in his pocket to match her statement perfectly.

“Who are you and what have you done with Grayson Bailey Dolan?” She stopped at the last step, taking his hand gently and allowed him to bring it to his lips.

“No clue what you’re talking about, doll.” His smug smile made her heart jump and her breath to stop, but she knew better than to show him what effect he has on her.

“A month ago, you would rather be caught dead than match outfits and now you orchestrated this all on your own.” She smirked, watching his eyebrows rise and fall and a slight nod on his behalf.

Ethan joined them for the ride to the hotel that was their special place. It was one of Manhattan’s wonders, one Grayson kept from prying eyes. This time around, he opened the garden and allowed people in, surprising Y/N and Ethan as well. Maybe it’s because the last time it was open was the last time they saw their father alive. It was the same night Grayson became Capo.

In a short half hour, the ballroom was awash with silks and satins; perfume hung heavy on the air. The shine of curls was fractured by the sparkle and glint of jewels; hundreds of tongues contributed to the polite hum. Being on Grayson’s arm guaranteed Y/N enough space to breathe; no one wanted to crowd her because anyone who’d dare approach would have to deal with Grayson first. Even though rare few knew of his true role in New York, those who didn’t were still intimidated by him. There were, however, a definite number who, sighting her, were compelled to pay their compliments. Some, indeed, looked set to worship at her feet, even in the teeth of the very real threat of receiving a swift and well-aimed bullet from her escort.

Fixed by Y/N’s side, compelled to witness her effect on other males of the room and his own gang members, Grayson set his jaw, and tried not to let it show. While he was aware of her transcend beauty, he also knew this event was a danger. Any public stunt is risky at this time.

As the evening wore on, euphoria increased. Dinner was served at one o'clock. Seated beside Grayson at one of the larger tables, Y/N laughed and chatted. Smiling serenely, she studied Grayson’s guests and mostly those she knew were in the gang. The same expectation tightened her nerves, heightened her senses. Laughing at one of Ethan's jokes, she met Grayson's eye and understood precisely why ladies of New York, hell – the world - deliberately played with fire when they flirted with him.

How many hearts did he break before he chose hers to keep?

The musicians summoned them back to the ballroom. The others all rose, but Grayson whispered for Y/N to stay and she obeyed. She looked up, Grayson stood beside her, patient boredom in his face. She held out a hand; smoothly, he drew her to her feet. She glanced around, the room was already empty. She turned to Grayson only to have him pull her further, away from the ballroom. Startled, she looked up at him.

He smiled, a wolfish grin with a wicked glint in his eye. "Trust me." Relaxing with the knowledge this wasn’t an escape because of a possible attack, she followed him.

He led her to a wall and opened a door concealed within the paneling. The door gave onto a minor corridor, presently deserted. Grayson let her through, then followed. Blinking, Y/N looked around; the corridor ran parallel to the ballroom, leading toward its end. "Where?"

"Come with me." Taking her hand, Grayson strode down the corridor.

She had to hurry to keep up, but before she could think of a sufficiently pointed argument, they reached a set of stairs. Somewhat to her surprise, he led her downstairs.

"Where are we going?" Why she was whispering she didn't know.

"You'll see in a minute," he whispered back.

The stairs led into another corridor, parallel to the one above; Grayson halted before a door near its end. Opening it, he looked in, then stepped back and carried her over the threshold.

“What are you doing?” She giggled, kicking her legs slightly in her glee.

Pausing just inside, Y/N blinked. Behind her, the lock clicked, then Grayson put her down only to lead her down three shallow stone steps and onto a flagged floor.

Eyes wide and widening, Y/N looked around. Huge panes of glass formed half the roof, all of one wall and half of each sidewall. Moonlight, crystal white, poured in, illuminating neatly trimmed cherry trees in clay pots, set in two semicircles about the room's center and roses – so many roses that she felt her heart stop. Slipping her hand from Grayson's, she entered the grove. In the moonlight, the glossy leaves gleamed; she touched them—their scent clung to her fingers. In the grove's center stood a white, posh looking couch with silk cushions. Beside it on the table sat a wickerwork basket overflowing with wild flowers.

Glancing back, she saw Grayson, a silvered shadow prowling in her wake. "It's an extension of the garden upstairs."

She saw his lips twitch. "One I wanted to create until it grew like its Eden."

An expectant thrill shot through her, a violin distraught the peace. Startled, she looked up. "We're under the ballroom?"

Grayson's teeth flashed as he reached for her. "My dance, I believe."

She was in his arms and whirling before she realized his intent. Not that she wished to argue, but a small warning might have helped, might have made the sudden impact of his nearness a little easier to absorb. As it was, with arms like iron around her and long thighs parting hers, she immediately fell prey to a bundle of sensations, all distractingly pleasant. He waltzed as he did most things - masterfully, his skill so assured she didn’t have to do anything but glide and twirl, follow his lead. They proceeded down the grove, then slowly revolved about its perimeter. As they passed the entrance to the enchanted circle, he looked down, into her eyes and deliberately drew her closer.

Y/N's breath caught; her heart stuttered, then picked up its pace. The red silk covering her breasts shifted against his coat, so much so she felt her nipples tingle. Their hips met as they turned, silk shushing softly in the night. Hardness met softness, then slid tantalizingly away, only to return, harder, more defined, a heartbeat later. Sway of the dance teased her senses; they ached for him. Eyes wide, her gaze trapped in the darkness of his, Y/N felt the silvery touch of the moonlight and tipped up her head. Her lips, parted, were oddly dry.

Her invitation could not have been clearer. Caught in the moment, Grayson did not even think of refusing. With practiced ease, he lowered his head and tasted her, confident in his mastery, only to find his head swimming as she drew him in. With an inward curse, he hauled hard on his reins and wrested back control he knew he couldn’t lose now.

They waltzed between the cherry trees and roses; the music stopped and still they revolved. Gradually, their steps slowed; they halted by the couch.

Y/N pushed against a shiver of anticipation. Their kiss unbroken, Grayson released her hand. He slid both palms over her silk-clad curves until one rested on each hip, burning through her flimsy gown. Slowly, deliberately, his hands slid further, cupping her bottom, drawing her fully against him. Y/N felt his blatant need, his desire, and an answering heat blossomed within her. Her breath was his; caught in their kiss, she lifted her arms and curled them around his neck. She pressed herself against him, soothing her aching breasts against the wall of his chest. The deep shudder that passed through him thrilled her.

Tension gripped him. He lifted her; their kiss unbroken, he lowered her to the couch. And followed her down until her breath fled. With a stifled gasp, she pushed aside his coat and eagerly spread her hands over his chest. She knew his body all too well, knowing it would push him to the edge.

She felt the sudden hitch in his breathing, sensed his sudden surge of desire. From deep within, she answered it, shamelessly enticing his tongue to duel and dance with hers. She had her legs tangling with his; her hands reached further. She refused to be submissive; she wanted to feel, to experience, to explore.

Which was more encouragement than Grayson could stand. Abruptly, he pulled back, caught her hands and anchored them over her head. Immediately, he recaptured her lips, desire growing, escalating wildly, barely restrained. Ravenous, he deepened the kiss, searching for appeasement, fighting, simultaneously trying to retain control.

Half-trapped beneath him, Y/N arched, responding to the intimacy, the steadily growing passion. Desire, a palpable entity, welled and swelled; she squirmed with silk sliding between them, then moaned and tugged against his hold. He broke their kiss only long enough to say: "No."

Twisting her head, she avoided his lips. "I only want to touch you. Let me touch you."

"Forget it," he grated. He was dangerously overheated, driven by a desire he'd seriously underestimated; her wandering hands would be the last straw. He wanted her, despite the fact he already had her shaking under him twice this day. It seems like this hunger, this blatant need for each other will never die out, but neither truly care. It doesn’t lessen the shock of realization once it comes to their clouded minds.

"Why?" Y/N tested his grip, then twisted, trying to gain advantage; one soft thigh pressed close, then slid downward, provocatively stroking his cock he was desperately trying to ignore.

His breath hissed in; she pressed closer. Desire crystallized, hardening every muscle. Tightening every nerve. Obliterating the last remnants of caution. He caught her chin and captured her mouth in a searing kiss. He shifted, one leg trapping hers, using his weight to subdue her.

Not that she was struggling. Her lips clung to his, passionately enticing. She moaned again, this time in abandoned entreaty; her body arched, caressing his, inviting, inciting.

His hand dropped from her jaw to possessively cup one breast, pushing her bra out the way.

Y/N gasped; her breast throbbed, then ached as his fingers played. She writhed, savoring his tensed muscles, shifting in response. His body was close, but she ached to have him closer. Much closer. Heat flared wherever he touched her; she needed him inside, to the hilt to quench the flame, to satisfy the fever that took up flame in her veins.

She wanted him, needed him and there was no longer any reason she couldn't have him. Desperately, she tugged at his grip, it firmed. His hand left her breast and before she could protest, she heard a muffled click. She stilled, his hand expertly pushing her gown down. Her heart thudded, then raced.

Grayson lifted his head and she drew in a shuddering breath. She felt the cool touch of the moonlit air, felt the heat of his gaze. Lifting lids suddenly heavy, she looked up. His face was graven, harsh planes sharp-edged. Her breasts throbbed painfully; as if he could sense it, he bent his head.

And touched his lips to her heated skin. She stiffened; her senses leapt as he drew the soft flesh into his mouth. She tensed. Sensation streaked through her; her toes curled. She gasped, her body tightening, lifting against him. Her fingers, still locked above her head, clenched tight.

He tortured her soft flesh until she cried out, then turned to her other breast. Only when that, too, was aching fiercely, when her body started pulsing with need, did he raise his head. From beneath her lashes, she watched as he skimmed his hand down, possessively caressing the smooth curve of her hip, then tracing the long sweep of her thigh. Her lungs seized when his fingers slid beneath the hem of her panties.

Y/N trembled. Cool air caressed her skin; his gaze, hot as the sun, roaming comprehensively, surveying what he intended to repossess. Then he turned his head and met her gaze. His hand tightened about her bare hip, then slid lower in a tantalizing caress, hard palm and long fingers stroking knowingly down, then up. He leaned closer; she shut her eyes as his lips found hers. She gave herself up to him, up to their kiss, surrendered to the sweet wildfire that rose between them.

Knowingly, he traced, caressed her thighs, he gently teased. Beneath him, Y/N shifted restlessly, her lips clinging to his. He drew back, fleetingly studying her face. At his whispered command, she parted her thighs then gasped as he touched her, then cupped her. Only when that first flaring shock of awareness had died did he continue, intimately stroking the swollen folds, parting them to find the bud of her desire, already hard and throbbing. He circled it, and felt her passion rise, her moans echoing the secret Eden he built for them. He found her slickness and gently probed, deliberately inciting the wave of desire building between them.

Y/N knew nothing beyond her violent need, centered in the swollen, throbbing flesh he so knowingly stroked, so tantalizingly caressed. Then one long finger slid deeper, circled, then pressed deeper still. She caught her breath on a moan; her body lifted, helplessly seeking. He kept his pace steady, stroking again and again, seeing her enjoy that intimate invasion; eyes closed, senses raging, she wanted more. He knew her need; his lips returned to hers, his tongue claiming her mouth in the same, mesmerizingly slow rhythm with which his fingers entered her.

Her breasts swollen and heavy, Y/N arched against him, trying to ease their ache. Abruptly, he released her lips; a second later, his mouth fastened around one nipple.

The hand locked around hers disappeared. Grayson shifted. Using one hand to ease the ache of one breast, he caressed the other with lips and tongue. Between her thighs, his fingers slid deep, and still deeper.

Her hands free, Y/N reached for him, loosening his shirt quickly. He stilled. Then blinked. He heard his ragged breathing, felt his chest swell. Raging desire pounded at his senses; passion, unleashed, fought for release. But in that crazed instant, lust and will collided. The shock was almost physical. The wrenching effort required to draw his hands away, to roll away and sit up, left him giddy.

With a whimper, Y/N pulled him back. Or tried to. She couldn't get a grip on his body, pushing her hands in his loose shirt, she tugged desperately. All she did was rock herself.

Grayson didn't shift. Gently, he caught her hands and disengaged her fingers. “We should return. I can hear my phone vibrating.” He tilted his head to see her, untouched by an untrained eye, but he saw what he did to her moments ago. She’s melted butter in his hands.

“Are you fucking with me, right now? I’m half-crazy with my need for you and you want to leave.” Her hands still trapped in his, Y/N stared at him as he chuckles. Her hands immobilized in his, she tugged, trying to topple him back down; if she could just get him back on the couch alongside her, he’d be hers.

“You’re making me feel like a raging bitch who is trying to steal your virginity.” She pouts, driven to seduce him into fucking her so hard she forgets why they’re there in the first place.

“It’s not that…I just. I wanted to bring you here to ask you an important question, not seduce you.” Abruptly, Grayson let go of her hands and stood; grimly, he looked down at her.

Y/N’s mouth fell open, then shut; lips setting ominously, she came up on one elbow.

“What are you talking about?”

“I wanted to propose. To ask you to be my wife. It's important to me to know that you've made a conscious decision that you've decided to become my wife, the mother of my children, for your own reasons, not because I've seduced, coerced, or manipulated you into it. This won’t do.” He spoke through clenched teeth, frustration in his voice. Which only made Y/N glare at him.

“You brought me here to propose, seduced me and now you refuse to propose? What if I wish to say YES?” She struggled to her knees.

“Well, you’ll just have to wait until I’m sure you’re not drunk on passion for me.” Stating so, Grayson buttoned his shirt back up as she watched him and giggled.

“You’ll wait for a long time for that to happen, because I’m always drunk on passion for you.”

Reaching out, she locked her fingers in his shirt and pulled. Reluctantly, he shifted closer.

“Now help me out here. I need you.” He'd purposely aroused her, deliberately pushed her to a state bordering on the frantic.

"Please?" The soft plea lay on her bruised lips; it glowed in her eyes.

Grayson gathered her into his arms and set his lips to hers.

She opened to him instantly, sinking against him. He gave her what she wanted, steadily fanning her flames, keeping himself in control.

When he lifted his head she was reeling. Her whole being was one heated, aching void. Gasping, she clung to his shoulders.

"Trust me."

He whispered the words against her throat, then trailed wicked kisses down her carotid. Y/N let her head fall back, then shuddered. The next instant, he swung her into his arms. She waited to be laid on the couch, instead, he carried her around it; his back to it, he set her on her feet before him, facing the long mirror on the wall.

Y/N blinked. The moonlight found her skin and set it shimmering; behind her, Grayson appeared as a dense shadow, his hands dark against her body. Y/N licked her lips. "What are you going to do?"

He bent his head and traced one earlobe with his tongue. "Satisfy you. Release you." His eyes met hers in the mirror. "Pleasure you."

The deep purring murmur sent a sharp thrill racing through her; his hands slid around to cup both breasts, his fingers tightened and she shuddered. "All you have to do is do exactly as I say."

Again he met her gaze. "Keep your eyes open and watch my hands, and concentrate on what you feel, on the sensations."

His words were low, hypnotic; Y/N couldn't drag her eyes from his hands, rhythmically kneading her breasts. She watched his long fingers reach for her nipples; they swirled, then squeezed. She sucked in a short breath and leaned back against him, feeling his bare chest behind her, crisp hair rasping against her bare shoulders.

His hands left her breasts and she refocused on the mirror. One dark hand splayed across her midriff, holding her against him; the other gripped her hips. She heard a low moan, and knew it was hers. Her head fell back against his shoulder; her spine arched. Her senses, fully alive, registered every touch, every knowing caress; from under heavy lids, she watched every move he made. Then he shifted, his arms coming around her, surrounding her, his left hand cupping her right breast, his right hand splaying over her stomach. From behind, his knee pressed hers apart; head bent, his lips grazed the soft skin beneath her ear. "Keep watching."

And she did. She watched as his hand slid lower, long fingers sliding further, pressing inward. He touched her softness, found her molten heat and stroked. Breathless, aching, she felt the muscles in his arm shift as he reached further, felt the pressure of his hand between her thighs, felt the slow invasion as one long finger entered her.

Sensation upon sensation crashed through her; the hand at her breast fondled, fingers finding, then tightening about her budded nipple. Of their own will, her hands found his, fastening over his broad wrists.

Between her thighs, his hand shifted; as one finger slid deep, his thumb pressed, caressed.

"Keep watching."

Naked, on fire, she dragged her lids open and saw his hand push deep between her thighs.

A burst of pleasure took her, exploded within her, tingling, beneath her skin.

Release. Finally.

It swept her, washing away her tension. She felt his lips at her temple, felt his hands soften in soothing, intimate caresses. Sweet oblivion claimed her.

When her wits reconnected with reality, Y/N discovered herself fully dressed, leaning against the couch. Before her, Grayson stood before the mirror, fixing his bowtie. She watched his fingers deftly crease and knot the wide folds, and smiled.

In the mirror, Grayson’s eyes met hers. Her smile widened; he raised a brow.

“I still want you to ask the question.” She dared him, awfully giggly and light. Just as he loved her most. He hated how his world dampened her mood, how his darkness ate away at her. He knew she was always an anxious mess because of him and it made him feel guilty. But now? She was perfectly content. And it was his doing.

“I will. Just not tonight.” He remarks, earning a weak kick at the back of his leg to which he snickered.

He lead her back to the room filled with chatter, her mind at ease and for once – completely blissful. She did not worry of what might happen, but loved what is before her. Even if he’s as stubborn as a rake who’s trying to return to heaven’s graces.

Kissing her temple, Grayson excused himself to talk to some of his men. She watched him carefully, the hushed tones and his face contorting into an angry scowl was enough to tell her there’s trouble, but she assumed it to be tomorrow’s worries.

She might be a gentle flower and he a hurricane, but he’d never let any harm come to her. She’s used to it. To his world. After all they’ve been through, she is. He used to be a vagabond and loving a vagabond is crazy, but he’s hers now. He’s not going anywhere.

Y/N’s POV

But even with my want to put the worries behind me, I could sense something isn’t right. My heart twisted and sunk with nerves. Before I have a chance to call for Grayson, I sense someone’s hand wrap around my waist and pull me into a hard body, a cool metal pressing against my temple as an echoing drum of a shot sounds through the room.

“Don’t move. I’d rather not waste your beauty so soon.” I recognize the voice. Scott.

More shots follow. Each one isn't simply loud, it cracks into the air and echoes around the halls, magnifying the feeling of our vulnerability.

Screaming starts and the people run, guns flashing as they’re pulled out. Blood smears the marble floors and I see Grayson hide behind a pillar with his gun prepared in his hands. He’s looking wildly around, hoping to catch a glimpse of me, but when he does, he finds me in his enemy’s arms.

“Oh, hello. Nice to finally meet you. Face to face is much better than sending men to deliver messages.” Scott’s voice sends chills down my spine, making me shiver.

Grayson grips his gun tighter, looking around for some back up wildly.

“I WOULDN’T do that!” Scott tsks, commanding Grayson to follow him…and me to the garden. He forces me to walk backwards, stepping on my gown more than once.

“You won’t get away with this.” I whisper, hearing him chuckle lowly.

“Oh, but I will. You’re the one who had a choice, but once I saw him disappear with you I’ve decided I’m a bit disgusted by what he must have done to you in the time you were gone.” Scott sneers, using the chance to place his hardened member against my ass.

“But I’d still like to play a little.”

“DON’T TOUCH HER.” Losing his cool, Grayson shouts at the top of his lungs. If it were possible, I’d swear Earth shifted.

“Not so scary now, are you? Hellhound.” The mocking tone isn’t missed on me, my eyes glued to Grayson. I wish the soulmate stories were true. Maybe then I’d be able to tell him to get the hell away and leave me to my fate, but he wouldn’t do that. Even if I could tell him so, he’d stay. Stubborn ass.

“Let her go and I’ll come with you. I’ll do whatever you want.” Grayson offers, tossing his gun to the side as he raises both hands in surrender.

“Idiot.” I mumble, earning a laugh from Scott.

“Your Queen here just called you an idiot and I can’t help but agree. You’re a fool if you think either of you are leaving here in any way but a body bag.” I tried to stay calm as my eyes met Grayson’s, feeling as if I’m reliving the past and Mikhail all over. I felt numb as tears gathered behind my eyes. Pushing my head back, I glimpsed Scott’s face, full of gloating, his eyes glittering wildly.

“Get on your knees.” Scott commands and I shake my head.

“Grayson, run! Get out of here or I’ll never forgive you for this.” I demand, wishing him to listen for once. Just once. If being rescued has anything to do with his life being taken, I’d rather die with him.

“We can do this – man to man. No need to involve her.” Grayson ignores my request, keeping his own conversation up with Scott.

“I love you.” I mouth to him, slowly reaching into my bag. Closing my eyes, I remember what Ethan taught me. I can feel the steel handle, the gun’s safety at my fingertips.

Swiftly, I move my head back full force and I feel the pain as it collides with Scott’s face. Turning with my hand on the gun, I quickly shoot until there are no bullets left in the chamber, shaking violently as I see him laying on the ground. He’s motionless, blood spurting from his mouth and his throat still bleeding in pulses that follow his dying heart.

Stumbling back, I find myself encased in arms I easily recognize.

“You brilliant, brave, stupid woman. I love you so, so much!” Grayson shouts, holding me tightly. Turning me around, he looks to me properly. Worry pulls at his eyebrows, knitting them together as his lips press in a thin line.

“You just contradicted yourself, idiot.” I giggle, seeing he’s completely out of it. He’s desperately clinging to me as if I’m a ghost, a gust of wind about to disappear from his hands.

“We need to go. Do damage control.” I say, cupping his face just so I can feel my shaky hands touch his skin. Just so I can tell he is real and he is with me. He is mine and I am his and we’re both alive to see the sunrise the next day.

Nodding, Grayson takes my hand in his and leads us inside. That’s when time stills.

“NO!”

Screaming, gunshots, blood. It’s the only thing I register as I fall to the ground, two bodies on top of me. It feels like déjà vu, incredibly shaking my grasp on reality. I wait, wide eyed, heart in my mouth, hoping for movement. I can tell Grayson is beside me, his mouth is moving and incoherent sounds don’t reach me. He’s standing so fast, I can’t comprehend. But the weight of the barely moving body atop me isn’t something I can ignore.

Grayson will deal with the danger. He’ll help. I know he will, but whoever jumped in front of me can’t help anyone – not even himself.

Putting a hand at the back of the man’s head, I roll over and on top, pulling him behind a wall. I can tell the shooting isn’t over, the man in my arms finally coming into focus.

I wish it didn’t.

“Ethan?” I whisper, my mind shattering as I shake him. I can see the blood pooling at his stomach, covering it with both my hands to stop the bleeding as he opens his eyes.

“They wanted to kill you. Then him. I couldn’t let it happen. I promised him I’d rather die.” Ethan smiles, his eyes hold no malice, no want for vengeance. He’s at peace with his decision.

“And you thought taking a bullet for me was the right way to go about it? You dying isn’t what I want.” I see a drop fall on his cheek and slide down to his hair, realizing I’m already crying.

“He’ll be happy with you by his side. He’ll retire as much as this job allows it. Mom and Cam will return here. Just don’t forget to name your first kid Ethan. I will haunt you.” He chuckles, making me shake my head.

“Stop the stupid and keep holding on. Brother, we need you.” I insist.

“I prom-promised h-him.” Ethan stammers, his pain gripping him and shock taking over.

“I need you.” His eyes drop close, my heart dropping with him.

“No.” I lean my forehead down against his, feeling his pulse weaken under my fingertips. My scream has all but drowned out the last shot. The next instant, I flung myself full length upon him. Tears streaming down my cheeks, I framed his face; when he didn't respond, I sobbed and frantically felt his pulse weakening.

Screaming for Grayson, I find myself pulled off of Ethan and wrapped in a warm embrace – the fresh, ocean breeze cologne a dead giveaway on who it is that holds me. I can tell the paramedics are working on Ethan, taking him away as I wail.

This is it. This is what it means to break. Pushing away from Grayson, I follow the ambulance, wiping away my tears without a care for the blood on my hands. I’m swallowing tears, ordering the men to kill every Silver Snake on sight, pulling Grayson by the sleeve to go to the hospital.

It took five hours in surgery and seven more for Ethan to wake up. He lost his spleen and a part of his intestine, but he was finally cleared.

Although he annoyed both of us during his recovery, he didn’t seem to mind when we decided to hire nurses to take care of his every whim instead of allowing him to torture us to death. He’s a baby when he’s unwell. But he did date one of the nurses for the next five months, so at least it worked out for him.

Lisa and Cameron did return, moving into a flat Grayson owned in the city which made the boys tremendously happy.

I started the next semester, avoiding paparazzi is now my daily job. The story was spun so it would seem like a gang tried to kidnap me so Grayson would pay a handsome price to keep me safe. It only made the world more curious about our love story. They are drunk on every move we make, never dying out even though I was sure they would get bored eventually.

And we were happy. Truly. Therapy helped us both move past the trauma, helping us be honest about our feelings. Grayson never stops surprising me, seducing me, taking my heart to new extremes.

But he didn’t pop the question for another four years. Not until my graduation.

“You’re on one knee?” I raise my eyebrow, watching him with a smile that wouldn’t fade no matter how hard I try.

“Shush. I’m trying to do something here.” Grayson’s serious face is on, his focus slightly wavered with my playful teasing.

“I already said yes. Like five years ago.” I chuckle, trying to snag the velvet box in his hands as he clams them up in his hold.

“I waited for five years so you’d be safe. Everything that can be legal is now legal. My team is basically New York security and the ones in the world are there to keep our routes to acquire material we need for the company clear. We work with the FBI, my company is thriving. And I am still in love with you more than I am in love with life. I never thought I’d marry, but when I met you, the fucking Earth shifted and I fell flat on my face and before your feet.”

3rd Person POV

Y/N couldn’t help her eyes from watering, seeing his eyes focused on her and the velvet box revealed and open for her to see the flower shaped sapphire surrounded with diamonds. It’s the ring she dreamed of. Grayson had it custom made all those years ago, but he had the ring altered recently, adding diamonds for every year they spent together.

In a universe that is coded by divine hand, the only real thing is love - invisible and weightless as it is. That's why it is only love that is the ultimate answer to healing hearts and societies, and love that makes our moral compasses function.

“You’re an idiot.” Y/N smiled, going down on her knees too.

“But I’m your idiot.” Grayson points out, placing the ring on the finger it always belonged to.

Kissing, the two had no clue what the future held for them.

They didn’t know that in two months’ time, their little inability to hold off on having sex until they get home so they decided to do it in the Porsche, will reward them with an unexpected pregnancy and at the worst time possible as Y/N just started her internship.

They didn’t know it would be the first out of three kids they’d have and they definitely didn’t know they would have the next eighteen years of peace. Peace that they would use to raise their children right, but give them the necessary skills to survive should they have to wage wars in their future.

They didn’t know Ethan would follow in their footsteps and marry three years later, having two kids as well.

It took a while for Y/N to forgive them for their secret arrangement to protect her with their lives, but she understood. It was the last of the bad guy’s sacrifice – his and his brother’s life.

And they definitely didn’t know their peace would end when their eldest daughter is supposed to take the reins of her father’s empire. She will make the mistake of engaging in a Romeo and Juliet kind of love with a rival gang leader’s son, thus creating a rumble that would show a lot of her daddy’s lessons make sense.

But as I said, they didn’t know that then. All they knew is their undying love for each other and the kiss they shared that set them aflame with desire once more.

He kissed her and the world fell away like it always did. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that no words could ever be. His hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled. She ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest. And that heart beat for her and her alone.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

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[silent-era-of-cinema]

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), and his titular role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery Sr. and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.

For his contributions to the film industry, Beery was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star in 1960. His star is located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.

Beery was born the youngest of three boys in 1885 in Clay County, Missouri, near Smithville. The Beery family left the farm in the 1890s and moved to nearby Kansas City, Missouri, where the father was a police officer. He may have had an older sister based on a suspected recent found Victorian photo of a boy who strongly resembles Beery and an older girl.

Beery attended the Chase School in Kansas City and took piano lessons as well, but showed little love for academic matters. He ran away from home twice, the first time returning after a short time, quitting school and working in the Kansas City train yards as an engine wiper. Beery ran away from home a second time at age 16, and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant elephant trainer. He left two years later, after being clawed by a leopard.

Wallace Beery joined his older brother Noah in New York City in 1904, finding work in comic opera as a baritone and began to appear on Broadway as well as summer stock theatre. He appeared in The Belle of the West in 1905. His most notable early role came in 1907 when he starred in The Yankee Tourist to good reviews.

In 1913, he moved to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios. His first movie was likely a comedy short, His Athletic Wife (1913).

Beery was then cast as Sweedie, a Swedish maid character he played in drag in a series of short comedy films from 1914–16. Sweedie Learns to Swim (1914) co-starred Ben Turpin. Sweedie Goes to College (1915) starred Gloria Swanson, whom Beery married the following year.

Other Beery films (mostly shorts) from this period included In and Out (1914), The Ups and Downs (1914), Cheering a Husband (1914), Madame Double X (1914), Ain't It the Truth (1915), Two Hearts That Beat as Ten (1915), and The Fable of the Roistering Blades (1915).

The Slim Princess (1915), with Francis X. Bushman, was one of the earliest feature-length films. Beery also did The Broken Pledge (1915) and A Dash of Courage (1916), both with Swanson.

Beery was a German soldier in The Little American (1917) with Mary Pickford, directed by Cecil B. De Mille. He did some comedies for Mack Sennett, Maggie's First False Step (1917) and Teddy at the Throttle (1917), but he would gradually leave that genre and specialize in portrayals of villains prior to becoming a major leading man during the sound era.

In 1917 Beery portrayed Pancho Villa in Patria at a time when Villa was still active in Mexico. (Beery reprised the role 17 years later in Viva Villa!.)

Beery was a villainous German in The Unpardonable Sin (1919) with Blanche Sweet. For Paramount he did The Love Burglar (1919) with Wallace Reid; Victory (1919), with Jack Holt; Behind the Door (1919), as another villainous German; and The Life Line (1919) with Holt.

Beery was the villain in five major releases in 1920: 813; The Virgin of Stamboul for director Tod Browning; The Mollycoddle with Douglas Fairbanks, in which Fairbanks and Beery fistfought as they tumbled down a steep mountain (see the photograph in the gallery below); and in the non-comedic Western The Round-Up starring Roscoe Arbuckle as an obese cowboy in a well-received serious film with the tagline "Nobody loves a fat man." Beery continued his villainy cycle that year with The Last of the Mohicans, playing Magua.

Beery had a supporting part in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1920) with Rudolph Valentino. He was a villainous Tong leader in A Tale of Two Worlds (1921) and was the bad guy again in Sleeping Acres (1922), Wild Honey (1922), and I Am the Law (1922), which also featured his brother Noah Beery Sr.

Beery had a large then-rare heroic part as King Richard I (Richard the Lion-Hearted) in Robin Hood (1922), starring Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood. The lavish movie was a huge success and spawned a sequel the following year starring Beery in the title role of Richard the Lion-Hearted.

Beery had an important unbilled cameo as "the Ape-Man" in A Blind Bargain (1922) starring Lon Chaney (Beery is seen crouching, in full ape-man make-up, in the background of some of the movie's posters), and a supporting role in The Flame of Life (1923). He played another historical king, King Philip IV of Spain in The Spanish Dancer (1923) with Pola Negri.

Beery starred in an action melodrama, Stormswept (1923) for FBO Films alongside his elder brother, Noah Beery Sr.. The tagline on the movie's posters was "Wallace and Noah Beery – The Two Greatest Character Actors on the American Screen."

Beery played his third royal, the Duc de Tours, in Ashes of Vengeance (1923) with Norma Talmadge, then did Drifting (1923) with Priscilla Dean for director Browning.

Beery had the titular role in Bavu (1923), about Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution. He co-starred with Buster Keaton in the comedy Three Ages (1923), the first feature Keaton wrote, produced, directed and starred in.

Beery was a villain in The Eternal Struggle (1923), a Mountie drama, produced by Louis B. Mayer, who would eventually become crucial to Beery's career. He was reunited with Dean and Browning in White Tiger (1923), then played the title role in the aforementioned Richard the Lion-Hearted (1923), a sequel to Robin Hood based on Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman.

Beery was in The Drums of Jeopardy (1923) and had a supporting role in The Sea Hawk (1924) for director Frank Lloyd. He also appeared in a supporting role for Clarence Brown's The Signal Tower (1925) starring Virginia Valli and Rockliffe Fellowes.

Beery signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. He had a support role in Adventure (1925) directed by Victor Fleming.

At First National, he was given the star role of Professor Challenger in Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur epic The Lost World (1925), arguably his silent performance most frequently screened in the modern era. Beery was top billed in Paramount's The Devil's Cargo (1925) for Victor Fleming, and supported in The Night Club (1925), The Pony Express (1925) for James Cruze, and The Wanderer (1925) for Raoul Walsh.

Beery starred in a comedy with Raymond Hatton, Behind the Front (1926) and he was a villain in Volcano! (1926). He was a bos'n in Old Ironsides (1926) for director James Cruze, with Charles Farrell in the romantic lead.

Beery had the title role in the baseball movie Casey at the Bat (1927). He was reunited with Hatton in Fireman, Save My Child (1927) and Now We're in the Air (1927). The latter also featured Louise Brooks who was Beery's co star in Beggars of Life (1928), directed by William Wellman, which was Paramount's first part-talkie movie.

There was a fourth comedy with Hatton, Wife Savers (1929), then Beery starred in Chinatown Nights (1929) for Wellman, produced by a young David O. Selznick. This film was shot silent with the voices dubbed in by the actors afterward, which worked spectacularly well with Beery's resonant voice, although the technique was not used again during the silent era for another full-length feature. Beery then played in Stairs of Sand (1929), a Western also starring Jean Arthur (who would play the leading lady in the Western film Shane twenty-four years later) before being fired by Paramount.

Irving Thalberg signed Beery to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a character actor. The association began well when Beery played the savage convict "Butch", a role originally intended for Lon Chaney Sr. (who died that same year), in the highly successful 1930 prison film The Big House, directed by George W. Hill; Beery was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Beery's second film for MGM was also a huge success: Billy the Kid (1930), an early widescreen picture in which he played Pat Garrett. He supported John Gilbert in Way for a Sailor (1930) and Grace Moore in A Lady's Morals (1930), portraying P. T. Barnum in the latter.

Beery was well established as a leading man and top rank character actor. What really made him one of the cinema's foremost stars was Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler and directed by George W. Hill, a sensational success.

Beery made a third film with Hill, The Secret Six (1931), a gangster movie with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in key supporting roles. The picture was popular but was surpassed at the box office by The Champ, which Beery made with Jackie Cooper for director King Vidor. The film, especially written for Beery, was another box office sensation. Beery shared the Best Actor Oscar with Fredric March. Though March received one vote more than Beery, Academy rules at the time—since rescinded—defined results within one vote of each other as "ties".[8]

Beery's career went from strength to strength. Hell Divers (1932), a naval airplane epic also starring a young Clark Gable billed under Beery, was a big hit. So too was the all-star Grand Hotel (1932), in which Beery was billed fourth, under Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford, one of the very few times he would not be top billed for the rest of his career. In 1932 his contract with MGM stipulated that he be paid a dollar more than any other contract player at the studio, making him the world's highest-paid actor.

Beery was a German wrestler in Flesh (1932), a hit directed by John Ford but Ford removed his directorial credit before the film opened, so the picture screened with no director listed despite being labeled "A John Ford Production" in the opening title card. Next Beery was in another all-star ensemble blockbuster, Dinner at Eight (1933), with Jean Harlow holding her own as Beery's comically bickering wife. This time Beery was billed third, under Marie Dressler and John Barrymore.

Beery was loaned out to the new Twentieth Century Pictures for the boisterously fast-paced comedy/drama The Bowery (1933), also starring George Raft, Jackie Cooper and Fay Wray, and featuring Pert Kelton, under the direction of Raoul Walsh. The picture was a smash hit.

Back at MGM he played the title role of Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1933) and was reunited with Dressler in Tugboat Annie (1933), a massive hit. He was Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), described as a box office "disappointment"[9] despite being MGM's third largest hit of the season, and remains currently viewed as featuring one of Beery's iconic performances.

Beery returned to Twentieth Century Productions for The Mighty Barnum (1934) in which he played P. T. Barnum again. Back at MGM he was a kindly sergeant in West Point of the Air (1935) and was in an all-star spectacular, China Seas (1935), this time billed beneath Clark Gable.

O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) reunited Beery and Jackie Cooper. He had the lead as the drunken uncle in MGM's adaptation of Ah, Wilderness! (1936) and went back to Twentieth Century – now 20th Century Fox – for A Message to Garcia (1936).

At MGM he was in Old Hutch (1936) and The Good Old Soak (1937) then he was back at Fox for Slave Ship (1937), taking second billing under Warner Baxter, a rarity for Beery after Min and Bill catapulted his career into the stratosphere in 1931, during which he received top billing in all but six films (Min and Bill, Grand Hotel, Tugboat Annie, Dinner at Eight, China Seas and Slave Ship).

The status of Beery's films went into a decline, possibly due to a scandal in which Beery was implicated in the death of Ted Healy in 1937, which was apparently kept out of the newspapers by the studio's "fixer" Eddie Mannix, who eventually became head of MGM. After an abrupt European vacation, Beery was in The Bad Man of Brimstone (1938) with Dennis O'Keefe (and Noah Beery Sr. in a cameo role as a bartender), Port of Seven Seas (1938) with Maureen O'Sullivan, Stablemates (1938) with Mickey Rooney, Stand Up and Fight (1939) with Robert Taylor, Sergeant Madden (1939) with Tom Brown, Thunder Afloat (1939) with Chester Morris, The Man from Dakota (1940) with Dolores del Río, and 20 Mule Team (1940) with Marjorie Rambeau, Anne Baxter and Noah Beery Jr., enjoying top billing in all of them.

Wyoming (1940) teamed Beery with Marjorie Main. After The Bad Man (1941), which also stars Lionel Barrymore and future US president Ronald Reagan, and was the remake of a Walter Huston picture, MGM reunited Beery and Main in Barnacle Bill (1941), The Bugle Sounds (1941), and Jackass Mail (1942).

Beery did a war film, Salute to the Marines (1943) then was back with Main in Rationing (1944). Barbary Coast Gent (1944), a broad Western comedy in which Beery played a bombastic con man, teamed him with Binnie Barnes. He did another war film, This Man's Navy (1945), then made another Western with Main, Bad Bascomb (1946), a huge hit, helped by Margaret O'Brien's casting.

The Mighty McGurk (1947) put Beery with another child star of the studio, Dean Stockwell. Alias a Gentleman (1947) was the first of Beery's movies to lose money during the sound era. Beery received top billing for A Date with Judy (1949), a hugely popular musical featuring Elizabeth Taylor. Beery's last film, again featuring Main, Big Jack (1949), also lost money according to Mannix's reckoning.

On March 27, 1916, at the age of 30, Beery married 17-year-old actress Gloria Swanson in Los Angeles. The two had co-starred in Sweedie Goes to College. Although Beery had enjoyed popularity with his Sweedie shorts, his career had taken a dip, and during the marriage to Swanson, he relied on her as a breadwinner. According to Swanson's autobiography, Beery raped her on their wedding night, and later tricked her into swallowing an abortifacient when she was pregnant, which caused her to lose their child. Swanson filed for divorce in 1917 and it was finalized in 1918.

On August 4, 1924, Beery married actress Rita Gilman (Mary Areta Gilman; 1898–1986) in Los Angeles. The couple adopted Carol Ann Priester (1930–2013), daughter of Rita Beery's mother's half-sister, Juanita Priester (née Caplinger; 1899–1931) and her husband, Erwin William Priester (1897–1969). After 14 years of marriage, Rita filed for divorce on May 1, 1939, in Carson City, Ormsby County, Nevada. Within 20 minutes of filing, she won the decree. Rita remarried 15 days later, on May 16, 1939, to Jessen Albert D. Foyt (1907–1945), filing her marriage license with the same county clerk in Carson City.

n December 1937, comedic actor Ted Healy was involved in a drunken altercation at Cafe Trocadero on the Sunset Strip. E. J. Fleming, in his 2005 book, The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine, asserts that Healy was attacked by three men:

Future James Bond producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli

Local mob figure Pat DiCicco (who was Broccoli's cousin as well as the former husband of Thelma Todd and the future husband of Gloria Vanderbilt)

Wallace Beery

Fleming writes that this beating led to Healy's death a few days later.

Around December 1939, Beery, recently divorced, adopted a seven-month-old girl, Phyllis Ann Beery. Phyllis appeared in MGM publicity photos when adopted, but was never mentioned again. Beery told the press he had taken the girl in from a single mother, recently divorced, but he had filed no official adoption papers.

Beery was considered misanthropic and difficult to work with by many of his colleagues. Mickey Rooney, one of Beery's few co-stars to consistently speak highly of him in subsequent decades, related in his autobiography that Howard Strickling, MGM's head of publicity, once went to Louis B. Mayer to complain that Beery was stealing props from the studio's sets. "And that wasn't all", Rooney continued. "He went on for some minutes about the trouble that Beery was always causing him ... Mayer sighed and said, 'Yes, Howard, Beery's a son of a bitch. But he's our son of a bitch.' Strickling got the point. A family has to be tolerant of its black sheep, particularly if they brought a lot of money into the family fold, which Beery certainly did."

Child actors, in particular, recalled unpleasant encounters with Beery. Jackie Cooper, who made several films with him early in his career, called him "a big disappointment", and accused him of upstaging, and other attempts to undermine his performances, out of what Cooper presumed was jealousy. He recalled impulsively throwing his arms around Beery after one especially heartfelt scene, only to be gruffly pushed away. Child actress Margaret O'Brien claimed that she had to be protected by crew members from Beery's insistence on constantly pinching her.

In his memoir Rooney described Beery as "... a lovable, shambling kind of guy who never seemed to know that his shirttail belonged inside his pants, but always knew when a little kid actor needed a smile and a wink or a word of encouragement." He did concede that "not everyone loved [Beery] as much as I did." Beery, by contrast, described Rooney as a "brat", but a "fine actor". Future author Ray Bradbury recalled meeting Beery as a young boy on a Hollywood street and that his autograph request resulted in Beery cursing and spitting on him.

Beery owned and flew his own planes, one a Howard DGA-11. On April 15, 1933, he was commissioned a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy Reserve at NRAB Long Beach. One of his proudest achievements was catching the largest giant black sea bass in the world — 515 pounds (234 kg) — off Santa Catalina Island in 1916, a record that stood for 35 years.

A noteworthy episode in Beery's life is chronicled in the fifth episode of Ken Burns' documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea: In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating Jackson Hole National Monument to protect the land adjoining the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Local ranchers, outraged at the loss of grazing lands, compared FDR's action to Hitler's taking of Austria. Led by an aging Beery, they protested by herding 500 cattle across the monument lands without a permit.

On February 13, 1948, Gloria Schumm (aka Gloria Smith Beery, née Florence W. Smith; 1916–1989) filed a paternity suit against Beery. Beery, through his lawyer, Norman Ronald Tyre (1910–2002), initially offered $6,000 as a settlement, but denied being the father. Gloria had given birth on February 7, 1948, to Johan Richard Wallace Schumm. Gloria, in 1944, divorced Stuttgart-born Hollywood actor Hans Schumm (né Johann Josef Eugen Schumm; 1896–1990), but remarried him August 21, 1947, after realizing that she was pregnant. Prior to remarrying Hans Schumm, Gloria, on August 4, 1947, met with Beery at his home, where he gave her the name and address of a physician to submit an examination.[29] At or around that time, she also asked Beery to marry her to legitimatize the expected child (words), which Beery refused.

According to newspapers, Gloria claimed to have been intimate with Wallace Beery on or about May 1, 1947, at his home in Beverly Hills (in the court proceedings, however, she claimed to have been intimate with Beery on May 17, 1947). Beery conceded that he had known Gloria for about 15 years and that, under the pseudonym "Gloria Whitney", she had played bit roles in 6 films that he starred in. She again separated from Hans Schumm April 15, 1948.

Beery died of a heart attack on April 15, 1949 (14 months, 1 week, and 1 day after Johan Schumm's birth) — while the suit was pending. Beery had been reading a newspaper at his Beverly Hills home when he collapsed.[31] His body was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The inscription on his grave reads, "No man is indispensable but some are irreplaceable."

Beery died intestate. In the paternity suit, Gloria Schumm's attorneys demanded $104,135 against Beery's $2,220,000 estate. In February 1952, Judge Newcomb Condee approved a $26,750 settlement from the estate. Gloria Schumm accepted the settlement, and Beery's paternity of Johan Schumm was not acknowledged.

When Mickey Rooney's father died less than a year later, Rooney arranged to have him buried next to his old friend. "I thought it was fitting that these two comedians should rest in peace, side by side", he wrote.

The paternity suit, and subsequent suits – including appeals – extended through about 1952 and were internationally publicized, particularly in gossip columns and tabloids. The litigation has endured as case law with, among other things, treatises addressing the rights of illegitimate offspring against legitimate heirs in races for inheritance.

The upshot was that Schumm's paternity suit against Beery's estate put would-be half-siblings and other would-be family legatees, including a would-be uncle, Noah Beery, Sr., in the position as de facto defendants. Phyllis Ann Riley was not named in Beery's will. Part of plaintiff's claim, initially, hinged on whether an oral agreement was binding. Gloria had claimed that Beery, while alive, agreed to provide for the child. However, on November 17, 1949, Judge William B. McKesson (1895–1967) threw out Gloria's claim. The judge reasoned that any oral agreement between the two, specifically any that was intended to provide for maintenance and care of a minor, was not binding because the amount allegedly agreed upon was in excess of $500, which must be made in writing.

Another matter in the case hinged on a "peppercorn" rule. That is, in order for any agreement, oral or written, between Wallace and Gloria to be binding, there must be consideration. The court, initially, found that Beery agreed to an oral contract where Gloria would (i) include the name "Wallace" in the child's name if a male, or "Wally" if a female, and (ii) refrain from filing a paternity suit that both agreed would damage Beery's "social and professional standing as a prominent motion picture star."

Generally, under California state law at the time, a father who neither marries the mother nor acknowledges paternity does not have a right to name the child. That right belongs to the mother. In exchange for Gloria's promise to name the child "Wallace" or "Wally" (the promise representing a form of consideration), Wallace Beery agreed to arrange for the payment of $100 per week to the child (as a third-party beneficiary under the contract), plus a lump sum of $25,000 to the child when he or she attained age 21, in addition to the customary obligation to pay for the "maintenance, support and education according to the station in life and standard of living of Wallace Beery."

For his contributions to the film industry, Wallace Beery posthumously received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. His star is located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.

Beery is mentioned in the film Barton Fink, in which the lead character has been hired to write a wrestling screenplay to star Beery.

In the 1968 comedy "The Projectionist" actor and comedian Chuck McCann impersonates Beery quoting a line from "Min and Bill"

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), and his titular role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery Sr. and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.

For his contributions to the film industry, Beery was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star in 1960. His star is located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.

Beery was born the youngest of three boys in 1885 in Clay County, Missouri, near Smithville. The Beery family left the farm in the 1890s and moved to nearby Kansas City, Missouri, where the father was a police officer. He may have had an older sister based on a suspected recent found Victorian photo of a boy who strongly resembles Beery and an older girl.

Beery attended the Chase School in Kansas City and took piano lessons as well, but showed little love for academic matters. He ran away from home twice, the first time returning after a short time, quitting school and working in the Kansas City train yards as an engine wiper. Beery ran away from home a second time at age 16, and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant elephant trainer. He left two years later, after being clawed by a leopard.

Wallace Beery joined his older brother Noah in New York City in 1904, finding work in comic opera as a baritone and began to appear on Broadway as well as summer stock theatre. He appeared in The Belle of the West in 1905. His most notable early role came in 1907 when he starred in The Yankee Tourist to good reviews.

In 1913, he moved to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios. His first movie was likely a comedy short, His Athletic Wife (1913).

Beery was then cast as Sweedie, a Swedish maid character he played in drag in a series of short comedy films from 1914–16. Sweedie Learns to Swim (1914) co-starred Ben Turpin. Sweedie Goes to College (1915) starred Gloria Swanson, whom Beery married the following year.

Other Beery films (mostly shorts) from this period included In and Out (1914), The Ups and Downs (1914), Cheering a Husband (1914), Madame Double X (1914), Ain't It the Truth (1915), Two Hearts That Beat as Ten (1915), and The Fable of the Roistering Blades (1915).

The Slim Princess (1915), with Francis X. Bushman, was one of the earliest feature-length films. Beery also did The Broken Pledge (1915) and A Dash of Courage (1916), both with Swanson.

Beery was a German soldier in The Little American (1917) with Mary Pickford, directed by Cecil B. De Mille. He did some comedies for Mack Sennett, Maggie's First False Step (1917) and Teddy at the Throttle (1917), but he would gradually leave that genre and specialize in portrayals of villains prior to becoming a major leading man during the sound era.

In 1917 Beery portrayed Pancho Villa in Patria at a time when Villa was still active in Mexico. (Beery reprised the role 17 years later in Viva Villa!.)

Beery was a villainous German in The Unpardonable Sin (1919) with Blanche Sweet. For Paramount he did The Love Burglar (1919) with Wallace Reid; Victory (1919), with Jack Holt; Behind the Door (1919), as another villainous German; and The Life Line (1919) with Holt.

Beery was the villain in five major releases in 1920: 813; The Virgin of Stamboul for director Tod Browning; The Mollycoddle with Douglas Fairbanks, in which Fairbanks and Beery fistfought as they tumbled down a steep mountain (see the photograph in the gallery below); and in the non-comedic Western The Round-Up starring Roscoe Arbuckle as an obese cowboy in a well-received serious film with the tagline "Nobody loves a fat man." Beery continued his villainy cycle that year with The Last of the Mohicans, playing Magua.

Beery had a supporting part in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1920) with Rudolph Valentino. He was a villainous Tong leader in A Tale of Two Worlds (1921) and was the bad guy again in Sleeping Acres (1922), Wild Honey (1922), and I Am the Law (1922), which also featured his brother Noah Beery Sr.

Beery had a large then-rare heroic part as King Richard I (Richard the Lion-Hearted) in Robin Hood (1922), starring Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood. The lavish movie was a huge success and spawned a sequel the following year starring Beery in the title role of Richard the Lion-Hearted.

Beery had an important unbilled cameo as "the Ape-Man" in A Blind Bargain (1922) starring Lon Chaney (Beery is seen crouching, in full ape-man make-up, in the background of some of the movie's posters), and a supporting role in The Flame of Life (1923). He played another historical king, King Philip IV of Spain in The Spanish Dancer (1923) with Pola Negri.

Beery starred in an action melodrama, Stormswept (1923) for FBO Films alongside his elder brother, Noah Beery Sr.. The tagline on the movie's posters was "Wallace and Noah Beery – The Two Greatest Character Actors on the American Screen."

Beery played his third royal, the Duc de Tours, in Ashes of Vengeance (1923) with Norma Talmadge, then did Drifting (1923) with Priscilla Dean for director Browning.

Beery had the titular role in Bavu (1923), about Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution. He co-starred with Buster Keaton in the comedy Three Ages (1923), the first feature Keaton wrote, produced, directed and starred in.

Beery was a villain in The Eternal Struggle (1923), a Mountie drama, produced by Louis B. Mayer, who would eventually become crucial to Beery's career. He was reunited with Dean and Browning in White Tiger (1923), then played the title role in the aforementioned Richard the Lion-Hearted (1923), a sequel to Robin Hood based on Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman.

Beery was in The Drums of Jeopardy (1923) and had a supporting role in The Sea Hawk (1924) for director Frank Lloyd. He also appeared in a supporting role for Clarence Brown's The Signal Tower (1925) starring Virginia Valli and Rockliffe Fellowes.

Beery signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. He had a support role in Adventure (1925) directed by Victor Fleming.

At First National, he was given the star role of Professor Challenger in Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur epic The Lost World (1925), arguably his silent performance most frequently screened in the modern era. Beery was top billed in Paramount's The Devil's Cargo (1925) for Victor Fleming, and supported in The Night Club (1925), The Pony Express (1925) for James Cruze, and The Wanderer (1925) for Raoul Walsh.

Beery starred in a comedy with Raymond Hatton, Behind the Front (1926) and he was a villain in Volcano! (1926). He was a bos'n in Old Ironsides (1926) for director James Cruze, with Charles Farrell in the romantic lead.

Beery had the title role in the baseball movie Casey at the Bat (1927). He was reunited with Hatton in Fireman, Save My Child (1927) and Now We're in the Air (1927). The latter also featured Louise Brooks who was Beery's co star in Beggars of Life (1928), directed by William Wellman, which was Paramount's first part-talkie movie.

There was a fourth comedy with Hatton, Wife Savers (1929), then Beery starred in Chinatown Nights (1929) for Wellman, produced by a young David O. Selznick. This film was shot silent with the voices dubbed in by the actors afterward, which worked spectacularly well with Beery's resonant voice, although the technique was not used again during the silent era for another full-length feature. Beery then played in Stairs of Sand (1929), a Western also starring Jean Arthur (who would play the leading lady in the Western film Shane twenty-four years later) before being fired by Paramount.

Irving Thalberg signed Beery to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a character actor. The association began well when Beery played the savage convict "Butch", a role originally intended for Lon Chaney Sr. (who died that same year), in the highly successful 1930 prison film The Big House, directed by George W. Hill; Beery was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Beery's second film for MGM was also a huge success: Billy the Kid (1930), an early widescreen picture in which he played Pat Garrett. He supported John Gilbert in Way for a Sailor (1930) and Grace Moore in A Lady's Morals (1930), portraying P. T. Barnum in the latter.

Beery was well established as a leading man and top rank character actor. What really made him one of the cinema's foremost stars was Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler and directed by George W. Hill, a sensational success.

Beery made a third film with Hill, The Secret Six (1931), a gangster movie with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in key supporting roles. The picture was popular but was surpassed at the box office by The Champ, which Beery made with Jackie Cooper for director King Vidor. The film, especially written for Beery, was another box office sensation. Beery shared the Best Actor Oscar with Fredric March. Though March received one vote more than Beery, Academy rules at the time—since rescinded—defined results within one vote of each other as "ties".[8]

Beery's career went from strength to strength. Hell Divers (1932), a naval airplane epic also starring a young Clark Gable billed under Beery, was a big hit. So too was the all-star Grand Hotel (1932), in which Beery was billed fourth, under Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford, one of the very few times he would not be top billed for the rest of his career. In 1932 his contract with MGM stipulated that he be paid a dollar more than any other contract player at the studio, making him the world's highest-paid actor.

Beery was a German wrestler in Flesh (1932), a hit directed by John Ford but Ford removed his directorial credit before the film opened, so the picture screened with no director listed despite being labeled "A John Ford Production" in the opening title card. Next Beery was in another all-star ensemble blockbuster, Dinner at Eight (1933), with Jean Harlow holding her own as Beery's comically bickering wife. This time Beery was billed third, under Marie Dressler and John Barrymore.

Beery was loaned out to the new Twentieth Century Pictures for the boisterously fast-paced comedy/drama The Bowery (1933), also starring George Raft, Jackie Cooper and Fay Wray, and featuring Pert Kelton, under the direction of Raoul Walsh. The picture was a smash hit.

Back at MGM he played the title role of Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1933) and was reunited with Dressler in Tugboat Annie (1933), a massive hit. He was Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), described as a box office "disappointment"[9] despite being MGM's third largest hit of the season, and remains currently viewed as featuring one of Beery's iconic performances.

Beery returned to Twentieth Century Productions for The Mighty Barnum (1934) in which he played P. T. Barnum again. Back at MGM he was a kindly sergeant in West Point of the Air (1935) and was in an all-star spectacular, China Seas (1935), this time billed beneath Clark Gable.

O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) reunited Beery and Jackie Cooper. He had the lead as the drunken uncle in MGM's adaptation of Ah, Wilderness! (1936) and went back to Twentieth Century – now 20th Century Fox – for A Message to Garcia (1936).

At MGM he was in Old Hutch (1936) and The Good Old Soak (1937) then he was back at Fox for Slave Ship (1937), taking second billing under Warner Baxter, a rarity for Beery after Min and Bill catapulted his career into the stratosphere in 1931, during which he received top billing in all but six films (Min and Bill, Grand Hotel, Tugboat Annie, Dinner at Eight, China Seas and Slave Ship).

The status of Beery's films went into a decline, possibly due to a scandal in which Beery was implicated in the death of Ted Healy in 1937, which was apparently kept out of the newspapers by the studio's "fixer" Eddie Mannix, who eventually became head of MGM. After an abrupt European vacation, Beery was in The Bad Man of Brimstone (1938) with Dennis O'Keefe (and Noah Beery Sr. in a cameo role as a bartender), Port of Seven Seas (1938) with Maureen O'Sullivan, Stablemates (1938) with Mickey Rooney, Stand Up and Fight (1939) with Robert Taylor, Sergeant Madden (1939) with Tom Brown, Thunder Afloat (1939) with Chester Morris, The Man from Dakota (1940) with Dolores del Río, and 20 Mule Team (1940) with Marjorie Rambeau, Anne Baxter and Noah Beery Jr., enjoying top billing in all of them.

Wyoming (1940) teamed Beery with Marjorie Main. After The Bad Man (1941), which also stars Lionel Barrymore and future US president Ronald Reagan, and was the remake of a Walter Huston picture, MGM reunited Beery and Main in Barnacle Bill (1941), The Bugle Sounds (1941), and Jackass Mail (1942).

Beery did a war film, Salute to the Marines (1943) then was back with Main in Rationing (1944). Barbary Coast Gent (1944), a broad Western comedy in which Beery played a bombastic con man, teamed him with Binnie Barnes. He did another war film, This Man's Navy (1945), then made another Western with Main, Bad Bascomb (1946), a huge hit, helped by Margaret O'Brien's casting.

The Mighty McGurk (1947) put Beery with another child star of the studio, Dean Stockwell. Alias a Gentleman (1947) was the first of Beery's movies to lose money during the sound era. Beery received top billing for A Date with Judy (1949), a hugely popular musical featuring Elizabeth Taylor. Beery's last film, again featuring Main, Big Jack (1949), also lost money according to Mannix's reckoning.

On March 27, 1916, at the age of 30, Beery married 17-year-old actress Gloria Swanson in Los Angeles. The two had co-starred in Sweedie Goes to College. Although Beery had enjoyed popularity with his Sweedie shorts, his career had taken a dip, and during the marriage to Swanson, he relied on her as a breadwinner. According to Swanson's autobiography, Beery raped her on their wedding night, and later tricked her into swallowing an abortifacient when she was pregnant, which caused her to lose their child. Swanson filed for divorce in 1917 and it was finalized in 1918.

On August 4, 1924, Beery married actress Rita Gilman (Mary Areta Gilman; 1898–1986) in Los Angeles. The couple adopted Carol Ann Priester (1930–2013), daughter of Rita Beery's mother's half-sister, Juanita Priester (née Caplinger; 1899–1931) and her husband, Erwin William Priester (1897–1969). After 14 years of marriage, Rita filed for divorce on May 1, 1939, in Carson City, Ormsby County, Nevada. Within 20 minutes of filing, she won the decree. Rita remarried 15 days later, on May 16, 1939, to Jessen Albert D. Foyt (1907–1945), filing her marriage license with the same county clerk in Carson City.

n December 1937, comedic actor Ted Healy was involved in a drunken altercation at Cafe Trocadero on the Sunset Strip. E. J. Fleming, in his 2005 book, The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine, asserts that Healy was attacked by three men:

Future James Bond producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli

Local mob figure Pat DiCicco (who was Broccoli's cousin as well as the former husband of Thelma Todd and the future husband of Gloria Vanderbilt)

Wallace Beery

Fleming writes that this beating led to Healy's death a few days later.

Around December 1939, Beery, recently divorced, adopted a seven-month-old girl, Phyllis Ann Beery. Phyllis appeared in MGM publicity photos when adopted, but was never mentioned again. Beery told the press he had taken the girl in from a single mother, recently divorced, but he had filed no official adoption papers.

Beery was considered misanthropic and difficult to work with by many of his colleagues. Mickey Rooney, one of Beery's few co-stars to consistently speak highly of him in subsequent decades, related in his autobiography that Howard Strickling, MGM's head of publicity, once went to Louis B. Mayer to complain that Beery was stealing props from the studio's sets. "And that wasn't all", Rooney continued. "He went on for some minutes about the trouble that Beery was always causing him ... Mayer sighed and said, 'Yes, Howard, Beery's a son of a bitch. But he's our son of a bitch.' Strickling got the point. A family has to be tolerant of its black sheep, particularly if they brought a lot of money into the family fold, which Beery certainly did."

Child actors, in particular, recalled unpleasant encounters with Beery. Jackie Cooper, who made several films with him early in his career, called him "a big disappointment", and accused him of upstaging, and other attempts to undermine his performances, out of what Cooper presumed was jealousy. He recalled impulsively throwing his arms around Beery after one especially heartfelt scene, only to be gruffly pushed away. Child actress Margaret O'Brien claimed that she had to be protected by crew members from Beery's insistence on constantly pinching her.

In his memoir Rooney described Beery as "... a lovable, shambling kind of guy who never seemed to know that his shirttail belonged inside his pants, but always knew when a little kid actor needed a smile and a wink or a word of encouragement." He did concede that "not everyone loved [Beery] as much as I did." Beery, by contrast, described Rooney as a "brat", but a "fine actor". Future author Ray Bradbury recalled meeting Beery as a young boy on a Hollywood street and that his autograph request resulted in Beery cursing and spitting on him.

Beery owned and flew his own planes, one a Howard DGA-11. On April 15, 1933, he was commissioned a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy Reserve at NRAB Long Beach. One of his proudest achievements was catching the largest giant black sea bass in the world — 515 pounds (234 kg) — off Santa Catalina Island in 1916, a record that stood for 35 years.

A noteworthy episode in Beery's life is chronicled in the fifth episode of Ken Burns' documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea: In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating Jackson Hole National Monument to protect the land adjoining the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Local ranchers, outraged at the loss of grazing lands, compared FDR's action to Hitler's taking of Austria. Led by an aging Beery, they protested by herding 500 cattle across the monument lands without a permit.

On February 13, 1948, Gloria Schumm (aka Gloria Smith Beery, née Florence W. Smith; 1916–1989) filed a paternity suit against Beery. Beery, through his lawyer, Norman Ronald Tyre (1910–2002), initially offered $6,000 as a settlement, but denied being the father. Gloria had given birth on February 7, 1948, to Johan Richard Wallace Schumm. Gloria, in 1944, divorced Stuttgart-born Hollywood actor Hans Schumm (né Johann Josef Eugen Schumm; 1896–1990), but remarried him August 21, 1947, after realizing that she was pregnant. Prior to remarrying Hans Schumm, Gloria, on August 4, 1947, met with Beery at his home, where he gave her the name and address of a physician to submit an examination.[29] At or around that time, she also asked Beery to marry her to legitimatize the expected child (words), which Beery refused.

According to newspapers, Gloria claimed to have been intimate with Wallace Beery on or about May 1, 1947, at his home in Beverly Hills (in the court proceedings, however, she claimed to have been intimate with Beery on May 17, 1947). Beery conceded that he had known Gloria for about 15 years and that, under the pseudonym "Gloria Whitney", she had played bit roles in 6 films that he starred in. She again separated from Hans Schumm April 15, 1948.

Beery died of a heart attack on April 15, 1949 (14 months, 1 week, and 1 day after Johan Schumm's birth) — while the suit was pending. Beery had been reading a newspaper at his Beverly Hills home when he collapsed.[31] His body was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The inscription on his grave reads, "No man is indispensable but some are irreplaceable."

Beery died intestate. In the paternity suit, Gloria Schumm's attorneys demanded $104,135 against Beery's $2,220,000 estate. In February 1952, Judge Newcomb Condee approved a $26,750 settlement from the estate. Gloria Schumm accepted the settlement, and Beery's paternity of Johan Schumm was not acknowledged.

When Mickey Rooney's father died less than a year later, Rooney arranged to have him buried next to his old friend. "I thought it was fitting that these two comedians should rest in peace, side by side", he wrote.

The paternity suit, and subsequent suits – including appeals – extended through about 1952 and were internationally publicized, particularly in gossip columns and tabloids. The litigation has endured as case law with, among other things, treatises addressing the rights of illegitimate offspring against legitimate heirs in races for inheritance.

The upshot was that Schumm's paternity suit against Beery's estate put would-be half-siblings and other would-be family legatees, including a would-be uncle, Noah Beery, Sr., in the position as de facto defendants. Phyllis Ann Riley was not named in Beery's will. Part of plaintiff's claim, initially, hinged on whether an oral agreement was binding. Gloria had claimed that Beery, while alive, agreed to provide for the child. However, on November 17, 1949, Judge William B. McKesson (1895–1967) threw out Gloria's claim. The judge reasoned that any oral agreement between the two, specifically any that was intended to provide for maintenance and care of a minor, was not binding because the amount allegedly agreed upon was in excess of $500, which must be made in writing.

Another matter in the case hinged on a "peppercorn" rule. That is, in order for any agreement, oral or written, between Wallace and Gloria to be binding, there must be consideration. The court, initially, found that Beery agreed to an oral contract where Gloria would (i) include the name "Wallace" in the child's name if a male, or "Wally" if a female, and (ii) refrain from filing a paternity suit that both agreed would damage Beery's "social and professional standing as a prominent motion picture star."

Generally, under California state law at the time, a father who neither marries the mother nor acknowledges paternity does not have a right to name the child. That right belongs to the mother. In exchange for Gloria's promise to name the child "Wallace" or "Wally" (the promise representing a form of consideration), Wallace Beery agreed to arrange for the payment of $100 per week to the child (as a third-party beneficiary under the contract), plus a lump sum of $25,000 to the child when he or she attained age 21, in addition to the customary obligation to pay for the "maintenance, support and education according to the station in life and standard of living of Wallace Beery."

For his contributions to the film industry, Wallace Beery posthumously received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. His star is located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.

Beery is mentioned in the film Barton Fink, in which the lead character has been hired to write a wrestling screenplay to star Beery.

In the 1968 comedy "The Projectionist" actor and comedian Chuck McCann impersonates Beery quoting a line from "Min and Bill"

[ruoyeming]

My Top Ten Anime, a chaotic list

This was so hecking difficult, I’m gonna have to do some ‘honourable mentions’ for ones I can’t bring myself to leave out. This list is based entirely on my personal feelings, not an objective assessment of what are logically the best anime. There also may be mild spoilers at points because I can’t control myself. Doing this in quarantine cause I looove ranting about things I like.

10) Attack On Titan

This was the first anime I ever watched, and it blew my mind a bit tbh. The music is iconic, and the animation is great as well. It might have been a bit harrowing for my first experience with anime, but I absolutely loved the story. It’s set in a world where titans (man eating giants) have driven the dregs of humanity to live within giant stone walls. There’s a group of humans trying to research titans, kill them, and protect humanity, and the main character decides to join them after a titan breaks through one of the walls and his mother is eaten. It’s one of those where you think you know everything and suddenly the world gets turned upside down by a new discovery. All the puzzle pieces start fitting together the longer you watch, and you find out that everything going on is much bigger than what it originally seemed (government conspiracy time lads). The plot twists are unpredictable (for me at least) and devastating, and the emotion this series evokes is awesome - you can FEEL the sheer desperation of the characters, their rage and despair as they fight again and again against a seemingly unending enemy. Despite almost every battle being a suicide mission and despite too many losses, the characters keep going out of the human need to survive and protect. 

10/10 for brutality and gore, but also theme of hope.

9) Naruto

A founding father of anime. Surprisingly not one of the first I watched, in fact it took me a few years to start. It’s set in a feudal Japan where ninjas are the defenders and servers of the people, and different villages have different ninja styles. Naruto is a young boy with a dangerous spirit sealed inside him which has caused him to be shunned by society (even though it’s not his fault??), and he wants to become a ninja. First off I’m a sucker for the Naruto archetype: dumbass, cocky, obnoxious, but kind and loyal too. Years of solitude and ostracisation as a child mean that Naruto desperately wants people to acknowledge him, and he intends to become the Hokage to prove himself. There’s a huge range of characters and villains, all with cool ninjutsus and different philosophies. Friendship, power, and determination are some of the main themes and it makes me so proud to see my son *COUGH* Naruto progressing and learning from his mistakes. It IS a long boi though and I haven’t even finished Shippuden yet, but I think Naruto captures the essence of shounen anime and is a great underdog story. Manga is lit too. 

10/10 for cool battles and great characters.

8) Psycho Pass

One of the earlier anime I watched, and it became an instant favourite for the way it makes you question morality. It’s set in a kinda dystopian future Japan, where a technology called the Sibyl System checks people’s mental state and determines their ‘crime coefficient’ - how likely they are to commit a crime. The main character is a young woman who joins the police and begins to realise that blindly following this system is perhaps not the best way to go about things. For example, they have special guns that automatically kill people whose crime coefficients are over a certain level, but she soon proves that you can easily lower someone’s coefficient by talking them down and negotiating instead of killing them off immediately. It’s got great drama, great government conspiracy, compelling villains, and some really badass characters. It pushes the question of what is right or wrong, and how far technology should go when it comes to justice. 

10/10 for sociological debate and horror elements.

7) One Punch Man

OPM is an anime that stands out for me, partially for mocking the tropes of battle anime, and partially for the uniqueness of the main character’s predicament. It’s set in Japan where heroes and villains exist, and the protagonist is a man called Saitama who gained superstrength after doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10K run every day. However he’s become so strong that he can defeat every enemy with a single punch. Nothing is a challenge for him anymore so he becomes depressed and unfulfilled; he’s still a good man who helps people, but he feels he’s missing something from his life. A cyborg called Genos makes Saitama his master, determined to learn his ways and they become friends. It’s one of the first anime that made me laugh out loud; it’s funny and entertaining, but also shows us that power is not equal to happiness. 

10/10 for moral lessons and good jokes.

6) Tanaka-kun is Always Listless

The only slice of life anime on this list and not very well known, however it has a special place in my heart. The main character Tanaka is a boy who dozes off constantly and acts exhausted when awake; he loves expending as little energy as possible. His best friend Ohta looks out for him and essentially makes sure he doesn’t get lost/ be late/die on a daily basis, including carrying him when he just falls asleep sometimes. Although Tanaka seems uncaring, it’s shown that friendship isn’t a bother to him, and he realises that he actually relies on his friends despite saying he likes being left in peace. His friends all have great personalities, my personal faves are a tough gangster girl who’s rude to everyone EXCEPT her adorable loli girlfriend, and a popular girl who’s trying too hard to fit in and starts to become more herself after befriending Tanaka. All the characters share one brain cell, and it’s genuinely a funny anime - I’ve burst out laughing watching it a few times. Also Tanaka and Ohta are extremely shippable if you want to go down that route; it’s said several times in the series that they’re like an old married couple. 

10/10 for wholesomeness and comedy.

5) Ouran High School Host Club

Another lighthearted show, probably the anime that’s made me laugh the most out of any. It’s set at an academy for rich-as-heck kids, and there’s a ‘Host Club’ where all the girls go to drink tea with a group of handsome boys. There’s the cunning Kyouka, prankster identical twins Hikaru and Kaoru, stoic Mori, adorable Honey, and princely but obnoxious Tamaki. Haruhi, a working-class scholarship student who is mistaken for a boy, accidentally breaks a precious vase and is forced by the host club to join them to pay off her debt. The group of boys realise fairly quickly that haruhi is a girl, but she becomes a popular host amongst the girls (LOVE the secret lesbian vibes) so they keep up the charade. I think I have a weakness for groups that share one brain cell because aside from Kyouka, they’re all idiots. I also love how flexible the show is with ideas of gender and sexuality despite being a slightly older anime. The daily antics of the host club combined with their personalities is a recipe for comedy, and they’re all lovable in their own ways. 

10/10 for characters, drama, and comedy; it’s well-paced too.

4) Bungou Stray Dogs

Set in an alternate modern Japan where some people have secret abilities that can be activated, this anime became an obsession when I first watched it. The cast of characters is amazing and the villains are awesome too. Atsushi is an orphan who discovers he can turn into a powerful tiger, and is hired by the Armed Detective Agency, a small organisation of powerful individuals who fight crime. NEED I SAY ANY MORE?? Many of the main characters share names with famous Japanese authors such as Osamu Dazai and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa which is really cool and something that might add to the story more if I had an understanding of Japanese literature. Anyways the main character Atsushi is kind of a wimp at first (understandably because the world of ability-users is actually terrifying), but he learns to stand up for himself and use his ability to save people. The show’s mixing of dark and comedic tones is perfect to me; one moment a character is off his head on mushrooms and the next Atsushi’s leg is brutally sliced off in a back alley fight (it regenerates later no worries). The plot is really cool and full of intrigue, and eventually you get the whole ‘Usually we’re sworn enemies but we’re forced to become allies in the face of a greater evil’ thing and it’s great! Turns out our main guy and our main bad guy are actually a pretty powerful and efficient team, hoho?? 

10/10 for supernatural detectives being super cool.

3) Yuri!!! on Ice

Y’all already know what’s going on. Ice skating, emotional breakthroughs, gay shit, HIT ME WITH IT. The story follows Yuri Katsuki, an insecure figure skater trying to regain his confidence, and his self-appointed coach Viktor Nikiforov. Viktor is enthusiastic in helping Yuri train, and Yuri has been a big fan of Viktor since his childhood *throws pillow across the room*. Yuri becomes determined to, quote, “surpass Viktor’s wildest imagination”, and they end up agreeing - through a series of convoluted events - to get married if Yuri wins gold at the olympics (I think it’s the olympics??). Either fuckin way this series has angst, humour, cuteness, and god DAMN did I get invested. When Yuri was doing his free skate my own heart was beating harder than it did when I finished a 10K. Love the vibes and also it’s the closest to full healthy gay representation that I’ve seen in anime for a while. Not much more I can say, but do I really need to say more???

10/10 for GAY and MY HEART

2) Kimetsu No Yaiba (Demon Slayer)

Ok this one’s kind of a cheat cause I’ve read the manga as well which is way ahead of the anime, but FUCC. It takes place in the Taisho Era in Japan (begins 1912), where Demons exist who eat people. Tanjiro Kamado’s family is killed by a demon one night and his sister Nezuko is turned into a demon - but it is soon discovered she’s different to other demons, and can restrain herself. Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps to try and track down a cure for his sister, while proving that demons are not inherently evil. I LOVE Tanjiro as a main character because he values kindness over everything else, not forgiving demons for their sins but recognising they are tormented creatures, trying to give them peace before they die. All demons were once human - a fact that only Tanjiro seems to remember when fighting them. He’s patient, gentle, and determined - hotheaded and brash sometimes, but he has this vibe that just makes people become his friend/respect him even if they don’t intend to. He befriends two other slayers - Inosuke, an absolutely feral Best Boy who was raised by wild boars, and Zenitsu, a cowardly but ultimately loyal guy. This trio works really well together and Tanjiro is a great protagonist. Don’t even get me STARTED on the music and animation. Impeccable. Kamado Tanjiro No Uta makes me cry every time I hear it, and the water/fire effects used to show the metaphorical way the swords move like the elements takes my breath away.

10/10 for morals, music and animation.

1) Mob Psycho 100

Where the fuck do I start here. This anime is so unique in its style, story, and characters that I think it will always be my favourite. It follows Shigeo Kageyama (nicknamed Mob cause that’s what they call extras and background characters in Japan), a plain boy with incredible psychic powers that explode when his emotions are too high. Over time he’s learned to suppress his emotions, causing him to become socially inept and emotionally withdrawn. His (fake) psychic ‘master’, Reigen, uses him to make money exorcising spirits, making Mob believe that it’s for ‘training’. Mob appears naive at times, but he is so simply kind to people that it makes my heart hurt. Unlike many of the egomaniac psychics that Mob comes across, he recognises that without powers, he is just an ordinary boy. Mob’s greatest power isn’t his OP psychic abilities, but his power to show people they can change, that he can change. He forgives (and eventually befriends) people who have tried to kill him. Redemption and empathy are big themes here and they’re done really well.

The other characters are so well rounded and are also given time to grow, including Reigen - at first he’s a seemingly manipulative sleazebag, but later you see that he is a genuinely good man who has taught Mob many lessons and helped him grow up. This is a core message - Mob’s ability to change is due to support from his friends, not purely his own desire - people need other people!

This is also one of the true rarities in anime where the second season is absolutely just as good (if not better!) than the first one. The music is unique to the show, the ops for both seasons get me litty, the animation is incredible, the jokes are great and although it’s not all about big-ass fights, when we do get a big-ass fight it’s so fucking cool. The fight sequences are beautifully animated and visually stunning. MP100 makes me laugh, cry like an actual baby, and want to become a better person. Idk I could literally write pages on it like the big nerd I am but that’s all I’ll do for now.

10/10 for literally everything.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Given : about a boy who joins a band which helps him work through his trauma. Lovely healthy gay representation and themes of healing.

Samurai Champloo : ragtag trio consisting of two samurai - one lowkey feral and does breakdancing, the other lofty and withdrawn - and a bold young girl. Themes of friendship and journeys. I simp for the lofty samurai.

Cowboy Bebop: jazzy music, bounty hunters in space, 90s anime WHAT MORE COULD U WANT. Yet another group of characters that share a single brain cell. Love it.

[softforcal]

Penumbra : Gang!Luke Ch.3

Summary: Birdie goes to the Luxury for the first time and meets Luke’s ‘coworkers’ 

Warnings: smut

Word Count: 4.9K

Chapter Song: Sucker - Jonas Brothers

(Find the full Gang AU masterlist here)

(Part 1) (Part 2) - (For some reason the links don’t seem to be working on desktop? but uh, they work in all my masterlists so if you need to find the original parts, go on mobile or check one of my masterlists out)

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        They’d been official for two weeks and Luke had become accustomed to picking Birdie up after work on nights where she didn’t have school in the morning. This being a Saturday, Birdie had gotten an early shift so she could spent the night with Luke.

        He was a little bit early, and as he entered the ice cream shop, he noticed Birdie talking to someone at the till.

        She looked happy, but she always looked happy at work. However, there was something different about this smile. Luke could hear the easy way she was chatting with the man and Luke had to admit the guy was attractive.

        “It’s been ages! I’m so glad we finally caught up.” The guy said.

        “Yeah, I’m glad you’re finally happy!” Birdie beamed.

        “Me too. How about you? Anyone new in your life?”

        Birdie’s eyes slid past the man, landing on Luke who stayed near the doorway, and she smiled, “yeah, there’s someone special.”

        The guy finished paying and the two said their goodbye’s, he left, and Birdie disappeared to the back room. When she finally came out, Luke wrapped her in a hug, “who was that?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

        Birdie appreciated him not being outwardly jealous, even if she knew him well enough to see the worry in his eyes. She had noticed that about Luke. He didn’t like to constrain her (outside the bedroom that is) but she could always pick up on things that made him uncomfortable. And other men were one of those things.

        Luke managed to forget about the fact he was lying about being in a gang most of the time. It was always there but like the other issues and marks that marred his past, he found it easy to ignore. But in times where other men were involved, the issue came front and centre.

        Luke couldn’t shake the worried feeling whenever guys paid attention to Birdie. He worried that she’d find out about his affiliation with The Aces and leave him. He worried that every guy she talked to, was better for her. They weren’t being selfish. They weren’t lying. They weren’t gangsters.

        “He was an ex.” Birdie said, “from high school, don’t worry, he wasn’t even my first kiss.”

        “Oh yeah?” Luke grinned, “who was your first kiss?”

        “You don’t want to hear about it.” Birdie said, hiding her face in his chest.

        “Yes I do.” Luke assured her.

        “It was with this guy while my family was on vacation in Hawaii. I was seventeen.”

        “No shit?” Luke laughed, “wow, what a late bloomer.”

        Birdie widened her eyes at him, poking him in the chest, “oh yeah!? And when was your first kiss Mr. ‘i’m so cool and mature and slutty’?!”

        Luke laughed, wrapping his arm around the back of her neck so he could pull her close, pressing kiss to her forehead, “I was six, we were under the monkey bars, she had pigtails and had just scraped her knee.” He neglected to include the part where some other bully two years older had pushed the girl and Luke had beat him up, earning the peck on the lips for his valiant effort. And alas, his life of danger had begun at the ripe age of six over something as minor as a skinned knee.

        “Was she cuter than me?” Birdie teased.

        “Definitely.” Luke smirked, “pigtails are a look.”

        Birdie giggled as the two of them left the ice cream shop.

        They were a block from her work when Luke’s phone rang and he groaned loudly, pulling it out. Calum’s name was flashing on his screen, “baby I’m sorry I have to take this it’s work.”

        “No worries.” She said, giving his hand a little squeeze.

        Luke answered his phone, “what?”

        “We need you for something. I’d do it myself, but I think you could get it done quicker.”

        Luke thought about it for a second. Part of him wanted to say no but he didn’t have the type of job where that was an option, “fine, I’ll be there in ten.” He hung up and Birdie looked up at him expectantly, “baby I’m so sorry, I have to pop into my work for a bit-”

        “It’s okay.” She smiled, “I can finally meet your workmates.”

        Luke nodded. The bar wasn’t open yet so it would be just a few people around. Puppy had started taking earlier, opening shifts at the urging of Calum and Ashton who had gotten needier and needier in the year of them dating. There was also the threat of a rival gang, but after Puppy’s first ‘abduction’ Luke doubted the girl, who had since invested hours into self defence classes, would ever be caught unawares again.

        Luke wanted Puppy to meet Birdie. He was chill if his friends could meet her too, but Puppy was like a sister, and this was important to him.

        They walked to the bar, chatting about Birdie’s day.

        The main door to the bar was locked and after a moment Puppy opened it for them, eyes widening in shock as they landed on the shorter girl. “oh! You must be Birdie!”

        “And you must be Puppy!” Birdie smiled, “Luke’s told me all about you!”

        Puppy opened her arms to hug the smaller girl and glared at Luke over her shoulder, “he has, has he?”

        “All good.” Birdie assured her.

        “Of course I told her about my favourite co-worker.” Luke stated, flashing Puppy a look that she returned with a glare, knowing exactly what Luke was insinuating. Luke had told Puppy the basics about everyone, he’d just left out the whole ‘gang thing’.

        “So, the guys are waiting in the back for you,” Puppy said as she returned to her station behind the bar top, continuing her opening duties.

        “Okay.” Luke said, his hands settled on Birdie’s hips and he lifted her up and set her on top of the bar counter, slotting between her legs as he kissed her, “I won’t be long princess.” He assured her.

        Puppy watched with wide eyes as Luke began to walk away, then he stopped, “oh, uh, Puppy, you wouldn’t happen to have a hair tie by any chance, would you?”

        “Sorry I don’t.” Puppy said.

        “Babe I have this one.” Birdie said, pulling her favourite pink scrunchie from her hair.

        Luke walked over again, hands resting on her thighs, “thank you sweetheart.” He kissed her cheek and accepted the scrunchie, leaving again.

        As he walked down the back hall, Luke gathered up his messy curls, putting the scrunchie in his hair to keep everything in place. Michael and Ashton were waiting for him outside the interrogation room and Michael was the first to laugh, “what’s in your hair?!”

        “a scrunchie.” Luke said, handing him his leather jacket that had aptly been named ‘the murder jacket’ for the number of times Luke had killed people while wearing it.

        He rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt, thanking god that he’d worn this shirt today because he had a bunch of these black shirts in his locker for moments like these when one got a little bloody. He could change after and Birdie would be none the wiser.

        “And… are you wearing pink nail polish?” Michael asked, grabbing at Luke’s hand.

         Luke pulled himself out of Michael’s grasp quickly, “yes.”

        Michael’s laughter rang through the hall, “holy shit Luke, you’re going to ruin our reputation.”

        “Our reputation?” Ashton asked, “Michael, last I heard you weren’t the one getting credit for some of the most brutal murders in Ace history.”

        Michael shut up after that and Luke grinned.

        Ashton gave him a quick debriefing on what they needed to know and what parameters were in place: none. Luke could do whatever he needed to do, they were going to kill the poor bastard either way.

        Ashton typed in the code to the room and before they entered Michael asked, “aren’t you going to wear your murder jacket?”

        “Not this time.” Luke answered.

        Calum was leaning against the wall, eyes on the man tied to a chair.

        When Luke came in the guy in the chair looked up and laughed, “this is your prized interrogator? Man’s wearing a pink scrunchie!”

        “Yeah. My girlfriend gave it to me. Her name’s Birdie. She works at the ice cream shop down the street.” Luke said.

        The guys smile disappeared. Luke was giving away personal information. Which could only mean one thing. The man in the chair knew in that moment he was not leaving the room alive.

        Luke made quick work of it, performing with brutal efficiency. A merciful angel giving a quick death after only minor torture which, as all those in the room knew, truly was an act of mercy Luke bestowed rarely, and only on a select few.

        While someone dealt with the body, Luke and his three friends went to the back room for him to wash up. Paying close attention to his hands, Luke made sure there wasn’t any evidence on his skin or his rings. He wiped at the small splattering on his face, grateful to the scrunchie that had kept his hair from his eyes and ensured no blood had marred his golden curls.

        “So, you guys have to pretend you’re bartenders.” He stated as he pulled off his shirt, tossing it in a post-interrogation bag for someone else to deal with.

        “What?” Ashton asked.

        “Birdie thinks you guys work here with me as bartenders.”

        Calum covered his face with a hand, “you still haven’t told her.”

        “Haven’t you been dating for like over a month?”

        “Dating yes, official, two weeks tomorrow.” Luke said.

        “Great you’re keeping track of exact dates and everything.” Michael groaned.

        They watched Luke grab one of his other black shirts, “just fucking do it. For me. Okay?”

        “I don’t like this.” Ashton said.

        “Puppy is going to be mad.” Calum agreed.

        “Yeah I called her my co-worker when I came in.” Luke laughed slightly.

        “Bet she loved that.” Michael chuckled.

        “You’re getting us into some deep shit.” Calum warned.

        Luke grabbed his jacket from Michael, slipping it on, “wouldn’t be the first time.”

        They all left the back room, going down the hallways until they reached the bar area again. As they entered, Birdie hopped down from the bar table. While Luke had been gone, she’d pulled out two bubble gum flavoured lollipops from her bag and offered one to Puppy who had put hers behind the bar but not eaten it.

        Unlike Birdie, Puppy knew the limits of the men she was dating. She knew that a lollipop would, without a doubt, earn her a trip to the back hallway, or if she was lucky, the bathroom, and she was still feeling the after affects of a wild morning so she’d decided not to risk the very probable outcome.

        Birdie sucked on the lollipop but had already gotten through most of it and Luke almost groaned when he saw her, “who let you get your hands on that Princess?” he asked.

        “I had some in my purse.” Birdie grinned, letting Luke take the sucker from her mouth before putting it in his own.

        The gang members watched in shock. Their tall blonde murder boy, with a pink scrunchie in his hair, pink nails, sucking on a pink lollipop, looking down at a girl with complete and utter adoration in his eyes.

        Birdie peered around her boyfriend at the three other guys, “Luke, aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked.

        “Right.” Luke said, turning to put his arm over his shoulders, “so the blonde one is Ashton, the one with bleached hair is Michael and the brunette is Calum.”

        Birdie offered a hand Ashton and Calum shoved a shocked looking Ashton, motioning for him to shake it. Finally the blonde accepted the small symbol of friendship.

        When all three men had been introduced and shaken her hand, Birdie stepped back, cuddling into Luke’s chest, “so you’re all bartenders here?”

        “Yes.” Michael said rather pointedly, “bartenders! Love making drinks. But Calum here,” he grabbed Calum’s shoulders, “is the best, you should get him to make you something.”

        “Really?” Birdie asked.

        Calum sighed, “sure. Pick your poison sweetheart.” Calum walked around behind the bar, Luke and Birdie moving to be on the other side to watch him create.

        “Uh…” Birdie thought about it for a moment, “Luke what do you think?”

        Calum poured himself some water while he waited for instructions, Puppy standing next to him with a grin.

        Luke lifted Birdie and sat her on the bar table again as her fingers danced across his shoulders, now at eye level with the blonde who was once again between her legs, “you’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth Princess, maybe try the lavender lemon fizz.”

        Calum nearly spat out his drink, coughing slightly.

        “You know how to make that right Cal?” Luke asked, gaze going to the man who was now entirely out of place behind the bar.

        Calum most definitely did not know how to make that drink.

��       It was one of their more obscure ones, definitely the girliest drink on the menu by far, it was a shock to everyone in the room that Luke (who drank mostly straight shots) even know it existed, but Luke honestly thought Birdie would adore it.

        “Uh, yeah I can make that.” Calum said, setting down his water.

        Luckily Birdie turned her attention back to Luke which allowed time for Puppy to show Calum what he needed to make the purple coloured concoction.

        Birdie reached a hand up and pulled the scrunchie from Luke’s hair, letting his curls fall across his face. She giggled, pushing them out of the way and fussing with them until they were perfect. Everyone watched in silence.

        Luke had always been very particular with his hair. Few were ever allowed to touch it. And yet here he was, letting a girl run her fingers through it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

        As Birdie put the scrunchie on her wrist Michael nudged Ashton, “yikes.” He whispered, just loud enough for Ashton to hear. They’d all seen Luke torture and kill that man with the scrunchie in, but it was another thing to witness his girlfriend take back the scrunchie with no idea that it had just been an accessory to murder.

        Luke still had the lollipop in his mouth and Birdie grabbed the stick, but Luke wouldn’t let her pull it away from him, “hey!” she whined.

        “You have a drink coming.” Luke said, teeth still firmly around the stick.

        “But I want my lollipop.”

        “Too bad.”

        Birdie’s lower lip began to whimper, and Luke gave in almost instantly, sighing as he allowed her to finally pull it from his mouth and put it back in her own. By the time the couple turned to look at Calum, Puppy had managed to get all the ingredients together and Calum was mixing them.

        Even Luke had to admit Calum was committing to the role, with Puppy’s guidance, he looked like a proper bartender. Calum poured the drink into a martini glass and slid it across the table.

        Luke stuck a hand in his pocket, pulling out a twenty from the wad of cash he’d just earned from torturing the man in the back. He held it out towards Calum tauntingly, only to hand it over to Puppy who laughed.

        All eyes went to Birdie as she held the glass with two hands, sipping at it. Her eyes widened, “this is so good!” she squealed.

        Birdie was so excited that she almost spilled some of the drink as Luke took the glass away from her, “woah there lightweight, slow down before I have to call an ambulance.”

        Luke had never in his life called an ambulance and everyone knew it, except for Birdie, who giggled at the teasing tone of his voice.

        The gang watched the two interact and Puppy started an easy conversation with the girl. Birdie was more than happy to share the fact that she was an English major, she even gushed about how on their second date Luke had read bad love poetry to her. Everyone looked at Luke with new eyes after hearing all the juicy details Birdie was giving them.

        They were surprised that this was the same Angel Face who had just murdered a man not minutes before, but what was even more shocking, was how Luke watched Birdie speak with a soft smile, his hands on her thighs, he made no effort to get her to stop revealing his secrets.

        While Birdie answered questions, Ashton moved behind the bar, settling next to Puppy. His arm went around her shoulders and Calum’s arm was already around her waist. The trio listened and, as much as neither Ace wanted to admit it, the things Birdie was saying was making every person in the room feel warm and fuzzy inside.

        Luke asked Birdie a question and in the blink of an eye, it’s like the two of them escaped to their own world. Suddenly the other people in the room were nothing, just phantoms witnessing something they couldn’t control or touch or alter.

        Birdie had finished her drink and when the lollipop ran out as well, Luke pulled the stick from her mouth, setting it in the empty glass. He grabbed her chin, thumb teasing Birdie’s lower lip.

        He kissed her gently and for a moment, everything was sweet. But when he pulled away, his thumb went back to her mouth and he put it just a little bit closer to slipping past her lips. Birdie’s eyes were on Luke’s which watched the motions of his digit which she finally accepted into her mouth.

        With that, every other person in the room huddled away from the couple, all of them thinking the same thing: that thumb had been covered in blood not thirty minutes earlier.

        “Yikes.” Michael repeated a little too loudly, earning him a small smack from Puppy, “hey! You think of a better word.” He glared.

        None of them could.

        Yikes summed up the situation quite brilliantly.

        “One of you needs to get him to tell her.” Puppy hissed.

        “One of us? You’re the one that’s practically the guys sister.” Michael said. Three pairs of eyes turned to him and Michael sighed, “right, I forgot, neither of you two can stand against your girlfriend or she won’t suck your dicks or whatever.”

        “That’s not-” Ashton began but he shut his mouth after Puppy glared at him.

        “Someone has to tell Luke that he has to-” Puppy began but by the time they all turned around, the couple was nowhere to be found.

        “For fucks sake.” Calum sighed.

        “This is not happening in my bar.” Puppy said sternly. It was a funny sentiment given the fact that, out of everyone in the room, Puppy had the second least claim to the notorious Ace bar but in that moment, no one was going to fight her on it. 

        “We’ve fucked you in this bar.” Calum pointed out.

        Ashton giggled, “as if you’re going to go stop them.”

        Puppy turned and left, the three men watching her turn down a hallway, she was about to turn again to go towards the bathroom when she almost smacked right into the walking human wall that was Luke Hemmings.

        They didn’t have the decency to even get into one of the private bathrooms and Puppy was about to scold Luke when she realized Luke’s hand was wrapped around Birdie’s throat. Without another word, Puppy turned and left, coming back to the main bar with a look of horror on her face.

        “What is it? What did you see?” Calum asked, hand settling on the small of her back.

        “He’s choking her.”

        “What?!” Calum and Ashton were on alert instantly.

        Michael laughed, “she means sexually.”

        The tension in Ashton and Calum’s shoulders relaxed and Puppy put her face in her hands, “this is so fucked.”

        “Birdie is the one that’s getting fucked.” Michael clarified, “this situation, is wack as shit.”

        Birdie had flushed the darkest shade of pink Luke had ever seen as Puppy had ran away. Hiding her face in his chest, Birdie was almost shaking from embarrassment, “oh my gosh.” She groaned.

        “Don’t worry baby, I’ve walked in on Puppy loads of times. And it’s worse because she has Calum and Ashton.” Luke assured her.

        He was willing to say anything to get her into the bathroom at that point. Luke knew, without a doubt, he was the hardest he’d ever been in his entire life. Watching Birdie suck on that lollipop then on his thumb had unleashed an animalistic urge and Luke was nowhere near strong enough to keep it contained.

       Birdie pulled away from his chest, looking up at Luke who immediately used one hand to cup her face, bringing his lips down on hers again. “I feel dirty.” Birdie mumbled against his mouth.

        Luke pulled away to rest his forehead against hers, “don’t you like being dirty, little girl?”

        Birdie giggled, biting her lip then nodding. Luke grabbed her hand, pulling her into one of the private bathrooms that had its own lock on the door. He closed it behind them, making a big show of locking them in. He even tested the handle to prove to Birdie that it was locked, and no one would stumble in on them.

        Luke turned to look at his girlfriend, she was standing in the middle of the small room looking all awkward and adorable. Her usual kitten paw, long sweater sleeves were nowhere to be seen because he’d picked her up from work, so instead, her fingers were playing with the belt loops of her blue ripped jeans. Luke loved those jeans. The way they hugged her beautiful thighs that he loved so much, and that little bum he’d already grown accustomed to grabbing.

        She looked so out of place, but Luke adored it. He opened his arms for her and without question, Birdie approached him. His hands cupped her face, “we don’t have to do this if you’re uncomfortable princess.” He assured her.

        Birdie went on her tiptoes, trying to get at Luke’s lips and after a moment of tortuous teasing, he finally closed the gap. They had only been kissing for a second when Birdie’s hands went to the button of his jeans.

        Luke groaned into her mouth as she worked his jeans and briefs down just enough to grab him. One of her hands began to work his shaft and Luke half expected her to reach into his back pocket for the condom he always kept there, but when Birdie pulled away and dropped to her knees, Luke’s eyes widened in shock.

        She pushed his hips a little and Luke allowed her to direct him so the sink counter was behind him, he braced his hands on the cold counter top, leaning against it so he was a bit shorter because on her knees, Luke knew there was no way Birdie would be eye level with his dick.

        He watched her, holding his breath as she opened her mouth and wrapped it around his tip. Luke’s eyes closed and he let his head roll back, enjoying the feeling. They’d been dating for two weeks but oddly enough, Birdie had never given him a blow job. They’d been having all sorts of raunchy sex, the kind that Luke would almost feel bad telling his friends about, but usually Luke was the one dominating. Usually he’d be the one with complete control.

        And now there he was, in his club’s bathroom, his pretty princess between his legs and Luke knew that she had him wrapped around her little finger like nothing else in the entire world.

        Birdie grabbed the base of his dick, sucking more of him into her mouth. Luke’s hands tangled in her hair, but he didn’t try to force her to take more of him than she could handle.

        She was getting more comfortable with it and began bobbing her head up and down, “that’s it, pretty girl, just like that.” Luke urged.

        Birdie hummed happily around him and Luke’s hips spasmed at the vibration, a low groan leaving his chest. She sucked a little harder and Luke’s eyes popped open, looking down at the girl in shock. He’d had blow jobs, but none of them had ever been like this.

        The girl in between his legs was full of surprises and Luke loved her with every fibre of his being.

        “Fuck princess I’m going to cum-” he cut himself off with another groan as she sucked at him even harder, hand pumping whatever parts of his shaft that she didn’t already have in her mouth. Luke’s grip in her hair tightened to try to slow her down but it had no effect, her determined motions refusing to be stopped or interrupted by his hand.

        This was going to be the shortest, most intense blow of Luke’s life and he knew it. He could already feel himself coming undone and he hurried to try to form a coherent sentence, “your mouth-” is all he could manage before another moan fell from his lips.

        Birdie once again ignored him and if Luke hadn’t felt so fucking good, he might have felt bad about spilling into her mouth. Birdie continued bobbing on his dick as a flurry of curse words left his lips, hips jutting as he came.

        When he was finally done, Luke opened his eyes and looked down at Birdie who pulled away.

        She swallowed.

        Luke groaned, haphazardly dragging his pants back up and grabbing his princess, pulling her to her feet. His thumb swiped her bottom lip, collecting the smallest amount of cum that had somehow escaped, Birdie opened her mouth and sucked it off his digit and Luke swore he was about to get hard all over again.

        “Where the fuck did you learn to suck dick like that pretty girl?” he asked.

        “Lollipops.” Birdie stated.

        Luke laughed, pinching Birdie’s cheek, of course that would be her answer. “fuck, you’re something else, aren’t you?”

        Birdie looked down, away from his eyes, as a flush creeped over her skin. He pulled her to his chest, hand cupping her head as he kept her tight against his body. He enjoyed the feeling of just holding her for a few moments. Finally, he released her, “okay we should probably head out.”

        Birdie nodded and stepped away from Luke. He grabbed her hand and unlocked the door, ushering her to go out first like the gentleman he was. As the two of them re-entered the main bar area, everyone looked up.

        “Wow, that was fast.” Michael mused.

        It was obvious the comment was sexual but on a Michael scale of jokes, one being not sexual at all and ten being him making sexual noises to prove a point, this was probably only a three. But Birdie immediately blushed, squeezing Luke’s hand. He looked at her then turned his stone-cold gaze to Michael, “you better fucking watch it.” Luke warned.

        Michael held up his hands in defense, not used to being on the receiving end of Luke’s death glare.

        “So, you two heading out Angel Face?” Puppy asked, trying to redirect the situation.

        Luke froze at the nick name. Puppy had always called him by that name but most people who knew anything about gangs in their city would recognize the seemingly innocent name. For a moment he was worried Birdie would know the nickname but instead, she was smiling.

        “Aw baby, she calls you Angel Face? That’s so cute!” Birdie grinned, turning to press one palm against Luke’s chest while the other hand came up to pinch at his cheek adoringly. Everyone looked at each other at the term ‘baby.’ Luke may have been many things, hell, they’d even nicknamed him Angel Face (for more sinister reasons but still) and sure, sometimes Puppy called him ‘baby cakes’ in a condescending way, but no one had ever called him just ‘baby.’

        Luke grinned down at her, “you don’t think the name suits me?”

        “It definitely does.” Birdie assured him.

        Calum shifted uncomfortably and Puppy’s jaw dropped. Ashton was the first to laugh but it was quickly cut off by a smack from Puppy who knew her boyfriend was about two seconds away from spilling the real reason Luke was called Angel Face, and it was only half to do with his beautifully angelic features.

        “Want to hear a story about your boyfriend being an idiot?” Puppy asked.

        “Of course!” Birdie smiled, turning to look at Puppy while Luke moved to stand behind her, arms coming to cradle her back to his chest.

        “When I first met Luke and I told him my name, he heard Puppy instead of Poppy so then everyone was calling me Puppy-”

        “Even us.” Calum said, smiling at his girlfriend, adoration obvious in his gaze.

        “But we like nicknames.” Ashton interjected.

        “You like nicknames old man.” Puppy grinned.

        “Is that any way to speak to your daddy?” Ashton scolded, earning him another small smack from Puppy as he giggled and pulled away.

        Luke grinned but he was beginning to get impatient, not wanting to be in the club any longer than he had to, especially since they’d be opening soon. Birdie could sense his growing anxiety, “want to go baby?” she asked.

        He nodded, adoring the fact that she always seemed to know what he was feeling.

        “Well you two love birds have fun,” Michael said as the two excused themselves, “see you at work tomorrow Baby.”

        Luke glared at Michael over his shoulder, about to threaten him, but the giggle that left Birdie’s lips made him smile, immediately forgetting any embarrassment he may have been feeling.

       When they were gone Calum let out a breath, “what a fucking mess.”

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Part 4 will HERE

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Oneshot Masterlist

Regular Masterlist

[skookworks]

Gallery – Half Hour Sketches 31 to 60

From last year, the second set of thirty daily/half hour sketches. Do you have any favorites?

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Story Seed #45 A Bad Seed Blooms

Karren was always a difficult child. Demanding, clingy, prone to throwing tantrums when she didn’t get her way. Dealing with her on a daily basis was enough to convince her parents that they didn’t want to have another child. Yes she was often charming. Yes she was usually very entertaining and she could seem very loving but, damn, she was awfully narcissistic.

When Karren was eight, her mother became pregnant (their contraception method failed) and her parents decided that they’d keep the baby. Karren would adapt, she’d have to. Right? And for a while it seemed like Karren would. She was delighted by the idea of having a sibling. She had fun playing nursemaid and helper to her mother and she revelled in the appreciation that her parents showed her for her new attitude.

The baby came, a little sister. Karren played doting big sister, giving cuddles, helping with bottles and rocking her to sleep. But, her parents had less attention for her and got crankier form lack of sleep, the old Karren resurfaced. She was jealous of the baby, angry that it just wouldn’t behave. Her play became meaner and rougher. One morning her mother caught her holding a pillow over the baby’s face. She wasn’t trying to kill the baby, she was just trying to make it stop crying, she didn’t know what she was doing, did she?

Her parents made arrangements to send Karren to a boarding school. Until she could depart her parents never left her alone with the baby and they locked her room at night.

Two days before Karren was to depart her mother took her and the baby to run errands. Karren had been behaving. She seemed contrite. Maybe safe? As they returned to the house their car was blocked in by a pair of black SUVs and armed men pulled them from the vehicle.

Karren’s parents were comfortably upper middle class. Karren’s grandfather, her father’s father, was rich and had made a lot of enemies getting that way. The kidnappers were in the employ of a Russian gangster that Grandfather had doublecrossed.

Karren, her mother and her little sister are taken to a remote location. Karen’s mother is forced to record a ransom plea. Karren pouts, Karren yells, Karren is not a cooperative hostage. The kidnappers beat her, tie her up, cut off one of her little fingers and send it with the ransom demand.

Karren’s father is in shock and desperate. Grandfather is disappointed. His son was always a weak thing. Grandfather harrumphs and takes charge. He has his security chief put together a team to rescue the kidnapped mother and her girls. But Grandfather didn’t get rich by giving a shit about anyone but himself. The team is to rescue the family if it’s convenient but it’s more important to him that they kill as many of the Russians as they can. The “girls” are expendable.

And Karren? Karren is very, very mad. Her parents could be boring. Her parents could be strict. Her parents often spoiled her fun. But they’d never hit her. They’d never hurt her. And now these smelly men have dared to hurt HER and threaten HER mother and HER little sister?

Karren is clever. Karren will get out of her bounds. Karren will make them all very, very sorry.

Recommendation

I am behind on my newsletters. I have a virtual stack of them waiting to be read and, at the moment, I can’t remember which ones I’ve already recommended. So this week I’m recommending a youtube channel: Cartoonist Kayfabe. Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor are veteran comics creators and they regular post a lot of videos about comics. I’ll let them introduce themselves –

Local News

I don’t have heroes. When I was a kid I kept discovering that the folks my history classes promoted as role models were often pretty horrible people. Even the ones the weren’t horrible were usually … human. That is, they weren’t necessarily nice, they weren’t always faithful and they often did things that were sloppy and stupid. As a kid, I was looking for perfect heroes to model myself after and real humans just kept failing provide me with the examples I wanted.

As I grew up I came to admire the people who stood up, who took action to make the world a better place, regardless of whether they were also shitty spouses, terrible parents or lousy friend. Rather, I’ve learned to admire the noble actions they took and accept that the rest of their lives and behaviors were probably pretty messy.

I’ve been following and reading Warren Ellis‘s work since I encountered his columns at 9th Art back in the 90s. I posted some art in the Remake/Remodel challenges in the FreakAngels forums. I found a lot of interesting newsletters (and was inspired to do this one) because he recommended them.  I don’t get many regular comics these days but I did pay attention to what he had coming out next. I mostly heard about that when I read his latest newsletter. I only heard about the controversy when he posted his last one. This essay gives the pertinent details with links to more info.

Of all the bad actors who have come in to light in the last few years, Ellis is the first one whose work really matters to me. After a few days passage I’m still … I don’t know. I believe the women. You don’t get 30 or more artists to agree on something unless there is truth there. And they’ve got the emails. (And being a whistleblower is never about money unless you’re already rich and famous. Being a poor whistleblower means you, at best, become a famous and poor whistleblower. Anyone who thinks that someone calls out injustice for fame and glory and wealth is someone who doesn’t actually care about injustice.)

I admire his work. I’m sorry he’s behaved poorly and kind of relieved that he didn’t behave worse. I sympathize more with the women who had to put up with his shit than with him for what’s happening now. What struck me, in his statement, was this –

“I have never considered myself famous or powerful, to the point where I’ve made a lot of bad jokes about it for twenty-odd years.”

  It’s a reminder to me that our perceptions of ourselves are often off the mark. You might think that someone in Ellis’ position, who has had the accomplishments and influence that he’s had, would have a better perception of his place in the world. But most of us don’t. Most of us hear our internal dialogues, our fears and our doubts, much louder than the feedback we get from the outside. We rarely perceive ourselves accurately. 

It’s a reminder that I/we have much more power in the world than I/we think I/we do. It’s a reminder to be more aware, to think before speaking and acting. It’s a reminder to talk more about perceptions and expectations even when doing that seems like it’s going to kill the flow of an interaction. I may think things are hunky dory but the person I’m with might just be being polite. 

I don’t think I’m currently in a position of power. In previous jobs I have been a supervisor and an assistant manager and a manager. As I moved up in responsibility I became conscious of having a responsibility to model “professional” behavior. Getting wasted and flirting with one’s coworkers isn’t a good look for the boss. Now I’m just one mail carrier in a station of about a hundred other carriers. I go to work. I don’t really socialize. I just want to put the hours in so I can get paid and go home and draw. Do I have power? Of course I do. I’m an older white guy who, to the new hires at least, probably seems like I’ve been around forever. Postal carriers have a union. Carriers advance by seniority. There’s a culture of not ratting on your fellow carrier when they misbehave. So I maybe could fuck with the new hires and get away with it. I’m pretty sure that veteran carriers already do that.

I have gotten tired. I have withdrawn. But I’m not dead. It’s time to pay a little more attention at work and in the world. I am not a hero. But I do have power and I can take a few noble actions now and then.

Tuesday Night Party Club #25 Gallery - Half Hour Sketches 31 to 60 From last year, the second set of thirty daily/half hour sketches.

[fandomoniumflurry]

No One’s in the Way

Dean Winchester x Jo Harvelle x Harley Wentworth(OFC) (Chestervelle x OFC)

for @spnpolybingo Square filled: Clothes sharing

for @spnfluffbingo Square FIlled: Photoshoot

also this is the first time I’ve introduced my original female character into my fanfics. I’m hoping to do more with her but until now she’s just gonna be a crossover character. you may see her more from time to time in random things but this is just a quick peek into the lovely former gangster so do be kind. This was mainly for my own entertainment and feels so if you enjoy it, great. If not, oh well lol This character has been my baby for years now and I just want to write her more and this is my way of getting her out a little.

4k+ words, language, poly, pining, some tears, mainly fluffy. no beta as usual. **Edit by me**

taggers: @becs-bunker @keepcalmimthecupcake @janai-mcgarrett @hunterswearingplaid @lukecastellamz @elsatxx @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @ambermei

As she held the camera, the pink and blue haired woman couldn’t help but admire her subject. Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, she never had a chance of getting to know such a beauty. The blonde was a spitfire but she was sweet and innocent in a lot of ways. There would be no way in hell Jo’s mom would ever approve of the two women having any kind of connection. Where the blonde was tanned and sober, Harley was a tattooed ex-junkie. It didn’t stop either of them from meeting and becoming friends.

Most people wouldn’t understand how the two got along or how a girl that grew up on the streets and involved in a gang fell in with the daughter of a bar owner from a small town. But somehow they just fit and Jo was Harley’s favorite work of art. The blonde never found it odd when her scantily clad petite friend took her picture or posted those pictures all over her studio which was also her apartment.

Harley had been trying to get clean the whole time Jo had known her so she could never understand everyone’s judgement of their friendship. It was no surprise that Ash was the one to bring the two girls together. The young woman had had a rough life and Jo admired her for trying to turn her life around. The blonde was simply helping her adjust to her new life and make a new name for herself. Photography was the tattooed girl’s passion so Jo would gladly be her muse. And she wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t enjoy the attention.

Boys never paid much attention to the young tomboy, the girl that could beat them at video games and in a fight. It was hard to get a guy that would appreciate her strength and independence. But Harley did. Harley was smug and confident, a lioness of beauty and grace, a petite and feminine predator that held determination and will of anyone three times her size. What was there not to admire about the ex-con? And as far as the Harvelle knew, there was no boyfriend that Harley would ditch her for like some of her other girl friends had. So in Jo’s eyes, Harley Wentworth was the perfect friend, shady past and all.

Harley hadn’t finished high school so she was supportive of Jo’s choice to drop out of college, much to Ellen’s dismay. Though Ellen didn’t really want her daughter working at the Roadhouse, she thought it a better choice than any alternative. At least this way she could keep an eye on her only family left. Harley never came to the Roadhouse knowing that Ellen was one foul word away from hating her.

People hating her was not something new to the former gang leader but it stung this time just because it was Jo’s mom. If it had been anyone else, she would have flipped them off, walked out and peed on their car or something. But Jo was special and the approval of her mother was important and so Harley didn’t push her luck. Not that her mom’s disapproval kept Jo from hanging out with her, sometimes sneaking out to do just that. Harley never asked her to, as a matter of fact, Harley had advised against it, not wishing to be any more on the matriarch’s bad side. But she never turned the blonde away, heaven knows she couldn’t even if she wanted to.

You see, the problem with Harley was she was pretty head over heels for the younger woman. It had never been brought up as to why Harley never had a boyfriend or had guys over. She never explained why she never flirted with guys when they went out together. Her orientation just never came up because once Jo had called them friends, she knew it wasn’t important. It was pretty instant for Harley, before Jo even spoke, she knew she was in deep. The only problem was that she had been friend zoned pretty quickly and though it was a shot to her ego, it stung her heart a little more.

But Jo was good for her, inspiring a change in her wild party hard lifestyle. And so she was content having the girl as her friend. Another thing that had never been discussed is their mutual acquaintances. One of which happened to be Dean Winchester. The hunter had attempted to pick up the girl with the studded nose and tattooed neck. He was shot down but it wasn’t long before the two of them started picking up women together. And thus a close friendship was born.

That was a few years ago, back when bars and drugs was her scene and it was him that had took her in and helped her out when she hit rock bottom. If it wasn’t for Dean and his brother Sam, she wouldn’t be clean and sober today, even though Dean was still a bit of an alcoholic and a playboy himself. But that was something that just didn’t get brought up. So as Jo spoke about her newest crush, Harley couldn’t help but think of Dean, who she would be calling later, telling him about her own secret crush.

“Can I stay with you tonight and maybe invite him over?” Jo was staring at the blue eyed photographer with pouty lips and pleading chocolate orbs. Harley frowned slightly but before she could deny the blonde’s request, the younger woman came bounding over to her. Harley’s eyes were wide as Jo practically bounced in place with her hands in the hold of her thin fingers. “Please, Quinn. You know I’d never get to see him if I had to have him over at my house. You’re my best friend and I want you to meet him. Your opinion is everything!” More pouty lips and an unfair use of puppy dog eyes.

Harley sighed in defeat before she nodded slowly, her blue pools falling to look at their joined hands. Jo squealed with delight and threw her arms around the former junkie, leaving Harley no choice but to catch her when she came off the ground. Arms wrapped around the young woman and for a moment she could pretend that all this excitement was over her. But she couldn’t stay in the fantasy because Jo pushed free and informed her that she was going to go call her guy friend, whom Harley already despised.

She scowled at the back of Jo’s head, crossing her arms over her chest with a pout of her own. What could this boy possibly have that she didn’t? Had he been there to wipe her tears, share her burdens, laugh with her, open her arms and her home for the young Harvelle? No, she would guess not. And yet he was the object of Jo’s affection. She couldn’t help but feel bitter but so far Jo seemed to be completely oblivious to her bitterness.

By the look on Jo’s face when she came sauntering back into the room, her intended had agreed to stop by. The blonde was practically vibrating and didn’t notice the sour look on Harley’s face. “Can I borrow some clothes?” Jo asked, her hands tucking into the back pockets of her jeans. She looked almost shy in the moment, her innocence showing in her averted eyes and pinkening cheeks. “Something...sexy?”

Harley’s eyes grew wide. They had shared clothes before, Jo only slightly bigger than Harley. But their styles were entirely different. Harley was confident in her skin, showing off all the artwork that she had etched into her body so she wore short skirts, revealing dresses, thin shirts and tank tops. Not that Jo’s clothes were ugly but they were more modest and subdued instead of brightly colored or flashy patterned that were in Harley’s closet.

The clothes Jo usually borrowed were some of her friend’s more conservative articles, mostly just sleepwear or comfy day clothes. But now as she stood there asking for a different kind of apparel, Harley could hear her heart break. She nodded anyway and turned to lead the way to her walk in closet. Hopefully, the blonde wouldn’t be asking to use her bed later.

Sensing the change in mood, Jo grabbed Harley’s camera and before the tattooed beauty started going through hangers, Jo handed the device to her. A brow lifted in confusion as blue eyes looked up at Jo. “Let’s make it a photoshoot!” Harley’s lips curled slightly. Jo knew her so well and the pink haired woman nodded, taking her kodak out of Jo’s grasp.

“Ok, get that pretty little ass in that closet and show me what you fucking got.” Harley’s smile returned and she stepped away to allow Jo to begin to pick out outfits from the closet full of clothing of all different colors, patterns and textures.

The first few outfits were just meant to make the photographer laugh, furry tails, spiky skirts, tight belts and shapeless dresses. A leather one piece snuggly clung to her every curve but instead of being sexy, she pushed out every roll and bulge, hunching over and twisting to make it unattractive. Jo was afraid she was going to bust a seam because she was laughing so hard.

Falling on their backs on the bed, they had to take a break. The camera had been shaking so much from giggles that the pictures were just coming out blurry. The chimes that rang through the apartment, a rap beat accompanied by beatbox, never failed to make Jo laugh. But this time, the blonde shot straight up in a sitting position with a look of terror on her features. A hand rubbed softly down Jo’s back before the camera came to rest on the bed beside her.

The mattress lifted slightly when Harley rose and moved out of the room on a mission to open the door. When the wooden door came ajar, Harley stared at Dean in confusion. He grinned and offered her a wave. “It’s just a friend of mine!” She called out behind her.

Feeling relieved, Jo came around the corner. All relief washed away, taking all color from her face with it. “Dean.”

“Hey, Jo.” Dean smiled with a wave of his fingers before looking at Harley with a wink. She narrowed her eyes at him before he let himself in. She watched him closely as she closed the door and sneered when he moved over to place his hands in Jo’s. “Nice outfit.”

Jo was too dazed to realize she was still wearing the leather. Her cheeks burned red and Dean laughed when she quickly darted back into the bedroom to change. His smile disappeared when he turned around to find an angry petite mop of pink and blue hair, a face glaring up at him with arms crossed over her chest.

There wasn’t much that scared the infamous Dean Winchester but Harley was definitely one of those things. He towered over her at six feet one to her even five feet and yet if she wanted to, she could easily take him down. He had a hundred pound on her easy but her size was her greatest asset. He flinched when she threw a punch at his shoulder, nowhere near her full strength and yet like a scolded puppy, he pouted and put a hand on his arm, hoping it wouldn’t bruise.

“What the fuck, Winchester?! You’re the man meat??” The foul mouthed woman leered up at him and Dean just shrugged earning him a punch to the other shoulder. “Did you know?!”

“Until Jo called and gave me her friend’s address, no, I didn’t know. Wasn’t that hard to figure out. I’m disappointed in myself for not figuring it out sooner.”

A heaving sigh fell from think pink lips before the ex-con plopped down on her couch in a heap. Her head fell back, defeat taking over and her last shred of hope flying out the window. There was silence for a few brief moments until Harley spoke, her eyes staring up at the ceiling. “Do you like her back?” The words were a forlorn whisper and Dean frowned down at her.

A moment later, he was sitting down next to her. Harley’s head lulled to the side to catch his expression and she smiled ruefully. Sliding her arm in his, she laid her hand on his shoulder. His head rested against hers after he pressed a kiss to the roots of blonde in the blue of her hair. He whispered his apologies and she wrapped her fingers in his and squeezed in assurance. They would have to figure it out but no girl was worth ruining this friendship.

Both heads lifted the second Jo stepped timidly into the room, her hands folded in front of her. The clothes she had picked were simple but perhaps that was what made her so stunning. She had on a short purple skirt, one of Harley’s favorites, not flashy or ornate, accentuated by a pair of knee high black boots and a thick black belt with silver studs around her middle. The silver shirt sparkled faintly, hanging off the shoulders and a pair of muted silver and purple earrings hung from her ears. She had done a little makeup and curled her hair and she blew her two admirers away.

She grinned with bright red cheeks when she spotted the way they looked at her. “Wow.” Dean’s soft exclamation didn’t even begin to describe it. Unable to find the words either, Harley just chose to say nothing, staring as her mouth hung open.

Next thing they knew, a flash left them seeing spots. Jo giggled as she lowered the camera that captured the pair on the couch in pixels forever. The two of them looked at each other with equal amount of mischief. A silent conversation passed between the two of them and they grinned before their heads turned to look at Jo. Suddenly feeling uneasy in the predatory gaze of her friends, the blonde took a step back. The moment the two hopped up off the couch, Jo squealed before darting back to the bedroom.

She was laughing as she tried to close the door on them but it was no use. While Dean held the door open a crack, Harley slipped in. The photographer took the camera from Jo’s hands and began snapping pictures. The blonde’s face was wrinkled with her fits of laughter and she put her hands up to try and avoid the flashes. Dean was behind her before she knew it, curling an arm around her shoulders while the other helped pin her hands.

Jo leaned back into him, gladly reveling in his embrace and willingly posing for the continuing clicking of the camera. Harley lowered the device for a moment and watch as the couple laughed and held each other close, more involved in one another to notice that Harley had stopped taking pictures. Her heart swelled, though with jealousy and an ache that seemed to splinter her bones but mostly with pride and happiness. The way they were together, there was no doubting that they were made for each other.

Dean’s eyes peeled from the blonde in his arms to catch Harley’s longing gaze, slightly misty with emotion. He unwrapped himself from around the younger woman and reached for the camera. “You’re turn to be in the pictures, Harlequin.” There was no time for argument when Jo wrapped slender fingers around Harley’s arm and pulled the pink haired girl into her side and plastered herself against her, beginning to pose for this new round of photos. These all would definitely be put up on the studio walls. Even if just for a reminder of the day her two closest friends came together for the first time and how happy they were.

She clung to the blonde, taking all she could get of the woman’s warmth and tender affection. When lips pressed gently against Harley’s cheeks, she was stunned into silence and her body went stiff. Hoping that neither of them had noticed her reaction, she swallowed and smiled softly. Dean lowered the camera and smiled crookedly with a knowing look in his eyes. Harley averted her eyes but Jo’s arms curled around her neck and made her look between the two of them.

Dean set up the camera on the tripod before he came to stand on the other side of Jo, his arms wrapping around her thin waist. The intimate pose between the three of them made Harley suddenly nervous and when the camera flashed, she knew her face would look far from happy like the other’s smiles suggested. Before another photo could be taken, the photographer slipped out of Jo’s arms and made way to walk out of the room. It took an embarrassingly long second for either of the two to go after her.

“Har.” Dean was the first to call out to her and with a sigh, the petite woman turned to face him. The look on her face made his mouth  turn into a faint frown. Harley cast a glance at Jo before returning her attention to Dean, the man mimicking the exact movement as well. “Where are you going?”

“I need some air.” Harley exhaled the words before turning to move towards the door once more. The hand around her wrist stopped her and when she looked over her shoulder, she saw Jo’s eyes soften. “You guys need some alone time.” She plastered on her famous smile, though faked, it always did its job.

And yet for some reason, Jo and Dean could see right through it. Dean didn’t remove his hand from around her wrist and the blonde took a step closer, only to be stopped by the man beside her. Her face wrinkled in confusion but he nodded and with a sigh, she took a step back.  The way the two of them were looking at her, Harley started to feel self conscious. She thought about pulling away for a moment, her pink and blue hair shuffling a bit as she turned her head to look at her options.

“Ya know,” Dean started talking and Harley immediately locked eyes with his. There was a hint of sadness and sympathy in his emerald hues and she relaxed under the gaze. “At first, I was jealous.” Harley’s head tilted slightly as the man began to speak with a crooked smile. “When we first met and started hanging out, all Jo had to talk about was her awesome best friend. Hell, she had me nearly falling for this perfect woman.”

Harley’s head turned with wrinkled brow just to catch a glimpse of Jo. The blonde gave a coy smile, a faint blush on her cheeks as she shrugged her shoulders. “I started to think, why did she want to hang out with me when she had this perfect girlfriend at home?” The petite woman’s eyes were wide as saucers as she looked up at Dean again, he just quirked the corners of his lips in a grin. “Man, was I confused when she claimed to be interested in me and we started to see each other more.”

The photographer was more than confused herself and she chose not to look back at Jo anymore, unable to meet the blonde’s gaze as she tried to assess her reaction to Dean’s words. “At the same time, on the other hand, I had you telling me about this awesome friends of yours, someone that sounded absolutely perfect and made me want someone like that.” Both women listened carefully as the hunter continued, both of them wide eyed at this point, one with a smile, the other mouth agape.

“It wasn’t until tonight that I figured out what was going on. Man, I’m an idiot for taking so long.” He chuckled ruefully with a shake of his head and Jo took a step forward to place a hand on his bicep. Harley waited, hoping that he would explain fully before she burst. “You both are absolutely crazy about each other and I’ve just been standing in the way.”

Jo’s head spun quickly, taking her eyes off the other girl to stare dumbfounded at him. Jo’s reaction gave off an answer misconstrued by the pink haired woman. She frowned and easily pulled herself from the grasp of the distracted Winchester. In the brief second, Jo and Dean muttering slightly, Harley tried to make her escape before the tears could escape first. Even though it was her apartment, she was the one to run and her small size and speed allowed her to head to her car before the pair could even make it out into the parking garage.

The one thing she kept from her old life was her big purple truck, her baby, a machine she had spent years fixing up, repairing, rebuilding.  This was more her home than anywhere else and the moment she slid behind the wheel, she instantly relaxed.  She could breathe again and her eyes closed as she leaned back against the headrest, finally allowing a few tears to flow down her cheeks.

In the hustle of her escape from her closest friends,  she had forgotten to lock the doors to her car so she jumped when the passenger door and her driver’s side door both opened. The blonde climbed up next to her and Harley’s eyes were wide as she pushed her way in beside her. The truck jostled slightly as Dean jumped in and trapped the photographer between the two of them.  

“Thought we'd find you here, Quinn.” Jo muttered with a teary smile,  molding herself against the smaller woman’s side, twining her arm around hers and resting her blonde head on her shoulder.

“I'm surprised you haven't driven off yet.” Dean added from the other side,  sitting close to her but not as closely as Jo.

Harley wasn't sure what to say and a part of her couldn't help but smile at the fact that they had come after her. Then again another part of her wished that they hadn't,  it would have been easier that way.  But sandwiched between her best friends,  her body and heart betrayed her.  She rested her head against Jo’s and intertwined their fingers.  

Much to her surprise, Dean took her other hand and his green pools watched as his fingers played with hers.  She looked at him curiously before her hand closed around his and made him look up at her. “You're never in the way, Dean.” She assured him with a soft smile and the corner of his mouth lifted faintly. lifting Jo’s hand, she placed it in Dean’s,  smiling at the two of them with a nod.

The pair looked at each other and smiled bashfully, Harley finding it almost comical when they both turned bright red. Though her heart was heavy, she couldn't even be upset. The happiness of her best friends was more important than her own. Besides,  she would still have them in her life and that was better than nothing.  As they sat in silence, Harley’s blue orbs looked down at their joined hands as Dean and Jo looked at each other.

She felt their eyes on her before she even saw them looking at her. Her misty hues met Dean’s gaze as he sported an amused little grin. This only further confused her. “You've always had a habit of jumping to conclusions. I wasn't finished talking.”

Her face wrinkled in slight annoyance,  her mouth opening to give a retort but Jo stepped in first.  “I like both of you, ya dummy. Like… equally.” Meant to clear up the confusion, it simply further confused Harley. Jo couldn't help but laugh at the adorable look on her face. With her free hand,  Jo grabbed Harley’s and joined it with hers and Dean’s,  hoping that would clear it up better.

Her mouth opened but this time she had no words to say.  She just looked between the two of them with the widest of eyes. Jo nodded,  squeezing their hands then looking to Dean. He was blushing even more now, his elvish ears a bright pink as he nodded also. It was a risk, but Jo leaned forward slowly and planted a chaste kiss to Harley’s lips.  Instinctively,  the photographer's eyes closed and her chest stilled with the breath she held. Her lips were just as soft as she imagined, pressed against hers instead of her cheek.

The kiss was over as quick as it had started and Harley blinked a few times once she opened her eyes. Both of them were smiling at her and if she didn’t know any better, she would have said that butterflies erupted in her stomach. The former druggie had always been with women, no man ever catching her eye or her affections. It wasn’t that she wasn’t opposed to the idea she just never even considered it. But now that Dean was giving her that same look that he gave Jo, she started to see something she had missed during the years that she had known him.

In a flash, her hand rested on the back of his neck, long thin fingers curling into his hair as she pulled him to her for a kiss that was far more fierce than the sweet one Jo had given her. The kiss was brief and Dean was breathless when he pulled back with that goofy grin of his. Jo giggled and pulled him to her for a little bit softer kiss. “This way no one’s in the way.” She whispered against his lips before kissing him again.

“This is weird.” Harley stated with a chuckle. Though it was the truth, in that moment she couldn’t think of anything better than having the both of them for as long as they would have her.

“Oh, shut up.” A laugh bubbled through Jo’s lips before she turned to latch her mouth to Harley’s.  

“You love every minute of it.” Dean added with a smirk as his calloused hand rubbed gently up and down the pink haired woman’s bare thigh. This was going to be interesting and none of them could wait to see what the future held.

[salted-barbed-wire]

Gangster (pt. 1)

A/N: So I found this prompt on either Pinterest or Insta from this writing prompt account. I fell in love with it and one of the first people I thought of when I saw it, was Samoa Joe. So hopefully this is good. It’s got kind of a slow build so bare with me, the juicy bits will come. This is going to be 3 or 4 part series.

Summary: OC, (Y/N), is a recently divorced, up and coming journalist who thinks she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time when she gets held up in a bank heist. That is, until the criminals recognize her and immediately retreat with fear that their Boss will come down on them because she is on his “No Harm” list. Why, she doesn’t know. As the web hunt begins to figure out who this “Joe” is, (Y/N)’s high school sweet heart, Joel Seanoa, shows up unannounced but with a big revelation.  Featuring: Samoa Joe (Nuufolau Joel Seanoa), Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, Nikki Cross, Killian Dane ..... more to come soon! Warnings: None. Rated F for FLUFF-ish Word Count: 3100+

Enjoy or don’t!

Click, click, click.

The sound of my heels on the pavement were all I wanted to focus on. I didn’t want to get distracted from my task and there was too much going on.

Horns honking, dogs barking, cars whizzing past- if I let myself absorb my surroundings too much, I’d talk myself out of it.

You just must do it, (Y/N). I told myself internally. This is what cuts him off from you completely. It’s time to get away.

I approached the bank, clutching the file folder in my hand. Its contents were papers from the court offices, acknowledging the fact that I was recently divorced from my venomous, mooch of an ex-husband. I needed them only to remove him from accessing my bank account, so he couldn’t pay for one of his little sluts’ new pair of tits.

An exasperated sigh escaped my lips as I reminisced on the last four, horrific years. John and I had met at my work and fell in love instantly. Fresh out of high school, I had just become an intern at a local newspaper’s office and hoped to have a solid job as a journalist at the company by the end of the year. John worked in the mail room when we first started dating. I should’ve seen the signs then- no real drive to amount to anything, no goals, flirting around with any girl that looked his general direction. Soon, we were married, he began bouncing from job to job, while I moved up from being an intern to a secretary to working on a small editorial section. John definitely had way more free time than I did, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with his three other girlfriends.

The railing was cold against the brisk winter air as I brushed my fingers along it to walk up the steps. Perhaps if I had been paying attention to the signs that John was no good for me, I would’ve never said yes to marrying him in Vegas, I would’ve never allowed him to cheat on me, then use me as a meal ticket.

I pushed passed the revolving doors to my bank, the tile hard beneath my heels.

Perhaps if I paid attention at all, I would’ve heard the men behind me carrying guns and bags.

“Everyone, freeze!” A deep voice boomed from behind me.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“On the ground! Now!” He shouted again.

Lowering myself to my knees, I watched as everyone tried their best not to panic. Fantastic. I thought to myself, what a day to have to go to the bank.

“Cell phones! Give them up!” A different voice shouted.

From the sound of their footsteps, there was about three or four of them. I felt cool metal press against the side of my head as one of the men held out a basket for me to drop my phone in. I did so, without hesitation.

“Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the inconvenience but we have a job to do, everyone does as we ask and no one gets hurt.” A hand touched the back of my head, stroking my hair. I didn’t want to look up to see the eyes of my capture, too terrified to move. “Don’t,” he continued, “and I’ll pick you off one by one and make an example of you. Everyone understand?”

There was no response.  

The robber growled, “I asked you a question.” Click. “Do you understand?” And suddenly there was a defining sound of bullets being shot into the air above me. I covered my ears and screamed as glass from the lights fell around my body. I could hear other screams from the hostages too.

“Good.” The man said. “Boys, get to work.”

Three black, clothed figures walked around me carrying dangerous looking weapons. One appeared to be a woman, short but held herself as if she was ready to pounce on anyone that got out of line. Then two more men, one larger than the other. All of them wearing ski masks, all of them moving quickly to finish whatever job they needed to do.

“Did I scare you sweetheart?”

It was the man who had been giving the orders earlier, he knelt to level himself with my face.

I shook my head ‘no’ but couldn’t hide the fact that the rest of me was terrified.

“You got a nasty cut on your cheek, darlin’. Lemme take a look-see.” His gloved hand gently took my chin and he observed the cut on my face. It was stinging from where the glass had sliced my skin open. I could feel blood dripping onto my hand.

“Say, sweetheart. You look familiar…” his blue eyes squinted over my features. “Wish I could say where I knew your pretty face from.”

I didn’t like the way he was touching me or trying to be nice to me. Not at all. So, I did what any rational thinking girl would do when faced with a possibly dangerous man that made her uncomfortable; I bit him.

Just in the right spot too. My teeth clenched down over the exposed skin on his wrist. The masked man screamed as I broke the skin, tasting blood in my mouth.

“Fucking, bitch!” He screamed.

I spit his blood onto the floor, “Don’t touch me!” My voice shouted back at him.

“Oh, I’m going to do much more than that, you little cunt!” His hand struck my face, causing my head to reel.

“E!” One of the men interrupted him. “Stop!” He walked over to us, putting his body in between our fight.

“You heard the boss, Wolfe, if anyone gives us trouble-”

“Yeah but do you recognize her?”

They both stared down at me for a few heart beats while I glared at them, head aching all the while.

“It’s her!” The man called ‘E’ gasped.

“Yeah, we need to go, NOW!” Wolfe pleaded.

“He’s going to want to know,” E scratched the top of his mask. “He’s going to kill me for touching her.”

“Who’s ‘he’?” I spoke up finally, “Why do you guys look so scared suddenly?”

E crouched down again, “He is our boss. And He isn’t to be messed with. We’ll let him know we ran into you.”

“Come on boys, let’s go!” Wolfe called out for the other two who came around the corner with two full duffle bags.

I watched the four men go, but not before E turned around to address everyone in the bank. “Goodnight ladies and gents. Thank you for letting us steal from you, hope you’ve had a pleasant experience and have a wonderful day!”

----

I had never felt so happy to take a shower in my life. After spending all afternoon and most of the evening at the police station, being forced to run through the robbery repeatedly was maddening. The detective had asked me over and over again why the group of robbers had been talking to me, because, of course, the other witnesses swore that they saw us having a “long chat”.

The water poured over my skin and I played through everything that I had heard from the men working the case. Detective Rollins and his two partners Ambrose and Reigns had been looking into these men for some time. They seemed to think they were part of a crime organization and the four criminals were just henchmen.

“Sanity,” Detective Rollins had told me, “that’s what they call themselves. We’re not sure who exactly they’re working for, but we know it’s for one of the big bosses in town.”

“Big bosses?”

Detective Ambrose nodded, “There’s quite the underground network going on in our city. Most of the bosses have gotten away with keeping they’re identities as secrets, the rest of them are closely monitored by yours truly.” His smile was wolfish as he stared down at me.

“We just need anything you might be able to remember to identify these men,” Detective Reigns pushed his way in between Ambrose and I. “Features, names, anything.”

I pursed my lips together, trying to remember. “The shorter man was called ‘E’ but he did call one of the other guys ‘Wolf’ I think. There was a girl there, but I didn’t catch her name, nor did she speak to me. Then there was a larger man, he was terrifying.”

Rollins nodded, “Wolf, huh?”

“Does that mean something?” I asked.

“It might. Please, ma’am, just sit tight. We’ll have you out of here short amount of time.”

They walked off and they thought I was earshot. I bit my lip and listened the best I could to the quiet muttering on the other side.

“You think it’s him?” Reigns asked.

“He supposedly left town, Seth. We haven’t seen or heard from him in over a year.” Ambrose muttered.

Seth was quiet, I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head as the other men talked through everything.

Reigns’ voice sounded strained, “Is it worth checking into?”

“The thug we picked up the other day was muttering something about a return of the king,” Rollins mused. “He’s not part of the family, Ro, but have you heard any whispers.”

“Not from our family.” He said. “My father seems to think Joe is dead.”

Joe.

Such a popular name but something told me I needed to look into it. Getting out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around me and took one last deep intake of the steam that filled the bathroom before opening the door. I opened my laptop up to load up google.

Hours later, I was still at square one. All I knew was the name Joe as a previous mob boss in the city. There were plenty of articles written about crimes attached to his name. But there was no last name, no history on the man. It’s like he came from nothing and then disappeared when he was being investigated.

The last few articles prior to his disappearance kept referencing a turf war between his people and another mob who was ran by someone who was referred to as “The Demon Head”. There was nothing on this “Demon” either.

Fed up and exhausted I slammed my laptop shut and forced a nightshirt over my head only to slide under the covers to my bed. People on Facebook were sending me messages all day after seeing my face on tv earlier in the day at the bank robbery. I scrolled through them and read a few, until I passed out, phone in hand and my bedside lamp still on.

---

I sipped on my coffee as I sat inside my haven called the Java Spot. I had brought my laptop, hoping to be able to do more research on this ‘Joe’ but hadn’t gotten very far. Instead, I decided to respond to my facebook messages. Luckily, my boss had called me this morning and practically begged me to stay home for a few days. Michael promised I’d get paid time off that wouldn’t affect my vacation hours that I had been saving for a rainy day.

Most of the messages read the same; ‘Hope you’re doing okay!’, ‘Saw you on TV!’, ‘Thoughts and prayers’. Blah, blah, blah. Most of them seemed half-hearted or impassive. Hell, even my ex-husband messaged me asking if I was okay. I don’t think I’ve ever hit the ‘delete’ button so fast.

I pinched the bridge of my nose together, begging for a sign, for a lead, for anything pointing me in the direction I needed to go to find this man.

“Well, well, well,” I deep, soothing voice resounded through my ears. I looked up to see a familiar face with dark eyes in front of me. “(Y/N)(Y/L/N), it’s been a while.”

“Joel?” I smiled, jaw nearly on the floor. I damn near jumped out of my chair to wrap my arms around his neck and hug him. “Oh my God! It’s been 4 years since we graduated, and I thought you’d left town! It’s so good to see you.”

“Believe me, darling, the pleasure is all mine,” he pulled back to meet my eyes. His expression was soft, intimate, like we were the only two people in that coffee shop; maybe in the world.

Nuufolau Joel Seanoa, I hadn’t seen him since my high school graduation. He always went by Joel, unless you were family. Joel was the all state wrestling champ, salutatorian, and my ex-boyfriend. Our relationship was strange but comfortable. Seanoa managed to keep me from meeting his family for our whole three-year relationship, yet, my parents loved him. I never got over how supportive of me he was when I was working on the school paper and he was always the greatest listener and the way he touched me…

I cleared my throat, taking a step back from his embrace. “Sorry, I- uh…”

“Is this seat taken?” He asked interrupting me holding a hand out to the empty chair in front of me. He was wearing a black business suit with a paisley silver tie. He looked like he was heading into a very big meeting that would make him a lot of money.

“No, please! Sit!”

He glanced at my screen just before I shut it, “light reading?”

“Urm, you could say that. I was doing research for an article I’m writing.” It was only a small fib. Besides, who knows if I could actually write a story about this one day.

“How have you been, (Y/N)? I haven’t seen you since-“

“We broke up?” I asked with more spite in my voice than I intended.

Joel pretended not to notice but simply smiled, “Yes, well I was going to say, ‘Since we graduated’.”

I swallowed a bit, feeling guilty, “I- I didn’t mean…”

He held his hand up, “Please, (Y/n), I deserve it. There were… sensitive matters that I didn’t want to involve you in and it was incredibly selfish of me. Especially since you’re growing up even more beautiful than I could’ve even imagined.”

“Sensitive matters?”

Joel’s face never wavered, he held the same smirk on his face. “Yes, and I’m sorry I left you.” His dark brown eyes traced along my figure and his tongue flicked out against his lips, “Very sorry,” he muttered.

A shiver ran down my spine. A sudden desire to cover every inch of exposed skin came over me.

“You’re a journalist now?” He asked, breaking the silence. “I remember how much you loved being apart of the school newspaper when we were in high school. You wrote quite a few amazing works back then, I’ll bet you’re practically Louis Lane now.”

“God, I miss that stuffy journalism room in high school. Now I’m in an office and it’s crowded and full of people that constantly judge you. My boss, Michael Cole, he’s awesome though.”

Joel chuckled, “I remember how fond you were of that room.” His eyes met mine again, this time full of mischief. “We used to sneak off to that supply closet a few times a day.”

I bit my lip and blushed. Joel and I dated all through high school, up until the day after we graduated. We were inseparable, always next to each other. He was on the varsity wrestling team and I came to every match. When I was writing, he’d sit there patiently and watch as I worked, or proof read for me.

“You’re blushing an awful lot, beautiful,” He noted.

“It just feels like ages since then. We were quite naughty sneaking around the school and making out. Just a couple of horny teenagers.”

“You never let me get passed second base,” his smile was teasing.

“I was a prude back then.”

I got a raised eyebrow in response, “So not anymore?”

A nervous giggle slipped out, I bit my lip again to force the rest of it back.

“Don’t bite your lip,” he tilted his head. “I’d rather do that for you.”

This time I laughed, a full laugh. “That’s a sorry excuse for a pick-up line.”

“It was only plan A.” I felt his knee bump mine under the table.

I bumped it back, “So what, pray tell, is plan B?”

“To kidnap you.”

Gulp

There was silence between us that was tense. His hand reached out and brushed mine, “I do have to say, there is an ulterior motive behind me coming to see you.” Another pause, “I saw the news yesterday.”

I sighed, “Just please don’t say you’re sorry, or that you feel bad for me.”

His eyebrows knitted together, “I wouldn’t do that.”

My eyes rolled, “and why is that?”

“Because, someone who has been through so much doesn’t want sympathy, they want answers, they want justice. If I knew who this Eric fellow was that cut you… So reckless.” He squeezed my hand in attempt to comfort.

My heart slammed into my chest, “Eric?” Something flashed in front of his eyes, his smile grew. “I never gave a name to anyone but the cops, and it wasn’t Eric. Who’s Eric?” My head was screaming at me into a horrific realization. “E? Is E Eric?”

“Boss!” Another familiar voice interrupted us. A man charged in, mostly bald and thickly bearded. Our gazes met, and I froze. Blue eyes; the same ones from yesterday. He shook his head and turned his attention back to Joel. “Joe, we need to go. Now!”

I turned back to the man in front of me, “Joe? Joel, these are your… employees?”

He stood and adjusted his tie, “Darling, it’s time we have a talk.”

Panic slammed into my chest, my first reaction was to scream.

Joel- JOE held his hand up, “Don’t scream. We need to talk, but we have to go somewhere safe.”

My lips parted, I sucked in air.

“Do. Not. Scream.” He commanded, irises fading to black. My mouth snapped shut. “Now, I will escort you outside, we’ll get into my car, and we are going to go have a talk. This is Mr. Young, he will not hurt you, will you Eric?” He turned a glare to the man.

Eric quickly shook his head, “No sir, she’s in safe hands.”

“And if I don’t?” I asked Joe.

His face was emotionless. “Then I suppose I’ll have to drag you out of this coffee shop, kicking and screaming.”

“Thought you didn’t want to make a scene?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“No, but I’m sure I can find a way to... persuade these wonderful people to refrain from calling the cops.”

“You’d pay them off?” I spat the question, “Not all of these people would take your money. There are good people in the world, Joe!”

His hands slammed down on the table, “As a journalist, you should know better than that. You should also know there are other ways to ensure silence from these folks.”

I felt the air catch my chest. My eyes darted around the room. How many of these people were good, honest people? Would Joe really hurt them or their families? A feeling of dread choked my heart, I would be to blame. My attention snapped back to Joe.

“Fine.”

“Come with me,” he said, placing his hand at the small of my back, guiding me towards the door. “I don’t want to make anymore of a scene, it’s time you know the truth.”

We walked out to the car, an all black Buick, Joe’s hand still lightly pressed against my blouse. I could feel his warmth, it prickled my flesh sending shivers through me. It was a confusing mix of emotions; comfort in an old friend’s touch and fear of the gangster looming over me.

—

TAGGING: @rainbowbox @wrecklessint @theprogresskid @bettergetusetoit @empress-with-the-crown @thirstiswet @styleslee @lip-sync @poisonarrow24 @sophvas1 @hoes4joe @newjapan @crookedmoonsaultpunk @were--goingnowhere

Please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in the next installment to know what happens next!

[aion-rsa]

The Many Saints of Newark Trailer Song Has Paid Off for Years

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The Many Saints of Newark trailer shows Dickie Moltisanti trying to do the right thing. The film is a prequel to the HBO series The Sopranos, and will give special attention to the “old school” guys who were in at the ground floor of this thing of theirs. Veteran mobsters lived up to codes, like Omerta, which means silence unto death, and followed rules.

The top rule was spelled out in Martin Scorsese’s gangster classic Goodfellas: Get paid. “Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? Fuck you, pay me,” explains Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta. The Hollywood legend will play “Hollywood” Dick in The Many Saints of Newark, and tells his son, Dickie (Allesandro Nivola), to make sure he keeps collecting those merit badges.

The first thing “Hollywood” Dick asks his son when he’s seated at the prison visiting table is what he wants. While Dickie tells his gangster father he’s looking to do a good deed, the soundtrack kicks in a different set of needs.

You can see the trailer here:

The Flying Lizards, an experimental English avant-garde new wave band, released their cover version of Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want)” in 1979. Featuring Deborah Evans-Stickland on lead vocals, it was a quirky, mechanical, postmodern rendition of a raucous classic. They performed equally exquisite disservice to songs like Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and James Brown’s “Sex Machine.”

The band was a loose collection of musicians brought together in 1976 by record producer David Cunningham. The Flying Lizards included instrumentalists David Toop and Steve Beresford, and Evans-Stickland, Patti Palladin and Vivien Goldman as main vocalists. They put out their début album The Flying Lizards in 1979, and Virgin Records extended their contract after the single “Money” made bank.

Barrett Strong’s 1959 original song paid off for a lot of bands, and was a standard for live acts for years. The Beatles were banging out “Money (That’s What I Want)” as early as August 1960, when they were still playing clubs in Hamburg, Germany. Strong had only released his single a few months earlier. It wasn’t even a hit in the U.K. Along with “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me” and “Please Mr. Postman,” it was one of three Motown songs The Beatles released on With The Beatles in 1963.

Motown Records founder and owner Berry Gordy, who came up with the opening piano riff for “Money,” loved the idea that the British phenomenon were recording his label’s songs. And when the Rolling Stones followed suit, it proved Motor City really got things moving. It is the only cover song both bands issued on vinyl.

“Money (That’s What I Want)” was one of the first songs recorded at the label’s 2648 West Grand Boulevard studio. Also co-written by Janie Bradford, session players included Benny Benjamin on drums, Eugene Grew on guitar, and Brian Holland on tambourine. It was Barrett’s only hit for Hitsville, though he went on to be an in-house songwriter who co-wrote classic masterworks like “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “War,” and “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone.”

“Money (That’s What I Want)” has been recorded by such diverse acts as Cheap Trick, Jr. Walker All Stars, Etta James, Boyz II Men, the Doors, Waylon Jennings, and Pearl Jam. The Flying Lizards’ version of “Money” made the playlist at WKRP in Cincinnati in the radio station series’ episode “Venus Rising.” It can also be heard in the films The Wedding Singer, Empire Records, and Charlie’s Angels.

The Sopranos soundtrack is well-known, some songs have become an iconic part of the TV landscape because of their association with the series. Tony may or may not have met his fate to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” but he definitely laid a beating on a local politician after hearing The Chi-Lites’ hit “Oh Girl.” Series creator David Chase is a former musician whose post-Sopranos 2012 film Not Fade Away told the story of a band from New Jersey.

The Many Saints of Newark is directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World), who directed several episodes of The Sopranos. The screenplay was written by Chase and Lawrence Konner.

The Many Saints of Newark will premiere on September 22 at the Beacon Theatre to kick-off the Tribeca Fall Preview, a season-long series featuring film premieres and musical performances.

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The Many Saints of Newark will be released in theaters on October 1, and will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from the theatrical release.

The post The Many Saints of Newark Trailer Song Has Paid Off for Years appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[savingtheunderworldofficial]

Supernatural

For SUPERNATURAL STORIES THE SHOW ON CW KIE IS ON THAT HIDDEN

KIE CRYING GAMES

Yesterday stories and todays kie cring games

Supernaral sceanes in the movie so true events from born true

Yesterday night

I dissided to talk to dean out of hell

Then i brought him some stuff to smoke

I forgot to pay off the store out their angels warn dean about catagrismic of smoking

About stealing and eating

Then angels got mad demons agreed not they have to feed

Then kie ask satan to take him again

Then kie took demons and agenles and bringing them back to ocean bay city

Wait now on that new bugging boring city nothing but boring outsiders and goobers and gobber's signs up sign down to distract the non livers here fuck that take the island f u all this is shit town

Today stories is erales saving kie

She didnt know on how he got here

Well long time ago

The storie of kie

He almost killed himself

On a roof top in brooklyn ny

First hd writing many stories

Then he got paanoad

Then smoke came threw the mist

Saw his fellow comrad effect him

Saw that then he didnt smoke

Teteta

Smoked in the demons venasa house he saw it and wanted to know

Smoked from the demonz

Blood of dawn

Then more movie were brought

Andy beat up fake shit

Kie said not my prob

Left

Then another guy was called

Kie said take her

Then venesa started new blood

Kie started to win and loose all the time

Movie came between brooklyn

The fight of war

Bring back before i go foward

Supernatural started in the 70for dad and mom

Mom desided to take bare of her stomack

She stated this kidd is smArt but hon weektheld the babie secrete of him

Carlos and kie bagan to play fight new moves kie got kicked and hit theheat meeter past out with a bruse slash on his eye ..jonathsn shegod

The son of kie a demond took him. And both of them showed them thir future past and present real shit

It felt kie cried for the devils and christ

Both desided tk give him something a saving mission for kie so kie laged on the crown and said devil

If u take me and give kie everything

So movies after movies started

Kie over whelmed with marijuana

So he deside to take a jorney

Back to the worlds of worlds

Kie first lost jonathan at home threw his movue

Then kie started a show

Then kie fir got cuase kie

First was on a mission of

To forget knowing not why

He began to expectations expirence

Ladies came gone

Kie got mixed up woth real and daydreaming still to this day daydreaming and night dreaming

Some dream came threw

Black calm dreams of tottal blackness

Rest came hs becomes immortal in his future --- back to the begining

Greedy krueger came and lie got taking

Unrissitable to the lives of all shegods

And freedy and lie became best kids friends to save kids and give the kids all the dreams they had but soon cops got in the way and thought they where stealing but the kids where still becoming strong and the freedy kids and lie kids became a well of pals on an on saving the Miss treated kids.

Then kie started to pay off with the mission if the gods and the guardians of the heavens door verizon and all wifi mofted with tv.ma netflix to certify and certify and fda approved most still pending lie netflix under lulygeo netflix and kie verizon ai come to get her for once to save the underworlds of kids

Kie kept going back to see gods in heaven

Then kie started to fade

The kie started

To make a ruetine with the family

That came later still in the movue

Kie still in school college hofstra .audio research .meds school. He died as a homie pig back at it again Ginnie pic for most meds ..wats that certifying most meds seeing wats new invega keep him dead in the movies like dead walking movie robot to the future robots kept him

Calos when kie got hit the gods took both of us robots did

Im not sure what happen when i got kicked and steemed

Mom came with her man thought

Kie thought it was dad mistake

Thoght it was mom too

Both of them feel out

Kie sent down to family cuase kie didnt finish

Cuasin came from padros and nito family

Drugs came kie was to small for biz

Gif small time gangster if candy sweet candy games for kids all hollween candy

Mom use to give him his favorite candy corn

1800

1900

Kie started to sees that to guy cry and run over by the ppl of god fa

ther

Kie still playing with his god father

Went to have better days with godparents

Went out to places with them unreal family  love that he missed

STARTED TO LOVE HIS 5 YEAR OLD LIFE

kie started to eat alot of evetything godparent gave him to this day

Then ice truck cames

Jimmies ice truck kie loved that giving and resiving ice

That girl from that huse ppl where still living there

Kie ramiged to closets having fun and making a mess

Then the

Jerking cames kie started to jerk to the movies but loosing his sperm so

Hi desided to grow up get a girl

Kie guvkef gor his first time in weldon

But she was hairy so he didnt like it

So kie stated

About the lock

Kie mother went to work kie broks the doir again becuse he left the kie inside

Mother that took him left everymornin

He didnt havd a phone

Wat to do i shouldve waitef but ppl

Where still movies

Didnt have anyone but david and joshawa

The wroked constinlately

Kie stupind broke the door becuase for noresson hd just was scred of seeing the family leave so he told they left him without keys

I broke the door and found rooms closed his room was still there

Ghost home

No brother monfamily

None

He fell asleep in that house with ghost

Kie and john in the movie they where showing him kie died dereck died john and kie rapef and abused

Kie dont remember of that but images of waht papa saids no so i stoped

Then continualed with gods mission

Saved john

Saved dereck saved carlos irving and suhey coco and all of the family

Kie speacial boygirl

Kie kept smoking finding out this boy just smoked everything

From bleach to deroritns

Secrets he put on from that took showers with one smoke

Kie left desided to go to god

Kie got birnt in his room alive what a murder for kie

Then fifty camehim and fifty

Something eles

Kie shot him self with a gun fifty jumped and died

Kie alond with his shadows becames stronger smoked wih them but didnt know he was with them

Luz came in thats fity ppl

Kie here with ppl on top of him kie

Watching is movie unvale

Luz started to take care ofge came back luz was here is that lucy

Kie didnt know

Gorge started to love wachother inba family way

Themove second in the 2000

1980

Kie was piss broke so lucy got him in the syic kie stated to be a ginnie pig for the hospitals still is falles asleep after ever drug doss still the young doctor wanted to help

So wifi and all wifi bacame outside and inside kie desided to do contruction fir borroughs the kid got scared and said to everybody leave the water is coming

Kie started to ebsorb plans

Ameeb cam after sandy

Kie ysed it saved everybody everytume after weasther

Kidd alla doing it wring kie

Said stop u doing it wrong kie said the weatger we in ths black hole dont wroory about the weather

Aquamen put us uderwater on the world island saved us if was anazing she just saved us water all around in the clouds

I knew she wilk saved

Stop doing that kidd alla ameen

He stoped kie stop abd just called rhe supervilluns and superheros

Soon kie get swiped by this all the time

All his stuff that goes to the movie and music goes out all the time

Jumpers came.

Rapits gods that wore rapits saw his future

Kie desided that was a fare deal

Lucy kept getting swipped looking for kie wgwn they moved here

Kie started to go to programs and movie and music

So kie started to creat the phone with metro pcs

Swipper was still at work ppl shoyld play play with that for tv and for ppl but ppl gst convused it does take time u have pay with ur phone uf all have unlimmited verizon started to say kei work

So i wirk with all wifi-$

Money little

Kie cry more money kie cry kie got

Kie got bomb shehe loves that

A relive cane he serches fir that

That its hapoyndss us coming to a bigning

Thwn bigie and teo pack past in the 1900

Then kie broght back twopack and biggie

Gorge got a job

Shehe still gwts swipped for leaving

But kie savs shehe all over i call him that becise she hears the sound of shegods he goes beserk kie too

Boobs and tits got to get out

Momie backing looking like fools mmey lier u git beutiful and kie see u louching

Rich as fuck and dont give a fuck money yes

2000

Metrotron jailed kie

For hitting a cop then kie desided

Ti become a cop then the love stories became for àtill as a 4 year old he atill does good and legit and some dont know they get tricked by the other cops

Hehehehhehheheehehahahha

All Fun and games

Kie cried

2001

Kie moved over here

With crookes and. Murders and inzane in thek kie membrain

Ppl loved kie fight lived kie

Kie started with muaic kept getting swipped messed upcant issis came2002

Kie cryed

2002

Kie astarted with saint jons

Work came

2020

Movies

Came prat

Fifffty came

Fity got shit

Jokes cames

That mother fuckder always loves to asmoke awoke and a dick wide he ia

Fight comes to movies

2020

Follow them i want some issis coochie

Gangster mother fucker no call me mother fucker oooooo i want some kie dick swippped kie fucking shit chinesses food came a black humain soulder super soulder dilvered his no smokes and just food kie is alive he been getting his stuff and dillivering it to ocean bay i

2020

Astill in the study room where I made all my rhymes for all the rhymers for black people latinos and all artistitas..still making