#grandma told me to go to bed so i took my laptop. to bed

[annieintheaair]

I'm doing my best getting used to life after you. Some things are gettin' easier to do, like knowing I won't find another you.

The other night, after not going to work and staying home and writing on here, I went to bed and had a dream that felt super real. Something in the dream indicated that it took place in 2022. Dan was still alive. It was actually a very happy dream, but within the dream, I knew that he was going to die soon. Everything in me wanted to tell him that he only had a few months to live but at the same time, I withheld that and enjoyed my time with him in the dream.

There was a time, many years ago, around 2013, when Dan and I didn't talk for a while. I think it was like six months or something and during that time, the Red Sox won the World Series and my grandma passed away. When we didn't talk for that time, I wondered if something had happened to him. It wasn't like we had had a really bad fight and stopped talking but something at the time had really pulled us apart. I didn't want to reach out but I constantly wondered if something had happened to him. I thought maybe he had died. Looking back, I wonder if it was some sort of premonition; I knew that he didn't have the forever that he thought that he did.

I wish I had listened to that part of me that maybe knew there wasn't a lot of time left. I wish I had taken advantage of the time that we had. I wish that I had done a lot of things differently.

Last week continued the series of things not going how I planned them and trying to come to terms with letting go of all of my expectations. We had some drama at work on Monday night, then Tuesday could have gone ok but due to the weather, yet again, we got delayed getting home Wednesday morning.

By Thursday morning, I was drained. I had to take my Civic for (overdue) servicing that morning so I drove Shawna home on my way and then stopped at Market Street for a breakfast burrito. At the mechanic, I sat next to and chatted with an older man who told me that his car needed a lot of work but he couldn’t part with it because it was his late wife’s car and she loved it. It made me think about how I have memories of Dan being in my Civic with me and when we had twin cars (I had blue and he had silver). I’ll probably be driving the Civic forever or at least until it dies on me because I just can’t part with it. The sentimental value is too high. The older man made me think about that kind of love— refusing to part with something someone you loved, loved. I wished I could find a love like that, that lasts forever.

When I got home, I had a meeting for my second job. I struggled to stay awake during it and as soon as it was over, I closed my laptop and took a nap.

I dropped my San Antonio trip that night to stay home and pack for my trip. I had some wine, watched movies, and went to bed.

Friday morning I got up and ready and then drove my dogs to Kia’s house before heading to Love Field in Dallas to try to catch a Southwest flight to Baltimore. My flight was delayed so after dealing with the struggle that was trying to find a parking spot, I got through security and went to Cru to drink some wine and work on my computer.

Luck would have it— I didn’t get a seat on the flight and the rest of the delayed flights for the day didn’t look promising either. I cancelled my whole trip and drove back to Kia’s to get my dogs and hung out there for a bit while the traffic calmed down. I was super bummed about not getting to spend the weekend with my family and celebrate my nephew, Graham’s first birthday.

It was a pretty low-key Friday night, going to bed, and getting up Saturday morning thinking I should try to go to work, but of course, I wasn’t motivated. I didn’t even make it to yoga on Saturday morning. By late in the day, I decided to go to Total Wine and Trader Joe’s. When I got home, I made myself an aperol spritz (ok, more than one). I’ve been jamming out to the new Shaboozie song, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and although that song would be best with a Lynchburg Lemonade, I drank my aperol spritz from the large wine glass I bought when I lived with Dan on 5th Street. After a few drinks, I was dozing off on my couch.

Sunday I watched church on TV and continued to put out fires at my second job. A lot of wrong items were shipped out so I’ve been spending the last few days emailing UPS return labels and manually creating new orders. It feels never ending and there could be up to 70 incorrect orders. I’m (only) at 20 so far.

Since I dropped my trip on Thursday, I knew I needed to pickup a trip to make up for it but I was already committed to going to yoga at 6pm. Right before leaving my house for yoga, a trip with a late sign in popped up on ETB (our trade board) so I picked it up. Somehow I convinced Matt to pickup the other position to go with me.

Aside from the annoying bug on the floor at yoga, it was just what I needed to finish out the weekend. I had just enough time after to go home and shower and then be on my way to work.

Our delayed flight ended up delaying further so I barely got any sleep that night in San Antonio but it was fun to work with Matt so I at least had someone to talk to in the back.

Monday morning I tried to sleep but barely slept. I spent the day being lazy at home before going back to work that night for yet another delayed flight to Oklahoma City. I’m going back to San Antonio tonight and of course, my flight is delayed again.

I had every intention of running errands today and going to Costco but the rain kept me home under a cozy blanket and I ordered Del Frisco’s on Uber Eats.

I’ve been getting a lot of my quilt done lately, which has been great. I’m calling it my delay quilt since I’m taking advantage of all these delayed flights to work on it. When my mom made me the quilt I now have on my bed, she said for years that she would make me one once I finished high school but then I left high school after 3 years and she changed it to college. I finished college in 3 years too and there was still no quilt but then she said once I got my first job and then my first place on my own. I felt like there was always a new thing to achieve before the quilt would be done. When I finally moved to Texas, my mom finished my quilt about a year into living here. I joked about my own quilt that I’d be done by the time I get married but honestly, it’s very possible it will be done this year (and I’m obviously not getting married haha).

June is always a hard time of the year for me. I’ve never been big on birthdays and mine is less than a week away. I’m struggling with knowing that when I turn 35, I will be an age that Dan never got to be since he passed away shortly after his 34th birthday. 14 years ago I had a mental health crisis, and 13 years ago I lost my job and in some ways, also lost Dan. I try not to put too much pressure on my birthday so it’s not a disappointment like it was last year when I wanted to have a party but never got to. When I turned 33, things went almost exactly as planned and it turned out to be a pretty good birthday.

This year, I don’t have a whole lot planned but will be celebrating a little early by seeing Julia Cole in concert in Dallas on Thursday. I can’t contain my excitement. I’ve been jamming out to her songs all week on my rides to and from work and for the last few years, I’ve been one of her top Spotify listeners. Especially after breakups, Julia’s songs really resonate with me. There’s nothing quite like singing your heart out with the words that you didn’t know how to put together yourself but feel them to your core. Matt dropped his trip on Thursday so he could go to the concert with me, which I thought was nice.

Life has been so far from everything I had planned, especially this month. The houses I’m trying to move to this summer keep delaying move-ins so I’m starting to think I might have to find something else. I also got pulled onto reserve next month, which is a whole struggle in itself trying to manage being on call and needing a dog sitter. I’m praying that everything works out and I somehow survive July.

I hate having to constantly adjust my expectations these days because I just feel so incredibly disappointed lately. It feels like one thing after the next.

Anyway, I’m about to board my flight to San Antonio. Praying for no drama tonight and an on-time arrival tomorrow morning. Honestly, is it Thursday yet? I need a night off!

xoxo

Annie

[go-f-die]

8/8/23 - 2:43 pm

people that know i'm a reader always ask me if i write. i don't. i'm not a fan, i'm not good at it. i have a hard time putting words down that make sense. and it's not even that it's clear in my head and the words are my problem; my head doesn't make sense. sometimes when i talk words come out like mush. stutter. mispronounced. disconnected.

but i've always been intrigued by journaling. i have old text posts across old tumblr accounts which just involves rants and rambles. my bf has told me to do it too. i think i've avoided it because i fear that once i've rambled enough the words will start to clear up and make sense. or i'll come back to read these and see that it's still a mess but i find meaning in it or make connections that i might be suppressing and avoiding.

i see these words and its like its not me. i haven't felt like me in a while and sometimes i fear i have never felt like me. have never felt like a person. i think i was heading somewhere; finding who i am. i lost my mom in 2019. i think i've been gone ever since. i think someone else took over. i re read old conversations with friends old posts old tweets and i see a different me each time.

i dont think im a good person and that's all I've wanted to be good and happy and ive just become selfish and disconnected. i feel nothing sometimes and way too much other times. sometimes im scared and sometimes im so bitter with life that i wonder why about everything.

i'm alone with my grandma at the moment. she has senile dementia . my grandfather lays in a hospital bed dealing with pains he can't figure out. two pieces of my mother that are so fragile right now. my laptops going to die

[sparklywatercolors]

Alright, I need to vent; and if anyone wants to give me advice that would be awesome but you don't have to.

Hi.

So, for the past two weeks all hell has broken loose in my family. My grandma threw my mom out of her home because my grandma is a little bitch who couldn't handle that her physical therapist and her doctor told my mom she can take the weekend off from 24/7 care. (My grandma got hip surgery in October). And my grandma as usual had a little spoiled bitch temper tantrum. And my poor mother took it all in and basically had several breakdowns bc of it. So fuck my grandma. Right? Right. K.

The entire family knows I'm home due to school and not being able to find an actual job. So it's "hey you make your mother better again, take it all in. Prove that you love her." Maybe I'm selfish but it's so much pressure. It's been the story of my life, make my mom happy, I just never could. And maybe I'm jealous of my sister right now cause she can tell mom she's here for her but my sister only calls her when she can. She doesn't have to be watching her 24/7 like I do.

Okay. This was just background information.

So I have this friend let's call her Cactus. Cactus and I just started being friends a few months ago. I met her casually and it's been good. She told me she missed hanging out with me but because of finals I couldn't hang out. And then this all happens. And I basically tell Cactus that there's been a family emergency that I can't go into, and I really don't want to go out right now because of this. She's understanding about it,which I appreciate.

However, my best friend let's call her Frog, wanted to see me this weekend (I saw her yesterday/ Friday Dec 23rd). I accidentally slipped and told Cactus that I'm gonna hang out with Frog for a little bit.

Holy shit man.

I.

Well apparently never do that. Because she freaked out on me. She was like nobody ever wants to see me! And I tell her maybe invite your pals over? (Incorrect response because then she's like everyone makes excuses!!!!!!).

🥲 oops.

Maybe I am the asshole for mentioning it. Maybe I'm a real bitch. But the girl barely knows me, and when we hang out she crosses several of my boundaries and I just couldn't be around it right now.

And a couple nights ago, she sent me a long rant on discord, putting herself down. And of course I'm worried now!! So immediately I go on my laptop AND THEY'RE GONE. But because when I was checking my phone I accidentally screenshotted them. And I called her out on it, I was like dude are you okay???

And

She was like are you gonna call the cops on me?

What.

What???

WHAT????

Like girl what??? Help? Why would I??

And so i was like no I'm not I'm just worried huh??

And I just don't have the energy rn to answer her. She was then like let me know if we're actually still friends.

Cactus, all because I need to be around people who know the real and a very very personal side of me right now cause I'm falling apart does not mean I don't wanna see you what,,,,

And yesterday I shown all this to Frog and she was like holy fuck the manipulation.

Sorry I just needed to get that all out cause I'm really annoyed and tired and angry. I went to bed early last night, so early that it's now 2:51 in the morning xD.

[miyuwuki]

Helohelo just popping by to ask if u could write mc trying to study but can’t cuz Miyuki is distracting her? I just love ur Miyuki stories 🥲

IDK IF YOU’RE STILL OUT THERE, BUT I LOVE THIS PROMPT SO MUCH. I HOPE YOU’RE STILL OUT THERE TBH

take a break

miyuki kazuya x reader

warnings: none

-

with a huge test that took up a chunk of your final grade coming up, you needed to be in your best game mode to get a good mark. this course was not easy, and if you fail this evaluation, you might need to redo the whole thing again.

you set up your laptop, stationary, and a nice cup of coffee at your desk and put on your headphones to get you rolling. before you started, you sent your boyfriend a quick text:

you: hey stupid, i might not be on my phone starting from now so if i don’t reply im studying for that stupid thing this weekend. have fun w practice, yk i love you

with a sip of your coffee, you sighed and rolled your shoulders back and got going. notes upon notes, memorization upon memorization, time flew by so quick that you even forgot to go use the washroom. you were so into it that you didn’t even hear your door open.

“she’s been like that for hours,” your mom whispered to miyuki, who only chuckled at your slumped form. in one hand, he held a small plastic bag filled with drinks and snacks. “i’ll leave you to it,” your mom smiled before closing the door (which you still didn’t notice).

slowly, miyuki walked stealthily towards you and shook your shoulders. “boo!”

“OH MY GOSH,” you shrieked, taking off your headphones only to see miyuki clutching at his stomach, laughing at you. “what the hell are you doing here, kazuya?? you scared the living shit out of me.” he sat on the edge of your bed and pulled you out of your chair by your wrists, making you sit on his lap before hugging you by your waist. “sorry pretty, thought it’d be funny.”

“well it wasn’t.”

“i laughed though.”

you got up and planted yourself back in your seat. “well? what are you doing here?” he sarcastically gasped, “am i not allowed to be here?”

“i told you i was gonna study.”

he held up his hands in defense, chucking again. “don’t worry, i’ll just be here. just wanted to be with you.”

a blush rose to your cheeks as you started writing away in your notebook once again. “whatever,” you mumbled, your heart beating twice as fast. he pulled out the scorebook and started to study it, and soon enough both of you were immersed in your own worlds.

that is, until you felt little things being thrown at you. “kazuya,” you grumbled, “stop throwing popcorn at me.”

“i am not throwing it at you.” he continued to eat the popcorn, but also continued to throw small pieces at you. “come y/n, let’s watch an episode of the show we’re watching.”

“i told you i have to study.” you replied, “go watch it.”

“no. we need to watch it together— stop throwing popcorn back at me!”

now it was your turn to laugh at him, but he took your wrists and pulled you on top of him, spilling the popcorn all over the floor.

“kazuya—mmph!” before you could scold him, his pair found yours, and you know you could never deny his kisses. he made sure you both stayed like that for a while.

“just one episode, please? you have days to study and you need to take a break, though i shouldn’t be talking,” he smiled and turned on his laptop, “i’ll let you go after one episode.”

you hadn’t noticed how long you’d been studying for until you felt the aching pain in your lower back. miyuki immediately massaged that area for you, making you groan into his shirt.

“see? take a break, grandma.”

“shut up.”

“love you?”

“love you too, stupid.”

-

EEEE SO CUTE I LOVE

*＊✿❀reblogs and likes are appreciated❀✿＊*

[peachhcs]

Love Languages Pt. 2

Pairing: Luke Patterson x reader

Summary: Pt.2 to Luke asking you what Love Languages are

Warnings: talk of drinking and cheating but that’s it

Word Count: 1.6k

Here is part two that you all have been asking for! I deeply apologize for how long it took me to get this up, school is really kicking my butt. I have a bunch of people asking to be on my taglist and I’m currently in the works of making one so comment or reblog or something telling me you want to be on my taglist! Make sure you specifiy for my series or for small blurbs/oneshots like this or both! 

Thank you so much for the amazing feedback! I love the comments and y’all are so amazing! 

I’m not sure if this will have a part 3?? but let me know if you want one haha. I won’t be tagging anyone in this because my tags got lost in my notifications, so if you want to be tagged again, make sure you read above! :)

PART 1

* * *

You didn’t mean to avoid Luke, it just kind of happened. Junior Year was no joke and it felt like every night and every weekend you had piles of homework to get done, so you sort of drifted from going to Julie’s house everyday. She didn’t mind, she understood just as much and kept you updated on how the band was doing. However, you still felt guilty for avoiding the boys. You were worried that Luke would think he scared you away by touching you, but you were feeling the exact opposite. You wanted to explore more and find out more but here you were, in your room at 12am trying to finish this nagging essay that was due in 8 hours. 

You felt your eyelids growing heavy but you shook your head, trying to keep yourself awake. The 3 monster drinks on your nightstand said enough about how much you were trying to keep yourself awake. You had 2 paragraphs left but you knew you were at a losing battle with yourself. The way your eyes were just glazing over at this point and rereading the same sentence over and over was becoming a very evident indication that you needed sleep. Before you could even think about quitting for the night, there was a noise from the side of your room and a grunt. Your eyes quickly darted over to where the noise came from and there stood Luke with that magenta pull over that you really liked. 

“Luke?” His eyes quickly darted over to you, clearly surprised to still see you awake.

“Y/n..hey..” He started and you pushed your laptop away to give him your full attention. 

“What are you..doing here?..” You weren’t really sure why he was here and you felt a small bit of tension in the room from avoiding him for the past few weeks. 

“I uh..came to see you..” His voice was small and you pushed your eyebrows together in confusion. 

“At 12 in the morning?..” You knew ghosts didn’t really sleep but it was still a strange sight to see Luke in your bedroom this late at night. 

“Yup..” He trails off and pushes his glance down to the floor. You raised your eyebrow, knowing he wasn’t telling you the whole truth. You two were still best friends after all, so you could read him like an open book. 

“Luke, seriously. What are you doing here?” You ask trying to push an answer out of him. He finally meets your gaze again and you see his small expression on his face.

“Why have you been avoiding me?” 

You blinked a few times at his bluntness. This time you were the one to avoid his gaze. You picked at your fingernails slightly, knowing Luke was watching you and waiting for an answer. 

“I don't mean too.. School’s been tough and stuff.” You say cringing at how lame that sounded even though it was true. Luke stayed silent for a moment, trying to decide if you were lying to him or not. You avoided his eyes and kept your glance locked on the floor. 

“Did I do something wrong? Did I overstep by touching you? I didn’t mean to scare you or anything..” Luke trails off and you frown. You quickly shake your head to tell him no.

“No, no, no. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve just been really swamped with homework..” You grimace to yourself for coming back to your really lame excuse. You watch as Luke steps a little closer, testing the waters. When you don’t object to him moving closer, he takes a slow seat on your bed beside you. 

“You look tired..” He points out, gently reaching to touch your cheek. It warms both of your bodies as your skin makes contact. His hands were..warm..and comforting. You weren’t sure what you expected but it definitely wasn't this. Who knew ghosts were warm? 

“I told you I’ve been swamped with homework.” You chuckle and this time Luke chuckles along with you. He gently pulls his hand away and folds them into his lap. You stare down at your feet for a few moments trying to figure out what to say next. This felt like completely new territory the two of you were exploring and by the energy and growing tension in the room; this was a little bit scary. 

“Do you think you know..why we can..touch?” You ask hesitantly. Julie was filling you in here and there at school, but it wasn’t much and they didn’t seem to come up with anything as to why you had the “powers” too. 

“No..it’s still all confusing. We think Julie’s mom has something to do with us being connected to Julie but we don’t know about you.” Luke says, side eyeing you and you weren’t sure if that was a hint for you to talk about your past or not.  

You didn’t really open up about your past. No one had ever really asked so you never really talked. Julie knew a little bit, she knew that your mom and dad fought a lot and you didn’t like being at home that much, but that was about it. You didn’t talk about it further than that, so when you could feel Luke trying to dig into your past more, you shrugged. 

“My parents don’t talk much about stuff. I don’t know.” You say, keeping it short and simple. Luke frowns a little at your answer, but he knows not to push so he doesn’t. The two of you sit in more silence beside one another. You picked at your finger nails while Luke’s eyes travelled around your room. 

“I ran out on my mom. She didn’t believe in my dream and though dropping out of high school was the worst possible idea. We got into a fight and I ran out. That was the last time I saw her face to face. I died before I could make amends with her.” You glance at Luke, surprised at his openness. Even though you guys were best friends, talking about stuff like this was kind of off limits. The memory hurt too much so you never talked about at home, parent problems. 

“Wow..I’m sorry. That must have been hard on both of you.” You admit and Luke nods.

“It was, but Julie helped me make amends with them last year.” Luke smiles a little and you smile too. You knew his little story was a play to get you to start talking so you took in a little breath. 

“My dad cheated on my mom a few years ago with..a few other women. My mom keeps trying to make excuses for him to keep him around. They fight a lot because my dad doesn’t want to stay but my mom keeps pushing it. They’re both pretty heavy drinkers, too. It’s not a very good mix.” You explain. It felt weird to say it out loud, but it also felt nice to talk about it with someone.

“I’m really sorry, Y/n. I can’t imagine how difficult that is.” Luke empathizes but you only shrug. 

“It’s a good thing Julie let’s me come over so much. She’s been there for me for it all and I really love her for that.” You say, smiling at the thought of Julie’s friendship. You really couldn’t ask for a better best friend to get through it all. 

“Yeah, Julie’s really great. She does it all.” Luke laughs and you nod in agreement. More silence fills in between you two but it was comfortable silence. This time you lean your head on Luke’s shoulder and he pulls his arm around you to bring you closer. You could feel the tension slowly fading away. Sometimes all it took was one meaningful conversation to break the barrier. 

“Oh yeah, I saw these on my way over here and I thought you might like them.” Luke smiles and you watch as he digs into his pocket before pulling out a small bouquet of those pretty Aster flowers. You sit up a little, instantly recognizing them. They were your grandma’s favorite before she passed away when you were little. 

“Asters?” You ask and Luke glances at you a little surprised.

“Is that what they’re called? They’re really pretty.” Luke smiles and hands them to you. You smile, smelling them and instantly getting that fresh scent of your grandma’s house. 

“They are very pretty. Thank you.” You smile warmly and Luke smiles again. 

“Yeah, you’re welcome. They just reminded me of you.” Luke says and you chuckle. That was something your grandma had said to you a lot. 

“You should probably get going. It’s getting late and the boys are probably wondering where you are.” You chuckle, glancing at how much later it had gotten and you still had to wake up for school the next morning. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll see you at Julie’s tomorrow?” Luke stands up and sends you a hopeful glance. You chuckle and nod a yes. 

“Yeah, see you there, Patterson.” Luke smiles at your response. You watch as he hesitates to leave for a moment and you’re about to question him when in one quick motion he plants a kiss on your cheek before poofing out. 

You sit there, a little stunned, before allowing a small blush to creep its way onto your cheeks. You got up to put your flowers in your little vase on your desk. It added a nice touch to your room. If Luke hadn’t come in to make you more alert, you would have missed it. On your desk by the vase was a small piece of paper with writing on it. Upon examining it further, it was one of the last notes your grandma had written to you before she passed away. You thought you had lost that somewhere in your numerous papers, but there it was, front and center on your desk. 

I will be with you, today, tomorrow, and forever. You just have to look for the signs - Grandma 

[migilini]

Hi!! Can you do another request for Charlie Gillespie? Can it be the 5 times he tries to propose and the one time he actually does? Thank you!!

Fifth Time Works A Charm - Charlie Gillespie

a/n: I loved writing this, especially because I’m procastinating to write the next Chapter for my Luke ff. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Requests are open!

Words: 3k

Masterlist

------------------------------------------

He knew from the moment he kissed you goodnight on your second date that you were the one he was gonna marry one day. He loved the way you always complained about back pain, yet you never sat normally in any chair and the way you still paid attention to him when he talked about a topic you had no clue on. The spark in your eyes and the curve of your lips when you laughed at one of his awful jokes. Every Morning he woke up next to you was a good one and he loved you more and more everyday. He was totally and completely whipped for you that wasn't the hard part, finding the right moment to propose was. 

1

The two of you were on vacation in Hawaii at the same resort the two of you accidentally met a couple years ago and learned that you actually only lived 30 minutes away from each other. You were laying on the beach, the soft towel brushing your skin slightly, a big sun hat shielding your eyes and face from the hot sun. 

Cold drops of water hit your exposed stomach “Baby look, the water is so nice!” more water hit your warm skin. Screeching you sat up and saw your boyfriend standing over you, with a big smile while he wrenched out his hair, letting all the cold water hit you. 

“It's cold.” you giggled. “And you're warm!” He dropped on top of you, instantly cooling you down with his cold skin. You tried to protest but he was faster and stronger than you are. Putting his elbows around your face, he lifted some weight off of your chest then he stared at you. 

“Hmm? What are you staring at me for?” you asked, amusement evident in your voice. “You just look very beautiful right now. You look relaxed.” 

Blushing, you cupped one of his cheeks and responded “Thank you handsome. I am relaxed, really needed this getaway.” He smiled and leaned down a bit to kiss your forehead, your nose and then your lips. You savoured the saltines that lingered on your lips for a second longer before he pulled away. He got off of you and rested on his own towel. 

Sitting up a bit more, you pulled out your book and read for a bit, when suddenly something made your toe wiggle. Looking over the border of the book, you noticed that Charlie wanted your attention. You looked at him for a moment, taking in his small smile. 

“I have something planned for tonight.” He said and buried your foot in the sand. “Yeah? Care to tell me what it is?” 

“Nope that's gonna be a surprise! Let's get back to the room and get ready.” 

He told you to get dressed casually yet fancy so you wore your hair up in a bun, light makeup with a bold red lip and a flowy maxi dress. You were sitting on the hotel bed when you heard someone vomiting.

“Babe? You okay?” you questioned and walked to the bathroom door. “Did you eat something weird?” the door opened and you were faced with a pale Charlie. “Oh baby.” a small frown sat on your face when you saw him. “Let's stay in. We can do your surprise tomorrow when you feel better, okay?” Pouting, he shook his head “No. I feel fine, let's go.” he went to grab your hand but you took a small step back.

“Charlie, you're sick. There's no harm in staying in today. Health first, adventures second okay?” His shoulders dropped in defeat, there was no way he could convince you to still go out, so he nodded and followed you back to the bed. But before, in a second that you went to grab a water bottle, he pulled a small black box from his pockets and stuffed it back into his suitcase.

Unfortunately he was sick for the rest of your trip.

2

You and your boyfriend Charlie were chilling on the couch in the living room. Charlie was responding to some emails while you scrolled through instagram. The radio was on in the background, filling the room with soft music. It was late evening and you put some candles on and turned up your little lights that were scattered all over the place to make it cozy.

Your ears picked up the familiar tune of ‘It's been a long long time by Harry James’ and a big smile spread on your lips. You jumped up, throwing your phone somewhere on the couch and started pulling on Charlie's arm. “Dance with me.” 

“Baby I’m working.��� he said with a grin, already closing his laptop.

“Please just dance to this song. It's our song babe! Then I won't annoy you the whole day.” you pleaded, jumping from one foot to the other, while still pulling on his arm.

“Okay. Just this song. I know how much you love it.” He stood up, his arms finding your waist as you interlaced your hands behind his back. Your manicured fingers immediately start playing with his longer hair. The two of you swayed to the music, he was humming along to the music, while you closed your eyes. He dipped you, waking you laugh. Then you twirled him around your arm. The song came to your favorite part and you wholeheartedly sang along, beaming up at your boyfriend.

‘Kiss me once’ You gave him a kiss on the shoulder and he kissed the top of your head, pulling you closer into his chest.

‘Then, kiss me twice’ You stood on your tiptoes and kissed his forehead and the tip of his nose.

‘Then, kiss me once again’ finally you kissed his lips. Charlie hummed in approval, tightening his grip on your waist.

Slowly the song came to an end when your phone started to ring. Charlie looked at your expectantly, waiting for you to pick it up.

“If it's important they'll call again.” you muttered with your face pressed against his shoulder. Sadly for you both a second later it began to ring again. Groaning the two of you left your little bubble as you picked up your phone.

“Oh hi grandma. How have you been?” You excused yourself with a swift kiss on his cheek and left the living room, leaving behind a lonely boyfriend.

“We got a special request to play this song today.” The radio host announced “I hope she said yes man!”

3

You just finished your last exam of the last semester of college. You were done. Finished. Now you only have to wait and see if you're actually gonna graduate or if you have to repeat the semester. Still, you felt like celebrating. Charlie had interview after interview scheduled for today so you didn't tell him right of the bat. You spent the day doing some mundane household tasks and grocery shopping. The moment your boyfriend was finished for the day, he ran out of your office to search for you.

You laid on the couch, watching a new netflix series when you heard footsteps approach. “You’ve done it baby!” he pulled you off the couch and twirled you around. Giggling you answered “I haven't graduated yet.” 

“And? You will, I'm sure of it because I have the smartest girlfriend in the world and she just finished her last test. This needs celebration!” he left small kisses all over your face. 

Due to the pandemic, you had to stay in the appartement to party. You didn't care though. Charlie ordered something from your favourite italian place and you pulled out the wine from your kitchen cabinet. Somehow the food took ages to arrive and to pass the time you decided to open the bottle.

Wine always had an interesting effect on the two of you, especially on an empty stomach. Charlie got very needy and you always blacked out during the night (He does too but he won't admit it). But the one thing both of you had in common was the touchyness. It wasn't like you two were not always touching when you were sober, it was just that wine drunk Charlie and you took it to a whole other level. By the time you were on your third glass, you wondered if Charlie even ordered the food.

“Could I have this dance with you ma lady?” Charlie held out his hand and bowled a little. You put down your now fifth glass of wine and stood up, taking his hand in yours.

“Oh, yes of course.” This dance was different from the dance you had a couple of nights ago. It was more of a makeout session than a dance. At some point he picked you up, so your legs were wrapped around his torso, yet he still swayed to the non existing music. 

“I love you.” You murmured against his lips. 

“I love you more.” he said and pulled away slightly.

“No way that's possible.” 

“Oh really?” he raised his eyebrow. 

“Marry me then.” he whispered looking you in the eyes with a spark in his.

“Yes! I do!” You slurred and kissed him harshly. A smile spreading on both of your lips.

You woke up the next morning with an aching headache and practically no memory of the evening before. You turned over to see Charlie sleeping next to you. You slowly traced the outline of his face. He opened his eyes and smiled at you.

“Hi” he croaked out in his morning voice that still made butterflies rise in your stomach. “Hey. How much do you remember?” You asked him sheepishly. He pulled you in with his arms, hiding his face in the crook of your neck. 

“Not much to be honest and i'm guessing you don’t either?” You only shook your head. 

“I remember that our food somehow didn't arrive.” 

Next time Charlie should really read the text of the restaurant he orders from, because there was a perfectly cooked meal waiting in front of your door.

4

Charlie missed his best friend and you knew this. So you arranged a little get together with Owen and Jeremy at Owen’s new apartment. Your plan was to drive down from Canada, make a quick weekend stop at Owens and then make your way to your apartment in LA.

Currently it was a monday morning and you were still at Owens. His guest bed was just so comfortable it was harder than normal to get out of bed. On this particular morning, you woke up to an empty side of the bed and some talking from the living room.

Lazily, you put on one of Charlie's hoodies, some cozy socks and a beany. You shuffled to the living room where you assumed the boys would be sitting, not realising that you interrupted a conversation. 

“I don't know man. Everytime I have something planned it goes wrong.” 

“Look Char, In my experience the chance will… morning y/n.” Jeremy was quick to notice your figure shuffling towards them, your eyes scanning your phone. The boys tensed up and quickly tried to do a normal activity. 

“Morning everybody.” You smiled at them. “Am I the last to be up?” you asked and only got noods in return. Still too sleepy to notice the atmosphere, you made your way over to your boyfriend, who was standing at the kitchen aisle, wrapping your arms around him from behind and nuzzling your head into his back. Your hands instantly go under his hoodie and on his bare skin to warm your hands. 

“Kofe…” you mumbled into his back, barely audible.

“What?” Owen asked, confused while he sat on the kitchen counter, eating a toast.

“She wants some coffee.” Your boyfriend translated with a smile. 

“Oh.. I just used the last capsule... I’m so sorry” Jeremy apologized and offered you the last sip of his cup of coffee. 

“I’m fine, I'll survive thank you though Jer.” You yawned, releasing yourself from cuddling Charlie, knowing you're not gonna be fully awake without a cup of coffee. Your boyfriend also knew this and eyed you closely, then he leaned over to whisper in your ear that he's gonna get you a coffee after his workout. He looked at you lovingly and pressed a kiss to your temple.

“Jesus Christ man, you're whipped. Just ask her.” Owen said while rolling his eyes. The second the last words left his lips all the boys looked at eachother with wide eyes. Owen went to cover his mouth with his hands. 

“Ask me what?” You asked in a soft tone and turned to your boyfriend who had a really panicked look on his face. 

“I- I-uhm…” he stuttered, fiddling with his fingers.

“Charlie here wanted to ask you if you would mind staying one more day.” Jeremy came to the rescue and sent Owen a mad look, while he pulled one of his arms over Charlie's shoulder, who gave him a thankful nudge.

Your face softened “Of course bubby! If it's okay with Owen it's okay with me, we have no hurry to head to LA. I love spending time here. Gotta teach Owen a few tips and tricks of living alone.” you sent a wink in the blonde boys direction.

5

At this point Charlie nearly gave up on asking you to marry him, maybe it was a sign from the universe that the two of you weren’t ready for that commitment yet. You were both still so young and just started with your careers. 

He looked over at your mess of curls that spread all over the pillow case. The peaceful up and down from your chest and the small smile on your slightly opened lips as you slept. He had to ask you to marry him, there was no way he wouldn't. 

The sunlight peeked through the curtains and illuminated the bedroom on this sunday morning in a pretty yellow. You opened your eyes as you heard something shift beside you.

“Where are you going?” You asked, squinting your eyes that still needed to get used to the light. 

“Just for a walk baby. Go back to sleep.” He pushed some hairs back that touched your face. Pouting, you put your much smaller hand on his hand that laid on your face. 

“Noo. Don't go. Come back to bed.” you whined, leaving kisses on his hand. He sat there for a while, contemplating if he could say no to your face. In the end he sighed and you felt the mattress next to you go down. 

“Thank you for staying.” you whispered and pulled him closer, letting your head rest on his chest. His arms wrapped around you and he shifted in a comfortable position, so that you were basically laying on top of him. With the tip of your fingers you drew little constellations on his chest and he played with the strands of your hair. 

“Charlie?” You broke the silence and went to look at his face, propping your chin on your hand.

“What's on your pretty mind?”

“When will you ask me to marry you? Or should I ask you?” You finally asked the questions that have been running through your mind for months now.

He stopped breathing for a second, stunned at your declaration. A wide smile broke out on his lips and he started laughing. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. 

“Is that such a funny concept?” You asked, slightly hurt. “I thought you wanted to do it in Hawaii but then you were sick and I also heard you and the boys talking about something. Plus I found the ring.” you admitted. 

Charlie shifted again so you were both sitting up and facing each other. “You found the ring?” he asked quietly. 

“Yeah I put some of your stuff into the drawer and it fell out. I didn't look at it though! I still wanted that part to be a surprise. But you never asked, so im gonna do it, fuck the gender norms. Charlie Jeffrey Gillespie will you...”

“Oh my god. Baby no.” he chuckled and cupped your face, making you stop in the middle of the sentence. “I had so many different ideas planned but something always came in between me actually asking you. So let me do it right.”

He got up from the bed and pulled out the little black box from one of the drawers in your bedroom. 

“Uhm… could you maybe stand up?”

You obliged eagerly, your hands shaking like crazy.

And then it was finally happening. Your boyfriend got down on one knee and looked up at you with tears in his eyes.

“This wasn't at all how I originally wanted to do it but now thinking about it, it's just perfect. I knew pretty early on that you were gonna be the girl I marry one day. I know we’re both still very young but I couldn't imagine myself spending my life with anybody else other than you. You're the person I want to wake up next to every morning and the person I miss the most when I’m away. So would you do me the honours and make me the happiest man alive by marrying me?” he took out the ring with shaking hands, while you tried to stop the sobbing. You got on your knees as well and cupped his face, whipping away some tears.

“Yes! One million times yes!” You kissed him softly, afraid that this was all a dream. Charlie pushed the ring on your finger and lifted you up, kissing you again and again with a tear soaked face and a smile that hurt his cheeks.

[pookha]

No tengo las llaves, chapter 3

A Drunk Skrunkly (Drunkly) Stress-Bakes

Vee tries to figure out how their going to juggle everything they need to do to keep up appearances. They accidently get drunk and stress-bake. Masha has soccer practice (Oh, Wow! Sports!). Vee discovers Camila's fanfiction.

(The typos in the texts are intentional).

Masha did text later from home; Vee got it just as they were getting into bed.

Thanks for the empanadas they were delicious.

Vee started to text back, but Masha kept typing, so Vee waited.

I’ve got practice tomorrow and the next day and also work after so I can’t come over but if you want to watch me practice it’ll be on the football field around 4

Vee texted practice?

Soccer, Masha replied.

I’ll be there

<3

<3

Vee held their phone close to their chest, enjoying the warmth for a few minutes. They reached over, put it on the charger and went to sleep, or tried to sleep, but their mind whirled around.

The next day, the landline rang early. It was the clinic; they’d been trying to reach Camila on her cell, but hadn’t been able to. The matter was a small scheduling one and Vee, in Camila’s voice, told them not to call anymore unless it was an emergency as she was about to leave for the Dominican and that Carmen was able to answer those questions during her absence.

When the call was done, Vee sighed, logged back into Camila’s laptop, then her cell-phone account and figured out how to forward calls from Camila’s phone to theirs. They felt dumb for not thinking of it the day before. They cleaned the house and then left to wander the town. A cop slowed down and looked at them as they walked.

“Hey, kid, shouldn’t you be in school?” the cop yelled from the window of his car.

“Half-day, sir,” Vee said politely.

The officer nodded and drove on. Vee sighed; this was going to be harder than they thought originally. They wondered if they should go to school as Luz, then swore.

They pulled out their cell, went behind a bush and shifted to Camila. They found Gravesfield High School’s number and called. It took them almost a half-hour to get through to the admin that Luz was going to be gone indefinitely while she and Camila were in the Dominican taking care of Luz’s great-grandma. The admin mentioned a few times that if Luz missed too much school, that not even summer school would make it up and she might have to repeat freshman year.

Vee wondered how Camila would handle it, then finally snapped, “I understand, but I have to take care of my abuela, my husband’s dead and I can’t leave Luz here alone. Got it?”

Silence came from the other end of the line for a beat, then two.

“As long as you understand the consequences, we’re clear.”

“Good.” Vee hung up on them and shook for a moment. They hated conflict.

They sighed again. There were so many pies to keep your fingers in as an adult. The camp had helped them learn some of them, but there was no way they could keep their fingers in all of them. Suddenly, the image of juggling cherry pies appeared in their head and they tried to keep them all aloft, but one by one they all crashed down.

They squared their shoulders, shifted to look like an adult man in casual khakis and a polo with an overcoat and set back off for town. They wandered a long time, their feet taking them back to the graveyard where the portal had been. They touched it and could feel a remnant of ambient magic still there. A small smear of Titan’s blood remained congealed on the ground. Vee made sure no one was watching, ran their finger through it and opened their mouth. Streamers of violet and purple ran from it to their mouth. They devoured the magic as fast as they could.

Vee sat down hard on the ground, their head swimming. When they felt less dizzy, they stood and started to walk toward the school, but they staggered around.

I’m drunk, they realized, and laughed. Once they started laughing they couldn’t stop. Even absorbing Belos’s strong magic hadn’t felt like this. The Titan’s Blood was too much, too rich. They found a dry spot under a tree and laid down under it and closed their eyes. When they opened them later, the sun was much lower and their head throbbed painfully. They looked at their phone and swore for the second time that day; the most they ever had in a single day.

They fumbled the phone as they tried to text and almost dropped it.

Sorry, sorry, I lost track of time. I’ll tell you abiet ut nxet time we get togtther

They sighed and sent another text.

*about it next time we get together. Sry for typos….am drunk.

They waited for a reply, but then realized that Masha was probably on the field and not by their phone. They looked at the clock again and figured that by the time they got to the High School that practice would be over, so they just staggered home. When they got there, they turned on the deep fryer and made some frozen cheese sticks and chicken fingers.

Masha texted back around 6:30.

Was worried. Drunk! Looking forward to hearing this. Watch practice tomorrow?

Vee snatched their phone off the table and texted back.

Will be there. Sry again

Masha replied.

NBD, glad you okay eat something heavy, drink lots of water, take some aspiring (can yo8u?) get some sleep. GTG, homework. CYA TMRW

TMRW, Vee sent back.

They held their phone to their chest again for a long time, their head still throbbing, but their belly now pleasantly full of greasy food.

Their eyes closed and they drifted off. When they woke up, it was dark. Their phone’s light blinked at them.

They’d missed a text from Luz.

We have a portal, can only open for a moment at a time. Stay safe. Love you, sis. Belos on run, Collector

The message cut off. It made Vee more nervous. They looked at the time; 11:30, too late to text Masha. They got up, got some water and aspirin, and went to bed. This time their head spun for hours, imagining all the bad things that could happen to Luz and Camila (and their friends) in the Boiling Isles. They wondered if they should have gone with them, but then started shaking badly. They picked up their phone and called Masha.

It only rang twice before Masha picked up, their voice slurred with sleep.

“Vee, you okay?”

“No, I—I got a text from Luz, but it cut off part way, and I’m worried, and drunk still, and I can’t sleep…and…and…and…” They started blubbering.

“Sh, it’ll be okay. I can’t talk too much now or my Mom will wake up and come take my phone. I’ll come over before school tomorrow, or I guess this morning,  okay?” Masha whispered. Vee pictured them looking at the clock.

“Thank you, sorry to be a bother,” Vee said, still shaking and crying.

“It’s not a bother. Sorry, got to go.” They paused. “You’re my friend, maybe more, IDK yet.”

“You’re my friend, maybe more, too,” Vee said back and they both chuckled. Vee pictured the gap between Masha’s teeth as their upper lip curled in laughter. They were definitely liking making Masha laugh.

“I really got to go; see you later.” Masha hung up.

Vee got up and went to the kitchen. When Masha came over later in the morning, they found a pile of baked goods on the table: iced cinnamon rolls, brownies with cream cheese frosting and little lime tartlets. There was also another tray of savory empanadas.

“Not as spicy this time,” Vee said, hugging Masha as they entered the kitchen.

“I thought you’d like some to take for lunch.” They handed Masha a bag with a couple of containers in it.

Masha took the bag and sat at the table. Vee pulled up a chair next to them.

“Sorry I called so late; I panicked.” They reached out and took Masha’s hand.

“It’s okay; you’re scared and far from home and you're all alone.”

 “I’ve got you,” Masha said, and squeezed Vee’s hand.

“You’ve got me,” Vee said, squeezing back.

“Tell me about yesterday.”

Vee filled them in, showing them the text from Luz and explaining about the Titan’s Blood.

“You need something to keep you busy,” Masha said.

“I love baking, but I can’t eat all of this, and I can’t sell it,” Vee said.

“Mmm, I have some ideas about that, but I’ve got to go to school if I’m going to make it there on time.”

“I could drive you,” Vee offered.

Masha shook their head.

“You don’t have Camila’s license and if you got pulled over there could be trouble. Save driving for emergencies.”

They squeezed Vee’s hand, released it, stood, then leaned over and kissed Vee on the cheek.

“I’ll text you at lunch with my idea about the baking.”

Vee stood and walked them to the door. As Masha was turning to leave, Vee kissed their cheek, too.

“Thank you again,” they said as Masha grabbed their backpack and bike from the porch. They waved as they biked toward the high school.

Vee logged into Camila’s email and checked in on everything. Most of it was spam and they deleted it. One caught their attention; it was from ‘Fan Archive’ and had the subject line ‘You’ve got likes!’ Vee thought it might be spam, so started to delete it, but then opened it. They followed the link back to a site and sat down and read.

It was a Cosmic Frontier story, but it didn’t follow the books. Vee dug around on and discovered what fanfiction was. They clicked the author’s link and all of their stories popped up.

Author QuanCuit has written 10 stories for the Cosmic Frontier Fandom

As Vee was trying to make sense of it, their phone binged.

I think we can sell some of your stuff at my uncle’s table at the famers market I will call him after school and before practice. The lime pie things were great and the empanadas were a lot less spicy. TYVM for the food! If we’re gonna date, I’m gonna have to practice more or I’ll get fat!

Vee typed back immediately.

Glad you liked them. What does yr uncle sell?

…

…

Organic…vegetables���420 varieties of them…if you understand

Vee didn’t understand. They looked up 420 and laughed.

Just looked it up, got it.

GTG back soon. See you at practice

Wait, do you understand fanfiction

🤣 Yes wrote some cringe stuff few years ago about Dusklight Team Jakie why?

Found some, didn’t get it. CU L*R

*L8R

<3

<3

Vee blinked, looked around and felt lost for a moment, but not sure why. They bookmarked what must be Camila’s author page for later and closed the laptop. They double-checked all their household chores and had just started to box up the food when they got an idea. They looked up Masha’s mother and found a phone number.

It only rang twice before a woman picked it up.

“Allo?”

“Um…Hi, it’s Vee, Masha’s friend. Is this Lyuba?” Even though no one was there to see, Vee still felt their cheeks get hot.

“Da, um, yes,” she sounded flustered, too. “Are you okay? Is Masha okay?”

“Oh, it’s all good, but I need a favor if you’re available.”

“Da, um, yes?” she repeated.

Vee filled them in and Lyuba quickly agreed. At a quarter to 4, Lyuba showed up and helped Vee put all the food they’d made into her car.

“The kids will be super excited to have all this; thank you for making it.”

“My mom helped,” Vee lied, because it seemed like they should.

Lyuba laughed.

“Masha told me you’re quite the baker and chef. Don’t be humble; if you made it all, be proud of it.”

“I—I did make it all. I had a bad day yesterday and stayed up late baking.”

Now Lyuba looked around the house.

“Your Mom didn’t mind?”

“I’ve had a tough childhood and Camila understands that. She’s the best foster mom I’ve had.”

“She sounds nice; looking forward to meeting her sometime.”

They loaded up all the food and went to practice. When Masha came out of the locker room and ran on the field they saw Vee and their mom and waved at them. They started to run over to the stands, but the coach blew his whistle at them and they went to do their drills.

“I don’t understand soccer,” Vee said to Lyuba.

Lyuba smiled.

“It’s not that hard; offsides is hardest rule to understand.”

Vee watched Masha dribble and practice passing in a giant circle. They looked different in shorts and a T-shirt than normal and Vee felt a strange tingle in their belly.

Lyuba waved one of the assistants over and let him know that they had food for after practice. The assistant thanked her and went to whisper to the coach. The coach turned and gave Lyuba a thumbs-up.

It would be a short practice, Lyuba explained, since they’d had a long one the day before. She told Vee that games started in a few weeks and it would be good if they came. She could even pick them up if they needed. Vee thanked her and said yes.

After the practice was over, the coach gathered the team and said something to them. They cheered and then all ran to the stand where Lyuba and Vee were rapidly opening containers.

They picked them clean quickly.

“Thank you,” one of the boys told Lyuba.

“Thank Vee, they made it,” she said.

“Thanks,” he said and his eyes widened as Masha came up and kissed Vee on the cheek.

“Is—is this your girlfriend?” he asked Masha, now really looking at Vee.

“Vee’s my friend; as for enbyfriend; we’re working on that.”

The boy nodded, looked at Masha, then Vee.

“Sorry if I mis-gendered you,” he said.

“No, it’s all right,” Vee said.

“It’s really good,” he said and went to join his teammates. He said something to them and they all stopped by to thank Vee.

“You should have started dating someone before now,” one of them told Masha. He punched them on the arm and they punched him back.

“If I had, I wouldn’t have found Vee,” Masha said.

They sat down a few feet from Lyuba so they could talk semi-privately.

“Thank you,” Masha said.

“You’re welcome,” Vee said and took their hand.

“I talked to my uncle and he’s willing to take some stuff. He’ll be there Saturday and Sunday. He says brownies and cookies would be best, but he’s willing to try something savory and wondered if you could make piroshkis.”

“I can make some conchas, but what’s a piroshki?”

“It’s like a hand pie, or empanada, but it’s softer and more like soft bread with a filling. There’s lots of recipes online, but I’d try one that said it was traditional Ukrainian.” Masha squeezed Vee’s hand.

“I’ve got to shower and go to work.” They got up.

Vee started to stand, but Masha leaned over and kissed their forehead then their cheek. Vee noticed Lyuba side-eyeing them, with a half-smile on her face.

“Okay, text me later,” Vee said and hugged Masha tightly.

“Later.”

Masha went to the locker room and Lyuba helped Vee gather up the food containers and they loaded them back into the car. Lyuba took Vee home.

“Wait, Masha doesn’t need a ride to work?” Vee asked suddenly.

Lyuba shook her head.

“They prefer to walk; it’s not so far.”

After Vee unloaded and carried the containers back in, they flopped on the couch and picked up their phone. They found their bookmark and started reading Camila’s Cosmic Frontier fanfiction.

[tsarisfanfiction]

Libel (Part 2)

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family Characters: John, Scott, Grandma, Tracy Family

Day 6 “touch and go” for @whumptober-archive and for the prompt bruises my muses decided to add on to my day 3 chapter, so have a rather displeased John.  I’m not expecting this one to go any further, but then again I wasn’t expecting to add onto it at all, so who knows what’ll happen the rest of this month.

<<< Part 1

Grandma was waiting for them when they got home, the smell of something heavenly and clearly take-out wafting through the front door as it opened, and John felt a flash of guilt for forgetting to warn her about Scott’s physical condition when her mouth parted slightly in clear shock.

Scott’s weight had increased against him slowly but steadily as they’d finished the trek home, until his head was resting against John’s and his arm hung awkwardly around his shoulder. His eyes were rimmed with an angry red, and salted tear tracks cut down across the blossoming bruises.  One eye, in addition to the tell-tale sign of crying, was swelling shut with a purple-black mark blooming around it, but while that was the worst mark on his face, there was barely any untouched skin. The exposed arms were also littered with colour, including vibrant handprints that told a story all of their own.

John was certain that Scott’s t-shirt was concealing more.

“What happened?” Grandma demanded after a moment, swooping in and gingerly cupping Scott’s face in her hands.  His brother’s messenger bag dropped to the floor, and John let his own do the same without ever relinquishing his grip around Scott’s waist.  Scott was clearly feeling the emotional damage more than the physical, but that didn’t mean that the physical didn’t promise pain in his brother’s future.

The weight against him increased again as Scott sagged at the question.  John couldn’t see his face very well from his angle, but considering how wrecked his big brother was about the whole thing – and understandably so, in John’s furious opinion – he couldn’t envisage him repeating the tale again.

“Bullies,” he said shortly, enough to give an answer without tormenting Scott further by retelling the whole thing in his earshot.  At some point the rest of the family needed to know that Scott and Christie were no longer together – preferably before one of them made an innocent comment – but he wasn’t going to dredge that up in Scott’s vicinity.

In his pocket, Scott’s phone hadn’t stopped vibrating with incoming messages.  If they were all along the same vein as the ones John had seen initially, he was very glad he’d decided to, for all intents and purposes, confiscate his big brother’s phone.  He’d probably need to change his number before it was safe to give it back.

“Terrible children,” Grandma muttered beneath her breath, before slowly stepping back and letting her hands reluctantly part with Scott’s face.  “Your dinner’s in the kitchen and your brothers are upstairs in bed.”  Had they stayed out that late?  “Alan’s sharing with Virgil and Gordon tonight so you two don’t need to worry about him.”  That was a relief – John loved Alan, and neither he nor Scott minded sharing a bedroom with the youngest, but tonight the last thing Scott needed was Alan’s innocent blue eyes forcing him to struggle to hold himself together.

Dinner sounded – and smelled – inviting.  Grandma had taken his warning text seriously and gone straight for Scott’s favourites, from the smell of it.  It was definitely a pleasant surprise in John’s book, and he hoped that Scott was up for trying to stomach at least some of the comfort food.  If nothing else, the apple pie, whose cinnamon-tinted scent was wafting through invitingly, should entice his brother in.

Scott hadn’t said a word since choking out what had to be an extremely brief summary of events, and his silence continued as he kicked off his sneakers – still not separating from John for a single moment.

It was familiar behaviour;going to a brother for comfort when the world went mad was a common tactic, but the brother they all went to was Scott.  He was never the one seeking comfort – that is, until now, and John couldn’t blame him in the slightest, so he stayed close and kept one arm around his brother without saying anything, hoping that it would help Scott as much as Scott’s presence always helped him.

“Get some food in your stomachs,” Grandma instructed.  “Scott, have you taken any painkillers?”

Hair rustled in John’s ear as Scott shook his head.  He still didn’t say a word and John rubbed his back gently.

“I’ll get you some,” she said, ushering them through the kitchen door.  “Once you’ve eaten, Scott, I want you to take a hot bath.”  She didn’t wait for a response before disappearing, leaving John to guide his brother over to the table, where Scott’s favourite burger waited.

To his relief, Scott didn’t need any convincing to eat, although the way he mechanically took each bite told John that he wasn’t really tasting it.  The apple pie went down a little better – while Scott still didn’t speak, or smile, his mouthfuls seemed to be a little more organic, and irregularly frequent.  John ate his own in equal silence, aware of the still-vibrating phone in his pocket but refusing to check the messages while Scott was next to him.

Grandma reappeared with Tylenol and a cold compress as Scott sipped at the soda, both of which were gratefully received, even if Scott’s reaction remained unusually muted.  Still, he finished his meal, accepted the painkillers without a fuss, and let Grandma press the compress gently over his swollen-shut eye, which was as much as John could ask, given the situation.

All the while, Scott stayed in physical contact with him, leaning in and seemingly trusting John to hold him up so he didn’t fall to the floor.  It felt rather like a metaphor, so when Grandma eased the compress back again several minutes later and nudged Scott towards the bathroom where she promised a nice, warm bath was waiting for him he didn’t hesitate to escort him.

The door clicked shut behind them and Scott sank onto the tiled floor, wrapping his arms around his knees. John settled down beside him and put his arm around him again, letting his brother lean in to the touch.  Silence continued to reign.

Outside the room, he could hear the running feet of several brothers – probably all of them – and the subsequent scolding for running in the house, followed by a reminder that they should be in bed and that they’d see their eldest brothers in the morning. John would be very surprised if no black or blond heads poked into his and Scott’s room during the night.  Dad was moving around, apparently finally appearing from his office for food, and John heard the outraged outburst as Grandma no doubt told him about Scott.

At least John could be confident that Scott wouldn’t be allowed into school tomorrow – with both Grandma and Dad on the warpath, his brother would be kept safely at home, likely not doing any work at all, although he might poke at some of his preferred subjects.

Speaking of his brother, Scott was showing no signs of getting in the water.  John nudged him gently.  “It’s going to get cold,” he prompted.  “Do you want me to leave?”

His brother groaned lightly, but straightened enough to yank at his top.  John shifted out of the way as the fabric came off over messy brown hair, and did his best not to let his reaction show on his face.

As suspected, Scott’s torso was awful.  Bruises littered the skin, the fabric doing almost nothing to protect it from the blows it had taken, leaving it a rainbow of red hues.  One in particular caught John’s attention – a large, darker area that sprawled across one side as though it’d been hit multiple times in quick succession. It took him a moment to yank his eyes away, shifting his entire body until Scott was out of view, and not turning back until water splashed and then stilled again.

Only his brother’s head and shoulders were visible over the edge of the bath, complete with one arm hanging over the side, fingertips just brushing the cool tiles of the floor. The heat of the water was rapidly adding even more pink to Scott’s skin, as though it needed it when there were enough broken blood vessels below his brother’s skin to change the hue all by themselves.  Even with the painkillers Grandma had bestowed, John knew Scott was in for a sleepless night.

Then again, the heartbreak probably hurt more than everything else put together.

“Do you want me to leave?” he asked again, already gathering his legs underneath himself in preparation.

“No,” Scott rasped, the first word he’d spoken since returning home.  His voice sounded scraped raw and weak, and John obediently settled back down again.  “Please.”

John was going to destroy everyone who had a hand in reducing his big brother to this.  There would be no mercy, and a large number of them were obligingly making his life much easier by blowing up Scott’s phone with messages his brother would never see hide nor hair of.

“Okay,” he agreed, settling his back against the toilet and shifting around until it was halfway comfortable. From that angle, Scott couldn’t see anything that might be on a phone screen, so while his big brother soaked in an attempt to ease the bruising, John got to work.

First was a message to Grandma from his own phone, giving her the basic rundown of events.  She didn’t reply, but she did leave him on read, so he knew she had seen it.

There was no doubt in John’s mind that she would do everything in her considerable influence and power to make sure Scott didn’t have to go in to school again, or at least until it all blew over.  His big brother was in good hands.

Still, John was not about to let things lie himself, either.  Scott’s phone was a veritable goldmine of information, and while there was little John could do without his laptop, he could at least take note of the names sending threats and begin to scheme how he was going to get revenge.

No one hurt his brother and got away with it.

Quiet sobs that started up after a while, muffled in a way that sounded like Scott had a hand or arm over his mouth.  John reached out for the dangling arm and tangled his fingers lightly with Scott’s even as he scoured his way through the social media of Christie’s two brothers, looking for the most damaging place to hit them back.  If he played it right, he could ruin their football aspirations with a neat black mark on their record.

Oh, he understood why they’d reacted the way they had – if he’d gone to Scott and said someone had hurt him, there was no way Scott wouldn’t have launched himself straight into the situation entirely on his side.  That didn’t mean John was going to spare them from retribution; he wasn’t that benevolent.

Christie herself he left for the moment.  If he was going to hurt everyone who had hurt Scott, he was going to destroy the girl behind it all in the first place, and that would require his full attention. It would be most efficient to eliminate everyone else involved first.

From the state of Scott’s phone, it was a long list of targets, but John was nothing if not thorough as he sifted through the hateful messages.

Some of them were truly vile, and there were threats in there that made John feel sick just thinking about them.  He set those aside to show Grandma; some things needed an adult’s intervention to handle effectively, and he was certain that some of the threats were jail-worthy if acted upon.

Scott had barely moved since getting into the bath, and John wondered if he was falling asleep in the pleasant warmth.  Part of him hoped so; it was much better than wallowing in negative thoughts, especially ones he didn’t deserve.  He squeezed his brother’s fingers lightly and was rewarded with a twitch in return.

His brother still didn’t talk.  Not when he stopped crying again, wiping away tears with a wet arm.  Not when Grandma lightly knocked on the door to suggest that they get ready for bed.  Not when he got out of the bath, either, skin pruned and wrinkly, and John averted his gaze so he didn’t see anything he didn’t want to as Scott slowly dried off.

Dad was waiting when they left the bathroom, Scott wrapped up snugly in his favourite pyjamas, and wordlessly folded Scott into a big, warm hug which his big brother sank into bonelessly.  John took the chance to slip away, finding Grandma downstairs and slipping her Scott’s phone.

She took one look at the first message on the screen and her face turned to granite.

“Neither of you are going to school tomorrow,” she told him.  John hadn’t expected to be included in that, but it was clear there was no arguing.  It worked in his favour anyway; vengeance would be easier to enact using his laptop without the prying eyes of hovering classmates.  “And whatever you’re planning, John, don’t get caught.”

She followed him back up the stairs.  Dad and Scott had migrated into their bedroom and John took the chance to get into his own pyjamas – although sleep wasn’t on his agenda just yet – before going to join them.

A door creeping open as he passed caught his attention and he paused to see three pairs of worried eyes peering out.

“Is Scott okay?”  Alan was the one that spoke, not yet aware of the nuances of the indoor voice, but making a good go at whispering regardless.  John could see the question reflected in two pairs of brown eyes as well and sighed, shoulders slumping.

“He broke up with Christie,” he explained, keeping his own voice low enough that there was no way the brother in question would be able to hear from down the hall.  It was Virgil’s eyes he met, knowing that he was the only one old enough to comprehend what his next words would mean.  “It was a bad breakup.”  Sure enough, chestnut brown eyes widened.

“But is he okay?” Gordon asked, frowning, and John swallowed, not wanting to lie, but not wanting them to worry, either.

He settled on shrugging.  “He will be.”  I hope.

They surged forwards, apparently taking that as an invitation to go see him, and John had to plant himself firmly in the doorway to stop them. There was no way Scott would want them to see him in his current state.

“Tomorrow,” he said, somewhat sharply.  “He needs space right now.”

They grumbled malcontentedly, but he stood firm, pulling upon his rarely used big brother clout to get them to obey until the door closed again.

In all likelihood, they’d be sneaking in later, but hopefully Scott would be less visibly distraught by then.

John padded into his bedroom and headed straight for his bed.  Dad was sitting with Scott on his brother’s bed, arms firmly around him and one hand running through his hair as he sobbed. From the way he was slumped, and the weakness of the sobs, Scott was on the cusp of sleep.  John wasn’t naïve enough to think that he’d sleep all through the night, not with all those bruises, but he’d gladly support any sleep Scott could get.

For his part, he pulled up his phone and continued scrolling through the names of Scott’s year mates.  Most of them had left a message on his phone.

“Don’t stay up too late,” Dad cautioned suddenly and he jumped, checking the time to see it was much later than he’d realised.  Scott was neatly tucked into bed, the vision of a perfect slumber ruined by the tear tracks down his face.

“I won’t,” he shrugged, an acknowledgement but not a promise.  “Night, Dad.”

“Goodnight, John.”  He was pulled into a brief hug, kiss pressed against his brow, before Dad slipped out of the room, leaving him with his sleeping brother.

Armed with his laptop, phone, and the simmering fury kept at a boil by the sight of his battered brother, John got to work.

[twistedtummies2]

Birthday Belly (LeonaXReader)

I wrote this yesterday for my own birthday. I didn’t really go into this with much of a plan, this story is 99% just me freestyling and whipping out some self-indulgent nonsense involving Leona Kingscholar and his appetite. It came out to about 4000 words, which is relatively short for MY stories on here. XD Hopefully you all will enjoy it.

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Living at the Ramshackle Dorm had, you thought, left you almost impervious to surprises. The 999 Happy Haunts who inhabited the old manor house had tried nearly every trick up their capes to spook you and shock you, and after dealing with so many dark mages for so long – facing demigods and fairy princes along the way – you didn’t think much could startle you. Today, you were going to be proven wrong. You sighed with some relief, removing your obligatory birthday sash and letting it drape over the arm-rest of the sofa as he leaned back and closed your eyes. Back in your homeworld, you had never really been much of a party person. You had never much cared for crowds, even among people you knew well; part of the joy of being one of only two (living) beings who called Ravenswood Manor home was that you were able to find privacy and peace fairly easily. However, despite not being a mage, and despite being so lonely there, your friends and the school itself had gone to a great deal of trouble to provide you with a party. You smiled wearily as you eyed the streamers and other decorations strung about your ground floor rooms. A huge banner reading “Happy Birthday…!” and followed by your name was hung over the fireplace, and piled up next to the spot where you’d installed your television and other such things was a stack of presents you had gotten from all your friends.

Ace had given you a set of playing cards and poker chips, winking as he promised to give you a chance to put them to use. Deuce, meanwhile, had been much more sensible, purchasing some cooking apparel he knew you could put to good use. Riddle Rosehearts, meanwhile, brought you some cherry tarts he and Trey had made together. Cater Diamond also appeared, and had bought a new external drive for your laptop computer. “I would have gotten you a new phone,” Cater had smiled. “But I didn’t think you needed one. Speaking of, BIRTHDAY SELFIE! COME ON OVER HERE…!” Idia hadn’t stayed for the party, but his brother Ortho had been happy to pop in. The two had pitched their cash together to buy you a new game system, along with a new game to play on it. Idia had personally sent a birthday card, as well; according to Ortho, his hands had been shaking so much trying to figure out what to write in it, he thought his brother’s fingers might fall off. All Idia had written in the card was, “Have a nice day,” probably because he had freaked out at the thought of saying anything else. Poor dear. Somebody – you weren’t sure who – had very, VERY wisely remembered to invite Malleus Draconia, who came with Silver. Silver spent most of the party sleeping, but Malleus had been kind enough to bestow a gift of his own, in the form of a leatherbound edition of The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Naturally, Kalim had shown up, tugging Jamil along behind him. Each had a different gift to give: Kalim had brought a VERY expensive looking carpet, done in the ornate styling of his homeland. “It’s been in my family for…um…uh…” he had paused to try and count the years on his fingers…and eventually ran out of fingers AND toes to count on. “…A very, very long time! Like…SUPER long! I thought it might look nice in your bedroom or the ballroom or something! It’s, uh…it’s not too much, is it?” Gods bless that Baby Otter. He needed so many hugs. Jamil’s gift had been much more reserved: a mancala game box, which he had presented all while trying not to blush under his black hood. Vil had stopped by for a short while; he’d only stayed briefly, claiming the “decadent atmosphere of your gloomy domicile” would mess up his hairdo. (Go figure.) However, he had kindly brought you a gift in the form of custom-made suit of clothes he had ordered from his own personal tailor: some of the finest and most formal wear you had ever seen in your life. “Now you can actually look halfway presentable, instead of resembling a half-baked potato, next time there’s a big event,” he had smiled, as if he had been doing you a tremendous favor. Well. With clothes like this, you weren’t going to argue or complain. Azul had stopped for a brief “hello and goodbye” visit; he actually wanted to stay longer – Floyd, who had been with him, seemed particularly sad he couldn’t stay and squeeze his favorite “Little Shrimp” half to death all afternoon and evening…and in his case, that phrase was probably literal – but the Mostro Lounge was open that day, and he didn’t want to leave Jade in charge of things alone for TOO long at the office. The octopus man had brought you a bracelet covered in small seashells: simple, but surprisingly sweeter than you had expected. Floyd, meanwhile…he just hugged you. “What’s a better present for Shrimpy than a nice, tight SQUEEZE from their bestest, most favorite eel-person…riiiiiiight?” The safety of your spine and lungs demanded you agree and hug Floyd back. Ruggie and Jack had been among the first to show up. The latter had brought a hastily-wrapped DVD: a movie entitled “The Wolf of Pumpkin Hollow.” “I didn’t get this because I actually care,” he had clarified, looking everywhere but at your face and scratching the back of his white-eared head. “Just…everyone else would have thought it was rude if I didn’t get you something. Not that it matters what they think! Just…didn’t want to have to put up with it.” He was such a puppy. He truly was. Not only was Ruggie one of the first to arrive, he turned out to be THE first to give you your gift: a box of doughnuts. All glazed. “My grandma used to tell me: ‘Ruggie, get people the same kinds of gifts you’d want them to get you.’ Well, I can’t think of much I want more than doughnuts!” he sang out with an innocent smile. “You just wanted to have some to eat yourself, didn’t you?” you couldn’t help but smirk. Ruggie had gasped, seemingly offended…only to eventually ask if he could have some. The four remaining doughnuts – which you had to sneak away while the hyena wasn’t looking – were now on a plate in your fridge. You’d eat them later. Others had come and gone throughout the day; none of them had gifts to bring, but they had been happy to pop in, give well-wishes, and enjoy the party for a while. Now, however, all the guests were gone; even Grim had left, as you had asked him for some alone time that night. He and the gang from Heartslabyul were going to have a sleepover as a result. Despite the smile on your face as you looked over at your gifts, there was a hint of sadness to your expression. The one person whose presence you’d been looking forward to most hadn’t come. You’d asked his dorm-mates if they knew where he was or what he was doing, but none of them told you. Most of them very clearly had no clue…except for Ruggie. You got the feeling he DID know, he just wasn’t telling. Honestly, that didn’t settle your mind much. Your smile faded completely, and you closed your eyes once more, sighing through your nose…this time with a hint of despondency. Had he forgotten it was your birthday? Was he with somebody else right now? Maybe he was sleeping somewhere, like the big, lazy kit he was…some part of you – you couldn’t tell what part – kind of hoped that was all it was. He probably wasn’t hurt or sick…if he had been you’d think Ruggie would have told you… You glanced out the window. Evening was turning into night. You huffed softly through your nostrils, and stretched a bit where you sat. The party had worn you out more than you thought. You shook your head to clear it of your more perturbing thoughts, and began to wonder if you should just get to bed early tonight… A knock came at the door, jolting you to a more attentive state. You stood up from the ouch and headed out through the hall to the foyer. You wondered who it was…had one of the guests left something behind? As you approached the door, you adjusted your pristine white suit – another obligatory item for those celebrating a birthday at Night Raven College – which must have made whoever was on the other side impatient: they knocked again. “One moment, I’m here!” you called out, and opened the door. “Who’s-?” You froze, the word “there” dying before it ever reached your larynx. The first thing your eyes took in was the familiar, dimly-glowing pair of green ones staring back at you, as well as the dark mane and leonine ears and tail that accompanied their owner. A scar was slashed across one of the two eyes. The second thing – and the one that truly made you freeze – was the ENORMOUS, bare belly that was only inches away from you. The skin was tanned and smooth and supple-looking, the organ swollen to the size of a large watermelon, and only slightly less taut. The navel looked like the center of a maelstrom, drawing your attention towards that bloated gut as it let out a deep, burbling rumble…just before a black-clad hand slapped over it, hiding it from sight. At the same time, another hand suddenly scooped itself under your chin…and you found your head being tilted up, your eyes now locking on a pair of perfect-looking, velvety lips…which then parted to reveal a gaping, red mouth, dripping with saliva and framed by two rows of pointed, pearly fangs. You barely had time to take in the view of this glistening, slimy orifice…before your ears rang and your nose crinkled as two words were burped up. Right in your face. “HAAAAPPY…BUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP-DAY!” The belch was followed by a light sigh and a chuckle as Leona Kingscholar patted his stomach proudly. It jiggled at his touch. He smirked as he took in your expression: a loopy, flushed look was on your face. You were swaying so much that if he removed his hand from under your chin at that moment, you might have just toppled over. “Hm-hm-hmmm…did you like that?” he purred, smoothly. You nodded dumbly, still smiling a loopy, dazed smile as the sound reverberated in your ears, and your nose tingled from the lingering odor of the lion’s gut gas: a strong, heady, meaty smell that twined through the pockets of your gray matter, practically putting you in a trance for several long seconds. Finally, you found your voice. “…Where have you been?” “Preparing your present,” Leona said, as if that should have been obvious, and gently nudged you back as he entered the house and swaggered past you. With every step, his hips swung, and you found your blush seemed to be permanent as you watched them rock and sway as he strutted towards the living room. You followed him as if a leash had been tied ‘round your neck, and watched as he flopped onto your couch, gut sloshing with every little motion of his form. He was dressed in his usual clothes, but his gut was so massive it caused his mustard-colored shirt to ride up, exposing his belly to the world. The lion demi growled as he reached down; his waistband was still buttoned up, and clearly it was causing him discomfort. His fingers fumbled for the belt buckle…and he frowned as he couldn’t quite get it to cooperate. “Tch. Figures,” he grumbled. “After that entrance…pain in my ass…” The familiar phrase snapped you out of your stupor, and you chuckled, rolling your eyes. You sat down next to your princely boyfriend, and shooed his hands away. He frowned, growling indignantly, but allowed you to fiddle with his buckle, and finally managed to work it off… POPK! ZZZRRRIIIP! GUHBLORLSH! Leona let out a sound between a sigh and a grunt as – the moment the buckle was released – his trouser button gave up the ghost, popping open as the zipper flew down, the sheer weight and pressure of his belly forcing them open. He sighed as his belly poured into his lap like a mass of mocha-colored dough, wobbling as it noisily burbled. “UUUUUUUURRRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAARRRRRRRP!” he belted out. “Oof…that felt good…” You blushed bright red, helpless to do anything but nod; you were already starting to tremble at so many…APPEALING things happening all at once. Leona smirked anew as he noticed your expression, leaning back a little further against the sofa cushions as his scarred eye flashed with a superior gleam. “You didn’t think I forgot, did you?” “How much did you eat?” you asked, marveling at the size of his belly as you fingers fidgeted and twitched, looking for something to do. You suddenly felt a little parched… “Mmmmm…not enough,” Leona growled, and grinned wider, revealing his pointed teeth. “I could fit more in there, I’m sure…” He licked his lips in a sultry, almost inviting way. You couldn’t keep yourself from letting out a shaky, shuddering sound as you shivered, a mixture of warmth and cold flickering across your spine. Leona chuckled – his gut bounced with his mirth, and tilted his head back with a sigh. “Ahhhhhh…went to my favorite buffet and helped myself,” he elaborated as he gave his belly a few hearty slaps. “Pure meat, every ounce.” You nodded slowly, dumbly. Leona snorted through his nose, raising an eyebrow as he saw you openly ogle his stomach. “Hmph. Are you just gonna stare at it all night, Herbivore?” he grunted. He waited till you looked up at him before going on: “Go ahead. It’s not gonna rub itself.” Your heartbeat quickened and you smiled widely. Leona grimaced and snarled. “Oi…just rub, don’t gimme those eyes…you look like that brat back home…” You chuckled – it was hard not to giggle, honestly – and gratefully helped yourself to your “present.” Your hands quickly fell over Leona’s bloated gut as he stretched his arms over the back of the couch. You scooted closer, and quivered at the intense warmth of the half-lion’s greedy, globular gut. Your palms and fingers began to lightly run across his girth, stroking his belly, just to get a feel of the texture and temperature. His flesh was silky-smooth, making it so hard to resist just pressing your face against it and nuzzling into his belly… You did resist though. At least for the moment. Instead, your fingers began to knead and massage the belly of your beau, pressing down onto the thick soup you could feel churning away inside his bowels. You prodded experimentally, almost as if trying to distinguish each bit of food from the next…but there was no way you could. Whatever Leona had gobbled up was now little more than a uniform mush being swirled about by his strong stomach muscles. His insides warbled and rumbled, as if in response to your ministrations. Leona sighed, closing his eyes and savoring the way you massaged his distended tanker. In truth, the lazy lion didn’t need much of an excuse to stuff himself…but you didn’t care that much. Whether he did this for himself, or for you, as he claimed, the end result was the same. “Mmmmm…that’s it…keep it up,” he mumbled. “Wasn’t planning on stopping,” you said, more to yourself than him, but he snickered anyway. “Heh heh…good. Prey like you should be happy to have a chance like this,” he said, and playfully patted your cheek, causing your blush to intensify. A spike of ego shot up in you, and you purposefully pressed down harder against his stomach. It let out a HUMONGOUS groan, and Leona’s eyes widened and his cheeks ballooned…before he let out another sloppy, rumbling belch. “BUUUUUUUHHHHHHHUUUUUUUURRRRRRLLLLLLLUUUUUUP! Haaah…oi. Not so rough,” he growled, narrowing his eyes at you, tail lashing and thumping against the sofa cushions. “Sorry,” you smiled innocently. “You had so much hot air in there, it clearly had to be let out.” Leona’s eyes narrowed further. “I could turn you into dust right here and right now,” he said, warningly. “I guess you could,” you said, smoothly, and then traced a finger around the rim of his deep, dark trench of a navel. The effect was instantaneous. Leona tensed up for a second, inhaling sharply through his teeth…then sighed and relaxed, all but melting into his seat, eyes fluttering closed again as he purred louder than ever. You smirked triumphantly, as you stuck your finger into his navel and wiggled it around a bit. “Still want to turn me into dust?” you teased. Leona could only moan. He moaned even louder as you cupped one hand on the underside of his belly: the softest, warmest, most sensitive portion of his abdomen. You gently rubbed your hand against them, and traced your fingers over his sides. You could hear his toes curl in his boots; his tail you could SEE curl into a spiral shape as he bit his lip with pleasure. “I’ll take that as a no,” you observed, a dreamy sort of sigh upon your lips as you were honestly enjoying this just as much as he was, a fact you made clear you when you half-consciously murmured: “You’re so SOFT…” “Mmmm…I’ll be softer once it’s all digested,” Leona mumbled. “Vargas is probably gonna complain…think he’d pester me about that stuff if I ate ‘im?” “I think if you ate Coach Vargas, you’d just get a bellyache,” you said, not wanting to add that someone as egotistical as Leona eating someone as showboating as Vargas probably meant all the weight would to his head… …Cracks like that weren’t funny, and could get you bitten. The second part you didn’t mind as much as one might think, to be fair. …You really needed to see a shrink… Leona just scoffed, unaware of your thoughts as you continued to rub and massage his belly. You gave the side of his belly a few hearty thumps, watching the way his belly shifted and jiggled like a water balloon. His stomach groaned and churned rhythmically, squelches and squeals of liquid being compressed and stirred echoing just beneath the luscious skin of the half-lion prince. It sounded like a huge vat of semi-solid mash being pumped and processed in a factory…a sound some might have considered nauseating, but you just bit your lip, rubbing and kneading more vigorously as you heard pockets of gas being released. As you kneaded and pressed down, Leona would BELCH and BURP periodically. Each was short and low, which only made you rub his gut more vigorously. He gave you a bored sort of look as he realized what you were doing. “Didn’t get enough to drink at your party, did you, you thirsty little Herbivore?” “Not even close,” you responded, without skipping a beat. Leona rolled his eyes, and held up a finger in a “one moment” gesture. He then curled that same finger down, balling that hand into a fist…and pumped his fist against his chest once, twice, thrice…before unleashing a true wall-rattler, which flapped his lips and made him go crosseyed. “GYYYYUUUUUHHHHHEEEEERRRRRWWWOOOOAAAAARRRRRIIIIIPLK!” Leona sighed as the eruption came to an end, and snorted as you squeaked at the sound. “Happy now?” he drawled boredly. “Very,” you peeped, patting his belly thankfully. Leona rolled his eyes as he scratched the side of his gut with his leather-tipped fingers, making it slosh under your palm. You quivered. His lips quirked. “Tch. You’re such a snack,” he muttered. “It’s amazing nobody’s already gobbled you up…” “Just lucky so far, I guess,” you shrugged, and scratched his belly with your own fingers. Leona let out a non-committal rumble…then smirked a bit. “We could fix that, you know,” he purred in a slippery, sly way. You froze, and looked up at him slowly, a little confused and slightly apprehensive. Leona smiled back, eyes half-lidded; the dominant, powerful, but affectionately amused smile that always left you shivering for all the right reasons. Then, one of his his hands lifted, and cupped your cheek. He brushed a thumb against it, and you smiled gently back… …Just before that same hand slid forward, and wrapped around the back of your head. “Here,” he growled, commandingly, as he began to force you downwards. “Listen. Feel.” You didn’t have much choice, and it wasn’t as if you would disobey if you could. You surrendered easily as he eased you down against his belly, pressing your head down and holding it firmly, curling his hand so one of your was right above his navel. You felt your chest flutter as the warmth of his body was now right up against your face, and the deep, thick GRRRROOOOLLLLLLG sounds of his ever-hungry belly echoed in your ear like rolling thunder. You stayed perfectly still; time and place seemed to fade into nothingness. All that mattered was the moment: you were hypnotized by his belly, barely conscious of anything. He started speaking, but it took you a few seconds to realize what he was even saying. “…I’d you’d like it, huh?” were the first words you made out, followed by still more: “I could swallow you alive, Herbivore. You’d slither right down my throat, curl up in my stomach…and never come out. I’d just fall asleep, and let you stay there. It wouldn’t have to hurt: one big burp, and your air would be history. Then, you’d go straight to my hips…my thighs…my ass…even my belly. Every part of me you love most.” He paused, purring as his stomach let out a greedy, longing rumble. “How does that sound for your birthday, Herbivore?” he crooned. “How would you like to spend your birthday – your LAST birthday – turning into more of the body you’re so in love with. To be the snack you’re supposed to be. To spend the rest of eternity as just a part of me.” None of these were spoken as questions. You shivered and let out a whimpering sound – not necessarily one of fear, either – as you heard him lick and smack his lips. He leaned down and sniffed at you, purring in the back of his throat. “Mmmmmmm…I could make that happen. Right here. Right now.” You bit your lip; as his stomach rumbled, you closed your eyes. You could picture yourself inside of there…partially submerged in acid and bubbling goo…embraced on every side by his powerful muscles…hearing him belch with satisfaction above and around you…rubbing over you as you were steadily digestedinside of him… You took longer than most people probably would before speaking. “I know you could,” you said, very softly, then added, “Maybe someday you will.” Leona blinked…then puffed with amusement, his smile growing slightly more affectionate as he ran his fingers through your hair the way a cat might. “Not ready to make this birthday your last, huh?” You opened one eye and carefully shook your head. “If it means next year I could get one as good as this, or better, definitely not,” you responded, without skipping a beat. Leona clucked his tongue, and removed his hand, letting it rest against the back of the sofa. He chuffed as your remained where you were, despite no longer being forced down. “Kinky little morsel,” he mumbled. “Guilty,” you responded in a slightly muffled voice as you freely nuzzled his abdomen, smirking as he purred anew, clearly enjoying it. Leona chuckled, and nudged you, indicating he wanted you to look up at him again. You did…and watched as his cheeks ballooned with gas as he caught a particularly low, gassy burp in his mouth… “HHHHRRRRMMMMLLLLRRRRPH…phoosh.” …Before blowing the residual fumes into your face, almost like a kiss. You nearly fainted dead away. Leona grinned. “Good?” was all he said. “Marry me now.” Leona barked out a laugh and gave your hair a ruffling, then shut his eyes and reclined peacefully once more. “Get back to rubbing, meat,” he growled. “Or I might just swallow you whether you want it or not. Don’t let your gift go to waste.” You smiled and eagerly got back to work, kissing and nuzzling and rubbing his belly worshipfully, without any sign of restraint. Leona’s purring heightened as you pampered his plumpened middle. “Mmmmm…happy birthday, Herbivore,” he growled. “Maybe next year, I’ll add you to my hips…” At the rate things were going…that was starting to sound like a promise more than anything else. If so…you could hardly wait till next year.

 The End

[tonystarksfavoritedaughter]

Crazy Rich Avengers: Chapter 2

Peter Parker x Reader

Chapter Summary: Tony is oblivious, Shuri is a queen as always, Peter is breakfast man and Y/N’s a grandma

Warnings: swearing and one mention of sex

Word count: 2589

*Flashback to Wednesday*

“Alright troops, let’s get this party started.” Tony walked into the debriefing room that was used for only meetings, but this week it had a new purpose: discussing Wanda and Vision’s wedding plans. Everyone was gathered around a circular table with plans and maps strewn out across the table.

“What made you guys want to get married in Maui?” Nat turned to Wanda and Vision. Wanda simply shrugged, “We just wanted to see what the island has to offer.”

“Plus Mr. Stark has that lovely beach house in Spreckelsville,” Vision added.

“Are y’all inviting Peter and Y/N to the wedding?” Sam asked

“Of course! Why wouldn’t we?” Wanda seemed kind of offended that Sam would ask that. She was very close with Peter and the way he talked about you always made her warm inside knowing that he found someone he really loved. She was kind of like a second aunt to him in a way, though no one could top Aunt May.

“Oh, I love Y/N so much. Did you guys tell her happy birthday two weeks ago?” Nat asked.

A couple of ‘I forgot’’ and ‘Oh shit’ replies made their way into the group and Nat just shook her head.

“Wait wait wait. Who’s Y/N?” Tony was so confused. He had never heard of a Y/N Y/L/N before. Was she an employee close with Wanda? And why was she with Peter?

“What do mean who’s Y/N?” Steve asked.

“She’s Peter’s girlfriend, Stark.” Bucky stated it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And it kind of was. Peter would come into the Compound on the weekends sometimes for training and just gush about you to everyone and even Bucky seemed to know who you were. And he never pays attention to Peter. Tony just sat there, not knowing what to say to hearing his intern having a girlfriend.

“Pete has girlfriend?” How come you all knew and I didn’t?”

Thor took a swig of his drink. “Because you do not listen to the Man of Spiders.”

At this moment Shuri, T’Challa, and Okoye walk in, with papers and blueprints in only T’Challa and Okoye’s hands, while Shuri sips her iced coffee, like the bad bitch she is.

“Hey what’s up losers?” She walked in and took the papers from their hands and spread them out on the table. She turned to Wanda and Vision. “Okay so I developed a knew sound system for the reception that does not require a DJ, and you can choose which one you want!” They all look at the plans and sure enough, there were about four different designs that they could choose from. Wanda and Vision had put Shuri in charge of all the technological elements of the wedding because she was clearly the smartest out of all of them.

T’Challa stepped up to the table. “Sorry we are late; my sister had to bring all of her designs and took about three hours to pack.”

“What? I have to look my best for the wedding. We all know you just throw clothes into a suitcase and call it a day.” She turned towards everyone else. “The only shoes he brought were his flip flops.”

“What you don’t like my royal sandals?” He puts up his foot to show off his shoes and turned to Okoye for support. She just shook her head. “I’m not getting in the middle of this, but if I were to choose a side, I agree with Shuri.”

Shuri laughed in T’Challa’s face and fist bumped Okoye and he looked at them and shook his head.

“What do you two know what fashion?” He asked.

“More than you,” they both said at the same time. This got everyone laughing around the table and Steve did his classic belly laugh where he grabbed the side of his chest and basically fell over.

Shuri turned to Wanda, “So, whose all invited to your big day?”

“Well, we invited Peter and Y/N –“

“Yes! Sorry I just can’t wait to meet her for the first time. Go on.”

Wanda laughed, “Aren’t we all? Also, Peter’s friend Ned is invited because he helps us all out on missions. What is it he calls himself?”

“The Guy in the Chair,” Vision replied.

“Ah yes, and of course all of you people. We wanted to keep it small,” Wanda finished.

“You know,” Sam started, turning to the royal bunch. “Stark over here didn’t know that Pete had a girlfriend.”

“What?” They all three gasped.

Okoye spoke this time, “We live all the way in Wakanda, and knew about this. You live twenty minutes away.”

“We know. It’s ridiculous,” Rhodey spoke.

“Okay and is there a specific song that you are walking down to?” Shuri asked.

“We chose the song ‘To My Future Wife’ by Mr. Jon Bellion,” Vision replied

“Oh, I love his songs!”

“We figured it represented our love for each other,” Wanda looked at Vision and gave him a peck on the lips, with hearts in both of their eyes. A bunch of aw’s filled the room as a response to the couple.

*Flashback ends*

You wake up at around three thirty in the morning to your alarm. You were essentially trapped in Peter’s arms and had to pry yourself out to get up and get ready. You threw a pillow at him to wake him up.

“What was that for?” He groaned.

“Come on. We got to get up or we’ll miss the flight.”

He got up with a sigh and got ready. He just dressed in jeans and that tight black t-shirt that you loved. Why would he pick that for a flight? You bit your lip and just turned away getting ready yourself. You picked out your black leggings and a white shirt because you wanted to be comfy for the 12+ hour flight ahead of you.

You packed your purse as your carry on which had your phone chargers, headphones, perfume, you know, the essentials for flying.

“What are we going to do for breakfast?” He asked. Peter was a breakfast man and so deciding what to eat in the morning was very important for him.

“There’s a coffee place at the airport; don’t worry, Pete.”

You left your apartment at around four in the morning and made sure that everything was turned off and nothing was out of the ordinary. You two take an Uber to JFK and almost fell asleep again. One thing was for sure, you were taking a nap as soon as you got on the plane. When you got there, you checked in with the front desk and saw that your flight would take off at 5:30am. So, you took Peter to the little coffee stand in the airport to get him some energy and food. He got a mocha iced coffee with a blueberry scone and you got a caramel macchiato and a breakfast bagel. You sat down near where your flight would be boarding and ate your food. You were so excited to eat because your favorite breakfast item was just a good bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. You bit into it and sighed out in a state of peace.

You had downloaded a few episodes of your favorite shows on your laptop so you and Peter could watch them together. You had downloaded some from The Office, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Rec, and The Good Place. You pulled out your laptop and headphones and gave one earbud to Peter so he could watch too. You decided to watch the episode of The Office where Michael hosts the Fun Run for Rabies.

About an hour later they started to board for your flight and packed everything up and walked over to the flight attendant.

“Right this way,” she said. She led you past the economy class and into first class and you started to get suspicious. There was no way you could afford this. Sure, you had some money put into savings, but it wasn’t much. She led you into one of cabins and you put your purse down.

“Uh ma’am?” You called out.

“Yes?”

“Um there must be some mistake, I mean… we’re economy people. Like, we’re broke, there’s no way that we’re in first class.”

“Are you sure? You two are Y/N Y/L/N and Peter Parker, right?” She asked confused.

“Tony, I swear,” Peter sighed.

“What?”

“I told Mr. Stark to not upgrade us because we were fine, but I guess he didn’t listen.”

“Oh.”

The flight attendant walked away and you fell on the bed. The cabin had a little TV on the opposite wall and the bed facing it. Night tables were on both sides of the bed with little lamps that made it kind of cozy. You walked around the small room looking at the different little pictures of beaches from different countries. There were a set of silk pajamas on your nightstand and you held them up to Peter.

“These are nicer than my actual clothes!” Peter just laughed at how excited you were and pulled you down on the bed. He rubbed your thighs and started to kiss your neck and sucked lightly and slowly worked his way up to your ear and nibbled on it.

“As much as I would love to continue this, I am not having sex on a plane,” you laughed.

He laid down on the bed with you, “Well what do you wanna do then?”

“Tell me about everyone that’s going to be there. I want to be prepared to meet them when we get there.”

“Okay for starters, there’s Wanda and Vision, Wanda has like these mind-reading powers, so be careful about what you’re thinking around her. There have been plenty of times where I’ve thought about you in an adult way that’s caused her to not to be near me sometimes. But she’s awesome. She’s kind of like my second aunt when May’s not around; we’re really close.”

“Good to know. It’s also a good thing she’s not here right now because all I can think about is you in that shirt,” you wink at him.

He laughs and kisses your nose, “Vision is also pretty cool. You’ve seen Vision in like pictures and everything so you know he can shift between robot and human form, so that’s cool. Um, he’s just really chill and laid back. There’s also Sam and Bucky.”

“Oh yeah you’ve told me about them. Do they still tease you a lot?”

“Not much anymore, but I’m sure they will when they see us together,” he sighed. Yesterday when he went to the Compound for his camera, they had mentioned that Peter wouldn’t be getting much packing done if he knew what they meant. Peter did know what they meant and just rolled his eyes at them.

“Sam’s pretty cool when he’s not teasing me, and then he’s kind of a jerk, but overall he’s cool; you’ll probably get along more with him than anyone. He’s got a good sense of humor so,” he trailed off.

“Oh okay. Now what about Bucky?”

“Bucky still doesn’t really like me, all because of what happened in Berlin.”

“Sounds like he’s petty.”

“Yeah he kind of is,” he laughed.

He goes through telling you about all the Avengers and what they’re like. They all sounded pretty chill and fun to hang around.

“By the way, Ned is going to be there.”

“What? Really?” You neatly shouted because you haven’t seen him since about a month before college classes started. He had gone all the way to MIT for college, and the last time you saw him, was when you and Peter had helped him move into his dorm.

“Why is he going?”

“He’s like our ‘Guy in the Chair’ for the team. Tells us where to go on missions, and helps out with the team, so I guess Wanda and Vision wanted him there.”

“At least there will be someone I know and close with,” you laugh at Peter’s fake hurt expression.

“You’ll have me, baby.”

“Yeah, but you’ll probably be talking to everyone and doing wedding stuff and I’ll be just hanging out. But now I have Ned! Now, tell me about Mr. Tony Stark. I know he’s kind of like your father-figure as you put it sometimes. Do you think he’ll like me, or will he go all Papa Bear on me and tell me that I’m not good enough?” You joked.

“He should be cool with you. Mr. Stark’s a pretty easy-going guy so I don’t think there will be a problem. Unless you try to crash the wedding,” he smiled.

“Yeah I’m totally gonna crash it and just get shit-faced at the wedding.” It was now close to seven o’clock in the morning and you and Peter were wide awake and couldn’t go back to sleep and still had another thirteen hours to go, so you just pulled your laptop back out and put on one of your shows and cuddled with Peter.

He held your waist against his and laid his head on top of yours. Your arms were wrapped around his torso and head on his chest, watching TV. You stayed like this for a couple of hours. You eventually got bored and started playing a game on your phone.

“Whatcha playing?” He asked.

“Candy Crush.”

He laughed at your game choice. “You’re such a grandma.”

“What? Just because I like candy crush that makes me grandma?’

“Yep.”

You lightly slap his chest as a response and watched his smile turn wide into a laugh. God those eye crinkles, I swear, you thought. It was kind of true though, everyone in your family and in high school called you the grandma friend of the group because you picked crocheting and baking of all hobbies, just like a grandma. And apparently Candy Crush was now considered a grandma game.

“Okay, I’d like to see you beat an ultra-hard level where you only have twenty moves to save 10 gummy bears,” you challenged him.

“Is that seriously a level on there?”

“Yes, and I beat it on the first try. Why, you scared?”

“No, had me your phone.”

You gladly give it to him and throughout the level you have to hold in your laughs because seeing his face scrunch up in frustration may have been the best thing ever.

“Shit!” He exclaimed

“What, did you lose?”

“No,” he lied. You held out your hand for your phone and saw that he lost on the level.

“Ha! Loser,” you poked his chest as you teased him. “It’s a shame you lost though, because losers don’t get prizes.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s my prize?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at you.

You shrugged. “Guess you got to win if you want to find out.”

This time he held out his hand for your phone. “Just know, you got four more chances to win before you run out of lives.” Peter tried so hard at the game and gently slammed your phone in frustration and you giggled. Let’s just say that Peter didn’t get his prize. The rest of the flight consisted of watching TV and eating the surprisingly amazing airline snacks. When the nighttime came, the flight attendants turned all the lights off, kind of like a silent go to sleep call for all the passengers. You and Peter snuggled up against each other and waited for the rest of the flight to be over.  

Tag-List: @randomstufflol29 @spideyspeaches @binnotjin @lolooo22 @multi-universe21​ @ladykxxx08​ 

A/N: We got an Avengers flashback! Yay! I really wanted to incorporate the Wakandan bunch because a) Black Panther is my favorite movie, and b) They are all just amazing and I love the way that Shuri and Okoye tease T’Challa all the time and wanted to put that in this. The whole Candy Crush scene had actually happened to me before and I thought it would be nice to add a piece of me in the story, and Candy Crush is honestly underrated if you ask me lol. I hope you all really like this chapter, because the next one is going to be awesome! Thank you all for reading!

[papergirllife]

Chapter 3

Synopsis:

You don’t know what it’s like to be free, to make your own choices, and live your own life. For your whole life, your parents have been treating you like a puppet on strings, controlling your life to every single detail, as well as ignoring the fact that you have feelings. Other times, when you disobey their wishes, or speak up about your own opinions, they bash you down with words, in other words, psychological abuse, has led you down the long winded road of depression and anxiety. What happens when you meet a man who’s willing to be your guide out of this terrible downpour? Would you give a shot at happily ever after?

Warnings:

big age gap (kinda?)

issues on anxiety

issues on depression (mild)

issues on parental abuse

smut (maybe)

Tag List: @etherealtyjaem​ ,  @caratzennie  , @johnnysuhnflower  ,  @euphoricchannie  ,  @yeollieseo  ,  @jjhmk  , @sherzess , @wonderfulkoreanpop​

(lmk if you wanna be on the list)

You’ve been seeing Mr Suh, correction, Johnny, his first name, as per requested by Johnny himself.

“Mr Suh makes me feel older than I already am, you make me feel like a teenager all over again, so you have to call me Johnny. Let me relive my days when I was still a college kid.”

You didn’t mind, things aren’t as awkward between the two of you anymore, Johnny’s been spending time with you, although the two of you never established any sort of labelling towards what this relationship is. You and Johnny only hung out and had meals together, trying out different cuisines, watching movies, even going as far as skipping a day at work to go to the amusement park. He even bought you to an arcade when you told him you haven’t had the chance to venture to one since you were in grade school.

“Why haven’t you ever been to one for so long?” Johnny asked when he finished a round of pinball.

“They said it was a waste of time and that I should spend more time studying,” you said, wondering why Johnny would ask that, isn’t it the same for all the kids?

Whenever you mention your confining life to Johnny, he’d have a faraway look in his eyes, jaw locked in silent rebuke, he doesn’t say anything, he pulls you close, wrapping an arm around your shoulder. He would be quite for almost half an hour before he goes back to regular cheerful Johnny, telling you lame jokes that you would surprisingly find funny.

You didn’t have a phone, since your parents forbid you to have one, the only means of communicating is through your email account on your laptop, and even that you must always bear in mind to delete his mails right after, and take further precaution, you didn’t allow him to initiate the sending.

Johnny wanted to buy you one, but you rejected him promptly, you didn’t want him to spend so much money on you, he already spends lots on taking you out to eat. You gave him the excuse that it was too dangerous, and the consequences of getting caught are severe.

You often questioned your relationship with Johnny, you aren’t dumb, you’ve googled him and saw gossip news portals uploading photos of him and some model going out and about in hotels, but those headlines were months ago, the latest news about him was from his interview with Times magazine.

You never had the guts to ask him, you don’t know what you mean to him. What right do you have to question his whereabouts and what he does? He’ll probably be bored of you after he’s known all of you.

You know you shouldn’t think of Johnny that way, it is mean to assume what he’s thinking, especially how well he’s treating you, but seeing those headlines gives you a sense of insecurity, you keep telling yourself that this won’t last, but the thought of not seeing him again made your hair stand. He’s making you happy, a distraction towards the negativity you face in that house you live in, but for how long?

House. You never called it a home, unless you were telling your boss you were leaving, to prevent anyone from questioning your odd way of describing it. It was never a home to you. To you, a home is a place where you feel happy, safe, and most importantly, loved. The closest you’ve ever felt to having these feelings were your grandma and Joh... No, you don’t love him, and he doesn’t love you. What were you thinking?

You pushed those thoughts away as you opened your laptop to double check the files that you’ve typed out for your parent’s next important meeting that was supposed to be taking place first thing tomorrow. But when you went through your folders, the files were nowhere to be seen. It’s then you realised that the notification that keeps urging you to update the laptop was gone, it wasn’t the first time you updated the laptop and found out some files were missing, so you would never update the laptop at such a crucial time.

You took the laptop out to your father who was watching some news on his phone in the dining area to ask him if he had updated the software without alerting you.

“Yes, I did. What about it?” he asked, annoyance on his face due to the sudden disturbance.

“The files are missing because of the update,” you informed him.

“What files?” 

“The files for tomorrow’s meeting, they’re missing,” you told him as you mentally prepared yourself for what’s to come.

“What do you mean missing?! I bet it was because you saved it wrongly again! Your retarded brain never works does it?! Do you know how important those files are?! You always work on them late at night blurry eyed, of course you didn’t save them properly! You could’ve worked on them in the morning before work. but no... You want to ‘exercise’! What a waste of time!” You’re not pretty anyways, what are you doing them for huh?!” Your father shouted, his eyes blazing in rage, his fist slamming onto the glass.

While your father was shouting, your mother was checking the laptop as she complains about how clueless you are. It was like your brain couldn’t take the amount of hurtful words piercing into your mind like daggers, you let out a high pitched scream as tears threatened to fall, your hands covering your ears as your eyes were a blur.

When you could see properly again, you could make up words which sounded like ‘how dare you’ from your father, next thing you registered were the fury in his eyes as he advances on you, hand above his head, ready to hit you. You didn’t know what came over you, but the first thing you did was kicking him away. That’s when a full on fight broke out.

You were filled with rage, your mind wasn’t registering what you were doing. You went into a flight or fight stance and started thrashing and kicking as his hands were holding painfully tight on your wrists after you tried punching him.

Your mom urges the both of you not to fight, her voice barely registering in your head as she sits still on the high chair by the kitchen island, not bothered to even try to cease the fight.

When you finally pushed him away, you ran into your room and locked it. Your chest was heaving from the panic attack that just started, you tried your best to calm yourself down, reminding yourself to breathe, it was suffocating, controlling your breathing as more tears made its way out of your eyes.

When it all stopped, your body succumbed into mental exhaustion, passing out on your bed as the tears finally ceased.

You only woke up for dinner last night, and proceeded to sleep again. Yesterday’s events made you feel numb, other than the pain from the bruises on your arms.

There was a big ugly one on your left upper arm, its colour an ugly shade of green and purple.  A few other less serious ones scattered around your lower arms. In other words, you look like a wreck.

You wore a jacket to run even though you were sweating from your previous cardio work outs, feeling a little better after the endorphins in your body kicked in. When you got back, you quickly showered and ate a toast. When you asked for your mother’s phone to remind your boss you were going to take the day off, she told you that weren’t needed at the meeting anymore and that she finished everything last night.

“Just call to say that you’ll be going to work,” she said, not even looking in your direction when she handed you her phone.

But when you called to inform your boss, he told you that he had another part time coming in, and that it was too short of a notice. You said thank you and hung up, but said that you’ll be at work on time today before handing it back to your mother.

You really needed to escape for the day.

You opened the laptop and sent an email to Johnny.

I’m free today. Wanna go out?

You sat on your bed staring at the ceiling as you were sure it was going to be a bit before he replied, but just as you closed your eyes, you heard a distant chime from your laptop.

I’m rushing some stuff at the office today. I’m so sorry, Y/N.

Can I stay in your office? I really wanna get out of the house.

You sounded like a spoiled kid begging for attention, but you really wanted to see him today.

Sure. But you might get bored :) .

I’m leaving the house now :) .

For a 26 year old businessman, he sure loves to use emoticons.

You got changed into jeans and a jacket, you don’t usually wear one if you were going to a secluded area with Johnny, but you had to hide all the marks from last night. You just noticed that they hurt after you accidentally knocked your wrist against something.

You took the bus to the address Johnny wrote down on your diary, it was after one of your dinners together, and he jokingly said that you could always swing by if you wanted, you didn’t know you were going to actually do that.

The bus station wasn’t too far of a walk from his office, since it was just downtown Seoul where the Korea’s financial hub was located.

As you were nearing the office buildings, you stood out like a sore thumb, given the way you were dressed and your age. The people kept giving you stink eyes and sideway glances.

Suh Capital Partners. That was it.

You walked in the rotating doors, only to be greeted by masses of people walking around with smart pads, files, talking on the phone while the assistants take notes. Johnny didn’t mention his company being this big.

You admired the facade of the lobby, it displayed the latest news on a large monitor while futuristic lights hung from the high ceiling, the walls were a perfect balance of steel and wood with a wall of plants filled the wall behind the reception area. 

You realised that the people stopped what they were doing before and started looking at you curiously when one of the nicely dressed women from the reception walked up to you.

“Excuse me, miss. May I ask who are you looking for?” the woman asked, her eyes scanning you from top to toe.

You froze at your spot from how cold she sounded, like she didn’t want you around to ruin the aesthetic of the company. You reminded yourself that you weren’t going to see her anytime soon after this and that if you did make a fool of yourself then so be it.

“I’m looking for Mr Suh,” you told her.

She looked taken aback from your answer, but gave you the ugliest sneer when she recovered.

“Miss, this isn’t a school, you can’t just walk in here and demand to see someone without an appointment. Mr Suh is the head of this company, not someone you can just meet without an agreement from him. Please leave this instance,” she said, her tone high pitched enough to gather everyone’s attention, you swore you heard someone laughing a few feet away.

“But...

“That’s my guest, Ms Park.”

You whipped your head back to see Johnny standing behind you. But instead of his usual warm honey eyes, his eyes were a cold and staring daggers into the woman in front of you.

“I’m so sorry, Mr Suh. I’ll get back to my work now,” the woman bowed apologetically, going as far as doing it numerous times.

“I’m going to need a key card for her, Ms Park. Send it up to me when you’re done,” Johnny said, but his eyes were scanning the crowd, his employees immediately went back to what they were doing, the large lobby void of any sound other than people rushing to the lift lobby to escape the scene.

Johnny placed a hand behind your back and guided you to the lift lobby after most of the people have taken the ride up to their respective floors.

“I’m sorry,” you said after the coast was clear.

Johnny’s intimidating stance broke as confusion takes over his face.

“What are you sorry for?” Johnny asked, he should be the one saying sorry.

“I’m such an embarrassment, coming here in my jeans and jacket with a canvas bag, looking like a kid,” you said, fingers nervously tugging the straps of your old bag.

“Hey, hey, hey. Nothing’s wrong with being young and dressing your age. They’re just grumpy from all the work. Don’t take their words into account, and you look great. Perfection as always,” Johnny said reassuringly, hands placed on your shoulder, the warmth of his palms calming you slightly.

“No....

You buried your face into your hands as he patted your head, you sneakily glanced up to see him smiling at you with a toothy grin. But you quickly regained posture as you saw an elevator door open with many pairs of legs.

Johnny wasn’t going in even though the lift was going up, that’s when people in the lift realised it was him, and quickly came out of the lift, saying sorry and greeting Johnny.

Johnny guided you in after the lift was cleared empty. His staff looking at you curiously, you weren’t used to having so many pairs of eyes on you, their curious eyes burning holes into you.

Johnny could sense your anxiousness from the way you were hiding behind his tall figure as the two of you walked into his office, there weren’t many people at that time, given the fact that only direct reports of his business partners came up to hand in documents.

You only felt yourself loosen up a bit after you took a seat on Johnny’s armchair in his huge office, overlooking Seoul’s skyline and the cars that were buzzing about on the roads. The view made you calm down a bit from the journey coming up here.

You felt the chair dip as Johnny took a seat on its armrest, his hands coming up to give your shoulders a nice massage. Johnny smiled at the way your eyes lit up from his comforting touch as you looked back to smile at him, he felt a warm feeling deep in his belly as he takes in your beautiful features and the warmth of your shoulders on his fingertips. But as he puts more pressure onto your shoulders, you wince slightly, which didn’t go unnoticed by him.

“Did your boss at work make you lift heavy stuff again?” Johnny asked, his hands ceased all movements, fearing that he would hurt you again.

You automatically thought of your fight with your father last night, it might be because of the force exerted from when he had pushed you.

“N-no, I just didn’t sleep well last night. I watched a horror movie and had a nightmare,” you lied, not knowing how he would react if you told him the truth.

“Be careful when watching these movies, Y/N. If you went to work and your boss really made you move heavy things today, then you would’ve strain your muscles,” Johnny said, going back to massaging your shoulders, but this time gently applying pressure on that spot, rubbing it in clockwise circles to ease the pain.

“I’m fine, Johnny. Didn’t you have work to rush? I don’t want to keep you away from important matters. And my shoulders feel much better now,” you said, moving away from his hands even though you could’ve let him do that forever, it felt so comforting, borderline addictive.

“Okay, I’ll tend to your shoulders again later.” Johnny said as he lays his head on top of yours, a gesture that he had came up with whenever he wanted to show affection to you without crossing uncharted territories, your heart sped up whenever he does that.

You were just sitting on the couch reading one of your old books when you looked up and saw Johnny frowning at his laptop, you placed your book down and made your way to Johnny.

“Don’t frown like that, you’ll get frown lines when you’ll get older, it’ll spoil your handsome face,” you joked.

Your hands reach out to smooth the creases on his forehead, a smile coming back to Johnny’s face.

“Thank you,” he said, taking your busy hand into his, lightly tracing the area between your thumb and your index finger.

“What’s bothering you?” you asked, unbeknownst to you, your lips were unconsciously set in a pout.

“There’s some documents that are supposed to be sent to my office in Chicago, but the English that’s written here isn’t up to standards, I’m worried the staff there won’t understand what the document is stating. I don’t mind correcting it, but I have other things to tend to as well,” Johnny explained to you.

“Can I take a look at it? I had Cambridge classes for 8 years. Guess it’s finally coming in handy. I mean only if you think I’m capable, I don’t want you to think I’m boasting or anything, I just really wanna help...

“Y/N, sweet, I trust you. Just let me get you a laptop,” he said before dialling to his secretary.

Once Johnny sent the files to that laptop, you started correcting some grammatical errors and replaced some terms that weren’t as professional, when Johnny was done with his meeting, you were done with the documents as well.

“Here, take a look. There might be mistakes,” you said after sending him the files back.

“You were reading ‘me before you’, I think you’re fine, Y/N,” Johnny deadpanned.

“Just take a look, just in case,” you pleaded, doe eyes capturing his heart. Nodding, Johnny smiles, doing as you said.

Johnny scanned through the documents, his eyes lighting up brighter after each sentence, a proud smile making way on his face. When he was done, he pulled you close by the waist, and gave you a warm hug, his head nuzzling into your sweater.

“Thank you so much, sweetheart. I thought I needed to work overtime because of this,” he said, his voice was slightly muffled by the cotton.

“You’re welcome. You can always send me these files when I’m not here, I don’t want you to overwork yourself,” you offered.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. Wanna grab lunch? I can hear your stomach rumbling,” Johnny asked after pulling away, a cheeky glint in his eyes.

You could feel your cheeks heating up in embarrassment, as you hit Johnny’s shoulders lightly for his teasing, a smile creeping up your face.

“No, I’m not...

“Come on, I know this really nice French restaurant around the corner...

“Johnny I have the file you were...

Doyoung stops in his tracks as he sees you and Johnny being so close to each other.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had a guest,” Doyoung apologises, but his eyes were still wide in disbelief.

“Doyoung. This is Y/N. Y/N, Doyoung is one of my business partners, his dad was my dad’s business partner so now it’s his turn,” Johnny introduces his friend to you, telling you a bit of his background.

You gave Doyoung a tiny bow and soft hello, nerves wrecking up at meeting someone you often see on telly whenever their company has a press conference. You could sense an air of discomfort as Doyoung gives you a questioning look.

“You can just put the files on my desk Doyoung. I’ll take a look at them after my lunch break.”

When the evening rolled in, Johnny had to drive you home before your mom questioned your whereabouts.

“I really enjoyed having you by my side today, Y/N,” Johnny said sincerely after pulling up outside the gated area.

“I should be the one thanking you, I can’t believe those snails cost so much, yet you won’t let me pay you back whenever we have meals together,” you retorted, recalling how your eyes almost flew out of their sockets when you stole a glance at the bill.

“Money is not an issue, Y/N. I told you that many times before,” Johnny reminded you.

“I’ll see you on Saturday?” you asked, changing the subject before he offers to buy you a house or something.

“Yeah,” Johnny said, chuckling at how you diverted his attention.

Johnny unlocked the doors of his car, but right before you pulled onto the handle, Johnny pulled your arm, the place where one of the bigger bruises were located at, making you wince at the unexpected pain.

“Y/N I wanted to ask, wait. Are you in pain? Are you hurt? Did I accidentally hurt you?” Johnny asked his eyes wide in worry.

Before you could protest, Johnny pushed up the sleeves of your sweater, revealing the big ugly bruise on your upper arm, and several others that went downwards until your wrist.

You looked up at Johnny, scanning his face that was frozen in shock, eyes not believing what he’s seeing. His fingers gently tracing every bruise, his other hand rotating your arm gently, to see if there’s more.

“Y/N... Who did this to you?” Johnny questioned, but deep down in his gut, he’s sure it’s who he thinks it is.

“No one, Johnny. I just fell down when I woke up,” you said, lying through your teeth, you didn’t want to, but that was your survival instinct whenever someone asks about your parents.

“Don’t lie to me Y/N, it’s them isn’t it? They hit you. Why didn’t you tell me?” Johnny demanded, he questions why you don’t trust him, was he not worthy in your eyes?

“It’s nothing, Johnny. Goodnight,” you said in a breath before turning away.

You quickly got out of his car and ran to your lift lobby, Johnny was following behind you. But before he could step into the premise, you shut the glass door which could only be opened with a security card on him, mouthing the words sorry before you made your way into a lift.

Johnny banged at the door, shouting for you to come back, before the security guards asked him to leave. He could feel a prickle in his heart as he sees the bruises in his head, the image fresh. He felt red hot anger boiling in his heart, he was going to get you out of that horrible place, no matter what it takes.

[maisondenachtai]

Thanksgiving at Home (The Re-Up)

plot: a loving shot at my family through the eyes of Chris Evans and Reader.

a/n: ....I’m stupid. Thanks anon who told me that Boston was not in Maine. ...i feel like an idiot.

               “No. It’s your turn.”

               You couldn’t deny it. It was an absolute fact that according to the terms of your agreement that it was, in fact, your turn.

               In the beginning of your relationship, which had started three years ago, holidays had always been a source of frustration. He was from the north, Massachusetts, and you were from the south, Georgia. You wanted to see your family, and he desperately needed to hug his mom.

               So, you decided to split the holiday, you would go home to Georgia and he would go back to Massachusetts. After that first year, you would flip flop who you spent holidays with. That meant that the next year you spent Thanksgiving in Boston with him, and Christmas at home in Georgia with your mother and Sister.

               So yes, that meant it was your turn to spend Thanksgiving with your family. But that didn’t mean you had to be happy about it.

“Seriously, we don’t have to do Thanksgiving in Georgia. I’ll take Christmas again. It’s nicer.” You were sitting on the bed, looking at his half-packed suitcase, Dodger laying next you, his eyes moving to and fro watching his Dad pack a bag of clothes.

“If I wasn’t sure that you loved me, I’d really think you didn’t want me in Georgia.” He looked back at you, a smirk on his handsome face. “You got an old boyfriend you don’t want me to meet there.”

“A? Many. And who said they were old boyfriends. Maybe I’m still seeing them.” You smirked back at him. You couldn’t help but fall into games with your man, even though you were far from light and joyous.

“Watch it.” He pointed at you with a mock serious look on his face. “I hate to have to fight them.”

“I doubt you could take them.” You looked up in the air. “One was a football player; he’s actually playing for the Falcons now.”

Chris looked back at you, a white button down in his hands. “Are you serious?”

You nodded, “Oh yeah. He actually sends me tickets from time to time. There’s actually a game on thanksgiving! Maybe we should go. I’ll send him an email.” You stood up, to grab your laptop.

“Y/n, so help me, I will throw that piece of tin out of the window.” He said, a smile threatening to burst onto his serious face. “Stop fucking with me.”

“I’m not. We should go to a game. We’re going to be in Atlanta anyway. …you know unless we go to Boston.”

Suddenly his eyes lowered and he shook his head, folding the shirt in half and walking towards his open luggage. “Dodger.”

The dog barked softly.

“Tell your mom that she’s got to try a lot harder to get one over on me.”

You rolled your eyes, flopping back onto the bed. You laid back and Dodger took this change to take a position on your stomach, making himself comfortable. “This is so stupid.”

“I mean, you know we bought the tickets, already right? So, the time for you to try all of this plan changing would have been a month ago.” He sat next to you running his hand over Dodger’s body. “And you were so fucking excited. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. …Nothing. I’m just nervous.”

“Why? I’ve met your family.”

You sat up, making sure to do so slowly so Dodger could adjust himself accordingly. “You’ve met my Sisters, their boyfriends, and her mom. Not my family.”

Chris looked at you, “I’m failing to see the problem. So we do some introductions and get to know each other? What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal Christopher Robert Evans-“You had hopped up, Chris grabbing Dodger before you flung him towards in the wall in your movement.

“Ooh Dodger, she used the government name. She’s serious.”

You tried hard not to smile, but couldn’t stop the thing from breaking your serious expression. “Stop it. I’m serious.”

“I know.” He smiled at you, and then rolled his hand around as if to say continue. “Come on lay it on me.”

“I’m from Georgia.”

His eyes shifted from side to side, as if the answer to his confusion was in the room. “I’m from Massachusetts…so what?”

“No, you don’t get it. I’m from Georgia…not Atlanta. My family is from Georgia. There’s a difference.”

In silence of the moment, Dodger slipped out of Chris’ arms into the living room. Chris folded his arms, looking at you.

“…If I get what you’re being obtuse about. You’re trying to say that you don’t want me meeting your overall wearing, one tooth, inbred, backwoods cousins.” He had that smirk again. You wanted to both kiss him and wipe it off of his face.

“Hey! None of my cousins are any of that.”

“Okay then, so what’s the problem.”

               You sighed and sat down, and he pulled you closer to him. You placed your face in his neck, his gold chain pressing slightly against your nose.

“I’m not embarrassed by them…” You said a little muffled by his body. “I just want to say that.”

“Okay… I’m listening.”

You sighed again, pulling back from him. “…It’s just…like…okay. Your family, like the house was put together and everyone was sitting around the table. We passed plates and it was all very nice.”

“Okay, and at Christmas at your mom’s we sat around the table and we didn’t pass plates but no one needs to do that. It was nice too.”

“But it’s not going to be like that at Thanksgiving Chris. Most of my immediate family will be there. The table we at for Christmas will be covered in food. We’re going to walk around the table buffet style, and everyone’s going to sit around the house, wherever they can fit. There will be no real plates, no real spoons. There’s probably going to be a kids area that will be messy.”

“Kids are messy everywhere baby.”

“I’m not done. There will be foreign foods. Oxtails, and chitterlings. Dressing…not stuffing.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“It is not!” You shook your head. “It’s totally different. There are going to be several things going on too. My uncle is going to sit in the middle of the room, with tequila, a lime, and he’s going to tell stories we’ve all heard 18 million times. He’s going to curse and we’re all going to be annoyed. My younger cousins are going to sneak out of the house, stand in a huddle behind the house and smoke weed, and talk about us old folks. My grandma is going to get drunk on Sparkling Cider, and probably try to flirt with you, and you better flirt back Chris.”

He chuckled then rubbing your back, “Of course I will. Now are you-“

“And I haven’t even told you about Spades.”

“Spades?” He found your eyes. “Like the card game.”

“Yeah. Spades goes down at Thanksgiving, and it is SERIOUS Chris. It’s like war, but less civilized.”

He rolled his eyes and stood up walking back into the closet, “You’re being dramatic now.”

“I’ve seen my cousin pull a gun out on somebody who reneged. I SEENT IT.”

“So okay, I won’t play spades.”

“What? And look like a bitch in front of all my cousins. You’ll never live it down. They’ll be at our wedding giving a toast like, ‘Hey Chris is a cool white dude, but he still a bitch cause he won’t play Spades with us’. I don’t want to be the cousin who married a white dude who won’t play spades. I can’t do it. I’ll be the black sheep.”

Chris gripped your shoulders, forcing you to look up at him. “Breathe baby.”

And you did.

“Again. Good and deep.”

And you did again.

“You feel better?”

You did, so you nodded.

“Good. Now, I’m saying this because I love you.” He grabbed your shoulders and shook you back and forth. “You’re acting like a nut.”

“I know. I know.” You said when he let you go. “I just want them to like you.”

He kissed your forehead. “They will like me. I mean how could they not first of all?” He grinned at you making you roll your eyes. He smoothed his hand down the side of your face, “And even if they don’t like me right away, they’ll grow to like me. And if they don’t…” He kissed you softly, soundly. “It doesn’t matter. I love you. You love me. And that’s all that matters. Okay?”

You closed your eyes, nodding. “Okay.”

“Say it.” He commanded gently.

“I love you. You love me. That’s all that matters.” You opened your eyes and your irises met his, you felt calmer.

“Good.” He smiled. “Now pack, boarding is at 8.”

--

               Atlanta never failed to take your breath away. It was so familiar, yet every time you returned there was always something new being built or done. You pointed out so many spots that you wanted to see before you returned to Los Angeles, and Chris made sure to note them all down on his phone wanting you to enjoy your time home as much as you could.

               After your father died, your mother decided that the deep south had nothing to offer you and your sisters anymore and decided to uproot you from all that you knew. Suddenly you were nearly two hours from the bulk of your family, living in a suburb of Atlanta that you knew no one in. It wasn’t your home at first, but eventually you had come to love Atlanta as much as you loved your little small town in Southern Georgia.

               As you came closer to your neighborhood you began to point of places of significance.

“There used to be this spot right there. Oh my god, they used to have the best hot wings. Like everyone tends to rave over American Deli, but they had better wings than anything I’ve ever tasted.” You said as you passed a spot that was under construction.

As you passed through the opening of the subdivision of your neighborhood, you smiled and pointed at the sign. “The neighborhood kids all used to hang around that sign. I had my first real kiss right there.”

Chris raised one of his eyebrows, “Real kiss?”

You smirked, “Tongue.”

He chuckled. “How old were you?”

“13.”

“Weak. I was 12.”

“Lie.”

“It is not a lie.”

“Chris, you’re about to pass it.”

“Shit!” He pressed on breaks, making you skid slightly to a stop a few inches away from your house.

               There were cars parked along the side of the road, a few on the grass without care to your mom’s poor lawn. You figured you’d be a little late, traffic was heavy, the airport had been busy of course, but …this was a Black family thanksgiving. 1 meant 3, not 2:30.

“Fuck. We’re walking right into it.” You said, sighing.

“Will you calm down? It’s fine. I’m fine. You’re definitely fine.” He waggled his eyebrows a little making you smile and then really smile when his eyes traveled down your white knit sweater dress covered body to the camel colored knee-high boots that he nearly begged you to wear.

You reached over and adjusted the collar of his white cable knit crew neck under his camel colored jacket. He wore a pair of khaki trousers, that you thought gave him an air of formal to go with his more casual upper attire. “You’re pretty fine too.” You smiled and leaned over to kiss him-

Thump.

But you jumped instead when your sister appeared at your window, somehow sneaking up on you. You rolled your eyes, sighing and rolling down the window.

“Hello Cassie.”

“Hello Y/n.” She grinned. “Hey Chris, I’m so happy my sister is no longer hiding your beauty from the world.”

“Hey Cass. Glad to see you again.”

“Glad to see you too.” She smirked.

You thumped her forehead, “What did I say about flirting with my boyfriend?”

“Don’t do it when you’re around?” She joked.

“Wrong, you little bitch.”

She laughed.

You grinned too. “Where’s Falen?”

“Feeding Cam. He’s so chunky.”

“I can’t wait to hold him.” You smiled at Chris. He grinned back at you. You had been talking about kissing all over your nephew for a month now.

“Well if you stop hiding in this…very nice car. You can. Come on Chris, everyone is really excited to meet you.”

               And just like that you were following behind your boyfriend and your little sister into what could be a doomed thanksgiving from hell. You nervously followed them into the house, not joining in on the conversation as Chris and Cassie talked about politics. Turning without much fuss, as Chris took off your duster and hung it in the closet, doing the same with his jacket.

You only followed numbly as you walked through the opening to your home, heart beating faster as the sounds of your family got louder. Just as it was at it’s peak, you gripped Chris’s hand, stopping in your tracks therefore stopping him.

He looked back at you, Cassie kept walking still somehow talking about how Biden was not the President we wanted or needed. You looked up at him, not able to say anything only looking up at him with wide eyes.

His lips were on your forehead quickly, placing three kisses in succession, one there, then your nose, and finally your lips. Silently he reassured you that things would be fine, and together you stepped through the threshold into your family room.

               Gatherings could be a lot for you. In a lot of the memories of the gatherings attended by you in your youth, you could only remember being a fly on the wall. Choosing to instead be passive instead of active like your sisters and your cousins. You weren’t anti-social, but you felt more comfortable laughing at the jokes then trying to tell them.

As you grew it got a little better, but you never felt quite comfortable in big group of people. In fact, after an event such as this one, you often needed to sleep for a long time. When you told Chris this before your first Thanksgiving with his family, he admitted to being kind of the same. He might not need to sleep after a big event, but he wasn’t quite the social butterfly either. It made you happy that he understood when you had to excuse yourself from drinking eggnog with the family late into the night. It made you even happier when he told you the next morning that his family understood too.

               With your family it was much of the same, your family understood that you weren’t the loudest and most of the time they were too busy being loud themselves to need you to be just as loud as them. It was just enough for you to be there sharing in the love of the family.

But not this time.

This time all the attention was on you and it was time to speak up.

               “So, Chris…where did you two meet?” The slight drawl of your Aunt cut through the sounds of The Temptations singing Silent Night, a favorite of your mom’s anytime of year…obviously.

“Uh, she…I mean Y’N was a consultant on a movie I was doing. I saw her and she was too beautiful for me not to get to know. So I asked her out for coffee.” He smiled at you then. “She said no.”

“You said no?” One of your male cousins, Taylor, called out. “Shiiit, if I was a girl I would have jumped on his ass.” He sucked his teeth. “Hell, shit, I’d jump right now. He got hella money.”

The room erupted into laughter and all of sudden the ice was broken. Chris was no longer an interloper…well he was, but he was no longer covered in plastic. He could be touched, he could be handled, he could be interwoven into the group.

You sighed, a little of your worry dissipating.

Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad.

                 To his credit, if anything was making him feel uncomfortable, he was taking it in stride. Chris had enjoyed when all your little cousins came up to him and asked him questions about Captain America, and asked if he was always Captain America or just on TV. You could tell because when he smiled, his face creased. He even did a few poses for them, which they loved.

When one of your cousins, Devontae, came over to Chris with a bottle of something clear and a smile you knew that this one would be a little harder. But again, he took it in stride as Devontae pitched him an idea of a TV show with talking Weed Plants, kind of like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Chris simply smiled through it, shaking his head when you made eyes at him obviously getting the message that you could save him if he wanted you to. After Devontae walked away needing to captivate the attention of at least 5 other people in the room.

He was considerably more relaxed in a group of the male cousins you had grown up around. They had formed a sort of semi-circle, Chris in the middle with a long neck beer in his hand, nodding at what ever George had to say.

“Chris is doing good.” Falen said, leaning over slightly, adjusting Camden’s bib while he was in your arms.

“Yeah. He’s really fitting in.” You smiled and then cooed at Cam bouncing on his knee. “I want to take him home.”

“He’s yours. I’ll sign the papers today.” Falen joked. “So, it’s serious then.”

“What?”

“What?” Falen mimicked you, rolling your eyes reminding you of yourself. “You and Chris.”

“You know it’s serious Fay.” You mom chimed in. “She brought him home.”

“I brought him to Christmas last year.”

“Thanksgiving is different and you know it.” Your mom said pointing her wine glass in your direction.

“I told him that.” You mumbled, looking down at Camden who only looked back up you with sweet innocent brown eyes.

“Well I’m glad you are trying to lock him down. You two match, you know.” Falen grinned.

“And the matching outfits were just the right touch.” Cassie chimed in smirking at you.

You flipped her off, discreetly. Your grandma was still in front of you…although already sleeping.

“Shut up Cassie.” Falen chuckled. “Seriously. …I think he might propose soon.”

You chuckled shaking your head, “Nah. I don’t think so.”

Falen grinned, “If you say so little sis.” She patted her knee and then looked around. “Ma! When’s the food going to be ready. You said 1!”

“You know that means 3. Don’t get brand new in front of Chris.” You smirked.

               The spread of food was glorious. A beautiful turkey, a delicious ham from Honeybaked Ham cause no one had perfected the art of making a good ham, a huge pan of cornbread dressing collectively called dressing, two pans of Macaroni and Cheese cause one pan never survived your family’s greedy hands, turnips, collard greens and cabbages, cornbread muffins, hoe cakes, yams with marshmallow topping (your Auntie’s one and only dish that tasted okay), and a plate of various pieces of fried chicken. But none of this would be complete without your mother’s potato salad.

It was a feast to end all feasts. A dinner you dreamed about. You would have cried if it wouldn’t have made you look crazy. Chris held two thick paper plates, one for him and one for you, while you held Cam who you were never going to give back. You patted the baby’s back, he had just had a bottle full of milk thickened with a little baby rice, a special treat for Thanksgiving (it was your grandma’s idea).

“Come on little Cam, burp. Chris, more dressing. That’s not enough. It’s gotta be nearly half the plate. And you gotta put the cranberry sauce on top.” You said.  It was comical to watch Chris hold his plate, your plate, and also try to ladle dressing onto a plate.

“Here.” You chuckled holding out Cam. “You hold my new baby. And I’ll make our food.”

“No, wait. I need to ask your sister if I can hold him first.” He said looking around for Falen.

“It’s fine, you won’t drop him cause if you do I’ll kill you.” You smirked at him.

“I need to wash my hands.”

You rolled your eyes, “Now who’s acting like a nut.” You took one plate from him then the other sitting them down and then walked into his personal space. He opened up for you almost cradling you and Cam.

“Now I know you have held a baby before, so don’t freak out now.” You handed him off to Chris and he instantly held the Camden in his arms, supporting him as Cam settled in the crook of his neck. You looked at the sight, your man holding a little brown boy, and you could almost imagine that Camden was your baby.

Your stomach flip flopped, and you gnawed down on your lip at the sight.

Chris smirked, knowing exactly what was on your mind. “Make the food.”

“I am. I am.” You chuckled, not daring to look at any of your family members.

“Ohhhhh, we’re making plates now. Okay, Y’n!” Julie, your Aunt’s daughter called out, making you chuckle in embarrassment.

Making plates had a lot of connotations in black families. It all but signaled that Chris was your man and you were totally subservient to him.

“You want some yams baby?” You said putting on a sickly-sweet voice to amuse your family members.

The room filled with Awws and whipping noises at your question. You turned and found Chris’s face red, but he was still patting Cam’s back like you had been doing.

“He didn’t burp yet?” You asked.

“Not yet, I don’t think.”

“Mm. We probably need to get you a burping towel. It might be-“

The wet burping noise stopped your sentence stopped you in your tracks, making you look up at your man who was looking down at Cam, who was looking quite satisfied at the burp he had just let out and the off white spit up stain he left on Chris’ shirt.

“Oh no babe.” You laughed a little.

“He spit up a little.” He said, a little amusement in his voice.

“Yeah. Good job baby boy.” You rubbed Cam’s back.

“Oh nooo. I’m so sorry Chris.” Falen came over easing Cam out of Chris’s arms, which made him a little agitated. “I can pay for dry cleaning.” She frowned a little.

“No. No. No. It’s fine. It’s just a little spit up. No need for all of that.” He laughed.

“Well Y’N, at least go try to clean it up.” You mom said. “We have tide pens and stuff in the upstairs guest bathroom.”

Your mouth opened up, jaw hanging a little, “But my food! It’s gonna get cold.”

Your mother put her hands on her hips, “Well yeah it is, cause you’re sitting here back talking me instead of getting your behind up those stairs and cleaning his shirt. Now go.”

“Yes mam.” You put the plates down on a slightly clear space on the table and grabbed Chris’s hand. “Come on Chris.”

--

Chris sat on the edge of the tub and watched you as you washed Cam’s spit up out of his shirt.

“Dang it Cam. Now my food is getting cold.” You muttered.

“You’re calmer.” He commented.

You looked over at him. He was only wearing his pants, a tank top, his pendant necklace hanging off his neck. He looked…really good.

“Yeah. It’s been a good day.” You nodded, putting more hand soap on his sweater. “Are you having fun?” You looked over at him, hoping that he would say yes even if he didn’t mean it.

“A blast honestly. Your family is so warm, and inviting. So funny. And I love how they love you.” He hitched his pants up and stood, walking over you and standing behind you in the mirror. You looked at his reflection, his shirt momentarily forgotten.

“But you know what I love even more?”

You smiled, “Me.”

He grinned too, kissing the top of your head, “…Your mom’s potato salad.”

You turned around and smacked his chest with a wet hand making a loud noise.

“What it’s so good. Oh my god. Get that recipe.” He chuckled and pulled you close to him wrapping his arms around you. You looked up at him, kissing his chin. “No, seriously. I love how bright you’re smiling. How happy you are to be home. How relaxed you are. That accent you have slipped back into.”

“I did not.”

“Oh yes you did.” He smirked. “But I love how you, you are right here in this house. …I would give up every thanksgiving to see you be this relaxed.”

“I love you Chris.” You said quietly.

“I love you. So much.”

               And then he kissed you.

And you wished you could say that kiss lasted forever, or went on and on but of course-

Knock, Knock.

“Yn, Mama said no fornication in her Christian household.” Cassie shouted.

               And you both laughed.

   Epilogue

               You placed Cam down on your Mother’s bed, patting his back and kissing his head.

“He’s an angel. Ugh, we’re going to be here tomorrow and you better be here.” You said to Falen pointing at straight index finger at her.

“I will be. I’m not letting yall eat up all the leftovers.” She rolled her eyes and then smiled at Chris. “You did really good with Camden today Chris.”

“He’s a sweet baby. I did nothing.” Chris shrugged.

“So…planning to have some of your own?”

“Oh kay, we’re leaving now. Tell mom I see her tomorrow and Cassie I will see her tomorrow and to eat a dick.” You gripped Chris’ hand pulling him to the coat closet, allowing him to help you into your coat, and helping him smooth out his jacket.

“Goodnight everyone!” He called out, earning many well wishes as he walked out.

“Oh shit.”

You walked out of the door, focusing on closing the door after yourself. “What’s wrong, is there a big dog out her or-“ You looked up and almost laughed.

Damien, your ex-boyfriend the Falcon football player was standing in front of you two. A bag in one hand and a smile on his face.

“Oh shit, Damien. I can’t believe you’re here!” You passed Chris, hugging Damien.

“Oh yeah. I always come out to your mom’s house after the games. Can’t pass up on the potato salad.” He smiled, sharing a laugh with you and then smiling at Chris. “So this is the dude. Nice to meet you man. I love Captain America.”

Chris shook off the shock, and stuck out his hand, shaking with Damien. “Thank you. And you’re a great football player.”

“Thank you man. Yall need to come out to a game. I’m always offering your girl here tickets but she says you’re a Patriot fan.”

“Oh yeah, gotta go with the home team.”

“Respect man.”

               Chris and Damien talked for another couple of minutes before Damien excused himself into the house. Chris looked at you, shock written on his face.

You smirked, “You thought I was bullshitting you didn’t you?”

Chris shook his head, taking your hand and walking towards the rental car. “When we get home, I’m throwing that piece of tin out of the window and you’re changing your email.”

You smirked.

“Jealous.”

[pixieungerstories]

Quarantine -3

It would have been nice to have something other than the word of a shadow to go on.  I stared at the ceiling.  I wished I had a cat or a dog or - hell - a pet hamster.  Some other living thing in the house.  I had no idea what Nick was but I wasn’t entirely sure he counted as a living thing.

“Humans who don’t sleep start to hallucinate,”  I muttered to myself.  Maybe if I actually got some shut eye, I would wake up and this would all be a dream.  “Fuck it.”  I got undressed and crawled under the covers.  I settled under the covers, then realized I was facing the closet, so I rolled over.  Having the door in my blind spot wasn’t necessarily better.

“Nick?”  I wasn’t really expecting an answer.  “Can you move the bed to another room?”

“I can.  I don’t want to.  I like having you where I can see you.”

I nodded.  “I’ll go sit in the kitchen until dawn.”

“Go! To! Sleep!”

I jumped then started to shake.  “Yelling at me isn’t going to help me sleep,” I muttered.

The bedroom door slammed shut.  Rattling the door knob and pulling as hard as I could didn’t make it budge.  “Please don’t do this,” I whimpered, then I screamed as something brushed my face.

The door opened suddenly enough that I unbalanced and fell on my ass, but a moment later I was running down the stairs and out the front door.  I was at the gate before I knew what I was doing.

The cops were still right there.

“You need to go back inside ma’am!” the closest one called.  After that they were all looking at me.  

I paced for a moment, uncomfortably aware how odd I was behaving.  I needed to get out of here.  I needed a smoke.  I needed to stop acting weird before they decided I had killed my neighbours.

Oh god.  I was trapped in a house with a creature that probably killed the looters.

I didn’t want to face the idea that Nick was a killer.

“Ma’am!  Go inside!”

“I saw what happened on the news,” I explained.  “It’s giving me nightmares and I’ve been stuck in that house for more than a month.  I wasn’t expecting to be quarantined in a construction site.”

“Be that as it may, you need to go back inside,” the patrolman called.

“I’m more than six feet away from you.  Can’t I just stay out here near some other people and the street lights? Please?”

“You aren’t exactly dressed for the weather,” he pointed out.  

I crossed my arms over my chest as I realized I was standing on my lawn in my night dress.  I should go in and at least get my robe.  It was in the room with Nick’s closet.

I thought about just confessing to something so that I could go with them.  Prison wouldn’t have Nick.  Maybe I just needed a hospital.  No.  That was a death sentence these days.

He was driving me off.  He had flat out told me that he was good at that.

“Are you alright, ma’am?”

“No!” I snapped.  “I’m scared.”

He gave me a pitying look but still insisted, “You need to go inside now.  You will be safe in your house.”

I snorted, and swatted at the bugs that had found me.

“Go inside,” he said gently.  “The last thing you need is to catch something from the mosquitos.”

I nodded slowly and headed back in to sit in the kitchen.  Maybe he would let me make a pot of coffee.  When I got inside the lights in the kitchen was on and the bed was set up on the main floor.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“You’re welcome.  This is temporary.  You will sleep upstairs when the walls are repaired.

The next morning I got a phone call ordering me out into the garden as a forklift delivered a load of drywall.  It was left in the middle of the floor next to my bed.  I looked at it.   Nick’s voice was too close to my ear, “Someone will come hang in tomorrow.”

“How did you pay for this?”

“You have an excellent credit rating and you aren’t spending much of your money.”

“Great.  Did they say how long it would take?”

There was no answer to that.

“I guess drywallers wear masks all the time anyway,”  I mused.   “At least there will be some other people around.”

“Yes.”

I didn’t have walls the next day.  In fact things were worse as the last of the lath and plaster was taken down.  They found hundreds of razor blades in the wall in the bathroom.  The construction guys assured me that it was normal to find all kinds of weird things in the walls of old houses, but they still looked uncomfortable that it was razor blades and that some of them were more bloody than you would expect from a mere shaving accident.  I spent the night picking them up with tweezers and dropping them into a jar for safe disposal.  Nick didn’t say a word and the lights stayed on that night.

One half the team turned up the next day.  No one commented on why that was.

I ordered a hammock and a grill for the backyard.  I got the hammock but someone had changed the grill to a chiminea when I wasn’t looking.  It was nice, but I couldn’t cook on it.  My order had also been edited to include a bunch of bug repellant candles and some sunscreen.  I tried to figure out if that was something a shadow creature would actually do or was this another sign that I was losing my mind.

Either way, I worked on the concrete table out back at the very limit of the wifi during the day and concentrated on fixing up the yard after official work hours.

One of the drywallers sold me a patio umbrella.

I also got the lecture that just because the walls were up didn’t mean that it was safe to use the shower.  

“You still have to get a membrane installed and your tiles up and sealed,” the guy explained.

I nodded, “You don’t happen to know a tile guy that is still working?”

He frowned, “I’ll ask around.  Do you have tiles yet?”

“No,” I admitted.

“That might be the hard part.  You can still find a few guys willing to come out, but all the factories are shut down.”

“Shit.”

He gave me a look of sympathy.  “Yeah.  There are stories of people doing penny walls or using their grandma’s china to tile just so they have a working bathroom.”

“I don’t have either of those things,” I said sadly.

He nodded, “I’ll ask around.  It isn’t a big project and people might have some leftovers.”

Given how protective Nick was of the house I should have expected his warning.    I was still unimpressed to see “no ugly tile” written on the drywall in the morning.  Still, he could have used the last of my lipstick and instead had found a pencil somewhere.  I tried to ignore it as I brushed my teeth.  I didn’t even have a mirror over the sink.  Grumbling around the toothbrush I realized, “Fuck.  I’m the only person who could buy a haunted house where the ghost had been watching too much HGTV.”

That earned me a creepy house shaking laugh and proof that he hadn’t just left.

“It’s your fault,” he purred in my ear.  “You are the one who fell asleep all those nights with decorating shows playing on repeat on your computer.”

I sighed. “Yeah, it was,” I agreed sadly.  “If I hadn’t would you be haunting me right now?”

“If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have seen the value in what you are doing and I wouldn’t have spent a week keeping you alive when you got sick.  Perhaps you would have been haunting me.”

I frowned, “I wasn’t sick for a week!  It was only a couple of days!”

“You should check your calendar.  It was a couple of days of you being sick and a week of me forcing you to breathe.”

“There is no way I lost a week without noticing!”

He didn’t say anything.  When I checked my calendar there were nearly two weeks missing.  I told myself it didn’t mean anything.  Nick used my computer, he could have just deleted the information.  I could just call work or Penny or someone and ask how long I was away for.

I kind of didn’t want to.  What if he was telling the truth?

I took my coffee and toast and ate breakfast outside, once again wishing for a cigarette.  Nick had never left the house, as far as I knew, and I didn’t want to talk to him just then.  This was ridiculous!  Shadow monsters didn’t … do that!  They didn’t … exist.  I was just …  this wasn’t happening!

I was out of coffee and the coldness of the concrete bench was soaking through my night shirt and into my ass.  I had left the folded towel I used as a cushion inside overnight so it wouldn’t get damp.  Now I was cold and damp instead.  Fuck.

When I made it back to the kitchen, my laptop was open and had apparently been searching for bathroom tiles.  ‘Fine.  Whatever.  Pick something nice that I can afford.”

I don’t know what I was expecting him to do, but contacting a local stained glass artist wasn’t it.  I really wasn’t expecting her to check if it was OK if my boyfriend picked out the design since it was my credit card that was paying for it.

I was afraid to ask, but I had to know, “What did he pick?”

Nancy cleared her throat, “Well, originally he wanted a reproduction of a stained glass window from Maison Schott in France.  But when we talked about how complicated it would be for a tiler to install that, he settled on a simpler rose on trellis pattern.”

  I set down the phone to close my eyes and scrub my face.  “Do you like what he picked out?”  She seemed a little taken aback by the question.  “Yes?  It’s a little modern for your age of house, but it’s a nice piece and will be easy to install.  It mostly uses different textured white glass, so it would be in keeping with a white bathroom. I can have it ready next week.  I’m not exactly over run with work right now.”  She paused before she added, “I’ll send you some sketches and if there is anything you need changed, just let me know.  I could really use the income, to be honest.”

“Yeah.  I understand that.  I guess I’m just doing my part to keep the economy running.”

“I really appreciate that.   The whole ‘buy local’ movement ended when we weren’t allowed to leave our houses,”  Nancy pointed out.

“Ok.  Send me the sketches and the quote and I’ll get back to you in the next couple of days.”

I lay in bed that night and looked at the newly drywalled dining room ceiling.  “What are you doing, Nick?”

“Making a home for you,” he whispered.

“Can I even afford this?  You don’t have a secret money vault hidden in the walls with the razor blades, do you?”

There was a long moment of silence, then he whispered, “You could sell the wine instead of drinking it.”

I froze.  “Just because it’s old doesn’t mean that it’s valuable,” I pointed out.

Something caressed my calf as he purred his reply, “But it is.”

I closed my eyes and let my body melt into the mattress.   My breath caught in my throat as the touch moved up my leg.  As soon as I made the noise, the contact vanished.  I groaned.

“What are you doing?”

“Breaking the rules,” he grumbled from across the room.

I needed to know, “Why were there razor blades in the walls?”

“There was a slot in the back of the medicine cabinet for used razor blades to be dropped between the wall boards so that they were safe and wouldn’t hurt anyone in the trash.  That was perfectly normal at one point in history,” he explained.

I considered this, “Why were there bloody razor blades in the walls?”

He didn’t answer that one.  “Why haven’t you used your little toy since I cleaned it for you?”

Now it was my turn to be silent.

“You liked that toy,” he prompted.  “I liked watching you enjoy yourself.  Good for everyone.”

“That’s really creepy.  Can’t you just watch porn like a normal person?”

“Porn isn’t as satisfying,” he replied.  Then he added, “For either of us.  And I am not a normal person.”

“I noticed.”

“Would we have fucked by now if I was?”  he just sounded curious.  The vocal leer from a moment ago was gone.

“I would have had you arrested by now if you were.”

The low chuckle rumbled through the house at that.  I closed my eyes and he stroked my face.  “Let me watch,” he purred.  “I can feel how badly you want.”

That made my eyes snap open.  “What?”

“I can taste your fear, but also your pleasure.  I enjoyed watching you cum in a way that humans can not understand.  And I am very aware of your frustration.”

“What happens to my soul if a shadow … creature watches me play with myself?”

“It gets to live in a house with a happier guardian?” he suggested.

“A guardian?  Is that what you are?”

“Guardian sounds better than monster or eldritch god but that’s just semantics.”

“I’m pretty sure there is a difference,” I pointed out.

“Perhaps the difference is what I’m doing at the time.  And right now, I am guarding this house, taking care of you and hoping you will take care of yourself.”

“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” I joked.   “I’m too damn tired!”  I thought for a moment, “I need more rules, Nick.”

“Like what?” he asked in a breathy hissing rasp that sounded pretty much like how I imagined a death rattle would sound.

“Well, there’s that,” I pointed out.  “Now I’m scared and I can’t see you so this is going to be another night of sitting up until I fall down.”

“You need to rest,” he murmured in a more normal voice for him.   It wasn’t human sounding, but it wasn’t deliberately scary.

I had already set up and was fumbling for a light switch. I shrieked when he caught my hand.  “Ugh! Look, either I get to sleep or you get to scare me, but you have to pick one.  And I can’t see when you are going to touch me, so it’s scary every time.  That’s why I asked you not to.  But if you can’t do that, can you at least tell me when it’s coming?”

“Would that really make it better if you knew I was going to lick my way up your back?”

“It would if I knew you would listen when I tell you not to.  This is about trust, Nick.  I don’t trust you.  I am already very aware of how vulnerable I am here.  You could easily lock me in the basement and wait for me to starve to death.  You could smother me with my pillow.  Hell, you could slice open an artery and hide the razor blade in the walls.”  I stopped abruptly, wondering if I was just giving him ideas.  “I can’t stop you and I can’t leave and I can’t trust you not to lock me in the bedroom because you think that will help me sleep.”  He let go of my hand.  I turned on the light and looked around the empty house.  “My head hurts and I don’t want to be afraid any more.”

“I have never done anything to hurt you, but I can see how I have done things that are frightening.”  It sounded like a whisper on the very edge of hearing.  “Turn out the light, lay down and I will rub your back until you can sleep.  I will do my very best not to be scary.”

I turned on my laptop as a source of light and sound before I turned off the light switch.  “I can’t believe I am saying this, but if you want this to be less scary for me, find me a nightlight.  I haven’t needed one since I was ten, but, congratulations, I do now.”

I felt the bed dip.  It didn’t always do that.  “I’m going to rub your back now,” he whispered. “You can tell me to stop.”

“Ok,” I acknowledge.

It wasn’t a massage; it was more like a person petting a cat.  He started at the top of my head and stroked back to my waist, then stopped and started again.  It was vaguely soothing and I was really exhausted by then.  At some point in the night I woke to see a huge black shape hunched over my keyboard.

In the morning I had emails confirming my order of six cartoon animal night lights from IKEA and one from an auction house saying they would be happy to broker the sale of my wine and that they would send an expert to confirm its authenticity.  

I wondered how you forge wine.

[demivampirew]

With love, Syverson

Captain Jackson Syverson x Reader 1

Michael (Mike) Syverson x Reader 2

Trigger warning: young parents, unexpected pregnancy, family issues, arguing; some angst (but also lots of fluff), subtle mention of sex (no smut)

You can find more of my writings in the Masterlist    

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

“He’s just a boy!” Jackson exclaimed and sighed.

“He’s almost five years older than you were when you had him, babe” you argued calmly.

“It was different” he replied bitterly.

“Was it? Are you sure?” you questioned raising an eyebrow.

“I wanted him to live a different life. I wanted him to enjoy life to the fullest before he had the age to have a family and responsibilities. I wanted to live the life I couldn’t.”

“I know, darling but, there’s no point getting angry at how things turn out to be and how they could be different. It is what it is. He got his girlfriend pregnant and now wants to face the consequences of his actions. If you would ask me, that’s proof of how good of a father you are; he didn’t excuse himself for being young and left the girl alone with the problem.” you replied and took his hand and kissed it. “He needs you right now, more than anyone else. He needs his dad to give him a hand and let him know that everything would be ok and that you have faith in him.”

Syverson looked absent-minded to the room. You sat right next to him and cuddle. He continued to squeeze your hand while he was lost on his thoughts, sitting there in complete silence.

Considering the emotional draining day you had, you thought that you weren’t going to be able to eat at all but, as soon as the waitress brought the food to the table, you started to devour it. Mike played with it, moving it around in the plate with the fork. He barely said any-words since you two left his dad’s house -except for “We’re alone in this but, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” To say that you felt guilty would be an understatement: you were as guilty as him for no being careful; you wouldn’t be able to find a job while being pregnant and you had no one to ask for help. Now, all the weight of providing for you and the baby laid on him.

“Mikey, the food is going to get cold, baby.” you pointed out. He seemed to suddenly wake up from his trance, surprised as if he had just realized where he was.

“Sorry, I was thinking about things” he apologized and took a bite of the steak he had on his plate.

“Penny for your thoughts? you asked.

“I have some money that I was saving for a surprise trip for us for the summer. It isn’t a lot, but it should be enough to buy groceries for a month or two. Also, I could sell my console. I’ll start to look for a job and, I’ll talk to my roommate to see if he allow us to stay in my dorm for the moment until I found us a home.”

“ I have like $300 save, that should help. And I can sell my laptop,” you added.

“No, baby, you need that for college” he replied.

“I’ll have to quit. My father kicked me out of the house and cut me from all my expenses, including college. According to him, if I’m old enough to get pregnant, I’m old enough to take care of all matters by myself,” a tear rolled down your face as you remembered the conversation you had that day with your father.

“You won’t quit college and, it’s final. I’ll do whatever it takes to pay for it myself,” your partner assured without any doubts. You nodded and continued eating.

As you walked heading to his college dorm, he got a message from his dad, which read “Come home, I want to talk.” He stood in the middle of the street and, he looked as if he was arguing with himself. Knowing him, you assumed that his proud self didn’t want to talk to his father after the fight they had but, he must have known that he didn’t have much choice that to comply.

“What’s your plan?” Jackson asked, at that moment he wasn’t Jack or Sy, he was ‘Captain Syverson’.

“Look for a job to provide for my family and a place for us to stay” Mike replied.

“What is it that you wanted from me?” Sy questioned.

“All I wanted is for you to use the money you pay for college to pay for her studies. She’s a much better student than me and deserves to finish her degree. I’ll get a job so I can pay for a place, food and other stuff.” he said firmly.

The southern man looked at his son for a moment and the walk around the room in silence with his arms crossed on his chest. His son and his girlfriend were sitting on the couch looking at each other worriedly and you were sitting in a chair on the other side in silence.

“This is what we would do: You would continue college and make sure you get better grades. As for her, I’ll pay for her studies with the money I’ve saved for the car I was expecting to gift you for graduation.” your man said and the couple sighed in relief. “As for the place to live, you can stay here and I’ll take care of food and other things.”

“I will help you, too,” you added. “I can babysit so you can go to classes and study. I’m great with kids and also I’m my own boss so I can work and take care of the baby at the same time," you exclaimed, cheerfully.

“So, you’re great with kids, hu?” Jack questioned with a playful smile.

“Yes. I have a god-daughter and two nephews and I take care of them sometimes and they love me,” you explained, proud of yourself.

“Have you ever thought about having one yourself?” he asked curiously.

“Yes, with the right partner.”

“How about me? Do you think that I could be the father of your kid?”

“Honestly? Yes, I’d love to have a kid with you but, we should wait until after your baby’s baby is born. Two babies at the same time could be a lot.

“Yeah, you’re right. But, in the meantime, we can do the thing you do to have babies but using protection,” he suggested with a smirk.

“Oh, absolutely.”

Sy got on top of you, grabbing your face and kissing you, sweetly but passionately.

A week went by since your life changed drastically. Although your parents allowed you to grab clothes and books from your their house, they were firm on their decision of cutting you out of their lives. Mike moved from his college dorm to the house so you could be together as much as possible. Mr Syverson - Jack, as he asked you to call him, was incredible: he would cook and clean. The first two days he seemed to be upset about the situation but later he went back to his cheerful mood. His girlfriend was helpful as well. She found you an obstetrician and knew a lot about baby-related stuff.

A sudden noise woke you up. It was Mike complaining to his father for waking him up so early on a Saturday morning.

“Sorry kid but, as a parent, there are no days off,” Syverson said as he threw some clothes on the bed. “Get dress and come downstairs. I have a couple of tasks I want you to help me with,” he ordered and left the room.

Mike sighed and sat on the bed, still half asleep as he put his pants on. You caressed his back and asked him if he wanted you to go with him but, he told you to keep sleeping. You would have insisted on helping him if you weren't so exhausted. As soon as he crossed the bedroom’s door, you fell asleep again.

“So, what do you want me to do, dad?” Mike asked as he yawned.

“Put on this” his dad indicated as he handed him an apron. The young man raised an eyebrow confused. “I’ll teach you how to make bread and pizzas.” the man continued.

“Why?” questioned Mikey.

“Because it’s great that you have a partner and parents but, just like me, someday you could be on your own with your baby and, you need to know some basic stuff like cooking and cleaning,” he explained and started to teach his son how to prepare bread.

While the food was on the oven, Syverson put coffee beans on the coffee-maker and told Mike the plans for the next day: “Tomorrow I’ll teach you how to knit”.

“What?” the college kid asked, surprised.

“Yes. We’ll make a blanket for the baby. And, next week we’ll make a crib,” Jackson confirmed.

“Ok, the crib I get it but, why I’d need to learn how to knit?”

“That’s a skill that’s always useful, Mikey” he assured him.

“Do you seriously know to knit?” the younger Syverson asked, amused. His father walked towards the living room and a moment later re-appeared in the kitchen holding a picture-frame.

“That’s grandma holding you,” he said, pointing at the photo. “Do you know who made that blanket?” there was no need for him to reply because his father point at himself proudly. “I learn to do a lot of things for you, son. Grandma and grandpa helped until they were gone when you were still pretty young but, for most of the time that I’ve got you, it was just the two of us and, I’ll have to take care of you: cook for you, bathe you, take you to the doctor, etc. I want to pass all my knowledge to you so you too can take off your baby,” hi finished and playfully touched his son’s hair.

[eideticmemory]

EVER SINCE NEW YORK III | MATTHEW GRAY GUBLER

Description: Description: I was messaged saying: “If you don’t write a young Matthew enemies to lovers fic featuring an obsession with sucking on boobs then what’s the point 😔.” So, here it is, folks! The ultimate College!Matthew fic.

PART 3! Read Part 2 here.

Soundtrack:

Hate U Btw - Rence.

Phases - Chase Atlantic.

Break From Toronto - PartyNextDoor.

Word Count: 4,647.

Rating: M.

Warning/Includes: Sexual intercourse, drinking, substance use, a bit of angst.

Spring, Sophomore Year.

South Beach,

New York.

“C’mon,” Claire said, putting her hands on your shoulders. “Give me a smile.”

You frowned.

“Let me see that pretty, pretty smile, [y/n].”

You sighed, rolled your eyes and gave her a toothless grin. 

“Okay, that’s about as fake as it gets, but it’ll do,” she shrugged. She began to load up her car, “Just keep it on when Matthew gets here.”

You groaned, “I just don’t understand why he’s coming. Or why he has to ride with us. I’m gonna kill him.”

“Whoa, black mamba, it’s a 30 minute drive — barely. You’ll survive.”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t appreciate the Kill Bill reference, and second of all, 30 minutes is the perfect amount of time for me to not only kill your little boyfriend, but bury the body too.”

“Matthew is not my boyfriend,” Claire shook her head. “He is, however, coming on this trip with us. And you’re gonna be nice.”

“Why grandma, what big teeth you have,” you mocked.

“Shut up,” she laughed, closing the trunk. 

Matthew strode up to the car, smiling and announcing his presence, “Hey, hot mamas,” he said, putting his arm around Claire. “Ready to go?”

She leaned her head on his shoulder, smiling ear to ear. “Yep, [y/n] and I were just discussing cinema.” 

“Oh! My favorite topic,” he beamed. “We can continue it on the way there.”

Matthew broke away to take his place in the car, sitting in the backseat. You glared at Claire, your arms crossed. 

“What big nose and ears you have!” She exclaimed, laughing before she could get out the words. 

“Oh, God, shut up!” You giggled. “Get in the car, let’s go.” 

The way there, you spoke two words to Matthew: “yeah” and “okay.��� Despite his best efforts to strike up a conversation, you dodged him at every turn. Just like he had been doing for the past 3 months. Since returning from Christmas break, there’s been no sex, no conversations, not even a dm. If your friends noticed, they weren’t saying anything, probably just grateful the two of you weren’t arguing. But you could feel his eyes on you, watching you from the backseat. All the way to South Beach. 

The entire group — all 9 of you — arrived at the same time, admiring the beach house as you pulled up. Claire parked in the driveway, two cars pulling in behind you. You led everyone up to the entrance and used the designated key to unlock the door. Everyone oohed and ahhed at the place. It was spacious, large, decorated to perfection. Not that you expected anything less from your aunt. 

“[y/n]! This place is amazing!” Claire beamed. “Holy shit.” 

“And it’s all ours for the week,” you chuckled. “There’s 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, the kitchen’s through there, and the pool’s out back.”

“Pool?”

“Pool,” you nodded. “Rooms are upstairs, if you guys wanna get settled.”

Claire and you set up your room together, packing your clothes into the dressers and heading down to the living room. Everyone gathered, sitting on the couches. Claire sat beside Matthew, laying her head on his shoulder. John opened all the windows in the space, claiming that he was letting in some fresh air.

“So,” John sighed. “What to do? What to do?”

“It’s a mystery to me,” Matthew shrugged. 

“Yeah, well,” One of your friends said, pulling a bag of weed out of her purse. “It’s not a mystery to me.”

You laughed, “Huh, I knew I had this lighter in my pocket for a reason.”

A joint was quickly packed and passed around the room. When it got to you, you flicked at your lighter, but the flame wouldn’t ignite. “What the fuck?” You grumbled.

“Here,” Matthew said, reaching over to you. You held the rolled item between your lips and allowed him to use his lighter, setting flame to the end of the joint. You held each other’s gaze as it happened, probably for a bit longer than needed. 

“Thanks,” you whispered, breathlessly. 

He leaned back and gave you a smirk. Combine that with the weed entering your system, and you could feel your heartbeat between your legs. 

It was a long week.

Lots of alcohol, lots of weed, and lots of sexual tension. Most nights Claire went to bed at 3 in the morning, stumbling in happy and sighing as she fell asleep. She always kissed your cheek first. Everyday was a beach day, or if you all were too lazy to go down to the beach or into town, you hung out by the pool.

Claire thought it was ridiculous that you had bought and packed seven different bikinis, but she had to admit, every single one was cute. You found different hairstyles to wear each day, dolled yourself up in bikinis all different colors of the rainbow, swam until you were walking around soaked. And it was killing Matthew. It was so much fun!

Two days before you were meant to leave, you had on your floral bikini, and you were prepared to bake in the sun at the pool. 

“Ow!” John exclaimed, raising his shades from his face. Him and the other guys sat poolside, playing a game of cards. “Damn, [y/n], you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Is that your subtle way of telling me you like my bikini, John?” You giggled.

“The bikini...the body...” he whispered. “Come over here!”

You rolled your eyes and walked over to the group, allowing John to pull you into his lap, “Be my good luck charm.” He smiled. Your crossed your legs over his and watched the game in front of you. 

“What are you guys playing?” You asked. You accidentally made eye contact with Matthew, who was watching you and John like a hawk. His eyes flickered back and forth between his cards and you two endlessly. 

“Gin!” John replied.

“What? I thought we were playing go fish?”

“Go fish? What the fuck are you? 12?” John laughed. You shook your head and kissed John’s cheek, “Be nice, dude. Go fish is fun.” You chuckled. You got up from his lap and went to join the girls in the pool, stepping into the water. 

“Nice of you to finally join us,” Claire said. 

The group of you mainly stayed by the edge, holding shot glasses and knocking back liquor. By your third glass, the vodka had run right through you and you had to pee. So, you excused yourself and went inside to use the bathroom. Approaching the door, you went to place your hand on the knob, but were stopped by a muffled sound coming from inside. 

“What the hell?” You whispered, and stepped in. There you found a very red Matthew, panting, his eyes closed, his hand around his cock and jerking himself off quickly. He halted when you entered, and stared at you, his mouth open in shock. 

“I-I-“ you stuttered, trying not to look at his dick. You left, and quickly closed the door behind you. 

You went upstairs to your room, locked the door, leaned against the wall and reached down to touch yourself. It was completely unexpected, and so unlike you. But all these memories of Matthew touching you and fucking you came rushing back, and you had to get this nut off before you exploded. You applied pressure to your clit through your bikini, until you were squirming and whimpering, and you came. You swear you almost said Matthew’s name. 

The next day, you wore your royal blue bikini. The top tied in the front in a loose bow, and the bottom was lined with gold trim. After a day out shopping, everyone wound up hanging out at the pool once again. You did back strokes in the water, letting the sun shine on your face. 

“Oof,” you huffed, bumping into someone behind you. You opened your eyes and turned around, facing them.

“Watch where you’re going. You’re not the little mermaid,” Matthew scoffed. 

“Shut up, Matthew,” you spit. “Could you be more of a jackass?” 

“Actually yeah,” he nodded. “I could be.” He reached out, quickly undoing your bikini top and watching as your chest was exposed. 

You yelped and held your boobs in your hands, “Ah! Matthew!” 

“Nice,” he grinned, his gaze focused on your breasts. “Very nice.”

You glared at him as he swam away. 

Later that night, Claire was putting on a pair of dangling earrings, and her hair was down over her shoulders, curled to perfection. “You sure you can’t come out, [y/n]?” She asked. 

“I’m positive,” you murmured, sadly. “My ballet instructor deciding now was the perfect time to make an online quiz due. It’s gonna take me a while, I’m sorry.” 

Claire frowned and sat across from you. Both of you were perched in the kitchen, sitting around the island counter. While everyone was dolled up and ready to go out, you sat in your wet bikini and an oversized shirt. “No, don’t apologize. But after spring break, we’re going to your instructor’s house and leaving a bag of crap on her porch.” Claire said.

You chuckled, “Real mature, Claire.”

“I’m gonna miss you,” she sighed. “And if you do finish in time, give me a call and I’ll run back to pick you up.”

You gave her a smile, “You got it. Now, go, go! Don’t worry about me. You guys have fun.”

Claire blew a kiss to you and rose to her feet, exiting the kitchen and joining the others in the living room. You continued to work on your laptop as they filed out of the house and closed the door behind them. You took a carton of ice cream from the fridge and ate from the pint, mindlessly clicking buttons to complete the quiz.

“Come for a swim with me.”

“Ah!” You jumped, hand clutching your chest. “What the fuck?”

“Come for a swim with me,” Matthew repeated, storming into the kitchen and over to you.

“What?”

“Come for a swim with me,” he grabbed your arm. “C’mon, c’mon.” 

“Matthew, no!” But you let him drag you away, watching as he grabbed a bottle of rum off the counter. “I have work to do!”

“It’s due at 11:59,” he told you, leading you out to the pool. “So you have...” he checked his phone. “Well over two hours.” 

“And I don’t want to spend any of that time with you.” You enunciated, yanking your arm from his grasp. 

“Aw, man,” he sighed. “That sucks. I thought you would’ve wanted this.” He held up a metal object, and when you focused your eyes on it, you noticed it was your ballerina. The one he’d given you. 

“Hey!” You exclaimed, lunging towards him and attempting to grab the item. “What are you doing with that? Give it here!” You jumped on him, reaching high and using all your might. But Matthew was tall, and holding it way above his head. He laughed at you, keeping the prize far from you.

“Tell me, why do you keep this with you? Must be important.” He teased. He stepped backwards, holding the ballerina up in the air.  

“What the hell are you doing going through my stuff?” You shouted, following him. 

“Needed leverage,” he shrugged. “You want it?” He removed his shirt. “Come get it.” He stepped into the pool, a loud splash erupting around his figure. But he kept your figurine above the surface. 

“This is childish! Give it back, and leave me alone!” You marched up to the edge of the pool, hands balled up in fists at your side. 

“Okay,” he shrugged. He walked up to you, the ballerina extended out for you to grasp. You reached out for it, and just before you could take it away from him, you were being pulled forward. Into the pool. 

You fell in with a yelp, holding your gift against your chest. You squirmed around underwater until you forced your way to the surface, your jaw dropped and your hands quickly wiping at your eyes. 

“What the fuck?” You shouted. You blindly placed your ballerina on land, taking care to make sure she didn’t get lost. 

When you turned around, Matthew was right behind you. His eyes were focused in on your lips. His hands were steadily snaking around your waist. And before you could back away, he kissed you. Softly, slowly, holding you close.

“Stop,” you muttered. Another kiss.

“Stop what?” Another kiss. “I’m not doing anything.” You held his face in yours hands and let your lips work together in unison. 

“Wait,” you pulled away. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” Matthew mumbled, kissing your neck. “We’re so good at it.”

“Claire...”

“Is not my girlfriend,” he stopped, and looked you in the eye. “I don’t have a girlfriend.” 

“But she likes you.”

“I like...you.”

You gulped, “You don’t like me.” 

“Says who?”

“Says me! You just like...my...my...goodies.”

He cackled, “You’re goodies? Well...they are good.”

“Shut up!” You rolled your eyes. 

“They’re great actually,” Matthew gave you another kiss. “In fact...” A kiss. “I’d like to see some of those goodies right now if you don’t mind.” His hands slid under your shirt and pushed it up your hips, up your waist, until he was pulling it over your head. You were left in your blue bikini, and Matthew nearly drooled at the sight. 

He leaned in and kissed your jaw. His lips trailed down to your collarbone, and then to your chest. He gropped your boobs in his hands and placed kisses on your sternum. He caught the string to your bikini top between his teeth, and took long strides away from you. All you could do was watch him, feel the fabric looseing on your body. When he took one finally step, the whole bow came undone and your boobs were exposed. 

“Come here,” he whispered, looking intently at your chest. His voice drew you into him, and you let him pull you close and wrap his lips around your nipple. 

“Oh, fuck,” you moaned. He was so, so good at this. He used the right amount of pressure and suction. His tongue twirled around the bud and his saliva dripped onto your skin. Soft hums vibrated against your chest, and his hand made it’s way between your legs. 

“Your tits are so nice,” he whispered.

You looked down at him, then at your boobs. “They’re tiny.”

“They’re perfect,” he transitioned to sucking on the other nipple, and his fingertips rubbed your clit lightly. 

When he kissed your lips, you wrapped your arms around his shoulders and held his body against yours. Your legs latched onto his torso, and he took this as an invitation to push you against the pool wall. On instinct — horny, horny instinct — the both of you reached down and touched each other. You freed his cock from his swim trunks and he pulled your bikini bottoms to the side. 

Staring into your eyes, Matthew pushed into you. Slowly at first, and then slamming the rest of the way in. You gasped, and your head rolled back, along with your eyes. 

“Fuck,” he cupped your hand in his hands. “You’re so hot.” 

He kissed your neck as he fucked you, rhythmically and roughly. The water splashed against your skin, the sound overlapping with your quiet moans. You gripped onto Matthew’s hair, and reveled in the sound of his groans in your ear. 

You bit down on your lip, muffling your whines. Matthew took your jaw in his hand and tilted your head down to kiss you. You panted against his lips, whimpering as he your back tapped the wall behind you. 

“How long you think we got until they get back?” He mumbled. 

You chuckled under your breath, “If my memory is correct, you’re not gonna last that long anyways.”

“Oooooouch!” He exclaimed, suddenly cut off by a breathy moan. He buried his face in your neck, “Not this time, princess. Not this time.”

While you guys were preoccupied outside, the front door to the house opened up. “[y/n]!” Claire sang. “I know you said to leave you alone, but I passed that ice cream place you like and I brought you some. Gube too.” She giggled, walking through the house. “I also — maybe, definitely — wanted to see if you two were ready to come out. Come on, we’re eating at this cute little Mexican place down the street, you should —“

“Oh, fuck,” you moaned, Matthew’s fingers pressed against your clit and rubbing in gentle circles. 

“Mm, you gonna come?” Matthew purred. “Wow, I’m good.”

“S-shut up,” you stuttered. “Fuck. Fuck, keep going.”

Claire stood in shock, watching from inside and peering through the glass door. She stumbled back into the kitchen, placing the bag of ice cream on the counter. She blinked away the tears in her eyes, and gulped. And she left. 

Clueless, you let your orgasm wash over you. Your body trembled, and Matthew pushed his cock all the way into you as you rode it out. The sensation sent ripples of pleasure throughout your body and you fell weakly against him. “Matthew,” you whimpered. 

His eyes went wide, and he pushed your hair back. “You said my name.”

“Hm?”

“You said my name,” he repeated. “Say it again.” 

His hips bucked into yours and he picked up his pace, his jaw dropping as he watched your face. His nails dug into your thighs, “C’mon please?” He begged. 

You looked at him in a daze, tracing his collarbone with your finger and hooking it in his chain. “Matthew,” you whispered. And it was like you were saying it to yourself, convincing yourself this was real. “Matthew.”

The sound of your voice nearly sent him over the edge and he pulled out of you, huffing and puffing. “Wait,” you panted. “Wait, I want you to come.” 

He chuckled, “We’ve got some time.”

And you guys made the most of it.

You fished your shirt out of the pool, grabbed your ballerina and headed inside. Once changed into new clothes, Matthew sat beside you as you finished your quiz. He didn’t quite understand how you could be quizzed on matters of ballet, and you didn’t quite feel like explaining so you kissed him to shut him up. Which subsequently led to you closing the laptop and letting him carry you upstairs. Not forgetting the rum.

You wound up on your bed, face down, ass up. Matthew held onto your hips, and pounded into you mercilessly until you were nothing but a puddle of moans. You could smell the alcohol on his breath, feel his body tensing up with each thrust, and you gripped onto the bed sheets tightly. Matthew upheld his promise to make the experience long and pleasure, making you come twice before he even came close. He reached down and slid his fingers into your mouth, which you sucked on willingly. He released himself onto your back, following it with a swift slap on your ass. He used his shirt to clean you off. 

With a few more hits of alcohol, Matthew asked you to show him some ballet moves. So, you started with the basics. But when he attempted the movement, he nearly broke his ankle and fell to the floor. You broke out into hysterics.

“You’re druuuuuunk,” you sang, sinking down to the floor to join him. 

“So are you!”

“But I can do ballet drunk,” you shrugged. “It’s a gift.”

“Hm,” he hummed, pulling you into his lap. “Wanna see what I can do drunk?” 

Turns out, he couldn’t really do it that well, so you had to ride him. It was still good, and you let him come in your mouth. He was ecstatic. 

Laying on the floor at 1 in the morning, you finished off the last of the rum and snuggled into Matthew’s side. “Got any gas?” He asked.

“No, I don’t have to burp.” You replied.

He laughed, “I meant weed, dumbass.”

“Weed? What the hell do you need weed for? Aren’t you drunk?” 

“I’m...semi-drunk. You knocked most of that back yourself, Jack Daniels.”

“Okay, look, if you’re gonna call me nicknames, can you atleast pick one and stick with it?”

He sighed and shrugged, “Yeah. Which one’s your favorite?”

“None of them!”

“Well, pick one, princess!”

You thought for a moment, silent. “Princess,” you whispered. 

“What?”

“Princess is my favorite.”

He smiled at you, but you weren’t looking. “Okay. You got it.”

“Hey, Matthew?” you called, sitting up and looking down at him. He was shirtless, laid out with his necklace glimmering against his skin.

“What’s up?” He replied.

You picked at the carpet as you spoke, “Why...why did you stay tonight?”

“Huh?” He tilted his head. 

“Why did you stay tonight?” You repeated. “Why didn’t you go out with everyone else?” 

He looked at you, and licked his lips, like he was thinking up a response. “I—“ He was cut off by the sound of a car pulling up outside, doors being shut, loud chatter. 

The two of you hopped up at lightning speed, fixing your clothes. You kicked the rum bottle under your bed and Matthew balled up his stained shirt. He rushed out of your bedroom and you stood there out of breath. As soon as you turned around, you heard running coming your way. You turned back to face the door, and there was Matthew, marching up to you. He grabbed your face in his hands and kissed you. It was a long kiss, a nice kiss. 

He left without a word, and you crawled into bed with a smile on your face. Matthew made it into his bed before everyone came upstairs. You faced the wall, pretending to be asleep. 

“Awwwwwwwwwwww!” Claire exclaimed as she barged into the room. “Look at little [y/n]!”

“Claire,” your friend whispered. “Shh, you’re gonna wake her up.” 

“[y/n]’s my best friend, y’know?”

“I know, honey.”

“I love her and...I just hope she loves me.”

“C’mon, let’s get you in bed.” Your friend helped the very drunk Claire into bed, removing Claire’s shoes then laying her down on the mattress and covering her up. 

“Goodnight, [y/n]!” Claire shouted. 

You stayed silent, clutching your ballerina figurine in your hand. 

Sunday morning, it was time for all of you to leave and head back to school. You woke up early and applied makeup to cover the hickies on your neck. By the time everyone was up and packing, your stuff was already squared away in bags. You sat in the kitchen, eating pop tarts, and leaving everything the way your aunt asked. Everyone said hi to you as they passed the kitchen, and they eventually landed in the living room. 

“Morning,” A voice called to you.

You turned to see Matthew standing there, smiling at you. “Good morning,” you pipped. “How’d you sleep?”

“Like a baby. You?”

“Also like an infant,” you nodded. “Ready to head to school?”

“Almost,” he whispered. He walked up to you and kissed you softly, his hand holding your jaw. 

You sighed happily and pulled away. “Are you ready now?” You asked.

“Hm, not quite,” he shook his head. 

He kissed you again, and put his hand on your thighs, dangerously close to your core. “Okay, dude,” you slapped his hand away. “Don’t get crazy. Everyone’s in the living room.”

“So?”

“So...we can’t do anything here.”

“Oh, yes,” he whispered against your lips. “We can. You’ve just gotta be quiet.”

You tried. Tried to be quiet. But Matthew had you sat on the island, shorts and panties pushed the side and his cock buried inside you. He had to cover your mouth with his hand as he thrusted into you. His teeth sunk into his lip, to the point blood was drawn. You could taste it. You tightened your legs around his waist, eyelid lowered in lust. He gave you a questioning nod, and you replied with a slight motion of your head to let him know you were good. 

“[y/n]!” Claire called. 

You and Matthew quickly broke apart. You hopped off the island, Matthew fixed his pants. You sat in the chair like nothing happened and Matthew left the room through the second exit. Claire came around the separate entrance.

“Hey,” she said. “Ready to go?”

You smiled, “I am now.” 

The ride back to school was much shorter. Nothing but music filled the car, Claire being too hung over to talk. Upon arriving at school, Matthew walked the two of you up to your dorm room. 

“Need me to help with your bags?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” Claire shrugged. “Talk to you later, Gube.”

“You alright?” He questioned her.

“Yeah. Hangover.” Claire sadly walked into the room, head hung low. 

“She’s a lightweight,” you told Matthew. “She’ll be back to normal soon.”

“Right,” he nodded. “So. See ya.”

“See ya.”

Around midnight, he requested to add you on snapchat again. You accepted. His first snap to you was a selfie with one caption: 

show me ur tits 🥴🥴

no 😠 

please 🥺

You sighed, looked over at Claire who was fast asleep, and lifted your shirt over your chest. Took you five tries, but you took the perfect one. He opened it within 10 seconds. Then he was video chatting you. 

“Hello?” you whispered.

“Where’s your face?”

“I took it off for the night. What do you want?” 

“I wanna see you.”

“What? No! Go to bed.”

“You can come over. Please. Please. I’m begging.”

“I hear you begging,” you scoffed. “It’s almost one in the morning.”

“Yeah.”

“We have class tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

“And I’m tired.”

“Just come let me suck on your tits. Five minutes, no sex, I promise.” 

Yeah, right.

You came back to your room — your panties stuffed in your pocket, your hair wild, your lips swollen, throat sore, walking a little funny. You got a good night’s sleep. 

Life got easier when you started listening to your body. A lot better, a lot more orgasmic. For the next month, Matthew and you got it in, whenever. Wherever. If you crossed paths on the way to class, you often didn’t make it to the lecture. When out with friends, you’d end up in the bathroom, with you bent over the sink and Matthew holding onto your hips. When you looked up in the mirror, you could see his necklace bouncing against his chest, his head thrown back. 

There was something about Matthew that made you unbelievably horny and weak and impulsive. A very dangerous combination. Add that to the fact that he was admittedly not as annoying as you originally believed, and you were having a blast. However, you knew it was a means to an end. That summer would once again separate you two and there was a good chance he’d forget all about you. 

When he came to say goodbye to Claire for summer break, you answered the door and had to tell him she left already. 

“What?” He replied. “She didn’t tell me she was leaving.” 

“Oh,” you hummed. “Um, do you want me to call her?”

“No, no. That’s alright,” he shook his head. “So...you leaving yet?”

“Nope. I leave tomorrow.” 

“Cool,” he looked side to side, checking that no one was in the hallway. Then, he focused back on you and pressed his lips to yours. He pushed his way into the room and you let him, closing the door behind him. 

Afterwards, he let you lay with his head on his chest, his arm around your waist. You knew it may not be forever. But it was now. And it was nice.

[PART 4.]

[johnsbleu]

Hold My Hand: John Wick x Reader Chapter 97

warnings: a few quick nsfw moments Hold My Hand Masterlist

The house is almost completely decorated for Christmas even though it’s only the first week of December. You got so excited the day after Thanksgiving, and you went to the store and bought so many decorations. It’s the first time that you and John have been able to really spend Christmas together since he was working this time last year, and you’re so happy to finally have him all to yourself. And instead of going to your mom’s for Christmas, she’s coming to you, which makes you all more excited to show off how nice your house looks for the holidays.

You’re just putting the last touches on the living room while John shovels the walkways and patio since a few inches of snow fell this morning, and you walk over to the window to watch John. His cheeks are tinted red from the cold, and even the tip of his nose has a bit of color too. John waves when he looks at you, and you hold up your mug of warm apple cider to offer it to him.

John told you that Helen used to make it all the time and that he remembered the recipe since it was fairly simple, so he made some this morning. He was so proud of himself when you took a big sip and nodded your head that you liked it, and the smile on his face nearly killed you.

Setting the mug down on the coffee table, you grab the throw blanket and sit down as John comes in and stomps the snow off his boots before he takes off his jacket and removes his boots. He shivers a little as he walks over to sit down next to you, and you wrap the blanket over him and hold him to warm him up.

“You’re so cold,” you laugh, nuzzling into the crook of his neck, “My turn to warm you up, huh?”

John chuckles as he nods, “Yeah, it was a lot colder out than I thought. Hey, the house looks great, by the way.”

“You think so?” you ask, then you shrug as you look around at it, “This is the first time that I’ve been able to really decorate our place. I mean, I did last year, but it was only up for a few days, and you weren’t even home for half of it.”

“Oh, yeah,” John looks over at you and laughs, “I was working then. Anyway, yeah, the house looks great.”

The two of you sit in silence as you look around at the Christmas decorations; the lights strung up, the plump little Santa sitting on the coffee table next to a bowl of cinnamon scented pine cones -- John picked them out because he loved the smell.

One of the things about the living room that you’re always worried about is the fact that the walls are just large glass windows, but you’re starting to warm up to the idea more, especially since it looks beautiful outside with the snow. The Christmas tree is front and center in the window, but it’s bare as of right now since you’ll need John’s help to get lights on it.

“We’ll have to get those lights up on it by tonight.” John says, then he snuggles into your arms, “What have you been doing this morning?”

“Well,” you lean forward a little grab the notebook off the table, “This is probably so dumb, but I really want to do something for your birthday. Before you say anything, let me explain.”

“Baby, it’s fine. I married you, that’s all I would have wanted for my birthday.” he says, and you smile as he reaches over to cup your cheek. “But sure, explain it to me.”

You exhale and look over at him, “We didn’t do anything for your birthday, and I feel bad about it.”

John chuckles as he rubs his thumb over your cheek, “It was three months ago, so it must be really bothering you.”

“Everything was so hectic because our wedding was in just three days, so we just-- I just forgot. I mean, I didn’t forget your birthday, but we just didn’t do anything.” you frown a little, then you perk up and look at John, “I was writing down different ideas for a date night. I want to plan the whole thing for you and surprise you. You do so much for me, so many romantic nights for me, and I want to return the favor.”

John smiles as he nods his head, “That’s sweet.”

You shrug as you hold tight to your notebook since John is trying to take it from you, “No looking! It’s all me. You deserve a surprise.”

“Fine,” he jokingly rolls his eyes and laughs, “Do you have anything in mind yet?”

“I have a few things.” you say as you get up from the couch, and you laugh loudly when he pulls you into his lap and kisses your cheek.

John tucks your hair behind your ear and places another kiss on your cheek, “You look beautiful today, Mrs. Wick.”

“Ah,” you close your eyes and smile, “I’ll never not get butterflies when I hear that. Thanks for reminding me that I’m the wife to an amazing man.”

“Thanks for marrying me.” he laughs against your cheek, “Still don’t understand how I managed that one.”

You wrap your right arm around John’s neck and get situated on his lap, “This is why I want to do something special for you. I want you to know how much I adore you and love you. You’re my favorite person on this planet, and I want you to know that.”

“I do know that,” John lets out a small laugh, “You think I don’t know how much you love me?”

Shrugging, you look down and sigh, “Sometimes I wonder. You just do so much for me.”

“And you do too.” he whispers softly, tilting your chin up so you’ll look at him, “Trust me, I don’t need dates to know that you love me. Just you being here after everything we’ve been through, after everything I’ve told you -- that’s how I know you love me: you’re still here.”

You cup John’s face as you nod your head, growing a little teary eyed, “I’m always going to be here, because I love you. I love this life that we have too. It’s a really good life.”

“It is,” John nods, leaning forward to kiss you as you hug him tighter in your arms.

Tilting your head to the side, you part your lips as John slides his tongue into your mouth, and you hum as his hand glides up your thigh. You lean back and try to look at John as he kisses your neck, “I’m still planning a date, okay?”

“Sure,” he says, paying more attention to getting you upstairs than what you’re saying.

“I mean, you’re probably gonna hate it and everything, but…” you trail off into a bit of a rant as John sucks and kisses on your neck and chest, and he lifts you into his arms as he stands up from the couch and heads up to your bedroom. “I think it’ll be fun for us, and maybe we can -- John, are you listening to me?”

“Yeah,” he says, reaching down as he tries to open the door, but he fails, “Will…will you open the door? Why is the door even shut?”

“I had decorations up here that I didn’t want Bleu to chew on,” you cock up your eyebrow and look at him, “Were you even listening to me?”

John takes a deep breath as he prepares to recite everything you’ve just told him, but he lets it out and laughs, “No, I wasn’t.”

“I said I’m still planning a date.” you hold his gaze as he looks at you, then you reach over and open the door, giving John a disapproving but playful look as he laughs.

“You can plan whatever you’d like and I’ll be on board. I promise.” he say, plopping you down on the bed and immediately laying down on you, “Anything.”

You close your eyes as John kisses down your neck to your chest as he begins to lift up your shirt, and you reach down and cup his face, “Good.”

__

Sitting on your bed, you quickly close your laptop screen when you hear John coming up the stairs, and you close your eyes and sigh in relief when Tess turns the corner with Finn on her hip.

“Hey,” she smiles, setting Finn on the bed and then stretching out her arms and back, “What are you doing? I’ve been calling you all morning, but you didn’t answer. Figured I’d just come over.”

You scrunch your eyebrows up and reach over for your phone, then you sigh when you see it’s gone, “Jonathan Charles Wick! Get your butt up here! And bring my phone!”

Several moments later, you see John poke his head around the corner and smile cheekily, “Hi, baby.”

You put your hand out as John walks into the bedroom, and you tap your palm repeatedly, “My phone.”

John laughs as he pulls your phone out of his pocket, pretending to be shocked when he sees it, “Oh, I must have grabbed yours instead of mine.”

“Oh, save it.” you laugh, taking your phone from him and holding it up, “My case has peaches all over it. I’m positive that you know that this isn’t yours.”

Tess looks back and forth between the two of you and laughs, “What is going on here?”

“I’m planning a date night for John, and he thinks I’m stupid enough to search for everything on my phone.” you say, then you shake your head as you reach out to kiss him, “Get out of here because I’m going to tell Tess about it.”

John chuckles as he leans down to give you a better kiss, then he picks up Finn and kisses his cheek, “Fine, but I’m taking him.”

Tess immediately lays down and closes her eyes, “Thank god. Mommy needs a nap. His bottle is in his bag on the couch if he gets fussy.”

You blow a kiss at John as he leaves, then you open your laptop and look at Tess, “So, I’m planning a date night for John, but you and Jimmy are invited. I want to invite Amanda and Aurelio too -- and their kids. Finny is too little.”

“Ooh, I’m intrigued.” Tess sits up and looks at your laptop.

“90s night at the roller rink in Brighton.” you smile as you look over at Tess, “This place doesn’t just have skating. There’s an arcade, bowling, and laser tag.”

Tess puts her hand over her mouth and laughs, “Shut up! Yes! Let’s do it.”

“John will be totally out of his element, and I’m praying that he loves me enough to do this.” you turn your laptop to show Tess, “They play 90s music all night, and come on, it just looks fun.”

Leaning over to look at the pictures, Tess nods, “I think he’ll have fun.”

“I hope so,” you take a deep breath and look at her, “Are you free tomorrow?”

“Oh, absolutely. I’ll drop Finn off with his Grandma, and then I’m free all night.”

You pick at your nails as you look at your laptop, then you lean down to make sure you clear your search history -- John just can’t stand being out of the loop. You close the laptop and set it aside, then you and Tess head downstairs to see John laying on the living room floor with Finn next to him as they play with some toys.

John is not so patiently waiting for your ovulation day, which is less than a week away at this point, and you’re both hoping like hell that this will be the time. You so badly want to have a baby with him, and you’re just praying that it happens soon.

“Hi, handsome,” you smile as you sit down on the floor next to Finn, and he pulls himself up to you. You look over at John and wink, “You too.”

“John, you’re gonna love this.” Tess says, smiling at him when he sits up, “It’ll be fun, and you love your wife, so you’re not going to complain.”

You scoff, “Yeah, well, we’ll see.”

__

You’re not too thrilled to have to drive in the snow, but you don’t want John to drive because then he’ll know exactly where you’re going. John keeps offering to drive so you don’t have to, but you smile and shake your head.

“I’m not going to get sick, am I?” John asks as you both walk out to the car, and you furrow your brow when you look at him. “Like rollercoasters?”

You laugh as you get in the car, “It’s December.”

“Oh, yeah, true.” John exhales, pulling on his seat belt.

You pull onto the street and begin to drive to Brighton while John fumbles around with the radio to find something to listen to. He lets out a small sigh and reaches into your purse for your phone, then he connects it to the Bluetooth and starts to play a playlist you’ve made of songs for the two of you, and he looks over at you to check for your reaction when one of his favorite songs comes on.

“Ooh, good song choice.”

John smiles as he looks over at you, “This song reminds me of you.”

“Well isn’t that odd?” you glance over at him and smile, “Because it reminds me of you!”

Leaning over to kiss your cheek, John quietly sings along to the song, and you smile when you meet his gaze for a moment before you focus on driving. You’re holding tight to the steering wheel as you drive through the snow, but a smile spreads across your face again as you feel John place his hand on your thigh, causing you to finally relax more.

“I’m excited.” John whispers as he looks at you, leaning closer to kiss your cheek. “Can I have a hint?”

“Hmm…” you tilt your head a little, “I don’t know. Let me think. Well, it could be a sweet date for any age. Families, first dates, teenage couples.”

John laughs, “A carnival?”

“December, John.”

“Oh, yeah.” he chuckles.

“No more guessing, you’re gonna figure it out.” you shake your head and look over at John, “I want to surprise you.”

“Okay, okay,” he laughs, leaning over to kiss your cheek again, “You smell good, baby.”

You smile as you look over at John, and your stomach fills with butterflies when your gaze meets his. How the hell is he your husband? You’re still not quite used to it.

“Hey, am I dressed okay?” he asks, gesturing to his gray t-shirt and denim jeans, “I noticed you were in a t-shirt and jeans, so I just dressed more casual.”

You look over John’s outfit and nod, “Perfect. I love this shirt on you, by the way. You look very handsome.”

“Thanks,” John looks down at it and fixes it, then he inhales deeply and looks over at you again, “Sorry, I keep looking at you.”

“I’ve noticed.” you chuckle softly, then you look over at John, “Why is that?”

John chuckles as he shrugs, “Can’t believe you’re my wife. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around it.”

“No shit? Because me too!” you laugh as you look at him, “I can’t believe it. I’m so lucky.”

Reaching over, John places his hand on the back of your head and scratches his fingers against your scalp, “I can’t imagine my life without you, peach.”

You smile softly as you look at John, then you reach over and pinch his cheek lightly, “I really hope you like this.”

John smiles tenderly as he looks at you, “I will.”

__

“Okay, Jonathan, I gotta ask a weird question.”

John chuckles as he looks at you, “Okay.”

“In my purse, there’s a bandana. I need you to put it over your eyes.” you say, and John laughs as he looks at you in disbelief, “Please, baby, I want you to be surprised!”

“Fine,” he chuckles, putting the bandana over his eyes, “Just because you’re so cute.”

Pulling into the parking lot, you wave when you see Amanda and Aurelio have already arrived with their kids, and you pull into a spot next to them. Jimmy pulls up next to you and laughs when he sees John with a bandana over his eyes.

“Stay here.” you get out of the car and walk over to Amanda, “Okay, he has no idea where we are, so we gotta keep it a secret.”

Amanda kneels down next to Benji and looks at him, “Uncle John is getting a surprise, okay? Don’t tell him where we are. Don’t say anything.”

“Got it, mommy!” he says, then he smiles at you.

You open the door and reach for John’s hand, and he laughs as he gets out, “Everyone’s here. You just can’t see them.”

“Hi, Uncle John!”

John chuckles as he blindly reaches out to pat Benji’s head, “Hi, Benji.”

“Okay, I feel bad for the poor thing. Let’s get him inside.” you laugh taking John’s hand as you all head to the building, making sure he doesn’t trip on the stairs. “Oh, there’s going to be music playing, so keep that in mind.”

Pushing the door open, you smile wide when you see the colorful lights strobing around the skate rink, and you squeal a little when you see the arcade is lit up with a black light and neon signs. You turn around and reach up to pull the bandana off of John, and he blinks a few times to get his eyes to adjust.

“Surprise! We’re going skating!” you clasp your hands in front of your chest and wait for John’s reaction.

“Wow…” he laughs as he looks around, then he smiles when he sees his friends. “I never would have guessed this.”

You look at John as everybody walks away to the arcade and skate rental, and you shrug when he looks at you. You bite your lip nervously and shrug again since John isn’t really having a reaction. You look over your shoulder as Tess and Jimmy lace up their skates, then you look to your right to see Benji and Aurelio playing a game in the arcade.

“Hey,” John wraps his arms around your waist and smiles, “This is good.”

“Is it? You didn’t have much of a reaction. If you don’t like this, please tell me and we can go somewhere else.”

John shakes his head and leans down to kiss you, “No, no, this is great! I just…I can’t skate.”

“Are you sure that’s it? Don’t tiptoe around my feelings, it doesn’t help me.”

“I am positive, but…” he pulls you closer and smiles, “I’m willing to put on a pair of skates and let you teach me.”

You smile as you lean up to kiss John and wrap your arms around his neck as he lifts you up. He walks over to Jimmy and Tess with you in his arms, then he sets you down.

“Get your skates!” Tess says, standing up as she looks at you, “I’ll go with you.”

You give John a quick kiss, then you hold hands with Tess as you walk over to get some skates. You sit down on the ground and put them, rolling a little in place to make sure they’re snug, and you smile when you see Amanda tying Benji’s skates.

“Aunt Y/N, will you help me?” he asks, looking up at you, “My mom can’t skate with me because of my little sister, and my dad said he’s too cool.”

Amanda laughs, “No, baby, he didn’t say that. I said he thinks he’s too cool.”

“I would love to help you. Aunt Tess is going to help too!” you say, snapping Benji’s buckle on his helmet.

You take Benji’s hand as he stands up, and he grips so tight to you that your hand turns a little red. He grabs Tess’ hand too, then he slowly skates with you over to the opening to the rink. Tess lets go of his hand so he can hold onto the wall and your hand, and you smile and wave at John as he leans over the wall to watch.

“Can you make it to Uncle John?” you ask, pointing at John as he waves at Benji. You let go of Benji’s hand and stand in front of him, skating backwards as you put your hands out, “I won’t let you fall.”

Jimmy dances past as you laugh, then he quickly skates up behind Tess. You look back at Benji, and you feel John’s hand on your back when you get to him.

“You made it!” you smile at Benji, then you watch him as Jimmy and Tess take his hands and skate with him. You look at John and lean over to kiss him before you dance away from him as you sing along with the song, and you wave him over.

John shakes his head, “Soon though.”

Skating over to Tess, you smile when you see Benji laughing as he clings to Jimmy’s hand, and Tess watches with a smile on her face. You look up as you get closer to John, and you dance by as he talks with Amanda. You stop in front of him and jokingly dance to get his attention, and he reaches out for you, pulling close by your fingertips.

“Amanda, why don’t you skate with Benji?” you ask, and you look over at Aurelio struggling to skate, “Benji convinced Aurelio.”

“Our first date was to the roller rink when we were 17.” she laughs, then she shakes her head, “He’s just as bad now as he was then.”

John looks at her and shrugs, “I can watch Harper.”

Amanda smiles as she hands Harper over to John, then she quickly walks over to get a pair of skates. You look at John as he bounces Harper in his arms, and you lean against the wall and smile as you watch him.

“You look good with a baby.” you smile, then you gasp, “I love this song. I gotta go.”

John and Harper wave at you when you skate away, and you sing the song as Tess skates over to you. The lights start to dim as a disco ball spins in the center of the rink, and you smile when you see Jimmy with Tess, and Amanda and Aurelio with Benji. As you skate past John, you see him bouncing Harper as he sits down on the bench, and you head over to the wall to sit down next to him.

Tess plops down next to John and exhales loudly, “I’m dying of thirst.”

“Wanna head to the arcade?” you ask John as Tess takes Harper, then you get up and change back into your shoes. You hold tight to John’s hand as you head into the arcade, and you smile when he feeds a few dollars to a machine in exchange for some tokens. “So, be honest, are you having fun?”

“I am,” he nods, looking at you, “It’s fun seeing you out there, and now I’m gonna win you something.”

You jokingly roll your eyes as you cling to John’s arm, “Okay.”

John stops in front of a shooting game and winks at you as he puts a token in the machine. He holds up the shotgun and watches as a deer runs across the screen, and he shoots it. He does the same thing several more times until he sees the tickets coming out of the machine.

“Ooh, 10 whole tickets. I can totally get the slap bracelet.” you joke, and John scrunches his eyebrows as he laughs.

“No, I’m winning you that teddy bear.” he says, pointing at the tie-dyed teddy bear hanging on the wall, and you smile as you look at him. “Only the best for my girl.”

__

As soon as John realized that they had laser tag, he couldn’t be convinced not to play. You’re all standing with the ugly little vests on, and it’s husbands against wives, well, it’s John, Jimmy, and Aurelio against you, Tess and Benji since Amanda has Harper, but John offered to watch her again after this round.

“I’m gonna kick your ass in this,” you tease as you look at John, “Just watch.”

John puffs his chest up and scoffs, “Sure.”

You give John one last kiss before you head into the door opposite of the door he’s going in, and you jokingly glare at him as he laughs. Benji clings to your back pocket, and you and Tess both stand in front of him as to protect him so he isn’t out right away.

Tiptoeing slowly into the room, you look around to find a corner for Benji, then you point at it and kneel down, “Wait here, Aunt Tess and I will lure them over to you, then you’ll get them with a sneak attack.”

“You know you’re not whispering very quietly, peach.” John says, and you immediately turn around to protect Benji.

You look over your shoulder at Benji, then you and Tess both begin to tiptoe around the little arena. It’s not completely dark since there’s a light with different strobing colors, but it is really hard to see. You know that John is probably having no trouble at all -- he’s trained for this.

Tess squeals loudly as she runs away from Jimmy who is chasing her, then you hear Benji laughing when Aurelio spots him, which means John is probably stalking right behind you or somewhere near you. Taking a deep breath, you stop in place as you look around, then you immediately turn around as John shoots you.

“You ass!” you shoot John back and laugh as he grabs you by the waist and pushes you against the wall, “Oh, what? You’re gonna kiss me and make it up to me?”

John leans down to kiss you, then he quickly looks over to his left and shoots Tess when she runs past.

“Hey! No fair!” she whines, and you look at John as you laugh.

You shrug a little, “Won’t lie, that was a kinda hot.”

You look down at your vest and see that you only have two red dots left on it, and you look up at John and see he only has two as well. You both hold each other’s gazes, then you immediately shoot him again just as he shoots you.

“One left, peach.” he whispers as he leans down to kiss you, sucking on your bottom lip a little as you lean in for more, but he stops and starts to walk away.

“I’ll find you again.” you say, and John scoffs as he backs away from you, lifting his laser gun up. “You wouldn’t. I’m your wife!”

John smirks as he stops walking, and you look down to see the last red dot has gone out.

“You ass!”

__

“Time to strap some skates on you.” you laugh against his lips, and John jokingly groans. “Don’t worry, no one is going to look at you and laugh. Everyone’s worried about themselves.”

“I just don’t want to embarrass myself in front of you.”

You tilt your head slightly as you smile, “Trust me, you’re not going to. I fell earlier, and I wasn’t embarrassed -- I just laughed!”

“I know, but this is really out of my comfort zone, I can’t lie.” he says, and you nod as you hold his hands. “I love you, I really do. And that is why I am going to get some skates and pray like hell I don’t fall on my face.”

Smiling as you look up at John, you stand on your tiptoes and kiss him as he wraps his arms around you, “I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Nah, it’ll be fun.” he says, then he looks over when Benji runs up with his skates, and he looks up at John in hopes that he’ll help him tie them.

“Uncle John, are you gonna come with?”

John nods as he ties Benji’s skates, “Yup, just gotta get my skates.”

Tess and Jimmy are back skating around the rink, and you look over at John before you get your skates. You get your skates on and smile when you see Benji holding tight to John’s hand as he gets a pair of skates. Amanda says something to make John laugh, and he shakes his head as he smiles, putting on his skates. You watch as the two talk, and she reaches over to touch his face.

Amanda is like a little sister to John, and you absolutely adore her. You really look forward to spending more time with her once you have a baby of your own. You know how often Tess and her hang out now since they both have kids, and you totally want in on that. In fact you cried to John the other night because you called Tess to hang out but she was out with Amanda. It’s safe to say you were a little jealous.

You smile at John when he looks up at you, then he waves you over to him. You quickly make your way back over to John, and you reach for his hands, pulling him to stand up as he wobbles in place a little. He looks so incredibly out of place in this setting, but it warms your heart how he really wants to do this. His long limbs looks so funny as he wobbles in place, and you put your hands out to keep him from falling.

“You got this, John!” Amanda laughs.

“Go slow.” John whispers as you start to skate backwards with him to the opening of the rink, then he holds onto the wall and stands up straight. He’s so much taller now that he’s wearing skates, and you strain your neck almost to look up at him. “Okay, I think I can do this.”

You keep your hands out in front of John just in case he falls, but if he does, you’re going down with him. Jimmy skates past and slaps John on his back, causing John to teeter a little, and Jimmy grimaces. You reach out to hold John, but his skate slips from under him, and he holds tight to you with his hand on the back of your head as you both tumble to the floor. You’re both laughing hysterically as people skate past, and you check to make sure he didn’t get hurt.

“You’re good?”

John laughs as he nods his head, “I’m good, you?”

“I’m good.” you get up from the floor and help John back up. “You’re doing great, babe.”

Holding tight to your hands, John starts to gain more confidence as you pull him with you, and you smile at him when he inhales deeply, standing up with even more confidence. You dance to the music and sing along to the song while John watches, and you pull him a little closer to kiss you.

“How are you so good at this?”

You intertwine your fingers with John’s and continue skating backwards, “Tess and I went to the skating rink all the time when we were younger. It was the hangout spot for us. Mom would give us each 10 bucks and tell us to come home for dinner. We’d spend the entire afternoon there, but the best was on weekends because all the cool older kids were there. They taught us some cool moves.”

“Did you go on a date to a roller rink in highschool?”

“You know what? I did!” you laugh as you look over your shoulder a little to make sure you’re not going to run over Benji, then you look back at John, “Though my date wasn’t this fun, and definitely not as cute as you.”

John scoffs, holding tighter to your hand as you start to round the corner a little, “But he was a better skater than me.”

“Actually he wouldn’t even put on a pair. He was so boring, yuck. Never went on a date with him again.” you say, then you shrug, “Anyway, I was a junior in highschool when they closed on local roller rink, so we found one that was about 30 minutes away that had these special nights, just like this, and we’d have a blast.”

“This is fun.” John whispers in your ear, and you lean back and smile at him. “I love you.”

“I love you!” you say, then you cup your hands in front of your mouth and yell, “I love this man!”

Sliding his hands into your back pockets, John pulls you closer and whispers in your ear, “Can’t wait to get you home. I’m dying to taste you, hear you scream my name.”

“Well, this is your birthday party, and whatever the birthday boy wants, he should get.” you say, cocking up your eyebrow.

John leans over the wall and looks at you, “Yeah?”

“Yup,” you hop onto the wall and scoot in front of John as you lean closer to his ear, “Can’t wait to get home either, then I can feel you in my mouth, taste you on my tongue…”

John bites his lip as you lean back to look at him, then he looks down at his watch, “Damn, it’s getting late.”

“Shut up!” you laugh as you hop off the way and skate away from John.

__

You’re holding tight to the tie dye teddy bear that John won for you as he drives home, and you melt when you see the sweetest smile on his face. He won the bear for you after he actually skated with you for a bit, then he pulled you back to the arcade because there was photo booth calling your names. Today went exactly as planned, except for falling several times with John, but that’s okay! He laughed it off and stood back up, and he was determined to get around the rink once without falling.

“I had a lot of fun today, mouse.” he says, glancing over at you, “Thank you for today.”

You reach over and place your hand on his thigh, “You’re welcome. Thanks for indulging me. I know you were so out of your element, and it warmed my heart how you badly you tried to skate, but sweetheart, you’re awful.”

John laughs loudly, nodding his head, “Skating is not my forte.”

“I could see that.” you chuckle, then you lean up to kiss John’s cheek before he pulls into your driveway, “I can already tell I’m covered in bruises from falling so much.”

Groaning a little, you get out of the car and rotate your neck as you rub a sore spot on your lower back, then you look at John as he rubs his left knee before he gets out of the car -- it’s always the left knee.

“Knee bothering you?” you ask, and John nods. “Well, look, I got a present for you--”

John shakes his head, “No.”

“It’s your birthday! Sort of! Just let me give you a birthday present, Jonathan!”

John is still giving you a disapproving look as he unlocks the door, and you roll your eyes as you start to take off your jacket.

“Christmas is only a few weeks away.” John walks over and turns on the Christmas lights, then he gestures to the tree, “There’s already gifts under it for me.”

“Oh, like you don’t have gifts around the house in your sneaky little spots.” you laugh, walking back over to him, “Just let me give you my present.”

Taking a deep breath, John exhales and sits down on the couch, groaning quietly when he bends his knee, “Fine.”

You clap your hands as you walk over to the tree and find the gift you tucked behind it, then you sit down on the couch next to John and hand him the bag with a huge smile on your face.

“There’s a few things in there.”

John leans over to kiss your cheek as you watch him, then he turns his focus to his gift. He reaches into the bag and pulls out something, pulling back the tissue paper to see it, and you watch the smile spread across his face when he sees a wedding picture of the two of you.

“Oh, wow…” John smiles as he looks at you, and you shrug as you grow nervous.

“Look, I know this isn’t something you’d usually get your husband, but we just bought the record player last month, and I had the idea of doing this for our anniversary, but…” you lean over and pull out the vinyl record, “It’s the song we had our first dance to.”

John wraps his arm around you and smiles, “I love it. I’d say we should put it on and dance, but I think it’s safe to assume we’re both very sore.”

“Yeah,” you nod, then you gesture to the bag so he can look at what else you got him.

No matter what the occasion, you always make sure to put a bag of M&Ms in it for John, and he’s always so excited about it. He reaches in and pulls out a small box, then he opens it to remove a nice new leather wallet.

“I noticed your old one is getting a little worn out.”

John chuckles, “I actually was just thinking about buying a new one -- or hinting at it for Christmas. You know me so well, peach. What else do we got in here?”

You watch John closely as he reaches his hand back into the bag, and you smirk when he pulls out a bottle of massage oil. He looks it over as he reads the box, then he looks up at you, a wide grin spreading across his face.

“Kinda perfect since we’re both so sore,” you say, taking it from John to read the side, “The oil blend promotes deep tissue softness while also providing a natural slip. Creating passionate sex and massage ability.”

John laughs as he looks at you, “Say that one part again, about the slip.”

Leaning closer to John, you brush your lips against his and smirk as you whisper, “A natural…slip.”

The two of you maintain eye contact as you slide your hand up his thigh to the bulge in his pants, and you stand up from the couch, groaning loudly from the pain in your back while John puts his hand on his knee and winces.

“Baby, you know I love you. You know how much I want you…” John says, and you start to nod in agreement before he even says anything. “I want you all the time, every single day, but I don’t think my body is going to allow it tonight.”

“You and me both.” you laugh as you look at John, “Why don’t we just go lay down?”

John winces as he stands up from the couch, then the two of you shuffle off slowly to the stairs, dreading the fact that you’ll have to get up them somehow. You both groan and wince as you get up, and you start to laugh as you reach your room.

“So, this is what it’s going to be like when we’re old, huh?” you slowly make your way over to your side of the bed and start to undress.

“Well, I’m already old, so, yeah…” he jokes, then he furrows his brow when he sees the large bruise on your thigh. He quickly pulls his clothes and gets into bed, grabbing the lotion off your nightstand so he can rub your back. “Lay down.”

You toss your clothes in the hamper near the dresser, then you look down at Bleu as he lays at the foot of the bed, “We’ll have to give him extra t-r-e-a-t-s tomorrow since he didn’t get to go for a w-a-l-k tonight.”

“He’ll be fine. Come here,” John pats the bed and smiles as you lay down on your stomach, and you close your eyes when you feel the cold lotion on your bare back. “Thank you again for today. I love you so much.”

Opening your eyes, you look up at John and smile, then you move closer to lay against his chest, “I wanted to do something nice for you, and I promise next year that we’ll do something on your actual birthday.”

“I’m not worried about it, but I am happy to know I have such a thoughtful wife.” he whispers, moving your hair away from your face. “You looked so cute skating out there. I’m still amazed by the fact that you were so good.”

You jokingly brush your hair off your shoulder, “Well, ya know.”

“You looked sexy.” John laughs, then he leans closer, “I’ll admit it, I’d love to go there again some time. I liked the laser tag.”

“When we have kids, huh?” you say, and John nods. “Sweet little family day there, that’d be fun. Speaking of kids, that’s part of the reason why I wanted to do this now. I’m still on track for my ovulation day, which is only a few days away -- so fucking exciting. But I was thinking, if we waited until spring to go do this, I might be pregnant by then, or who knows, I could be pregnant on your birthday. So, really, this was just me being selfish.”

John chuckles as he leans down to kiss you, “Not at all. I had so much fun with you today, with our family too.”

You bite your cheek as you begin to tear up, “I love when you refer to them as your family. I’m sorry, it’s just so cute. They all love you so much, I hope you know that. As soon as I called Amanda and told her, she was immediately on board, same with Aurelio. They adore you, baby.”

“They love you too.” he says softly, leaning down to kiss you again, “Benji has a huge crush on you, by the way. He told me that he thought you were very pretty.”

Letting out a small laugh, you look up at John, “So sweet.”

“Amanda kept asking if I thought you were pregnant yet -- not that she thought you looked pregnant or anything. She just knows how much we want to be.”

You smile as you reach over for your phone to look at your ovulation app, then you turn it to show John, “Just a few more days, Wick, and you and I could be makin’ a baby.”

“I can’t wait.” John smiles softly, then he presses a kiss to your forehead as you snuggle into his arms, “I can’t wait.”

__

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