#great british menu au

[peyton-warren]

Getting to know me tag game

Tag game rules: Start a new post and tag 9 people you want to get to know better.

Tagged by: @ellethespaceunicorn, @blackwood4stucky and @wa-ni

Last song: Ten Thousand Fists by Disturbed

Currently watching: Am making my way through Great British Menu for lack of any other cooking competition shows that I haven't seen yet. Just finished 2012 Olympics season.

3 ships: Water Marshal x reader, Jake Jensen x reader, Captain Syverson x reader

favorite color: Phthalocyanine green 

first ship: Jimmy Hickock and Lou McCloud

relationship status: single

Last movie: The Grey Man

Currently working on: I have 5 tabs open in my Google Docs. 1. Gummy's Birthday fic - Undisclosed Cavill Character x Reader smut 2. Walter Homesickness- Walter Marshal Drabble. 3. Medieval AU - Undecided Cavill Character x Reader adventures 4. Loyd Forceful Kiss - Lloyd Hansen x Reader relationship issues 5. 911- Walter Mashall x reader relationship troubles.

feel free to participate if you'd like. Tagging @mayloma @gummydummy19 @jvanilly @toooldforobsessions @wirdbeimaufhebengebunden @gemini-mama @nerdy-nooodle @sybearhug @philcoulson-redtapeninja

Tagged some of my usual, but also some of my new followers to get to know them better. anyone is welcome to play. Just remember to make a new post please!!

[2dayihaveaheadache]

My very late Valentine’s Gift: Obikin AU, Modern/College Setting, (does a bar still count as Coffee Shop AU-ish?) Bookish Lit professor Kenobi spends a lonely night out drinking Whiskey at a bar in New York City until Anakin, a Twink, comes around with a witty pickup line and changes everything.

“Another round for us!”, Vos shouted, one arm raised, leaning against the bar counter with a cheeky grin. 

The tiny bar – Blue Iris– was lit by dimmed lamps and the air smelled like tobacco – sometimes with a slight hint of Jasmine, Obi-Wan loved his perfumed cigarettes. Clouded mirrors with tinged silver frames, Cuban mahogany furniture, a Morris wallpaper, vintage book copies, and an expensive collection of Scottish Whisky completed the image of the bar to be a pivot for intellectuals. It was perfectly located in SoHo, a couple of minutes by foot down Greenwich Village, and fancily atmospheric, British aristocrat-like, snobbish. To Obi-Wan, it sometimes felt elitist. Most of the guests were academics, reading and discussing philosophy, Nihilism, and Existentialism, while sipping on their café brûlot – every coffee was listed in French on the drink’s menu – and felt better than the rest of the entire world.  

When Vos had first invited him here, Obi-Wan had made the mistake of googling the bar. The name was a literature reference to Novalis, the prices high, even for New York standards, though they offered a decent variety of beverages – of course, all of them connected to a certain kind of image, French coffee, lonely philosopher gin tonic and mocha in the fashion of Vienna coffee house culture, something they tried to imitate. A rendezvous point for New York’s academics. 

“Come on, Obi, it’s time you meet your colleagues.”, Vos had grinned at him, brushing off dust from his jacket. Vos was one of Obi-Wan’s oldest friends and first-ever love – a poetry competition in Salinas, California had brought them together. Back then Obi-Wan had been a only college student, Vos was a couple of years older and an already established name in American literature. His poems had been tender, blinding with dazzling words, a trap – a Dionaea muscipula for Obi-Wan. Nearly fifteen years later and a broken teenage heart later, they had remained close even though Obi-Wan had finished his studies in Great Britain after their breakup and stayed in Oxford for his Ph.D. So, when Columbia University had offered him the position as the dean of their English facility, the two friends were suddenly living in the same city for the first time in years. 

It had been quite natural for Vos – a carefree spirit – to try to integrate his friend Obi-Wan into his social circle in New York, so he had invited him for a night out. “You’ll have a good time there. Live Jazz Music on Saturdays, poetry slams, and Absinth.” 

Obi-Wan had sighed and raised his hands defeated. 

“And you will fit in perfectly. Your charming British accent, your love for cardigans and tweed…” 

So, there he was, Obi-Wan Kenobi, an English professor, recently divorced, trying to enjoy himself on a Friday night out with his ex. He had positioned himself next to the bar, sipping on his Whisky – a Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, Chivas Regal – observing his surrounding. The Tobacco smell hung over the entire scenery. Smoking was en vogue in academic circles, it seemed. He nipped one of his jasmine cigarettes between his lips and lit it with a matchstick, an old habit. He took a few breaths before letting his eyes wander over the crowd again. Faintly background music was played, a low saxophone, and a smokey female voice, it had a jazzy feel to it. 

The crowd had broken up into groups, always gathered around a set of chaise lounges. A low café table in the middle. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Vos talking to a group of people, laughing full-heartedly. A few faces were recognizable. Mace Windu, a professor of Classics & Philosophy and a Hellenist, took a nip from a Gin Tonic. Next to him, dressed up in a black turtleneck with dark-painted nails, sat Depa Billaba, Mace’s TA. The youngest in the group was Aalya Secura, an investigative journalist, and seated next to her was Yoda – his pen name – one of the most famous Dadaism poets of the 21st century. All of them were Obi-Wan’s new colleagues at Columbia. 

Still, he felt like the odd one out, the intruder. He emptied his Whiskey. It burned in his throat but he did not care and took another breath from his smoke. Being the new one sucked.  

The bartender thumped a shot of Korn down on the bar counter. It clicked against Obi-Wan’s empty drink, glass against glass. Irritated Obi-Wan looked up and raised an eyebrow. The liquid shimmered colorless. Schnapps judging by its smell. Did the bartender pity him? Obi-Wan lowered his head and smiled bitterly, what a night. “Something for you.”, the man in the velvet suit explained, “From a gentlemen admirer.” A wink was added. 

Pushing up his horn-rimmed glasses, Obi-Wan turned his head around the room. A new song had started playing. Bass strings were gently plucked and a female singer sang about Le Temps de L’ amour – how fitting. Who in this bar would buy him a drink? Him? A lonely whiskey drinker, that was leaning against the bar counter, bitterly grinning to himself, the hair a mess of copper strands, dressed in a tweed jacket – maybe someone in an Irish Pub would, impressed by his cliché literature professor appearance but here it seemed unlikely. He was one of many, tasteless, nothing like the hipsters with their New York chic, black turtlenecks, vintage military coats, and Dr. Martens. 

Vos? After their breakup, the two had never really lost their spark. A few foolish drinks or a night where one felt lonely often led to a shared bed. Obi-Wan glanced at Vos. He was currently occupied discussing with his fellow Columbia professors, a smile plastered on his face. Unlikely. No. Then whose interest had he tickled? A woman had taken a few glances at him, long dark hair, and a red dress with a back neckline hugged her figure. Her smile was quite lovely and it seemed like she had a good taste in whiskey. No. She was out of his league. Then who else? The man with a copy of Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” in his hands? He had looked up at Obi-Wan shyly a few times. Maybe. 

Something caught his eye. Nearby a man had raised his glass – the same shot of Schnapps that the bartender had given to Obi-Wan – and cheered to him, grinning cheekily. Was he flirting? He looked a couple of years younger than Obi-Wan and smiled with a crooked smile. A Twink. In the dimmed light his hair faintly shimmered golden, the unruly locks tied up in a low bun, and the rest of them framed his boyish face, his angular jaw piercing out, his eyes a midnight blue. He gave Obi-Wan a thumbs up before drowning the shot in one go and then stepping closer to the bar counter. 

“Why?”

“You looked lonely.”, said the boy with a more serious expression. His features had hardened, and his eyes darkened. He seemed older, end-twenties. The black inking on his exposed lower wrists caught Obi-Wan’s glance. A Quote was tattooed on his tanned skin. “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, …”, were the cursive words Obi-Wan could decipher. The rest of them was covered under a black Shirt. The first lines of William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus. Armor, these words were like armor tattooed on a body. What had the young man endured in his life? Interesting. 

“Do you buy drinks for all lonely people?”, asked Obi-Wan. 

“Only for the pretty ones.”, explained the man, smiling once again. “There was a beauty in your loneliness Like the Boy with the thorn, an inner turmoil but so tranquil on the outside, behind a masquerade of serenity.” 

That was probably one of the strangest pickup lines, Obi-Wan had ever encountered – even though he had to admit, that it tickled his interest. He had felt bitter before, sitting all alone at the bar counter, smoking, and drinking. His friend Vos was nowhere to be found, occupied with his own life and it had been truly a weird dynamic to go out with your ex. Now fate had granted him a chance with this beautiful, infatuating creature, how could he say no to this? 

Two sapphires pierced his eyes, tanned skin with a faint touch of copper, goldish curls, and chiseled body. To that, a mind thinking alike. “What’s your name, young gentleman admirer?”

“Anakin Skywalker.” 

The other man leaned closer and took Obi-Wan’s smoke. He nipped it between his lips as if he wanted to lead Obi-Wan’s eyes there. They were slightly tinted in a reddish color, like a dark wine, glossy and plush. Intoxicating. Thrilling. Kissable. The jasmine tobacco mixed with the other man’s scent of musk and made it taste sweet and bitter at the same time on Obi-Wan’s tongue as he breathed. The glare meeting Obi-Wan’s eyes was intense, dazzling, thrilling, and filled with something that sparked heat in Obi-Wan’s gut. 

Anakin let his head fall back and blew a cloud of smoke at Obi-Wan. He leaned even closer and paused an inch before Obi-Wan’s face, breath warm on the other man’s lips. It was like a silent question for consent. Then he slid forward the last centimeters and tasted Obi-Wan on his tongue. 

Maybe being new did not suck that much, thought Obi-Wan and opened his mouth to let himself be devoured by Anakin. Tasted like heaven with a slight hint of Jasmine tobacco.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (9-15 Apr 2023)

ᵍᵘᵉˢˢ ʷʰᵃᵗ ᶦ ᵇᶦⁿᵍᵉᵈ ʸᵉˢᵗᵉʳ���ᵃʸ

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰Love Exactly (darter_blue) - 64K, zimbits AU - fluffy AU with a chance meeting in a bar and instalove - fun read, like wrapping a warm blanket around yourself

😊👂‍Death Beside the Seaside (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #6) (T.E. Kinsey, author; Elizabeth Knowelden, narrator) - Emily & Flo try to take a holiday at the seaside but there's no sea and a surprising number of internal spies. -

😍Wish Granted (ambut) - 40K, stucky no powers AU - reread of this fave D/s getting together fic

😊👂‍A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons (Saffron Everleigh Mystery #1) (Kate Khavari, author; Jodie Harris, narrator) - entertaining enough cozy mystery set in 1920s British academia with the standard 'plucky & smart-but-also-foolish' amateur detective (newly minted botanist) trying to exonerate her mentor from murder charges. I enjoyed it enough that I might read another but I'm not feral for it

🥰Winter's Children (Neery) - 66K, stucky - "When their attempts to recreate the super soldier serum failed, Hydra started trying to breed Captain America clones from his genetic samples. Unfortunately, the serum's effects aren't passed down genetically, so instead of an army of tiny Captain Americas, they get a bunch of tow-headed, asthmatic, allergic, immuno-compromised little Steves. And then the Winter Soldier stumbles across Hydra's failed experiment…" - just a great fucking fic. I stayed up until 1AM to read and I am too fucking old to be doing nonsense like that, but it was totally worth it.

😍Fourth Floor (dirtybinary) - 41K, stucky modern magic AU - "The one where Steve is an angry millennial wizard, Sam is a Disney prince, Natasha is a shapeshifter, and Bucky is a spoiler."

🥰👂‍Rattling Bone (OutFoxing the Paranormal #2) (Jordan L Hawk, author; Tristan James, narrator) - another enjoyable & spooky ghost hunting adventure with the OutFoxing The Paranormal found family, this time dealing with Oscar's actual family history/trauma.

🥰You're the One That I Want (PR Zed (przed)) - 53K, stucky modern no powers AU - reread, angsty arranged-marriage-for-insurance that is so satisfying

💖💖 +203K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

toasty warm heart (wearing_tearing) - Stranger Things: steddie, 9K - TOO FUCKING CUTE AND WARM AND FLUFFY

as sunshine falls on the wretched (KivrinEngle) - The Hobbit: gen, 18K - a very sweet canon-divergent AU where bilbo adopts a lost little dwarf baby

Handy (softestpunk) - The Sandman: dreamling, 3K - ceramicist Dream lusts after handyman Hob, doesn't make his move, is sad but is saved when he meets the hot professor he's giving a guest lecture for - short and sweet!

the game is on again (ReinventAndBelieve) - The Witcher: Geralt/Jaskier/Eskel, 7K - hot and tender af!

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Dirty Laundry - s2, e5-7

Ted Lasso - s3, e5 [x2]

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s9, e1

Uncommon Comfort Reads with Malka Older, Martha Wells, KJ Charles, and T Kingfisher - super fun panel

Schmigadoon! - s1, e1-6

Schmigadoon! (Schmicago!) - s2, e1

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

99% Invisible #316 - The Shipping Forecast

The Sporkful - Bill Nye, The FOOD Science Guy!

Big Gay Fiction Podcast - A Trip to the Ballpark with KD Casey

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Places Our Families Took Us

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Ashley House

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Fairy Circles

Vibe Check - A Satisfied Geriatric Millennial

99% Invisible #532 - For a Dollar and a Dream

⭐The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Fun and Funny Science with Mary Roach

Off Menu - Ep 187: Lily Allen

Into It - Are We Into Taylor Swift's Breakup, Lofi Girl, and a Baby Shark Podcast? {worth a listen to hear whatshisname Alwyn described as 'sentient mayo'}

You're Dead To Me - Al Andalus

ICYMI Plus - Meet the Internet’s Princess

Welcome to Night Vale #226 - Creditors

⭐Hit Parade Plus - The British Are Charting Edition

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

CREDITS: Burt Bacharach

AM In The A.M.: '70s Pop Morning

Classic Sunny Afternoon

Best Of '81 To '85 [Ratt]

Essential Glam Rock

Ratt radio

"Summertime Girls" [Y&T] radio

The Fixx radio

[xwingace]

I like _some_ competition or non-competition based reality shows, if the subject of the show itself is something that interests me, and (in the case of competition-based) the stakes are not overly high. If the competition gets _too_ competitive I tend to lose interest again. (I like UK Masterchef a lot more than US, because the format is much less competitive. AUS&NZ Masterchef have a similar format to US, but are still better because the contestants/judges/editing are much more chill). Mostly what I really do like is watching people who are very good at a thing do that thing, with detailed explanations of what they're doing. In a lot of highly competitive shows the focus is much more on the competitive element rather than people doing their thing. So really Professional Masterchef (UK) and Great British Menu are some of the best things around to watch if The Thing is cooking.

[mannandcobake]

Discovering the Best Cake Shops in Surrey: A Sweet Adventure

Surrey is known for its charming countryside, historic landmarks, and thriving culinary scene. But one of its most delightful secrets is the abundance of extraordinary cake shops scattered across its towns and villages. Whether you’re celebrating a special occasion, satisfying your sweet tooth, or simply indulging in a little self-care with a delicious treat, Surrey’s cake shops offer a mouth-watering array of options. In this blog, we’ll take you on a sweet journey through some of the best cake shop in Surrey, where quality, creativity, and flavor are always in the spotlight.

1. Hummingbird Bakery – Guildford

Located in the heart of Guildford, Hummingbird Bakery is a local favorite and a must-visit for anyone who loves classic American-style cakes. Renowned for their Red Velvet cupcakes, Hummingbird Bakery serves an array of cakes and desserts that are as visually stunning as they are delicious. With each cake freshly baked on-site, their menu includes crowd-pleasers like Carrot Cake, Brooklyn Blackout, and indulgent layer cakes. The bakery also offers vegan and gluten-free options, ensuring that everyone can enjoy their scrumptious creations.

Whether you're stopping by for a quick treat or ordering a bespoke cake for a special occasion, Hummingbird Bakery combines traditional flavors with modern flair. Their attention to detail, fresh ingredients, and commitment to quality make this one of the best cake spots in Surrey.

2. Ginger & Moore – Epsom

For those seeking something truly unique, Ginger & Moore in Epsom offers a combination of great coffee, warm service, and some of the most imaginative cakes you’ll find in Surrey. This charming bakery and café pride themselves on using locally sourced ingredients to craft artisanal cakes that reflect a rustic yet refined style. Their menu changes regularly, featuring seasonal flavors and creative combinations like Lemon & Elderflower, Chocolate Guinness, and Earl Grey Tea-infused cakes.

Ginger & Moore is the go-to destination for anyone looking for more than just a standard cake. It’s a place to savor exceptional bakes with friends or family, or to simply treat yourself to a slice of indulgence.

3. CakeWalk Patisserie – Woking

For a touch of French sophistication, CakeWalk Patisserie in Woking is a gem that brings Parisian elegance to Surrey’s cake scene. Specializing in fine pastries, this boutique patisserie creates stunningly beautiful cakes, from delicate éclairs and macarons to lavish multi-tiered celebration cakes. Whether you're planning a wedding, birthday, or corporate event, CakeWalk’s expert team is known for their craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Their signature French patisserie-inspired cakes, such as Tarte au Citron, Fraisier, and Opera Cake, blend rich flavors with exquisite design. Perfect for those with an appreciation for fine patisserie, CakeWalk Patisserie elevates the art of cake-making to a new level.

4. Miss Polly’s Cake Parlour – Reigate

Miss Polly’s Cake Parlour in Reigate is a delightful vintage-inspired bakery that specializes in custom cakes and traditional British bakes. From Victoria Sponge to Chocolate Fudge Cake, Miss Polly’s offers a variety of timeless favorites that will remind you of home baking at its best. Their cozy, retro-style café provides the perfect ambiance for enjoying a slice of cake with a cup of tea or coffee.

Miss Polly’s also excels in creating bespoke celebration cakes, from wedding cakes adorned with sugar flowers to personalized birthday cakes featuring intricate designs. Whether you're ordering for an event or simply stopping by for an afternoon treat, Miss Polly’s Cake Parlour brings warmth and nostalgia to every bite.

Conclusion

Surrey is a haven for cake lovers, offering everything from classic British cakes to elegant French patisserie. Whether you prefer traditional bakes, seasonal flavors, or bespoke creations, these cake shops deliver the perfect blend of taste, creativity, and charm. Next time you're in Surrey, make sure to visit one of these top cake shops and indulge in the sweetest treats the county has to offer.

[herbiesrestaurant]

Discover the Best Restaurants in Exeter City Centre

Exeter, a historic city in Devon, England, offers a delightful array of dining options in its vibrant city centre. Whether you're a local resident or a visitor exploring the charm of this ancient city, Exeter's restaurants cater to a variety of tastes and preferences. Restaurants In Exeter City Centre From cozy cafes to elegant dining establishments, there's something for everyone. Here's a look at some of the standout restaurants in Exeter's city centre that you shouldn't miss.

1. Herbie's Restaurant

Located at the heart of Exeter, Herbie's Restaurant is a must-visit for those who appreciate a blend of traditional and contemporary cuisine. Known for its warm, inviting atmosphere and exceptional service, Herbie's offers a diverse menu that caters to various dietary needs. From succulent steaks to mouthwatering vegetarian dishes, Herbie's ensures a satisfying dining experience for all.

Explore more about Herbie's Restaurant and their menu by visiting their official website.

2. The Conservatory Restaurant

For a unique dining experience, The Conservatory Restaurant provides a charming setting with its glass-roofed dining area. The menu features seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, making it a fantastic choice for fresh and flavorful dishes. The relaxed ambiance and attentive service make it a great spot for both casual meals and special occasions.

3. The Plant Cafe

Ideal for health-conscious diners, The Plant Cafe focuses on plant-based and organic dishes that are both delicious and nutritious. With a menu that includes innovative salads, hearty bowls, and delightful smoothies, The Plant Cafe is perfect for a light lunch or a refreshing dinner. Their commitment to sustainability and quality ingredients sets them apart.

4. The Exeter Arms

If you're in the mood for classic pub fare, The Exeter Arms is a local favorite. Known for its hearty meals, friendly atmosphere, and extensive selection of ales and wines, it’s a great place to unwind after a day of exploring the city. The menu features traditional British dishes, including pies, roasts, and fish and chips.

5. The Dining Room

For a more upscale dining experience, The Dining Room offers a sophisticated menu with a focus on fine dining. With its elegant decor and refined cuisine, it's an excellent choice for a special night out. The menu includes a range of gourmet dishes, crafted with seasonal ingredients and presented with artistic flair.

6. Café Rouge

If you’re in the mood for French cuisine, Café Rouge provides a charming taste of France in the heart of Exeter. The menu features classic French dishes such as croissants, quiches, and coq au vin, all served in a cozy, bistro-style setting. It’s the perfect spot for a casual brunch or a leisurely dinner.

7. The Green Dragon

Known for its rustic charm and traditional English fare, The Green Dragon offers a welcoming atmosphere with a focus on comfort food. The menu includes a variety of pub classics, as well as some inventive twists on traditional recipes. With its friendly service and homey feel, it’s a great spot for a relaxed meal with friends or family.

Conclusion

Exeter’s city centre boasts a diverse culinary scene that caters to all tastes and occasions. From sophisticated dining experiences to casual meals, Restaurants In Exeter City Centre there’s a restaurant to suit every preference. Whether you’re looking for a special night out or a quick bite, Exeter’s restaurants promise delicious food and memorable experiences.

Be sure to explore these dining spots and discover the flavors that make Exeter’s food scene truly exceptional.

[borealopelta]

this is so fucking stupid and niche and honestly completely nonsensical but. great british menu terror au. for many reasons but some of them: gorgeous food, a shitton of banter, fitzier enemies to reluctantly helping each other to friends to lovers.

[dreamlandcreations]

I Bet the Pot

chef!Alfie x manager!Reader (modern!au)

Summary: Alfie is stirring you up and enticing you into a bet...

Warnings: swearing, teasing, basically food orgy (with pictures, not that kind of orgy), age gap, height difference, mutual pining, tension, it turned really angsty at some point, smut in the 2nd part

a/n: because I had a weird dream 😳 and I should not watch The Great British Bake Off before bed, it's more harmful than any horror movie

Series Masterlist •  Part 2 (NSFW)

It was the meeting on your 'off-day'. You were supposed to discuss what will be the schedule and such but the infamous chef proved to be a bigger problem than ever.

"Fuck off." You stare at him in utter disbelief.

He must have had a bad day or this was really something you're pushing his buttons with because he never shut you down like that.

"Fuck you." Every head in the kitchen snaps in your way at your outburst. No one talks to Alfie Solomons like that.

His mood switches in an instant. Others always say that he is hard to read, that his crazy has no sense so you shouldn't look for any but you always saw him, you always understood why he does or says those 'crazy things'.

But right now, as he sheds his frustration and steps closer to you with a dangerous look and a hint of a smirk, you finally understand what everyone was talking about.

"If you insist." The offer, more precisely how he delivers it, takes your breath away but you pull yourself together in a second.

You were used to the effect he had on you, even if he liked to pretend to be oblivious until now, you tried your best to manage it. You managed to deal with him every day since your stranger of a father left his share of the business to you. You've been dealing with him and all the mess he comes with so you didn't hesitate to snap back at him because this time he went out of line for no reason.

"I insist on doing your job and letting me do mine." You hiss at him and you can practically feel how the staff's eyes widen as they've never seen you out of your professional businessman character.

"I'm not doing this." He waves the new menu draft like it's the most offending piece of paper he ever came across. When, in fact, all you did was update it with a few baked goods as per the online questionnaire showed high interest in that option without it actually being an option.

You try to show a calm exterior as you take the paper back from him with a little theatrical shrug that says 'alright, have it your way'.

"Well, if you can't do it, I can hire a baker." You turn your back to him and try to walk away as you deliver the mocking challenge that gets the exact reaction you were hoping for.

"Uuuu." The staff responds in sync like they practised that simultaneously painful and amused sound.

"What did you just fuckin' say, lil' bird?" Alfie grabs your arm and turns you around to face him again. He used that nickname to keep his distance from, to remind himself why he shouldn't pursue you and it got even more annoying when he realised you understand what he does.

This time, you wouldn't let it slide. "Should I repeat myself, grandpa?"

"Shut up." You both yell at the staff who dared to quietly snicker at your remark. Only Ada had a smile on after that.

"You come into my kitchen, right, my kitchen..." He does that thing where he walks into your personal space and yells at you in close range but he somehow restrained that yelling to a slightly raised voice which you are not afraid to match as you look up at him

"Your kitchen? I own half of it and I have a say in what goes in here whether you like it or not."

"If you keep this up, you can look for another chef." He speaks in a hushed tone now, a threatening finger is pointed in your way but you can't take it seriously.

"Pfft, right."

"What was that? You have something else to say, lil' bird?" His voice turns growly at the end, making you shiver and sparing a glance at his lips.

"Plenty." You step back to give yourself some room to breathe but it doesn't help much. Regardless, you keep talking. "One: Stop calling me that, old man. Two: I think you'd sooner set this place on fire than let someone else run it. And three: Who the fuck do you think would put up with you?"

"Don't forget who 'as that other 'alf of the shares, sweet'eart. You can have a say in this kitchen, right, if you actually worked in it and proved yourself. Until then... Fuck. Off." With the pause, he crowded you again, your face only an inch away from his and you almost give in to your desire to kiss him.

"What are you doing?" He asks as you step further away this time and take off your blazer.

"Proving myself. They will pick the challenges and we will start the bake off." You explain while you get the papers for them to write down the suggested challenges that you'll pick from randomly.

"Do you even remember how to cook an egg, sweetheart?"

You drop the pen in your hand with too much force and it bounces off the counter while you march to the difficult man to start your arguing all over. This time out of hearing distance so your audience wasn't aware of what was going on and they began to talk among themselves while you settled the deal.

"I don't have to. You have a problem with baking, so we are baking."

"Not making fucking bread, treacle." The fucking nicknames get on your last nerves and that leads to you letting out your nasty side again.

"Give up that easy?" He leans down and takes hold of your chin, digging his fingers into your skin to drive through his point as he pulls you closer.

"I'm not in the mood, don't fuck with me."

"Tough luck, you challenged me. Either live up to it or give up." You regret this as soon as it's out. Something is off and you shouldn't have pushed him like this.

You know it's late too to back off as soon as he flashes you that wicked grin that promises no good.

"What do I get when I win?" His grip turns into caresses as he slowly brushes along your jawline.

The smugness he displays is enough to drag you back into the fight right after your moment of clarity.

"If you win, I'll never interfere with the menu again."

"Hmm, what else?" His sudden, increasingly good mood didn't sit with you well at all.

"What do you want?" You ask cautiously.

"What do you want?"

If he only knew...

"When I win, you'll have to behave for a month. No swearing, no making a fool of interviewers, no telling guests that they have no taste and no arguing with my decisions."

"Huh, a month? No fucking way." He pulls away and you blame the dizziness for what leaves your lips next.

"Scared?"

You think this is the point he will literally throw you out of the kitchen but he surprises you for the hundredth time within this hour.

"Fine. Have it your way."

"Deal."

"Wait." You realise you agreed way too quickly and narrow your eyes at him as you ask the dreaded question. "What do you want if you win?"

He leans in to whisper it into your ear and you almost faint at the picture he paints for you with his words.

"Like... in front of people?" Looking up at him you see the almost gentle smile he graces you with. He's still laughing at you but at the same time not really.

"No, just the two of us."

"Oh..." Utterly frozen, you frankly cease to function at that point.

"Or you can give up." That was aimed to snap you out of it but only did half the job.

"No. Ok, that's ok. It's on." You ramble on nervously as you move back to the others.

"Alright, what are we cooking?" He booms behind you and you roll your eyes at his antics before gently reminding him of the matter of your argument.

"Baking. We are baking."

"Fuck me."

The first task was to make 12 identical bars with creamy fillings and chocolate icing. You went with raspberry while he chose coffee and you already saw how the jury will be in trouble.

"How should I decide? They are too different flavours altogether. It's like comparing red and white wine. Makes no sense. They are both exceptionally good." Ada was whining while Ollie and the others nodded along and then came up with something different.

Bread. One spicy and one sweet.

Alfie was uncharacteristically silent during this. It was a wonder only you noticed but the rest of the group was busy making bets of their own and guessing what you promised to do if you'll lose as you refused to tell them and they didn't dare to ask Alfie.

You were worried about him and tried to ask what was wrong but he brushed you off. Not as rudely as he did when this whole argument started but the same irritation was still there beneath it.

The first round was considered as a draw, then you've won with the Smoky Jalapeño Bread but his Malt Loaf beat yours so the second round was still a draw and they were trying your nonexistent patience.

The 'final' round resulted in the same argument as the first.

They were too different, it was impossible to pick, bla, bla, bla. You offered a draw, you offered to yield but it was refused by both the judges and your chef.

You considered just leaving until Tommy Shelby decided to enter this fucking nightmare.

"Ah. Tommy. Finally, a sensible man." Alfie greeted him, pulling him in to find a conclusion. They explained to him what was going on while you were boiling in rage at the furthest corner.

"Hers is prettier." You actually snorted at that and for the first time in hours, you saw a hint of a smile cross Alfie's face before he turned to his friend with a frown.

"Tommy. I am going to fucking fire you." The threat sounded like he said he was going to shoot him or something, and any other man would have shrunk under the weight of that but not Tommy fucking Shelby.

Their strange friendship often brought a smile to your face. The knowledge that there is someone there for Alfie who understands him like you do and who he actually lets close enough to find comfort in when the people around you seem to fade into the background as necessary parts of your everyday life.

"I don't work for you, Alfie." Despite the calm and sure statement, he technically did work for him. The Shelby company delivered the best wine and they got their reputation by meeting the standards of the great Alfie Solomons.

"That's fuckin' obvious, innit?" Alfie grumbled at his friend and you noticed that wordless exchange they had over something before Tommy turned away to pointedly look at you.

Tommy was actually your friend first, you've met in France and quickly became close but you knew he needed someone as well. Someone who he could level with and wasn't a girl almost a decade younger than him.

Sometimes you were outright regretting sharing him, it happened right after you introduced them, as you guessed it would, they just clicked right away. You usually quickly got rid of that burning jealousy caused by the boys leaving you out. Not today, though.

Not when Tommy obviously knew what was going on and you were left in the dark, helplessly watching the man you love more than anything hurting himself over a stupid game that he refused to let you quit.

Ollie was enjoying the game and taken up the role of the host so he announced what was coming next. "Alright, final final round. Molten lava cake for everyone."

And that's all it took, Alfie's mood slipped back to that brooding silence until the game ended. You worked in quiet, not even paying that much attention to what you were doing, your mind was on the man working on the other side of the kitchen.

"Sorry, Boss." That's all you got after this. He won.

"What?" It can't be that good. "Gimme that."

Stealing Tommy's piece, you get another fork and dig in. "Hmm. Oh, God."

You hear Alfie grunt something that suspiciously sounded like a "Fuckin' hell".

"That sounded like you just came." Ada was the only one who dared to tease you like this. She knew of your feelings and enjoyed every moment of your 'drama' as she put it.

"I think I just did." You mumble, reaching for another bite. "Oh." You moan again at the incredible taste and turn to the grumpy man who bested you in what was practically your own game.

"What the hell did you put up that fight for? This is heaven... wait, no... it's fucking orgasmic.... so it must be sinful... Hmm..." You keep eating while you are talking, taking breaks for the small bites, it's like you can't get enough of it and joke's on him because you are unintentionally driving him crazy with your moans.

Alfie leans in, so only you could hear his raspy voice, deeper than usual and full of restrained desire.

"I am lookin' forward to 'earin' those lovely sounds 'morrow." At this, you actually clenched around nothing, so hard that you jolted up and almost fell off of the fucking chair.

The words, his voice, his closeness, it's all too much to handle. He makes you feel like you are burning up and he drinks in your reaction with a hungry gaze that tells you to be prepared for some wicked things because tomorrow you are on the fucking menu.

Series Masterlist •  Part 2 (NSFW)

[disfictional]

BBC Sherlock Crossword Puzzle #2

I couldn't stop at just one BBC Sherlock New York Times-style cryptic. Here's a solvable puzzle, this time with a few added Good Omens, BTS, MDZS, and beloved fanfic author (@totallysilvergirl @inevitably-johnlocked )references. Check it out on Ao3 here, or for a more accessible version, you can read the clues below the cut. Aaaand for curious folks who just aren't into crosswords, here are the clues and their solutions. Happy solving!

Across

1. Watson to Holmes in the ASiP case 4

5. Butter for lotions 4

9. Fourth string, in sports 5

14. Canal recently featured in fanfiction, oddly 4

15. 221B’s kitchen when it’s full of dishes, say 4

16. Exceptionally angry 5

17. Build-your-own furniture store 4

18. Prefix for choke or fact 4

19. Like Moriarty in Sherlock’s data 5

20. Fall time locale? 3 12

23. Pimple, informally 3

24. Sherlock investigates them in Pleasure to Burn by scullyseviltwin, a firefighter AU 6

28. Major Yorkshire river that runs through Leeds and Skipton 4

29. Common tag acronym on BBC Sherlock meta 4

31. Swindle, trick 3

32. Potential dog house locale? 2 11

35. Stubbs, the loveliest Mrs. Hudson ♥️ 3

36. “_____ do!” (“No you don’t!” retort) 4

37. Period in time 3

38. “If I had to ____ that face, I’d avoid his nose and cheekbones, too.” 4

39. Japanese chef of Buzzfeed Tasty videos 3

40. Tea with an employer locale? 1 11

44. Attack on Titan online abbr. 3

45. A screwdriver has many, on Doctor Who 4

46. Electric swimmers 4

47. Follower of Islam 6

49. Gun, as an engine when Mrs. Hudson drives 3

50. Silver medals, or a clue to 20-, 32-, and 40-across 12

57. _____ fours, pastries judged on their uniformity on the Great British Bake Off 5

60. _____ On, Silvergirl’s fic in which Sherlock joins an Irish folk band 4

61. Smelly cheese 4

62. Menu at un café 5

63. @inevitably_johnlocked might call one “nonny” 4

64. Auld ____ Syne 4

65. Largest republic of the USSR 5

66. Citizen of Latvia 4

67. Singularly named artist who sings May It Be 4

Down

1. S2E1 4

2. B*tch, to a Russian 4

3. Not an observer, to Sherlock 4

4. Sauce for a gyro 8

5. More intelligent (as Mycroft insists he is to Sherlock) 7

6. “I’m not a _____, I’m a high functioning sociopath” 4

7. ¿Que es _____? 4

8. Cher’s disgusted expression in Clueless 4

9. “Is it too early for a ______?” -John to Mary in The Six Thatchers 7

10. Journeys 5

11. Musicians need a good one 3

12. Words before distance or disadvantage 3

13. Giedroyc of The Great British Bake-off 3

21. Medieval address to a king 4

22. Like one with a long coat and a short friend 4

25. Eye, to Dr. Watson 6

26. Strega ______ never-ending pasta (poss.) 5

27. Severus of Potions class 5

28. Resources (John has many fine ones he’s overlooked in his obsession with Sherlock) 6

29. Grows weary 5

30. Lan Jingyi’s English university net username? 4

32. Dublin-born Total Wipeout co-host Amanda 5

33. …and sometimes Y 5

34. Cheers for Taehyung at a BTS concert, perhaps 4

38. Like most cases Holmes takes on (and this puzzle, I hope) 8

40. Like 221B when Holmes stops playing violin 7

41. Grp. whose motto is “Semper Fidelis” 4

42. Crowley in Eden 7

43. Achilles’ _____ 4

48. Sherlock M-theory writer’s acronym (poss.) 5

51. John often gives and receives it in E-rated fic 4

52. Number of lives for a cat 4

53. Train org. in Detroit or D.C. 4

54. Large group of related Scottish families 4

55. Start of a children’s rhyme for making a choice 4

56. Yoongi of BTS 4

57. Test needed to travel, these days 3

58. “_____ in Edward,” expression to spell “Euros” over the phone, say 3

59. S2E3 3

[internalsealpanic]

Multipairing Masterlist

cus I am very very lazy and don’t wanna sort those out. I’m gonna list these by pairs. Also, shout out to @littleredwing89 for all the amazing headers. 

RoyDickWally/ reader

Volleyball AU

AHEAD OF THE GAME

Summary: Dick gets a concussion. You keep him from doing anything stupid.

R & R

Summary: You all need to relax after a game.

The War Unpacks its Things

summary: It is hard to breathe, hard to think. This is especially hard with beefy people piled on you.

technically a polycule or just platonic but I am too lazy to make a new header rn

BruTaluiaSlade/ reader (varying combinations)

The Night is Young (eventually a poly after they stop trying to kill each other):

Summary: Loose morals and looser commitments does not equal loose change

note: This is a weird smut series where Reader is involved with Slade, Bruce, Talia, or whatever combination I choose. I’ll label who is in what part.

Part 1 (Bruce-ish & Talia)

Part 2 (Slade)

Part 3 (Talia)

Caught in the Moment 

summary: Due to a vague statement you made about Bruce’s current case and Bruce’s inability to knock, he ends up walking in one something.

SlaDick/ reader

Old Guard AU

Death Cannot Take You

Summary: You died. You should have died, yet here you are having the audacity to still be walking.

Shared Property

Summary:  There are healthier ways to work through jealousy. You three do not seem to understand the concept.

The Show Goes on 

Performance

Summary:  What’s the professional move here? Explain to your girlfriend that she’s dragging a supervillain behind her and try to find someone else to have a fun time with then pretend this never happened?

Oneshots:

 FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK  (not a poly but there’s multipairing)

Summary: It wasn’t– It was never supposed to be like this. Dick never wanted this to happen. Dick tries to reach out but his body is limp on the concrete.

JonDami/ Reader

Camp Crystal What? (treated as preslash)

Summary: Camp Crystal Lake is a great place to spend your summer, said no one ever. You’re inclined to agree and so are Jon and Damian.

TimKon/ Reader

Stiff Peaks and Soggy Bottoms

Summary:  Combining a Kryptonian, a Bat, and you with a fascination with the Great British Bake Off is a really bad idea. You’ve had worse.

Gotham Rogues with Reader

Ghostwriting

Summary: After successfully completing a novel for the Penguin and a scathing article for Two-face, the Joker enlists your ghostwriting skills for his debut in the romance novel writing business. You accept, reluctantly.

Titans

The War Unpacks its Things 

summary: It is hard to breathe, hard to think. This is especially hard with beefy people piled on you.

Pineapple and Cheese

Summary: An item from the McDonalds menu causes Donna Troy to have an existential crisis. 

[scabopolis]

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Hope that I do this properly 🙃

I would adore a XO between Veronica Mars (LoVe) & Once Upon a Time (C/S).

PROMPT: "I’m really competitive and drunk and I just told a rival that my relationship is way better than theirs, but they don’t believe you exist (but I’m too stubborn to admit they’re right)" OR really anything you'd like. Honestly, I'm dying to see Logan and Killian interact/co-swagger.

And / or another installment of "Come Rain or Come Shine" from In Lovers Meeting because I love it with my whole ❤️.

Thank you so much for doing this. You made my day,

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Oh @jjmazzy​ you bring my heart so much joy! I didn’t feel quite up to the task to do a crossover between OUaT and Veronica Mars so I went straight for a OUaT AU. I hope that’s okay? 

This is just a silly little thing that I am realizing only fulfills about 40% of the prompt, but I think it’s cute??

ANYWAY! Enough hemming and hawing xx *** Title: Of Expats and Onion Rings Rating: PG Fandom: Once Upon a Time Pairing: Killian Jones/Emma Swan (mentions of Robin/Marian and a smattering of other characters) Additional Tags: Two out of three of my OUaT fics feature Killian as a bartender, silliness and only half a prompt, probably way more fluff than is medically recommended Word Count: 1,500

Every Friday night, Emma Swan sits on the same barstool at the same bar in the same restaurant. This Friday night has her staring into space as she lets the sounds from the kitchen and the bar swirl around her. It’s busier than usual, with almost all the booths and tables filled and the bar area half-occupied. In fact, when she first walked into the bar, she worried there wouldn’t be a seat for her. But the bartender caught her eye and waved her over, a menu and a glass of water waiting for her in her usual seat at the end of the bar. 

Said bartender slides her an Old Fashioned, extra maraschino cherries on the toothpick per usual. 

She takes a small sip of the drink. “Why is it so busy?” 

Killian’s eyes roam about the room and then come back to rest on her. “Some magazine labeled us the best kept secret in Portland, Maine.” 

“And in doing so—”

“Assured that we would never be a secret again. Yes.” 

“The pitfalls of fame.” 

“Burger or chicken sandwich?” 

“Burger. Any chance—?”

“Aye, probably a very good chance, but only because Graham is sweet on you.” 

Emma feels her cheeks redden. “He’s not sweet on me.” 

“Sure he isn’t.” 

She watches Killian step away from the bar and into the kitchen to talk to Graham. How Graham can manage to listen to anything given the noise of the dining room and the kitchen she’ll never know. Graham and Killian both look over at her. Graham rolls his eyes but nods, and Emma raises her glass in thanks. 

“Okay,” she says to Killian when he’s back at the bar. “He might be a little sweet on me.” She takes a long sip of her cocktail. 

Killian’s brow is knit with concentration. “Long day?” 

She nods. “I had a run in with Zelena.” 

“Ah. The wicked witch of the northeast. What’d she do this time?” The ticket printer next to Killian’s till spits out a long drink order, but he listens even as he mixes drink and pours glasses of wine. 

“She got engaged over the weekend and hasn’t shut up about it. And today, she took great pains to ask me, in front of everyone in the faculty lounge, if I’d be okay if she didn’t give me a plus one.” 

“Bit rude, isn’t it?” 

“Right? But then she kept going on and on asking how long it’d been since I dated someone, and did I know that after 35, forty-five percent of women’s eggs are considered genetically abnormal and her fiancé is a very wealthy furniture manufacturer and she’s certain he has some less attractive less wealthy friends he could introduce me to and on and on and on.” 

“Does she truly want you at her wedding?” 

“Oh, yes. She said she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” She runs her finger along the condensation of her glass. “Which is when I did something very very very stupid.” 

“Smacked her?” 

Emma snorts. “I wish. No I—” Her explanation is interrupted by the arrival of her burger and the plate of special order onion rings. Onion rings which are technically available only as an add-on to the steak sandwich but that Emma has a 80% success rate of cajoling the kitchen to make her a plate of. 

She eats her meal with one eye turned to Killian, waiting for a long enough lull in the drink tickets to finish her story. She’s almost finished her burger when Killian slides another Old Fashioned in front of her.

“What was this very stupid thing you did?” he asks, leaning towards her. 

“I told her I was dating someone.” 

Killian remains where he is but she notices the clench of his jaw. “Ah,” he says. “I was unaware.” He seems to hear his own words as he says them because he cringes. “Not that there’s a reason you would tell me. I mean, we’re friends, but friends in that way that I get you drinks and —”

Emma rests a hand on Kilian’s to stop the rambling. “I’m not. Dating anyone, that is.” 

“Then why—?”

“It just popped out. I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or Zelena.” 

“So, this fake boyfriend of yours. Just who is he?” 

“Well, okay, so this makes sense when you remember it’s Friday, and I knew I’d be coming here.”

“Right,” he says, equal parts cautious and curious.

“I told her my boyfriend was British.” 

Killian shakes his head. 

ExPats has been her weekly haunt for close to a year now and while not everyone who works there is a British expatriate, with Killian as bar manager, Robin as front of house manager, Graham as chef de cuisine, and Phillip as pastry chef, it kind of feels that way.

“And that he had blue eyes,” she continues. 

“Ah, I see,” he says, teasing her. “Are you telling me you’re sweet on Graham too?” 

“Not Graham.” 

“In that case, Marian is likely going to have a big problem with you trying to date her husband.”

“And, uh,” she clears her throat, “I told Zelena he has dark hair.” 

Killian wings an eyebrow. “How dark?” 

“Uh, right about your color probably.” 

“My color?” 

“Probably. I said probably.” 

“Interesting.” Emma takes a sip of her drink. There’s a delicious, hazy feeling brought on from the second cocktail washing through her veins. “So, you and I are dating?” he asks. 

“Stupid. It was so stupid.” 

“I wouldn’t say that. I mean, I’ve been meaning to ask you out for months now. This might be just the little push I need.” 

“What?”

“What?”

“What did you just say?” 

“What now?” he asks in return, the picture of innocence. 

“You’ve been trying to ask me out?” 

“Not as such, no.” 

“Oh.” She sinks back in her seat, disappointed.

“I didn’t want to risk you running scared and not being here every Friday night.” 

Emma perks right back up again. “Oh?” 

“You already said that, love.” 

Emma looked down at her plate, the remnants of the crispy bits from her onion rings on her plate. Something occurs to her then. “Graham doesn’t give these to me because I want them. Does he?” 

“Excuse me?” 

If she’s not mistaken the tips of his ears have gone a little red. She loves his little elf ears. “He makes these for me because you ask him. Don’t you?” 

“I might have told him they bring you an inordinate amount of joy.” He scratches idly at a spot on his arm. “And that it brings me an inordinate amount of joy to see how happy they make you.” 

“Did you know my weekly ExPats date used to be on Wednesdays?” 

She can see him try to mentally adjust to the change of direction in the conversation. “Really?” 

“I only came in a few times, but then one week, I had parent/teacher conferences so I came on Friday. And there you were.” Emma shrugs. “Your Old Fashioned is better than Will’s.” She bites off one of the maraschino cherries from the toothpick. “Your smile is better, too.” 

“Emma, darling, are you flirting with me?” 

“What? Suddenly it’s a crime to flirt with my boyfriend?” 

Killian laughs and it makes her heart hum. She likes the clean line of his throat as he tilts his head back. “Your boyfriend? I don’t suppose you’d want to go out on a date with, then?”

“I’m free on Wednesday.” 

“Funny that,” he says. “That happens to be my day off.” 

“Is it?” 

Emma would be content to sit at this bar all night and let Killian smile at her and make her drinks. It seems like Killian is having similar thoughts, until something seemingly flies out of nowhere to hit him in the back of the head. 

Killian reels around to find Robin standing there, arms folded across his chest. 

“What’d you throw at me, you git?” Killian asks. 

“A dinner roll.” Robin gestures at the drink ticket printer. A ticket printer which has at least 10-tickets waiting to be fulfilled. “Pardon, Emma. Mind if he stops flirting with you long enough to fulfill the drink orders?” 

“You’re fired,” Killian says. 

“For the last time, mate, you can’t fire me. My name is on the lease right next to yours.” 

“Murder it is, then.” 

“Make the nice customers their cocktails and then you can murder me.” 

Robin walks away, and Emma notices it’s not just her at the bar who finds herself charmed by the whole display between the two men. She thinks she might see a small group of women sneakily taking a cell phone video, giggling as they watch it through.

“Emma, I’m sorry, but I—”

She waves him off. “Do your thing. I’ll be here.” 

“Yeah?” he asks, and when she nods, he beams. “Good, because if we’re in a committed relationship I’m probably going to need your phone number.” 

“Pour the drinks, you goon.”

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Another Life

Switch AU

A JSE Fanfic

I’ve decided to take this story to properly introduce Switch!Jack to the AU. Because I think I’ve come up with a great way for him to fit in and I’m really excited to see more of him :D And most of the others are, too. Except for Anti. Seems like his trust issues are acting up. Those two just need to get to know each other, it’ll be fiiiiiine. Anyway, hope you guys like this story, and like Switch!Jack as much as I do ^-^

More of this AU found here

It was noon on a Friday, and Anti was getting off a bus. He watched as it pulled away from the stop, then sighed. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to do this. But the others did, and so here he was, reluctantly going along with their plan to get to know this new guy: Jack, Sam’s friend.

He never understood why the others—JJ and Jackie especially—were always so eager to add new people to this group. Especially people they barely knew, like Jack. Really, what had he done so far? He’d showed up at the park and got Anti home after that incident at the Aspen Street house. Then told the others that he was fine. And...that was it. But because he was connected to Sam, and they knew that strange little eyeball to be friendly, they thought it was a good idea to get to know the guy. Anti just didn’t see the point. They didn’t know anything about him! What if this was some sort of trick?

Sighing, Anti started walking, heading towards the restaurant where they’d agreed to meet. At the very least, he could use this as a way to figure out what was going on with Sam. See if they could learn what Sam was, and things like that.

They’d invited Jack to The Waffle Cone, one of their usual places, thinking the casual, familiar setting would be a nice getting-to-know-you environment. But instead of their usual spot at a table near the window, they’d instead taken one of the booths near the back, in a slight alcove with no windows nearby. So that Sam could fly around the semi-hidden area without being seen by passerbys. Though Anti couldn’t help but notice when he walked in that Jack, and therefore Sam, were nowhere to be seen. Why was that? A harmless reason, or something else? He sighed as he walked towards the back to join the others.

“Hey Anti!” Jackie stood up, reaching out but pausing before actually making contact.

“Hey.” Anti patted Jackie on the back. It was a casual contact day. “Wow, so Highlighter Hair is even later than I am?”

“Highlighter Hair? C’mon, Anti,” Jackie sighed.

“Well he’s right, his hair is really bright,” Marvin pointed out from where he was sitting near the wall. “Why woul’ anyone want t’at? Doesn’ it just draw attention?”

“Some people want that,” Schneep muttered. He was sitting opposite Marvin, but when Anti showed up he stood and walked out of the booth, letting Anti have the seat by the wall.

“Yeah, the question is why,” Anti said, sitting down. “Like, if you have a magic eyeball companion, you’d want to blend in, right?”

After a bit of musical chairs they ended up with Anti by the wall, Schneep next to him, then Jackie on the end. On the other bench were Marvin and JJ. Maybe it’s for work? Jameson suggested, signing slowly.

“For a job? Is that what you said?” Anti asked. JJ nodded, and at that, Anti considered the idea. “Well, what does he do that needs neon-colored hair?”

JJ reached into his pocket. After a bit of rummaging, he took out his wallet, and put the card Jack had given him into the middle of the table. Everyone leaned close to look. “Oh, so he’s a musician,” Jackie said.

“A musician with a weird floating eyeball companion who can talk with him telepathically,” Anti stressed.

“You know, considering you are the only other person here with dyed hair, you really should not be judging people on their appearance,” Schneep commented.

“I—that’s not the point!” Anti protested. “He’s got to be something more!”

“Well we can ask him, because he’s showin’ up,” Marvin said, gesturing towards the front entrance. At that very moment, Jack was walking in, hands in his pockets and highlighter-bright hair practically glowing in the sunlight, and looking around. Jackie stood up and waved to draw his attention. Jack smiled and waved back, then headed over.

“Hi everyone. Sorry I’m late,” he said, sliding into the empty spot next to JJ. “I got lost. This place is pretty far from the tourist-y parts of the city I’ve been in so far.”

“Oh my god!” Schneep threw his hands up in the air. “Why is everyone Irish?!”

Anti and Marvin burst into laughter. “Hey, I’m not Irish,” Jackie pointed out.

“Your mom is, it is the same thing if you are half,” Schneep rebutted.

JJ picked his pencil and notebook up from the table and wrote, I’m definitely not Irish. 100% British.

“Oh, god, Jems, that’s even worse,” Marvin snickered.

JJ gasped exaggeratedly, then nudged Marvin’s arms, making him laugh more.

Jack was chuckling as well. “Yeah, I was just thinking to myself that this city has a lot of Irish people in it. Even the name sounds more Irish than British, right? ‘Mirygale.’ I’ve been all over, and that’s not very English if you ask me. Wonder why that is.”

Jackie shrugged. “I guess maybe there’s always been a bunch of Irish people in the area. I bet if you looked up city history there’d be something interesting there.”

“You sound like a primary school teacher assigning a topic to a kid’s first essay,” Anti muttered. “Is Sam here?”

“Yeah, of course.” Jack took off his backpack and unzipped it. The moment it was open enough Sam flew out. They looked around, taking in the setting, then floated back down to the table, scooting closer to Jack, who patted them, smiling. “We always go everywhere together. Which is why I was so worried when they decided to come here on their own and didn’t tell me.”

Schneep hummed. “They did that without telling you? Is that not a bit rude?”

“We’ve already talked it over by ourselves,” Jack said. “So if you’re trying to get them to apologize, they already did.”

“Okay, Jack. Mr. McLoughlin.” Anti leaned across the table, getting as close to Jack as he could without Schneep shoving him back. “Time to talk about this. Where the fuck do you get a floating eyeball? Where did they come from? Why can you talk to them but nobody else can? Also what the fuck are they? None of us have ever heard of a floating green eye. What are you?”

“Anti,” Jackie said, putting a hand on his arm. “Can you back off a bit? We just met the guy.”

Jack was unphased by Anti’s hostile tone and blatant mistrust. He just adjusted his glasses and said, “Yeah, Sam’s told me all about you guys. You’re all magic or something, right?”

“Well, technic’lly Jems is the only magician,” Marvin pointed out. JJ nodded, then pulled his usual parlor trick of tiny blue fireworks.

“Whoa.” Jack whistled. “I’ve never really talked to a real magician before.”

JJ tilted his head. So...you know there are real magicians?

“Sort of, yeah. Sam and I have met some, but it was always a lot of questioning and exchanging information, you know, kinda like what Anti’s trying to do.” Anti jumped at being called out like that, and Jack laughed a bit. “It’s fine, I’m used to it. But if we’re at a restaurant, can we at least order food first? I’m starving.”

“Yeah, of course. Hang on.” Jackie handed Jack his menu. “Here, let’s all find something then I’ll go up and order.”

A while later everyone had their food, eating and chatting about nothing. Except for Anti. He just kept staring at Jack, eyes narrowed, listening to everyone else talk about movies and video games and books. Sam was curled up around the salt and pepper shakers in the middle of the table, constantly turning around to follow the thread of conversation. “So does Sam need to eat?” Anti asked the second there was a lull in the conversation. “Because they never did when they were staying with me.”

Jack shook his head, taking a moment to swallow the bite of his sandwich he’d just taken. “No, but they get really upset when I don’t. We like, share energy. Mostly. They just kinda get hangry.”

You share energy and you can hear their thoughts? So you ARE connected somehow, JJ quickly wrote.

“Guys, we really shouldn’t be asking questions Jack doesn’t want to answer right now,” Jackie pointed out.

“No no no, it’s fine, don’t worry,” Jack reassured him. “I’m not actually upset about it. I just thought we’d get to know each other a little first. Sam’s told me a lot about you guys, but it’s not the same, you know?”

Sorry, JJ signed. Then realizing Jack probably didn’t know what he said, he wrote Sorry out on the paper instead.

“Really, it’s alright.”

“Jackie, it is fine,” Schneep said. “We are all curious, Jack is fine with it, really there is no problem.”

“Wait, t’ere was a problem?” Marvin asked, confused.

“No, no problem!” Jack repeated. “Man, there is no train of thought with you guys. Or there is, it’s just all winding around and no one is driving.”

“Thanks, it’s the ADD in two of us combined with the bad social skills of the others,” Jackie said.

“Wh—well, we know, but hey,” Schneep said, mock-offended.

“Anyway, back to the question,” Anti said, rubbing the side of his head where an ache was starting to develop. “You and Sam are connected?”

“Uh-huh.” Jack nodded. Sam wiggled their way out from between the salt and pepper and hopped over to Jack’s shoulder. “Of course we are, they’re my eye.”

There was a moment of silence as the others all collectively processed that statement. “Wait, y’mean...literally?” Marvin finally asked.

“Yep. Here, I’ll tell you the story.” Jack leaned back, tapping the table with his fingers. “I was about...nine or ten, and one day, my right eye just started really aching. My family took me to the doctor, but they couldn’t find anything wrong, so they just gave me some bandages to cover my eye and told me to keep it closed. Don’t remember why. But a couple days later, I woke up in the middle of the night and the whole right side of my head hurt. So I got out of bed, went over to the mirror on my desk, and took off the bandages to see if something looked wrong. The minute I did, plop! My eye fell out.”

“Oh my god!” Jackie gasped.

“You can bet that freaked me the fuck out,” Jack continued. “And then I looked down, and it was green, and glowing. And then it started to move, and it looked at me. And that was Sam.” 

And you didn’t TELL anyone?! JJ asked, aghast.

“Jamie, please, what was he supposed to do?” Schneep asked. “He probably thought he would get in trouble with his parents.”

“Actually I thought that if I told anyone the government would come take me away,” Jack corrected. “So, uh. Yeah. Same idea, I guess. Same result. Sam stayed a secret, and over time they started getting bigger and able to fly, and now here they are.” Sam bounced, then nuzzled Jack’s neck.

“What about your eye now?” Marvin asked.

“That’s even weirder. I went back to bed, and in the morning, my eye was back in place. But Sam was still around. Of course, I was ten, so that made perfect sense to me at the time, but freaky as fuck looking back on it.”

“So it’s not fake?” Anti asked skeptically.

“Nope.” Jack tapped his cheek below his right eye. “Can see out of it and everything. I do kinda wish it looked a bit cooler, though. Like your thing, with the different colors? That would be cool.”

Anti didn’t say anything, not taking Jack’s clear peace offering.

I’ve never heard of something like this happening, JJ wrote. And neither has anyone I’ve spoken to. Have you, Jack?

Jack shook his head. “As far as I know, Sam and I are one-of-a-kind.”

“That is fascinating,” Schneep muttered. “I wonder why that happened? There was nothing that could have caused Sam?”

“Not that I remember,” Jack shrugged. “I’m just a guy, really. A guy with a living eyeball that has their own personality.”

“That’s not something that happens to ‘just a guy,’” Anti insisted. “And what do you do with this one-of-a-kind opportunity? You can’t tell me that you do regular shit when your life is like this.”

“Anti, I—” Jackie sighed. “Anti, can I talk to you? Somewhere private?”

“We’re in a restaurant, Jackie.”

“Then let’s go to the bathroom. C’mon.” Jackie stood up. Sighing, Anti started to get out of the booth, waited a moment for Schneep to let him out, then followed Jackie into the men’s bathroom.

“Well, we’re here,” Anti said, checking to make sure that nobody else was in the stalls. “And we’re alone. What’s wrong?”

“Look, Anti, I know you don’t like meeting new people,” Jackie said. “But you’re being...well...more dickish to Jack than usual. What’s the deal? Did you not like Sam or something?”

“No, I like Sam,” Anti said shortly. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have let them stay with me. Would’ve given them to one of you guys.”

“Okay, well, Sam and Jack are clearly a package deal, so what’s up?” Jackie folded his arms. “Because honestly? You’re being ridiculous. No, you’re being actively hostile. You weren’t like this with Marvin and JJ, you know. You weren’t like this with Stacy. What is it about Jack that’s causing this?”

Anti shifted on his feet, not looking at Jackie. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade, flipping it open and closed a couple times.

“If you want to leave, you can leave,” Jackie continued. “You don’t have to stick it out. If you’re staying because you want to know more about Sam, then we’ll tell you later. But...I just want to know. Are you just having a bad day and taking it out on him? Because right now it looks like you’re actively trying to make him uncomfortable—”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do,” Anti blurted out.

Jackie blinked, then put his hands on his hips. “Anti.”

“Don’t use your Dad Voice on me, it’s not like—I could’ve said that better.” Anti took a deep breath, switching his knife to his other hand, where he continued to flip it open and closed. “It’s—he’s too nice. It’s...weird. Like—okay, you mentioned when we met Jackson and Marvin for the first time. You know how they reacted to my asshole comments? Marvin called me out on it, and Jackson...well, Jameson’s a really nice guy, but he at least looked surprised when I said something like that. You know, uh...what’s the phrase? Caught off guard. Taken aback. But Jack is just...nice. It’s freaky.”

“Maybe Sam just told him what to expect,” Jackie suggested.

“There’s a fuckton of difference between hearing something and experiencing something,” Anti pointed out. “I keep pushing him to get a normal reaction, and by now he should’ve blinked a couple times, o-or given me a weird glance, but he hasn’t, and it’s freaky. It’s—” He ran his free hand through his hair. “Is he trying to get me to like him? Why? Nobody’s that nice without wanting something from you.”

Jackie paused. Then he raised an eyebrow. “Well I mean...I’d say that I was ‘that nice’ to you when I kept showing up at your room in the hospital despite you actively telling me to fuck off.”

“I—that was different,” Anti insisted. “You’re a doctor, it makes sense for you to check on a patient.”

“I don’t think it was that different. I mean, I didn’t have to keep showing up, but I did.” Jackie walked up to Anti’s side and put a hand on his shoulder. He tensed a bit, but when Jackie started to withdraw, he reached up and put his hand on top of his. “And Anti, I never wanted anything from you. I still don’t.”

Anti took another deep breath, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. “I—it’s just—I can’t—” He gave up, frustrated that he couldn’t put it into words.

“Do you want to leave?” Jackie asked.

“No. No, I don’t.”

“Are you good with Jack?”

“I won’t be as dickish,” Anti said carefully. “I’ll maintain my usual level of dickishness.”

Jackie laughed. “That’s fine. You ready to go back?”

“Yeah.”

“C’mon then.” Jackie smiled, and led Anti back to join the others.

———————

“Daaaad! Someone’s at the door!”

Anti turned around at the sound of Will’s voice. “I’ll be right there!” he called, quickly pausing the game he was playing and all the recording software. Who could that be? He checked his phone real quick, but didn’t see any messages from the others saying they were coming over. Then again, last time someone dropped by unexpectedly it was Marvin, mind-controlled by Distorter. He should probably answer. So he stood up and left his recording room.

Will was sitting at the kitchenette counter, swinging his legs while he munched on a bowl of grapes from the fridge. His plushie rabbit Brian was sitting on the stool next to him. The doorbell rang, and he helpfully pointed at it. “I got it, bud, don’t worry,” Anti said as he passed him.

He opened the door. And immediately wished he’d thought to look through the peephole first. Jack was standing outside, looking pretty much the same as he had a couple days ago when they met him for lunch. “Hi,” he waved. “Sorry for dropping in all of a sudden, but—”

“How’d you get this address?” Anti interrupted.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “You gave it to me. I walked you here the first time we met. In the park, remember? I mean, I didn’t walk up here, but I asked a couple of your neighbors and—”

Anti groaned. “Those stupid—it’s my address, don’t give it away—what if someone wanted to kill me or something, dumbest move ever...” His complaints faded into angry muttering.

“They probably didn’t mean anything by it,” Jack said. “Anyway, I was—”

“Dad, who is it?” Will got off his stool, grabbing Brian as he did, and walked over to the door.

“Oh, uhhhhh...” Anti looked down at Will, now standing next to him, then back up at Jack. “This is...Jack. He’s...a new...friend.”

“You don’t make friends, Dad,” Will said.

“Well, friends make me, so it’s the same thing, really.”

Jack looked a bit shocked at first, but he quickly got over it. “Oh, so you’re Anti’s son? I should’ve known. Sam did say he had one. What’s your name?”

“I’m Will,” Will said, waving. “Do you want to come inside?”

“If your dad’ll let me.”

“I—” Anti sighed. “Yeah, step inside.”

“Thank you.” Jack didn’t walk too far into the apartment, hovering near the doorway as he looked around. “So this is your place?” For a moment, Sam peeked out from a gap in the zipper of his backpack, then they disappeared again. And Jack nodded, as if responding to someone. “Yeah, I see.”

“Sooo...why are you here?” Anti asked, closing the door.

“Oh, I wanted to see if you wanted to go somewhere,” Jack explained.

Anti fought the urge to glare at him suspiciously. “Why?”

Jack shrugged. “I just kinda felt like we got off on the wrong foot. Sam’s told me a lot about you, but I want to get to know you myself.”

Anti paused. “Is this a date? Because I don’t do romance, or...” He glanced at Will. “...the other stuff, either.”

“No, no no,” Jack hurried to say. “That’s cool, but I’m not into guys.” 

“Oh good, we needed a token straight in the group.” Jack looked a bit surprised at that, and Anti just had to laugh. “Yeah, bet you weren’t expecting that.”

Jack laughed a little, too. “I mean, no. Goes to show how open-minded I should be. Anyway, not a date. Just sort of a friendly, let’s-talk-to-each-other thing.”

“Right.” That didn’t sound any more appealing. “Look, I was actually in the middle of work—”

“You should take a break, Dad,” Will interrupted. “You’ve been at the computer all day, and Mrs. Benson says you should limit your screen time.”

“I...well, she’s right,” Anti said carefully. “But this is for work.”

“You pause things all the time,” Will insisted. “Go have fun.”

Anti huffed. “I thought I was the parent here.” There was a bit of a smile on his face, though. “But speaking of that, I can’t just leave you on your own. And I can’t find a babysitter at the last minute like this.”

“I’m almost ten, Dad, I’ll be fine.”

“I...Will, honestly?” Anti bent over and whispered loudly. “It’s more for me than anything. I’d be worried, especially with what just happened.”

“Hmm.” Will’s face scrunched up as he thought up a solution to this problem. “Oh! You two can take me to Michelle’s house, first. There’s a bus stop close by!”

“I—Michelle’s ren might be busy, Will.”

“Then you should text them first.”

Jack smiled to himself. “Sounds like the kid’s got all the possible problems covered.”

Anti didn’t hold back on glaring at him this time. But, unfortunately, he was right. At this point, he couldn’t think of any more excuses to give to placate Will and his insistence that his dad have friends. “I wish you weren’t so smart sometimes, kid,” he muttered, straightening. “Alright, Highlighter Hair. Give me a minute to get everything ready then I guess I’ll go—where are we going?”

Jack paused. “Uhhh...well honestly, I didn’t think I’d get this far. You know what? I’m not that familiar with the city, anyway, where do you want to go?”

Oh. Anti hadn’t been expecting that. He blinked, considering the options. They’d just gone out for food, so he didn’t want to do that. A movie might be good, it would keep conversation from happening, but it also meant at least two hours out with Jack, and nothing good was playing, anyway. “We can just walk around,” he finally decided. “That’s fine.”

“Alright. Hey, you can show me some of the local sights!”

“Yeah. Sure. Now sit down while I wrap all my work stuff up.” Anti pointed at the sofa, and Jack quickly sat down, waiting patiently. He gave him one last look, then disappeared back into the recording room to shut everything down.

While in there, his eyes landed on the glass shelf where he kept his knife collection. After a moment’s hesitation, he unlocked the case and grabbed one, entirely black with a four-inch drop point blade. It came with a matching black sheathe, and he slipped the blade inside it, quickly grabbing his jacket with the largest pockets and putting the whole thing in the left pocket. Just in case. Of what, he wasn’t sure. But just in case.

——————— 

After taking the bus to Rama and Michelle’s house and dropping off Will, they ended up going to the shops. Not the more popular shopping district of the city, but the area on the west side that had a bunch of small shops in rows. Bookstores and art-and-crafts places, mostly, but there were also music shops, a video rental place, and a survival-type store that sold equipment like climbing ropes and sleeping bags. Jack seemed interested, and asked questions about what the shops were like, if Anti liked them. But eventually, the conversation topic turned to more personal matters.

“So, uh, Anti,” Jack said slowly, zipping up his jacket as a gust of wind made the chilly day even colder. “What do you like to do?”

Anti shrugged. “Hang out with the others. Do stuff with Will. Play video games. Normal shit.”

“Really? What’s your favorite game?”

“I like horror.”

“Oh I’ve played some horror before. Like what?”

Anti sighed. Jack’s questions were persistent. “There’s this game that came out like a year and a half ago that I like. It’s called Doki Doki Literature Club.”

Jack laughed a bit. “That’s a horror game?”

“Don’t fucking judge it by the title, okay?” Anti snapped. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I played it on request, and got gut-punched by what happens in the story.”

“Hey, I wasn’t saying anything!” Jack raised his hands.

“You laughed.”

“Well you got to admit, it sounds a bit out there. But I guess it’s one of those ‘subvert your expectations’ types.”

“Exactly.” Anti nodded. And to change the subject, he asked, “What’s your favorite game, then?”

Jack’s eyes lit up. “Have you ever heard of Shadow of the Colossus?”

“No.”

“Oh, dude. It’s so cool! It’s on the PlayStation, and you play as this guy called Wander trying to defeat these creatures called the Colossuses—Colossi? I can never remember. Anyway, you have to find each one and then...”

Anti let Jack ramble on for a while, occasionally nodding or asking a question to get him to keep going. The streets were pretty empty; it was late November and chilly, nobody wanted to be out walking. But there were quite a few cars driving past. Though after a while they turned onto a dead end, the street ending in a square paved with red bricks and lined with a few benches, a couple concrete planters holding thin, leafless trees. Jack headed over to one of the benches and sat down. Anti followed, and after a moment, sat down on the opposite end, leaving about two feet of space in between them.

“So did you never have a PlayStation or something?” Jack finally asked. “Oh, PlayStation 2, I should say. Cause lord knows there are a million of them now.”

“There’s just four,” Anti said, rolling his eyes. “And no. No Xbox, either, before you ask. Or SNES.”

“Man. That must’ve sucked. Were they not big on video games in—uh, where are you from?”

“Ireland.”

Jack let out a huff of laughter. “Well no shit, I mean what county are you from?”

“Which one are you from?”

“Offaly.”

“Oh, of fucking course you are,” Anti muttered. “I should’ve guessed you were a middle-of-nowhere type by your accent.”

“Hey, yours doesn’t sound that much different!” Jack said defensively. “I bet you’re also a middle-of-nowhere type. Where is it? Longford? Westmeath?”

Anti gave up. “The first one, actually.”

“Knew it!” Jack said triumphantly. Then he paused. His expression shifted as a thought occurred to him. “Hey, did you—this is a fucking wild question, and you don’t have to answer it, but...did you happen to know a Ciara McLoughlin?”

Anti suddenly stiffened. He’d been avoiding looking directly at Jack this whole time, but his head snapped over at him. “What was that name?”

“Ciara McLoughlin, middle name Lily, I think. It’s a bit out there, but—”

Before Jack could even finish that question, Anti lunged. He knocked both of them off the bench, and they landed on the ground with a single solid thump! as Anti pinned Jack. A faint green glow rolled out of the gap in Jack’s backpack zipper, but Anti didn’t care. He’d reached into his pocket and pulled out the knife he’d packed—still in its sheath, but a threatening display nonetheless. “Who fucking sent you?” he hissed.

“Wh-what?!” Jack was completely shocked, surprised by the reaction and a little scared of the covered blade Anti was poking into his chest.

“Who sent you!?” Anti repeated, snarling. “It was her, wasn’t it?! This is what you wanted, this is why you’ve been so weirdly fucking nice! How’d you find me?!”

“What are you talking about?!” The shock was fading into confusion, mixed with a healthy dose of nerves.

“You! You you you youuuu...youuuuu...” Anti shook his head. “You can’t fucking pretend anymore. How did you find me?! What does she want?! And why does she care now, of all times?!”

“Anti, please, calm down,” Jack pleaded, trying to keep his voice gentle. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about! I—what do you mean ‘she’? Do you mean Ciara?”

“Of course I do, who else would I mean?!” Anti demanded, pressing the sheathed blade a bit further. “And you need to stop being all confused like this, the jig is up, I knew it, I knew you weren’t just that friendly, it’s impossible, nobody’s like that, everyone needs something and I don’t know if it’s for your own sake or you’re doing this for her, but I know, I know now, I know why you’re like this, is it information? Is that what you want? Or are you going to try to convince me to go back? Either way, fuck you, you’re not getting either of those.”

Jack just gaped at Anti as he ranted, not moving. Then, out of nowhere, a bright green light flew up towards Anti’s eyes. Gasping, he leaned back, not dropping the knife but pulling it away from Jack long enough for him to sit up and scramble back. Sam bumped against Anti’s forehead, slapping his face with their nerve-tail as if to say ‘get a hold of yourself!’

“Fucking hell, dude,” Jack said, a bit out of breath. He ran his hand over the spot where the knife had been poking him, but luckily he just found a little imprint, no blood. “Sorry I brought it up.”

Anti pushed Sam away from his face and gave Jack a closer look. “You...really don’t know what...what I’m talking about?” he asked haltingly.

“No!” Jack shook his head furiously. “But I can figure it out! You clearly did know Ciara, and you clearly have some sort of issue with her. Did she do something to you?”

Anti didn’t answer. He looked down at the knife in his hand—oh god, if he hadn’t brought the sheath, he’d have—his hand opened and let the knife clatter to the bricked ground as he covered his eyes with his hands. His pulse was racing, loud enough for him to feel in his neck. God damn it. He had to get himself under control. Just...breathe. Take a moment to just focus on breathing.

“Sorry,” Jack repeated, softer this time. “I-I didn’t know it would...be like that.”

“Course you didn’t,” Anti muttered, lowering his hands and looking around. It  was lucky nobody had seen that.

“No, really, I-I didn’t,” Jack insisted. “I...When you said you were from Longford, I remembered that she lived there, so I wondered if you knew about her.”

“How do you know her?” Anti rebutted.

“She was my aunt,” Jack explained, taking off his glasses to make sure they weren’t damaged. “And I didn’t really know her, she never visited the family or anything. But. Yeah. My dad’s sister.”

“Oh.” Anti fell silent for a moment. He didn’t know that Ciara had a brother. A brother with kids. How was it possible that she’d never mentioned them?! That was a massive thing to never—in all that time—Anti groaned and rubbed his head. God, this hurt him, almost physically. If he’d known that—if he’d just—well, the past was dead. He’d killed it. So there was no use thinking about what might have been. But something sounded...off. In the way Jack talked about her. “What do you mean, she ‘was’ your aunt?”

“Well.” Jack hesitated for a moment, then said, quite bluntly, “She’s dead, actually.”

“...oh.” Anti waited for a reaction to rise up within him. Some sort of emotion, good or bad. But he felt...empty. Though maybe that made sense. “When?”

“When I was like...seventeen or something. Over ten years ago now. She got hit by a car.” Jack paused again, but Anti didn’t say anything more. So he stood up, slowly, and Sam flew around him. “I’m fine, Sam, don’t worry. No, nothing. Really.” Sam, worried, curled up in their usual spot on his shoulder.

“...Sorry,” Anti mumbled. “About the whole...thing. With the knife. I didn’t—I didn’t actually want to hurt you.”

Jack nodded. “Just don’t do it again.” He offered a hand, and after a moment, Anti took it, letting Jack pull him up. “Hey, uh...you’re probably not gonna answer this, but...are you okay with...telling me how you knew her?”

“No.” Anti shut down the notion immediately. He wasn’t about to share that whole mess with basically a stranger, when his close friends only knew the barest of details.

“Right, right. Sorry.” Jack took a step back, giving Anti some space. “Um...can I tell you something? I think you picked up on this, anyway, but...I’m not just a drummer. I do do that, but it’s to help pay expenses and stuff, you know?”

Anti’s shoulders raised. “What are you, a cop?”

“No! God no, I couldn’t do that,” Jack hurried to say. He took a deep breath, then continued. “There’s...not really a name for it, I think. But Sam and I travel around and...we help people. Not like a vigilante or anything, I hear you guys have one in this city? We don’t do stuff like that. I mean more...you know, mentally.”

“You’re a therapist?” Anti asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, not really.” Jack shook his head. “Though I guess I could be. I’d just need to go back to school and shit. I just...support people. Kinda encourage them. If any of this makes sense. Like, i-if you’re having a hard time and your house is messy, but you can’t find the energy to clean, I can do that for you. Or if you need to talk to someone to get something off your chest. Again, I’m not a therapist, but I can listen and give advice.”

Anti suddenly laughed. “You’re a life coach?! Oh my god, Highlighter Hair. You do not look the part.”

“That’s still not—” Jack sighed. “Okay, look. Sam’s been staying with you guys for a while, right? They have this ability, this...this feeling they get, sometimes, that they need to do something. What happens is they can sort of tell where we’re needed next, but a few weeks ago, they got this feeling, and they could tell they needed to go alone. So, they headed here. And...they found you guys. And they could tell something was immediately wrong. Your...your kids went missing, right?” Jack asked that last part slowly, cautiously.

“...yeah,” Anti muttered.

“Right. And you were all going through it.” Jack glanced down at Sam. “And if they’d told me where they were going, I could’ve been here to help with that, but apparently they suddenly needed to leave right then in the middle of the night.” Sam swished their tail. Somehow, they looked guilty.

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Anti sighed. Actually, he probably understood more than Jack or Sam knew. He’d run into Sam the night of the kids’ disappearance, the night when he’d...had a breakdown. Just like he used to, years ago. And just like years ago, he might’ve continued on those random wanderings, out of his mind, if Sam hadn’t showed up and kept breaking up the routine. They’d probably saved him, in a way. Just like Jackie had, years ago, when he kept showing up in the hospital room of a nobody who didn’t care for him. “So...the real reason you guys are here is to fix us.”

“Don’t use that word,” Jack said firmly. “Nobody in your group is broken, you just need a little bit of help.”

Anti rolled his eyes. “Right.”

“I’m serious, I—” Jack sighed.

“Right. Just like you don’t want anything from us. How much are you offering for this?”

“I don’t charge for this,” Jack said. “We just...do it. Because some people need it.” He folded his arms. “Like you, Mr. I’ll-Threaten-You-With-A-Knife-For-Mentioning-This-Lady.”

“I said sorry,” Anti insisted.

“Are you sure you should be carrying knives around if that’s how you’ll react?”

“I—shut the fuck, up, I—I need to.” Anti realized his hands were shaking, so he folded his arms as well. “And usually, that doesn’t happen. I’ve just been—”

“A bit stressed lately?” Jack prompted.

Anti closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply for a long, long time. Then he let out his breath, equally slowly. “Does the rest of the group know about your life coaching?”

“It’s not life—I was going to explain it next time I saw them,” Jack said.

“Cool. Go see them now, there’s enough time left in the day for that. And if they still like you after that, then I guess you can hang around.” Of course they’d still like him after knowing that. It was the kind of people they were. Marvin and Schneep might be a bit upset that Jack didn’t tell them immediately, but they’d get over it. JJ would insist on including Jack in more group activities. Maybe Jackie would, too. Actually, he could see the two of them having a lot in common. Fitting that their names were almost the same, then.

Jack smiled widely. “Great! Glad to hear that.”

“Hear what? I’m telling you that my tolerance of your presence depends on what the others think.”

“Yeah, that’s great! I mean, c’mon, you haven’t exactly been welcoming. Or hiding the fact that you weren’t welcoming. So that’s a step up.”

Well he had a point there. Anti bent over and picked up his knife from where it had landed, slowly slipping it back into his pocket and buttoning it closed. He turned to leave. “Well, I’ll be going now. You can find a bus stop by yourself.”

“Sure,” Jack nodded. “I’ll be seeing you, then?”

Anti paused. Then he turned back. “And another thing. Don’t fucking analyze me without me saying. Believe it or not, I actually minored in psych, so I don’t have any fucking patience for armchair psychology from someone who probably only did a few searches on the Internet and is armed with just some sort of—of great attitude and a nosy want to help people.”

“I don’t do that stuff, Anti,” Jack reasserted. “But...don’t worry. If you don’t want help, I won’t offer. Unless it looks...bad.”

That sounded like it was as good a promise as he was going to get. Anti turned back around and started walking back down the street they’d come from. Jack called “Bye!” after him, and he raised a hand in response.

A few streets later, he found a bus stop for a line that he didn’t think Jack would take, and sat down to wait. And the moment he did, everything that just happened started bombarding his thoughts. Sam’s friend was some sort of...travelling...mental...helper. Who showed up here because he wanted to help the group with their problems. Sure. That made sense. And this guy was also her nephew. Who he didn’t know even existed, despite all the reasons he should have known. “God...fuck,” he muttered, looking up into the sky.

If Jack was going to be so present in their lives, how long would it take him to figure out...everything? Everything about Anti? The very thought raised a sense of panic in his chest.

No, Jack wouldn’t know. He’d make sure of it.

Well, Anti had to acknowledge one thing. Jackie was right; this new guy hadn’t wanted anything from them. He wanted to give something to them. That thing being some sort of help. That was...unexpected. In Anti’s experience, people didn’t offer aid for nothing in return. Or at least, they rarely did, as Jackie had reminded him the other day.

As the bus approached in the distance, Anti stood up, making sure the driver could see him. While getting on, he reflected that there was one thing he could count on: they’d be seeing a lot more of Jack in the future.

[chilling-seavey]

When Universes Collide - The AU Mini Series

The Lotus Inn is a place we all know well; and a place where all universes collide in a small ripple of the time space continuum. It’s the spot for characters of alternate universes to meet and interact – even those who are from vastly different worlds and timelines. In this one-shot, the characters from the universes of this blog gather for lunch at the Lotus Inn restaurant and discuss their similarities and differences.

Warning: This does contain spoilers to any and all fics on my blog so read with caution if you haven’t read all of them!

A/N This obviously isn’t part of any timeline and is just something I wrote for fun with a bit of help from T-Anon and @randomlimelightxxx​! To tell each Daniel apart, they will be called by their fic name as their formal title…it might be a bit awkward at first but it would be the only way to not confuse the heck out of you since there are five nearly identical looking Daniel’s sitting around one table. (Also, I see this play out like a stage performance in my head which is weird).

A/N2 Let’s see how many times the word ‘Daniel’ is used in this story

The Lotus Inn – 11:54am

A table for five sat empty in the corner of the restaurant. The room was trimmed in purple neon lights and decorated in floral pictures with an old brick wall supporting the large bar along the back. It wasn’t busy as the crowd usually came in for the daily after-dinner partying and the quietness of the restaurant was only filled with the bar tender wiping down the glasses to stock.

The door to the restaurant opened and a stream of bright light pooled into the room from the outside, nearly brightening the space more than what the large paned windows along the from wall allowed. In stepped a young man, his hesitation obvious as he stepped over the threshold and his blue eyes scanned his surroundings. He wore a military uniform that was ironed to perfection, donned in two well dressed medals on his left breast, and he took off his matching cap when he stepped inside, offering a stiff nod in greeting to the bartender.

Passchendaele Daniel

Age 22

He was the first to arrive and he made his way over to the reserved table in the corner, sitting on the chair closest to the door. Habit. Made for an easy getaway if it was ever needed. He held his hands together on his lap, back straight, and his flat expression starting to fall into space.

The restaurant stayed silent. The bartender kept to himself and the few other patrons sat on the far side of the room, minding their own business.

The door opened again and a voice fell inside along with another pool of light.

“She’s a one-year-old, Jack, give her a cookie and sing her a song and she’ll go right to sleep. Ask the other two for help; they’re great with her. I can’t come back now, my meeting has barely even started. I’ll be an hour, tops. I think you can survive that long.”

The slightly older man who just came in had his cellphone pressed to his ear and closed the door calmly behind him. He looked a bit flustered and definitely tired; his dyed blonde hair was faded to mostly its natural brown tones again and he shoved his car keys in his pocket messily as he listened to whatever his friend was saying through the line.

Anything But Mine Daniel

Age 25

His blue eyes landed on the young man already at the table and he paused in spot for a moment before saying much quieter into his cell phone, “I gotta go. I’ll call you after.”

He hung the phone and headed slowly over to the table, holding out his hand to the man in front of him.

“Hey. Nice to meet you. I’m Daniel.”

Passchendaele Daniel glanced up at him and then to his out stretched hand and pulled a tight smile before taking his handshake, “Myself as well.”

They shared soft smiles as Anything But Mine Daniel sat down in the chair on his other side. They fell into a momentary silence, not quite knowing what to say at first. It was a strange situation to be in: staring at yourself from another universe and entirely different timeline.

Gentle music filled the restaurant and the two young men glanced across the room to the jukebox. A third stood in front of it, having just slid in a quarter to select a record, and the gentle voice of Elvis brought liveliness to the restaurant. He turned with a pleasant smile, his hair slicked back in a soft wave, and startled slightly by the older two staring back at him.

Heartbreak Hotel Daniel

Age 18

He offered them a crooked smile and headed over to join them, “Hi.”

They shared their introductions – being easy since they all shared the same name and nearly the same face – and Heartbreak Hotel Daniel took his spot across from Anything But Mine Daniel. He glanced over at the man in his old military uniform beside the oldest but looked away against before he could be caught staring. He adjusted the collar of his button-up shirt and dropped his shy gaze to the wood table top.

“What desserts do you offer here?”

The three men all looked towards the bar where another was stood on the bottom brass foot rest of the bar counter to stand higher, holding himself up on the marble top as he spoke to the bartender. He wore a Georgian style suit, dressed poshly down to the puffed tie in the collar of his pale blue jacket and shiny black shoes, his soft brown hair brushed pristinely over his forehead.

Amoureux Daniel

Age 17

The bartender eyed the young prince for a moment and then simply gestured to the menu hung on the brick wall behind him.

“I’ll just take the lot of it.”

He slid a few paper bills across the counter before heading over to the reserved table. His smile was wide and infectious and he offered firm handshakes around the table.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Prince Daniel of York. Second in line to the British throne.”

“Royalty at our table? That’s unbelievable.” ABM Daniel gaped, eyeing the youngest’s clothes as he plopped himself down in the free chair across from Passchendaele Daniel.

“Forget Royalty. I’m going to be a composer.” Amoureux Daniel tisked as he leaned back and loosened his tie around his neck to let himself breathe before rolling up his sleeves too.

“A composer? I’m in music professionally. What do you play? Piano?” ABM Daniel asked.

“Piano and cello. Piano’s my favourite though.” Amoureux Daniel grinned.

“Mine as well.” Passchendaele Daniel smiled shyly.

“You as well? Oh, splendid.” Amoureux Daniel clapped excitedly. “I was worried you lot would be as lame as my older brother honestly.”

Passchendaele Daniel’s smile fell as fast as it was formed and he dropped his head down. The other three easily saw this change and the youngest two from across the table habitually looked the eldest for guidance. ABM Daniel’s eyes were wide with surprise and he set a gentle hand on Passchendaele Daniel’s shoulder.

He spoke softly, “Are you okay?”

“I…” Passchendaele Daniel took a moment to compose himself before looking up into the friendly eyes of his older counterpart, “I lost my brother in the war. He was my best friend.”

“Shit.” Amoureux Daniel breathed from across from him.

Heartbreak Hotel Daniel slowly pressed his hand to his mouth in shock.

ABM Daniel hesitated a moment but gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze, “I’m really sorry.”

Passchendaele Daniel only shrugged lightly, “It is what it is, I suppose.”

“What war were you in? The First World War or the Second?” Heartbreak Hotel Daniel asked as gently as he could around the obviously traumatised man.

Passchendaele Daniel’s eyes went wide in fear suddenly and he looked between the other three guys, “There is a second?!”

“I didn’t even know there was one in the first place.” Amoureux Daniel said in defence as he reached for one of the desserts before the bartender could even set the plate down at their table.

ABM Daniel and HH Daniel exchanged wide eyed glances before looking back at the frightened soldier. ABM Daniel rubbed his hand over his back soothingly, offering the best reassurance he could, “Not in your time, don’t worry. But I think we need a new topic to talk about now.”

“Please.” Passchendaele Daniel mumbled thankfully.

“Isn’t there supposed to be a fifth one of us here too?” HH Daniel asked.

“I thought so too.” ABM Daniel pulled out his cell phone to check the time.

“What is that?” the other three young men asked him at the same time.

ABM Daniel glanced up at them and looked between their mirrored confused expressions like he was sitting at a table with triplets. Different brunette hair styles and different clothing but all with the same light blue eyes and youthful faces. He looked back down at his iPhone and held it up slightly, “This?”

They all nodded.

“It’s my cell phone.”

“It’s a telephone? Where’s the chord?” HH Daniel asked, leaning over the table to lift it up as if to look for the chord that should have somehow attached him to the wall.

“Where is the handset?” Passchendaele Daniel added. “If there is no handset, how do you hear your friends?”

“I have no bloody clue what the hell any of you are talking about.” Amoureux Daniel laughed through a mouthful of cake.

ABM Daniel smiled and looked between the other three, “I guess that’s right since you are all from the past, huh? Well in my time they make telephones that can go in your pocket. They don’t need chords.”

“That’s brilliant.” Passchendaele Daniel breathed. “And you can talk to your friends into that little box?”

“Yeah. Wanna hold it?” ABM Daniel offered.

HH Daniel leaned over the table to get a look as Passchendaele Daniel carefully took the iPhone from ABM Daniel and cradled it in his two hands like it would break if the wind blew too hard. The screen lit up as a text message came through and Passchendaele Daniel gasped in surprise, staring down at the lit-up screen and the little box that read words.

ABM Daniel reached over to swipe away the notification, revealing his lockscreen wallpaper: a photograph of his family from the day his youngest was born, all cuddled up together on the couch.

“Is that your family?” HH Daniel asked, still leaning over the table.

“Yeah. It is.” ABM Daniel smiled widely, taking his phone to set it on the table for all of them to see, “That’s my wife, Florence, and our girls; Clementine, Penelope, and Lucy.”

“That’s so sweet.” Amoureux Daniel said, “I just had a son a few months back.”

“You have a child?” HH Daniel gaped over at him. “How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“You have a kid at seventeen?”

“Yes. Ran off and got married young. He’s just born so no need to have a fit.” Amoureux Daniel snickered teasingly. He picked up the plate of desserts and held it out to him. HH Daniel stared down at the desserts for a beat but then shook his head politely.

“My wife is expecting our first child.” Passchendaele Daniel spoke gently.

“Oh, congratulations!” ABM Daniel said, helping himself to a dessert from the spread.

“Yes, thank you.” Passchendaele Daniel mumbled. “I am a bit frightened; I must admit.”

“Parenthood is a scary thing but it’s also the most amazing thing you could ever experience.” ABM Daniel assured him as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “I am sure you will be a great dad.”

Before anyone else could speak, loud muffled music could be heard from outside the restaurant and they all turned to looked out the large front windows; watching as a shiny white Tesla pulled up to the curb. The music cut off as the drivers side door opened and their fifth guest stepped out. His hair was dyed blonde and hair sprayed to messy perfection and the sunglasses perched on his nose were designer, his whole outfit dripping in expensive pieces, down to his leather pants and black boots and silver chain hung around his neck.

He came inside the restaurant and everyone’s eyes were on him – even the bar tender – as he slid off his sunglasses and offered a cool smile to the room.

Qui Totum Vult Totum Perdit Daniel

Age 23

He caught the glance of the other four young men at the table in the corner and he sauntered over to greet them. He offered a handshake to all of them before sitting at the far head of the table, “Sorry I’m so late. Promo ran later than expected.”

He glanced around the table at the four pairs of wide blue eyes staring back at him. There was a beat of silence.

“Wow, this is sick. It’s like I’m looking in four mirrors.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled. He set his sunglasses on the table. The other four pairs of eyes followed the action but they didn’t speak. “You’re right. Need to at least make up for my lateness. Hey, bartender?”

The man looked over to the table as QTVTP Daniel raised his hand up to get his attention, “Pitcher of water, round of beers, and let’s get some appetizers? Give us your top…six sellers. All on my card.”

“You don’t have to pay for all of us.” ABM Daniel said.

“Let me. It’s the least I could do. You come all the way out here to this shabby hotel and I’m thirty minutes late.”

The bartender brought over the pitcher of water, five glasses, and five bottles of beer, setting them all on the table. QTVTP Daniel took out his OffWhite wallet and pulled out his credit card, passing it over to the man with a smooth thanks.

“Let’s drink, boys.” he smiled, rubbing his hands together before reaching for one of the bottles.

“I’m not of age.” HH Daniel mumbled.

“Neither am I.” Amoureux Daniel added.

“I don’t drink anymore.” Passchendaele Daniel said.

“I have to pick up my daughters after this so no alcohol for me either, thanks.” ABM Daniel finished.

QTVTP Daniel looked between the four sitting around him, “Wow. Alright. More for me then.”

ABM Daniel took the initiative to pour the others their glasses of water as he offered a casual question to the late arrival, “What promo were you at?”

“For my record company.”

All four heads snapped back up to look at him.

“You work at a record company?” HH Daniel gaped.

“Own it. Yeah.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled. “My best friend and I have owned our own company for the last…two or so years? We’ve travelled the world together. Made some music. Made a name for ourselves. It’s amazing.”

“Wow. It’s always been my dream to be a signed artist but my parents convinced me to go to university instead.” ABM Daniel said.

“It’s pretty sick.” QTVTP Daniel smirked. “You meet a lot of cool people.”

“Are you well known?” Amoureux Daniel asked. “Do you work with people such as Bach? Or Mozart?”

“Bach or Mozart? Nah. Not yet at least. But we just signed a band that dropped their second album and it went number one worldwide.”

“Good God.” HH Daniel gasped. “You’re like Elvis.”

“I guess.” QTVTP Daniel laughed lightly, taking a sip of his drink as he leaned back in his chair.

“Do you produce too?” ABM Daniel asked.

“Yeah. We do most of the producing but we write and manage too. I have an eye for the industry.”

“That’s so cool. I’m working at a production studio myself. I’d love to run some demos by you…get your professional opinion…bounce some ideas around.”

“Yeah, for sure, bro! That’d be awesome. We can do that later.”

The other three young men stayed in momentary silence, sipping their water with Amoureux Daniel nursing the plate of desserts. He glanced over at HH Daniel on his right, staring at him for a moment, especially the remanence of a bruise that was colouring just under his left eye.

“Did you get in a fight?” Amoureux Daniel asked bluntly.

HH Daniel looked over at him, watching the youngest bite into a truffle, “Yeah. Corbyn beat me up.”

That caught the table’s attention and they all looked at him in surprise.

“Corbyn hit you?” ABM Daniel gaped.

“Mhm.” HH Daniel nodded shyly. “I was trying to stick up for my soulmate and he didn’t like that I was trying to take her from him so he beat me up.”

He stood up and lifted up the bottom of his shirt to show off the fading bruise over his stomach as well. The men groaned pitifully at how obviously it must have hurt.

“My Corbyn is so nice.” Passchendaele Daniel frowned.

“Mine too.” ABM Daniel added.

“Mine’s kind of lame. Everyone in my life is lame.” Amoureux Daniel tisked.

“What? You think you’re better than everyone?” QTVTP Daniel chuckled, taking a sip from his glass bottle.

“Not necessarily. I just don’t want to have to live the same boring life that they think I need to.”

“I’ll drink to that.” QTVTP Daniel agreed.

“Here, here.” Passchendaele Daniel raised his water cup and they all held out their glasses into the middle of the table to cheers through soft laughter.

Their conversation paused a moment as they drank. HH Daniel shifted in his seat slightly, tossing back the rest of his glass of water is he had been deprived for days and set the empty glass back on the table with a loud clunk. QTVTP Daniel slid over a bottle of beer and none of them spoke as they watched him unscrew the cap and take a long sip. The eighteen-year-old grimaced through the drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“You’re really going through it, bro.” QTVTP Daniel stated.

“Yeah, I suppose.” HH Daniel grumbled, pushing a hand through his hair.

“Well obviously since he got punched in the face.” Amoureux Daniel added.

“I just…” HH Daniel sighed, staring at the table top, “We have soulmates in my universe and even though I found mine…she doesn’t want me so I’m suck tasting everything she tastes and it being a constant brutal reminder of her.”

“Why doesn’t she want you?” ABM Daniel frowned.

“I’m a loser? Hell if I know.” HH Daniel scoffed, he took another long sip of the beer no matter how disgusting he thought it tasted. At least it overpowered the taste of tea that was grazing his tongue.

“There’s a girl you’re in love with who has a trashy boyfriend? Well, take it from me who has literally been in your shoes,” ABM Daniel reached across the table to grab the beer from the eighteen-year-old, “You get nowhere from drinking away the pain or hating yourself.”

“You had this happen too?” HH Daniel asked softly, hopefully.

“Yeah; was best friends with this girl I was hopelessly in love with and I had to see her go from boyfriend to boyfriend no matter how often I was there for her.”

“So what happened?”

“She became my wife eventually.” ABM Daniel smiled softly, “Just give it time. Don’t push her because she’ll just feel suffocated. Let her come to you. She’ll see what she’s missing.”

Amoureux Daniel held out the half empty plate of desserts to HH Daniel and he finally took a small pastry as the youngest said, “In addition, you are in a universe where you can taste what she tastes and, from my experience, the way to a woman’s heart – and up her skirt – is through her stomach.”

Passchendaele Daniel choked on his water while laughter rose over the rest of the table.

“What do you know about ‘going up skirts’? You’re, like, barely fifteen.” QTVTP Daniel scoffed through his disbelieving laughter.

“I am seventeen, thank you very much, and I have a baby.” Amoureux Daniel corrected, nearly boastfully. “I know just plenty about going up skirts.”

Of course, that was right when the bartender came over with their food and his confused expression had the five young men smothering back their nervous laughter. ABM Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel cleared a space on the table for the food to be set down and all five of them thanked the man before he headed back behind the bar. With a full spread in front of them, they all dug in and piled up a small plate each to start to eat. It was quiet for a moment as they got settled and started to eat, passing the salt and pepper and various plates to each other when asked. It was comfortable.

“So,” ABM Daniel broke their silence first, directing his question to Amoureux Daniel, “how did you and your wife meet?”

Amoureux Daniel cracked a cheeky smile, “Well, she came to England to marry my older brother, but she liked me better, to be blunt. We would sneak around the castle and a few times at night…you know…”

There were two ‘oo’s from ABM Daniel and QTVTP Daniel, while Passchendaele Daniel looked between them all with wide eyes.

“You…You were involved with her before you were married?” he stammered.

“While she was engaged to my brother too.” Amoureux Daniel hid his smirk behind a bite of a mozzarella stick. “My most thrilling and incredible few months, I must say.”

“Oh my gosh.” Passchendaele Daniel’s cheeks flushed a slight pink and he tugged at the collar of his uniform. “That’s…ahem…”

“Did you not go near your wife before your wedding night?” Amoureux Daniel asked bluntly.

“Let’s not go nosing into everyone’s private business.” ABM Daniel said strongly.

“Wait, I’m still confused. Where did you sneak off to?” HH Daniel asked shyly.

The table chuckled lightly – even Passchendaele Daniel cracked a nervous smile – and HH Daniel looked between all of them, waiting for an answer.

“To bed.” Amoureux Daniel laughed, patting him on the shoulder. “You’ll understand one day.”

“I…you…I-I understand perfectly well.” HH Daniel blushed furiously, turning quickly down to his plate and shoveled a nacho in his mouth to avoid continuing the conversation.

“To answer your question,” Passchendaele Daniel continued, trying to keep himself a bit brave and a bit interesting to the four other men, “No, I did not go to bed with Elizabeth until our wedding night. It did not feel right to deflower her until our union was official.”

“Deflower her.” QTVTP Daniel repeated slowly, biting back his smile as he took a sip of his beer.

“Well that’s what it is, is it not?” Passchendaele Daniel said sternly, narrowing his eyes at him. “I like to think that making love is the most sacred act and shouldn’t be just thrown around to anyone.”

“I agree.” HH Daniel mumbled, earning a thankful smile from the soldier.

“Jeez, then I’m quite the sinner.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled to himself. “I slept with my girlfriend on our first date.”

Passchendaele Daniel huffed softly and turned down to his plate. Amoureux Daniel and HH Daniel glanced at each other through the awkward tension that seemed to settle.

ABM Daniel cleared his throat, “Let’s maybe change the topic. This isn’t really lunch appropriate.”

“Wow…you are such a dad.” QTVTP Daniel snorted, shaking his head in near disbelief.

“What’s wrong with that?” ABM Daniel frowned at him. He couldn’t get much of an argument out before his phone was ringing in his pocket and he pulled it out, sighing when he read the caller ID, “Sorry, I gotta take this.”

The other four watched him get up from the table and head across the restaurant as he answered the call,

“What is it now, Jack?”

The table fell into a momentary silence.

Passchendaele Daniel broke it first with a mumble of, “Jack in my universe is dead.”

The other three looked between themselves nervously. They didn’t answer, ducking their heads down to their plates to focus on eating their lunches. No one spoke until ABM Daniel returned and he sat back down with a heavy exhale.

“Sorry, being a dad is a job that is never done. What did I miss?”

Amoureux Daniel, HH Daniel, and QTVTP Daniel just looked at him and shook their heads ever so slightly. Passchendaele Daniel sniffled, keeping his head down, and took a sip of his water.

“Everything alright back home?” HH Daniel asked softly over to ABM Daniel.

“Oh, yeah. My youngest just hates when I’m not within arm’s reach so she’s been giving Jack some trouble. She’s only one so…doesn’t know much better.” ABM Daniel smiled at only the mention of his daughters. “I have pictures…if you want to see.”

“Of course.” HH Daniel beamed.

ABM Daniel took out his phone again and opened up his photos app to swipe through a few and he passed the phone across the table. Amoureux Daniel and HH Daniel shifted closer together to see and QTVTP Daniel leaned over the side of the table to look at the pictures too. QTVTP Daniel took control of the swiping since he was the only one who knew how cell phones worked and they all smiled at the pictures on the screen, ‘awe’ing at the cutest ones.

“The baby looks just like you.” HH Daniel said. “Well…like us, I suppose.”

“Yeah.” ABM Daniel chuckled. “I get that a lot.”

Passchendaele Daniel stayed quiet on his right, eating in silence, and unbothered. He sat as if he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself. ABM Daniel looked over at him as the other three kept scrolling through his pictures and he reached a hand onto the table to gently get his attention. Passchendaele Daniel looked up at him with a flat expression and almost tearful eyes.

“Are you alright?” ABM Daniel asked softly.

“I don’t do well without my Elizabeth.” Passchendaele Daniel whispered for only him to hear. ABM Daniel was always the best listener and the easiest to talk to and it was obvious to the struggling soldier that he was someone he could trust.

“Do you have a picture of her?” ABM Daniel offered, as some way to keep his mind busy but happy.

A small smile perked at the side of Passchendaele Daniel’s lips and he nodded, reaching into his uniform jacket and he pulled out a small sepia photograph and held it out to his new acquaintance. ABM Daniel smiled thankfully at him and took the photograph, looking down at the old fashion photograph of the gentle young blonde woman.

“She’s beautiful.” ABM Daniel said politely.

“She is. I’m the luckiest man in the whole world to have her. She saves my life every day.” Passchendaele Daniel breathed, his gentle smile grazing his lips ever so delicately as if he was in deep thought.

Three teasing exclaims from across the table caught their attention and ABM Daniel quickly reached over to snatch his phone back. The picture they had swiped to was of Florence in nothing but a small towel blow-drying her hair in the bathroom mirror; a simple moment that ABM Daniel couldn’t help but capture with her in all her natural beauty.

“No more of that.” he blushed furiously as he pocketed his phone again.

Passchendaele Daniel offered his photograph of Elizabeth to the table and the three young men on the other side gladly took it. She was effortlessly beautiful and the three youngest at the table stared at her for a bit longer than was honestly necessary. Passchendaele Daniel bit back a proud grin at their obvious interest.

“I don’t have a photograph of Loretta.” HH Daniel mumbled. “If I did, that would be considered extremely creepy on my part.”

The photograph was passed back to Passchendaele Daniel who pocketed it again and HH Daniel reached to grab another serving from the platters in the middle of the table. A small corner of paper poking out under the dish caught his attention and he wiped his hand on his jeans before pulling it out from under the plate. His eyes went wide at the photograph of Loretta that stared back at him from his hand.

“What’s that?” Amoureux Daniel asked, leaning over his shoulder to take a look.

Surprised, HH Daniel couldn’t find his words for a moment, “I-It’s Loretta.”

The Lotus Inn works in almost magical ways through this ripple in the time space continuum. HH Daniel pulled the picture closer, his heart only aching slightly at simply the sight of her.

“She is hot.” QTVTP Daniel broke the momentary silence.

The four other Daniel’s glared at his bluntness and he put his hands up in defence as he sat back in his chair.

“You can’t have her so don’t even try.” HH Daniel scolded softly before turning back to the photograph. 

“I don’t want her. I have my own girlfriend.”

HH Daniel glared warningly at him as he passed the photograph across the table to ABM Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel to take a look at too.

Amoureux Daniel shifted in his chair and reached into his pocket, sure enough to pull out his own picture of Louisa and their brand-new baby son. He stayed perfectly quiet for a moment as he stared at the image himself, disbelieving.

“Oh wow.” he breathed. “It looks so real.”

HH Daniel looked over his shoulder and smiled at the sweet photograph of the young mother holding her baby, “That’s adorable.”

Amoureux Daniel smiled over at him, “That’s my Louisa. And our little prince.”

“Let’s see!” ABM Daniel excitedly held his hand out to take a look at the photograph.

QTVTP Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel glanced over his shoulder with mirrored smiles.

“Damn,” QTVTP Daniel said as he sat down again, “Glad to know we have taste.”

Their pictures were passed around and stories were shared – QTVTP Daniel offering up his phone to show off pictures of his girlfriend and he shared his excited plans to propose to her. 

The five young men seemed to find their comfort with each other. Laughter soon filled their table between words of advice and guidance and comfort and soon the food was gone and the drinks were finished and they were all resting back in their chairs through their conversation.

“Is your hair naturally that colour?” Amoureux Daniel asked QTVTP Daniel.

QTVTP Daniel habitually ran his hand through it, fluffing it up a little at the sides, “No, it’s dyed. I kinda like it like this though so I might keep it.”

“It looks cool. Maybe I should go blonde too. Loretta seems to like blondes better anyway.” HH Daniel said.

“No!” The other three at the table said quickly.

HH Daniel looked between all of them in confusion, “Why not?”

“Florence cried her eyes out when I went blonde.” ABM Daniel said. “I swear she was ready to divorce me. It’s not worth it.”

“You look just fine the way you are.” Passchendaele Daniel agreed. “Don’t change just because her boyfriend looks a certain way.”

“Yeah. You’ll regret that.” ABM Daniel nodded.

“I dunno. I don’t regret it.” QTVTP Daniel said coolly.

“You’re not helping.” ABM Daniel snapped lightly, making the rest of the table laugh.

A momentary silence fell over the group, all of them staring into space with content smiles and full stomachs, most topics of conversation well used. The bartender came over to clear the empty plates and they all thanked him once more. ABM Daniel took out his phone to check the time again.

“Well, it’s been over an hour. Maybe we should say our goodbyes. I have little ones to pick up.”

“Yeah.” HH Daniel sighed, setting his napkin back on the tabletop. “I have to pack for college.”

“I have a meeting...” QTVTP checked his watch, “5 minutes ago. Shit. Jonah’s gonna kill me.”

He got up quickly from the table and put his sunglasses back on before taking one last sip of his beer. They all stood up after him and started to gather their things to go.

“Can we take a selfie before we leave?” ABM Daniel offered.

“A what?” HH Daniel laughed.

“A selfie.” Amoureux Daniel breathed. “That’s a ridiculous word.”

“A picture of yourself.” QTVTP Daniel explained.

“Yeah! Come over here.” ABM Daniel took out his phone again and opened up the camera.

“You can take photographs on your telephone? Incredible…” Passcehndaele Daniel breathed as the group gathered behind ABM Daniel and they all leaned in close.

The picture was taken, framing five exact smiles, five exact pairs of light blue eyes, and yet five slightly different hair styles and fashion choices. All their own individual but yet all one in the same.

They shared handshakes that turned into friendly embraces with pats on the back, well wishes, and final goodbyes as they headed their own ways home to once again be seperated by the division of space and time between alternate universes.

ABM Daniel lingered back in the restaurant for a moment, grazing his finger over the table he stood beside with a calm smile. He approached the bartender and ordered a plate of desserts to go – he didn’t get much since Amoureux Daniel seemed to hog them all for himself – and he wanted to bring home his girls a treat. He paid for the cakes and thanked the bar tender before heading out of the restaurant and into the bright sunlit street. His car was parked farther down and he waited in the drivers seat for Florence.

She came quickly out of the Lotus Inn as well, the heavy wind blowing urging her to hold her jacket closed as she rushed down the sidewalk, her dark blonde hair billowing around her head messily and she helped herself into the passenger seat of their car. With the door closed and the wind kept out, she sighed deeply with a content smile and smoothed her messy hair down.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hi, sweetheart.”

They both leaned in for a quick kiss.

“How was lunch?” she asked.

ABM Daniel thought for a moment as he took the car out of park and pulled out onto the street, “It was strange at first but really nice. How was yours?”

“Super fun.” Florence giggled.

“Great! Oh! We took a selfie. I wanted to show you how similar we all looked.” Daniel pulled his phone from his pocket and blindly passed it over to her as he drove through the streets of their city.

Florence took it and typed in his passcode with an excited smile. She opened up his pictures and tapped the most recent one, her smile falling, “Dani, this is only a picture of you.”

“I know!” Daniel laughed. “We looked like quintuplets or something!”

“No…I mean you are the only person in this picture.”

Daniel stopped the car at a red light and glanced over at his phone in her hand. His smile fell as well as he stared at the selfie he had taken before they all parted ways, only his own face captured in the frame, his four new friends missing as if they never existed in the first place.

[loverboytrashmouth]

Of Macchiatos and Nicknames (pt 1)

pairing; Reddie

word count; 1.6k

summary; Eddie doesn’t mind studying at the coffee shop as much as he thought he would.

a/n; part one of two of a little coffee shop meet cute because meet cutes are my fav and also i’m a barista so i think about this kinda au a lot. also read on ao3 if you’d like! enjoy :)

--

Eddie didn’t even like coffee that much. He’d really only drink it when he needed the caffeine to get him through a long night of studying. He hardly ever visited the campus coffee shop, and if he did it was because Bill would drag him out of bed earlier than necessary to make a stop there before their 8AM lectures. 

It wasn’t until one afternoon during midterms that Eddie began spending most of his free afternoons at the coffee shop.

It was a particularly windy October day, so Bill and Eddie decided they’d trade their usual study spot outside on their university’s great lawn area for the cozy coffee shop right on the outskirts of the main campus . Eddie couldn’t stand studying there; it was constantly full of loud students who would call themselves “study groups” when really it was just an excuse for them to drink their lattes and goof off. He had tried to convince Bill that they could just go to the library or back to their room, but Bill insisted he absolutely needed coffee, blaming it on his lack of sleep the night before.

“Just get me anything, I don’t care. I’m gonna get us a table,” Eddie said to Bill once they entered, already beginning to walk towards the mid-sized seating area. Bill gripped his upper arm and pulled him back.

“Definitely n-not. I’ll be h-halfway done my drink before you finish your dis-disinfecting routine,” Bill chuckled, earning a glare from Eddie. “I’ll go s-sit. You know my order. I promise, I’ll wuh-wipe down the table with the utmost c-care.” Eddie sighed in defeat, rolling his eyes at his friend’s teasing and lightly shoving him towards the seats. The shorter boy turned around towards the menu hanging on the wall, trying to figure out what the hell he was going to drink. His thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming from behind the counter.

“What’s your poison, ol’ chap,” it asked in a very obviously fake British accent. Eddie’s gaze trailed down to where the voice came from and his breath involuntarily hitched in his throat at the sight of the guy behind the register. He had disheveled curly black hair that contrasted - very nicely, Eddie noted - against his pale skin. He was tall, Eddie not needing to move his neck much from the position it was in to see the menu to look him in the eyes. The barista’s eyes, Eddie noted, were insanely large behind the thickly rimmed glasses that framed his face, but somehow he made them look good. Eddie’s eyes flicked down to the barista’s sharp jawline covered in messy stubble, his slightly chapped lips in a playful smirk.

“You gonna order something shortie, or are ya gonna just keep undressing me with your eyes,” the barista asked in his normal voice, the smirk never leaving his face. Eddie snapped out of his trance, feeling his face immediately heat up.

“Am I short or are you just freakishly tall,” Eddie shot back, his voice dripping with offense but he knew the color on his cheeks told the barista that he definitely had no ill feelings towards him. The taller boy shrugged.

“Tomayto tomahto, pretty boy,” he said with a wink. “Seriously though, whatcha havin’? It’s my duty to know.”

Eddie huffed out a chuckled at him and shook his head, before it dawned on him that he barely knew anything about coffee. Sure, he knew Bill’s order was called a “caramel macchiato,” but what if he said the fancy names of the sizes wrong and embarrassed himself? He was already anxious enough about ordering in the first place, customer service interactions being one of his least favorite things (he’s so glad his work study is in the library, stacking books with little to no human interaction). It didn’t help that the stupidly tall - and cute - barista was full force hitting on him like his life depended on making Eddie blush.

“Um, two mediu- no, grande, right. Two grande caramel macchiatos please,” Eddie finally decided after a few short beats of silence, mentally kicking himself when he realized what he said, because he hates caramel macchiatos. The barista tapped out his order on the register, taking a couple glances at Eddie as he did so.

“Alrighty, you got it. And what’s your name?” Eddie furrowed his eyebrows at this question, taken slightly aback even though it was no secret the barista had been flirting with him this entire conversation. The latter must have noticed Eddie’s confused reaction, as he clarified with a chuckle, “So we can call it out to let you know your order is ready.”

“Oh, right,” Eddie laughed, his cheeks heating up once more, this time more of embarrassment at his misunderstanding of the question’s intentions. He reached a shaky hand to the back of his neck, rubbing nervously as he answered. “It’s Eddie.”

The barista nodded his head, his grin growing wider as he typed Eddie’s name into the machine. Eddie began pulling cash out of his fanny pack when the barista interrupted his movements with his voice.

“Don’t worry about that, Eds. They’re on the house today.” Eddie tilted his head ever so slightly, his furrowed eyebrows returning once more.

“Did- did you just call me ‘Eds’,” he asked, receiving only a simple nod from the taller boy. “How’s it fair I have a nickname already when I don’t even know your real name?” The barista smirked that shit-eating smirk again, holding a hand out towards the smaller boy.

“Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier, at your service.” Eddie placed his own hand into Richie’s, the roughness of his dry skin making Eddie’s skin crawl, but in a good way.

“Nice to meet you, Rich,” Eddie replied with a smirk of his own, his eyebrows slightly raised. “Thanks for the coffees.”

“Anything for you, Eddie baby.” Another wink. God, Eddie’s face was so hot he thought he could probably fry an egg on it.

Eddie couldn’t hide the blush on his cheeks or the dumb smile that refused to leave his mouth as he walked over to the table Bill had chosen to set up study camp at. Bill watched as the smaller boy sat across from him and began placing books on the table, attempting to cover his smile with his arm.

“Wuh-wow, Eddie. I haven’t seen you blush like that since our s-sex ed course in high school,” Bill teased with a slight laugh. Eddie’s face heated up even more at the memory, as well as the fact that he’d been caught basically swooning over Richie.

“Shut it, Bill. You got those notes I missed when I was sick?” Despite Eddie’s attempt to change the subject matter, Bill pressed on.

“It was the barista, wuh-wasn’t it? I could s-see the way he was looking at you from all the way over-”

“Wait, how was he looking at me,” Eddie interrupted without thinking, his eyes full of hope. Bill laughed some more at his eagerness.

“Y-You’re kidding, right? I’m s-surprised he didn’t jump over the counter and attack you into a m-makeout session right then and there.” Eddie’s eyes widened at Bill, before glancing over his shoulder to look at the barista again as he was making their drinks. He must’ve felt eyes on him, because not even five seconds after Eddie turned his head, Richie looked up from the espresso machine he was working with and the two locked eyes. Eddie immediately snapped his head back around, but not before noticing the smirk that returned to Richie’s lips. Bill shot him a knowing look.

“Okay, he flirted with me hardcore and yes he’s absolutely my type but if I don’t study for this midterm I won’t be able to think about him with calc on the brain 24/7. Notes, please,” Eddie spat out at high speed, a habit he had since he was a preteen that occurred whenever he got flustered.

Bill passed the page of math notes over with an eyebrow wiggle, but Eddie didn’t get a chance to even glance at them before hearing an obnoxiously loud voice behind him call out, “ORDER UP FOR A SIR EDDIE SPAGHETTI.” Eddie mentally facepalmed at the nickname usage before getting up and walking back to the counter.

“Really? Eddie Spaghetti?” Eddie couldn’t resist the laugh in his voice or fond smile as he shook his head at Richie. Richie, in return, held the coffees out to him, and shrugged his shoulders with a grin.

“Cute nickname for a cute boy,” he commented casually. Eddie couldn’t believe how smooth this thick-glasses wearing, awkwardly lanky dude could be, especially when he felt as though he could burst with every sentence uttered by said thick-glasses wearing, awkwardly lanky dude.

“So, uh,” Richie started once Eddie had taken the coffee cups from his hands, their fingers brushing lightly and lingering a bit too long. Eddie noticed his ever so slight change in demeanor, leaving bold and flirty and inching more towards reserved and… nervous? “Can I expect to see you around here again any time soon?”

The sincerity Eddie heard Richie speak within that sentence made his heart flutter, as well as whatever anxieties he still felt in his stomach to slowly dissipate. With that statement Eddie realized he wasn’t just aimlessly being flirted with, but that this could actually, maybe, mean something a little more?

“You sure can, Trashmouth,” Eddie replied with a warm look in his eyes. Richie perked up at the nickname, his cheeks going pink as Eddie walked back to his table.

“Dude, I thought you hated caramel m-macchiatos,” Bill commented when he saw the identical coffees his friend was holding, but Eddie barely heard him. He was too busy stealing glances back at the barista.

[httpsfelicity]

“In a black dress, she's such an actress” - Harry Styles × Model Reader AU

Summary - Harry meets a model downtown and falls for her quickly, leading the public to think that it’s a pr stunt. Unsure of what to think, the reader plays along, not knowing that Harry is unaware of the rumours. 

For @cruizmanadu! Xx

A/N - Okay, this is my first official request type thing so please tell me if it’s good or not! Ignore any mistakes, thought I think I looked over it pretty well. Also, if you’d like a part 2 / have suggestions / ect, just send a DM or ask! Here you go babes, hope you like it x

“If I don’t get coffee right now, I’m going to pass out on this sidewalk, I swear,” moaned Ella. 

“We’re almost there, calm down,” you responded as you adjusted the shopping bags in your hands quickly. You and your best friend Ella had decided to go out in NYC for the day, which of course meant loads of shopping. Hell, half of the bags you were carrying weren’t even yours - Ella had a shoot the next day, and insisted that she couldn’t carry her bags out of fear that she’d mark up her hands. So you were carrying enough bags to “Mark up your hands”, according to Ella. Which, to be fair, was quite unfair, because that girl shops a lot.

“Hey, can you take some of these, just until we get there? I’m getting kinda-”

“Oh. My. Gosh.” She lowered her voice and leaned in towards you. “Don’t look yet, keep walking, but some guy is totally checking you out.”

You sighed. “How could the paps have found us? I thought we covered our tracks nicel-”

She cut you off once again. “No, no, not a pap. This guy, he’s, well - okay, look to your left riiiight... now.”

You quickly glanced over to see a guy in his 20′s wearing a multicoloured knit sweater with messy brown hair, looking in your general direction. He quickly looked away when he saw you. You looked away, which was unfortunate, because you would’ve seen him gathering up the courage to walk over to you two.

"He's pretty fit," you whispered back quickly. "Do you think he recognizes me?" It sounds very stuck up, but often times people tried to hit on you solely because you model for the big brands, so you had to be careful. Being in the industry had a lot of pros, but a lot of cons as well. Not knowing who your real friends are were one of the cons.

"I'm not sure," Ella replied.

Just then, you felt a tap on your shoulder. You turned around and saw that you were face to face with the boy.

"Hello," he started nervously. He had a charming British accent, you noticed right away.

"Hi!" You replied, waiting for him to say something totally obnoxious or fan-like.

"This probably sounds weird, but I couldn't help but notice you."

"Oh, why thank you!" You laughed. "He doesn't seem too creepy or weird or stalker-ish," you thought to yourself.

"Yeah, so, um... This is weird as well, I'm sorry, but could I get your number?" He smiled weakly.

"No, absolutely not," said Ella, grabbing you by the arm and starting to drag you away. "C'mon."

She only walked a few feet until you broke away and went back over to him. "I'm sorry about that - of course you can."

His nervous expression eased away the tiniest bit. "Oh, that's great."

He handed you his phone, and you typed in you number."

***-****-****

"I'm Harry, by the way. Harry Styles."

"Oh! I'm y/n."

"Why does that sound familiar?"

"I work in the modeling industry. You might have heard of me from that?"

"I should've known you were a model - you've definitely got the looks. And I'm sure the personality as well."

You grinned.

"I'm a singer," he continued. "I used to be in a band - now I'm solo. So that's one thing we have in common, I guess. Well, not really. You know what I mean."

"You're right!" You laughed. "He's pretty easy to talk to," you thought. Even though you didn't want to, you could feel Ella staring at the back of your neck impatiently, so you decided to wrap up the conversation. "Well, I've got to go, but you'll message me later, yeah?"

"Of course," he nodded. "Well, goodbye for now, y/n."

"Goodbye, Harry Styles."

"What was that?!" Ella asked once he was out of earshot.

"What? He's polite and cute. Of course I have him my number!"

"He could be a creepy obsessive fan! Or a perv! Or a crackhead! He's just some random guy on the streets, for all we know!"

"Would you calm down? He's so nice - I just know he wouldn't do that. Plus, that sweater is awfully expensive. Almost 2k."

Ella rolled her eyes. "Okay, sure."

"Oh, and he's a singer."

Ella snapped her head to look at you, clearly very shocked by this statement. "He's what?"

"A singer, apparently."

"What's his name?"

"Harry Styles."

"Oh. My. God. My friend had a shoot with him once! He's popular, y/n. Really popular."

"God, you sound like a middle-schooler."

"I'm just sayin'! But now that I know this information, I've changed my opinion on him. GO FOR IT."

"I was already planning on it," you laugh, walking past a group of starstruck thirteen year olds quickly. "Although I'm not so sure. I didn't get his number - it's up to him to message me."

"He'd better," Ella replied as the two of you walked into a local café. You nodded in agreement, and you both walked up the the register to order.

The rest of the day was a blur - you went to a few more stores, and then eventually hailed a cab and went back to your apartment. You were so exhausted that you kicked off your shoes and flopped into your couch, too tired to even eat. As you lie there, you felt your phone vibrate in you pocket. Reluctantly, you pulled it out slowly, and clicked it on.

***-****-**** - Hello.

Your first though was, "It's Harry!" Your second thought was, "That's a very ominous introduction." Nonetheless, you typed up a response.

Y/n <3 - Who's this?

***-****-**** - Harry, from earlier hahah x

You let out a sigh of relief - he had messaged you back, and it hadn't been some rando. Things were working out nicely.

Y/n <3 - Well, hello!

While you were waiting for a response, you set his contact name up. You hadn't gotten a photo of him yet, so you decided one from Google would do. You typed up "Harry Styles", and the search results shocked you. Ella was right - he was popular. And cute (But you already knew that.) You got a notification from him, so you screenshotted the first photo to come up (Him in a very nice pink top), set it as his photo, and then went back onto messages.

Harry Styles - Hi! I'm sorry if the whole encounter earlier was creepy. Your friend seemed quite worked up over it.

Y/n <3 - She's had bad experiences like this in the past.

Harry Styles - I've had quite a few myself, honestly. Don't blame her. Anyways, how are you?

Y/n <3 - Exhausted. All that walking must've worn me out, hahaha

Harry Styles - Hahah, that's New York for ya.

Harry Styles - Would you happen to be free tomorrow?

Harry Styles - I'd love to get to know you.

You grinned at your phone screen. This could not be happening.

Y/n <3 - Nope! Free all day. I'd love to get to know you too!

Harry Styles - Does 1pm at the Beachwood Café work? :)

He sent a location along with it. It was the same café you and Ella had gone to earlier.

Y/n <3 - Sure!

Harry Styles - Alright, talk then?

Y/n <3 - Yes!

Harry Styles - Goodnight.

Y/n <3 - Goodnight!

Seen - 11:34pm.

The next day you woke up at 10 so you would have time to get ready. You got a quick shower, did you hair, makeup... By 12:30 you were dressed and ready to go. Casual, but not too casual was what you were going for. You were pretty sure you had the look down pat. You grabbed your stuff and made your way downtown, sunglasses on.

You arrived early, 12:48pm, but luckily Harry was already there, waiting at a table near the back with two menus. He waved once he saw you, and jumped up to pull out your chair.

"Hello," you smiled.

"Hi!"

"I adore your outfit," you said as you sat down. He was now wearing a white and blue striped shirt and tan jeans. Somehow he made it work.

"I love yours as well! The skirt brings out your eyes."

You tried hard not to blush. "Thank you!"

"So, I guess we should start getting to know eachother, then?" He grinned.

You nodded. "20 questions?"

"Sure. Full name?"

"Y/n."

"Harry Edward Styles."

"I like that middle name. Very sophisticated." He laughed at this. "Age?"

"26."

"23."

"Favourite movie?"

"Clueless."

"Back To The Future."

You continued asking questions until the waiter came over to your table.

"I'll have the chicken sub," he said politely.

"I'll have a medium lemonade."

"Is that it?" Harry asked.

You sighed. "And a blueberry muffin, I guess."

The waiter wrote it down and walked off.

"I'm on a diet," you explained.

"Still," Harry shrugged. "So, tell me about yourself."

"Well, I started modeling at about age 8, for this clothing bran-"

"No no no, I meant about you."

You gave him a confused look.

"Not about your job, you!"

"Okay, well, let's see... Uh..."

"I'm 26, but you already knew that. I live in New York, obviously. I used to work in a bakery, even though I just told you not to talk about your job. I like playing football, I write, and I enjoy baking bread. See? Easy."

You laughed. Why did he have to be so... Charming?

"I'm 23, but you already knew that. I've lived in New York my whole life. I read a lot, and I mean a lot. I have a ton of plants in my apartment, since I can't really have a garden here. I like Taylor Swift's music."

Harry nodded. "See? That wasn't so bad."

You laughed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Just then the waiter placed the food on the table, and you took a sip of your lemonade while Harry dug into his sub.

"I dated Taylor for a pr stunt once."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She got a few songs, I got a new story to tell during interviews."

"Oh. Did you like her?"

"Nah."

You laughed again. "Oh, my."

"Yeah. I haven't had many actual relationships. 3."

"I haven't had any."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Not many guys are interested. Or, well, interested in me, you know?"

"I find that hard to believe."

You tried not to blush once again as you took a sip of your lemonade.

"Well, it's true."

"Personally, I think you're great."

"You are too!"

The two of you continue eating. After two minutes, Harry speaks up.

"Want to go back to my apartment and watch a movie? In a non weird way, of course."

"Okay, that sounds good. Which movie?"

"Clueless?" He winked.

You grinned. "Of course."

You get up and walk out into the streets of New York, leaving your blueberry muffin on the table.

The walk to Harry's is very short. You two talk the whole way there, mainly small talk, but it isn’t awkward at all. You feel like you can be yourself around him - whatever that means. To put it into words, you feel comfortable around him. Which is weird, because you just met him a day ago, but it feels right for some reason.

Eventually you arrived at the door to his apartment. While he was busy digging his key out of his pocket, you took a glance up and down the hallway. This place was much fancier than you had expected. It made your apartment complex look cheap. Everything seemed so... posh. Harry pushed open the door, and you stepped inside. His apartment was decorated with art; albums of artists you’ve never even heard of were hung on the walls, and potted plants were everywhere. It was messy, but in an organized way.

“I just need to run to the washroom, make yourself at home,” he said as he kicked off his shoes. 

“Alright,” you replied. You put your coat on a coat rack (Obviously) and walked over to the couch. Unsure of what to do, you decided to check twitter. After a few seconds of contemplating if checking your phone right now was rude or not, you decided to turn on your data and do it, since he was in the bathroom and you were bored. You looked over you shoulder, then hit the trending page. Politics, Ariana Grande - she must be releasing a new album - #TGIF, and... Harry Styles? Without thinking twice, you click on it. Immediately, photos of you and him pop up from when you were walking back to his place. That was only a few minutes ago... how did these photos get out so soon?

“You ready?” Harry asked as he entered the room, holding up a DVD case with an excited look on his face.

“Yep,” you said, putting down your phone. A second later, you picked it back up. “Did you see twitter?”

“No, I don’t go on social media much,” he replied as he popped the disc into his bluray player.

“You’re trending.”

“Cool.”

“No, I mean... we got papped on the way back here. Look.” You turned the phone so he could see it. 

He took a glance at the screen, then grabbed a remote and flopped onto the couch next to you. “It doesn’t really bother me. Happens far too often. I mean, unless you have a problem with it. I can get them taken down, if you’d like.” Suddenly, his usual relaxed self has replaced with a worried one.

You shook your head. “No, no, I... just letting you know. I don’t care. Besides, I didn’t see many people talking about it, just sharing the photos.”

“Oh, well, if you change your mind, just let me know,” he concluded as he turned on the TV.

You nodded, and then focused on Cher Horowitz on the screen. You didn’t watch much of the movie, because you and Harry kept on cracking jokes and telling stories, but you wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Eventually, it was time for you to leave, since it was nearly 5pm. 

“Do you want me to walk you back? Or, I could call you a cab,” Harry asked as you slipped on your shoes.

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“No, no, I’ll walk you back,” he insisted as he grabbed his coat.

You weren’t about to argue with him, because, let’s face it, you secretly wanted him to walk you home. So you followed him out the door and to the elevator.

You talked the whole way there, but you were distracted just a tiny bit - you wanted to keep an eye out for paps. Eventually you decided that it was difficult and pointless, so you fully engaged yourself in Harry’s conversation on how to make a mean loaf of bread.

A few minutes later, you arrived at your place.

“Well, this is it,” you grinned sadly.

Harry nodded. “I’ll message you later?”

“Of course. We have to do this again, you know.”

Harry smiled wide. “Sure. I’d love that.”

“Well... goodbye, Harry.”

He leaned in and gave you a quick kiss on the cheek. “Goodbye, y/n.” 

You stared back at him, starstruck, but he turned and started walking down the hall before you could say anything. “Love ya!” You called out quickly before you shut the door behind you, unsure if he even heard you. Oh, well. He’d message you later, anyways.

You were quite hungry by this point, so you decided to order Chinese food off of Postmates. Once that call was made, you sat down and opened Twitter again. You noticed that you had way more notifications than usual, but you decided that could wait until after you checked the trending topics once more. “Harry Styles” was still trending, but even more surprisingly, “Y/n” was right underneath it. You decided to hit Harry’s topic first - MORE pap photos came up, this time from when you were walking home. Wow. 

“We do look like a proper couple.” You thought, though you quickly shook it. You’d just met - although you know what they say, “Love at first sight” and all that crap.But no. 

You decided to scroll down even further, past all of the photos and to the actual tweets.

@Harryscherry77: Is @ yn Harry’s new girlfriend? If so, she’s soooooo lucky.

@Y/nsclouds: Why is y/n being papped with Harry Styles? She can do much better. His music isn’t even that good.

@Lightsuplouisx: I ship it, tbh {Insert photo here}

@TaylorxxxTea: Oh cute, another pr stunt :/ #HarryStyles IsOverParty

@GalacticY/N26: Ugh, Harry? Really? I’m seriously gonna unstan Y/n, I’ve been considering it but this is just the last straw for me.

@HarryIsUpAllNight: Did you guys know the girl Harry was papped with is a model? She’s absolutely gorgeous, I wouldn’t doubt it.

@Stylesfangirl49: Y/n is honestly so ugly. #RunHarryRun 

@SummertimeNewsOfficial: Has Harry Styles been spotted with yet another woman, months after his breakup with Camille? {Insert Link Here}

@Larry2020xxx: Another beard LMAOOO c’mon. PR STUNTTTT.

@Lola33smith: They haven’t even been confirmed dating yet, calm downnnnn.

“Wow,” you thought as you continued scrolling. “This is not what I was expecting.”

It seemed like the whole internet had something to say about a few lousy pictures of you and H. There was good and bad, though it felt like the bad outweighed the good. An alarming amount of people seemed to think it was a pr stunt. Wow. Your notifications weren’t much better - loads of people had followed you, dm’ed you, called you worthless, called you amazing. It was a lot to handle. Just then the doorbell rang - your Postmates. How long had you been looking through all of that? It didn’t matter now. You went to get your food, then sat back down and began to text Harry. Suddenly, you stopped. If he got so worried about the first set of photos, not to mention you walking home by yourself, how would he react to this? He had said he doesn’t go on social media much, so you figured that as long as you didn’t tell him, it would all blow over quick enough and he wouldn’t have to worry about it. You didn’t want to stress him out. Instead, to take your mind off of this chaotic day you turned on The Office and tried to regain a sense of normalcy. 

Although the more you thought about it, the less and less you wanted Harry to message you. 

“PR stunt.”

EDIT: CHAPTER TWO IS NOW OUT! CLICK HERE

[fandom-blackhole]

Hello, hello it's me, your partner in crime 🐣 who's got a batch of new ideas.

So Din has his australian shepherd Razor Crest,

I feel like Boba is more of a cat person and he's a busy man so he wouldn't have time for walks anyway,

I was initially thinking about either a sphynx cat or a British shorthair, these are really fancy breeds, but

I've got this idea, maine coon! This breed is fancy too!

Big kitty resting on his meaty thigh or in his lap 😳 (okay are we keeping this PG or at some point we are gonna go to town)

Oh and of course we can't obviously name kitty slave (Din points for you for the name of your ship working here)

Okay, back to work. Umm Paz...

While I love idea of him owning any breed, taking home any strays from the back alley of his restaurant, we need to remember that his living space is limited,

It's cheesy but imagine the spaghetti scene from Lady and The Trump recorded irl by Paz and Sent to you,

So a good doggo for Paz? Chihuahua?

Like there is this huge, chunky, ex-army man, which owns the best restaurant in Town, going around, stocking supplies with his little companion tucked under his arm,

Because of his bde he won't be ashamed of carrying his pet in cute little bag!

Razor Crest is such a good girl. She instantly starts loving you and Grogu,

Din is a busy man but still he manages to go jogging with her, his girlie needs a lot of activities since she is a shepherd dog (also Din with nicely toned legs because of the joggs? Ok ok keep this PG! Unless👉🏽👈🏽😳)

Grogu would still occasionally try to eat anything he can find (bad habit from his troubled upbringing but you and Din are working on fixing it though!)

This means Grogu would gladly share a "snack" with his big sister, and vice versa she once brought him her chewy snack,

Let's say you and Din need to visit uncle Paz more often, so Grogu develops proper taste for human, non-object food,

Crest sleeps with you and Din in bed. Neither of you can deny her that privilege,

But when Din finally adopts Grogu and the kiddo moves in, Crest will only sleep with him, guarding the little one all the time,

You and Din have no idea, but once Grogu snatched a small ball from daddy's car,(shiny-metal-ball-thingy from ship but in this case it's not metal and is child and pet friendly?) maybe he got it for kids at school but was forgetting to take it with him, Din big dummy dum,

Boba's lockscreen is a photo of you curled on the bed with the kitty atop of you(he is a big softie for both of you),

He has a huge folder with full on photos hoots of his cat,

But most pictures are blurred and the cat looks into camera like "human, don't bother me, human pet me, human bring treats),

Nonetheless, he treasures them dearly,

Paz' place is pet friendly,

He even has some dog and cat special dishes on the menu,

His doggo is his best culinary critic (after you of course),

Paz is thinking about making some accommodations in the backyard, back at home because he desperately wants to rescue more strays, but he keeps in mind that his farm animals need proper care too,

So he holds an event with local shelter at his place,

You help him organize everything perfectly, there is delicious food and lots of cute pets who are looking for a new home,

After fruitful ending you decide on collaborating witj the shelter as often as possible,

Paz even helped his old army pal adopt a dog because as a, selfcare king, he knows animals can provide great help when someone struggles with ptsd or anxiety.

As always please don't mind my mistakes. I hope you have been doing well, my writing bestie - 🐣

Screaming!!! Okay so sorry for taking so long, Saturdays are my 'busy' days lmao, also this can get as spicy as you want! I'm down for anything......

Please for the love of God yes, Boba totally has a Maine coon aka my favorite cat breed

He loves this cat dearly and you love when it comes and curls up on your lap

As for the name, what about Fennec??? Unless you want to have her be like his right hand in his organization

And Paz totally picks up strays and takes them to the local no kill shelter, he wants to keep them all, but he knows he can't

Paz is constantly sending the reader pictures of dogs and cats and animals doing various things, and recreating movie scenes

As for Paz's dog, a Chihuahua is so fucking perfect!!! Huge man with tiny dog yes please

(Though I may be biased because I own a three legged chihuahua named Guinevere aka Gwen)

Paz totally goes around shopping and everything with his little pupper with him (did you know they have harness for dogs so that you can carry them around like babies....so like my new pp except instead of Grogu its a doggo)

Paz also definitely allows pets into the restaurant and even has a little dog area for the pets to mingle while you eat

He of course is also a 5 star chef when it comes to feeding the animals, making sure to check all of the boxes when it comes to their basic nutritional needs

OMFG BIG BRAIN MOMENT, Paz is a certified rehabilitator for animals, he will take in hurt animals, domestic and wild, and help them until he can release them back into the wild or take them to the shelter/give them to a good home

Din totally goes jogging when he can, and he has a jogging stroller so Grogu can go with him (Grogu is on the smaller side because of his past hardships)

Grogu sooooo gets into Razor's treats (my sister used to walk along our alley behind our house and eat our dogs 😂😂)

Grogu and Razor are also partners in crime, they steal stuff and share the spoils all the time (hence why Din doesn't give Grogu chocolate or anything bad for dogs yet)

Din once found Grogu chewing on a bone he gave Razor and almost had a heart attack

Also the images of Grogu curled around Razor in his tiny space shipped bed, 102038302/10 too fucking cute (Grogu's room is space themed and you totally helped Din set everything up for him)

As for the metal ball, in this AU what if its like a small moon plushy that Din had in his classroom that Grogu keeps managing to sneak home until Din just gives up and let's him keep it? (Thats how the two of you got the idea for a space themed room)

Boba being a total grandpa taking pictures of his kitty to send to you all the time, aka another reason why they are blurry because Boba can't take a good picture to save his life lmao

Paz totally holds drives for the local shelter and events for people to come and meet animals they can adopted

Paz holding nights at the restaurant where all of the money is donated to the shelter and at the cash register he gives out home made dog biscuits as thank yous for coming in and donating

Omg Paz help his buddies with getting animals 😭😭

Also I raise you, Paz owns rabbits as well that he often takes with him when he visits Din's classroom (one of them is Grogu's and he comes over and plays with it and feeds it once a week)

(Send me THOTS!!)