#her surname made cars show up

[inkdreamt]

Zenon Kar

[theemporium]

[7k] single dad!steve, wednesday!reader and a meddling kid that may be hawkins' best wingwoman.

.

Steve Harrington was barely eighteen years old when he was handed an eight month old baby and told he was a father. 

It had been a few weeks out of his high school graduation. He was in his house, a pot of instant noodles with a fork sticking out of it abandoned on the coffee table as he watched whatever mediocre game show that was playing on the television. The doorbell rang—an odd occurrence at eleven in the evening—but he got up and answered it regardless. 

Except, there was nobody he knew on the other side of the door—just a basket with a baby inside and an envelope taped to the edge with his name sprawled on it. 

In a panic, Steve had called Hopper. Later on, he would feel bad for waking the man up and dragging him out of bed at such an odd hour, but he was young, confused and stressed out of his mind that somebody had left a child on his doorstep. 

With Hopper there and being the voice of reason, he finally got the guts to open the envelope that explained everything. It was from a one night stand he had at some houseparty last year, one that clearly resulted more than he bargained for. She was from out of town, a friend of a friend’s cousin who heard about the party, and she was already back home when she took the test. She thought she could do it. She thought she could raise a child on her own. But eight months in after a difficult pregnancy, she couldn’t take it anymore. She just couldn’t do it anymore. 

Despite the twist in his gut and the guilt he felt that she had to do this all alone, there was not one apology in her letter. No apology for dumping this on him or not contacting him when she found out. No explanation as to why she kept it a secret. Just a simple note at the end that said the baby’s name and that was all. 

Aurora Harrington. 

He was surprised she had even given the child his surname in the first place. 

That night was full of breakdowns, tears and an emergency call to Joyce Byers who made her way over as soon as she could to help the young teen wrap his head around the fact that he was a father. He had a child. He had his family. 

Steve had always imagined starting his own family, having kids with the love of his life after they moved into their dream home with a family dog who the kids would grow up with. Never once in his vision did he expect he would be eighteen, unprepared and alone. 

But he wasn’t really alone. 

He had Hopper and Joyce. He had Robin and the gang of kids who seemed less stressful to deal with now that he had an actual baby who was reliant on him. He had support systems who backed him up during the following months as he discovered fatherhood. 

And most importantly, he had his daughter. 

Despite his conflicting emotions from that night, Steve would never change it for the world. Maybe he would have wished he met his daughter earlier, that he knew she existed earlier—but beyond that, he couldn’t find a part of him that was upset at the fact she had entered his life. 

“Rory! What did we say about running?” 

“Sorry, Daddy!” 

Steve felt a warmth settle in his chest as he watched his daughter stop, quickly turning on the spot and rushing back to him (even though he said no running) and waiting patiently as he closed and locked the car. He grinned down at the young girl—now three, almost four and energetic as ever—as she extended her hand out for him to take. 

“Please?” she asked in the sweetest voice ever and Steve was unable to resist the big, brown eyes staring up at him.

He extended his hand to her, watching as she wrapped her palm around two of his fingers before all but dragging him towards the Hawkins Public Library, a tradition that began long before she could walk. He obediently followed her, his other hand holding the books they had taken out last time as they made their way up the steps and towards the reception. 

Orla—a sweet old woman who had been working in the library long before Steve himself was born—gave the father-daughter duo a smile as they entered the building, something oddly maternal about the simple gesture. 

“If it isn’t my favourite members,” she greeted in a soft, quiet voice as they approached the desk. In a swift movement, Steve placed the books on the desk before lifting Rory up so she could see the older woman. “Did little miss sunshine enjoy the books this week?” 

“Bleh,” the young girl stated, her nose scrunched in disgust. 

Steve only laughed, shaking his head at his daughter before turning to Orla. “She said it didn’t make sense.” 

“It’s a fairytale,” Orla said in a cooing voice for the young child. “It’s magical, it doesn’t need to make sense.” 

“I wanted a dragon,” Rory said with a frown. “No dragons. Only horses. Boring.” 

“Well, maybe you’ll find something better this week,” Orla sighed. The woman tried every week to throw a new princess tale or magical story at the girl, and every week she was unamused. 

“Can I go look, Daddy?” Rory asked, her attention turning to her father as she stared up at him hopefully. 

“Go on, sunshine, I’ll be there in a second,” he murmured and pressed a chaste kiss to the top of her head, the messy braids he had done that morning already coming undone. He placed her down, only to watch her run off not even seconds later. “No running, Rory!” 

“No yelling in the library!” Orla scolded playfully, watching as Steve only blushed in embarrassment. 

“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish smile. 

However, young Rory Harrington didn’t listen to her father’s instructions as she ran towards the children’s section of the library where the shelves were shorter and the colours were brighter. Her wide eyes took in the cartoon characters painted on the walls and the colourful bunting pinned across the ceiling. She eagerly made her way towards the bright plastic chairs and massive beanbags, only to stop short when she noticed somebody was already there. 

“Who are you?” 

You froze for a moment as the young girl’s voice sounded through the quiet section. You turned to look at her, still kneeling on the floor as you worked through the books you had to reshelf, and your eyes narrowed at the accusation. 

“Who are you?” You restored, watching as the young girl with sandy brown hair and big brown eyes tilted her head. And then she smiled wider than you had ever seen any child smile before. 

“Rory!” she said her name excitedly. “My name is Rory!” 

“Right,” you said with a single nod of your head before you turned back to the shelves. 

“Aren’t you gonna say your name?” She asked curiously and you glanced back over your shoulder at her. 

“No,” you stated bluntly but the young girl didn’t seem all that bothered by the tone. 

“Why are you wearing all black?” She questioned once again.

You let out a sigh. “Because I want to.” 

“Oh,” she hummed and nodded. “My Uncle Eddie does that.” 

“Good for him, kid,” you murmured before you turned back to the shelves, hoping that if you just let the child rattle on, you could finish your work in this section and run off before the kid’s parents showed up asking the same amount of questions she was. 

“He says angels wear black,” she told you, her voice still eager and animated as she spoke. “Daddy says he’s lying but Uncle Eddie never lies!” 

You let out a thoughtless hum. 

“Are you an angel?” 

You paused, blinking as the question processed before you turned to look at her. “Am I an angel?” 

Rory nodded. “Yeah, a dark angel. Cause you wear black.” 

“A dark angel,” you repeated, wondering where this kid even came from. 

“Or a witch!” She said with a gasp, looking at you with hopeful eyes. “Are you a witch?” 

“Do you not have somewhere to be or…?” You trailed off, glancing past her as if you expected to see her parents wander over at any moment and apologise for their daughter’s behaviour.

“Nope! Daddy says I can pick three books this week!” Rory grinned widely, like that accomplishment should have meant something to you the way it meant to her.

“Maybe you should go find your daddy then,” you said to her. But she only giggled and shrugged her shoulders before she moved closer to you. 

“You have black on your eyes,” she murmured in a curious voice only children have.

“It’s called makeup,” you deadpanned. 

“I want some!” 

“Ask your daddy.” 

Almost as though you summoned him yourself, Steve came rounding the corner with his brows furrowed together, wondering what was taking his daughter so long to pick up a few books for the week. Just like his daughter had done, he quickly fell short when he noticed you in the children’s section. 

“Oh. Hi.” 

You raised your brows, unamused. But your reaction was the last thing on his mind when Rory ran over to him, arms stretched out for him to catch her and lift her, which he did. 

“Daddy! I made a friend!” Rory smiled brightly. 

“I see,” Steve murmured before clearing his throat. He looked at you with a more polite smile, one that matched his daughter’s perfectly. “I’m Steve.” 

However, you simply nodded and turned your head back towards the shelves you were stacking. Steve frowned a little but didn’t question it—not that he got much of a chance—before Rory was wiggling to be put down again. She raced around the section, grabbing the books she had noticed last week before handing them to Steve with an eager smile, ready to check them out. 

Rory gripped her father’s fingers, pausing before they walked away as she turned back to you. “Bye, Angel! See you next week!” 

Steve blinked, guessing you had told Rory your name and gave you an awkward wave. “Bye, Angel.” 

And just like that, the two Harringtons left, leaving you somewhat intrigued by the small family and the odd choice of nickname. 

…

The second time Steve saw you was the next week when he returned with Rory, old books in hand and eager to choose new ones. 

She seemed more excitable than usual and it was only confirmed when they entered the library, this time finding you in the reception seat instead of Orla. Steve barely had a chance to say a word before Rory raced over, turning to look at her father expectantly as she waited to be lifted. 

“Angel! Angel!” 

You lifted your head, catching a glimpse of the small child before you noticed Steve approaching the desk with a kind smile. You watched as he placed a small pile of books down before lifting his daughter, the signature Harrington smile on their faces. 

“No yelling in the library,” you said as a way of greeting, but neither of them seemed bothered by it. 

“Sorry!” Rory said, polite as ever even if her volume didn’t change. 

“Inside voices, sweetheart,” Steve chastised his daughter in a soft voice and the little girl nodded. 

You watched the interaction with a hint of curiosity as he kissed the top of the girl’s head before setting her down, letting her run off to the children’s section. He then reached into his back pocket, taking out his wallet and sliding out the small, plastic library card that he slid over the desk towards you. 

“Just giving these back,” he said as he somewhat awkwardly pushed the pile of books in your direction. 

“I assumed,” you said as you took the pile of books, your fingers tapping away on the computer as you began to enter his details into the system. 

“So, are you new here?” He asked in an attempt to fill the awkward silence. 

“To the town or the library?” You questioned, your eyes remaining on the screen. 

Steve’s brows furrowed together. “Both?” 

“Yes,” you stated simply and he found himself at a loss. 

“Angel is a cool name,” he tried again, watching the way you worked so mechanically, almost like you were a machine yourself.

“A shame it’s not my name,” you replied. 

Steve blinked. “It’s not?” 

“Your daughter seems to think otherwise,” you continued. “I guess that happens when young humans are incapable of reading name tags.” 

Almost instantly his eyes shot down to the name tag pinned to your black denim pinifer, taking a few seconds to read the name scribbled on the small tag before he mouthed your name, like he was testing it before he said it aloud. 

“I think Angel still fits,” he replied lamely when he realised he had fallen silent, and that you had finished checking the books back in as you slid his library card across the desk. 

“Do you have any books to check out?” You asked him in a somewhat monotonous voice. 

“Do you always avoid compliments?” He retorted, the question slipping past his lips before he could even stop himself. But the short answers bothered him in a way he couldn’t quite understand himself. 

“I didn’t realise my job description included maintaining mediocre small talk and aimless comments,” you stated and he knew you were right. He knew very well. But that didn’t stop the bitter taste left in his mouth as he was left grasping for a reply. 

Thankfully, Rory approached the desk moments later with two books in her hands and Steve’s thoughts were torn away from you. 

…

They saw you every week without fail at the library. However, it was over a month after that first interaction that Steve bumped into you outside of your workplace. 

It had been a long day at work—an unexpected double shift when Kevin never showed up and supposedly called in sick—which left Eddie swooping in to take Rory for a few hours before Steve picked her up from the trailer less than thirty minutes ago. 

It was coming up to eight o’clock and he knew Rory hadn’t eaten yet. He also knew it was quickly approaching her bedtime and he didn’t have a single clue what was left in the fridge back in the house, which meant an impromptu last minute grocery trip so he could grab the microwavable macaroni and cheese Rory liked. 

He was truly a candidate for father of the year.

“You sure you don’t wanna sit up here?” Steve asked the young girl as he pushed the trolley through the automatic doors at the entrance. “You love sitting up here.”

“I’m a big girl, daddy,” Rory huffed out, but she still gripped the edge of his jacket like he requested. “I can walk.” 

“If you get tired, just tell me, sunshine,” he said to her, knowing full well his daughter was as stubborn as they got.

Steve was fighting to keep his eyes open and his body moving as they wandered through the aisles of the grocery store, halfheartedly throwing things into the trolley that he vaguely remembered writing on the grocery list that was taped on the fridge. He was too stubborn himself to do two trips this week. If he forgot something, it would just have to wait until the next week. 

“Do you want the strawberry yoghurts or the kiwi ones?” Steve asked, his tired brain racking on which one his daughter preferred this week. “Rory?”

Steve blinked as he glanced down to where she was moments ago, only to see the spot next to him empty. It was like a shot of adrenaline was coursing through him as he glanced up and down the aisle, seeing no sign of the young girl. 

“Rory!” Steve called out, his voice a little more frantic as he abandoned the trolley and the yoghurts and began racing through the aisles they just left. The grocery store was by no means big, but in that moment it felt fucking massive. 

“Rory, where—” 

His sneakers screeched against the tile floor as he paused by the small bakery near the back of his store. There Rory was, standing there without a concern in the world, holding onto the edge of your dress like she did with him.

“Daddy! Look!” Rory cheered gleefully, unaware of the emotional distress her father had just been through. “Angel!”

“I…uh, I see that,” Steve’s chest was heaving as he walked towards you both, finally tearing his eyes away from his daughter when he was sure she was okay before looking at you. 

“You lost your small human,” you told him.

And maybe it was the adrenaline rush or the stress or the fact Steve was just downright fucking terrified up until a few moments ago, but he laughed. He laughed loudly. 

“Yeah,” he breathed out between chuckles. “I did.” 

There was a pause.

“Thank you for looking after her,” he added quickly, his cheeks flushing a light pink. 

Your eyes dropped down to the young girl who was still gripping your dress. “I didn’t really mean to,” you replied honestly. “She just seemed to…latch on.” 

“She used to be a runner,” Steve admitted sheepishly. 

“Admirable,” you commented with a nod. 

Steve cleared his throat a little, shifting his gaze back to his daughter as he held out his hand. “C’mon, sunshine, we should leave Angel to do her shopping.” 

But Rory just pouted. “I wanna stay with her.” 

“My cat doesn’t like kids,” you stated bluntly as you tried to take a step away from the young girl, but her grip held tight. 

“Kitty?” Rory’s eyes lit up. 

“Rory, honey,” Steve sighed and walked closer, kneeling down to gently pull her hands off your dress. “We gotta go.” 

Her bottom lip jutted out. “Daddy—” 

“M’sorry, sunshine, but we gotta head home,” he murmured in a softer voice, all too well aware of the way your eyes were watching the interaction closely. “It’s your bedtime soon.” 

“Story?” She asked hopefully. 

“Your favourite one,” he promised and she quickly threw herself into his arms, a small oomph leaving his lips upon impact. He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up effortlessly before he gave you a smile. “Thank you, once again. I know you said you did nothing but—”

“Message received, Steve,” you nodded. 

“Right,” he cleared his throat, already starting to take a few steps back to head back to whichever aisle he abandoned his trolley in. “Have a good night, Angel.” 

…

It was two weeks before Halloween when Steve came into the library alone, looking a little more dishevelled than you had ever seen him before. 

It wasn’t unusual for Steve to be a bit of a mess. He was twenty-odd years old and a single dad, it wasn’t like he had his life together at all times. Hell, not even half of the time. 

Sometimes it was just stained shirts when he didn’t have time to do laundry or mismatched shoes he didn’t pay attention to when he was running out of the house. 

But this was something different. 

His clothes were wrinkled and his hair was far messier than usual. There were dark circles under his eyes that made it look like he hadn’t had proper rest in days, and there was a weariness in his eyes that only a young, lost parent could ever really have. 

“You look shit,” you said as he shuffled towards the reception desk. 

Steve just gave you a sad smile. “Rory’s caught something from daycare, hasn’t stopped coughing or crying in days.” 

He was somewhat surprised by the way your brows furrowed in concern. 

“She’s sick?” 

Steve nodded. “All week. But she demanded new books so a friend is watching over her while I grab some.” He paused for a moment, his eyes widening in realisation. “Shit, I’m sorry, I forgot the other books back home and—“

“Steve,” you said his name, a little softer than your usual tone. “It’s fine. You can bring them next week, or whenever she’s better. I’ll let you off this time.” 

His lips twitched a little. “Going soft on me, Angel?” 

“Don’t flatter yourself,” you muttered but he could’ve sworn you smiled a little before your face returned to its usual expression of general disinterest. “Go and pick your books, Steve.” 

Steve only grinned before he disappeared off to the kids’ section of the library, flicking through the books as he racked his brain on which ones they had already read and which ones were new. 

You were still at the desk when he returned with a pile of seven books, a sheepish smile on his face. 

“I couldn’t decide,” he murmured as he placed the pile down. “Plus, she’s been wanting more stories.”

You glanced down at the pile, your eyes flickering across the spines as you read the titles before you frowned. “No.” 

Steve’s face fell. “No?” 

“She won’t like these,” you told him. 

His confusion only grew. “She won’t?” He repeated before shaking his head. How could you seriously know his daughter better than him?

You nodded your head towards the colourful board. “She’s given every princess book only two pumpkins,” you said as you pointed towards the themed reading chart the library had set up for the local kids. “She doesn’t like them.”

“She doesn’t?” He asked, sounding a little helpless. 

“She prefers the witch books,” you said and pointed towards the chart where Rory had given each of the books at least three pumpkins or more. 

“Oh.” 

You watched the way the crease between his brows deepened, his shoulders tense and the rest of him even tenser. He looked like he didn’t have a single clue what to do and he was starting to beat himself up for it. 

“I’ll give you a few,” you said eventually as you turned around, heading towards the small cart of books you had yet to reshelf. “I’ve been meaning to give them to Rory anyways.” 

“You have?” Steve asked, the surprise in his voice not hidden. Or at least, it wasn’t hidden well. 

“She has similar taste to me when I was her age,” you said as you placed a pile of around five books towards him. “That’s a good sign.” 

“I’m sure it is, Angel,” he murmured as he took the books, giving you a warm smile. “You’re quite the lady.” 

“Don’t you forget it, Steve,” you teased lightly, and he swore he saw another twitch of your lips. 

His eyes softened. “Thank you.” 

You simply nodded. “I’ll see you when she’s better, Steve.” 

And that was the closest thing to a proper goodbye he had ever received from you. 

…

When Rory was better, she came running into the library with a grin spread across her face and a themed Halloween headband pushing back her sandy brown hair. 

“Angel!” 

Steve opened his mouth, the words on the tip of his tongue. But you got there first. 

“Inside voices, Rory.” 

Rory blinked before flashing you a sheepish smile. “Sorry.” 

“You look better,” you noted, your eyes taking in the small child. Except for the paleness that remained even after one was sick, she looked mostly normal. And just as eager for the upcoming holiday than she was the last time you saw her. 

“I am better, Angel!” Rory grinned up at you, barely able to stand still as she did. “Halloween is this week!” 

“Is it?” You mused. “I had no idea.”

“It is! It is!” Rory clapped her hands together before turning to her father. “Tell her, Daddy!” 

Your attention turned to Steve for the first time since he entered, only to find the boy already staring at you with an unreadable expression painted across his face. You waited for him to say something but he never did. 

“Daddy!” Rory repeated, tugging on the edge of his jacket and he finally seemed to snap out of whatever daze he was in. 

“Huh?” Steve looked down at his daughter before he looked at you, his cheeks flushed a light pink. “Oh, yeah, Halloween!” 

“Tell Angel how long, Daddy!” Rory insisted. 

“Oh,” Steve blinked before clearing his throat. “Uh, five—”

“Five days!” The young girl finished for him. 

Your lips twitched. “Well, now I know.” 

Steve only smiled sheepishly in response. 

Everything followed the same routine for their usual visits to the library. Steve placed the previous books on the counter, you signed them back in as Rory ran off to the children’s section to find some more to take out. Usually, Steve would stand by the desk and make aimless small talk with you that you always insisted was unnecessary, but always entertained regardless. However, when the youngest Harrington disappeared between the shelves, so too did the older one.

You tried not to let your curiosity peek.

Steve returned to the desk a few moments before Rory, holding his own pile of books that he placed on the desk, along with the three new stories his daughter wanted to take out. He watched the way your eyes scanned over the spines before your gaze met his, one eyebrow raised in question.

“New hobby?” You mused, and something in his chest warmed at the fact you essentially cracked a joke with him.

“No, uh,” he let out a nervous laugh, scratching the nape of his neck as he stared down at the pile of books with an odd expression—almost like they scared him. You think they genuinely did. “They are for me.” Pause. “To learn.” Another pause. “Rory wants to join the Hawkins Halloween Bake Sale and I can’t bake for shit.”

“Bad word, Daddy!” The young girl chirped as she skipped towards the desk, more books in hand that she wordlessly handed to her father.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Steve apologised with a sheepish expression.

“You can’t bake?” You questioned. 

“Daddy says it’s very hard,” Rory answered instead, nodding solemnly like she agreed with her father.

“It’s not,” you said with a snort, and the sound warmed something in Steve’s chest.

“It is,” he defended, shaking his head. “It’s witchcraft!”

“It’s baking, Steve,” you said in that almost-teasing voice that made his lips twitch upwards. “Not rocket science.”

“It may as well be,” the boy grumbled under his breath. 

“Can you help us, Angel?” Rory blurted out of nowhere, looking up at you with her big doe eyes that made it virtually impossible for anyone to say no to the young girl. 

Steve’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment as he turned to you, already shaking his head before he could even utter the words out. “Don’t listen to her, we can cope on our own—”

“Please?” Rory continued, jutting her bottom lip out until you felt something in your chest tighten at the sight. 

“When is the bake sale?” You asked, your eyes narrowing in question.

Steve said your name, uttered it out in a choked gasp but Rory continued to answer your questions. 

“Halloween!” She cheered gleefully.

“I can help you bake on Saturday,” you said with an earnest nod. “I have the day off.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Steve said in a softer voice, ignoring the happy cheers of his daughter beside him. “We don’t wanna bother you or—”

“You’re not bothering me,” you stated bluntly. “I want to help. I wouldn’t offer otherwise.”

“Oh,” he murmured before nodding. “You’re sure?”

“Certain.” 

Steve tried to bite back his smile. “Yeah, we’ll see you on Saturday then.”

…

The house was in shambles before you even arrived. 

Despite no actual baking having occurred, the Harrington household was chaotic since the family had woken earlier that morning. It took a solid five minutes after ringing the doorbell before Steve opened it, swinging the oak door open as his frazzled state gave you a confused smile. 

“You’re early,” he replied breathlessly. 

You raised your brows. “I’m actually on time.”

His eyes widened as he cursed under his breath. “You are?” His eyes glanced down at his watch. “Shit, you are.”

“Is this a bad time?” Your eyes glanced over his lack of t-shirt and sweatpants laying low on his hips. “You seem…unprepared.”

“Yes…no!” Steve quickly shook his head, running a hand through his head as he pushed his hair away from his face. “No, it’s just…Rory is just really excited to bake.” 

Excited was an understatement. Rory was practically bouncing off the walls, grabbing random ingredients from the cupboards and placing them around the house. Steve had spent most of the morning running after her, trying to put things back in the right place whilst also trying to keep his daughter in one place for longer than thirty seconds.

It was endearing, in a way. It was endearing to watch the way the father-daughter duo interacted, and the way they seemed to move like a practised routine. You watched them with a look of interest as Steve tied the small apron around Rory’s waist and placed the costume chef hat on her head before he even put a shirt on himself. 

To be fair, he still hadn’t put a shirt on. 

“So,” Steve clapped his hands and gave you a smile that matched his daughter’s excited one. “Where do we start?”

And when Steve Harrington told you he was hopeless at baking, you genuinely thought he was exaggerating. 

He was very much not exaggerating in the slightest.

“So, I add the salt now?”

“I—” You paused. “You think salt goes into cupcakes?”

He blinked. “They don’t?”

Rory snickered. 

Your lips twitched upwards as you budged him to the side with your hip. “Let me do the baking, Steve,” you said as you nodded towards the bowls on the other side of the counter. “Just mix the colours into the icing.” You paused. “And wear gloves unless you want stained hands.”

He grinned. “Aye aye, captain.”

It didn’t take long to mix the icing together. Rory had helped him, and it had been a little messier than intended but the young girl was giggling and smiling the whole time so neither of you had much issue with the matter. Rory settled on the counter, legs swinging off the edge as she watched you work, piping up with random questions here and there. 

And never once did you get annoyed with the young girl, staying as patient as ever. 

Steve watched with a fond smile on his face, head in his hand as he watched the interactions between you and his daughter. He allowed his chest to warm as his daughter smiled wider than he had ever seen. He allowed his stomach to flutter as you smiled back at her—not a twitch of the lips or the hint of a smile, but a full wide-lipped smile.

Eventually, Rory decided she wanted to run off to play with her dolls while the cupcakes baked and cooled before you could decorate them. You wordlessly began moving around the kitchen cleaning, and Steve didn’t say anything as he began helping. 

“Thank you, by the way,” Steve suddenly spoke up, sneaking a glance at you. 

Your brows furrowed slightly. “For the cupcakes? They aren’t made yet, they could still be—”

“No, not for that,” he shook his head, his hand pausing his movements of swiping the counter as he turned to face you. “For making Rory smile.”

“She’s a happy kid,” you retorted. “It’s not that difficult to make her happy.”

“Yeah but,” Steve paused before he shrugged his shoulders. “Just…sometimes I think I can’t give her stuff I wanna, you know? Like today, moments like those. She’s been robbed of them and I just wanted to say thank you for giving them to her.”

Your face softened, and it was almost scary to see if it didn’t make his heart speed up. “You’re a good father, Steve.”

He let out a nervous laugh, his gaze dropping to the tile floor of the kitchen. “It doesn’t always feel like it.”

You stepped closer and then one more until there was little distance between you. Steve was almost caught off-guard when you took his hand in yours, intertwining your fingers and squeezing softly. 

“You’re the best father you can be for Rory,” you murmured, your voice just above a whisper but it was loud and clear for him. “And that is more than enough.”

Steve swallowed harshly, trying to rid himself of the lump in the back of his throat. He blinked a few times as he tried to rid himself of the tears welling in his lash line before his gaze dropped to your lips. And he should have looked away. He knew he should have. But you were so close and all he would have had to do was tug you a little closer with your joined hands, to dip his head down for his lips to brush over yours and—

“CAN WE DECORATE THE CUPCAKES NOW?” 

You both jumped away from each other as Rory barreled through the door, clutching a pink teddy bear in her arms as she looked up at you and Steve expectantly. 

You cleared your throat, smiling a little as you nodded. “How about you check with me?”

Rory grinned. “Okay!”

But despite himself, Steve found himself staring at your lips far more than he cared to admit for the rest of the day.

…

“Happy Halloween!”

Steve knew you were working the morning shift at the library on the morning of Halloween. He hadn’t asked you, far too shy to face you properly when every time he looked at your face he imagined kissing you senseless. He chose to ask Orla instead, who gave him a smug smirk and a knowing look when he asked the question. 

He tried to tell himself that he was only asking because he knew Rory would want to show you her Halloween costume. He told himself he was doing a kind act for his daughter’s happiness, that he just wanted to see her smile. But in all honesty—and maybe it made him a bad father—a selfish part of Steve just wanted an excuse to see you when he had no real reason to.

“Happy Halloween, Rory—” However, you cut yourself short on her name when you peered over the desk to look at the younger girl. 

“Guess who I am?” Rory exclaimed excitedly, practically bouncing on her feet as she looked at you with eager eyes. 

Your eyes glanced over the little black denim pinafore dress she was wearing, taking in the black tights and black boots and black shirt underneath. You took in the costume rings she wore and what looked like messily applied black face paint on her lips. You took in the bright pink puffer jacket she was wearing over the costume, no double to battle the cold weather. You looked at her with such a fond expression, it always made Steve want to explode.

“Uh, a witch,” you guessed half-heartedly just to see the young girl squeal in response. 

“No, silly!” Rory laughed and shook her head. “I’m you! I’m Angel!”

Steve watched the way you tried to fight the grin growing on your face. “Really? Woah, Rory, your costume is amazing.”

“Daddy helped me,” Rory answered proudly. “He said I look scary!”

You raised your brows as you finally turned to glance at Steve who was watching the interaction with an unreadable expression. “Do you think I’m scary, Steve?” 

Steve shook his head. “That feels like a trick question.”

“It is.”

“Then I choose to not answer.” 

You gave him a small smile before you turned back to the younger girl. “Shouldn’t you be heading to the carnival?”

“Daddy says you would want to see my costume,” Rory told you.

Steve blanched. “Woah, hold on a second—”

“And he says he wants you to come with us to the carnival!” Rory continued before she looked up at you, eyes wide and her bottom lip jutted out.

You quirked an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

Steve let out a nervous laugh. “She’s a little confused—”

“I want you there too!” Rory added, the puppy dog eyes intensifying as you stared down at the same baby browns she shared with her father. “Please, Angel? I wanna show everyone who made the cupcakes!”

You opened your mouth to reply but Steve cut you off, a pink tint to his cheeks as he spoke. “Orla mentioned you finished at one,” he said with a knowing look. “We don’t mind waiting ten minutes while you clock out.”

“Someone would think you had planned this, Steve,” you said in that almost-teasing voice of yours.

He tried to ignore his pounding heart. “Maybe I did.” 

Your lips twitched upwards. “I’ll meet you both outside while I grab my stuff.”

Steve tried not to let the relief show on his face, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t as subtle as he played it off in his head considering the small snort you let out before you turned back to your work. 

He had tried to fight the mix of nerves and giddiness as he watched you walked down the library steps, offering to take the tray of cupcakes from his hold. But Steve just shook your head, telling you that you could be in charge of holding Rory’s hand instead before the three of you headed towards the town centre where the carnival was set. 

It felt domestic and familiar, something that Steve was not expecting but it didn’t really surprise him either. Even if he hadn’t realised, you had somehow wiggled your way into the unit he created with Rory since the day he found her on his doorstep. And maybe it should have scared him or threatened him in some way, shape or form. Maybe it should have stressed him that his perfect, little dynamic was changing. 

But it didn’t.

You didn’t.

Walking into the Hawkins’ Halloween Carnival with you holding his daughter’s hand and him holding the cupcakes the three of you made together felt as easy and simple as breathing air. It felt natural for him to take Rory’s hand after dropping the cupcakes off at the bake sale table, swinging her back and forth as you navigated through the stalls. It felt natural for the distance between you two to disappear after Rory ran off to play with some kids from kindergarten. 

“I’m surprised the other kids aren’t scared of her,” Steve joked in a lighthearted voice, lightly nudging your shoulder with his own. 

You scoffed. “She is far too chirpy to pull off the whole look.” 

“My girl is a lil’ ray of sunshine,” he commented, almost proudly like he was seconds away from puffing his chest over the remark. 

“It suits her,” you hummed as you nodded in agreement. “She matches her father well.”

Steve smirked a little as he snuck a glance at you. “You calling me a ray of sunshine, Angel?”

“I do have to give you a nickname in retaliation for the horrendous one you’ve given me,” you retorted, turning your head to look up at him. 

“Rory came up with that,” he defended before shrugging. “Plus, it suits you.”

“I don’t think many people would call me an angel,” you remarked in a blunt tone, because that much was true. The dark clothes and aesthetic tended to intimidate people, but the candid personality seemed to completely put them off. 

“They don’t know you like I do,” Steve countered back, his voice a little lower when he spoke. A little rougher too.

“And do you know me, Steve?” 

His eyes darkened. “Yeah, I think I know you pretty damn well, Angel.”

A few beats of silence passed between the two of you. And if either one of you were honest, it wasn’t a setting either of you particularly thrived in. A carnival in the centre of town where almost every Hawkins resident was present at. With kids screaming and families laughing and the sweet scent of cinnamon thick in the air around you. With so many eyes around and yet none focused on you, not that either of you would care to notice. Not when you and Steve were too locked in your own world. 

It was you who made the first move. 

It was you who reached out to grip the lapels of his jacket in your gloved hands, to tug him closer and destroy the remaining distance between you, to pull him down so you can press your lips against yours. 

But it was Steve who kept it going. It was Steve who wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you flush against his chest. It was Steve who let one hand tangle itself in your hair, keeping a hold on the back of your head as he kissed you like it was his last moments on earth. It was Steve who kissed you like the world was ending and these last few seconds in the middle of Hawkins’ Halloween Carnival would be the last few moments alive. 

It was you who had the balls to act first, but it was Steve who made it feel like the world was exploding in a million different colours around you.

“DADDY IS KISSING ANGEL! DADDY IS KISSING ANGEL!”

You could feel the curve of his smile against your lips before he pulled away, his cheeks flushed a pretty pink colour as he turned to look at Rory who was giggling and snickering at the pair of you. He heard a soft snort and turned back down to look at you, to memorise the amused smile plastered on your face as he kept his arms wrapped around your body. 

“What?” He questioned.

You shook your head, tilting your head up to look at him. “You still think you know me, Steve?”

His smile widened. “I think I’d like to get to know you a little more.” 

You could only let out a snort of laughter in response, and Steve was determined to hear it more often in his life, if it was the last thing he would do.

.

[supermaks]

1. Brazil. 1992. By Ercole Colombo. 2. Giovanna Amati and Niki Lauda watch as a Ferrari passes in Circuito Estoril, Portugal. 1992. By Ercole Colombo.

Giovanna Amati bought her first motorbike in 1975. A 500cc Honda, powerful, loud, clearly too big for a 15-year-old Italian kid without a driver’s license.

Her parents never found out, not how she got the money, not where she found the bike, not even the identity of the salesperson desperate enough to accept a child’s money. A bike like that, to a kid like her. But not just any kid. Giovanna’s father owned movie theaters; her mother acted in said movies. All Giovanna wanted to do was play the role of racing driver. For two years, Giovanna kept her Honda hidden behind her friends’ garage, and only took it out for little spins during the late hours of the night, when Roma pretended to sleep and the sleek, narrow streets grew even more austere. Monsters in silk shirts mumbled low in the shadows, watched the kid ride over stone and grime, turn into dark gardens and across the Tevere river, far beyond the reach of the misty moonlight. Up and down, left and right, zigzagging past the Vespas and the yellow bicycles left unattended in the piazzas. A curt glimpse towards the Vatican, a recognition of Spirit, a nod of respect. Total darkness. Giovanna rode through the night like a black horse. Hair like broken hay sticking out of her helmet; sunken eyes the color of whiskey peering through a red visor. Straight, thin lips sucking on rolling paper and blowing out smoke too strong to be tobacco. This was Giovanna Amati in the dark. La principessa veloce de Roma.

3 years later, in 1978, Giovanna Amati was kidnapped in broad daylight. Caught between the considerable wealth of her surname and the diabolical politics of the time, the girl never really stood a chance. She was sitting in her car, parked in front of the Amati villa, perhaps waiting for someone to come join her, perhaps only taking a moment to breathe, listening to some music. We’ll never know. 3 masked men broke through the windshield like hammers and dragged her kicking and screaming into a van nearby. Giovanna was then taken to an apartment just a few blocks away, where she was undressed, assaulted, humiliated, broken and tortured, wrapped in a thick plastic sheet and shoved inside a wooden box. For 74 days, she was kept inside that box. The box only opened for food, for water, for hands, for mouths, for pain, for horrors. 2 months later, the box opened one last time. Against explicit court orders from the Italian government, Giovanni Amati and Anna Maria Pancanni paid for their daughter’s ransom using leftover box-office receipts from George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’, old family jewelry and some of their servants’ life-savings.

The full cost hit 800 million-lira (almost 3 million US dollars). Soon after her release, Giovanna started receiving flowers and love letters from one her captors, Jean Daniel Nieto, which prompted some to speculate about the nature of their relationship. Giovanna was kept in a box for two months. ‘The box made me stronger.’ She’d tell the BBC, years later. After a few days of radio silence and even more flowers, she phoned Jean Daniel Nieto, and informed him she could no longer live without him, and they should run away together. Jean Daniel Nieto was ecstatic. He showed up to the meeting point right on time, in his best two-piece suit. Giovanna showed up on the back of her Honda. She did not stop for Jean Daniel Nieto. The police cars who’d been following close behind, however, did.

Giovanna Amati began racing cars professionally at the age of 21. Despite successful campaigns in Formula Abarth, Italian F3 and Formula 3000, Giovanna had close to no open-wheel experience, no real backing, no sponsors, and no hopes of a successful F1 stint. Still. She wanted to ride F1 cars the way she rode her bike alone in the streets of Rome. She wanted to play the role. She was an Amati, after all. Her final option was still in the box. Money. A doomed team wobbling on its last leg let her pay for its ’92 seat, and so, with no actual pump and uncomfortable circumstance, Giovanna Amati became the last woman on earth to ever drive for the F1 world championship, and the first and only woman to do so 14 years after being kidnapped. She attempted to qualify for Brabham 3 times: Brazil, Mexico, South Africa. All failed. Brabham kicked her out, obviously, and in came male savior Damon Hill, who then, phew, failed to qualify five times.

In my dreams, la principessa veloce de Roma still rides her Honda at night. Her eyes are red behind the visor, and she doesn’t stop at the Vatican. They’ll never catch her again.

Text by supermaks

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

3. South Africa. By Ercole Colombo.

4. Gangster-story all’italiana. Source unknown.

[lol-jackles]

Walker episode 2 review

Cordell, Trey, and Cassie find themselves watching over the episode’s titular character, Maybelline Pratt, a state witness in a money laundering case.  Maybeline has the charm of all 4 Golden Girls characters as well as their combined age.  Like Sophie Petrillo, she gave Trey the slip and tried to hotwire a patrol car with a wrench, because that’s how they do in Sicily.  Like Blanche Devereaux, she loves flirting with Trey even as they take turns running away from each other.  Like Dorothy Zbonak, she is full of judgment stares and sass and keeps calling Cordell by the wrong surname.   Rangers over the age of 50 are smitten with her because every red-blooded male that grew up in the 70s and 80s fell in love with Karen Allen and Kathleen Turner and their smokey voices.  Harrison Ford to this day can’t stand Indiana Jones fanboys approaching him to only want to talk about Marion Ravenwood and “that voice”.

Maybelline has the Rose Nylund naivety thinking she can just go back to St. Olaf and carried a metal file in her oversized purse to escape from WITSEC. Cordell decided one of them need to take her home.  Trey and Cassie were “not it” and Cordell reluctantly take her to Walker ranch while the 2 security officers assigned to her secure the area.  Maybelline soften her attitude towards Cordell when she sees family pictures and learn of Emily’s passing.  Later in the middle of the night, Cordell finds Maybelline having “just to taste” bourbon at the dinner table and the two have a heart to heart over Cordell’s worry over his children leaving the nest.

“The days are long, but the years are short”, Maybelline tells Cordell, and while children appear not to listen, they are always watching.  The fact that Stella and August feel comfortable enough to leave home just means he (and Emily) did a good job raising them, and they’ll likely come back one day.  Just like Cordell and Liam did.

Cordell found it easier to talk to a stranger about his anxiousness over being ill prepared for "the quiet" once his kids are gone.  Stella too, found it easier to talk to Ben about her guilt over Witt’s death and had even shut Liam out.  In attempt to make peace with her conflicting conscious, she visits a roadside memorial where Witt succumbed to his gun shot injury.  Unexpectantly Witt’s uncle, Mike, shows up and seems kind, which made Stella feel worse and she flees.  Then Mike ominously calls someone to say he found something “interesting”.   Looks like there will be a second mystery to go with the unsolved Jackal case as we never learn why Witt broke into Geri’s house.  Speaking of which…

Cassie had updated Geri (and us) that she decided to return to the Texas Rangers.  Later Geri offers Cassie to move into her house, referencing the break in that it would be a good idea to have a ranger around.  While Cassie is thrilled and accepted Geri’s offer, you know that Cordell would be worried about their girl talks.  At least I would be.

Cordell, Trey, and Cassie brings Maybelline to court to give her testimony only to walk right into a trap to distract them so that the baddies can kidnap Maybelline. Cue lively soundtrack as a car chase through the parking garage to rescue Maybelline ends in beat down fights by Cordell and Trey. Maybelline bats her Blanche Devereaux lashes at Trey for saving her.  Cordell insists it was a team effort.

At home, Cordell waits for August to discuss the issue of him wanting to join an after school boot camp to ready himself for the military, but he needs a signed permission slip from his father.  Earlier August asked Bonham to go over Cordell’s head and convince Trey, who is running the program, to let him join.  In the season 3 finale, Cordell wouldn’t give his permission to let August join the military while he is underage.   When Bonham tries to broach the subject with Cordell, he immediately shuts it down because he wants to put off of August growing up as long as he can.   But after his midnight conversation with Maybelline, Cordell is ready to have a talk with August.

Cordell explains that while he has no regret over his own tour in the military, he can’t help wondering if he missed out on other options and he doesn’t want that for August.  But, if this is really what August wants, he'll be supportive, no matter how much he'll worry over his “only son” and “baby boy”.  August is thrilled and promised to follow Cordell’s condition that he is present for every Sunday dinner and keep up his schoolwork.  A flashback scene from the pilot episode shows Cordell telling a 14-year-old August he didn't mean for his son to grow up quickly after his mother's death, adding to Cordell’s bittersweet demeanor.

We have "the quiet" before the storm with Cordell, Liam, Ben, and Stella having fun together playing darts at the Side Step. Stella returns to her dorm to find a threatening message on the window written in red paint.

Speculation #2: Witt didn't die from his gunshot wound and was murdered on the roadside by the same person who left the threatening message to Stella.

Score: 9 out of 10. What started out a light-hearted episode ends with a horror movie jump scare, a kind of metaphor for parental struggle and angst.

artist

[silent-stories]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐇𝐔𝐈𝐙𝐎𝐓𝐋 - 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟐

Summary: When Y/N needs help on a hunt, she doesn't expect Bobby to send Dean Winchester to her. Now the two must work together to solve the case and Dean has to deal with Y/N's sarcastic and biting personality, that maybe he likes a little too much.

Pairing: Dean × F!Reader

Warnings: nightmares, swearing, cheating

Word count: 2283

Series

A house on fire, screams, his father, a crying child, creatures hidden in the shadows.

"Dean?"

Dean opened his eyes, and could see with relief that he had only had a damn nightmare.

Y/N seemed to be awake for hours and was standing in front of the bed.

"Hey. Are you okay?" She asked.

The man rubbed his face, holding back a huge yawn. He noticed with surprise that it was already morning from the rays of the sun that filtered through the window into the motel room, yet the time he rested had seemed so short.

"Mh, yeah, I'm fine. What time is it?" he asked hoarsely, his brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed, confused by sleep.

"It's almost seven a.m," Y/N replied, giving him one last look as if to make sure he was really fine, then shaking her head and going back to what she was doing, getting ready to leave. She was wearing some kind of secretary's suit and Dean couldn't help but think that it fit her very well.

He found himself observing the way her clothes enhanced her body in all the right places.

"Well, that sure doesn't help," he muttered to himself, alluding to something that usually happened to all men early in the morning.

"What?"

"Nothing," he murmured, waving a hand dismissively. "Forget it."

He sat up and sighed. Y/N repeatedly told him to hurry up, that whatever they were hunting would attack again. Dean, after getting ready like her, dressed in a suit and tie, reminded her that without having breakfast he would not go anywhere.

So, after three pancakes and a slice of pie, the hunter got behind the wheel and Y/N got into the passenger seat.

"Recap: I'm Agent Hetfield, FBI. You're my lovely colleague. We're here because we find there are similarities to some of our old cold cases. Okay?"

"It's not the first time I've pretended to be an FBI agent, Dean" she replied "And I can even pick better fake names than yours. James Hetfield? Seriously? Just hope that woman isn't a Metallica fan." She laughed reaching out her hand to remove his badge from his jacket and check with her own eyes that that was the right name. Dean let her do it, not giving her the slack she wanted.

"Fix your tie," she murmured waiting for someone to open the door.

"Okay, mom," muttered Dean in a childish way but following her advice that seemed more a threat.

When an elegant woman appeared before their eyes, dressed in black and with a handkerchief in her hand, they understood that they were facing the widow Dubois, wife of the first victim.

Before Dean could pull his badge out of his pocket, taken away from Y/N's hands only at the end of the car ride, the girl anticipated him.

"Hello Mrs. Dubois, I'm Agent Cobain and this is Agent Hetfield," she indicated him with a quick serious and professional glance.

Dean nearly rolled his eyes, so he couldn't pick the Metallica singer's name but she could use that surname surely borrowed from the Nirvana singer.

"We'd like to ask you a few questions about your husband."

The woman, at first seemed reluctant to let them in but then she made them sit inside her immense residence.

The house very large and obviously belonged to someone very rich.

Bernard Dubois was a financier, the woman explained.

"In the financial field, it's impossible not to have enemies," said Fleur, also of French origins like her husband, between sobs. "The police said it was a wild animal."

A wild animal? In their house??

"We have to consider all possibilities," Dean informed her cordially. Routine sentence of a hunter that everyone believed.

"Do you know if your husband knew this man?" Y/N asked, showing her the photo of the second victim who died under the same circumstances.

"Of course. He was my beloved Bernard's business partner. The manager."

Bingo!, Y/N thought immediately, exchanging a knowing look with Dean, sitting next to him.

So as Dean imagined the two victims had known each other and also for quite some time.

"They were working on the Lake Eire project," explained the woman, her nose red and her eyes tired.

Dean and Y/N raised their eyebrows in the exact same confused expression.

"They're building a dam," she added, when she noticed their questioning faces.

"Oh," they said in unison.

There was a silent pause during which Y/N ​​and Dean looked at each other, accomplices. Both were thinking the same thing: it was a matter of revenge, and since the victims were business partners and therefore knew each other, there was a sure connection to that lake.

"Your husband was found here, right?" Dean asked.

"Yes" the woman nodded and began to sob again.

Dean and Y/N felt sudden discomfort, both of them looking in opposite directions, not knowing what to say. "He was in our bedroom...how a-am I going to live without him?!"

Dean cleared his throat and asked Mrs. Dubois where the bathroom was. He followed the staircase, as suggested, but instead of reaching the last door on the left, he sneaked into the woman's bedroom, where the victim had been found. He pulled out the electro magnetic frequency detector, hopeful. But it didn't light up, nor did it make that weird, usual sound.

So he put aside the revenge-seeking ghost theory.

He sighed deeply and shook his head slightly then noticed something on the floor, it looked like a leaf or something. Dean frowned and picked it up. It was a seaweed... what was a seaweed doing in Bernard Dubois' bedroom?

So the targets all had something to do with that project. Y/N really hoped that that was the right lead because, frankly, she didn't see any other way to solve that fucking case.

As soon as she saw Dean get up from the couch, she knew his intentions. He would check upstairs while she continued to question the woman, even though she didn't seem to know much about business, at least not as much as her husband.

"Has this project been going on for a long time?" She could hardly ask her: the widow kept sobbing and sniffing.

The woman shook her head but not to convey her ignorance about it: it was a no.

"We came back from Paris specifically for this job. We've been here for a week... and now my beloved Bernard is dead!" And she started crying again.

"Excuse me, but these days have not been easy..."

"I can imagine that," Y/N nodded.

"I've seen him so seldom. Since the works began he was always on site: he monitored progress to calculate an approximate deadline." The woman said blowing her nose.

"So the dam is already under construction?"

"Agent Cobain, it will be better to go back to the police station" Dean's voice announced as he returned to the room: he had found something.

"Look at this!" Dean said handing her a plastic bag, back in the Impala.

"What the hell is that?" she asked looking at it.

"What does it look like to you?"

“Okay, let me ask you in another simpler way: what do you think a seaweed was doing in that guy's bedroom?”

He shrugged. "We need to check that dam."

It was quite obvious at that point that the answers to their questions were in that project. Whatever was affecting the victims was in that lake and had left them a souvenir before leaving.

"I bet that crap was also in the second victim's room," Dean said with conviction.

He drove until he reached Lake Eiere, where the dam seemed to be already under construction. There were a couple of workers here and there in orange hats setting up a surveillance system. A man dressed in black, in a suit and tie, observed the area with a dull gaze. Another, a little taller, clapped him on the shoulder in consoling pats.

Dean and Y/N glanced at each other and, as if reading each other's minds, decided that those two were the right ones.

"Hi," Dean said, showing them his FBI badge. "Agent Hetfield, and this is my partner, Agent Cobain."

“We're investigating the deaths of Bernard Dubois and Mark Stern,” he added professionally.

"Weren't they attacked by a…?" stammered one of them, the shortest, in confusion.

"No," Dean replied dryly. "They were killed."

The two looked frightened, as if they were aware of the danger they were all in, because they were the other two business partners.

"You are?" Y/N asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Michael Connors and Peter Johnson," answered the taller man, considerably less traumatized than his colleague. “Bernard and Mark worked with us on this project.”

Dean and Y/N exchanged a quick glance, aware that those two would be the next victims.

After the usual routine questions, they didn't come up with anything new: no enemies in particular (not to want them dead, at least), no suspicious behavior from builders, engineers or anyone working on that project.

"We have to follow them," said Y/N as they walked away, raising her head to the sky, noticing that the sun was already setting over the construction site. And from what they understood that thing that was attacking business partners especially loved the dark. "We'd better keep an eye on them, after all that thing probably lived in the lake and could attack them even now." Y/N said next to Dean once they got back into the Impala.

They walked around the block to make the two think they were gone but after a few minutes they were hiding in the small place around the lake, an ideal location for a stakeout.

"So we are going to follow them, probably spend a sleepless night and wait for a monster to attack them. And we don't even know what it is or how to kill it?" She heard Dean complain. "Right, that's so clever!"

“But it's the only thing we can do. We don't have time to go back to the motel and do more research, we risk losing another fucking partner!"

"We don't even have anything to eat!" Added Dean dramatically, Y/N rolled her eyes even though, thinking about it, it wasn't a good plan at all.

"And which of the two are we gonna follow?" He asked indicating Michael and Peter with a nod of his head. "As lucky as we are, we'll end up following the man dropped from that bastard's menu."

"I don't think it will be a problem," she murmured with a frown, following the shadows of the two men moving towards the same car. "Company car?"

"I don't know, but we'd better keep up with them."

The two partners got into the dark and shiny car, then they left and Dean did the same, following them staying a bit far away, without attracting attention. The journey was very silent, neither of them spoke, maybe because they were too tired even to fight, even though that was their favorite hobby when they were together.

"Look" Y/N said after a while, nodding towards the car in front of them.

It had just turned right, entered an alley that led to the garage of a small house. Dean watched the scene frowning, then exchanged a look with his colleague. He pulled up across the street and they both stopped to look at the two guys. They looked like they were hiding something, and they moved stealthily, as if they were afraid of being discovered. Were they going to do something illegal or something?

It was clearer when, after the two men had entered the house, one of the ground floor windows lit up and they saw the two guys right there, looking into each other's eyes. The taller man slowly approached the other and then pulled him to him to kiss him on the lips.

Dean's eyes widened.

"Well, they say never reveal your next move, right?" The girl sitting next to him laughed.

"Y/N, c'mon! Those two are married and have kids."

"Do you think I've never seen worse?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

Dean rolled his eyes. “D-do you think… we should go in there?”

"What is it, you wanna join them?" She laughed and Dean just snorted.

Night continued to fall, dark, making that scene more intimate for the two in the house and more complicated for the hunters in the car who, unlike the first ones, were certainly not having a good time.

"How do we kill it?"

"I like to improvise," Y/N said, brushing her hair back with a lazy wave of her hand: just another way of saying she didn't have the faintest idea.

"Very enlightening, thank you," Dean said sarcastically, shaking his head.

He noticed with relief the two had disappeared from in front of that window. They had probably moved upstairs to the bedroom. He glanced at his watch: midnight.

"Well, at least they'll die happy and fulfilled," he joked, with a smirk that faded as Y/N glared at him. "I'm just trying to look on the bright side."

Several hours passed and when Dean checked his watch again, it said two in the morning. He was desperately trying to keep his eyes wide open, but his lids were closing on their own from exhaustion. Y/N, on the other hand, seemed attentive, staring at the house as if she expected to see something at any moment.

"Dean?"

"I'm awake!" he exclaimed suddenly. He was not always a good liar.

He had dozed off despite his best efforts, but he opened his eyes and rubbed his face, stifling a yawn.

"What's up?"

"The thing. It's here."

Tags: @eevvvaa @spn730015 @supernatural111222 @youcancallmelily @clairenovakanddeanwinchester @dads-on-a-hunting-trip @3amstillawake @supernaturalmess @marvelandsupernatural @agirlwatchingalotoftvshows @candy-coated-misery0731 @impalaslytherin @rudy-the-winged-wolf @dean-winchester-6767 @samanddeansannoyingsis @roseblue373 @waynes-multiverse @random-spn-fan

Series: @stitchintimefan

[thunderstomm]

HOT WHEELS: LET’S RACE - Mini-Redesigns and Headcanons !

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been watching this super-cute new hot wheels show! And while I originally didn’t intend to do much in terms of fan content, I accidentally got very attached to these silly little guys so something was in order. While I like what the show has to offer, I don’t love that they wear casual clothes instead of actual racing gear, so I designed my own !!

The suits match because I imagine that these were given to them as a gift from Dash, symbolising the shift from “temporary campers” to her full-time protégés. I wanted to go full-hot wheels inspo, so all of the suits are decked out with a sweet flame pattern ! They all have little name badges on the side, and the colours of their suits are taken from the racing gloves which Dash gives them in S1! I wanted the suits to feel very simple compared to a pro racer’s suit, so while they have many staples, they have no sponsor patches anywhere ! As for the numbers on their suits, they are their rankings from camp !(thanks @viewer-of-many for the idea!!)

As I do with any media I like, I’ve included some little headcanon pages to go with! I’ve included headcanons for their full names- because I refuse to believe that these are all their legal names- as well as their pronouns, ages, racer numbers, nationalities, and heights ! I want to go in-depth on some of my choices, so buckle in! (Also if you’re finding this post and you’re a hot wheels fan PLEASE come talk to me I need more people to babble with)

COOP

Cooper “Coop” Fèng, our camp champ and main character is up first! I’m pretty sure that Cooper is canonically his first name, so I stuck with that. The nickname “Coop” was kind of just a natural development, it’s shorter, and he likes cars. Perfect! His surname is Fèng, a Chinese surname that means phoenix- which I chose because I think it’s a neat reference to his shift from “average kid” to camp champ. A real rise from the ashes! I headcanon him to be Chinese & African American- his Dad is the former and his other parent would be the latter. His pronouns are he/him, he’s 12 years old, 4’10” tall and thanks to his winning status- racer 01 in the level 2 training program !!

MAC

Mackenzie “Mac” Caliper is next ! Like Cooper, I feel like his nickname is just a shortened version of his full name, and “Mackenzie” just felt right. Before you ask- the name is gender neutral where I come from. His surname, Caliper, is taken from a car part, it’s the disc in a brake system ! Also I made his hair into some sort of mullet-y thing because of his crimes of having no bangs. I headcanon him to be Canadian. Mac uses he/him pronouns, is 12 years old (he is the oldest of the three 12 year olds, having a December birthday in the year prior), 4’11” tall, and racer 04 !

SPARK

Samantha “Spark” Turner ! For her first name, I wanted something cute that could hypothetically be given a GNC nickname. Plus “Samantha” and “spark” sound so cute together! The nickname Spark came from her love of inventing, and how her brain is always “sparking” with ideas! Her surname, Turner, is a play on a car’s “turn signal”. Not included on the chart, but I headcanon her as Autistic ! Spark is a black Canadian, her pronouns are she/her, she is 11 years old (the youngest of the 6 campers), 4’7” tall, and is racer 03 !!

BRIGHTS

Bryce “Brights” Hikari is racer 05! I imagine that she was born missing her arm, hence her prosthetic. Despite her hair matching her Uncle’s- it’s 100% dyed. Her first name, Bryce, fully just comes from me mishearing her name the first time I watched the show. So I choose to reuse it. I headcanon her as being Japanese, and her surname, Hikari, means “light”! The nickname “Brights” combines the sound of her first name and the meaning of her last! Brights uses she/her pronouns, is 12 years old, and is 4’9” tall.

AXLE

Axle Spoiler, son of beloved champ Striker Spoiler! The only character with a canon full name, and the only one who I can believe that his name is actually his legal one. I headcanon him as being Mexican. Axle is the oldest of the racers, at 13 years old. Axle uses he/him pronouns, is 5’2” tall, and is racer 02- something he accepts, but feels just a little taunted by. (I feel so funny saying so little about him because he’s my favourite.)

SIDECAR

Simon “Sidecar” Cotter is the final racer ! For his name, I wanted to keep the initials of his nickname (S.C.) intact. I went with Simon for his first name, because it’s a little goofy, but also feels just a little TOO formal for someone like him. His surname is, you guessed it, a reference to a car part! A Cotter is a pin which secures something in place. I think that Axle gave him the nickname “sidecar”, because he seems to start off as his sidekick. Sidecar is American, 13 years old, 4’8” tall, uses he/him pronouns, and is racer 06 at camp !!

While that is all I’ll be sharing for now, I do have another more detailed art piece of these guys in their canon outfits, in my more polished art style, which I hope can be coming out sooner than later. Again, if you like this show, please DM me here or on discord so we can chat!!

Thanks for reading !! 🩵💚💛🩷❤️🩶

[squalodinoappreciationsquad]

Headcanons - Dino's family

Because Amano did not give us anything at all, please see below my headcanons for Dino's family and guardians.

Big Disclaimer: these all all OCs except obviously for Dino and his dad, who canonly appear in both manga and anime.

I am also very conscious that I have used actual Italian names and surnames for my OCs, so yeah. Perks of actually being Italian I guess. Anyway. Here you go:

And here you have all general explanations.

So, Dino's family is mainly normal people - as normal as they can be in the KHR universe, let's say they are mostly Nana Sawada's kind of normal.

I still have to establish how the Cavallone family came into existence, but I figure they were once nobles and once Italy got rid of the Savoy family and voted to establish a republic rather than a monarchy (2 June 1946) they kind of went through the change to kind of save themselves.

So, the thing in Italy is that we don't really have horse races, unless you count the Palio di Siena and the Palio di Asti, BUT we have EVERYTHING about cars.

Car races are A LOT, there is Formula 1, Formula 3, Moto GP, rally, whatever involves car races under the sun. It's kind of our specialty lol, Alfa, Ferrari, Lancia and Lamborghini are VERY famous brands.

And car races means a lot of betting, which is something a mafia boss would want to have part in it money-wise and power-wise.

Which went quite well as an alternative income after losing nobility status until Cosimo Cavallone (the Ninth) inherited the thing from his father Giorgio (the Eighth) and kind of leaned too much into betting and went into huge and heavy debts. Reasons why Dino had to pay off his dad's debts whilst becoming the Tenth boss. :)

Surely this must have given Dino a deep hatred of betting, but I feel this is a headcanon for a different post.

Anyway.

Onto his family.

We of course know Romario and Ivan and all of his subordinates, but SURELY Dino has a big family.

Dino is an only child with an ungodly amount of cousins. He is also one of the oldest among the cousins, which means he has had to babysit A LOT during family gatherings. Here I am including the closest ones, but trust me, there is an entire army of cousins.

And he has to know them all.

Speaking about cousins, the most notable are:

Marco Gallo: son of his aunt Marta and his uncle Donato, Marco has never had a single serious thought in his head in his whole life. He loves playing pranks and whilst the 99% of the times they are harmless, he is also a very easy target if anyone takes his pranks the wrong way. Among his pranks, mainly at Dino's expenses, he snapped a "Christmassy" photo of teen!Dino and teen!Squalo crouched over one of the newborn cousins at a family event and dubbing it as "the Nativity". Oh, sometimes he shows up way too drunk at family events and shenanigans ensue.

Margherita and Irene Testa: they are twins. Those twins who look the same and you cannot distinguish them unless they wear different clothes/different hairstyles. Which was an issue until they hit their teenage years and they developed opposite tastes, as in Margherita is the one who will have everything made of natural fibers, is into the new age kind of thing and Irene is the exact opposite of it. In spite of everything they really get along well. when they were children their favourite sport was to corner Dino and make him play dolls with them, which Dino hated. Once Squalo was in the picture they made him play dolls too.

But Dino not only has cousins and a father, he also has a mother. Veronica Greco, aka the Most Beautiful Woman no one has yet understood how she could marry Cosimo Cavallone, a very average-looking man. Dino took after her in looks.

By the way, in Italy we DO NOT take the husband's name, unless the person specifically wants to, it's the very first "fuck you" to patriarchy that women could have, because up until the mid-seventies women were pretty much treated like property/objects.

Anyway.

Veronica is one of those people who are naturally good at everything. She also has the ability to step into a room and make everyone go quiet, which is very useful when family events go downhill. She just says "Stop" and everyone goes quiet, then she smiles and solves the issues at hand.

Dino can do that for about 1 minute, then he trips or falls down or something and the magic is gone.

Veronica also deals with a lot of the family drama and the gossips and has also gone very near a divorce because of Cosimo's gambling habits.

And speaking of Dino's dad, he is not actually dead, he decided to retire once Dino became boss and he is now enjoying the countryside with his wife Veronica. His hobbies consist in collecting scale models of cars and tending at the garden.

Of course Dino has his own Guardians. We do not usually see them because Dino can deal with most of the things himself, but - figure something like Byakuran happens - they will gladly join the fight. They all were people either saved or friended by Dino whilst Reborn was his tutor and was in the process of becoming the Bucking Bronco.

They are:

Alessandro Ferro: Storm Guardian. Very reliable in a fight, he uses a crossbow and he is a master sniper. Somehow he once got arrested for stealing manholes, but never served as his alibi was proved.

Diego Guerra: Rain guardian, he originally was supposed to join the Varia, but they had enough swordsmen and he needed a job, as he was deep into debt. Dino listened to him and helped him get back on his feet. since then Diego's loyalty has been with Dino. He uses a rapier as weapon.

Lucrezia Battaglia: Sun guardian, Judo black belt 8th dan, undefeated so far. She is short and way too much into cutesy stuff, but she will beat you to a pulp if she feels a hint of threat. She absolutely loves shoujo anime.

Cristian D'amico: Thunder guardian - and no, I have not messed the spelling, in Italy we tend to omit the H bc it is a mute consonant. The chillest guy on earth. Takes things with such a phlegm. It's obviously the calm before the storm when he fights. Would rather nap than fight tho.

Danilo de Angelis: he is the aloof one. He likes wandering about and looks a little bit lost, but don't be fooled. He is very perceptive and will notice when things are not going well.

Iacopo La Morte: everyone is scared of him because they hear his surname (aka The Death) andeveryone is like "OMG this guy is going to kill us all", and they kind of get disappointed when they see he is actually a really nice person. Unless you wronged the family, in which case he is going to make sure you regret it with all your being.

And I admit I have only developed everyone this much just because I was like "oh, it's only for the Big Damn Table, they are going to have sporadic apparitions whilst I fill the 100 prompts", but now that I actually see this written down I kind of want to expand. What do you all think about this?

[greenishghostey]

Hellfire Club Members Headcanons

Note: Okay so, I wrote in the tags of reblogging this photo that I made up names and backgrounds for everyone here, and @manicpixiedreamcurl and @lunatictardis, the gems that they are, encouraged me to post what I came up with so here it is!!!

Further Note: This post is about to be quite long and I'm only a little bit sorry because I'm far too proud of these. Also, the order of them is across the photo from left to right but I have provided descriptions so you know who is who!

Guy with the bandana around his head:

Name: Ethan (headcanon name)

General background: Ethan was Eddie’s right-hand man since Hellfire’s inception since they were in the same grade. You would never see one without the other. Ethan graduated in the class of ‘84 and decided to pack up his car to travel the west coast. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew he needed out of Hawkins. Ethan sent Eddie postcards while he was travelling until he eventually settled down working at a record store in Reno. 

Ethan is similar to Eddie, and that’s one of the main reasons they get along so well. However, he’s a bit more subdued. He was never a big fan of drawing too much attention to himself but damn could the guy fight. Ethan was the original brawn of Hellfire, while Eddie was the brains. 

Most recent Hellfire Character: Ethan’s character is a sheltered Wood Elf princess named Thia. He wanted to try his hand at playing a character that was so different to him in every way. She is travelling to learn more about the world outside of her small kingdom and to prove herself as an able ruler when the time comes. Thia is a chaotic good Ranger with a particular skill for animal handling and languages. 

Note: Ethan is mentioned a bit in my fic series, Dungeon Master meet Prop Master, have a read if you would like!

///

Jeff:

Name: Jeff Fulton (headcanon surname)

General background: Jeff joined Hellfire in his sophomore year of high school after deciding to embrace his interests. He was bullied in middle school quite a bit because he liked D&D and was really into Drama/History. 

Jeff is a fairly quiet guy outside of Hellfire, where he is comfortable. Officially, he is the vice president of the Hellfire Club because they had to put together a club committee so they could use the drama room. As seen in the show, Jeff is not one for starting a fight but he will get involved if necessary. He plans to attend Indiana State to study European History when he graduates. 

Most recent Hellfire Character: Jeff’s character is a travelling, well-cultured Dwarf named Jeffrey of Birchthane. He is a neutral-good Druid and belongs to the Birchthane grove which is nestled between the Irongut mountain range. Jeffrey is very bad with animals. However, he has a strong affinity with deep forest areas and mountain ranges. 

///

Gareth:

Name: Gareth Campbell (headcanon surname)

General background: Gareth is the youngest member of Hellfire before Dustin and Mike join. He originally worshipped Eddie and Ethan and loved that he was friends with the cool older kids. Gareth is quite snarky and has a hard time holding his tongue on occasion. He’s gotten himself into a few fights over being dubbed one of the “freak’s disciples”. Gareth is very protective of Hellfire since it’s where he felt safe and comfortable when he got to high school. He used to be a quiet kid because he thought he was weird, but now he will always stand up for himself and others.

Gareth is really into physics and math. He’s always had a fascination with space and plans to apply to study Astrophysics somewhere on the east coast after high school. Gareth is the club treasurer even though they get zero school funding; he is in charge of making sure people get paid back for buying snacks and drinks to sessions. 

Most recent Hellfire Character: Gareth’s character is, as we know, named Gareth The Great. He is a lawful good, human paladin, who was originally a knight for the empire’s royal family. He has quite the stick up his ass, but he means well. His weapon of choice is a longsword and his charisma is shockingly low.

///

Unnamed Hellfire member from ST4:

Name: Simon “Si” Walker (headcanon name)

General background: Simon and Jeff are the same age and both on track to graduate in the class of ‘86. Simon is the quietest of the current Hellfire guys, not for any particular reason, he just enjoys keeping to himself. He’s a naturally gifted writer but is a little embarrassed to move on to being a storyteller. Simon and Eddie often share their work with each other. The two have similar taste in books and became friends when Eddie saw Simon reading ‘The Black Cauldron’ by Lloyd Alexander. Simon can read and write Tengwar, the script used in Tolkien’s fictional languages.

Simon wants to study English at college after he graduates but worries about leaving Hawkins. He also thinks his writing, both fiction and non-fiction, isn’t good enough to be taken seriously. Within Hellfire, Simon is the secretary, which he actually enjoys because he gets a title and doesn’t ever have to take meeting minutes. 

Most recent Hellfire Character: Simon’s character is named Rothgar Baljor. He is a lawful good, half-elf cleric who has devoted his existence to the immortal Sun Goddess, Sol Ola. Rothgar is quite the character since he’s still young and is on a journey of discovery for his church. He is naive but arrogant since the sun continues to shine on him - when it does that for everybody. He is a skilled healer but is not well trained in combat, both close and ranged.

///

Brunette guy in the denim vest:

Name: Nicholas, “Nick” (headcanon name)

General background: Nick is Eddie’s counterpart in terms of music - Nick really likes punk music, specifically British punk music. He looks up to Eddie quite a lot in terms of his beliefs; anti-establishment, anti-conformity, that sort of stuff. Nick has a hard time keeping his mouth shut, but he is also very friendly. He is aware that he looks a little scary and can come across as mean. 

Nick graduated in the class of ‘85 and moved to Indianapolis to try and make a name for himself as a punk singer. It went quite well and now he is part of a small punk group that tours various bars across the surrounding states. He hopes they can make it the New York City one day - Eddie said he was definitely good enough.

Most recent Hellfire Character: Nick’s character was a cunning, irresistible human named Nikolai. He is a chaotic good rogue who was inspired by Robin Hood - steals from the rich, and gives to the poor. His choice of weapons is two daggers that he was gifted by his beloved mentor. Nikolai has had charisma and dexterity for days but very little wisdom, sadly. 

///

Girl in the acid wash jeans

Name: Abigail, “Abby” or “Abs” (headcanon name)

General background: Abby was, and still is, the first girl to have been a member of Hellfire - she really prided herself on this fact. She was in the same grade as Nick and they got really cool graduation photos together with the entire club. Abby was a big chemistry nerd and went into Chemical Engineering at Indiana State when she graduated. Her passion for D&D started in middle school and she was hooked from her first one-shot session. Abby could become absolutely anyone she could think of, and damn right she was gonna be someone cool.

Abby was a talented storyteller and had the opportunity to run a handful of one shots with the club - Eddie trusted her to make some good material and keep everyone in line. She wrote some of the most twisted and captivating Halloween sessions and each of the guys had nightmares for days. Abby gave Eddie regular updates about the college D&D club she founded - he was super proud of her for keeping the Hellfire spirit going.

Most recent Hellfire Character: Abby’s character was named Bell Silverstring. She was a chaotic good, halfling fighter who was a warrior-for-hire around her home city. Bell was quite hot-headed and energetic, but she also got everyone hyped up and ready for a battle. Bell was a master with a short sword and was, arguably, the strongest character to ever grace Hellfire because of how well-built she was.

///

Name: Gordon “Gordo” or "Gordie" (headcanon name)

General background: Gordon was in the same grade as Eddie and Ethan. He joined Hellfire in his junior year after realising that his classmates weren’t all that scary. Gordon had a hard time in high school, so Hellfire really gave him a sense of belonging. He was part of the AV club before joining Hellfire and still is an absolute whiz with tech. He helped and taught Eddie how to repair audio equipment when his guitar pedals broke. After high school, Gordon moved to Chicago to study Audiovisual engineering at college. 

Gordon was also a really good bass player, having started playing when he started middle school. He tried out for Corroded Coffin once but felt that his style of playing wasn’t suited to metal - he was a fan of jazz/blues bass. This is why he was so good at fixing musical equipment and was the unofficial part-time roady for Corroded Coffin. But only on the Tuesdays when he had access to his dad’s car. 

Most recent Hellfire Character: Gordon’s character was named Goren Erfina. He was a neutral good, high elf bard who mainly worked as a wedding musician in his home city and the surrounding areas. As a high elf, Goren is viewed as a bit of a disappointment to his family since he has such a commoner career, but he just adores music so much and needs to share his with the world. Goren’s beloved flute and his comrades are all he needs on his travels. Also, he is oddly wise beyond his years, which is helpful in the group since they need some wisdom.

///

[enemyoflactose]

Euroshipping for @iamallyetnotatall . It's a little on the angsty side. I hope you still like it. I still need to come up with a title for this.

The sound of a keyboard being relentlessly typed at resonated throughout the massive office of the world famous, Seto Kaiba.

This wasn't at all unordinary. He was usually in his office working on coming up with either a new Duel Disk system, or coming up with a new tournament idea. Currently, it was the latter.

This wasn't a particularly important tournament. Well, not important for getting the King of Games title, or any title really. It was mostly a charity event in which the best duelists from around the world would duel not only each other, but whatever adoring fan they had.

Right now, it is just in the planning stage and it hasn't actually been announced yet. It still took priority over the new Duel Disk upgrade, he could work on that later.

“Hey! Seto!” The sharp yell of Mokuba rang through his ears.

“What is it Mokuba?” That’s weird, Mokuba usually doesn’t bother him while he’s working.

“It’s about time you answered, I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes,” he scolded, “Anyway, I was just coming in to ask if you got Ryou his gift yet, or y’know made any plans with him.”

Gift? Plans? Why would he need to do that? Was Ryou feeling down and he just hadn’t caught it yet? Or was there some sort of special occasion he’d forgotten about?

“Why would I need to do that? Did something happen?”

If looks could kill, Seto would've died the very moment he ended that first sentence.

“Are you kidding me Seto!?” He cried, “You Didn't Do Anything For Ryou For Valentine’s Day!?”

“Mokuba I have a job to worry about-”

“You also have a boyfriend to worry about!”

Seto didn't have a retort. He did have Ryou, and he was probably waiting for him to call for a surprise date.

The thought of him waiting for a call or for Seto to show up only for neither of those to happen, wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world.

“Mokuba, tell Isono to set up a date for me and Ryou. Preferably at our house.”

｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+⁠*⁠.⁠✧⁠.⁠｡•⁠*⁠✧⁠*⁠。

“Thank you for staying late to help set up the new exhibit, Bakura-san,” Ishizu said, “this never would've been finished on time without you.”

“It's no problem, I'm always happy to help! And you know you can call me Ryou, right?”

Ishizu rubbed the back of her head and let out a breathy laugh, “Ah, I suppose I should now. I'm just so used to calling you by your surname.”

They exchanged a few more pleasantries before Ishizu spoke again, “By the way Ba-Ryou, do you have any plans with Kaiba-san this evening?”

This evening? Did Seto plan something and he forgot?

“Um, I'm not sure. I don't think so, why?”

“Oh,” she sounded surprised, “well I guess I should have expected that from you two. Valentine's Day isn't something either of you care for, is it?”

Valentine's Day? VALENTINE'S DAY?!

“I-i-I have to go. See you Monday Ishizu.” He stuttered and ran off.

*⁠.⁠✧｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡.•°✧⁠*⁠

Ryou ran down the streets of Domino. His feet hitting the pavement of the sidewalk in hard, fast steps.

‘Valentine’s day!’ he screamed at himself, ‘I can't believe I forgot!’

How he managed to forget the international holiday was beyond him. It was displayed everywhere, his friends were talking non stop about their plans, and Ryou had been given twice as many love letters and presents from unknown individuals. How did he manage to forget?

Coming to a sharp turn, Ryou slipped and fell face down on his chest.

‘First I forget about Valentine's Day, then I eat absolute shit. What a day…’

Crawling up from his fall and only wincing slightly, Ryou was suddenly lifted up and placed on his feet.

“Are you alright?” an all too familiar voice asked.

Ryou turned around and was greeted by the sight of the one person he really needed to avoid for at least an hour, “Seto..?”

“Hey, you're coming with me.”

Seto dragged him away from the corner and towards his car, tossing Ryou in the passenger side, and driving off once in his own seat.

Ryou fiddled with his coat’s collar, “so uhm, where are we going?”

“My place, I have something planned for you.”

Oh no… Seto had something for Ryou, but Ryou didn't have anything for Seto. He was the worst boyfriend ever. Tears were starting to prickle in his eyes. I can't believe this.

“Hey don't cry,” the soothing voice of Seto Kaiba demanded, “I know this seems like a last minute thing on my part, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. I'm sorry I forgot.”

What? Seto hadn't remembered either? Well that made things less bad. Though he certainly had more of a reason to forget. Ryou didn't.

“I'm sorry, that's not why I'm upset,” his voice cracked slightly, “it's just that even though you forgot you still managed to do something for me, but I don't have anything to give you. Not even a card.” he was almost crying at this point.

Seto didn't respond. He only reached out a hand and ruffled Ryou's hair. This action soothed some of his nerves, but he was still upset.

“Don't worry about it. I don't care if you didn't get me anything, just that you owned up to it, and still want to be with me. We can still have a great Valentine's Day, but only if you stop crying and enjoy the evening with me.”

Ryou sniffled, and wiped the tears from his eyes. Seto was right… All that mattered was that they remembered now and still loved each other.

“You're right, I'm sorry.” he apologized.

Seto let out a sigh, and took his hand off Ryou's head to focus more on driving.

“Don't apologize for being stressed about this. Be glad we both forgot and not just one of us,” Seto snickered a bit, “that would have been worse.”

That little comment made all worries leave Ryou's mind, he smiled and let himself finally relax.

“Ok. Still love me?” He tried to cuddle up to Seto, but the seat belts made it difficult.

“Yeah. But only if you never bring this up again.”

Ryou giggled, and agreed. That was probably for the best. They could always have a better Valentine's Day next year.

[beardedmrbean]

Five women say they were raped by former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed when they worked at the luxury London department store.

The BBC has heard testimony from more than 20 female ex-employees who say the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, sexually assaulted or raped them.

The documentary and podcast - Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods - gathered evidence that, during Fayed’s ownership, Harrods not only failed to intervene, but helped cover up abuse allegations.

Harrods’ current owners said they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations and that his victims had been failed - for which the store sincerely apologised.

“The spider’s web of corruption and abuse in this company was unbelievable and very dark,” says barrister Bruce Drummond, from a legal team representing a number of the women.

Since this article was first published, more former Harrods employees have contacted the BBC saying Mohammed Al Fayed assaulted them.

Warning: this story contains details some may find distressing.

The incidents took place in London, Paris, St Tropez and Abu Dhabi.

“I made it obvious that I didn't want that to happen. I did not give consent. I just wanted it to be over,” says one of the women, who says Fayed raped her at his Park Lane apartment.

Another woman says she was a teenager when he raped her at the Mayfair address.

“Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass whatsoever,” she says, adding that all the staff at Harrods were his “playthings”.

“We were all so scared. He actively cultivated fear. If he said ‘jump’ employees would ask ‘how high’.”

Fayed faced sexual assault claims while he was alive, but these allegations are of unprecedented scale and seriousness. The BBC believes many more women may have been assaulted.

'Fayed was vile'

Fayed's entrepreneurial career began on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, where he hawked fizzy drinks to passers-by. But it was his marriage to the sister of a millionaire Saudi arms dealer that helped him forge new connections and build a business empire.

He moved to the UK in 1974 and was already a well-known public figure when he took over Harrods in 1985. In the 1990s and 2000s, he would regularly appear as a guest on prime-time TV chat and entertainment shows.

Meanwhile, Fayed - whose son Dodi was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 - has become known to a new generation through the two most recent Netflix series of The Crown.

But the women we have spoken to say his portrayal as pleasant and gregarious was far from the truth.

“He was vile,” says one of the women, Sophia, who worked as his personal assistant from 1988 to 1991. She says he tried to rape her more than once.

“That makes me angry, people shouldn't remember him like that. It's not how he was.”

Some of the women waived, or partially waived, their right to anonymity to be filmed - and the BBC agreed not to use surnames. Others chose to remain anonymous. Put together, their testimonies reveal a pattern of predatory behaviour and sexual abuse by Fayed.

The Harrods owner would regularly tour the department store's vast sales floors and identify young female assistants he found attractive, who would then be promoted to work in his offices upstairs - former staff, male and female, told us.

The assaults would be carried out in Harrods’ offices, in Fayed's London apartment, or on foreign trips - often in Paris at the Ritz hotel, which he also owned, or his nearby Villa Windsor property.

At Harrods, other former staff members told us it was clear what was happening.

“We all watched each other walk through that door thinking, ‘you poor girl, it's you today’ and feeling utterly powerless to stop it,” Alice, not her real name, says.

'He raped me'

Rachel, not her real name, worked as a personal assistant in Harrods in the 1990s.

One night after work, she says she was called to his luxury apartment, in a large block on Park Lane overlooking London's Hyde Park. The building was protected by security staff and had an on-site office staffed by Harrods employees.

Rachel says Fayed asked her to sit on his bed and then put his hand on her leg, making it clear what he wanted.

“I remember feeling his body on me, the weight of him. Just hearing him make these noises. And… just going somewhere else in my head.

“He raped me.”

The BBC has spoken to 13 women who say Fayed sexually assaulted them at 60 Park Lane. Four of them, including Rachel, say they were raped.

Sophia, who says she was sexually assaulted, described the whole situation as an inescapable nightmare.

“I couldn't leave. I didn’t have a [family] home to go back to, I had to pay rent,” she says. “I knew I had to go through this and I didn’t want to. It was horrible and my head was scrambled.”

Gemma, who worked as one of Fayed’s personal assistants between 2007-09, says his behaviour became more frightening during work trips abroad.

She says it culminated in her being raped at Villa Windsor in Paris's Bois de Boulogne - a former home, post-abdication, of King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson.

Gemma says she woke up startled in her bedroom. Fayed was next to her bed wearing just a silk dressing gown. He then tried to get into bed with her.

“I told him, ‘no, I don't want you to’. And he proceeded to just keep trying to get in the bed, at which point he was kind of on top of me and [I] really couldn't move anywhere.

“I was kind of face down on the bed and he just pressed himself on me.”

She says after Fayed raped her she cried, while he got up and told her aggressively to wash herself with Dettol.

“Obviously he wanted me to erase any trace of him being anywhere near me,” she explains.

Eight other women have also told us they were sexually assaulted by Fayed at his properties in Paris. Five women described the assaults as an attempted rape.

'Open secret'

“The abuse of women, I was aware of it when I was on the shop floor," says Tony Leeming, a Harrods department manager from 1994 to 2004. It “wasn't even a secret”, recalls Mr Leeming, who says he did not know about more serious allegations of assault or rape.

"And I think if I knew, everybody knew. Anyone who says they didn't are lying, I'm sorry".

Mr Leeming's testimony is backed up by former members of Fayed's security team.

“We were aware that he had this very strong interest in young girls,” says Eamon Coyle, who joined Harrods in 1979 as a store detective, then became deputy director of security from 1989-95.

Meanwhile Steve, who does not want us to use his surname, worked for the billionaire between 1994-95. He told us that security staff “did know that certain things were happening to certain female employees at Harrods and Park Lane”.

Many of the women told us that when they began working directly for Fayed they underwent medicals - including invasive sexual health tests carried out by doctors.

This was presented as a perk, the women told us, but many did not see their own results - even though they were sent to Fayed.

“There is no benefit to anybody knowing what my sexual health is, unless you're planning to sleep with somebody, which I find quite chilling now,” says Katherine, who was an executive assistant in 2005.

'Culture of fear'

All the women we spoke to described having felt intimidated at work - which had made it difficult for them to speak out.

Sarah, not her real name, explained: “There was most definitely a culture of fear across the whole store - from the lowliest of the low, to the most senior person.”

Others told us they believed the phones in Harrods had been tapped - and that women had been scared of talking to each other about Fayed’s abuse, fearing they were being filmed by hidden cameras.

The ex-deputy director of security, Eamon Coyle, confirmed this - explaining how part of his job was to listen to tapes of recorded calls. Cameras that could record had also been installed throughout the store, he said, including in the executive suites.

“He [Fayed] bugged everybody that he wanted to bug.”

Harrods told the BBC in a statement these had been the actions of an individual “intent on abusing his power” which it condemned in the strongest terms.

It said: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.”

There were a number of attempts to expose Fayed before his death - notably by Vanity Fair in 1995 - with an article alleging racism, staff surveillance and sexual misconduct. This sparked a libel lawsuit.

Mohamed Al Fayed later agreed to drop the case as long as all the further evidence the magazine had gathered of his sexual misconduct in preparation for a trial was locked away. Fayed’s settlement was negotiated by a senior Harrods executive.

In 1997, ITV’s The Big Story reported further serious allegations including sexual harassment and groping - which is classed as sexual assault.

One of the women in the BBC investigation, Ellie, not her real name, was 15 in 2008 when she reported an assault to the police - an allegation that made headlines - but did not result in any charge.

In 2017, Channel 4’s Dispatches broadcast allegations of groping, assault and harassment, with one woman waiving her right to anonymity for the first time. It gave some women the courage to come forward - and was followed by a 2018 investigation on Channel 4 News.

But it is only now, with Mohamed Al Fayed having died last year, that many of the women have felt able to speak publicly about rape and attempted rape.

Cash and NDAs

The BBC documentary reveals that, as part of Gemma's settlement in 2009, she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), a legally-binding contract which ensures information remains confidential.

She says after she was raped, she contacted a lawyer who told Harrods she was leaving her job on the grounds of sexual harassment. Gemma says she did not feel able, at that time, to disclose the full extent and seriousness of Fayed's assaults.

Harrods agreed she could leave and it would pay a sum of money in exchange for her shredding all evidence and signing an NDA. Gemma says a member of Harrods’ HR team was present as the shredding took place.

The BBC has heard that women were threatened and intimidated by Harrods' then-director of security, John Macnamara, to stop them speaking out.

Fourteen of the women we spoke to recently brought civil claims against Harrods for damages. The shop's current owners, who are not asking women to sign NDAs, started settling these in July 2023.

It took Sophia and Harrods five years to reach an agreement. In her case, the store expressed regret but did not admit liability. Many more women are now considering legal action against Harrods.

[godlizzza]

Prompt: new doctors/ patients at the hospital see Dans wedding ring and assumes that he’s married to a woman, preferably middleaged danbert please!

Just about the only part of moving that Dan actually enjoyed was the first day on a new job. The opportunity for a fresh start, for a good first impression, always glowed with promise to him. Here were a group of people with no prior biases against himself and Herbert, who only looked at them as two new colleagues, and with their extensive resumes and experiences behind them, were welcomed with open arms.

So it was on his first day at the Hospital of Glenville. Dan was being shown the floor by the directing doctor, an older man with a rumbling laugh and a silver moustache, Harry Mondell. He pointed Dan in the direction of the closest O.R, told him the speed-dials for security, cleaning, and Pathology. He also introduced him to the nursing team, lead by a woman named Rachel.

"Rachel here will be just about your best friend here, so keep her close." Mondell dropped Dan a wink. "Not too close though. She's married." Rachel swatted his shoulder good-naturedly and Dan laughed along with them.

"Shouldn't be a problem. Me too," he said and wiggled his fingers, one of which was adorned with his wedding ring.

Mondell's eyes flashed. "Ah, of course. How silly of me to assume a strapping young man like yourself hadn't been snatched up."

Dan ran a hand through his hair, streaked with more than a few strands of grey. "Young is putting it politely, but thank you."

"When you're as old as me everyone seems young," Mondell replied, clapping Dan on the shoulder. "You'll have to bring Mrs. Cain along to the next office Christmas party."

Dan opened his mouth to smoothly correct him. This was the one thing he didn't like about first work days. The inevitable moment of outing, of having to nonchalantly slip into conversation that he actually had a husband- who was definitely a little eccentric but would grow on you over time. He had plenty of lines prepared for just this moment, but before he could say any of them Herbert's voice was barking in his ear.

"There you are." Dan was turning and Herbert was suddenly there, right at his side. He paid no attention to Mondell or Rachel, who were both looking at him with surprise, like he'd just sprouted out of the ground. Herbert kept his eyes on Dan as he pushed a plastic container of risotto into his hands. "You left your lunch in the car. You're lucky I left something in there and noticed it when I went back or you'd be eating potato chips out of a vending machine on your break."

"Ah, yes, thank you, Dear," Dan replied, scooping the risotto under one arm and leaning over to peck Herbert on the cheek. "I'll see you in the cafeteria soon. Dr. Mondell was just showing me around."

Dan gestured to their peanut gallery and Herbert flicked an uninterested glance their way before looking back at Dan.

"You're welcome," was all Herbert said before stalking off down one of the many halls adjoining the centre of the floor, his lab coat fluttering behind him in his wake.

Mondell and Rachel watched him go before turning back to Dan, who smiled at them jovially.

Mondell cleared his throat just as the silence was beginning to stretch into uncomfortable territory. "I'm to assume that was...?"

"Mrs. Cain," Dan answered, glad that Herbert was out of earshot. If he heard him say that he'd skin him alive. "We have the same surname but it gets a little confusing with two Dr. Cain-Wests in the same hospital." He nodded to Rachel. "Trust me, the paging's a nightmare."

"Well, I appreciate you trying to make my job easier," she responded, and the light, easy way she said it made Dan warm to her instantly.

Dan did the rest of his rounds with Dr. Mondell, who seemed embarrassed and remarkably less jokey the whole time, but Dan didn't mind. He had lunch with his husband to look forward to.

[julietasgf]

@mr-nauseam buddie I'm so sorry I forgot talking abt the other two remaining racers on my other postsksklskl 😭 pardon me, BUT I'm doing this separate post, hope it's okay!! but let's go to the two silly little guys left:

dennis giroud is a belgian driver. he races since he was very young, in go-karts, and he has been in love with racing since... well... forever. his dad saw so many potential in dennis and always took him to races and encouraged his dream. his dad was basically his coach for most of his life, and also the manager of his career. and dennis was VERY talented, it's worth saying; he won almost all of the regional junior categories and started to draw attention from some of the big teams, hence why he was part of the redbull academy since very, very young. so, dennis start to rise in his career; he wins formula 2, gets a seat in formula 1 in a smaller team, and it doesn't take long for him to get a seat in red bull. and the car of the team is good, and dennis is an excelent racer, it's just that everything fits so well and he's living his dreams... despite not everything being exactly what he thought they would be. it's just that dennis is very much a reserved person who just wants to stay at home with his cats, chill and win races, and he isn't very fond of the fame and gossip that comes with being a formula 1 driver. dennis is genuinely so chill; some reporters label him as arrogant bc of the way he refuses to give interviews and stuff, but he's just shy. again, dennis is very talented, and he wins 3 championships on a roll; and this new year, he's ready to win another one... except that this year, he has a problem with name and surname. vanessa cruz, who was a rookie two years ago and now signed with mercedes... and is now winning almost everything. dennis didn't even have to worry about competition before, people were fighting for who would get the second and third place... and now he has this pretentious and younger racer being such a pain in the ass.

vanessa cruz is a mexican driver. vanessa's father was a mediocre formula one driver much before than her, before he got into a crash that kind of made it impossible for him to go back to formula one again. vanessa is his only child, so he basically tried to live through her. vanessa was very, very young when he started pushing her into go-karts. and despite the pressure... vanessa loved it. she loved racing, and more than that, she was fucking good at it, better than any boy around. her father pulled her into a strict routine so she would become basically the perfect racer. vanessa's childhood was spent on the racetrack and with her father repeating over and over again what she already knew: the second place is the first of the losers. and vanessa adored her father, of course he should've been telling the truth!!! and as she grew up, he made it very clear that not making it to formula 1 isn't an option. she had to become a racer, and a succesful one at that. so vanessa worked hard, she trained and followed her father's strict routine, and it was no surprise when she quickly made it to the juniors categories, and then... to formula 1. vanessa is confident, she's funny and charismatic, and it's no wonder the media loves her so much, because she's not only a racer, she WILL put on a show for them. some call her pretentious... but honestly, she just knows how talented she is and she's not ashamed of it. vanessa was a rookie in the same year dennis won his second championship, and she admired him so much. he's the most succesful driver of their generation, and she can't wait to get into a big team to finally be able to compete with him on the same level. and now that vanessa got a seat in mercedes, oh, there's nothing really that can stop her.

also, since I've finished introducing you to all of these guys... here's their designs!!! :D (just to make it clear: rodrigo is not a natural blond, being blond is not one of his crimes despite the many others

[forensicated]

Smiffina Episodes: Lifesaver [Set 2 canon weeks after the last episode of Gun Runner]

Sally and Ben are first on scene at a hit and run with Roger, Tony and Callum as back up. Witnesses say the car was a red Alpha Romeo driven by a dark haired smart young guy. They also have a partial index which Smithy tries to find on CCTV. Gina spots it and they get the full index. It's registered to Ryan Davidson who leases it via his employer. Only Ryan was made redundant a week ago and should have returned the car. They find CCTV proving it's the car but it doesn't show him behind the wheel of it.

Ryan claims to be getting dressed for work when they arrive and that he'd had a late night to celebrate landing a big deal at work. Tony finds a hipflask in his suit jacket. Ryan admits he owns the car and Tony tells him he matches the description of the driver though Ryan claims he left it at work the night before so it must have been stolen. He initially refuses a breath test until Callum says it's procedure to test the owner to do one after an accident, especially given he matches the description of the driver. Tony points out they should report the car being stolen too whilst they're at it so it can be dusted for prints when found. Callum tells them they know he's lying about having to go work and his breath test reading is positive.

Ryan insists his car was stolen and this is all one big waste of time. Gina tells him to calm down because his attitude isn't helping anyone, especially him. He tells Gina he's sober as a judge and it's a big fuss over nothing. Gina doesn't call a hit and run where the victim is lucky to be alive nothing. She tells Smithy to take a second breath test from him and "then we can all see how sober you really are."

Callum's not in the greatest of moods after that morning but it worsens when Heaton asks for the risk assessments of Emma's death from him and Gina. Both tell him the paperwork is on their desk and they'll get it to him by the end of the day. He tells them that they have to account for every decision they made so it's best to do it whilst it's still reasonably fresh in their minds (never mind the fact she almost lost Smithy a fortnight ago (and that he'd been in serious danger for a monthish before that!) and that this episode is 1 week shy of it being 3 months since Emma's death! Poor Gina!) Callum goes to check on the case, telling Roger that the second breath test was under the llimit. If Kim can't ID the driver they have nothing.

The victim, Caitlin, has potentially serious head injuries and Ben has identified a problem. The 'mother', Kim said Caitlin had no allergies but luckily before giving her any medication the medics found an alert bracelet telling them she's allergic to penicillin. It could have been very dangerous! She's also calling Caitlin by the wrong surname. Sally goes through her phone and finds a picture of Caitlin and a different woman entitled 'me and mum'. Kim does a runner after realising that they're on to her. Ben catches her and brings her in.

Ben tells Sally and Gina the situation is further complicated the results of Kim's PNC check. She's been missing for 6 months after her son died in a boating accident. She could be the main witness to the accident and the only one who can identify the driver so it's imperative they find out who she is.

Sally reassures Kim she's not under arrest but asks why she said she was Caitlin's mum. She says she never told anyone she was, that they presumed and she didn't correct them. She said that she heard the girl use her mobile and learnt her name that way. Ben gently tells her that they know she's a missing person and just so they're 100% sure they have the right person, can she confirm her husband's name? She does and that her son was called James but known as Jamie. Sally suggests she saw a girl who needed her mum and stepped up. She says she's lived on cash in hand cleaning jobs and her savings. They have to tell her husband she has been found but they don't have to tell him where she is and she doesn't have to see him. Kim insists she can't see him and they reassure her but admit they do need to ID the driver of the car and she is their best shot as she saw him.

Callum reassures Sally that Kim won't be charged with anything as she's been through enough and wasn't behaving maliciously. There's been no answer on the number for Caitlin's parents however so they're going to visit the house. At the house they find a young man stocking up for a party. He tells them that he's Caitlin's boyfriend and that her parents are away for 24 hours whilst they have a birthday party for her 18th. He sends them to Caitlin's gran for the address whilst he goes to the hospital. At Caitlin's grans house they find the her at the foot of the stairs with a bruised cheek, holding her shoulder. She tells Callum that she fell downstairs but her front room has been ransacked. Callum sends Ben to do a door to door.

Kim recognises Ryan as the driver of the car via WADS and Smithy and Tony interview him. He claims he has a lot on his mind, his life is falling apart and he didn't do it on purpose. He wanted to get home but he couldn't avoid her stepping out to run away from the older woman after they'd been arguing. He claims he panicked and sped home. Tony tells Sally that he's claiming Caitlin ran out after arguing with Kim. Sally says it's rubbish and they'd only met that morning. Tony goes to get the CCTV from the cafe to check. Just after Ben tells Sally what they found at Caitlin's gran's house and that a neighbour reported seeing a woman driving a blue car and matching Kim's description visiting and it looks like she assaulted the woman.

Sally and Ben find her soon after and have to arrest her. Tony shows Gina the CCTV that shows Caitlin and Kim arguing and Caitlin running away. Sally runs Kim's fingerprints and finds an old record for arson under the surname Wickham - the same surname as Caitlin's grandma.

Kim's husband Dave insists he wants to know where she is. He's heartbroken at losing Kim as well as his son and that 2 weeks ago it was the year anniversary. He'd been in the water for 10 minutes before they realised he was missing. Gina tells him she can't let him see her without Kim's permission but she'll pass on the message that he understands and would have escaped the pain too if he could. He admits that she'd cut her past out and wouldn't talk about her family or old friends and would say the past doesn't matter only the present.

Sally and Ben are very gentle with Kim as they try to interview her but she is distressed and sobs throughout, not answering questions. Ben tells her they have fingerprints from the house and that if they match she'll be charged. Her solicitor suspends the interview and Gina wants the FME to check her over because she fears for a nervous breakdown. Tony reports Kim spent time in a young offenders institute for arson and that she was 6 months pregnant at the time of arrival and gave birth to a girl. "Don't tell me, exactly 18 years ago." "To the day, ma'am." "Kim's her bloomin' mother isn't she!" Gina sighs and sends them back to the hospital to talk to Caitlin about Kim.

Caitlin says she didn't know her but she let her sit with her in the cafe. She was nice but then started to ask weird questions about her family. She left and the woman grabbed her arm and said 'happy birthday' to her. She continued leaving the cafe and she wouldn't leave her alone. She was about to cross the road when she heard the woman say 'i never stopped loving you'. She turned to face her and she said 'I'm your mum'. Caitlin ran away and woke up in hospital. Caitlin asks them who the woman is, they tell her to wait for her mum to arrive... she works out that the woman is telling the truth.

Gina has made a family tree to explain to the officers what is going on. Lorna - Caitlin's gran - has two daughters. One is Kim. Her eldest is Trisha who brought Caitlin up as her own and they'd kept it secret in the family. Kim's file says that she surrendered the baby to her mother's care until she was released but there's nothing about what happened after release. Callum speaks to Lorna and explains that he knows it's complicated but they do now know who it was who was in the house and that Kim was present when Caitlin had her accident and from that and the hit and run investigation she has worked out the truth. Lorna apologises and says she wished she'd told them at the time. Trisha is with her and tells her mother that they should have told Caitlin before now about her real mother. Lorna explains that Kim was a difficult child and constantly had police at the door. There'd been no contact since she handed her over until that day. Lorna did fall down the stairs but Kim didn't help her, she went through drawers to find Trisha's address to see her daughter. Trisha wants her charged and Lorna agrees as Trisha claims Kim's not safe to be around Caitlin. Sally takes Trisha to see Caitlin but she has left the hospital and been gone about an hour. She wasn't discharged and the hospital want her back. Trisha growls that she's her daughter and that they should never have told her about Kim.

Tony and Ben find Caitlin's boyfriend with a bag . She doesn't want to be found or to see the police or her family. Ben tells him how important it is that she returns to the hospital to be monitored. He tells them that she's heading to Liverpool once she gets her things and he's waiting for a call to know where to take her bag. He agrees to let them take him to her and Tony gently encourages her back.

Gina watches as Kim is bailed. Sally is not happy, she tells Gina that Kim needs more help as she's not safe to be on her own. Gina tells her the FME has seen her and said she can be bailed and reminds her there's a limit to what they can do. They're not medics, psych's or social workers and can only uphold the law. The FME has referred her to her GP for ongoing care. Sally wants her to be with people who care about her. Gina points out she left the man that Sally wants to reunite her with 6 months ago, it could be for more reasons than the sons death and that Kim has refused to see him. She orders her out her office and looks down, only for Emma's death paperwork to be staring back at her.

Ben and Sally rush to the scene when Kim's car is reported at Jamaica Wharf with a distressed female inside. Gina takes Callum with her and follows them to the scene. Gina tells Sally not to approach and to wait for backup but she ignores her and approaches Kim and begs her to talk to her. Sally says she wants to help her but Kim shakes her head and tells her she keeps messing up and she wants it to stop hurting. She lost both her children and she can't get over it. Sally promises her that they need time but they can get over it. She tells Sally that she's so tired and she'll stop it now. Sally thinks she's calmed down and goes to get in the car but Kim drives off into the water.

Ben goes for a lifebelt, Callum calls for help from the RNLI and Marine Support Unit. Sally starts undressing. Gina tells her not to and that if she disobeys her she can kiss goodbye to her job. Sally throws her warrant card at her and tells her she's quit before jumping in the water. Callum starts to undress too as Gina begs him not to but he replies "I can't just stand here, can I?!" and jumps in. Sally and Callum fight to try and break the window to get Kim out He manages to get in but Kim is too scared and unable to undo her seatbelt. Gina shouts at them to get out as the car starts going under the water. Callum pulls Sally back as the car slips fully under. They look at each other, take a deep breath and dive under leaving a terrified Gina on the dock watching. Ben runs back with the life belt and starts to undress too but Gina physically stops him and drags him against her so he can't, smacking his arms in her upset before hugging him and almost crying. Thankfully Callum and Sally finally surface straight after with Kim. Ben throws them the lifebelt and helps haul them to the dock.

😥😥😥😥😥

"That was a close one, eh Ma'am?" "You are both lucky to be alive! That was STUPID AND DANGEROUS!" She shouts back and walks away, telling them she's going for the ambulances when really she's going to hide her tears from them. It appears this might be where Gina has finally realised that she can't handle the job in the same way she used to and that it's been heading this way for a good year.

Gina tells her to meet them in her office once they've gotten changed. Sally tells Callum that she was the only one who could help her and she couldn't let her go. She makes out she assessed the risk and wouldn't have done it if she didn't think she could. Callum tells her the risk assessing is bollocks, he knows she just jumped in and to hell with it. He tells her she was brave and that it was the right thing to do whatever Gina says. Ben chuckles and hugs her and calls her a nutter, walking her back to the cars.

Sally tells Kim that her mum has dropped the assault charge. She never knew about Jamie and Kim tells Sally she just wanted to see her daughter and do the right thing for once. She tells her she'll call Dave, her husband, and work with the doctors for her mental health.

Gina orders Sally and Callum into her office and tells them their behaviour was an outrageous breach of health and safety rules, dangerous, reckless and grossly insubordinate. Heaton tells them they got lucky this time but it could have gone the other way and they could be speaking to their next of kin, having a whip round and writing the eulogies. He gives Sally her warrant card back and tells her to go to the pub because there are people there waiting to buy her a drink. He then tells Callum 'well done'. Callum apologises to Gina for disobeying a direct order. "That won't happen again." "Not long ago I'd have been in there with you or shouting encouragement from the sidelines. Do you know what it's all about?" she asks, opening the folder on her desk to reveal a picture of Emma and the report Heaton had asked for. "I just couldn't face filling in another one of these." She thanks him and he leaves, shutting the door behind him to reveal Gina almost in tears the other side.

[unfriendlyamazon]

just like we never said goodbye (memories | aspirations)

happy @joukaiweek!! my dearest friend @luvdevilart sent me their beautiful picture for day 1, and i knew immediately i wanted to do a friends as kids au to complement it. we’re starting this week off with something really sad people so strap in!!!!

Title: Just Like We Never Said Goodbye Rating: T Characters: Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba, with special appearance by the friendship gang and Zigfried von Schroeder Word Count: 5446 Warnings: Nostalgia, Depression, Drug Mentions, Implied Parent Death Summary: Joey Wheeler lives across the world from the place he grew up, from the people he knew, and from his own emotions about growing up. It takes one chance meeting with Seto Kaiba for everything to come flooding back.

...

Joey had come in for a pack of cigarettes and stopped short at the counter. Rows of magazines sat next to the register, mostly tabloids showing the faces of well known celebrities bathing on the beach or getting out of their car at the club. Tucked beside them were the more prestigious catalogs, tech and lifestyle magazines. A face stared at him from the glossy photos of the TIME magazine. A tall, lean figure, cut smart in a black turtleneck with a purple sequined coat flared at the broad shoulders. An arm jutted out in a strongman pose, showing the VR gaming technology strapped to his arm. Dark hair brushed against pale skin, framing the sharp features of his face. It was his eyes that made Joey stop. A deep blue, wide and soft against the angles of his face. Everything else had changed about him, but those remained the same.

He picked up the magazine and saw the name emblazoned in strong letters across the page. Seto Kaiba. The surname was different, but the rest was the same.

“You want your smokes?” Ron said from behind the counter. He shook a pack of Lucky Strikes Joey’s way.

“Yeah,” Joey said and reached for his wallet. He waved the magazine at him. “This too.”

He walked the two blocks back to his apartment, a trail of cigarette smoke burning behind him. The magazine was tucked into his jacket, and his heart pounded against it every step of the way. Cold had hit New York like a sledgehammer, and the inside of the apartment complex didn’t do much to keep it out. He bounded up the stairs and unlocked his door, right as his roomie was making her way out.

“I’m gonna be late tonight,” Anzu said by way of greeting. “There’s some mixer downtown. Gotta shimmy and shake for the bigwigs.”

“Finally, you’re big break,” he joked. “When’re you gonna get us an apartment with heating?”

“You cut those cigarettes out, we’d already have one.” She wrinkled her nose. “You stink.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved her off. “Don’t freeze out there.”

She tugged down her knitted beanie. “On it. You’re still working with me tomorrow night, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I could use the change.”

She headed out, and Joey shut the door behind him. He took off his shoes, tossed his keys into the little plate Anzu kept by the door, flipped the switch on the heater that didn’t do a damn thing, and went straight into his room. Only when the door was closed did he remove the magazine from his jacket and toss it onto his bed. He moved around it, shedding his jacket and his flannel shirt. He found everything to do but look at it. Why he was acting like he just bought his first dirty magazine, he didn’t know, but it took him twenty minutes to finally sit down in bed and open it up.

Seto Kaiba, the adopted son of Gozaburo Kaiba, had taken over his company at a tender age. Before most kids knew what they wanted to do with their lives, he’d been made CEO of a million dollar organization, and immediately gutted it. There was no kindness in his tone, just clipped responses to questions about his personal life and his relationship with his adopted father. The photos were aggressively fashion. No minimalist tech bro bullshit. Long coats draped across his shoulders, highlighting his tall shape, and boots climbed his legs. Pictures in his office highlighted his ostentatious shape amid the clean corporate whites, and the backdrop of the Japanese city in neons behind him. He’d grown from nobody to tech titan in only a few years, and had exploded onto the American scene with his recent deal with Industrial Illusions. This holiday season every gamer would be dying for his VR system, and the bevy of licensed releases that would come with it.

It was a long way from that kid in Okinawa.

Joey closed the magazine and set it face down beside him. He opened his phone and scrolled through the ancient pictures he’d managed to save on there. Serenity had found a pack of Polaroids in her last move and scanned them in. Saved to a folder on the cloud from her computer, he couldn’t bring himself to download but a few of them. Old pictures of the beach stretching out behind them, and the rich green fields they would run in. Blurry faces of his sister laughing as he grappled her, and then them respectfully bowing their heads when they visited a shrine, dressed in traditional clothes. His mom appeared in a few of them, holding Serenity close with sad eyes. He scrolled quickly past the one of his dad cooking breakfast, a small version of him lifting an arm up to help, and paused at the image of him and Tristan climbing rocks on the beach. There were a few others from the kids they played with, and he examined each and every one of their faces. No one he recognized. After a few thoughtful moments, he opened a browser and searched Seto Kaiba’s name. A wall of the same face appeared in his phone, and he saved one picture before switching to his messages. Yugi’s name was at the top, and he sent the photo with the question: Have you heard of this guy?

It’d just be morning on the other side of the world, and no way his friend was waking up that early. He clicked a few of the articles that popped up, but there wasn’t much about Seto Kaiba from before his adoption into the Kaiba family. A younger sibling was registered with the family, and that was it. No mention of Okinawa. No talk of a summer spent digging holes in the dirt and chasing fireflies across the grass. No sign of the laugh that had graced a young boy’s face, with chubby cheeks and lanky limbs he hadn’t grown into yet. No mention of hands that held his kid brother’s as they twirled in circles playing stupid games, or the laughter as their festival lights spread sparklers in the dark. No mention at all of the sudden shadow that fell over his face after a rainy night sent a car careening off the road. No talk at all about the sudden goodbye and the empty home. Just the cold, empty space of a life that he wanted to forget.

Joey couldn’t blame him. His own family had fallen apart, not suddenly, but like a house weathered down to its cracked foundation. He’d escaped his own past, in a way. Not as successfully, it seemed, but he didn’t have a Wikipedia page to update or a bio in the New York Times to keep straight. It was hard not to cling to those happy memories, and to mourn their loss all over again. All because he saw a familiar face in a magazine.

Joey closed his face and closed his eyes. The nostalgia trip had exhausted him. They weren’t the same kids on a bright beach playing tag in the sand without a single care. They never would be again.

He’d do what he always did. Keep moving, don’t stop. No time to think, no time to look back. But as his breath moved in and out of his lungs, he let himself linger on those memories, just for a little while.

...

The stiff collar of the crisp white shirt dug into Joey’s neck. He fiddled with the tie and stopped himself. No, catering wasn’t his favorite gig, but it put extra money in his pocket, and Anzu and her friends were usually a good time. Tonight’s gig was at some gallery in Manhattan, a real bourgeois affair. PR girls and finance bros were dressed in couture suits worth a thousand bucks, sliding mozzarella bites off toothpicks with their teeth as vaguely undanceable club beats played. They bounded off the white walls to create a hollow echo. Joey made his rounds, and the crew rotated in and out of the kitchen, stopping to chat briefly and stealing appetizers off discarded plates.

“You’ve been in a mood lately,” Anzu said as she emptied half-drunk glasses into the bin. “More than usual.”

Joey chewed on a stuffed bell pepper that hadn’t made it onto the plate properly. “It’s just the season.”

“Try not to look so sad,” she said, patting his face. “You get better tips when you smile.”

He stuck his tongue out at her, and she picked up another tray before sauntering out the door. Wiping his hands on his vest, Joey snagged a platter of champagne and followed after. His phone buzzed in his back pocket, and he ignored it. Yugi had answered him back sometime in the middle of the night, no new information worth sharing. To the world, Kaiba Corp’s CEO had sprung fully formed into power at a tender young age, no history, no nothing. It didn’t matter anyway. Joey’s life had split when his parents did. There was no undoing what had already been done.

He made the rounds, and the tray lightened as upper class yuppies took their fill. He might as well be a ghost to them, which suited him fine tonight. Work the job, get the money, go back to smoking weed and playing video games. What else was there to life?

He rounded the walls to a smaller corner of the gallery, two drinks still on the tray. A party guest stopped in front of him, picking up both drinks with thin manicured fingers by the stem. He turned, bright pink hair flipping over a fur lined coat, and a pitched German voice called out, “Herr Kaiba, toast with me.”

The sudden assault on all Joey’s senses froze him. The party goer had a wide, veneer smile and a made up face, brushed lightly to highlight the cheekbones and plump the lips. It took Joey a few seconds to tear his eyes from the garish individual in front of him to see his companion. His heart stopped. Like a phantom stepping out of the pages of the fashion magazine, Seto Kaiba strode forward. A long white coat flared behind him, the belt open and hanging loose to reveal the clean black silhouette beneath. The boots he wore were heeled, giving his already impressive height a few extra inches so that he loomed over the crowd. Shoulders back and hand at his waist, he had all the casual ease of a 90s super model. Seto Kaiba looked exactly like his picture in a way that felt unreal. Joey almost pinched himself to see if he was dreaming.

“Our first trip to New York together,” the German said, extending a glass to Kaiba. “Hopefully not our last.”

Joey was no longer needed for this exchange. With his plate empty, he should bow out gracefully and only show back up when he had something to offer. But the German waved a hand at him, signaling a request.

“Bring more booze around,” he said. “It’s been terribly dull so far.”

Seto’s eyes drew to Joey, and for a moment he thought he saw a flicker of something. Was it recognition? No, his face was passive and straight. He didn’t flinch, didn’t move, didn’t say a word. Joey held his tray to his chest like a shield.

“You got it,” was all he managed out before he turned and fled. He headed straight back into the kitchen and slammed the tray down, calling out to no one in particular, “I’m taking my break.”

The first cigarette didn’t slow his heartbeat, so he lit a second one. He breathed out a long stream of smoke and watched it dance up into the streetlight. The back door to the kitchen led to an alleyway and some dumpsters. He wished he’d brought something stronger tonight, but this was cool, this was chill. So the past had risen like a zombie from the grave, like the hand on the monkey’s paw curled and the dead came back alive but not quite right. He felt like Alice through the looking glass, staring at a strange reflection. He didn’t know what bothered him more: his own reaction to the whole thing, when all he had was a summer friendship a decade ago, or that Seto had looked straight through him like he didn’t even remember. But why would he? Why should he? Everything was so much better for him now. He had money, and fashion, and a German boyfriend by the looks of things. Why would he want to remember anything from that time? Joey didn’t.

He finished the second cigarette and pulled out his phone. The message had been from his sister. Another squeeze to his heart. Tonight was shit. Time to cut and run. Anzu would forgive him for ditching her.

Inside the gallery, someone was speaking to the audience. Joey ducked past the crowd to give Anzu a heads up. The lights had gone down briefly, making faces hard to see. He rounded another corner, where he smacked straight into a person. Joey staggered back, holding his face as he muttered apologies, and then a low voice said, “Jounouchi.”

Joey blinked rapidly, staring up at the tall figure of Seto Kaiba. With only the flickering screen and the low lights from the gallery pieces, he looked even more ghost like. This couldn’t be real.

“No one’s called me that in a long time,” he said. “It’s Joey now.”

“Of course.” His long fingers twisted the stem of his champagne glass. “You’re working.”

Joey tugged at the stupid vest he wore. “Actually about to ditch.”

The flickering light caught the blue of his eyes as his head tilted just slightly, like Joey was one of the art pieces on display.

“Let me give you a ride,” Seto said. “Wherever it is you’re going.”

Joey blinked again. “Uh. I’m okay–”

“It’s a good moment to sneak out.” He placed the champagne glass on a display case. “I think I’ve had enough of my companion tonight.”

“The German guy?” Joey glanced back at the crowd. “He’s not your boyfriend?”

A smirk broadened Seto’s lips, and that was a familiar face. “He wishes. I’ll get my driver. You get your coat.”

He didn’t wait for Joey to respond, only marched past him. Joey stood there a moment longer. Was this really happening? He wanted to run away and ditch it all, but his chest tightened at the thought of letting this opportunity go. If not now, when?

Joey grabbed his fleece lined coat from a locker and found Seto outside. He chatted with an older Japanese man who immediately moved to open the door to a black town car when Joey padded up. It felt extra weird being escorted into the leather lined seats. A small bar was tucked into the side, and a laptop had been left on the seat. Seto didn’t say a word as he got in, and Joey dropped into the seat beside him.

“Where are you going?” Seto asked.

“I’m gonna be honest,” Joey said. “I was trying to get away from you.”

Seto stared at him, and a smile cracked his face. Joey huffed out a laugh as he gripped his hand through his hair.

“I’m craving fries,” Seto said to his driver in Japanese. “Take us somewhere we can sit.”

Joey undid his tie as the car took off onto the busy New York street. He felt like he could breathe again. Seto removed his phone and tapped away at it, the blue screen illuminating his face.

“I couldn’t believe it was you,” Joey said. “I mean, you look crazy now.”

Seto laughed again, eyes not moving from his screen. “You don’t want to see me, and you insult my fashion sense. Meanwhile you’re dressed like a low rent maitre d.”

“I was working,” Joey said.

“Not very well,” he said. “You’ve left.”

He leaned back in the seat, fluffing up his hair. “Yeah, well. It’s just a side gig anyway. They can boot me for all I care.”

“Very American of you,” he said and finally put down his phone. “And I was worried you might be different.”

Joey looked up at him. Street lights passed overhead, briefly illuminating the interior. He wasn’t sure if this would ever feel real.

“I didn’t think you remembered me,” he said.

“You have changed,” Seto said.

“So have you.” He reached across, picking at the white thread of the jacket. “You’re Seto Kaiba now. I guess things worked out okay for you in the end.”

Seto shifted his arm away. “I guess you could say that.”

Joey swallowed and sat back again. “You still got a little brother?”

“Little sister now,” he said, a smile easing back onto his face. “Adena’s in a private school in California. It’s easier for her there.”

“Mazel tov,” Joey said. “That’s cool for her.”

He nodded solemnly. The car pulled around a corner, and when Joey looked out he saw the golden McDonalds arches.

“You wanna eat here?” he said, looking back at Seto.

The car came to a stop, and the driver’s door opened. Seto shrugged.

“I travel a lot these days,” he said. “I’d rather have something familiar.”

They shuffled up to the counter, dressed in their Saturday night best. Seto paid for them both, and they took up a booth in the back away from the evening drunks and partiers. He looked even more ridiculous in the red plastic booth, one leg sticking out and the other propped up on his knee, his coat draped behind him. Joey removed the vest and unbuttoned his shirt, relaxing into his coat. He chewed on the straw of his soda.

“So why are you in New York anyway?” he asked.

“I spoke at a conference today,” he said, examining his nails. “I’ll fly back to Tokyo tomorrow. Zigfried insisted we not waste our evening.”

“Your boyfriend,” Joey said.

He wrinkled his nose. “Absolutely not. I have taste.”

“You ordered a twenty piece chicken nuggets,” Joey said.

“I have better taste than Zigfried.”

Joey bit down on the straw. “But you are gay, right?”

Seto looked at him, splayed out like a super model, manicured nails tapping against the plastic table. “Is that a question?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I knew it. I knew it when we were kids too.”

Seto smiled. “I don’t believe you.”

“You’re not exactly subtle.”

He picked at the collar of his white coat. “That’s true. You knew who you were at that age.”

“I knew I was a boy,” Joey said. “I don’t know if I knew who I was.”

Seto was watching him with that same discerning stare. “Tell me. Who is Joey?”

Their meals came on red trays. Seto opened a mountain of sweet and sour sauce packets while Joey bit into his burger. Two large fries sat between them, filling the tray with salt and grease. Joey chewed for a while, trying to come up with an answer.

“I work a few jobs,” he said. “Mostly doing deliveries. I like stuff like that, no one over my shoulder, lots of time to take a smoke break. Me and Anzu rent a place together, she’s a friend of a friend. You’d probably like her.”

Seto swept a fry through a glob of ketchup. “You ended up here from Okinawa.”

“Oh, yeah.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t long after you left that we did. Ended up all over the place, but somehow my dad always found work in Brooklyn. It’s basically the only place that feels like home. So when I was old enough to go out on my own, I came back here.”

“You had a sister as well.”

Joey wiped his mouth. “She’s getting her masters at UCLA. We talk every week. Tristan’s in California too. I don’t know if you remember him.”

Seto’s blank expression told him no. He picked up his own soda thoughtfully and washed down his fries.

“You don’t have anyone here,” he said.

Joey chomped down on his burger and swallowed it half chewed. “I got friends. I still got penpals from all the places we lived.”

“But not here.”

He shook his soda cup, rattling the ice still left inside. “So what? It’s what happens when people grow up. They move, they leave. I’m lucky for the people I do know.”

“It’s interesting,” he said, “that you describe this place as home, but it’s the place you have the fewest connections.”

Joey slammed the cup back down. “What does it matter to you anyway? You were the first to leave.”

Something flinched in Seto’s face. “I wouldn’t say that was my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Joey ran his hands through his hair and groaned. “This is too weird. Can we both say this is weird? Why are you here right now?”

“I told you,” he said. “I had conference.”

“No,” he said, waving a finger between them. “Why did you pick me up tonight? Why do you care what I’m doing with my life? We don’t know each other. Why bother?”

“You think we don’t know each other,” Seto said. He stared Joey down, unblinking, with an intensity Joey hadn’t met in a long time. “If that’s true, then all you’re doing right now is wasting my time.”

“Fuck you,” Joey spat out, and he stood up from the booth.

He didn’t bother to wait for what pithy reply Seto had. He grabbed his coat and stormed outside. The cold was like a force slowing him down, and he fumbled into his coat as he hunted for cigarettes. The hit of nicotine spiked inside him. He was aware of the door swinging open, and he turned on his heel.

“And where the hell do you get off?” he shouted at Seto’s face. “You gotta interrogate me about my life because what? You don’t feel good enough about yours? You dragged me out here! You’ve got all the money and the power in the world, so what do you want out of me?”

Seto took a single step forward. The lights of passing cars crossed over his face, illuminating his unreadable expression. Joey shored his shoulders, like he did when he was preparing for a fight.

“When was the last time you were happy?” Seto asked.

It was a knife to Joey’s heart. His whole body slumped in one exhale. Defeated.

“I left everything behind,” Seto said in his silence. “Everything. My home, my connections, my childhood. I feel every day like I’m grasping at threads to hold what I can remember. But you want to run away from all that.”

“It wasn’t a good time,” Joey croaked out.

“But there were,” Seto said, “good times.”

He closed his eyes. The polaroids filled his head, the smiling face of his sister, the smell of grass as he and Tristan rolled across the grass, the festival sparklers reflecting in his eyes, the heat of the summer sun warming his skin. His whole life felt like an uphill climb, and he’d never turned his head to see how far he’d come.

The headlights of Seto’s car appeared behind him, casting his face in darkness. Joey stared up at him.

“So that’s what you want out of me,” Joey said. “Nostalgia.”

The light caught the edge of his smile as Seto shook his head. “That’s not all I wanted.”

The driver opened the side door. Seto’s fingers found Joey’s wrist, the pad of his fingertips pressed against the pulsing heartbeat. The touch sent electricity through his arm and down his spine. It was the first time they’d actually touched each other since they were 10 years old. This wasn’t a dream, or a fantasy, or some kind of bad trip. There was more than nostalgia happening here.

“I dunno,” Joey said. “We might be going in two different directions.”

“It’s true,” Seto said. “But I think we can meet in the middle.”

Joey snorted out a laugh and dropped his cigarette. “I changed my mind. That was the worst line.”

Seto huffed out a breath, rolling his eyes. It was so bratty, and for a moment beneath the veneer he wore, Joey saw the face of his friend. Everything was different now, but some things were always going to be the same.

He reached a hand up, taking Seto’s face, and he kissed him. Seto took a beat, and then he pressed his lips against him, moving with an explorer’s curiosity. Against the cold, his face was heated, and Joey reveled in the skin on skin contact. It wasn’t like kissing a stranger. It was new territory for sure, but there was comfort in it, along with the thrill.

Joey fell back on his heels and smiled. Seto arched forward to chase him.

“Had to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into,” Joey said, patting Seto’s chest.

Seto grinned wide. “There’s still time to run you know.”

He shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere tonight.”

Seto kissed him again, and then hand in hand they climbed into the car.

...

The hotel room was the perfect temperature, and with the cloth covered windows, Joey could pretend it wasn’t even winter. He stretched against the messy sheets, breathing in and out. It was the nicest fucking hotel room he’d ever been in, even in the dim lighting, with a kitchen and seating area bigger than the apartment. The shower ran in the bathroom with sweet smelling steam pouring out against the sliver of golden light. The sluggish euphoria was leaving his body, and Joey clicked on the light to check his messages.

Tonight had ended a hundred miles from where it started. He’d have to explain himself to Anzu, and he had work and his life to get back to, but for now he could enjoy himself. Joey tossed his phone aside and stood, shimmying back into his shorts. Okay, maybe he was being nosy. He’d never been in a place this fancy before. A table had discarded coffee cups and leftover wrappers tossed in the trash, and the fridge was full of glass bottles of bubbly water. The closet showed more outfits carefully hung up, but the suitcase had been kicked over and shirts tossed aside. Joey suspected Seto’s driver was responsible for anything that looked organized. Especially because there was a desk set up, papers piled up in mismatched files, and a briefcase left open with materials spilling out from it. Joey tapped a file folder with his finger. It was too difficult not to snoop. The pile of papers gave way with another careful nudge, sliding onto the floor. The contents of the file folder scattered out, and Joey cursed as he dropped to his knees to pick it up.

The top pages were a blur of numbers and figures and dollar signs with more zeroes than he could count. He shoved them back and paused when the corner of an old, half-crumple piece of paper stuck out. Pink crayon scratched across the page, faded and carefully covered in a protective sheet. Joey pulled it out and saw a princess drawn in pink, next to a sketchy knight in blue, and a dragon behind them both. A blue crayon arrow pointed to the knight with a carefully copied SETO in child’s script, and in pink it was signed ADENA. Joey smiled as he tucked it back into the file. A polaroid landed at his feet.

He expected to see Seto with his sister, and his heart stopped when he saw his own face instead. It was him, still just a kid, wearing the same rough worn jeans and tennis shoes he’d worn every day, his shaggy hair hacked at with kitchen scissors, and a tooth missing from a wide faced smile. His arm was thrown around another figure the small and lanky form of a young Seto. Dressed in clean, crisp clothes, his big eyes were framed in dark heavy bangs, his big ears sticking out, and his face curved up in an almost imperceptible smile. They sat together on the grass, with the sun shining down on them. Scrawled in pen in the corner was the year 1993.

“I couldn’t hold onto a lot,” Seto said from behind him, and Joey jumped up. “But I managed a few things.”

“Sorry,” Joey said. He scooped up the rest of the papers and dropped them on the desk. “I didn’t mean to snoop.”

Seto smiled as he ran a towel through his hair. “You did.”

“I didn’t mean to get caught,” Joey admitted. “I can’t believe you have a picture of us. I couldn’t find one when I looked.”

“You looked,” Seto repeated.

He flopped back down on the bed. “I mean, I saw your picture on a magazine and I was like there’s no way that’s the same scrawny kid. I wasn’t lugging around your picture in a locket or anything.”

“It’s not in a locket.” Seto dropped down on the bed beside him. “I hold onto all sorts of things I think will give me inspiration.”

“You find me inspiring,” Joey said with a grin.

“It’s a nice reminder where I came from,” Seto intoned. “So I don’t let the little people down.”

“Jackass,” Joey groaned. “And here I thought you were pining for me all these years.”

“Don’t get bigheaded,” he said.

Joey snorted out a laugh. “It’d be kinda romantic if you were. And creepy. But also romantic.”

“It’s good to know you don’t find those things mutually exclusive.”

Seto laid down so their heads were touching, bodies splayed out at different angles. It was a strange way for Joey to be after sex. Usually he was out the door as soon as he could stand. Seto didn’t seem bothered either.

“Things might be different in the morning,” Joey said out loud.

Seto nodded. “It’s like you said. We’re going in two different directions.”

“Yeah, but.” Joey swallowed. “We already met again once. Maybe they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”

Seto was silent for a few heartbeats before he rolled over so he was facing Joey.

“Give me your phone,” he said.

Joey laughed. “Why?”

“I don’t trust things to be left up to fate.” He took the proffered phone and frowned at the cracked screen before swiping over to contacts. “If you want to meet again, you’re going to tell me. Don’t worry about where. I have a private jet.”

Joey laughed again, burying his face in the comforter. “You don’t have to keep impressing me you know!”

“I’m just naturally impressive.” He tossed the phone aside and sidled up beside him. It wasn’t quite cuddling, but there was comfort in each other. “People say I’m crazy, you know.”

“Is this more sweet talk?” Joey asked.

“And stubborn.” Seto’s blue eyes blinked up at him beneath dark lashes. “And ruthless, when I want to be. I don’t like having my time wasted, so if my inbox is going to sit empty I’m not going to hold my breath. You said you wanted to know what you were in for.”

“I guess I did.” Joey breathed out. “People have said those same things about me. I’ve got a long history you don’t know about and the rap sheet to prove it. I had some hard times and I don’t like to talk about it.”

“I could say the same thing.” Seto’s lip quirked up in a smile. “At least your rap sheet isn’t listed on Wikipedia.”

Joey rolled on his side. They were face to face now, breath mingling between them.

“It’s not like we’re dating,” he said. “You’re an international tech giant CEO, and I’m…”

“Hard to pin down,” Seto said.

“Right. So we’re, what, exactly?”

Seto’s mouth curved down as he folded his lips together. Joey held his breath as he watched him.

“I think,” Seto said, “we’re friends. It’s what we’ve always been.”

A smile cracked Joey’s face. He breathed out a relieved laugh.

“Yeah,” he said. “I like it. Friends.”

It wasn’t the full story. It would never be the full story. Even in the dark of the room, with the cold midnight outside, with each kiss and touch and sigh, Joey could feel sunshine, smell the ocean, and for a moment linger somewhere where he was happy. For the first time in a long time, it didn’t make him want to run away. Yeah, they were miles away from where they started tonight, but maybe it was where they’d been going the whole time.

[pmatga]

Just found your blog and I really like it ❤️ so if it's not too much trouble more head cannons about your OC please

you didn't specify which oc you meant so fuck it. you get Multiple

blair spellman

idk if i've ever mentioned it before (i probably have and i just forgot lol) but she has fire powers like her dad! they aren't as strong as his are though bc she's still alive and fleshy and made up of water. she really doesn't use her powers for anything more than lighting a cigarette when she can't find her lighter, however; that's bc she can't control them all that well. like she's not accidentally setting shit on fire left and right (not since puberty at least), but if she has a great emotional outburst (especially an angry outburst), Bad Shit might happen. thankfully blair didn't really inherit their father's temper so Bad Shit doesn't really happen all that often. don't get me wrong, they Do have issues with anger but that's more due to trauma than anything related to bets (plus she deals with her anger issues in a different, yet still unhealthy way)

is the type to wear axe body spray in lieu of Actually showering because "it’s basically the same thing, right?"

prefers nightclubs to house parties.

another thing that i don't remember if i've ever mentioned before: they were on the track team back in high school. their coach once told them that if they worked hard enough, they could really go places (funny how that worked out). she's not nearly as good of a runner than she used to be, but she can still, say, outrun a swarm of ghosts if she tries hard enough (adrenaline is crazy man)

their last name, spellman, is a surname they decided for themself. and even after reconnecting with their mom's side of their bio family, they still keep their last name as spellman. it's Important to them.

has little to no social media presence. like they have accounts but they never post, they mostly just lurk

she accidentally burned down the last place she worked at (a 7/11). an argument between her and a coworker got heated (pun only slightly intended) and…well. i'm sure you can guess. thankfully no else aside from blair & her coworker were there and they got out more or less fine, so she didn't kill or seriously injure anyone (and she's lucky she didn't). and bc they could never really prove it was her---everything pointed to an electrical fire, even if they could never figure out how the fire got started so quickly nor why it didn't spread beyond the store---she never got in trouble for it nor did she have to pay for it. it scared the shit out of her though, and ever since she tends to stay away from the vicinity.

robert jadeite

if he were in the show, there'd be a running joke abt him having Just So Many shitty jobs. does he just quit/get fired a lot, or does he actually have 15+ jobs? we will never know. for example: waiter, late night gas station attendant, cashier at pacmart (walmart), working the drive-thru at pacdonalds (mcdonalds), pacbucks barista (or maybe starpacs? idk), the guy at a water park who tells you when you can go down the slide, etc. he has so many jobs and he hates every single one of them.

has a semi-popular youtube (pactube?) channel. all his videos are either "sitting in my car or on my kitchen/bathroom floor" style rant vids or 1-3 hour long vids on a hyperfixation-induced rabbit hole he'd gone down.

prefers house parties to nightclubs.

has pretty bad insomnia. he's lucky if he gets 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

he's a college dropout (mental health reasons + mid-semester identity crisis) and was majoring in marketing prior to that. he currently doesn't know what he wants to do with his life and doesn't like thinking abt it bc thinking abt the future scares him.

orbitalia spheros

she’s betrayus & stratos’ half-sister and her bio dad is japanese (or pac-japanese? since tokyo is called pac-tokyo). she didn't meet her bio dad until later in life, as rotunda never told him abt orbitalia's existence. things were shaky between the two of them at first (orbie & her dad i mean) but they're more or less alright now

sunny and orbitalia were best friends back in high school. they drifted apart some in college but they were still very close. orbie & zac were Also friends but weren't As close as she and sunny were.

she Does Not have a good relationship with either of her brothers; she's never really been close with either of them tbh. it's mostly why she almost never comes down to pacopolis except to pick up elliptica whenever she visits.

has made a few attempts to get back into the dating scene over the years, but each and every time these relationships end up dissolving bc her heart's just...not into it (and also bc well. never receiving closure on whatever happened to her husband kinda makes it hard for her to properly grieve which makes it hard to Actually move on). she's still friends with most of her exes though.

akahiro murasaki

was Not A Fan of his in-laws. this is mostly for two reasons: 1.) if there is one thing that both of the spheros brothers are equally good at, it’s at testing the patience of everyone forced by social convention to interact with them, and 2.) orbitalia told akahiro Some Really Concerning Shit abt growing up with rotunda as a mother and stratos & betrayus as brothers. y'know that thing where you're telling someone what you think is a funny story only for them to look at you in horror bc it was actually traumatic? yeah. so while he was willing to be civil for orbitalia's (and later elliptica's) sake, he didn't really go out of his way to be overly friendly to them.

is a transhet man (he/him), he & orbitalia were t4t

liked wearing boots with slight heels (much like his brother-in-laws ironically enough). not really so he'd seem taller (he was 5'9" and was perfectly content with that) but bc they looked good and that's it

was quietly self-confident. he looked good, he was good at what he did, he knew it, and he didn't necessarily feel the need to flaunt it (those kind of ppl annoyed the hell out of him tbh).

that being said he Did have some insecurities, mostly abt whether or not he was actually a good husband and (later on) a good father. as i've said before, he wasn't the most emotionally demonstrative person in the world and he worried abt whether or not orbitalia & elliptica knew that he loved them. orbitalia did (even if she did occasionally have her doubts bc anxiety be like that) and elliptica did too (at the time, at least. nowadays elli's not entirely sure)

gwendolyn hollow

her voiceclaim is sally from the nightmare before christmas

you know how i once mentioned that she uses secret tape recorders to record things? yeah. she does that so 1.) she doesn't have to just rely on her poor memory, 2.) she can decipher anything she doesn't understand later, and 3.) as a sort of audio diary.

is an appreciator of small things, like buttons and strings of ribbon, rocks, animal bones, and such. sometimes she will stare at little things that interest her for so long that griffin or even the good doctor pacenstein himself have to tell her to “move along, girl.”

slightly related to the above hc: pacenstein & griffin call her "girl" a lot. keep in mind she's at least 20 years old.

her middle name, elizabeth, is derived from pacenstein's ex-fiancée elizabeth from way back in the 1800s. and yes it's fucking weird that a.) griffin let his great+ uncle name his first and only child and b.) pacenstein named his grand niece after his ex. like sure it's just her middle name but still. weird shit.

isn't allowed to interact or even show her face to any visitors to pacenstein manor. this is bc the last time she interacted with a visitor (it was literally just to take their coat), they took one look at her, got freaked out, and made an excuse to leave. she was never really told Why but was led to believe it was bc she resembles her great-uncle. it's not.

genuinely doesn't know Jack Shit abt almost anything that's happened outside the castle and what little she Has learned has been history from like...200 years ago, so nothing recent. a whole fucking WAR happened within her lifetime and she's completely unaware of any of it.

griffin hollow

as the caretaker of pacenstein manor and the only one who can/is allowed to leave the castle, he’s usually the one who takes care of dr. pacenstein’s personal affairs---gathering supplies and equipment for them both (yes sometimes this includes Literal Graverobbing), arranging meetings with potential clients, and finding out any recent developments in pacworld (never hurts to keep informed!).

is really fucking cowardly and tends to bend towards dr. pacenstein's will, especially where gwen is concerned. he is Far Too Willing to throw her under the bus if it means getting his great+ uncle's approval.

much like his great-uncle (and much like most of his contemporaries tbh), he believes that his intelligence is far superior to most people’s and that others should be grateful to bask in his presence. unlike his great-uncle (and most of his contemporaries), however, he also knows that this isn’t a stance that endears him to others, so he usually shuts up abt it.

he doesn't express anger in the traditional sense. like he won’t yell (most of the time), get physically violent (again most of the time), or even directly tell someone he’s angry. instead, he chooses to express anger by doing this…passive-aggressive, just downright weird shit whenever he's mad abt something. like "accidentally" locking someone in a room/out of the house, hiding things (usually sentimental possessions or necessary items like keys), turning off the heating/air conditioner with no warning, etc..

[thunderstomm]

Hot Wheels: Let’s Race - Cruise Mini-Redesign

Now that the new season of Hot Wheels: Let’s Race has been out for a few days, it felt like due time to add her into my old lineup I did earlier this year. (You can find those here!) Cruise very quickly became my new favourite character, I love that she poses an actual challenge and threat to the others, particularly Coop. I plan to make a proper post regarding my s2 thoughts, but I particularly enjoy that she is allowed to be a proper enemy for the protagonists. Unlike when Coop had a more intense rivalry with Axle, they aren’t in constant close proximity with Cruise, meaning they don’t have to feign any sort of politeness towards her. She is the perfect adversity for Coop, and I think her just being in the show really benefits his character and motive, and I hope to see them actually have a full conversation at some point, and for that to tie into Cruise’s thoughts about Rearview’s plans for if she wins the Ultimate Garage. She clearly likes racing, what’s to say she necessarily wants it to be destroyed? I guess only time will tell.

I designed two looks for Cruise- one is a redesign of her canon outfit, and the other is meant to match the racing uniforms I gave to the campers. Her canon racing suit is alright, but I do think it is a little monochromatic. Also, I don’t like that her leaderboard colour is purple and she has no purple whatsoever on her? So I made the base suit a dark purple instead of black, and made the lime tone a little more yellow in shade, to match Professor Rearview’s base suit. I like the stripe across the chest, clearly meant to mimic the tire tracks on her father’s suit, but I wanted to make that a little more clear. I also made the shape more akin to a lightning bolt, as a sort of opposition to the hot wheels campers wearing flames. And I added a little more detail, such as pockets and seams, for good measure.

When it comes to the question of her being redeemed, I am split. I would like to see them redeem her, I think it would make sense as a character progression for her to open up to the campers (or at least, Coop, since they’re interacting the most and there is emphasis on their dynamic) and betray her father in the end, but we also haven’t seen much from her yet indicating that she WANTS to switch alignments. Season 3 could easily change this, I’m excited to see, and honestly would love to see her get worse just as much as I’d love to see her get better. I have two theories regarding possible endings where a redemption does happen for her, which will be in my s2 thoughts post. Nonetheless, I wanted to design a camper-style racing suit for her. It’s identical to the other six in terms of design and pattern, with a flame print, and where the pockets, seams and details are. It’s in purple, since that’s her colour on the leaderboard. I kept the green as a secondary colour, thank goodness green and purple look good together. Her racer number is 07, since she would join late, and the others were assigned their numbers via the first level of the camp and where they placed. She probably wouldn’t like it, but everyone is well aware her skill outclasses the little number on her suit. I also thought about possibly changing her hair colour for the switch, but I didn’t want to give her a natural hair colour (I love characters with dyed hair)’ and making it all purple brought back the monochrome problem in the opposite direction. Maybe she’d have different coloured streaks or tips? For now, I have kept it green.

Like the other designs, I’ve included a few headcanons regarding the character! I’ve seen people actually be named Cruise before, so I don’t have any issue seeing such as her legal first name. Her surname is (obviously) Rearview, pointing clear relation to her dad, Professor Rearview. I know someone will argue that “Rearview” is meant to be his first name, considering they all have car part names, but the structure of his title and name leads me to lean more towards it being a surname? Even if we do end up seeing a flashback and they refer to him as just “Rearview”, it doesn’t invalidate it, as plenty of people go by their surnames. Long story short, her full name is Cruise Rearview. Cruise is 12 years old, and is the same age as Coop, Mac and Brights. Cruise uses she/her pronouns, and is 4’10” tall.

Thank you for reading my mini-ramble all of the way !! Feel free to ask any questions about this design, or about more of my HCs regarding her, or any other characters. I’ve been having a lot of fun with these !! Proper s2 thoughts post coming soon, I promise !! 💚💜