#hmm don’t like the dress but I love the princess hat

[dearabby1990]

Chapter 48: Friendly Free day

The sound of the alarm is what wakes you from your peaceful sleep after you smack the snooze button all you’re met with is the sound of the beautiful birds & ocean outside but notice you feel something missing. Rolling over you notice your husband isn’t in bed so sitting up & slipping into your fuzzy slippers you start to poke your head around to see where he could’ve went off to. Nowhere to be found you start to worry just as your getting ready to get dressed & look for him you hear the door unlocking & in enters your gorgeous husband with a few platters of food & that million dollar smile “mornin sunshine got us some breakfast I was hoping you get back before you got up but seeing your gorgeous face waiting at the door is way better anyway” you smile “you scared me you ass hat I rolled over & looked around & poof gone I should beat you but you have food so that’s a start” he chuckles “you love me too much to hurt me princess besides I have your favorite”. Both of you sitting down in the kitchen area opening your containers to see French toast & bacon you haven’t felt so hungry in your life Eddie seems to have ordered the same you both dig into your food enjoying every bite “I’m surprised you haven’t been getting sick or anything or have you?” Shaking your head “nah just get sleepy sometimes & really hungry other then that I’ve been fine” “hmm maybe that’s a good thing” “maybe we’ll check on everything when we get home”. You both are getting ready & you’ve handed Eddie the passes him & the guys need to go do their water activities. “You’re gonna have so much fun baby I want you to have a ball I know we will in our own way im taking them down to the beach I got the three of them boogie boards & when they’re all done we’re gonna go get dinner & ice cream you guys don’t forget your reservation at the pub is at 7pm don’t be late the address is in the envelope I gave you I love you so much have fun & we’ll meet at the arcade at 10” “thank you princess you’re amazing I love you too & okay 10 sharp you got it” a swat to your ass & wink as he finishes getting dressed & you pack a beach bag for you & the boys Eddie’s out the door & you have a little time to kill. Deciding on just going to check on the boys you grab all your beach gear & head out the door. Heading to Gareth’s room you hear the sound of muffled bickering upon approaching the door you could hear more clearly it was your three favorite knuckleheads having some sort of discussion. Dustin is who you hear first with your arrival outside their door “It’s not stupid!! She could really use this I didn’t see you two idiots have anything bright to say when it came time to pick something besides do you have something better?!” Mike buts in “No but I can guarantee you whatever I do get them is better then whatever the hell that’s even supposed to be!” “Yeah what the hell even is that?! It looked like a dyed potato sack” Lucas added you’re full on laughing while knocking on the door “let me in boys I need to go to the bathroom already!” You hear them all bumbling over each other to the door as it swings open and all three of them are smiling at you helping you in. “What the heck are you all arguing about? Hold that thought I’ll be right back”. Dustin looks at Mike & Lucas “she must’ve heard us” “no way we’re weren’t that loud were we?” You come out of the restroom “you are all extremely loud but that’s okay” you chuckle “now what’s the dilemma?” Dustin steps forward with his head low & face red “uh we all kinda want to get the baby something but they were saying what I picked was stupid” you furrow your brows “I doubt it’s stupid dustin you’re one of the most thoughtful people I know” you Pat his shoulder giving him some reassurance before he hands you a small yellow gift bag looking inside you pull out the fabric to inspect your gift he’s so sweet a baby carrier tie dyed in pastel colors with straps to adjust to your chest your heart warms at the gesture “thank you i love it it’s definitely going to come in handy when I’m busy & my hands are full” you give him a hug.

“what exactly is it?” Mike asks “it’s a baby carrier see these two little holes they’re for the babies legs & I strap it to my chest so the baby is secure & I have my hands free to do other stuff i need to get done” Mike & Lucas stare at each other & shake their heads in understanding as you finish packing up the wagon full of beach supplies & lunch for you all. “Okay guys we have sandwiches chips sodas & mini brownies packed for lunch we’ll figure dinner out later after we come back & change now let’s get going one of you please pull the wagon & I got you guys boogie boards to go out and play in the water & a beach ball & football just in case now let’s get movin” Lucas runs to grab the wagon as dustin & Mike take turns opening doors on your way outside. Traveling down to your cabana rental you set up everyone’s towels & begin setting up lunch for everyone “okay guys we’re gonna eat but no water for at least 30 minutes so you guys can play on the sand or something for awhile after that go wild but not before I apply sunblock “Yes Mom” Mike says while snickering “Hey watch it wheeler I may be pregnant but I’ll still put you in a headlock & kick your butt I’m not that damn old I’m only 21” they all giggle as you set up lunch on a picnic blanket & set up everyone’s towels in the cabana on their chairs “okay guys let’s dig in me & the baby are starving” you all enjoy playful conversation picking on each other & laughing until Mike & Lucas offer to clean up the lunch mess leaving you sitting with Dustin relaxing in the sun “so???.. how’s everything been? I feel like we don’t get a lot of brother sister time I wanted to check in” “just worried about what high school is gonna be like with half of hellfire gone we’re probably gonna end up in the trash can or a locker since Eddie’s gone now” your eyes soften at his statement “dustin if I tell you a secret do you promise not to tell a soul?” He nods “yeah I swear!” “Eddie is passing his torch to you in the realm that is Hawkins high so it’s up to you to carry the legacy & find someone that has what it takes to keep it going of course when you guys play at my place he’s got his old position but it’s all up to you now & you’re gonna have an amazing experience dustin I promise you & anyone who messes with my little brother has to go through me & you know they’d have to get through Eddie first” you both laugh “you really are the best you know that?” You shake your head “ nah I just protect the ones I love & care about & always will” “that’s what makes you the best” with that he pulls you into a side hug & you squeeze him back just as the boys get back from throwing out the trash. “Okay boys go have fun no water for 25 minutes got it?! I’ve been counting!!” You yell as they take off with the beach ball playing with it at the volleyball net making you chuckle as you put on your sunglasses & noticed you forgot something “hey sunblock now get back here you three!” The whine & complain the entire time especially when you get to their faces “oh come on the nose really I’m gonna look like a ducks dork” “come down dweeb you’ll live now go have fun gilligan” Mike huffs as they walk off back to where they previously were while you pull out your book & lay back relaxing & getting lost in the story. After about an hour of the boys playing at the volleyball net they ran back to the cabana to get something to drink & grab their boogie boards Lucas turns to you “hey Jamie wanna goto the water with us?” “Sure bud just give me a second I’ll catch up go ahead” they nod walking across the hot sand your just in your bathing suit now really seeing your belly in your two piece now that there isn’t a shirt covering it you start to feel gross trying to hide it as you walk up to the boys & Mike notices how uncomfortable you look & his face softens at your body language “hey you okay?” “Uh yeah I think?” He comes over to you wrapping you in a hug as you get a bit emotional

“I’m sorry guys I’m a party pooper” “no you’re not” says Lucas Mike squeezes a little tighter “& you don’t have to cover yourself pregnant or not you’re absolutely gorgeous even when you don’t try I wouldn’t lie to you now come on let’s go have fun yeah?” You nod & all walk dipping your toes in the crystal blue water “it’s so beautiful here” as you finish you see something off in the distance & when you realize what it is you start to lose it full belly laughing “what the hell are you alright?” You pointed upwards & when they turn to see what you’re looking at in the distance is a small white boat gliding across the ocean pulling Eddie & gareth on a parasail & you all laugh together & wave trying to get their attention eventually they see you all & wave back “that looks crazy I don’t know if I’d do that I’m scared of sharks” “yeah me too” says dustin & Lucas “maybe next time guys when I’m not with child” you giggle the boys go off playing burning up all their energy against the waves until you all head back to pack up & get changed “that was so fun I hope we can do another beach day before we leave” mikes still a bit hyper tugging the wagon along “oh most definitely we’re gonna do that our last day here but let’s get back get changed & figure out what we’re doing for dinner” the boys nodded while you all made your way back to the hotel. Entering your room you throw your wet bathing suit in the dirty laundry & step into the shower to rid yourself of any sand or salt water left behind from today’s activities stepping out into a fluffy towel & going through your luggage pulling out one of the sundresses Eddie picked out for you all black with silver straps & a pair of black wedges leaving your hair down opting out to just blow drying it & putting a beautiful Cherokee rose hair clip in your hair. Spraying on a bit of perfume as you her a quiet knock at the door. Grabbing your bag you open the door to all three boys dressed very nicely is button up short sleeve shirts & nice slacks their hair neatly done & noticing that they all put on cologne of some sort Lucas is the first to speak “Good evening mam we’re here to escort you to dinner” you giggle “why thank you gentlemen lead the way” heading out you decided to let the boys pick little did you know they went ahead & made a surprise reservation Mike walks to the waitstaff “Excuse me we have a reservation for wheeler/Sinclair/Henderson” you’re laughing & dustin turns to you “what? We couldn’t decide what name to leave it under so we just all did” “it’s fine I think it’s adorable” leading to the table mike pulls out your chair & helps push you to the table “well we did one of those present 5 course things” your were extremely thankful beings you’re starving again already “thank you boys this is very sweet of you” “no thank you for bringing us with & letting us all have an adventure together” Lucas adds drinks come to the table & dustin raises his glass “to family no matter how close or how far the bonds we forged are unbreakable & the love we have for each other is infinite” “here here” the boys along with you raised your glasses with Dustin’s as you begin to get emotional “to family”.

[backandimbamon]

hello! i saw you were taking bamon prompts, and I know you filled one of mine back in October, so please feel free to do others, but I like your work so I’m throwing my hat in the ring another time.

im forever bummed that we never really got to see a “dress” moment for Bonnie canonically. She never got to descend stairs with eyes all on her, she never got to steal breath away just by her appearance, whether at a dance or otherwise (if we don’t include her appearance in Damon’s kitchen). In fic, I love when she gets to have moments where she’s genuinely stunning, and Damon just looks at her in awe (because that is something we do see canonically!). It’s a little loose, but would you be able to write something that has her so captivating that Damon might even be at a loss for words? I just want a sweet princess moment for her basically.

I hope you are doing well and staying safe! Thank you 💕

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. everything u said was just like amazing and true. i’m doing so well, and i hope you’re safe! i’m so ready to bring this to life.. the idea popped up instantly for this, i was adamant in writing. hope u enjoy 🤎

Damon had the smallest notion that perhaps he had made a mistake.

Surrounded by tulle and layers upon layers of white and creme, expensive hangers, headless mannequins, and the quietly excited shopkeeper, Damon asked himself why he fought Caroline over being able to go dress shopping with Bonnie. There was no telling but he could possibly be sitting here for hours without a glass of bourbon or blood to keep him entertained.

The little lady who owned La Robe de Mariée was even shorter than Bonnie with light brown skin, mousy features and glasses that were perched lowly against her nose, she had a bad habit of tilting her head down and looking at Damon beyond her lenses, especially when she asked probing questions.

“You must be the gay best friend?”

Bonnie laughed at that, openly and cheekily, deciding that she did like this bridal shop if the dresses were anything close to being as remarkable as she was. Damon rolled his eyes. When he pointedly said, “no,” without even a snort or a chuckle the lady, Miss Belinda, stated,

“You do know it’s bad luck for the husband to see the dress.”

And Bonnie sobered up quickly, her fit of laughter untimely concluded. “Oh we’re not- he isn’t my husband!”

Miss Belinda rose an eyebrow. “Not technically.”

“Not at all.” Bonnie politely affirmed, tugging at the hem of her sleeve. “He’s my best friend.”

“Hmm.” The older woman didn’t say much after that, just pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose before giving them another once over. “Follow me.”

So there Damon was, on a white velvet couch, waiting for Bonnie to try on wedding gowns. Just him and him alone since he had the tendency to want his best friend all to himself, which seemed increasingly difficult to achieve as of late.

Actually he’s had to fight for Bonnie’s attention because Derek, the groom, seemed hellbent on kicking him out of the picture.

Either that or biting his head off.

Their relationship was almost cordial, but the thing about Derek was, he reminded him of a big burly wolf. And after getting to know him, he wondered what was so interesting or funny about him that elicited a signature starry-eyed smile Bonnie gave him when he wasn’t paying attention.

Whatever.

“Your dream wedding dress: what does it look like?” Miss Belinda asked, a notepad in hand as if she were a therapist.

Damon observed Bonnie when she gave a little pout. There was a pregnant pause as she took her time to think, glancing around her in curiosity like one of the dresses would hop out and tell her.

“You know, it’s crazy to say but I’m twenty-seven and I’ve never thought of what my perfect wedding dress might look like. I could describe Elena’s perfectly. I could tell you Caroline’s to a tee. But mine… I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

“Okay well let’s get whoever these Elena and Caroline are out of your head and let’s fill it with- what’s your name?”

“Bonnie.”

“Let’s fill it with what Bonnie wants.”

“Right.”

“And I’m Damon, by the way.”

“Damon, the best friend. Got it.”

He realized then that her voice and disposition reminded him of Sheila.

.

To not know what she wanted, Bonnie was very selective. She looked at dresses without even trying them on and shook her head dismissively. They had already been there for forty-five minutes and she had yet to find a dress she actually wanted to see herself in so she realized a traditional style in the big and poufy sense was not her thing.

“I don’t want to drown in a dress.”

So they looked at silhouettes that were figure-hugging up top and flared out like a mermaid to the bottom. She did enjoy those. However, not enough to be ushered into the dressing room.

Thirty minutes later, Bonnie declared, “I want an unconventional wedding dress. One that’s kinda sensual but still classy. I want a dress that looks like it’s fresh off of the runway.”

Miss Belinda looked like something clicked. “I think I might have the perfect one for you.”

.

It was a vintage Thierry Mugler gown, definitely a couturier’s version of bridal with a price tag that made even Damon’s eyes widen.

“I’ve been waiting for the right pair of eyes to show this to. It’s not everyday that a girl decides she wants a gorgeous gown that is unlike anything she’s ever seen before. They come in and say they want a dress like Carrie Bradshaw’s or Kim Kardashian’s.” She blew a raspberry. “The girls are supposed to find their own dress…and fall in love with it.”

Miss Belinda held onto the hanger with great pride, extending what looked to be a flesh-colored set: a strapless bodysuit, and the mesh with little ruches in excess towards the bottom like flowers that decided to bloom right out of the dress.

“It’s beautiful, it really is.” Bonnie hesitated.

“You should try it on.”

She had no clue if Damon made the suggestion because he was bored of the ample time spent looking at dresses with only slight variations between them or because he genuinely wanted to see her in it. But she relented anyway.

“Fine.”

Miss Belinda looked through her lenses at them as if she were going to ask another question before opting on silence and showing her to a breathtaking fitting room.

.

“Oh my god!”

Bonnie said it from the fitting room, followed by a gasp and eventual silence.

“That’s normally a good sign.” Miss Belinda explained to Damon with a knowing smile.

“Oh my god.” She said it again with a finality as she opened the fitting room door with fumbling fingers and walked out on shaky limbs.

Breathlessly Miss Belinda asserted, “That’s the one. My job here is down, child.” Politely, she walked away to give them some space to admire how a dress like that could bring forth the magic that young lady already possessed.

“What do you think?”

Damon was robbed of any logical thoughts to piece together.

She was standing there in a corset that made her waist invisible and a gown that looked like a beautifully designed layer of second skin. As tiny as she was, her legs, which were completely revealed, looked extended from the high cut of the bodysuit. Her skin was like gold. The veil interwoven itself with a train that reached far beyond her for a few feet, gossamer enough that it trailed behind her when she walked and caught air in the slightest of movements.

Bonnie Bennett was ethereal.

Bonnie Bennett was unreal.

“I feel naked.” She filled in at Damon’s unusual silence. “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” She giggled as if the awkwardness could banish with her little lilt.

Oh he was gaping on the inside, bad. He had to tighten his jaw to make sure it didn’t go slack, that’s how paralyzingly beautiful she was.

Was it bad of him that he didn’t want Bonnie to marry Derek? Not in that. Not looking so stunning. But he couldn’t bring himself to tell her to look for another gown. There was no way in hell he could lie like it wasn’t made for her.

“Bonnie-you look…”

He was grasping for the right words but they weren’t extravagant enough. They weren’t dynamic or remarkable or pertinent enough to express his admiration and actual butterflies-in-the-stomach kind of feeling she was giving him. His palms were sweating.

Damon could imagine himself at the wedding, those same butterflies turning into eels, his insides flipping a few times over when Bonnie and Derek kissed. When Bonnie Bennett became Bonnie Hale.

That Derek.

What a lucky bastard.

“Honestly, Bonnie, you look like you have wings.”

(the dress)

[theweasleysredhair]

Naughty or Nice [F.W.]

Character: Fred Weasley

Word Count: 3224

Requested?: Yes/No

Summary: Fred likes it when his girlfriend dresses up for the festive season.

WARNING: this is NSFW, 18+, smutty, sexy times, idk how else to say it. pls don’t read if you’re a minor. including oral (male and female receiving), bondage, fred being hot, fred being dom

Tags: @gracemayhateyou @acciotwinz @rexorangecouny @mischi3f-manag3d @twinkyjohnson @immobulusmalfoy @hufflrpuffforfred @whiz-bangs78 @heart-of-tempered-steel @vivianweasley @harrysweasleys @ickle-ronniekins

Disclaimer: Gif isn't mine, credit to whoever made it

A/n: so this is for @wand3ringr0s3 ‘s writing challenge (prompt: “shut up and strip.”) from what feels like about 3 years ago (ily haley ❤️). i’m a couple days late for christmas but it’s still the holiday season so i hope you all enjoy this festive fic!! also side note,, this fic was and is the bane of my existence, i hate it, hated writing it, and hate that it took me so long to actually finish it. but other than that, i hope you guys like it more than i do!

~*~

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST MY WORK! REBLOGS ARE ABSOLUTELY FINE! <3

+ + + + +

The joke shop had been getting busier and busier over the last month and half, with parents on a mission to find Christmas presents for their children, and with more of the Wizard Wheezes products being added to Christmas lists every day, this meant that the store often had a queue forming before opening time, and, more times than not, the twins had had to stay open late, with customers still deciding between products, or people running in a few seconds before closing to quickly pick up their last few bits.

With nonstop talking and interacting all day, Fred arrived home exhausted, hair messy from where he’d ran his hands through it one too many times, tie skewed and the bags under his eyes getting darker as the days went on. All he really wanted, he decided as he hung his jacket on the rack and kicked his shoes off, was some food, and a long warm shower - preferably with you joining him.

“Love?” He called out as he stepped into the living room. He sifted through the mail that had been left on the coffee table, frowning when he didn’t hear a response. He dropped the letters, finding nothing but bills there, undoing his top button and loosening his collar as he headed towards your bedroom - perhaps you were in there.

“Y/n?”

There was a loud thud, as if someone had tripped over, followed by you letting out a string of curses, “I’m in the bedroom but-“

Fred headed over to the door, worried, wondering what you were doing when he heard you add on quickly, “I’ve got a surprise for you!”

“A surprise?”

Fred reached for the door handle, intent on opening the door when he heard you shriek, “Don’t come in! I won’t be a moment, wait out there!”

“Fine,” he grumbled, stepping away from the door and bringing his hands up to undo his tie, throwing it onto the nearest cabinet top. That’s when you emerged from your shared room, leaning against the doorway and winking at him, watching happily as he froze, eyes raking down your body, mouth open in a slack ‘o’.

“Surprise,” you practically sang out, posing for him with a thigh bent, watching as his gaze drifted from your chest, to your hips and thighs, before travelling down your legs.

You wore a see-through red baby doll, the cleavage outlined in white feathers, with open cups, though they were covered - barely - by a satin bow that, with a simple pull, would reveal your chest to Fred. Paired with a matching red string thong, red stiletto heels and your lips coloured a perfect same shade of crimson, you knew it would drive Fred wild - a treat after a long day’s work.

“Fuck- c’mere,” was all Fred could manage to stutter out, before his hands were on your waist, pulling you into a rough, desperate kiss, one he’d been looking forward to all day. The feel of your soft lips on his nearly made him groan out against you and as he felt your heel slowly move up his leg and then back down again, he felt himself twitch in his boxers, eager to rip your lingerie off of you.

He pressed you against the doorframe, his chest against yours as he pushed his tongue into your mouth, fingertips digging into the soft skin your thigh as he pushed himself between your legs, grinding his hips against yours, you letting out a breathy moan as his trousers brushed against the thin material of your underwear, a jolt of pleasure shooting through you and making him smirk against your lips.

He pulled back a little, groaning and dropping his head back as he caught sight of your messy hair and swollen lips, lipstick smudged from where he’d kissed you.

“Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?” He spoke softly, eyes staring down at you lovingly.

“All the time. But it’s nice to hear it, especially from you,” you leaned up, brushing your lips softly against his as you began to undo his shirt buttons.

“Can’t believe you dressed up for me,” he murmured, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth as his fingers danced across the bow covering your chest, his other hand gripped your lace covered hip. He moved to press kisses against the exposed skin of your neck, trailing kisses slowly in the direction back to your mouth.

“I’m all festive and you’re not,” you pouted, your arms around his neck as his hands moved to grip your hips, pulling you further against him. Fred hummed disinterestedly, much more focused on the way his tongue was moving down your jaw.

“If it means that much to you, I’ll wear a Santa hat,” he mumbled, sucking the skin just under your ear, the place he knew made you shiver and moan out.

“You could dress up as Santa,” you suggested with breathy laugh, your hands gripping onto his broad shoulders through his shirt, before gasping a little as his teeth nipped against the skin of your neck.

“I’ll dress up as a fucking reindeer as long as you let me touch you within the next few minutes,” his hand wandered under the transparent netting of the babydoll, fingers toying at the waistband of your underwear, moving to sneak his hand lower, “Better yet, let me rip this off you.”

“Hmm I don’t know... I quite like this set,” you feigned contemplation, pulling away from him for a moment and innocently glancing down at the red satin bow that barely covered your chest, “Besides, if you rip it off me, I won’t be able to strip for you.”

Fred’s pupils blew wide as he ran a hand up and down your side, “You gonna strip for me?”

“I might,” you smiled sweetly up at him, feeling his grip on you tighten a little.

“You better.”

His lips pushed against yours again as he walked you backwards into the room, holding you against him as he pressed his hips against your thigh, allowing you to feel him, already hard and straining against the material of his trousers.

With a little manoeuvring, Fred managed to kick said trousers off without pulling away from the kiss, instead deepening it as he angled his head and held the side of your jaw, half his hand brushing against your neck.

You were breathing heavy when you pulled away for air, taking a moment to head over to the radio to turn some mood music on. You smiled to yourself as you purposely bent over the cabinet a little, hearing an intake of breath from behind you, and jumping when you felt a hand squeeze your bum. You leant back into Fred’s touch, his hand still holding your bum as he whispered, warm breath hitting your ear, “Naughty girl.”

His tongue ran along the outer shell of your ear as you pushed your bum back against him, causing him to groan and spin you around quickly to face him again.

He brought his thumb up to your bottom lip, gently ghosting over it with a light touch. He was about to lean forward to kiss you again when you gave him a gently push, causing him to fall back on the bed, eyes wide in surprise, “What-“

You smirked at him, pressing a button on the radio and allowing the sultry melody to play out into the room. Fred kicked his boxers off quickly, his cock hitting his stomach and you licked across your bottom lip, knowing his eyes were on you.

He sat up at the edge of the bed, now only wearing his unbuttoned shirt, legs wide, watching you spin round for him, showing him just how little skin the thong covered, the baby doll transparent and showing all. He groaned, a hand wrapping round his cock as he started stroking himself as his eyes travelled over your body with such intensity that you felt warm all over.

You paused your movements for a moment, turning to look at him. “You know, if you gave me a couple minutes, I reckon I could find a decent Santa hat for you...” you teased, smiling as he rolled his eyes at you.

“Just shut up and strip for me,” Fred practically growled out and your eyes widened a little, the deepness of his voice hitting you straight between your legs and you bit your lip, fingers toying at your waistband as you slowly pulled them down just a couple of centimetres, before putting them back in place, causing him to groan.

His mouth opened as if he were about to tell you off again, when suddenly, with one movement, you pulled at the end of the bow, allowing the satin to fall to the side, showing Fred the open cups of the lingerie.

His jaw dropped, abs clenching as he stared at your chest. “Shit- princess-“ he breathed out.

You noticed his hand moving faster and reached into your own underwear, fingers gently moving against yourself as you played with the hem of the babydoll, pulling it up so the skin of your hips and stomach were now on full show. You closed your eyes, mouth falling open a little and you heard Fred groan, cursing as he watched you.

It was just for a few seconds, before you pulled your hand out, taking a step closer to Fred. You were about to kick your heels off when he shook his head at you firmly, “Keep the heels on.”

You raised an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless, “Yes sir.”

Even with the lack of light in the room, and the distance between you, you swore you saw his eyes darken, even more so as you moved even closer to him, hands moving behind you to unclip the babydoll, before heading to your shoulders where your straps sat. You winked before pulling the straps down your arms, allowing the lingerie to fall in a pool at your feet.

You lifted it with one stiletto, a strap hooking onto the heel and you were about to kick it away when Fred suddenly stood up, grabbing your raised thigh and wrapping it around his waist, pulling the babydoll from your heel and dropping it to the floor.

“Enough of that, need to touch you baby girl,” he groaned, his nails digging into your skin lightly as he held you against him.

“But I didn’t finish,” you pouted, looking at him through your eyelashes. He thrust his hips against yours suddenly making you whimper out.

“Keep complaining and you won’t finish at all, got that princess?” He warned, before spinning you round and pushing you back onto the bed, tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip as he enjoyed the sight of you in just your red thong and heels.

“I said, got that princess?” He repeated, his voice lower, firmer.

You breathed out a small ‘yes’ just as he moved to climb on top of you, immediately pressing his lips against yours again. “Good girl,” he mumbled as your arms move to wrap around his neck, his arms either side of your head as he pushed himself against you, pressing as much skin to yours as possible.

His tongue slipped into your mouth again as he rocked his hips against yours, creating just a little friction where you needed him, and you whispered out a ‘please’, though you weren’t sure exactly what you were asking for.

Fred seemed to have an idea however, as he kissed down your jaw, across your neck and continuing on, stopping briefly to suck on the skin of your clavicle before moving further down to your breasts, pulling a nipple into his mouth as his tongue played with it softly, causing you to breathe out happily, your hands dancing through his hair as he moved to the other.

He then moved on, leaving marks across your ribs, stomach and hips, before reaching the waistband of your underwear. Without warning, he suddenly ripped them from you, and you gasped as the cool air hit you.

He pressed soft kisses to your inner thighs, before licking his thumb and pressing against your clit, tracing circles and watching as your hips jolted from the sudden pleasure. As quickly as he started, he stopped, causing you to whine out, reaching down with your own hand to touch yourself.

Fred narrowed his eyes and gripped your wrist before you could. “Trying to touch yourself?” He tutted, “You know that’s my job.”

He pulled away for a moment in search of something, reaching into a draw beside the bed. You wondered what he was doing when he caught your eyes and smirked, and then you felt a cool metal hit your wrist, your arm being pulled up as he threaded the chain behind and around one of the poles on the bed frame, before grabbing your other wrist and tightening the other handcuff around it - now every time you pulled your hands forward, you were stopped by the chain.

“That’s for being not behaving and trying to touch yourself,” he shook his head, the corner of his lip curling up as he watched you struggle against the handcuffs and pout up at him.

“Remember, only good girls get to come. You gonna be good for me, princess?” He asked, softly this time, thumb running along your hipbone and making you shiver. You nodded quickly.

Fred trailed his fingers down to your clit, just barely adding pressure and making you gasp out, “You gotta use your words, baby girl.”

You nodded again, “Yes Freddie, I’ll be good.”

“That’s my girl.”

He applied more pressure to your clit, circling and tracing shapes as pleasure ran through you. Your hips bucked up towards his hand, wanting to feel more friction and Fred bit his lip, smirking down at you, “Look at you, all needy and desperate for me.”

He pushed a finger back into you, quickly joined by a second, and grinned at the breathy moan that escaped your lips, “Is this what you want? For me to touch you like this?”

“Yes please.”

As he continued to move his fingers inside you, he changed his position so his hips were facing you, gently nudging your lips with his cock, “Open up, sweetheart.”

You parted your lips and he pushed himself inside your mouth groaning as he felt your tongue swirl around the tip. He bucked his hips forward, almost hitting the back of your throat, your eyes watering as you continued to bob your head best you could whilst still being restrained by the handcuffs.

“You okay princess?”

You nodded, humming out a ‘yes’ and making him groan out as it sent vibrations through him. His fingers were still moving against you and you could feel yourself clenching around him just as he twitched in your mouth.

He pulled out before he could finish, pressing a kiss to your forehead as he murmured in answer to your questioning look, “Wanna be inside you when I come.”

He moved to kneel between your legs, lifting your thighs and wrapping them around his hips as he leant down to where his fingers were, his warm breath hitting between your legs and you pulled on the handcuffs, wanting to wrap your arms around Fred, whining as you heard the sound of the metal against the bed frame.

The way his finger was moving against your clit made you think you wouldn’t last much longer, and you were proven right when Fred finally licked into you, his tongue rolling against you and making you moan out.

“Freddie!”

He hummed against you and you clenched around his fingers again, nearing your high. “Should I let you finish, princess?” He spoke against you, “Reckon you’ve been good enough for me?”

“Yes, yes please. I’m good- I’ll be good. Please,” you breathed out.

He applied just the faintest more pressure to your clit, tongue moving against you and suddenly pleasure washed over you as you moaned out, pulling again at the handcuffs. He continued licking into you until he heard you whining from the over stimulation, moving back up your body, pressing kisses to your stomach, chest and neck as he did so, before finally hovering over you, looking into your hazed eyes as he shot you a lazy smile.

“Ready for me, princess?”

“Always, Freddie.”

Your legs were still wrapped around his waist and you felt him line himself up, before he finally pushed into you, making you both groan out. He pressed his lips to yours, moving his hips against yours and thrusting into you.

He was rough, setting a fast pace but you matched his movements even with your hands tied up, revelling in the feeling of being so full, so complete.

Your heels dug into his back, leaving little dents, his own fingernails digging into your hips, leaving marks to remind you both in the morning of the events of the night before.

It didn’t take long for you to feel the familiar jolt of building pleasure, and from the way Fred was groaning into your neck, you knew he was close too.

He reached up and fumbled to unlock the handcuffs, allowing them to fall to the floor as you ran your hands through his ginger hair the way you’d been imagining, tugging at strands, making him curse out.

“I’m close-“ you breathed out, eyes fluttering closed as your hands moved to grip his flexing shoulders.

“I know, me too princess. Come for me,” Fred breathed out as he moved against you. Your second high coursed through you soon after and your head fell back against the pillow, breathing out another moan when you felt him finish inside you, his movements slowing down as his breathing began to still.

He was pressing kisses across your face, your cheeks, nose, multiple to your swollen lips as he pulled out of you, collapsing by your side, his skin flushed red.

You turned onto your side and kissed him gently again, and his hands held your waist as you moved on top of him.

“I love you,” you smiled down at him, watching as he smiled back at you.

“I love you too, princess, so much.”

He pulled you against him, your head nuzzling into his chest as his arms wrapped around you. He was quiet for a moment, and you began to think he’d fallen asleep when suddenly he spoke out, “So uh... me dressing up as Santa, huh? That something that would interest you?”

You lifted your head to see him smiling cheekily at you, rolling your eyes though you couldn’t help but smile, “Possibly. Why, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking I dress as Santa, you put that babydoll back on and maybe you sit in my lap,” Fred grinned, “How’s that sound?”

“Amazing,” you breathed out, feeling his hands squeeze your waist. He offered you no reply and instead moved from under you and jumped up off the bed, grabbing his dropped boxers and nearly falling as he pulled them back on again.

“Wait, where are you going?” You laughed, watching as he headed to the door.

“Where do you think?” He turned to you and grinned,

“I’m off to find a Santa costume.”

[restlessfandoming]

“family holiday” (pt. 1) (chilumi fic)

[SPOILERS FROM 1.1 STORY QUESTS]

Lumine finally arrives in Snezhnaya and takes Childe’s offer of visiting his home (mansion). 

(some domestic fluff uwu) 

lots of ppl have been asking for more and i love that! tysm for the encouragement and support <3 sorry this took so long to upload, i am trying very hard for all you lovelies ;__; 

also this is being split into two parts bc it is a bit longer than my other fics...but i swear im writing part 2 as fast as i can!! i just wanted to post this now so i wouldn’t keep you lovelies waiting <3

[Fic Masterlist]

“family holiday” (pt 1)

“Lumineeeeee!” Teucer shouted as she walked through the door of Childe’s home. He tackled her into a hug. 

“Well hello to you too, Teucer,” Lumine greeted back. Just as energetic as I remembered… 

“Hey! Paimon’s here too!” Paimon crossed her arms. 

Teucer broke his hug and waved energetically at Paimon. “Hi, Lumine’s toy!”

Paimon’s jaw dropped, ready to go on a rant, but Teucer already turned his attention away. 

“Big brother!” he cheered, tackling Childe into a hug as well. 

“Teucer!” Childe said enthusiastically, picking him up and slinging the little boy over his shoulder before swinging him around. Teucer erupted into gleeful giggles. 

“Big brother? Is that you?” a soft voice called. Coming down the grand stairs was a little girl who looked exactly like Childe and Teucer, her long brown hair tied in a half-up crown braid, her large blue eyes like innocent doe eyes. She looked about eight. Behind her, another sibling came trudging down the stairs, scowling, his hair appearing more ginger than the rest of the family; his face had a splattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks, more prominent than Teucer’s. He was a bit older, around 11. 

Childe set Teucer down, and smiled. “Tonia,” he greeted her, gentler. He got down on one knee, and Tonia ran down the steps—her white dress flowing behind her—and jumped into his open arms. 

“It’s been too long!” she said, her voice muffled by Childe’s shoulder. 

He laughed. “It certainly has, princess.” He looked to the last sibling still standing by the stairs. “Come on, Anthon. Come here.”

Anthon let out an exasperate huff, but still made his way to his older brother, and joined Tonia in their embrace. “We don’t have to make such a big deal out of this,” he grumbled, though his arms tightening around his brother betrayed his attitude. 

“Looks like we’ve been sidelined,” Paimon muttered. 

Lumine tilted her head. “It’s kind of nice to see though…” 

Anthon’s eyes flickered to her. “Who are you?”

Tonia broke from the hug, ducking under Childe’s arms to look at Lumine, while still gripping tightly to his jacket. 

Teucer bounced over to the traveler, and placed his hands proudly on his hips. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Lumine!”

Tonia gasped and skipped over to her, her eyes bright. “Lumine?! Like from the letters?” Teucer nodded enthusiastically. 

Childe stood and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yup, the one and only. This is her first time in Snezhnaya, so everyone be on your best behavior.” He gave Anthon a look, to which Anthon crossed his arms. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Tonia and Anthon,” Lumine said. “Your brothers have told me a lot about you two.”

Tonia smiled shyly and peered at Lumine’s face. “Woooow,” she whispered in wonderment. “You really are just as pretty as he said!” 

Lumine felt a shock to her system. Childe told them I was pretty?

Childe let out a nervous laugh, quickly scooping Tonia off the ground and ruffling her hair. “Very funny, Tonia! Why don’t we decide on dinner plans, hmm?” 

Paimon, after grumbling in the corner about being ignored, perked straight up. “Food?”

“Let’s celebrate brother and Lumine coming home! We should go to the bestest restaurant in the city!” Teucer suggested. 

“You don’t want to eat brother’s cooking?” Tonia asked, a bit of sadness tinged in her voice. 

“I think that’s a great idea, Teucer,” Childe said. He patted Tonia’s head. “How about we eat dinner at the restaurant, then we can come home and I’ll make you your favorite cake?” 

“Yay!” Tonia cheered, jumping from Childe’s arms, and joining Teucer in celebration. 

“Anthon? What would you like to do?” Childe asked. 

He shrugged. “Whatever sounds good to me.” 

“Then it’s settled! Let’s all go get ready then, okay?” Childe said. The children all ran up the stairs, and soon the foyer was quiet once more. The Harbinger let out a heavy sigh. 

“Whew! They’re a handful!” Paimon said. 

Lumine nodded. “How do they even survive while you’re away?”

Childe chuckled. “Year round I have a dedicated staff of servants and maids to look after them and the house.” (Mansion, Lumine thought.) “I gave them the weekend off while I’m back.”

“You can handle all three of them?” Lumine asked. 

“Oh? You don’t think I’m capable?” 

“I just can’t imagine you as a child raising type,” she said, recalling their various battles together. How bloodthirsty he could get. 

“The battlefield is different,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. He glanced at the stairs. “I’ve been raising my siblings since we were little.” 

No parents? She thought of her and Aether. On their own for as long as she could remember, having to explore and learn alone. Except she and Aether were twins; she never had to look after a younger sibling—let alone three. 

“Ready!” Teucer announced, bouncing down the stairs. 

Childe crossed his arms. “Just your hat? Where are your gloves? Coat? Boots?” 

Teucer giggled. “Oops! I forgot!” He raced back up the stairs. 

“And you?” he asked, turning to Lumine. “You don’t look ready either.”

“I was okay on the journey here,” she answered. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

He shook his head. “It’s almost dark now. Snezhnayan nights are freezing, even more so during this time.”

“Ahh...well...we didn’t really pack...anything…,” Paimon said sheepishly. 

“Paimon I expected, but you, Lumine?” 

The traveler crossed her arms. “I’ve been a bit busy.” 

He scoffed. “Right, right. Well, we can’t have you freezing to death in the street. I’m sure there’s extra coats around here,” he said, heading up the stairs. “Come with me.”

“Oooo, Lumine, they’re probably super expensive and fluffy! Let’s go!” Paimon said, flying after Childe. Lumine rolled her eyes and followed. 

The three passed by the children’s rooms, all clothes being thrown around and excited chatter, before coming to a large door at the end of the hall. Childe’s room. He opened the door and they entered. 

It was a grand room—octangular in shape with huge windows and a tall ceiling—large, spacious, and empty save for a large bed, standing wardrobe, and side tables. There was a fine film of dusting covering all the surfaces, and the bed looked like it hadn’t been slept in for a long time. The colors were sparse, only grays, whites, blacks, and the occasional red accent. 

Childe opened the doors to the wardrobe, revealing an assortment of heavy winter coats. He pulled one out and held it out for Lumine. “I think this coat is a little older—probably the smallest one I have.” 

She put it on, the sleeves running a bit long to her fingertips, the feathered hood obscuring her face up to her nose. Childe laughed, and she stuck her tongue out at him after pulling the hood down. Despite it being old, she could still pick up a faint scent of Childe: a smell remnant of ocean waves and sandy beaches. Unexpectedly pleasant...

“If that’s too big, she can have one of my coats!” Tonia said from the doorway.  

“That is very nice of you to offer, Tonia,” Childe said. “But I think your coats might be too small.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well, we’re all ready now, brother!”

The family—plus Lumine and Paimon—gathered back in the foyer with everyone bundled in their coats, hats, and gloves. And then they were on the way to the restaurant. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Lumine, look!” Teucer said, pointing at a large pond. “There are so many fishes!”

They were waiting to be seated in the restaurant lobby. A large, grandiose building, with marbled floors, vaulted ceilings, and gold furniture. There was a large pond in the middle—a miniature waterfall flowed into it. 

Too extravagant, Lumine thought. And I thought Liyue was expensive...

“Do you think we could take some fish home to eat?” Paimon asked, peering into the pond. 

Lumine gave her a deadpan expression. “Go ahead. I’ve always wanted to see how Snezhnayans deal out punishment.”

“On second thought, nevermind…”

Tonia pulled on Childe’s jacket. “Can we go to the toy store after this?”

“Toy store! Toy store! Toy store!” Teucer chanted. 

“Yes, yes, of course,” Childe said. The two children cheered. 

“They’re always so loud,” Anthon grumbled from his seat next to Lumine. 

“They’re just excited your brother is back,” Lumine said. “Aren’t you excited also?”

“I guess…” He looked at her. “Why are you here anyways?”

How do I explain that I’m on a quest to find my brother after we were banished from our journeys by an unknown god? “I want to meet all the gods of Teyvat.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, right. That’s impossible.”

“Actually I’ve been quite successful,” she told him. “I’ve already met a few.”

“Really?” His brows were furrowed. “What’re they like?”

Venti: drunk. Zhongli: broke. “They’re...interesting. Very powerful.”

Childe walked over to them. “Is he bothering you?” he asked Lumine. 

“She was just telling me she’s met some of the gods of Teyvat. Is that true?” he asked, scrutinizing. 

“Very much so. She’s quite strong, so don’t get on her bad side.” He gave Anthon a wink. 

“Strong enough to beat you, brother?” 

“Of course,” Lumine said, standing up. “I’ve beat your brother before.” 

“Paimon can confirm that! We kicked his butt!” 

For the first time, Anthon’s eyes seemed to light up. “You did? How?”

Childe chuckled through gritted teeth, disguised as a strained smile. “Now, now, Anthon; you seem like you want me to be beaten.”

Anthon frowned. “No, I didn’t mean that.”

“Sir? Your table is ready,” a waiter said, approaching the family. 

As Childe went to wrangle up the younger kids, Lumine stayed behind and tapped on Anthon’s shoulder. 

“Hey,” she whispered. “Why do you want to beat your brother so bad?”

Anthon shook his head. “You guys have it wrong. I don’t want to beat my brother…” His pale face flushed a bit red. “I just...I want to be stronger than him. So he doesn’t have to work so hard to protect us…” He stopped and watched his siblings sit around the table in the distance. “He shouldn’t be the only one protecting us. I can see it’s really hard work for just him. I want to be strong enough to protect him, Tonia, and Teucer also.”

Lumine’s heart warmed at Anthon’s love for his family. She missed Aether a little more. “I’ll help you.” She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I know what it’s like, wanting to protect a sibling.” She then gave him a teasing smile. “Plus, I’ve already beaten your brother, right?” 

“Right!” He had a little smile as well. “And he’s the strongest person I know! Well...I guess that person would be you now, right?”

Tonia came marching up to the two. “Come onnnnn, let’s go eat!” She grabbed both Lumine and Anthon’s hands and dragged them to the table. 

Afterwards, the family enjoyed an exquisite meal, and were all stuffed full of expensive foods and cheerful laughter. (The children were amazed at how much both Lumine and Paimon could scarf down.) 

The children, very quickly after finishing their meal, practically teleported to the toy store. As the children ran through the store, Lumine and Childe took the moment of rest, silently watching over them. (Paimon had retreated back into her world to recover from the feast.)

“I don’t know how you do it,” Lumine said. “I had a hard enough time with just Teucer in Liyue.”

“It’s not easy,” Childe confessed. He looked at his siblings softly. “But when I see them smiling and happy...despite everything bad in the world? I think it’s all worth it.”

How nice… His love for his family definitely matched her love for Aether. Something we have in common. She found herself enjoying this time with Childe, and his family, more enjoyable than any time she had been adventuring. It was almost like...she was...back home…

Soon enough, everyone was lined up, toys all selected and ready for purchase. Teucer tiredly tugged on Lumine’s coat, then silently held his hands up. At first, Lumine blinked, not understanding. 

“Teucer, just ask her to pick you up,” Anthon said. 

“That’s okay,” she said, pulling Teucer up off the ground—now understanding—and placing him on her hip. I think this is how you carry a kid? She didn’t have much experience with kids, save for the few she had met while in Teyvat. And those kids are far from normal... She let out a little sigh of relief when Teucer relaxed, laying his head on her shoulder. 

“Are you tired too, Tonia?” Childe asked. She shook her head, tightening her grip on his hand, clutching a doll in the other. Teucer was hugging a hilichurl stuffed animal, and Anthon held an action figure of a Lawachurl.

Upon reaching the toy seller, the old woman at the counter smiled at Childe and Lumine. “You two have such beautiful children,” she said. 

Lumine almost dropped Teucer. What?! 

“Though I have to say, they do take after their father quite a bit,” she remarked. “A shame, seeing as the mother is so beautiful.” 

Before Lumine could explain, Childe spoke. “Yes, what a shame indeed—I completely agree,” he said while smiling. 

...WHAT?!

[part two]

[homoose]

Teach Me Something I Don’t Know: Part IV

Summary: The Halloween parade. Will and JJ are adorable. Anita suggests that Spencer become a classroom volunteer. Reader has a rough week.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!reader

Category: fluff, a smidge of angst

Warnings/Includes: none

Word count: 4.4k

a/n: I wish we’d seen more of Will and JJ as parents because I imagine it would be adorable and hilarious. Let’s see if you can guess all of their costumes before the reveal lmao. Your only clue is that Spencer loves keeping with a theme and the brown vest (I literally learned how to make my own shitty gif bc I couldn’t find the right one in the search and I do not understand embedding lmao) makes an appearance.

Series Masterlist

———

“Did you grab the bags?” JJ swept the pleated, platinum braid out of her face as she bent over to zip up her boots.

“No, I thought you did,” Will called, bouncing down the stairs.

“I put them in the car already,” Spencer informed them, popping his head back in the front door. “There was just the one box, right?”

“Yeah, that was it,” Will confirmed. “Shit— where’s Michael’s sword?”

“Should be on the counter,” JJ huffed, standing up and adjusting the bodice of the blue dress.

“Got it.” Will came around the corner of the kitchen, patting his hips where his pockets would be— if he weren’t wearing an adult-sized onesie. “Keys?” Spencer held them up. “All right then, let’s get this show on the road.”

The trio headed to the waiting SUV, Spencer climbing into the backseat as Will and JJ got into the front. Will and JJ chattered on about dinner plans and schedules for the following week, and Spencer smoothed down the brown wool vest layered over his white linen shirt. He’d spent entirely too long putting together the costume over the last week (with a little help from Penelope). He’d scrapped the Spock getup he’d been working on since September— he could always wear that next year. But he’d only get one chance to attend the Room 105 Halloween parade, and once the idea had wormed its way into his brain, he had to make it happen.

“Spence?” JJ’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“Would you be able to pick Michael up on Monday?”

He ran his hands down his thighs over the mint green cropped trousers. “Sure, as long as we don’t have a case.”

Will smirked at him in the rear view mirror. “How’s Ms. Y/L/N?”

“You’re about to see her yourself, so you can ask,” Spencer replied.

Will laughed, and JJ turned in her seat. “Whoa, coming in hot with the snark. You really do like her.”

Spencer fought and failed to keep the blush from rising, irritation at being teased blooming sharp inside his chest. He tried to shrug as nonchalantly as possible. “She’s a great teacher.”

“That’s not a no,” JJ noted, eyebrows raised.

“She’s Michael’s teacher,” Spencer said, like it meant something.

“Yeah, so?” Will shrugged his shoulders. “You’re his godfather. Technically, you’re not related, so it wouldn’t be breakin’ any rules.”

“Well, it’s not like that, so it doesn’t really matter,” Spencer insisted.

Will hummed and JJ turned back around in her seat. Spencer drummed his fingers on his knees and watched DC roll past through the SUV window. It really wasn’t like that. Y/N was just… very nice. A nice, beautiful, sweet, silly kindergarten teacher that he couldn’t stop thinking about no matter how many books he read or coffees he drank or chess games he played.

Monday was the last day of his sabbatical, and he was even more relieved to be headed back than usual— grateful that he’d have something to occupy his mind other than her. Because his mind was, indeed, occupied. The way her smile beamed like the spotlight on a stage, illuminating whoever happened to be on the receiving end. The way her hands moved in unbound, buoyant illustrations of her thoughts. The way her laugh felt like the first warm sip of tea or the wrap of his favorite scarf. It was getting out of hand, to say the least.

Will pulled into the parking lot, and instantly Spencer’s palms began to sweat. He glanced at the headband on the seat beside him and felt the mortification clawing at his insides. The costume was ridiculous; he was ridiculous. He should have just worn the Spock outfit.

Maybe he could just wait in the car and pretend like he hadn’t been able to make it. Or he could just leave the headband in the car. But then he’d just be in mint green capris with a sweater vest and platform sandals, and she’d have absolutely no idea who he was supposed to be. Then he’d have to explain it, and it would be even worse.

Will parked the car, and he and JJ immediately stepped out. Spencer watched them near the hood of the SUV, enjoying a rare moment of co-parenting without work hovering right out of frame. Will pulled the hood of the onesie up and JJ laughed, brushing her hand over the brown fabric twigs sticking out of the top. He supposed that if Will Lamontagne, Jr. could strut his stuff in adult footie pajamas, his handmade costume was probably all right.

With one last resigned sigh, Spencer slid the headband on. He grabbed the box of Halloween treats, opened the door, and hauled himself out of the vehicle. He pushed the door closed and looked in the reflection of the window, adjusting the headband around his curls and blowing out a breath.

“Ready?” JJ called, peering around the side of the SUV.

“Yeah—yeah,” Spencer agreed. He moved around the vehicle to join them, the three of them walking to find a spot in the crowd of parents standing around the carpool loop.

When they found a suitable spot, Will looked up at him and shook his head. The sandals added three extra inches to Spencer’s height, putting him a good six inches taller than Will. “Those shoes make you look like an actual giant,” Will chuckled. “I know that’s the point, but I feel like even more of a shrimp next to ya now.”

Spencer set the box of candy bags on the ground and would have shoved his hands into his pockets if the linen trousers had any. Before he could respond, JJ pointed to the door of the school, cooing, “Oh my god, look. Remember when the boys were that small?”

The PreK classes came out first, and Spencer could acknowledge that they were very cute, barely out of the toddler stage and holding hands with a line buddy. But he was waiting on a very specific cutie.

He’d barely had the thought when the kindergarten classes started to emerge from the door. He almost didn’t recognize her at first— just an orange blob and green shrubbery. But the converse gave her away.

“How is she so cute?” JJ threaded her arm through Will’s. “Even when she’s dressed as a giant orange blob.”

“It’s a gift,” Will agreed. He glanced up at Spencer. “Right, doc?”

Spencer nodded but didn’t take his eyes off Y/N. “I think so, yeah.” Will grinned and bumped JJ’s shoulder, but Spencer barely even registered his own response.

Thankfully they’d picked a spot near the very end of the loop, so he had plenty of time to get himself together before she was in front of him. While Will and JJ waved at all the tiny superheroes and princesses, he watched Y/N. She was all orange fabric from her shoulders to her knees, with bright orange Chucks to match. On her head was a strange variation on a party hat, bright green ferns sprouting from the tip of the cone and falling into her face. She looked absolutely ridiculous and entirely adorable, and he was in so much trouble.

When the class finally approached the final curve of the loop, Will nudged Spencer and gestured to the box of goodie bags. Spencer crouched down and lifted the box, standing back up to see Y/N laughing at Will and JJ. “Very cute, Lamontagne Family.”

Her gaze traveled across, then up, and then her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. Spencer wondered if maybe the earth could just open up and swallow him whole.

“Oh my god, are you—?” She stepped forward and ran her hand lightly over the vest, and he didn’t dare breathe. “Are you the BFG?!” Her hand dropped from his torso, and he didn’t have time to be disappointed before her face split into quite possibly the biggest smile he’d seen from her yet.

A tiny Superman shouted, “Ms. Y/L/N, we’re making a gap!”

Y/N came back to herself, gesturing to all three of them. “Don’t go anywhere.” She accepted the offered box of treats from Spencer and then turned to help her class catch up.

Will gave him a look. “It’s not like that, huh?”

“Oh my god, she likes you.” JJ clapped her hands together. “This is amazing.”

“I’m takin’ credit for this,” Will bragged. “I’m a regular ol’ matchmaker.”

Spencer couldn’t even be bothered to attempt a denial. He was still thinking about the feel of her palm on his chest, how it might feel to hold her hand, the way her eyes practically sparkled when she saw his ridiculous headband. He was in so much trouble.

Fifteen minutes later, the classes filed back out into the parking lot for dismissal. Y/N led the class down the sidewalk, grinning at the excitement coursing through her line. As they approached the end of the loop, Y/N caught sight of them and waved. The kids lined up in their normal spot, chatting excitedly about their costumes and candy bags.

“Lord, Ms. Y/L/N, you’re something else,” Will laughed.

“Is it not the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen?” She laughed and tapped the green shrubbery hanging in her face. “I have the kids do a little persuasive writing thing every year. They draw a picture and write a sentence about what they think Ms. Y/L/N should be for Halloween, and then we take a vote.”

She waved her hands in that way Spencer loved, the way that was so similar to his own. “Usually the options are pretty tame, you know—ghost, witch, bumblebee. This year was a near tie between runner-up Jojo Siwa and well,” she gestured at herself, “carrot.” Y/N cackled, and the leaves on top of her head shook with the action.

They all laughed along with her, and then JJ added, “The details are truly incredible. Is this an actual plant on your head?”

“I really thought about it,” Y/N laughed, “but no, it’s just fake ferns stuffed into a cardstock funnel.” She gestured at Will and JJ. “But also, excuse me— this family costume is ridiculously cute. Mr. Lamontagne, loving this onesie. Mrs. Jareau, I didn’t even know it was possible to look prettier than you usually do, but here you are. And Michael’s Anna costume?” She held her hands up. “Incredible. Show stopping. I wish I had an aunt Penelope to enlist the help of, because that cape is the actual height of fashion.”

“She helped Spence, too,” JJ prompted, stealing a glance in his direction.

“Oh yeah?” Y/N asked, turning to smile at Spencer.

“We um, 3D printed the ears,” he clarified.

“No way!” She took a step closer to him, peering up at the detail on the headband. He leaned down a little for her to get a closer look. “That is so cool. I’ve never actually seen anything 3D printed up close before— did you design them yourself?”

She met his eyes briefly, and he realized how close they were— close enough that he caught the faintest whiff of sandalwood and cardamom. Of course she even smelled like warmth and home. “Well. I, um— I drew a sort of sketch, I guess. And then Penelope did the software coding. I— I’m not very good with technology, honestly.”

She ran her fingers lightly over the plastic, and he decided she was really trying to kill him. “Yeah, I’m not sure I really understand how it works.”

“Well, first you create a blueprint file of the design you want to print, which you can do through modeling software or three-dimensional scanning. Then you convert the file into an STL file— named for Stereolithography which was the first ever 3D printing process. The STL file is made up of triangular mesh polygons, which is the data that describes the surface of a three-dimensional object. After that, you use a software program to complete the process of slicing— essentially dividing or chopping the 3D model into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers that the printer can print one at a time to create the 3D object. And then the printer prints each layer until you have your finished product.”

Y/N was quiet, and he pulled back to see her grinning at him. “I thought you said you weren’t very good with technology?”

“I’m not good with using technology,” he clarified.

She nodded. “Gotcha. So you just know everything about it.”

Her joking tone had a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I read a lot.”

“How much is a lot?”

“I can read at a rate of 20,000 words per minute, so… a lot.”

Her eyebrows shot up into the tangle of ferns on her head, and he was just so overwhelmed by how adorable she was. “Well, if I ever have a question about anything, I know who I’m coming to.”

He was sure he was blushing, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care. “I’m happy to answer any and all of your questions.”

She let her gaze travel over the rest of the costume. “Oh my god, the sandals! Man, you really nailed it. I’m very impressed.”

“Thank you.” He cleared his throat. “I thought about being Trunchbull, but I couldn’t find the sweatshirt,” he joked.

She laughed, and he wanted to bottle it up to keep forever. “As much as I would have loved to see your hair in a bun… you’re much too sweet to have been able to pull that off.” She smiled softly at him. “Much more suited to our friend the BFG.”

He rubbed a hand down the back of his neck, and it was only then that he realized Will and JJ had gone to the car. He looked back to Y/N, opening his mouth but unsure of what he was going to say.

“Y/L/N!” He turned his head to see Anita jogging toward them. “Did you—” The giant cardboard box she was wearing knocked into one of the few kindergarteners left in Y/N’s line, nearly sending them to the ground. “Oh my gosh, sorry sweetheart!” She righted the startled child, and Spencer gave her a once over, completely at a loss as to what her costume could be.

“What in the world are you supposed to be?” Y/N asked, choking out a laugh.

Anita looked at her deadpan. “A monopoly piece. Remind me that I’m never participating in team costumes ever again.” She rolled her eyes and gestured at Y/N. “Next year I’m gonna wear an orange t-shirt, call myself a carrot, and be much more comfortable.”

“I’ll have you know this costume was a lot of work,” Y/N remarked, crossing her arms.

“I’m sure it was. You could have put on an orange dress, stuck a green pipe cleaner in your hair, and called it a day, but that’s not the Y/L/N way.” Anita’s eyes slid across to where Spencer stood. “Well, hello, doctor. I have absolutely no idea what you’re supposed to be, but I love everything about it.”

“Spencer’s the BFG,” Y/N said, and Spencer could have sworn she sounded almost proud.

“Ah, Roald Dahl, of course.” Anita smirked. “I see you, Spencer. I see you.” She put her hands on her hips— or rather where her hips would have been if they weren’t covered by a ridiculously large box. “So, when are you going to volunteer?”

“Sorry?” he asked.

“Like, when are you going to volunteer in Y/L/N’s classroom?” She held up her hand, palm down, and made a circular motion between the two of them. “You know, hang out, but professionally.”

“Oh my god, did you need something?” Y/N’s squeaked, eyes wide.

Anita ignored her. “You just have to do a background check, but I’m sure you’ll pass it.”

“Lopez,” Y/N said, staring her down. “Do you need something?”

“Oh, I was just going to ask if you got the email about the PD after school on Tuesday. But this was much more fun.” She winked at Spencer. “Bye, Spencer.”

They both stared after her as she nearly skipped across the grass to the building. Y/N turned to him. “I’m— so sorry.”

He met her eyes and took the leap. “Volunteering could be fun.”

He watched her press her lips together to contain her smile. “It could be.”

He didn’t bother containing his own. “I’ll um— I’ll shoot you an email.”

“I’ll respond to your email.”

…

When he walked in the door, Spencer made a beeline for his desk. He opened his laptop and pulled up his email account, writing as fast as his one-finger typing would allow.

Spencer Reid Re: Volunteering

Hi!

I’m just following up about volunteering. Anita mentioned a form that I needed to fill out? Now that I’ll be back to work, I’ll just need to plan around the BAU schedule. Could you give me a list of days that would work for you?

Really looking forward to seeing you in action.

Spencer

He checked his two other email messages, and then left the browser up while he thumbed through his most recent reading material.

He sat at his desk for the remainder of the afternoon, distractedly perusing his book and glancing at his empty inbox every minute or so. His gaze flew up to the screen at the ding of a new message at 6:30, only to find a promotional email from one of his favorite indie bookstores.

He closed his laptop with a sigh. It was a Friday night. Y/N probably just didn’t check her email on the weekend. He could wait until Monday. He’d see her on Monday.

He limited himself to checking his laptop twice a day on Saturday and Sunday. When Monday rolled around, he checked it in the morning. He leaned back against the leather of his chair, staring at the empty inbox. He had some errands to run, and for the first time in his life, he wished he had a phone that had email on it.

He ran his last-day-of-sabbatical errands and stopped in at his favorite coffee shop for most likely the last midday, sit-down coffee he’d have for a while. Before he realized, it was 2:30. He brought his empty mug to the counter and waved to the barista. Then he walked to the car and prepped his conversation starters.

“Did you get my email? I sent you an email, just wondering if you saw it? Hey— Hello— Hi, I wasn’t sure if you got my email.” He blew out a breath. “Hi. How are you?” He waved his hand. “I’m great. Did you get my email?” He laughed into the empty car. “Ridiculous, Spencer. You’re ridiculous.”

When he pulled into the parking lot, his heart was racing and his palms were slipping against the steering wheel. He pulled around the loop, looking with a furrowed brow at the area where Y/N should be. In her place was a short woman with cropped grey hair. She held a clipboard and looked generally overwhelmed.

Michael sprinted to the car as soon as he saw it. He pulled open the door and let out a world weary sigh. Spencer turned in his seat. “Everything all right?”

“No, everything is terrible,” he huffed dramatically. “Ms. Y/L/N was sick today. Mrs. Franklin was our substitute, and she smells weird.”

Spencer looked through the window at Mrs. Franklin, struggling to keep a few rowdy boys in the line. “I’m sorry, buddy. I’m sure Ms. Y/L/N will be back soon.” He was secretly relieved that he had a potential explanation for the unanswered email.

“I can’t take another day of Mrs. Franklin,” Michael sighed, buckling his seatbelt. “I hope Ms. Y/L/N’s back tomorrow.”

Spencer let out a breath and pulled away from the curb. “Me, too.”

…

JJ huffed out a breath, glaring at the stack of paperwork in front of her. Spencer was nose deep in a book, but he glanced up at the sound. “I can take a few of those if you want,” he offered.

“No, it’s fine,” she sighed. “I’ve really only got six left.”

He looked at his watch. “Each report takes you approximately 37 minutes. With eight minute breaks in between, you’re not going to be out of here until almost 6:00.”

JJ laughed. “I can’t believe I missed out on these scathing performance reviews for thirty days.”

“Suit yourself.” Spencer dropped his gaze back to his reading.

His first week back from sabbatical had been uneventful to say the least. The team had just wrapped a local case, and they’d spent the better part of the week going over consultations and potentials. It was finally Friday, and Spencer was finished with his stack of backlogged reports.

He was finishing the last chapter of the book when JJ dropped a string of quiet curses. He continued reading, waiting for her to ask. She was quiet for another minute.

“I forgot I’m on duty to pick Michael up today.” Spencer looked up at her, slight panic coming over him.

“I really don’t mind finishing your reports,” he offered.

JJ raised her eyebrows. “What, no offering to visit Ms. Y/L/N?”

Spencer closed his book. “I, um. I sent her an email a week ago, and she hasn’t responded.”

“So?”

“So…” Spencer ran a hand through his hair. “That’s weird, right?”

JJ laughed. “You don’t really use email, so I’d imagine your inbox is pretty orderly. But if you use it a lot, it can be easy for messages to get lost.” She looked at him pointedly. “I can almost guarantee that she’s not ignoring you, Spence.”

He sighed. “I guess there’s a quick way to find out.”

...

Spencer drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, watching the door of the school. He glanced at the clock, noting the class was later than they’d ever been. Without really understanding why, he pulled out of the loop and swung back around to park in the lot. He exited the car, and as he rounded the hood, he spotted them.

Y/N was at the front of the line, hands stuffed in the pockets of her jacket and mouth pressed into a thin line. The line behind her was unlike he’d ever seen it. No waving arms, no smiles, no giggles. Twenty small bodies followed behind her with absolute and total solemnity, and he felt uncomfortable just watching them. It would have almost been funny if it wasn’t so dramatically out of character.

The line weaved around the more rambunctious classes, maintaining their grave expressions and quiet pace. They reached their spot on the sidewalk, and Y/N didn’t even have to say anything. Spencer watched as the line took their spots behind her. She held one hand up to acknowledge parents as they pulled up, murmuring stoic goodbyes to students as they headed to their vehicles.

He hung back at the hood of the car until the majority of the class was gone, slowly making his way across the parking lot. Y/N’s line of sight was pointed in his direction, but her eyes were unfocused in the afternoon sun. He could see the moment that she registered his presence, her eyes widening slightly and bottom lip releasing from the place she’d been absentmindedly chewing. She shifted her weight as he closed the final few feet between them.

“Hi.” She held a silent hand up in greeting. He clenched and unclenched his fingers. “Rough day?”

“It’s not always sunshine and rainbows, despite what everyone thinks,” she snapped. She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes up to the perfectly blue sky, mocking her mood. “I’m sorry. Yes, it was a rough day.”

“You don’t need to apologize.”

“You don’t deserve my wrath.” She gestured vaguely in the direction of the students. “They didn’t either, but— too late for that.”

He watched as she lowered her head back down, rubbing a hand over her face. He desperately wanted to slay whatever dragons had given her normally brilliant eyes such a grey cast. “You have strong relationships with them, and kids are resilient. I’m sure they know you—”

“Please— don’t.” Her voice was thick, and she looked at him with desperate eyes. “I— I appreciate the thought, but I’m— I’m a frustrated crier.” Her shining irises proved her point. “And I’m just— I’m really just trying to keep it together for the last four minutes of my contract time.” Her words were practically a whisper, and she swallowed thickly and glanced down the line, just Michael and one classmate left, eyes downcast.

“I understand.” Spencer shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them from reaching out and touching her. “I’m sorry. I— I hope your weekend is better than today.”

Michael slowly left the line, murmuring a quiet goodbye to Y/N. Spencer put a hand on his shoulder and steered him toward the car, stealing one last glance at a crushed Y/N.

...

Y/N Y/L/N

Re: Re: Volunteering

Hi,

I meant to respond to this email, and then a bunch of things happened, and then I was out all week.

I don’t know if you even still want to volunteer after this afternoon, but it felt rude to not respond at all.

I’ve attached the background check form to this email in case you’re still interested.

Y/N

1 Attachment: Background Check

—

Hi,

I meant what I said this afternoon. Your students love you, and they know you love them. If my conversation with Michael in the car was any indication, they’re feeling rightfully embarrassed and guilty about their behavior while you were out.

Regardless of what happened today, your relationships with your students are strong enough that they will come to school tomorrow knowing that you still care about them. Children don’t hold onto things nearly as much as adults.

It would be a privilege to volunteer in your classroom, even on the worst day.

Spencer

1 Attachment: Background Check - Spencer Reid

—

If I wasn’t already crying, I would be now.

Thanks for that.

No sarcasm intended. Really. Thank you.

—

This might be inappropriate, and if it is, please just pretend like this email doesn’t exist.

I have a favorite cafe in the DuPont circle area, Soho Tea & Coffee. They have an excellent tea drink made with honey and milk that I like to order whenever I’ve had a particularly difficult day.

If you’re up for it, it’s on me.

———

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[moonlightreal]

Thoughts on Saban Moon

Now that we’ve recovered a bit from the shock of Saban Moon suddenly appearing… what’s it like?

I mean, it’s bad.  The acting is bad, the animation is bad.  We knew it would be and it is.  Watching the episode it’s easy to see that it’s not a finished product, more of a concept piece to show what the show would have been like.  

We open with an infodump.  Beryl has defeated the outer planets and seized the jewels of power from the princess fighters.  So Saban Moon sets the stage for the outers to appear later!

“Princess Fighters/Warriors” sounds like a name I would’ve thought was very impressive when I was ten years old, and think is very silly now.  Why didn’t they go with Sailor Warriors?  It sounds better!

We’re on the moon, which looks like a tiny settlement in one crater.  Not a big city!  Tux gives Sailor Moon a very un-detailed star locket.  The other people we see are just humans in medieval dress.

Then we go to the lunar galleon, and I love it.  Both of the ships are great.  Beryl’s ship with the ridiculous mouth that opens to let a random selection of youma jump out is great.  The sky fliers are great.  Can’t you imagine kids building their own sky flyer with a stick and a sheet or something? They could be improved by having each princess warrior’s planet symbol on the sail, and being in matching colors, but the design is cool.

I also like Queen Serenity’s look. Her hat incorporates a sailor tiara into a crown, which is a neat idea even if the end result looks a bit strange.  Between her hat and the high collar of her dress it’s hard to see at first glance that her hair is actually blonde.  I like the dress too, the complicated sleeves and especially the moon phases going down her skirt.  The colors are a bit much but the idea is great.

Sailor Moon does need a princess dress, and needs her princess name since Sailor Moon is clearly a title not a name, but that’s something we might’ve had in a real episode one instead of this proof of concept video.

Darien’s look…. I don’t have any gushing praise for.  That was bad.

As Queen Serenity tells the girls to leave she says she’’ll find a way to contact them and Luna’s eyes glow, so I assume Luna is relaying messages from the queen to the girls on earth.  

The moon is overrun, I guess, and everybody escapes in the lunar galleon.  Which gets blown up, to Sailor Moon’s dismay.  But since Darien was piloting it and turns up later, and if it’s true that Queen serenity is communicating through Luna, that means the people survived.  Maybe they got out in escape pods.  Maybe being blown up sent them somewhere.  “The queen and courtiers are trapped in the darkness dimension!  We have to free them!” kind of thing.

Then we go to earth!  Which is in a different dimension, that you can travel to.  In the real Sailor Moon the moon kingdom was in the past and the senshi were reincarnated on Earth with Earth families, but in Saban Moon the moon kingdom is in a parallel dimension and they can travel back and forth.  So the girls wouldn’t have families.  They’re at a boarding school.  I want to imagine Queen Serenity magically set it up somehow to pay their tuition in case they ever had to hide in another dimension.

In the interview we got hints that there was going to be a boy’s boarding school nearby where Darien would go, leaving possibilities open for other boys to come over from the moon kingdom, for shipping purposes of course.  It would’ve been nice to see that.  The story of Sailor Moon has many variations, but there are none where Mercury, Mars, and Venus get on-screen serious romances.  Makoto ends up with Motoki in the live action PGSM but the other girls are out of luck.  

And they have names!  Saban Moon has a name and it’s Vicki!  After all these years an actual name!  A silly name, I bet the writers were just like, “Hmm, what’s a royal sounding name, hmm, who’s the most famous queen you can think of?  Victoria! We’ll go with that!”  But it’s a name and I like that she has a name that isn’t Serena because she’s a different character than the dub’s Serena.  The other girls don’t get named in the pilot but we think they’re Dana, Carrie, Sarah and… Blue? Why not Amy?  Come to think of it why not Ray and Mina?  

My headcanon is that Sailor Mercury is named, “Amy, but everybody calls me Blue because” *gestures at her many blue colored possessions.*

We barely have time to see the girls’ personalities so they’re very one-note.  Jupiter is sporty! Jupiter also says, “statistically speaking” so maybe they were trying to make her sporty and braniac? Venus is fashionable!  Mercury is ditzy, maybe!  They all have great hats!  They all do a strange nineties shoe dance!  And are digitally duplicated which made me assume that they had friends one of whom was also in a wheelchair. Then Luna says there’s trouble!

I really like Saban Moon’s transformation sequence.  It’s early CG but it’s legit really pretty the way she turns into a glass statue and then into her sailor form.  The other girls don't have transformation sequences but I assume they would have if more episodes had been made.  Only Sailor Moon has a transformation item, and it’s just the first season locket customized a little.  I assume that they’d have gotten a prop made that matches her animated brooch, with the upside down crescent moon.  There are also no transformation and attack calls, which I think is sad.  You gotta have magic words to shout out!

The girls teleport to Jupiter which is… a planet with ground you can walk on?  Writing a series with inhabited planets opens really cool possibilities to think about how each planet should look and what should live there.  Are the princess’ subjects human, or does each planet have a different kind of critter living there?  They could have based the inhabitants of the planets off the youma designs if they wanted, little ogres and cat people or something to make it like Queen Beryl’s minions are traitors from each planet… I don’t think the full show would have put much thought into it, but you could if you were creating your own Saban Moon fanwork.

After the cringiest battle lines ever it’s Tux to the rescue!  Or… “The Masked Tuxedo”?  Were they really going to call him that?  It’s hard to say!  “Tuxedo Mask” is a silly name but at least it’s not hard to say.  It seems like Tux can power up Sailor Moon, magically in addition to just giving her pep talks.

And that’s the end of the pilot.  I think we can guess how real episodes would have gone: Vicki and her friends have some issue to deal with at school, then Luna tells them Queen Beryl is attacking with a monster that reflects their earthly problem somehow, they transform and fight, then come back to earth and fix things at school.  A Power Rangers or Code Lyoko daily plot. With metaplot about figuring out who Tuxedo Mask really is and eventually defeat Queen Beryl for good.  With possible side plots about finding the other people on the lunar galleon, and maybe getting back the outer senshi’s power stones and rescuing them so they can join the cast.  And romance!  The girls are written as boy-crazy so I assume there will be romance with the boys from the other school, but will the rest of those boys also be from outer space?

We have the structure of the show and enough to extrapolate characters, plenty to do up your own fanfiction version of Saban Moon.  Love it!

And those are all my thoughts on a few viewings.  

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

The Critique of Manners Part VI

~Or~

An Attempt at an Objective Review of Emma (2009)... VOLUME TWO

Haha, bitches you didn't think I could wait a whole week did you? Nah, not me. and guys, I added to it--all total, it's 9,023 words now. this half of the review is 5,214. HOW DO I HAVE SO MANY WORDS FOR THIS THING? I'm not gonna split it into a third part, because I don't need to for picture limit purposes, but buckle in.

If you didn't catch it, read part 1 here

Here it is, the stunning conclusion to my Emma Adaptation Review series (but this isn't really the end because I plan on doing some rankings later). In this half of my review of BBC'S Emma (2009) we'll discuss Costumes and all the very specific things that I love about this version, and some things I don't like, and some things I'm here to defend.

Let's dive in!

Costumes

Generally I liked these costumes pretty well. They were designed and facilitated by Rosalind Ebbutt, also known for her work on PBS’s Victoria and Vanity Fair (1998). And her work is, as her filmography would suggest, by turns, great and so-so.

These costumes are definitely in line with the adaptation’s general aesthetic: warm pinks and golds, with mints emeralds and blues to cool it off a little, are the order of the day. I really appreciate that every character has a definite color palette. The tradeoff is that this adaptation is the WORST EVER offender for the Jane Fairfax Blue™ trope.

Daywear

Emma’s daywear is full of warm and muted colors. Salmon and magenta are commonly seen. I love that most of Emma’s daywear consists of sleeveless or short-sleeved gowns with wide-sleeved linen blouses underneath. It’s not a commonly seen aesthetic so it feels light and fresh. My favorite of Emma’s daywear dresses is the pale yellow with purple floral print.

There’s one other in particular that I love.

Emma’s blue, sleeveless dress. I love this because of HOW OBVIOUSLY it’s a reference to this portrait of Charlotte, Princess of Wales. I mean...

I’M NOT IMAGINING THIS, RIGHT? WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THIS? This is a REAL dress. They still have this exact gown of Princess Charlotte’s. It’s on display. It’s faded, but it’s the same dress.

Harriet has a fresh and innocent green, white and purple color scheme with healthy doses of peach and pink showing. I particularly like her white and purple floral print dress.

Mrs. Weston’s color palette varies, but leans heavily on tans and purples, which is very flattering, I must say, to Johdi May’s coloring and is really refreshing for Mrs. Weston who seems to get stuck in pinks and yellows a lot. No idea what’s going on with the laced-front dress though? This doesn’t quite read as authentic to me, but I do like that her first dress seems to be an apron-front.

I know I already said that this is the worst Jane Fairfax Blue™ offender, but guys I can’t stress it enough. WE ARE 5/5 ON DAYWEAR HERE. LOOK AT THAT. (Also of note, Jane 5 is one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s dresses from the '96 Emma.)

Mrs. Elton seems, at all times, to be wearing some form of pink, but I think I’m right in saying that the white day dress with the rose patterned bodice under the yellow and pink spencer is one of Jane’s dresses from P&P ’80. Can anyone confirm that? They did sneak in some Mrs. Elton Orange™ though, for Box Hill, and it’s worth noting that Mrs. Elton is the only lady who’s appropriately dressed on that occasion.

Isabella gets some understated day gowns that are very nice and also VERY “Jane Austen” in the sense that I feel like Jane Austen herself might have worn them.

Miss Bates, unfortunately is slapped with brown at just about every turn, but at least her “Nice” day outfit has some subtle leaf patterns, which is refreshing. Also Mrs. Goddard has a slappin’ cap. Love that.

Also, Harriet’s Grecian costume for the painting (upper right hand corner). What can I say, but that I love it. I love that it hints at the neoclassical influences on Regency fashion too. This is my favorite interpretation of the painting too.

Evening Wear

You know what I love about this version? It’s the first version of Emma where her gown for the Crown in Ball isn’t WHITE. I know, I know white was fashionable, but it’s just… it’s nice for not EVERY gown in a ball scene to be plain white friggin muslin and also, it’s not one she’s ever worn before, which is great.

Harriet does have only white evening gowns but that’s okay. My only complaint is that, specifically on her Crown Inn dress and in a lot of her costumes in general, the waistline seems just a little low. Hmm. I really like the pale blue pattern on her first evening dress though.

Mrs. Weston though. Woo. Look at those. She has a dark chartreuse gown with black lace trim that any other version would have put on Mrs. Elton, so you know from the dark tones that she’s a bitch. Not so with Emma '09, and that’s good. And her teal dinner number is a favorite of mine. I never paid much attention to her green and gold ball gown but it has some really beautiful, subtle leaf or maybe peacock feather patterns on it and I love that. My only problem is that there seem to be some fit issues. She’s got muffin top way too often. Her orange evening dress is a bit of a dud though, firstly, because it has long sleeves (which is an evening gown no-no) and the fabric slaps a bit too much of sari fabric for my tastes.

Jane, not only is put in blue with both of her evening gowns (although one is so pale it borders on white), ONE of them is another Emma ’96 repeat and not only that, it’s one of Jane Fairfax’s dresses in that film! Perhaps that’s enough to make it an homage, and I have to say, I think Laura Pyper wore it better.

Miss Bates only has one evening wear ensemble, but at least it’s cream and not brown.

Mrs. Elton’s gowns are surprisingly understated, and yet still seem to be annoyingly fussy and, what’s better? They’re not sickly green. One of them is actually a very pleasant mint.

Outerwear

Outerwear is roundly pretty great here. Emma’s primary choice of color for spencers is emerald/evergreen and one of them is Elizabeth’s Bennet’s from the 1995 P&P (though to be honest, I think Jennifer Ehle filled it out better.) I do love Mrs. Elton’s pink and yellow number with the slashed sleeves. Jane Fairfax’s only spencer is, you guessed it, blue, but her friend Miss Campbell has a rather fun mauve one.

There’s no shortage of pelisses and redingotes either. Harriet can be seen in one borrowed from Elinor Dashwood in the '08 S&S, Mrs. Weston has a rather fabulous purple one which she wears with the most delicious looking hat I’ve ever seen.

Emma has two. The first one is a great magenta number with military braiding (and I think she wears with it one of the brown slouch hats that Kate Beckinsale wore in the same role) and while the other pelisse is brown, they had the sense not to make her wear a hat with it that was also brown. Instead, they gave her a contrasting color. Good on ya, Rosalind!

Speaking of hats, I don't often single them out for commentary, but I want to here because… the hat authenticity is… kinda spotty. Let me show you.

Okay first of all, Emma may be a teenager in this pic on the upper left, but she is not dressed formally enough for her sister’s wedding (which is what’s going on in this scene) but at least her hat is pretty good. You can see the ribbons are on the inside of the hat here, which is as it should be… but she never wears this hat again. At any point in the series. Instead, we next see her in the one on the upper right and ye gads this is atrocious. WHY IS HER HAT NOT PINNED ON? IT’S SLIDING DOWN THE BACK OF HER HEAD. SOMONE FIX IT. PLEASE. But wait, there’s more. This kills me because these bottom two are so similar to the one she wore earlier (the correct one) but crappier looking. Jeez.

This is not a hat. It’s a peanut. You know who doesn’t have this problem? Harriet. She only has one sun hat but at least it’s correct.

I also wanna touch briefly on this ^ costume continuity issue.

WTF is this? She’s in the hall, her ribbon is contoured to the line of her dress; she goes into the drawing room and… it isn’t anymore? Wha happun?

I took more menswear screencaps for this version than any other version. And that’s because the men just have more outfits that are, y’know, different from each other.

Mr. Knightley is as understated as ever, but I wanna highlight the first pic there and why I love it. This is Knightley’s first appearance in the series and it’s the perfect establishing shot that shows the viewer everything they need to know about Emma and Knightley’s relationship and how it has always been. He sort of materializes, out of focus in the background, but Emma immediately knows he’s there. And to accentuate how much Knightley is part of her home and scenery, his clothes (similar shades of pale tan, white and minty green to the wall behind him) almost camouflage him and make him seem at one with the moulding.

He also has a rather lovely blue evening waistcoat that I WISH I could have gotten better shot of (although I do believe it’s also worn by Henry Crawford in the '07 Mansfield Park, so for further reading…)

Mr. Weston finally gets to wear clothes that aren’t all brown! He only has ONE brown outfit. He gets PATTERNED waistcoats, one of them a rather spiffing blue and brown striped number. And he wears TROUSERS! Because he’s a gentleman, and he’s not that old and trousers are worn by fashionable gentlemen in this period!

You know who else gets to wear trousers and at least one fun waistcoat? Mr. Woodhouse. Check out that lovely Sunday Best™ waistcoat. The red striped one. That’s delightful.

John Knightley’s evening wear intrigues me. That’s a double-breasted jacket, and you know I’m not totally sure that’s very authentic for evening-wear of this period, but it is different. Unfortunately he also has a flared top hat and that is definitely not on for this period.

One of my favorite things about this version is that they don’t dress Mr. Elton as a clergyman all the time. Yes, he may be the vicar, but he’s also allowed to dress like a fashionable, handsome young man. So I’m really happy that he gets to flex his fashion muscles here.

And speaking of fashionable young men, FINALLY frank gets to be COLORFUL and his trousers are even tight enough. Both he AND Elton are often seen wearing TWO waistcoats, as I would expect them to, and even though Frank’s a dandy, he knows that flashiness is gauche so his pops of color are bright, but not in your face. His green and red waistcoats are always worn under more muted colors, and I just love it.

The only problems are… what’s with the turned-down waistcoat collars? There’s no precedent for this, in fact I think it’s directly contradictory to the style at the time, and also it makes the cravats look a bit unruly.

A Critique of Manners

A lot has been said about the manners in this adaption. Like, the actual manners, body language and facial expressions, specifically vis-à-vis Romola Garai.

And, oh yeah, there’s a lot to pick at here, but first I’d like to talk about the facial expressions.

I'm mostly gonna be talking out of my ass here, but this is my take, so if anyone can make a better argument against my points, I am listening, because I don't really like talking out of my ass and I like to be informed. That said...

I tend to be lenient on the… exaggerated facial expressions because, something I’ve noticed reading Austen’s works through the last several months is that Austen is very descriptive when it comes to facial expressions and I just find it hard to believe that people in the Regency Era never made exaggerated expressions like this.

I’ve heard a lot about how Garai’s Emma is not dignified or lady-like. But let’s think about the context of Emma Woodhouse – she’s never been in society. She’s only had a governess to teach her, and we know Emma’s always been sort of averse to being told what she can and can’t do. Emma is the highest ranking woman in her social circle (barring Isabella’s occasional presence). Emma doesn’t have to be ladylike. At 21, she’s already her local Lady Catherine. She puts a lot of stock in her position in society but, as Mrs. Elton will be the first to hypocritically point out, she’s very poorly behaved. I'd be very curious to see what would happen if Emma went to London for the season. Probably, she'd be seen, comparatively, as a country bumpkin. Can you imagine how she might get on in a sea of accomplished young ladies? She can barely handle having ONE rival with any kind of grace.

Austen never describes bodily movements of the kind we’re looking at when we watch adaptations, so why not have Emma’s body-language be un-ladylike in the conventional sense of the time? I’m not saying this to excuse the absolutely inexcusable (Frank’s head in her lap, kneeling on the sofa backwards etc.), but while Emma’s mannerisms aren’t exactly ladylike for her time, they’re not overtly masculine either (which was one of my biggest problem with Death Comes to Pemberly for example.)

Yes, there’s an ideal for manners. But we know real people didn’t always follow those ideals. In dancing for example, many dancing guidebooks of the day were full of repeated instructions not to be too loud or rambunctious when dancing. What this tells us is that people were doing just that, and probably quite a bit, too. I think that, while taking societal strictures into account, we shouldn’t totally discount the idea that people in the Regency weren’t really that different from us, and young people especially.

Now I’ve already mentioned some of the inexcusable aspects of interaction in this adaptation and they’re so notorious at this point, I don’t think that I really need to go over them much here. Although I will say: is it ridiculous to have Frank Churchill put his head in Emma’s lap? Yes. Did it make me more viscerally uncomfortable with the situation on Box Hill than any other version? Yes.

I was like, 14 when I watched this the first time. This was an effective way to telegraph to young people like me that Emma is being extremely inappropriate here in a way that no other version really managed to, even when I watched them when I was older and understood the period more. I’m far more acquainted with Regency manners than I was then, but to be honest – if they had been accurate with the manners here, when I was 14 I would not have understood what the big deal was. Is there merit in circumventing historical accuracy in favor of reaching a less-informed but still-interested audience? Yes, I think so. There were three other versions of this, at that point, that did this scene with more or less pristine manners. Not every version has to follow the manners of the time to-the-letter to be good. That’s my feeling on the matter.

There are things that do really bother me though. Like the idea that Harriet Smith doesn’t know how to spoon soup, for instance. As I said in my review for the Miramax version, table manners are pretty basic, there’s no reason Mrs. Goddard wouldn’t have taught Harriet this. It does provide a good moment to show Emma tacitly coaching Harriet and showing the trajectory in which this relationship will go, but personally I don’t think it was necessary—there are plenty of other ways that could be done.

Also: kids at the dinner table? I know this is part of building the familial atmosphere but it really does annoy me, because apart from building the familial atmosphere (which they do very well and frequently in other ways) it really didn’t need to happen, and it doesn’t add anything.

The Heart of Highbury

So, as I’ve hinted at throughout this review, the bread and butter of this adaptation of Emma is emotion. This version goes hard and heavy on showingthe relationships – Emma’s relationships with Mrs. Weston, Mr. Knightley, her father, her sister, her brother-in-law, Miss Bates; Jane’s relationship with Frank; Frank’s relationship with his father; The John Knightleys’ home life – and it illustrates things that can be surmised from just reading the story, but really draws your attention to them in ways that other adaptations just don’t.

It does this from the very beginning with the prologue which explains in detail (not just in quick exposition between characters) how Jane and Frank were separated from their families at young ages. We know now, from psychological study, that being taken away from their primary caretakers during their formative years is one of the most psychologically traumatizing things for a child. This is deeply important context which is explained in detail by the narrator in 2-3 large pages (in my Barnes & Noble anthology) in the book.

In the featurette on the houses, they talk particularly about Hartfield and the Woodhouses being the heart of Highbury and how they particularly wanted it to feel homey because Hartfield is Emma’s house and they wanted the audience to feel why everyone is so drawn to it, and to Emma; to me that is what they did with the whole adaptation in microcosm.

I usually talk a bit about the dancing and I'm going to here as well because this is maybe the most special dance scene in any Austen for me. Of course I'm going to link to Tea with Cassiane as usual because she knows what she's talking about and I don't. But I wanna add some comments. She gives this a pretty low rating in spite of a generally favorable commentary because of two big oopsies, the circle dance formation is one, and the other is I believe, an issue with the style of dance not matching the tune in Emma's dance with Knightley. Throwing out any objective technical analysis though, this is my favorite Ball in any Austen and it all comes down to the cornerstone of this adaptation--emotion.

All of the songs and dances were original compositions and choreography made for this adaptation. So they're not period per se, but the tunes at least are representative of how Regency dance music should sound. These dances are upbeat, and lively and, damn they look like fun. Everyone is excited here and it makes me understand why dancing was such a big thing. Best of all that excitement adds to the emotional charge of the scene. "The Ship's Cook" is the most fast paced dance and I'm glad they made this the dance where Elton snubs Harriet because it really hits for me just what Harriet would be missing out on if Knightley wasn't so fucking aptly named. In all other versions you get the insult, but the dance that's taking place is usually a Baroque walker so it doesn't seem terribly like she's missing out on much. Here, this is like not getting picked for kickball-- not only is it a slight that no one wants you on their team, but you miss out on even playing the game. Harriet looks so lonely, and her feeling of being out of place rolls off of Louise Dylan so forcefully it chokes me up just thinking about it because I've been there, man. I feel this shit. *dabs eyes*. Ahem. So, yes, when Knightley engages her for the dance the excitement the viewer feels is that much more forceful and Harriet's exuberantly starting to jump in when the timing is off and Knightley gently pulling her back, it just hits me in the feels center, guys. (I wanna take a moment to give a shout out to every camp counselor who ever partnered with me for any game at summer camp.) Emma's reaction too, is gold. Her genuine relief at Knightley swooping in is one of those great reminders that Emma is Harriet's friend, and she does care about her.

Finally on the dancing front, I wanna talk about Emma's dance with Knightley and why I prefer it to the one in the 2020 version. I already talked about this a bit in the 2020 review, so I'm gonna try and keep it brief. That shouldn't be too hard, because I'm probably mostly going to repeat a lot of what I've already said about Emma and Knightley in this version as a whole.

The big thing everyone loves about the Crown Inn dance in the 2020 is the yearning, the sexual tension, the quivering touches etc. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all of those things but... not all the time. Not in everything, and definitely not in Emma. Because Emma, to me, isn't about repressed sexuality or heated tension or seething passion. Emma and Knightley are the opposite of that, to me, really. One of my mutuals put it best, I think: "Emma and Knightley are more suited to stolen glances than hot touches."

In Part 1 I talked about how Knightley is Emma's comfort object. When Emma is out of sorts, Knightley re-centers her. It helps set up, and puts emphasis on, the crisis of the story in the last act--Emma not knowing what she has until [she thinks] she's lost it. Emma and Knightley are Friends to Lovers done as it should be. She is already so comfortable with him she doesn't even realize her own feelings. She just feels right with Knightley and that's what this dance is here to show you--a foreshadowing of matrimonial harmony.

The dance itself, of course, is always up to interpretation, because Austen never describes how it goes, just that Knightley asks Emma to dance and Knightley doesn't dance (barring charitable causes). If you prefer the sexual tension take, if that, to you is an improvement on Austen's story and gives you what you've always felt was missing, I'm glad that there is a version now that gives you what you've been looking for, but for me, I think the 09 approach hits closer their dynamic in the book.

Now do I do think the Emphasis on emotion maybe went a little too earnest in some places in this adaptation? Maybe. Just a little.

In my last review (1972) I went on a rather lengthy tirade about the scene where they turn Emma’s appeals to Harriet to exert herself and move on following Mr. Elton’s marriage into Emma guilting Harriet into thinking she’s a bad friend for being heartbroken and then throwing her into the situation most likely to rub salt in that particular wound.

In this version, while I love the emphasis they put on the stress Emma puts on her own guilt for being the reason for Harriet’s situation in the first place, I think it’s maybe a little too… much.

That’s the only way I can put it. I know I’ve just said that I think there should be a bit more expressiveness in period drama, but this doesn’t quite match the way I read it (Emma’s a bit less desperate in Austen’s prose. Very dedicated to helping Harriet feel better, but just a skosh more composed). I think she’s even crying in this scene.

While we’re here let’s go over to Box Hill ONE. MORE. TIME.

First of all, this is where this screenplay shines, in my opinion. This is the big turning point in the story and as such, should be a touchstone for the judgment of any adaptation. This sequence in the 2009 version is a perfect crystallization of everything I love about this version—namely that this is the version that, to me, most feels like someone read the book thoroughly, paid attention to what Austen was describing and then actually tried to convey it on screen. A lot of other versions sort of feel (to me), like the director glanced at the page and said “here’s what I want to convey in my version”. Insofar as making a piece of art goes, that’s good. Directors are artists as much as painters are and movies are their canvass, but it’s seldom that you find a director who honestly wants to hit as close to the author intent as possible and this Box Hill sequence makes me feel like that’s what Jim O’Hanlon was going for. I have the book open next to me as I write this and it’s shocking to me how minutely the atmosphere described in the book is conveyed here. Most of all, the fact that Emma’s insulting Miss Bates is not the only thing faux pas she makes here. Box Hill as a whole is a disaster, and it’s largely because of Frank.

“When they all sat down it was better; to [Emma’s] taste, a great deal better, for Frank Churchill grew talkative and gay, making her his first object. To amuse her, and to be agreeable in her eyes, seemed to be all that he cared for—and Emma, glad to be enlivened, and not sorry to be flattered, was gay and easy too, and gave him all the friendly encouragement, the admission to be gallant, which she had ever given in the first and most animating period of their acquaintance; but which now, in her own estimation, meant nothing, though in the judgment of most people looking on it must have had such an appearance as no English word but flirtation could very well describe. “Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Woodhouse flirted excessively.” They were laying themselves open to that very phrase—and to having it sent off in a letter to Maple Grove by one lady, to Ireland by another. Not that Emma was gay and thoughtless from any real felicity; it was rather because she felt less happy than she expected. She laughed because she was disappointed…” --Emma, Chapter 43

Most other versions rush through Frank’s “excessive” flirting with Emma (Right in front of Jane) to get to “Three Things Very Dull Indeed” as fast as possible, and yes that’s the crowning horror of Box Hill, but there’s a very intricate setting here, too, and this version has the time to lay back and let it all unfold in the oppressive discomfort of an English summer day.

Even better than all of that though is Knightley confronting Emma after it all goes down. This treatment is neither plaintive, nor aggressive as it was in ‘96 and ‘97 respectively. I’ve already extolled the virtues of Johnny Flynn’s Box Hill rebuke, but for a change I’m not going to zero in on Miller’s performance which is, at least as good as Flynn’s, but on Romola Garai’s, which I find superior to Anya Taylor Joy’s. Specifically, her reaction once she’s alone.

ATJ in the 2020 version immediately breaks down sobbing and it’s hard for me to feel that she’s sobbing for “anger against herself, mortification, and deep concern” or that there’s much self-reflection going on there. To me it rather just feels like she’s crying because she got shouted at. The theatrics of it, to me, feel childish and self-centered.

I don’t feel that with Garai’s performance.

“She was vexed beyond what could have been expressed—almost beyond what she could conceal. Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck . . . How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in anyone she valued! And how to suffer him to leave her without saying one word of gratitude, of concurrence, of common kindness!

Time did not compose her…” --Emma, Chapter 43

Of course one can make the case that Emma's reaction should be a bit childish because Emma is an immature character, but that's the thing--I can agree with you anywhere else in this story but this is Emma's maturing moment. This is her turning point as a character. It's where we should see her reactions shift from the same childish denial we're used to seeing when Knightley scolds her, because this is different. It's not the usual brushing off of big brother Knightley, this is a young woman reacting to an esteemed friend pointing out how abhorrently inappropriate she's been and her having to admit that to herself.

I didn't really want to drag comparisons to the 2020 film into this, not on this scale at least, but this just jumped out at me the last time I watched the new film and I have to express it somewhere.

What I see in Garai’s performance is desolation and mortification. That shocked tearfulness of knowing you’ve been justly reproached for wrongdoing, but being too frozen in a pretense of composure to actually cry about it until you’re quite sure that no one will see you. And especially when it’s someone you esteem rebuking you, the horror of them leaving before you can admit that they’re right. There’s so much more depth here, I think, and I can’t even quite express what it makes me feel.

The aspect of time not composing her is another thing that they decided to put stress on in this version. Emma looks fucked up in the following scenes. When she goes to see Miss Bates, she clearly either hasn’t slept or has slept very badly. I feel like this is maybe an anticlimactic conclusion to this section but I’m afraid I’m very close to reaching incoherence, so I’m just gonna leave it here.

My absolute favoritest thing about this version though—something that sets it apart from ALL other versions and even adaptations of other Austen stories—is the inclusion of the post-confession conversation.

This is something of a trope in Austen books but it very rarely finds its way into adaptations: confessions of love are out of the way, the hero and heroine settle into an easy an comfortable conversation, glowing with happiness as they explain and laugh over their actions and misinterpretations of each other’s choices. It happens in Pride and Prejudice, in Persuasion, and yes, in Emma. This is the only Austen adaptation, that I've seen, to include this kind of conversation in any kind of detail. The 1995 Pride and Prejudice alludes to the corresponding scene in it its source material, but the lines pulled from it get tossed into the confession scene itself and then it flies through to get to the obligatory wedding—a side effect of rushing through endings, a convention I’m rather tired of.

Emma (2009) takes its time with this, as with all other aspects of this adaptation. For a version that’s so full of energy, its pacing is extremely laid back and comfortable, without dragging. When you hear the gentle musical swell and Emma and Knightley have their kiss (this whole confession sequence is so sweet and wonderful in its own right), you expect that to be it. But no, we cut to them, the picture of contented happiness, sitting together on a bench overlooking Hartfield’s garden, just talking and enjoying being together, with no teasing, no pretense. If Jane Austen stories emphasize anything, it’s the importance of communication in relationships, and I think that’s maybe why she made it a point in almost every story to show her characters communicating their feelings in words, even after all the conflict has been resolved. This is my favorite scene in the whole series (In case it being my header image didn’t make that obvious.)

This is followed rather promptly by a cut to the next day, with Emma bursting in to Donwell in hysterics about how they can’t be married because she won’t leave her father alone.

This is one of those maybe over-the-top choices that a lot of people don’t like, but guys, it was so funny to me when I was fourteen and it still makes me laugh. It might seem outlandish, but to me it’s just the emphasis on personal relationships and emotion coming through again and it always makes me smile.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard for me to give a proper round up of my feelings for this section because I think I’ve poured just about all of my feelings on each aspect into its dedicated sections.

At the end of the day, the only thing that really disappoints me about this version is the number of missed opportunities there are here. One of my favorite parts of reading Austen is when I run across a line in dialogue or narrative that just… slaps. But they never make it into the adaptations. Emma is full of them and I just wish that Sandy Welch could have taken an opportunity to slip a few of them in.

In summary, I think this is a wonderful, heartfelt adaptation aimed at getting to the emotional heart of a story that often gets caught up in the Mean Girl-ness of its main character than the coming of age story that it is. It's one of my favorite period dramas because it's one of the few that really captures the spirit of the source material as it's always felt to me. There's really only two other period dramas that I esteem on the same level as this, and they're North & South (2004) and Jane Eyre (2011) and it's for the same reasons; because they impact me deeply on an emotional level--which is what art is supposed to do--because of how well it captures the essence of the story that I know and love.

So did I succeed in a more objective review of Emma 2009? I' feel like probably not. But I tried my best. It’s so hard to be objective about something that makes you as happy as this adaptation makes me.

Ribbon Rating: Most Agreeable (83 Ribbons)

Tone: 10

Casting: 9

Acting: 9

Scripting: 7

Pacing: 10

Cinematography: 7

Setting: 9

Costumes: 6

Music: 8

Book Accuracy: 8

[theladyofdeath]

One Dance {Rowaelin}

31 Days of Halloween: Day 8.

All installments co-written with @snelbz​

Based on a prompt sent in by anon: “whoops you’re wearing the same costume as my best friend, I did not mean to hug you and kiss your cheek, where is my friend?? but you’re cute so I mean, this is fine”

Autumn/Halloween 2020 {Collection}

Aelin entered the club, looking around for Dorian.

She’d gotten pissed when he texted saying that instead of waiting for her outside, he’d been dragged in by a grumpy Chaol who was upset over his breakup with Yrene and in desperate need of a drink.

Fine, she had texted back, but you better have a drink ready for me when I get there.

That’s what led her to the moment she stepped through the entryway and was looking for a tall pirate with two drinks in his hand. She wasn’t exactly sure what kind of pirate he had come as, but she assumed that Dorian would have gone all out.

He loved Halloween.

So, when she spotted a long, velvet pirate’s coat with a feathered pirate’s hat in the distance, she was running through the crowd toward him. 

She yelled his name, but the Monster Mash was turned up to max volume and his back remained pointed in her direction. 

“Dorian!” she yelled, again, as she approached him, throwing her arms around his neck and pecking a kiss against his cheek. 

Except, when she leaned back and her eyes opened, her smile fell.

The man looking down at her was not, in fact, Dorian and bore no resemblance to her best friend in any way, save for their tastes in costumes apparently.

The stranger’s eyebrows rose and she watched as his eyes took in her own costume. “I didn’t anticipate catching a mermaid tonight, but I guess stranger things could happen.”

Aelin was blushing so hard that she knew the tips of her ears were pink, and she blurted out, “I’m so sorry, my friend was supposed to be getting me a drink and he’s also a pirate.”

Not that I mind, she added, in her mind. You’re hot as hell. 

The stranger was looking around before the side of his lips twitched upward. “There are a lot of us, it seems, that found ourselves in a pirate costume.”

Aelin nodded, taking another short step back, considering she was still nearly pressed up against his body. “It is a classic.” 

“That it is,” he added, rubbing the back of his neck. “I, uh, it’s okay, by the way.”

Aelin lifted a brow. “Sorry?”

“You apologized for bombarding me,” he clarified. “I was just saying, you know, it’s okay.”

“Good,” Aelin breathed, that awkwardness swirling in the pit of her stomach like an unplanned hurricane. “I’m Aelin, by the way. In case you wanted to retell this story to your friends.”

He chuckled. “I’m Rowan.”

“Aelin!”

She turned and found Dorian and Chaol in a booth just a few feet away.

Chaol was dressed up as a cowboy, complete with the hat and boots and she knew that was Dorian’s doing, too. Speaking of her best friend, he held up a second glass that looked like it held whiskey and she said, “I guess that’s my cue. It was nice to meet you.”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

Aelin blinked and said, “What? Dorian? No, he’s just a friend.”

“And the depressed cowboy?” Rowan asked, his lips quirking up at the edges.

“Definitely not,” she laughed. “He’s just a friend.”

“Hmm,” Rowan went on, nodding slowly.

Aelin cleared her throat. “Yeah, so...do you want to join us?”

“Oh, I can’t,” he said, sighing. “My friends are about here, I was roped into a bros-Halloween. One of us got dumped.”

“Ah,” Aelin chuckled.

Rowan clarified, “It wasn’t me, by the way.”

Aelin chuckled, again, as Dorian called for her. “Aelin! Come on, your ice is melting!”

“I’ll see you around, then,” Aelin said. “Have fun.”

She liked to pretend that he was watching her hips sway as she walked toward the booth and plopped down next to Dorian. 

“Who was that?” Dorian asked, sipping from his bottle.

Aelin shrugged. “Someone I thought was you.”

He scoffed. “How could you ever mistake that generic knock off for this premium pirate product?” He gestured to his long coat and floppy hat.

She rolled her eyes and shoved him, drinking from the short glass. She looked at Chaol, sitting with his arms crossed and glaring at anyone who walked by. “How ya holding up?”

His eyes slid to her and Aelin wondered if it was possible to set someone on fire with just a gaze, because if so, she was dangerously close to becoming ashes.

“Right, well.” Aelin tossed her drink back, swallowing it in one big gulp. “I’m going to get another drink and then Dor, we’re gonna dance.”

Dorian groaned. “I don’t want to dance with you, Ace. If I dance with you, no other woman will dance with me because they’ll think we’re here together.” He gestured to the both of them, specifically at their unintentionally similarly themed costumes.

She rolled her eyes and stood. “Fine, but I’m still going to get another drink.”

She stood, and headed for the crowded bar.

It didn’t take long for the bartender to take notice of her, Aelin in her sparkly sea-shell bra and long, turquoise tail. Her hair and makeup were also done to perfection, thanks to the fact that her cousin’s fiancée was a cosmetologist. 

Lysandra Ennar could do it all, including creating the perfect mermaid look. 

“Sex on the Beach!” she yelled, once the bartender asked what she wanted, deciding to keep the mermaid theme going, even with her beverages.

Besides, Sex on the Beach was one of her favorites. Definitely in the top ten. 

A moment later, as she was waiting, a low voice rang in her ear. “Already onto drink number two?”

Aelin spun around and was met with the halfway open shirt of Pirate Rowan.

Captain Rowan?

She assumed he owned his own ship.

A large one, at that.

“Of course,” she crooned. “It’s a party, isn’t it?” 

“I suppose it is,” he agreed. “What are you drinking?”

Aelin cocked her head to the side. “Why do you ask?”

Rowan’s smile was small, devious. “I just want to know what to ask the bartender to make for you next time your drink runs out.”

Aelin shook her head, slowly. “Sex on the Beach.”

Rowan’s eyes wandered down her mermaid costume, then back up to her eyes. “Got a theme going on?” 

“Of course.” Aelin shrugged. “The whiskey was delicious, but a mermaid drinking whiskey? Not so realistic.”

Rowan’s eyes narrowed. “And a mermaid drinking Sex on the Beach?”

Aelin’s eyes lit up. “Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” 

He chuckled and she asked, “Where are your friends?”

He looked behind them, in the direction of more booths lining the walls. “One is sulking in the booth, two are playing pool, and…” He paused and looked around. “One is making out with someone on the dance floor.”

A laugh sputtered from Aelin. “Your poor heartbroken friend is miserable.”

“Oh, that’s not the heartbroken one,” Rowan chuckled, tossing a thumb over his shoulder, towards his friend with dark hair, not even wearing a costume, looking like he would rather be anywhere else. “He’s just a crabby, piece of shit.” He turned and pointed to the blonde guy with his tongue down a woman’s throat.  “That’s the one who got dumped.”

“Oh,” Aelin chuckled. “He seems to be moving on.”

“Moving on or happily forgetting, one of the two,” Rowan chuckled.

Aelin’s drink was placed in front of her on the bar and she happily took a sip from the glass. “Did you come here for a drink?”

Rowan hesitated. “Something like that.”

Aelin took a long sip, her eyes remaining on his, before she asked, “Something like that?” 

“Are you in a hurry to get back to your friends?” he asked, stepping closer to her. 

Aelin looked over his shoulder, to where Chaol was still moping in their booth, and to Dorian, where he was now dancing with a girl dressed as a slutty vampire. 

“Depends why you’re asking,” Aelin answered, at last. 

Rowan looked at Aelin for a long moment before motioning to the bartender, who hurried off to fulfill Rowan’s needs.

Aelin was impressed. “On a first name basis with the bartender?”

Rowan reached behind her, to the glass of scotch that was sitting on the bar. ”Something like that.” 

“Something like that?” Aelin chuckled.

Rowan took a long, slow drink from his glass. “Dance with me.” 

Aelin took one more look at Dorian, who was holding the hips of the blonde vampire, his eyes closed, having the time of his life.

“One dance,” Aelin said, and Rowan took her hand. 

They placed their glasses on the bar and took off, going into the middle of the Halloween-chaos. Aelin wasn’t sure what to think about Rowan. At first glance, she wouldn’t think he was the type to let himself loose on the dancefloor, and maybe it was just his alcohol consumption, but Rowan certainly knew how to move. 

One dance quickly became two turned into three. At one point, Rowan pulled her to the bar again for drinks, but they ended up back on the dance floor a few minutes later. Aelin wanted to sit down, but didn’t want Rowan to stop touching her, didn’t want him to stop holding onto her hips like he was.

Her feet were killing her, but she quickly decided that she didn’t care. 

Aelin continued to dance with Rowan, continued to drink with Rowan, continued flirting with him until her cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. 

After a while, she looked over to make sure her friends didn’t mind that she was off with some strange guy.

Dorian was now dancing with a woman dressed as Princess Peach.

Chaol was laying on top of the table of their booth, sipping from a tall glass of whiskey. 

“You know, I thought tonight was going to be shit!” Rowan said, into Aelin’s ear above the music. 

“Yeah?” she asked, her arms around his neck. 

“Yeah,” he said, his lips brushing her ear, making her toes curl. “I’m dressed as a pirate at a nightclub, for the gods’ sake.”

Aelin tilted her head back as she laughed. “And now, what? It’s not shit?”

Rowan smiled, softly, and Aelin had no idea that someone in a fake pirate hat could look so incredibly sexy.

She didn’t hesitate, leaning up on her toes, pressing her lips to his. One of his hands slid into her hair and the other was pressed into the small of her back. Aelin melted into him, clutching at his shoulders. After a minute, she pulled away.

“No,” he breathed. “Not shit at all.”

[rhysismydaddy]

Fanny Pack Sexiness (Nessian Smut)

Prompt: *sensually unclips fanny pack* this is weird, i know. but i just saw a tweet and i thought if anyone could write this, it would be you.

Laughed so hard when I read this. If this isn’t Nessian, I don’t know what is. NSFW warning because I do love a fanny pack moment ;)

_________________________________________________________

Nesta glared out the window, keeping her unspoken vow to not look over at the atrocity that was her boyfriend. 

Well, that wasn’t not fair. 

The boyfriend himself was actually pretty nice to look at. 

Broad shoulders, a tall frame filled with meaty muscle, curly brown hair, and golden eyes made him interesting enough, she supposed. 

But it was what the bastard had chosen to wear that had driven her insane all day. 

The monstrosity was strapped around his waist currently, and she could’ve sworn it was laughing up at her. 

Consider this the first and last time she would ever travel with him. 

Because since it wasn’t obvious enough they were American, Cassian had chosen to wear a fanny pack. Over an I <3 LONDON shirt. Which he’d paired with khakis. 

He looked like the cover of a tourist’s guide made for forty year-old, single men who lived with their mothers. 

And she knew it was at least partly her fault he was dressed so stupidly, but she refused to apologize. 

Last night, they’d been heading out to dinner, when she commented that almost always, he wore all black. Honestly, it wasn’t even a complaint, considering she was guilty of the same thing. 

Why bother trying to put together prints and fabrics and colors, when black looked so nice on her? 

Anyway. She hadn’t been complaining. Teasing, but not complaining. 

But noooo. He’d immediately gotten that annoying, competitive look in his eyes that both made her smile and want to strangle him. 

“What would you like me to wear, Nesta?” he’d asked, golden eyes practically glowing. 

She’d sighed, probably making things worse. “I’m just saying, we look a little goth when we’re together.”

Cassian had just smiled down at her, then walked out of their room. She hadn’t thought any more of it when he’d slipped back in later that night, but then this morning, when he’d gotten dressed in the bathroom and opened the door with a flourish, she’d almost hit the floor. 

He was not built for fanny packs and khakis. 

He was built for... well, he was built to be naked all the time, but since that would probably get them sent back to the states, tight black shirts and jeans was a decent second option.

Plus, as if it weren’t bad enough already, he’d been adding to the ensemble all day, building up to the horrendous outfit she was currently avoiding looking at. 

His faded combat boots had been replaced with flip flops. His hair was tucked under a very large hat with a Big Ben outline across the front. He’d even stopped to buy a fucking old-fashioned pipe from the William Blake exhibit they’d gone to see. 

He was trying to drive her crazy. 

But little did he know, she had a few tricks up her sleeve. After three years together, she knew how to drive him crazy, too. 

So she’d plotted and schemed all day. And as they rode back to their hotel in the cab, it was finally time for it to come into play. 

Trying to be discrete, she nodded at the driver.

Cassian’s eyes shot to her as the man slammed on the brakes. It had costed her twenty Euros, but seeing the look of shock on her boyfriend’s face was so worth it. 

Especially as she shouted, “Drive him to the other side of the city and kick him out!”

And jumped from the cab. 

It was still moving a little, but she’d been prepared and hit the ground at a run. 

Manic laughter came out of her as Cassian turned around in the now-speeding cab, shouting something unintelligible back at her. 

He wanted to dress like a tacky tourist and drive her crazy? 

Fine. 

She’d just have to show him what he was missing out on. 

~

A little over an hour later, the door to their hotel room swung open, hitting the wall angrily. 

“That asshole took me halfway to fucking Essex, then had the audacity to charge me for the ride. Next time you have someone kidnap me, at least pay the fee, woman! I swear-”

Whatever he was about to say lodged in his throat as he took a look at what she was wearing. 

It was all new, and his eyes took in every piece of the wardrobe with a predatory gleam that sent her toes curling. But she acted unaffected, even as she bent down to fix the strap of her very high, very uncomfortable shoes. 

“What’s going on?” he asked, voice rough. 

Straightening, she shrugged and fluffed her hair. “I’m going to dinner.”

“You mean we’re going to dinner.”

Finally. 

Nesta turned towards her boyfriend, enjoying the way his eyes dipped to the almost indecent amount of cleavage on display. 

She traced her eyes over his entire rumpled, touristy outfit. “I’m not going in public with you while I look like this and you look like that.” 

His eyes narrowed as he finally caught on to what she’d done. “I’ll change then.”

It was a struggle not to laugh. “Well, you seemed so intent on replacing your wardrobe, I figured I’d help you out and dumped your suitcase.”

That was a lie. It was safely hidden down at the front desk. 

“You did what?”

Ignoring the question, she said, “You’re welcome. And since you can neither change nor go like that, I guess I’ll just see you later.”

Making her way to the door, she was abruptly stopped by a hand smacking into the wall closest to her, an arm now blocking her path. “Nesta Archeron, you are not going out looking like a goddamn supermodel while I sit here with my thumbs up my ass.”

“How you fill the alone time is irrelevant to me, Cassian.”

His other hand made its way to the wall, too, caging her in. 

“I know you wouldn’t throw my clothes out. Where are they? Tell me, and we’ll go to dinner.”

She shrugged, resolve to keep the secret building by the second. 

She was aware they were both a little competitive, but she didn’t care. She was winning this, one way or the other. He’d admit he’d been wrong to dress like an idiot today, then--and only then--she’d give him his clothes back. 

“I know what you’re doing,” he told her, the tone of his voice proving that it was working. 

He was suddenly so close she couldn’t think about anything else. 

Even dressed in head to toe tacky, he somehow managed to suck all the air out of her lungs. 

One hand turned his hat backwards so the brim wouldn’t poke her, and he leaned in close enough to run his nose down her neck. 

“Tell me, Nesta.”

“No.”

His teeth nipped at her skin, and she shivered. “Do I need to fuck it out of you?”

Gods, yes. Please. 

That hadn’t been her plan at all, but her body was more than on board with it. 

Except there was a bit of a problem. 

“You are not fucking me with a fanny pack on, hate to break it to you.”

Cassian pulled back far enough to wink at her, then his mouth was on hers, dominating her in the way that she’d only ever let him do. He pressed her against the wall, chest tight against hers, as he slipped his tongue in her mouth. 

Hands on her waist lifted her, and then she was being thrown halfway across the room onto the neatly-made bed. 

Propping herself up on her elbows, she glared over at him. 

“I was being serious, Cassian. You’re not getting any while you’re dressed like Uncle Sam.”

He swaggered over to the foot of the bed, the comment not at all impacting his confidence. 

“Allow me to remedy the problem then, princess.”

The hat’s the first to go, and it was a relief to see his unruly hair finally free. She heard the slap of his flip flops on the floor and figured he kicked them off, too. Cassian tugged the horrible, bright yellow “I <3 LONDON” shirt over his head, then stared at her, eyes narrowed. 

“I’m keeping the fanny pack.”

It was adorable how wrong he was. 

Raising an eyebrow, Nesta leaned back and let her thighs fall open, keying him into the fact that she’d somehow forgotten to put on underwear tonight. 

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t move to take off the damn pack. 

So she ran a manicured nail over her bottom lip, then slipped it in her mouth and sucked on it. She was pretty sure Cassian was about to pass out as she released it with a pop, then brought it between her legs. 

“Nesta.”

“Hmm?” she responded, the sound drawn out and breathy as she pushed the finger inside herself. 

“I like the fanny pack.” He sounded so sad, it was almost comical. Like a kid on Christmas who’d just been told Santa hadn’t come.

Too bad.

“Then stand there and watch.”

Oh, he did. His eyes were intent on her hands, both the one between her legs and the other that made it’s way to her breast. 

She rolled a nipple between her fingers and groaned, and he leaned down to fist the sheets at the end of the bed in his hands. “Fuck.”

Nesta refused to give first. Absolutely refused. 

And she knew what it would take for him to give in. So she added another finger, back arching off the bed, and worked herself until she was so close she couldn’t stay still. 

His knuckles were white as he gripped the comforter tight enough to threaten the strands, but it wasn’t that that forced him to lose their little battle. 

It was the sight of her coming undone before him. 

She moaned, and it might’ve been his name that fell from her lips, as release found her. When she heard the strangled, creative curse he let out, she knew she’d won. 

Forcing her eyes open, she watched as he finally unhooked the fanny pack and let it drop to the floor. 

It was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. 

Cassian quickly kicked off his hideous khakis, then prowled up her body, dropping little love bights on her thighs, her hips, her breasts. 

“That was so hot,” he groaned as he settled between her thighs, bracing himself on his elbows. 

“That was the idea, idiot.”

He stopped for a moment, pulling back to give her a sour look. “I think I’m going to make you apologize for that.”

Before she could tell him there was a fat chance of that happening, he pushed into her. Nesta gasped, and his mouth was suddenly on hers, absorbing the sound. 

After a brief moment to adjust, his hips grew rough against hers, the grip he had on them almost bruising, but she didn’t care. 

“Fuck, Cass,” she groaned, arching into his touch as he drew little circles on the bundle of nerves between her legs. 

He picked up speed, pounding into her so hard she started shifting up the bed until he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her in place. 

Release started building up in her, and she could tell it would be almost too intense when it crested. But just before she got to find out, he slowed his rhythm, swirling his hips slowly against hers. 

An indignant, hateful sound left her mouth, and he pulled back enough to smirk down at her. 

“Say it,” he commanded, eyes like molten caramel as they watched her hips try to gain more friction. “Say you’re sorry, and I’ll give you what you want.”

“Fuck you,” she panted, barely resisting the urge to punch him. “You insufferable, arrogant bastard.”

“Not exactly what I want to hear, but close.”

A maddeningly slow circle of his hips had her regretting ever going out with him. 

Another had her planning his murder.

Yet another had her cursing the day he was born.

“Say it, Nesta. You know you want to.” He dipped his head to kiss the base of her throat. 

Her body was so strung out it was a miracle she didn’t burst into tears, but she somehow managed to hold off for another few minutes.

But then he grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head and all but growled, “Just fucking say it. Say it so I can fuck you like you deserve.”

And she was just desperate enough that she said, “I’m sorry I called you an idiot, you horrible asshole.”

He smiled down at her, and she glared. “Such beautiful words.”

“Cassian, I swear-”

The words became lost in her throat as he finally, finally started moving again, somehow harder and quicker than before. 

Release immediately crashed into her, and she moaned as she drew tight around him. 

“Good girl,” he murmured, and even though she currently hated him, the words just made the release that much sweeter. 

Especially as he didn’t stop. Her body was trembling underneath his, but he kept going, even dipping his head to kiss his way down to her breasts. 

His tongue swirled around the peak of one, and she groaned loudly as the wave inside her seemed to crash once more, leaving her scattered and broken in the aftermath. 

Cassian finally followed her lead, collapsing on top of her and pressing her into the mattress below as he said her name in a helpless, loving sort of way. 

Their breath was uncontrolled and loud, and it took a few minutes before either of them could speak. 

Then he asked roughly, “Now, where’d you hide my shit?”

“Front desk,” she panted, pushing her hair off her forehead with a tired hand. 

He drew back, looking over her partially-clothed body in a satisfied, male way that made her smile. “I really like that dress, in case it isn’t obvious. Want me to go change so we can eat something?”

Before she could respond, his mouth was at her ear, hot breath raising goosebumps across her skin. “Or do you just want to eat here?”

Suddenly, food was the last thing on her mind. 

Her hands found their way to his hair as she drew him back down to her. 

“Just get it tomorrow,” she murmured, lips finding his again. “And never wear that fanny pack again.”

_________________________________________________________

Like I said, I had WAY too much fun writing this hahaha. Kinda really loosely based on when Joey (Friends) went to London and dressed like a tourist :)

Tags: @sjm-things @santas-dwynwen @thebitchupstairs @sayosdreams @perseusannabeth @cursebreaker29 @a-bit-of-a-cactus @elriel4life @girl-who-reads-the-books @aelinfeyreeleven945tbln @highqueenofelfhame @tswaney17 @rowanisahunk @superspiritfestival @studyliketate @over300books @justgiu12 @maastrash @aesthetics-11 @bamchickawowow @b00kworm @sleeping-and-books @musicmaam @hizqueen4life @maybekindasortaace

[nobodyfamousposts]

Dolls AU: Fort Plushiness

They were getting confused.

It was a few months after Mama and Papa discovered each other as well as both of the Dolls, and there have been many changes that had been made since.

One of the changes was that the two had taken to sharing time with Littlebug and Chaton. Which was a nice change and made them very happy. Now Littlebug got to spend time with Mama! And Chaton got to spend time with Papa! And Littlebug and Chaton got to spend more time with each other without having to sneak away and worry about getting caught!

Chaton got to show Littlebug Mama's home with all the neat-looking and nice-feeling clothes. Littlebug in turn got to show Chaton Papa’s room room with all its stuff and the shiny stair railings and poles that they could slide down.

All in all, it was a change that they rather liked.

The other change was more confusing, though. Since Papa’s Day, Papa had seemed insistent on presenting them with things.

A lot of things.

More things than they knew what to do with, really.

It seemed that every day, they were finding something new that he had gotten for them. Littlebug and Chaton weren't really sure what to do with the things. Some of them looked like toys they recognized. Littlebug particularly liked the blocks. Chaton preferred the fluffy cloth bear that was as big as he was and perfectly hug-sized and comfy to nap with. The rest…they didn’t quite know what to do with or why they were there.

Except Papa seemed intent on watching them with each item, even writing things down in a notebook. He seemed to be hoping for...something? They didn't know what.

But it made him happy when they presented him the latest item they discovered. Handing any item to him made him smile and coo and he would play with them using the object. Which was nice! And they liked it a lot.

Not the item, but the way it seemed to make him happy.

They liked Papa when he was happy the best.

So maybe the things were tokens to let Papa know they wanted to play? It made the most sense. Though it kind of saddened them both at the idea of giving up certain ones they were attached to in order to play with Papa. Or that they’d eventually run out of things to give for Papa’s time. Would Papa start ignoring them then?

Littlebug didn’t believe so, since she and Papa spent plenty of time together before. But things were different now. Chaton was with them too, now. And they were going back and forth with Mama who still lived in her home. Plus having both the Pink One and Dark One around as well. There had been many new changes that had made them happy.

Was this a not-happy new change? Was it only temporary?

Fortunately, Marinette seemed to catch on to their confusion.

“Adrien, you need to stop.” She finally told him one day.

He looked to her in surprise from his computer and the next large group of toys and games he was intending to buy. “But Marinette! I’m their ‘DAD’ now. I have to show them I love them!”

She frowned. Not out of annoyance—she couldn’t be annoyed with him caring for the dolls and wanting to shower them with love. But this was getting to be a problem and part of her hesitated to be the one to tell him that. “I get that, but I’m sure there are ways of letting them know you care without buying out an entire toy store.”

He pouted. “I didn’t buy out an entire toy store.”

She glance back briefly at the boxes of toys already lining up the room. She then raised an eyebrow at him.

He looked away. “I only bought one of everything because I didn’t know what they’d like.”

“And buying everything would solve that?” She asked incredulously.

“This way I could see what they prefer or not!” He exclaimed as he tried to justify the excessiveness. 

“You could just ask them.” She pointed out. “Or show them a catalogue and let them pick what they would like.”

Seeing how sad he appeared, she rested a hand on his shoulder. “We need to keep things in moderation. It’s going to be hard to hide the fact we have them if we’re going to these extremes.”

And even if they didn’t, the last thing she wanted was to spoil the dolls with gifts to the point they became selfish and entitled. The last thing she wanted was to result in either of the dolls turning out like Chloe.

“But this way I can keep track of what all they play with!” He argued. “And they like everything I’ve gotten for them!”

She sighed. “Okay, Adrien? Is it that they like the gifts themselves or that they like that they’re from you?”

He blinked.

“What?”

She laughed. “Adrien, I’d bet that you could give them a pair of your socks and they’d be happy.”

“No way!”

It was fortunate that Adrien did not take that bet.

Yay! Fun thing! Soft thing! Stretchy!

He soon discovered that yes, the dolls would very much be happy if he gifted them socks. As evidenced by the way Littlebug and Chaton began to pull one of the socks between them like a game of tug of war. Adrien had worried they were fighting for a moment until both began to twist and were soon wrapped up in the sock together, their little legs kicking out from beneath the wrapping as they had fun in their silliness.

“Cute.”

It was also soon realized, to Adrien’s embarrassment, that while he had been taking note of specifically how the two have been interacting with the toys, he hadn’t quite taken note of what else they took interest in besides those toys.

It turned out that while Adrien had written that the two had played with some action figures in a princess castle, he failed to notice that the two had taken more interest in some of the bigger boxes that the toys had come in. It was only after Marinette came for a visit that they discovered the “fort” made of three boxes of various sizes interconnected together.

Said “fort” was apparently run by Commander Spotty and loyal knight Sir Sharp Claws. Which were really just Littlebug wearing a toy flag as a cape and Chaton wearing Adrien’s gifted sock as a hat. But they seemed to enjoy playing as knights in service of King Sleeps and Queen Pinky.

“What?” Plagg demanded as he looked up from his cushioned throne at the intruder.

Adrien raised an eyebrow.

“….they’re your kids. Don’t judge me.” He groused before rolling back over.

Queen Pinky looked up from her “throne” on top of a pillow carried by four unicorn toys. For her part, she seemed to have taken her role seriously, as she was wearing a velvet cloth that looked to be from a fancy doll dress as a cape along with a little toy crown.

Marinette gaped. “Tikki?” She couldn’t help the giggles.

“Do you bring offerings for the King and Queen?” Tikki demanded imperiously.

“Offerings?”

“If not, then you are to remove yourselves!” Tikki announced.

“Are you serious?”

Plagg shrugged. “You heard the lady.”

Sure enough, following the orders of the “Queen”, Littlebug and Chaton proceeded to push Adrien and Marinette away from the fort. The two teens were a bit too busy fighting giggles to really try to oppose them. They were left on the other side of the room recovering from their laughing fit over the pure hilarity of the whole thing.

“Okay, okay. You were right, m’lady.” Adrien admitted once his chuckling finally died down enough for him to talk properly.

Marinette was still giggling. “They’re kids. And they’re creative. They can be happy with anything, so you don’t need to go overboard, Adrien.”

He winced. “Yeah. I just…I want to though.”

She sobered at that. “Hmm?”

“I just want them to know I care.” He quietly admitted.

Oh.

Marinette leaned against him in a show of support.

“I think that simply being with them and playing with them shows that most.”

He leaned back against her, accepting the reassurance.

“Occasional gifts are fine, but they won’t have time to play with everything and really be able to tell what they like if you’re getting them too much at once.”

“I’ll try to scale it back.” He promised.

Marinette smiled in relief.

Chaton and Littlebug didn’t really know what they were whispering about. They were simply being cautious of any potential counterattack by the enemies of their King and Queen. At least until those enemies called them for dinner at Mama’s house at which point they abandoned their posts much to Tikki’s unhappiness and Plagg’s apathy.

The next day they returned to Papa’s place, he presented them with a new gift of paints, brushes, and sponges for decorating their fort.

Then he spent the rest of the afternoon helping them decorate the fort.

It only stopped when they tried to paint Plagg, too.

“No, no! None of that!” He told them, taking the supplies away before they could really get started. “I’m supposed to be Chat Noir, not Chat Rose!”

Chaton and Littlebug pouted. They just wanted to make his tail pretty. And his paws. And maybe his ears...

“No.”

Could they at least paint each other?

“No. Paints are for the fort.”

They pouted more, but then Papa pulled out glow-in-the-dark star stickers to put inside the fort and they were successfully distracted from the unfairness of not getting to see a pink-tailed Chat Noir.

All in all, things were getting better.

[tillthelandslide]

Jersey Love (Part 5) : I Lost a Friend

Warning: this chapter includes references of suicide so please do not read if it will trigger you. Here for anyone who needs to talk <3

Author’s Note: Hope you enjoy it, I’m struggling with part 6 atm so please be patient with me :) love you all so much and I know I saw it all the god dam time but your support truly does mean the world to me

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(if you would like to be added to my tag list, feel free to message me,   if you are new to my blog then I post Henry Cavill fanfics and make   Henry Cavill fake Instagram posts, my requests are open so feel free to   request anything  and I will try my best to make your vision come to life. Edit: requests are still open but there might be a delay as I am working my way through the current ones and all other stories I am writing)  

Part 1: Durrell Challenge

Part 2: Coffee Date

Part 3: Life With You is a Walk in the Park

Part 4: Movie Night

It was Saturday night and you had been invited to a karaoke night with your friends, you had invited Henry so he could get to know your friends better. You were getting ready, you had decided to curl your hair and apply a little bit more makeup than usual, not too much, it still looked natural but you had darker eyeshadow on than usual. You opted to wear black skinny jeans, a striped deep-neck blouse and toeless heels. You couldn’t stop thinking about last night and the events that occurred, you wondered if Henry was thinking about it as much as you were.

You had text Henry to meet you at the pub, planning to get there earlier than your friends, you ordered a cab whilst you got your things ready, ensuring your cats had everything they needed. The cab arrived shortly after and took you to the pub. You walked inside, greeting the staff as you entered, you sat down at a booth big enough for all of you. Henry arrived shortly after, dressed in black jeans and a grey cotton shirt, his chest hair on display which made you have to take a deep breath trying to compose your thoughts.

He waved at you a huge smile on his face, he came over to you sliding in next to you and hugging you tightly.

“Hello gorgeous” he says, pecking your lips making you blush.

“You look hot Henry” you said, which got the reply of a deep cough and chuckle.

“So do you” he said, his eyes flicking down to your chest making you and him smirk.

“Keep your eyes up here Hen” you joked, making him smile.

“Want a drink?” you asked “yes please” he said. “Guinness?” you asked, making him say yes please again. You left the booth and Henry couldn’t help but check out your bottom as you walked, he thought about last night as he did. You caught him as you turned your head round slightly, making him look into your eyes and shrug as if to say “I don't regret it”.

You ordered a Guinness and a pint for yourself, carrying them over to the table. Sitting down next to Henry his hand immediately panting itself on your thigh as the other arms hooked around your shoulders on the headrest of the chair.

“How are you?” you said, your own hand resting on his thigh, which somehow looked bigger in his tight jeans.

“I’m very good, how are you my love?” he smirked, placing a kiss to your neck where he could see the bruise he planted yesterday.

“I also happen to be very good. Coincidence?” you said making him chuckle.

“Hmm, maybe” he said his lips still moving against your lips.

“Henry people are looking” you said, your hand threading through his hair at his neck as your eyes fluttered closed.

“Let them look” he said, beginning to suck against your neck when you heard someone across the room cough awkwardly, making him pull away. 

His timing was impeccable as you heard the door of the pub opened and in walked Lewis.

“Hi guys.” he said nicely, shrugging his jacket off when he made it to you. 

“Hi Lew. This is Henry” you said, standing up to hug him before gesturing to Henry, he stood up and shook Lewis' hand.

“Nice to meet you mate. Yn has told me a lot about you” Henry said, smiling and sitting back down. Lewis sat on the opposite side of the booth.

“You too mate” he replied before the both of them said “good things I hope” at the same time making them laugh.

“No I bitched about both of you” you said, all of you laughing, the pub door opened and Amy walked in with James and Liam.

“Oh shit, I forgot to tell you that Emily can’t make it, she had to look after her sister's kids for the night” Lewis said, all of you standing up as they walked up.

“Hello gorgeous girl” Amy said, hugging you tightly, squeezing her as she did, placing a friendly kiss on her cheek, her eyes flicked down to your exposed neck and she wiggled her eyebrows at you, making you chuckle and flick your hair in front of your neck to cover it..

“Nice to see you again” she said, leaning over to hug Henry too.

“You too.” Henry replied.

“This is Henry” you said, introducing him to Liam and James who both shook his hand. They all sat down but you remained standing.

“Drinks?” you said, to which they all replied quickly with what they wanted.

“I’ll get it” Henry offered, making you shake your head and place a kiss against his cheek making him blush in front of your friends. You walked over to the bar ordering everyone else's' drinks, you leant against the bar, turning your head back to the table, Henry was laughing with your friends which was a good sign, he was sat next to Lewis with Amy, Liam and James on the other side of the booth, a space next to Henry for you to sit. The barman came back a short while after with all of the drinks.

“Cheers mate” you said smiling to him as he placed the drinks on a tray.

“Need a hand?” he said, being friendly.

“That’s okay, I’ve got it” you said, carrying the tray effortlessly to the table. You placed it down and sat next to Henry a round of “thanks” and “cheers” being heard.

“For someone as clumsy as you I’m surprised you managed to carry this back without getting it all down you” James said making everyone including Henry laugh.

“Ha Ha” you said sarcastically, taking a sip from your drink.

You all then began talking between yourself, your friends asking kind and interesting questions about Henry and his career, helping him to be comfortable around them which you appreciated.

“How long have you been together?” Henry asked James who was holding hands with Liam.

“4 years” he replied, smiling at each other which made you and Henry smile.

“They are so cute. They got moved to different sections at work because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other” Amy said, making everybody laugh.

Little to your knowledge, your friends had put your name into the hat that was being passed around the pub, you hadn’t known this as you were getting another round, so when your name was called you were shocked.

“I hate you guys so much” you said, putting your middle finger up to them as you were prompted to go on stage. This karaoke night had a machine but also had a guitar and a piano which you could play.  You walked on stage, still hating your friends, Henry smiled at you as he was laughing along with your friends.

“May I?” you gestured to the piano making the karaoke man nod.

“Introduce yourself and the song” the man said, making you smile.

“Hi everyone. This is super awkward, my friends put me up to this and I hate them for it. But um, my name is Yn, this is I Lost a Friend by Fineas” you said, making your friends and Henry cheer at you.

“She plays piano? Is she any good?” Henry asked Lewis.

“You didn’t know. Oof sit back and enjoy Henry” Lewis said making Henry confused. You began playing the first chords of the song and soon after your voice filled the room. Henry was instantly blown away by your voice, it was beautiful and he looked to your friends who were smiling at you.

I lost a friend Like keys in a sofa Like a wallet in the backseat Like ice in the summer heat I lost a friend Like sleep on a red-eye Like money on a bad bet Like time worrying about Every bad thing that hasn't happened yet

You sang, your fingers easily drifting over the keys, your eyes closing as you got into the song.

I know I'll be alright, but I'm not tonight I'll be lying awake counting all the mistakes I've made Replaying fights I know I'll be alright, but I'm not tonight I lost a friend, I lost a friend, I lost my mind, and nobody believes me Say, "I know that he don't need me 'Cause he made a little too much money to be 20 and sad" And I'll be fine without 'em But all I do is write about 'em How the hell did I lose a friend I never had? Never had

You continued singing. Henry leant forward in his chair, everything around him seemed like it disappeared as he heard you sing, every new piece of infomation he learnt about you he loved but he thinks this might be his favourite. Why doesn’t she do this for a living? he thought to himself she’s truly amazing. This song was sad and you sung it with so much emotion, the room went completly quiet, everyone on the edge of their seats, listening carefully to every word that fell perfectly from your mouth.

I'm on the mend Like I'm wearing a neck brace Like I'm sleeping in my own place Like I'm pulling all the stitches out of my own face I'm on the mend Like I'm icing a new sprain Like I'm walking on a new cane Like it's been a couple days Since I slipped and said something sorta like your name, I know I'll be alright, but I'm not tonight I'll be lying awake counting all the mistakes I've made Replaying fights

You sung, swaying slightly in your chair, really getting into the song. Your friends started swaying too which made you smile.

I know I'll be alright, but I'm not tonight I'm on the mend, but I lost a friend, I lost my mind, and nobody believes me Say, "I know that he don't need me“

Cause he made a little too much money to be 20 and sad

And I'll be fine without 'em But all I do is write about 'em How the hell did I lose a friend I never had? I'd apologize if I thought it might make a difference Or make you listen I'd apologise if it was black and white But life is different Just try to listen to me now, I know I'll be alright, but I'm not tonight I lost a friend, I lost a friend, I lost my mind, and nobody believes me Say, "I know that he don't need me 'Cause he made a little too much money to be 20 and sad" And I'll be fine without 'em But all I do is write about 'em How the hell did I lose a friend I never had? Never had 

You continued to sing the song until the end and everyone applauded you when you had finished, making you blush deeply.

“I wasn’t expecting that, that was amazing” the karaoke man said as you stood up making you laugh.

“Thank you” you said, smiling at him before walking back to your friends, sliding in next to Henry.

“I really hate you guys” you said laughing, you felt Henry staring at you so you looked to him as his hand rested against your thigh.

“Oh shut up, you were amazing” Amy said, making everyone nod.

“What?” you said, tucking your hair behind your ear, he leant in and kissed you firmly making your friends coo which made you blush.

“You never told me you could sing or play the piano. That was amazing Yn” Henry said making you kiss him again.

“What can I say? I’m full of surprises” you said, using the phrase you and him always said as a joke, your elbows on the table, leaning against the palm of your hand.

“You truly are” he said, leaning forward to place a kiss against your forehead as his arm rested over your shoulders.

You looked to your friends who were smiling at the both of you.

The night carried on like that, all of you laughing, singing along to the songs people went up to sing, drinking and having fun. Henry fit in well with you friends, there was never any moments of awkwardness, his hand rested constantly on your knee or on your thigh, occasionally wondering up (whether intentional you don't know) and every now and then he'd turn and smile at you, placing a kiss against your cheek or lips.

It was now later on that night and you had invited Henry back to yours, you entered your house, your cats nowhere to be seen, probably on your bed. You threw you keys in the bowl next to your door, hanging your jacket up, Henry doing the same. Little to no words were exchanged but it was a comfortable silence. Henry looked around again, he really did love your house, he had only been in your living room and kitchen but still.

“Bare with me while I go get changed okay?” you said, making Henry nod and walk to your living room. You got changed into a black pair of sweats and a loose top, cleaning your face of all makeup. You walked back downstairs into the living room seeing Henry stroking one of your cats.

“Ooo, you like nice and cozy, how are you still so pretty without makeup?” he said, making you smile, he sat back against your sofa, pulling you into his lap, his hand running across the soft fabric of your sweats which covered your legs.

“How do we always end up in this same position?” he said making you chuckle

“Hmm think yesterday looked a little like this” you said, swinging your leg over his thighs so you were straddling him again, you both laughed this time though, liking how this position didn’t always have to be sexual.

“You were truly amazing this evening Yn, that song... so good, very emotional, almost cried, I can’t lie” he said, you smiling at how sweet he always was.

“Thank you” you replied, pecking his cheek.

“I want to hear you sing more now” he said “You’re so talented, you know you could do it as a career right? I know you love conservation but it's true” he said, a crimson blush arising on your cheeks as he spoke

"Can I show you something?" you said as if reading his mind, your voice came out in a whisper and he nodded. He stood and you jokingly wrapped yourself around him like a koala, slowly dropping yours legs to the floor, taking his hand in yours leading him upstairs into a large room, you turned the lights on and Henry smiled at the sight. It was a studio, guitars were framed on the wall and an old standard size piano was placed at the back. Across one of the walls was a glass panel and a door which led to what looked like a recording booth. Brown leather sofas furnished the room and a coffee table was placed in front of them, sheets of paper lying across it, Henry picked one up and saw song lyrics.

"Wow" was all he said, sitting down on the sofa.

"Spent my first three paychecks on this room” you laughed “I don't really come in here anymore" you said, wiping some dust off your piano before coming to sit next to him. Henry didn't say anything, he knew it wasn't the time, it was the time to let you talk and for him to listen.

"There's something I haven't told you Hen, I was really scared too. I hadn't really told many people, only my family knows and Amy and Lewis" you said making him not.

"It's okay, take your time" he said kindly, you nodded and took a breath before talking again.

"Back in London, I was engaged" you said, he didn't gasp, he didn't get angry, he just nodded, trying to be as understanding as he possibly could.

"We met at University, he was studying to become a Marine Biologist, we became friends pretty quickly and we both loved music. Us and a few of our friends made a band" you said smiling at the memory which made Henry smile.

"We weren't huge, but we were quite popular around campus" you laughed "we performed in local pubs and clubs and at uni events."

"His name was Adam, he was the lead guitarist in the band. We left university, we moved in together, he proposed and I said yes. We were so happy" you said, a tear running down your face.

"Umm... One day, I um... I came home and Adam had taken his own life" you said, as you began crying. Henry didn't know what to do but he pulled you close to him, wrapping his arms around you, it was just what you needed.

"So the band broke up... And I began travelling the world, doing conservation, occupying myself with work. But every time I would go back home to London I hated it, I was reminded of everything about him. It got easier as time went on but I was hardly ever in London, always on the road, working for different conservation projects. I finally started to be happy again, I loved Adam and part of me always will... But I couldn't let it stop my life, he wouldn't have wanted that, he always said to me “we’re here for a good time baby, not a long time, you’ve got to make the most of your life”. I realised that I couldn’t spend all my time thinking about him and what happened, I had to accept that I loved him but he’s not around to love me anymore. I have to make a new life for myself. So when I got the job here, it was a blessing, I had my dream job, somewhere I could start a new... I made amazing friends and now... Now I have you" you said, now crying happy tears. Henry's hands resting against your face.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner" you said, making him shake his head and place a sweet, gentle kiss on your lips.

"It's okay. It's okay. I'm glad you told me now. I'm so sorry that happened Yn, I really am" he said, kissing you again.

"I'm happy now though" you said smiling.

"I'm glad. Me too. Me too" he said, pulling you into his chest.

You got up, staking a guitar off the wall, walking over to Henry, sitting down next to him.

“This was Adam’s” you said, your fingers hovering over an engraving on the guitar which said “Those we love never truly leave us” which you got engraved.

“Tell me about him” he said, making you smile, you placed the guitar back on the wall before joining Henry, he moved you so your legs were draped over his, his hand holding you against him, beginning to play with your hair as your own hands landed on his chest, your head rested against his shoulder.

“He was a really nice guy, a good guy. He wanted to change the world. He always told me that I was too kind for my own good, but he was the king one” you smiled, making Henry smile too.

“He was an awesome guitar player, really good at singing too and writing songs” you continued.

“What did you do in the band?” he asked kindly.

“I was the lead singer, played keys and sometimes played guitar” you said, making Henry smile.

“What happened to everyone else?” Henry asked.

“After everything happened, the band broke up, we all went our separate ways for a while, just trying to move on from what happened, heal y’know” you said, making Henry nod.

“Just before I moved here, we all met up again, and it was like it was before, we all spoke about Adam, with nothing but love, we were no longer sad. I know that sounds bad, but why ruin his image with negativity?” you asked Henry who sighed and kissed you.

“You’re perfect” he whispered against your lips. 

“What’s everyone up to now?” he asked.

“Louie was our drummer, he’s a musical teacher, Ollie played guitar too, he’s got his own band now and Gemma, she played bass, she’s a full time mum now” you smiled.

“They’re coming to my birthday party, Amy has organised Ollie’s band to play, they live in London but are going to come for it which is really nice” you said, making Henry nod.

“It will be nice to meet them.” he said, making you smile.

“Thank you for being so supportive Henry, you’re the best” you said, resting your head against his warm chest. He held you in his arms, placing kisses against your head, his warmth radiating off him, into you, sending you into a gentle slumber. Henry picked you up bridal style, carrying you to what he assumed was your bedroom, he placed you down on the bed, tucking you in and placing a sweet kiss against your forehead.

He didn't look around your bedroom, he didn't feel comfortable doing that whilst you were sleeping. Instead he walked downstairs, grabbing a piece of paper and pen from your kitchen writing you a note.

“Good morning my sweet love. I hope you slept well and had wonderful dreams. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome, I tucked you into bed and went home. Thank you for sharing that with me last night, it means more to me than you will ever know that you trust me like that. It makes me sad that you went through that but I understand now how you are the strongest, most amazing person I know. I realise it more and more everyday, the more I learn about you, the more I realise I need you in my life - Your Henry” he put the pen down, grabbing his jacket, walking to the door and slowly closing the door to your home behind him.

Part 6

[dulce-pjm]

30 Questions Tag Game

tagged by @softbobamilktae​ my beloved <3333333

name/nickname: call me naomi !! 

star sign: capricorn

height: 5′8″ (and getting closer to chim every day muhaha)

birthday: january 15!

favorite band: ummm bts, txt, twice, every day lol (and like any musical theatre cast ever lol)

time: 8:35 pm 

favorite solo artist: taeyeon, baekhyun, agust d, jhope, rm 

song stuck in your head: signal by twice :))

last movie you watched: the princess diaries !! iconic

free space!: hmmmm i’m giving you a big hug can you feel it !!!!

last show: the great british bake off (paul f*cking hollywood i hate him but i love the show)

when i created this blog: february 2021 (i think?)

what i post: bts fics and weird not quite shitposts?

last thing i googled: huening kai side profile (i was texting a friend it was relevant uh yeah)

other blogs: @naomis-library​ for fic recs !

do i get asks?: sometimes!! and i treasure every single one you guys make my day <3

why i chose my url?: @kidcoredreamz came up with it !! i explained a bit in this tag game

following: 43 blogs :)

followers: more than i deserve !!!

average hours of sleep: um like  5-7? but then i’ll make up for it once a week and sleep like 10 hours lol

lucky number: hmm 7, 10, 15

what am i wearing?: a hoodie and pajama shorts lol (i was dressed cute earlier though haha)

dream job: oh gosh i don’t know still figuring that out lol

favorite food: just one ????? probably my grandma’s cavatelli (alternatively cold pad thai i don’t know i don’t know)

tea or coffee: oh my gosh don’t make me choose >.< i guess tea bc it won’t give me the jitters?

nationality: american 

favorite song: seesaw !!!

top three fictional universes i would like to live in: ugh okay before i decide this is so annoying bc to me my motivation is more the characters and friendships and relationships but i feel like this has to purely like the universe itself so i’m gonna do that and probably explain why for each lol (but also all the worlds seem so scary if you aren’t connected right ahhh !!)

1. harry potter obvs i have always wanted to be a wandmaker !!! i have a fic in the works (she says, having like a bajillion wips and ideas lol) kinda about that but i just think it’s such a cool career and it sounds so rewarding !!! i also just love kids and helping people so i think i’d love it someone pls hire me as a wandmaker 

2. the mcu i guess ??? but i’d spend most of my time wandering nyc looking for a radioactive spider LOL having superpowers is the actual fun part (idk if i wanna be an avenger though that’s a lot of responsibility !!! i like the friendly neighborhood role a lot more i’ll take over for peter parker lol)

3. steven universe !!!! i really hope i could be involved with the gems but like even if not the whole show makes every scene and landscape and location look so gorgeous !!!! i’d love to explore that world if i could, but i’d also be just as content to hang with sadie at the donut shop <3 (but i’d very much like to move in with lapis and peridot at the farm LOL)

okay i went way too in depth with the last question but it was important and my answers would be different if i could like choose my life and friends and stuff haha (i ramble a bit more in the tags lol)

anyway~~~ i’ll tag @hyungieyoongi (sorry if you’ve done it already) and @kidcoredreamz my love <33

[darkromanceblackburn]

Ok so heres a more fluffy sweet request for Jesse(Chromeskull), what if his S/o always made sure to thank him and show how much they appreciated the gifts he gives them and just spoiling them in general, but deep down they feel like they dont deserve it or that their a burden to him. How would Jesse put their mind at ease and just some good cute love fluff man.

This is what I wrote while I listened to Joe Cockers’ song You can leave your hat on. I hope you like it, dear!

Chromeskull x Reader- Gucci, Gucci! Spoil me

You were drinking your coffee into the pure white marble kitchen with silver details; staying on one of the bar-stools, the hot dark coffee giving you a funny feeling as you sipped on it.

Last night you slept alone because Jesse had to over-work as he called it, something about a very pesky client. You knew what he meant and didn’t want to urge him on to say more. You were fine as long as he came home alive.

Ready to take another sip a pair of gloved hands moved over your eyes, blinding you. A smile crept over your lips, knowing all to well who it was; the expensive masculine cologne and metal scent gave him away.

“Good morning to you too, Jesse.” you said with a chuckle, wondering what he was up to. You knew how mischievous your lover was, always up to something, making your life so much more entertaining.

He moved his hands slowly away from your eyes, the light blinding you a little, your gaze adjusting and saw a black velvet rectangular box in front of you, next to the mug of coffee on the white kitchen table.

Your hands slowly opened the box, the material of it so soft to your fingertips, your eyes widened as you took in the box’ content; a beautiful diamond necklace, the precious stones shining in the morning sun.

“J-Jesse...You didn’t have to.” you murmured, eyes still wide open, not believing what you see. You turned your head to him, seeing him smile, then he kissed your forehead.

‘I’m making up to you for tonight's absence. Anyway, a woman cannot have enough diamond, right princess?’ he signed, giving you a cheeky smirk as he ended his hands' movement, making you blush and look down.

It was so ironic that a mute man could be so smooth and suave with unspoken words; just sensual hand signing and a sexy smirk. It was maddening.

He took the necklace from the box and tied it around your neck, his fingertips brushing against the skin around the jewelry piece. Before you knew it he scooped you up in his arms, walking with you upstairs and making it up to you for staying the night working.

Everything was just too perfect and sometimes it made you feel exactly like one of this Beverly Hills rejected Gold Diggers. You were working so you could get some money too, but with how much Jesse earned...Hell, you couldn’t make that money in a life-time.

He always made sure you get anything you wanted and he didn’t have to ask you. You remember...

There was one time when you looked on your phone for one of these Viktor & rolf bonbon perfumes. The next day? You were ready to go out on the back porch of Jesses’ house and drink lemonade when on the railing there laid a pink gift box with your desired perfume.

Then, there was one time when you saw this cute lacy lingerie set, only to come home in the evening with a package waiting for you in the kitchen, along with a note: ‘Dress up, then come upstairs. - J’

He always knew what you wanted and he delivered it on a silver platter. At first, it was flattering and you were living the dream, but now as you knew 100% that you loved Jesse and he was the man you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, you felt cheap and disgusted with yourself.

Now, you were sitting in the living room on one of the arm-chairs, looking over the tv channels in hopes to get these feelings out, because you felt guilty for taking advance of Jesses’ affection towards you.

It was frustrating, you never thought you would turn up into one of these Gold Diggers.

The sound of the door opening, then shutting, pulled you out of your train of thoughts. It was Jesse.

“You came earlier from your ‘business’ trip. No clients?” you asked, getting up from the chair. He chuckled silently, walking towards you, kissing you. Your kiss was a little hesitant, the thoughts from earlier making you feel a little out of your skin. Maybe you were tired, he thought.

He pulled his silver suitcase on the marble table, then turned to you.

‘That too, and I wanted to spend more time with my queen.’ he signed, and you couldn’t help the clenching of your heart at his silent words. It was like he put salt on a wound.

“Jesse...You’re making me blush.” you said, rubbing the back of your neck.

‘I have a surprise for you.’ he signed, walking towards his suitcase and that was the final straw.

“I don’t want it!” it came harsher than you wanted, feeling goosebumps on your skin. He stopped as his hand touched something into the suitcase, his head turned to you, then he walked towards you, a confused look on your face.

‘What are you talking about?’ he signed, his hands a little shaky, probably shocked at your sudden change in attitude.

“I-I feel like I’m taking advantage of you sweet spoiling. A-At first it was all cute, but now...I-I feel...cheap....I-I’m a horrible person...I feel like one of these disgusting gold diggers.” you confessed, tears running down your cheeks, as you looked down at the white carpet, avoiding Jesses’ gaze.

You heard footsteps approaching you, seeing his black leather shoes moving closer into your line of vision. One index finger pulled your chin up, making you face him.

He had on a hard look, the one your dad would give you if you disappointed him.

‘Woman. If you say such words again I’m going to really get mad.’ he signed, his brown eyes looking at your puffy red eyes. You furrowed your brows in confusion.

‘I’m spoiling you because I love to see you happy, I love to take care of my doll, not because I have to because I want to. Don’t you dare compare yourself with these cheap piggies that I kill. Understood.?’ he signed, his body now almost touching yours, leave for a little space for him to sign his thoughts.

“I-I’m really sorry.” you whimpered, trying to calm yourself down.

‘I love to spoil you, alright? I love to take care of my wife.’ he signed, the last part very slowly so you won’t miss it.

Now, your eyes widened, not really believing if you got that right.

“W-Wife?” you asked, feeling your breath hitch as you saw the tall man get down on one knee, his height still imposing even when he was on his knee.

He pulled out from his pocket a red velvet box, opening it for your eyes to take in the beautiful ring. It was like a spark hit you deep in the middle of your heart, a big smile forming on your face.

Jesse didn’t have to ask the question, seeing your face that was one minute ago so sad and full of tears now so bright and shiny with happiness, he knew he made the right choice.

Pulling the ring from the box he slides it on your finger, your arms wrapping around his neck, kissing him deeply. His lips moved against yours, his arms wrapping around your waist, bodies flush against each other, afraid if one of you let go the other might disappear.

“I love you so much.” you whispered against his lips, his brown eye sparkling with happiness and joy.

“[Name] Cromeans..Hmm...I like the sound of that.” you said with a giggle, making Jesse smirk and kiss your neck up to your ear, bitting on the lob of it.

Oh, he liked that sound, alright~

[nalgenewhore]

Too Late To Turn Back Now - Seven

masterlist - ao3 - last chapter - next chapter 

an: mmm things get a lil steamy 🔥😳👀

+*+*+*+*+*+*

When they got back home, Lorcan didn’t put her down until he got to their bathroom. Even then, he kept her lofted with an arm as he turned on the shower and left her to it, hanging a towel on the heated rack.

He couldn’t find her sweats and hoodie and he highly doubted she would appreciate it if he went through her stuff, so he grabbed a pair of his sweatpants and an old hoodie from high school, jogging down to the laundry room and tossing them in the dryer.

By the time he got back, the shower was still running and he cracked the door open, holding out the clothes. “El?”

“Yeah?”

“I got you some dry clothes when you’re ready.”

“Ok. One sec.” The water stopped and he heard the glass door open, small feet padding across the tiles to the towel rack. She moaned softly, “Is this thing heated?”

Lorcan chuckled, “Yeah? What about it?”

“That’s bougie.” Her face peaked through the crack as she took the clothes from him, grinning as she hugged them to her chest. “Did you put these in the dryer for me?”

Lorcan’s cheeks reddened and he rubbed the back of his neck, “…yeah.”

“I knew you were a softie.” Her eyes were soft, her smile missing the sharp edge of a teasing smile. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Get your cute ass dressed.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

He just rolled his eyes and walked away to the balcony and looked down as the other boat approached. He recognized Aelin with the twins walking up the boardwalk first and then Nehemia and Odette at the rear.

Aelin and Aneha were a terrifying duo and Aelin pointed up at him before turning, pretending to make out with someone. Aneha roared in laughter, holding her stomach as she bent over, and he flipped the two of them off. He was about to yell something rude and vulgar and most likely graphically threatening when Elide padded out onto the balcony, looking down as she rolled down the waistband of his sweats so that they wouldn’t fall to her feet. 

Lorcan turned to look at her, something melting as his heart fluttered as she walked up to his side and peered down at the ground, waving at Aelin and Aneha, laughing loudly. “Don’t encourage them,” he said. Elide smirked, her teeth still chattering slightly. “Are you still cold?”

“A bit, it’s not bad though.”

He frowned and threw her over his shoulder without warning, chuckling darkly at her shriek. Lorcan carried her to the bed and tossed her down on the mattress. When she landed abruptly, a soft grunt was pulled from her lips as she glared up at him. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“I thought you would’ve figured it out by now,” Lorcan said mildly, pulling the duvet back and tucking it around her. “I’ve never been nice.”

Elide rose a brow, “You’re fussing.”

“I am not,” he hissed as he unfolded a quilt and spread it over her. “I’ll be right back.”

“Mmkay. Bye-bye,” she sang-sung, snuggling down into the pile of pillows.

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

Elide was asleep when he walked back in, a mug of tea in hand. Lorcan watched her for a few moments, standing still in the doorway as someone cleared their throat and he looked over his shoulder, seeing Fenrys and Rowan standing there. “Hey. Can we talk?”

He sighed through his nose, not ready to have another argument about this. “Fine.” Lorcan kept the mug in his hands as he closed the door, keeping it open a smidge. “Out with it.”

Rowan winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry.”

“Did V and Con make you do this?”

Fenrys shook his head and remorse shone in his eyes. “Nah, man. We were wrong to not give you guys a chance. I guess ‘cause you were coming back up and Ess moved back and everything… we kinda thought you guys might start up again.”

Lorcan groaned, “Hellas, man, Ess and I are long over. And not just because we broke up, I mean… we were kids, alright? We wouldn’t have worked out in the long run and we both would’ve felt stuck. I’d never want to do that to her. I’m truly happy with Elide.”

Rowan nodded and shared a look with Fenrys. “We’re sorry. We kinda realized it was real shit last night. She couldn’t stop looking at you and, like, wanted to hear every story about you. Where’s she at right now? We owe her an apology too.”

Lorcan glanced back into the room, “She’s asleep. I took a turn too fast in the boat and she fell in. You can talk tomorrow.”

“Ok. Um, are we good, then?”

Lorcan smiled and nodded, dapping the two of them up, “Yeah, you’re good. I’ll see you all tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah. We’ll let you get back to your girl. Bye,” Fenrys said, his eyes lighter as they turned and walked back down the hallway.

Lorcan walked into the bedroom, the door clicking shut behind him. He looked up at Elide, finding her awake and looking at him with saddened eyes. “What’s wrong, E?”

“Everything you said on the boat is true, you know,” she said, her voice small. “I am selfish and I don’t think about others.”

He crossed the room and handed her the mug, “Drink. You’ll get warmer.”

Elide carefully took it and blew on the top, sipping slowly and sighing. She patted the mattress beside her. “Sit.” Lorcan obliged her and crawled under the blankets, waiting for her to talk again. “Vaughan told me about your dad and growing up on the reserve.”

“He did?”

“Yes. And… I’m sorry for shutting down your questions the other night. I owe you answers.” Elide drank from her mug and then put it on the nightstand. “The story I used for your proposal is how my dad asked my mom. I would beg him to tell me it every night before bed.” She chuckled tearfully, looking down at her hand, “The ring is my mother’s. I managed to hide it all those years after they died - my uncle got custody.”

“The one you made drinks for?” Lorcan asked quietly, gently reaching out and taking her hand in his. He pressed soft kisses to each of her fingertips before dropping their joined hands in his lap and playing with her slim fingers, tracing the elegance of her hands. 

“Mm-hmm. He was in charge of the main kingpin’s money and all of his… friends came around a lot, so he made me learn how to serve them. One night,” she shuddered, reaching down to trace the scar on her ankle, “when I was maybe eleven or twelve, they were all drunk and he let one of his friends take me into a room.” Her eyes filled with tears and they fell down her cheeks as she continued, not noticing how still and horrified Lorcan had become. “He grabbed me and forced me down and I bit his hand. He threw me into the basement and smashed my ankle with a hammer.”

Lorcan pulled her into his lap, holding her close. He cupped the back of her head, just holding her as she told him, her voice breaking, “My uncle said that since it was my fault it broke, he wouldn’t take me to the hospital.” Lorcan’s heart shattered into a million pieces right then and there as rage coursed through his veins and he had to remind himself that Elide was there, in his arms, and safe. She was safe. “That’s why I went to law school. I didn’t want any other kids like me growing up with people like him.” Resting her head on his shoulder, she looked up at him, her cheeks wet.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Elide shook her head, “You don’t have to. Just be here with me. Say you won’t go.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he murmured, settling down under the covers. “Wanna watch a movie?”

“You choose,” she whispered, her eyes already falling shut as she flipped the hood of his hoodie over her head. Elide shifted, lying down next to him and hitching her leg over his hip, an arm on his chest and the other folded and wedged between them. She rested her head on the soft hollow of his shoulder, her fingers toying with the silver chain around his neck. “I like Bambi.”

“Oh gods, I’m gonna cry if we watch it, princess.”

She laughed and pressed her lips against his chest, not quite a kiss – just a gentle touch, a reassurance to her that he was still there.

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

Elide had fallen asleep after watching the first ten minutes of Bambi and when she roused again, it was dark outside and the TV was black. She had been moved in her sleep. Lorcan was sitting up against the headboard and she was in his lap, her arms wrapped around his neck, her knees outside either hip.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that he had one hand splayed across her lower back and in the other he held his phone. 

Slowly, she lifted her face from where it was buried in his neck and sat up straight, holding her face centimetres from his. 

He flicked his eyes to her, a small smile appearing on his lips. “Hey, you.”

“Hi,” she whispered, her voice scratchy and hoarse from disuse. “Whatcha looking at?”

“Ae sent me songs for the first dance. I like this one,” Lorcan tapped on the screen and music poured from speakers on either side of the bed, bright violins with simple hi-hat drum beats. They listened in silence as Too Late To Turn Back Now played.

The gentle music was accompanied by smooth, emotion-stirring voices that seemed to make the genre. Elide listened to the lyrics, telling herself it didn’t mean anything that Lorcan liked this one – he most likely wasn’t even thinking about the lyrics.

As the song came to an end, she whispered, “I like it. But…”

“What?”

“I don’t know how to dance.”

Elide whined in the back of her throat as Lorcan shifted and stood up, holding a hand out to her. “C’mere.”

Smiling, she took his hand and he easily pulled her to him, her free hand resting on his shoulder. He looked down at her, his face open as he settled his hand on her waist and gently led her through the steps. “We don’t have any music, Lorcan.”

Lorcan spun her under his arm and began to sing the same song, his lovely baritone carrying them through the dance. Every time she stumbled, he caught her, just like he promised he always would. His singing melted into humming as he dipped her. Frozen in one perfect moment, they stared into each other’s eyes, unbridled emotion brimming in their dark irises.

She wasn’t sure who moved first, wasn’t sure of anything as their lips touched and her mind blanked. Lorcan pulled away first, the tips of their noses brushing together as he tracked something in her eyes. Slowly, he stood up straight, pulling their joined hands to the middle of his chest. Elide rose on her tiptoes, her free hand resting on his ribcage as he cupped the back of her head, no words exchanged between them as they kissed again.

It was slow and soft, the way their lips moved together. Her heart filled with something she couldn’t describe while Lorcan parted her lips with the tip of his tongue. Elide gasped softly into his mouth at the first touch of his tongue against hers and kissed him harder, “More.”

He huffed a laugh against her lips and let her hand fall in favour of grabbing her waist and lifting her up, her legs wrapping around his waist instinctively as she threaded her hands into his hair. “Bed,” she whispered, tugging on the inky strands. His hands slid under her thighs, holding her up.

Lorcan made himself pull back once more, almost ready to fall to the ground to worship her for the rest of his days as he looked up at her, swallowing once, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she breathed, kissing him again as he walked them to the bed, gentle as he laid her down amidst the blankets and pillows. Elide read the look in his eyes, something warm pooling in her core at the promises held in the onyx irises. “I want this. I need this. You.”

A wicked grin spread over his lips as she pressed a hand against his chest and pushed him up. Her eyes locked on his as she pulled his hoodie up over her head and threw it to the side, not caring where it landed. She bit her lip as his jaw slackened and her back arched under his hungry gaze.

She took her time undressing, until she was bare beneath him, smooth skin and sinful curves bared for him to see. A large hand slid down her side, rough calluses catching on her skin. Lorcan dipped his head, his lips travelling across her flesh. He let his lips part to taste her, murmuring, “Beautiful.”

The word curled and settled in the depths of her guarded heart, sending a whole warmth flowing through her being. Soft sighs and moans spilled from her throat as Lorcan traced her body with his lips and tongue and teeth. His hands and the feeling of his silky hair in her fingers grounded her when the pressure in her bones grew and grew. She crashed into bliss when he looked up at her through his lashes, settled between her legs, forgetting she wasn’t just a feeling as he pleasured her. 

Rising above her, running his hands down her sides in soothing motions to bring her down again, Lorcan’s gaze was heavy and heated, their lips greedy as they kissed.

Elide could feel his arousal pressed against the inseam of her thigh and moaned, reaching down between their bodies to wrap her hand around his length. She smiled proudly when he swore into her mouth and bowed his head, watching her as she hooked her fingers in the waistband of his sweats and tugged them down. A whine formed in the back of her throat when he didn’t move an inch. “Lorcan.”

Lorcan grinned at her neediness and helped her pull his clothes from his body until they laid bare together. Elide squeezed her thighs around him, indicating she wanted to switch. He rolled them, looking up at her with something heavy and too big for the two of them.

Sitting up, he kissed her as she lined herself up with him and sunk down, her eyes fluttering as he filled her. Lorcan stayed still, panting at the feeling of her surrounding him, waiting for her to move.

“Oh,” she moaned as she moved up and down on him. His chest was soon a map of crescent nail marks and red scratches that stood out against his brown skin.

Lorcan’s hands slid down her torso, guiding the rolling movements of her hips. He begged her, whispering onto the slick skin of her neck, “Don’t stop.”

The room was soon filled with desperate sounds and voices, pleading with each other as they chased their release. They wrapped their arms around each other, pressing into each other and still, the need to hold the other closer and closer was barely satisfied.

Lorcan found his release first, his lips parted as he shuddered beneath her. He cupped the side of her neck as he kissed her, whispering to her, “Let go, princess.”

This time, when she fell, she was not scared.

 +*+*+*+*+*+*

“Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

“My favourite fruit is mango,” he replied, speaking into the soft skin of her belly, his arms wrapped around her thighs. Elide huffed, her hands stopping their path in his hair. He whined, looking up at her, eyes wide and begging, full lips twisted into a pout.

She rolled her eyes and continued, “That’s not what I meant.”

“Ah-ah, you didn’t set any guidelines. Your turn. Tell me something.”

“I went into the bathroom and cried after Cairn called me a cold-hearted, crippled bitch,” she whispered, the tightness of her heart easing when Lorcan dusted sweet kisses over whichever patch of skin he could find, the t-shirt of his that she wore riding up as he moved upwards, his teeth grazing the skin of her chest. “Your turn.”

“I hate Cairn.” She laughed and he kissed her, wanting to taste the joyful sound. “Tell me about your tattoos.”

She nipped his bottom lip, soothing over the slight sting with a flick of her tongue. Turning over onto her stomach, Elide motioned for him to sit up and push her shirt up, until the mysterious ink was revealed. It was beautifully done, the wyvern so detailed he got shivers just looking at it. Reaching out, he trailed his fingertips almost reverently over the artwork as she opened her mouth, telling him what the ancient letters down her spine said and how she honoured her parents with the mountains and beast. 

The night passed them by as they spoke quietly, baring their souls to each other in each word, each kiss, each touch - each movement - designed to bring the other pleasure until they tumbled into a deep slumber. They didn’t notice the sun rising over them, their bodies entwined like skeins of silk.

+*+*+*+*+*+*

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[darkdevasofdestruction]

Day 25 : Family - Aizawa Shouta

“Since when did we become parents, Shouta? It’s like...One year ago, we were only kitty parents, and now...We have 3 kids. How did this happen?” I chuckle, still shocked at the realisation of that, as we carried the large bags back home. “Dont...Remind me...” he sighed, completely done with life. “Well...They at least are going to be happy. Christmas is a family holiday. It’s the least we can do. And besides, it’s gonna be fun, right? We don’t want kids of our own, but having them as our kids is definitely refreshing, right? It brings a  certain...New vibe to the Holiday.” I grinned at him, and he only nodded slightly. “Think they’re gonna like these?” he murmured under his breath, making me gush at how soft he was being. “Of course they would! It’s about the sentiment, anyways, so who cares? They’re all mature kids! And...And this is Eri’s first Christmas, so everything is new for her. She’s gonna LOVE it, I assure you!” I encourage him, and it seemed to work. “Can’t believe we got different wrapping paper for everyone.” he chuckled lowly, making me wink at him. “Shinsou’s gonna appreciate the kitty wrapping. And Eri will adore the Unicorn one. I, however, am gonna have a blast wrapping everything.” I speak confidently. “Then, you go ahead and wrap them up while I prepare everything else. They’ll be distracted by the cat anyways.” he shrugged passively.

When we got home, we made sure not to do any noise as I ran to our shared room and started wrapping up everything and writing everyone’s names on their respective gifts, while Shouta was in the kitchen, preparing hot chocolate in cookies.

Unicorn wrapping for Eri, Kitty wrapping for Shinsou, Stars for Mirio, more Kitties for Shouta, Fireworks for Hizashi...And of course, to make it all credible, I had to wrap my own gift too, and I chose a Reindeer wrapping.

It took quite a while, with all the gifts piled up, so after I was done, I called Shouta to make sure everyone was busy, giving them the cue to know what was going on and help surprise Eri, so I and Shouta could carry all the presents and put them under the tree, so when the little girl sees them...Well, her reaction is going to be priceless.

After we were done with everything, I got 4 pairs of Reindeer horns to put on my head, Shinsou’s, Hizashi’s and Mirio’s, while for Shouta...He was going to BE Santa! And Eri, who is a Princess, had to have a cute little tiara!

As the little girl was extremely curious, despite her shyness caused by trauma, she found out the gifts and gasped rather loudly, calling out for everyone in the kitchen, as Shouta was dressed up as Santa, pretending to put the gifts under the tree. “Ahhh! Kitty! Kitty! Santa is here! Come, quickly!” Eri squealed excitedly from the living-room, as I could barely stifle my giggles. “How did you manage to get him into a Santa suit? Oh, never mind, I’m afraid I won’t stop laughing when I see him!” Hizashi was barely able to hide his laughing. “I can’t call him Aizawa-sensei after this...” Shinsou smirked in amusement, making Mirio agree with him with a wide grin. “Let’s not make Santazawa wait any longer!” Mirio laughs briefly, going ahead of us, as we follow his lead. “Awww, Eri, look how many gifts! You must have been such a good girl!” I clapped my hands together with a huge smile as I urge everyone to sit on the ground, as Eri sat on Shouta’s lap, with literal sparkles in her eyes. “Yes, Princess Eri has been a very good girl. Would you like to give everyone their gifts?” Aizawa asked in a rough, seemingly older voice, which took everything from us not to laugh at. “Yes, please! Can I really do that?!” she gleemed up at him. “Of course! After all, you’ve been the nicest child this year!” he nodded, trying to sound older than he was. “Awww! Such a cute kitty wrapping! Who is this for?” she asked, holding a purple gift. “This one is for Hi-To-Shi.” he showed her the letters on the box, trying to get her familiarised with them. “Oh, Big Brother Hitoshi! Here, this is for you!” she grinned as she gave him the gift, and he blushed from all the attention as he was expected to open it. “W-Woaw...Thank you, Santa. It’s very nice.” he looked away, yet the smile on his face was obvious. “Next one, is for...Hi-Za-Shi.” Shouta gave her the gift, as she carried it in her little hands. “Here, Uncle Hizashi! For you!” she gave him the gift, as he grinned so widely kissing her forehead as he took the present from her. “Thank you, Eri, dear. And thank you...Santa.” he bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “And this...For Mi-Ri-O.” Shouta continued with Mirio, then myself, his own gift he left out, and then, of course... “And this...For the Little Princess Eri.”  “Ah! Me?! Really?!” she squealed, thrilled, as she unwrapped the wrapper and when she opened it, she found a Princess dress. “Eeek! No way! Oh my God, Santa, you’re the best!!” she jump-hugged Santazawa. “Can I go try it on? Pleaseeeeee?!” she jumped up and down repeatedly. “Of course you can, sweety! Go ahead! And tell Santa thank you and Goodbye. He’s a busy old man and has to go to other children too.” I pat her hair gently, as she nods vigurously and hugs Santa again. “Thank you so much, Santa! It’s the best day ever! It’s great spending time with your family! I hope I get to see you next year as well! Goodbye!” she waved at him before rushing to her room and getting dressed. “Aaaaand....SUCCESS!” I jump up, hyped and happy with everything that happened, but my reindeer horns fell off from the sudden motion. “I’ll go change.” Aizawa muttered, yanking off the fake beard and the hat. “I’m suffocating.” “You were a great grandpa, Santazawa! Will we see you next year too~?” Hizashi teased, but Shouta glared at him poisoned daggers. “Get lost.” he said under his breath, taking off the pants and coat, remaining in his usual clothes, putting the suit in the bag and hiding it in our room, before Eri could come back. “Whoaaaa! I look like a Princess! Look, look!” she rushed back to the living room, looking so incredibly adorable. “Ah, papa, you’re back! You just missed Santa...But look what he gave me!” she jumped up and down in complete glee, as Shouta picked her up, smiling at her softly. “You are a little princess, Eri. You’ve always been, and now, you have the outfit for that too.” he said, making us gush at the sight. “Get the hell out of here.” he mouthed at everyone else, activating his quirk to appear intimidating, so we won’t tease and mock him anymore. “Uhh....Sweet dreams, everyone! We gotta go, bye! Happy Christmas!” they scatter away to their rooms, making me laugh at their silliness.  “Well then, Eri, it’s about time we go to bed. Want me to read you a bed time story?” I ask her, taking her in my arms, helping her in her sleep wear and tucking her in bed. “Can you read me Cinderella, pretty please?” she smiled at me, and I only nodded, taking the book from the shelf and sitting next to her in bed, stroking her hair.

It didn’t take long before the girl fell asleep, and I got up, putting the book on the nightstand, trying not to wake her up, only to find Shouta leaning on the door frame. I smile at him as we walk outside, quietly closing the door.

“How long have you been there?” I ask with a small hum of amusement. “Hmm...Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl with fair hair. Was that how it went?” he smirked, putting his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. “Yeah, that’s about it, well done.” I smile up at him, putting my arms around him, resting my chin on his chest. “Guess we did a pretty good job, don’t you think?” I asked, rather proud of how it all turned our. “Yeah, t’was nice. Guess bringing the family together wasn’t such a drag.” he chuckled lowly, kissing me softly. “Yeah...It was worth it. And we made Eri smile. It really made me happy.” I kiss back, slowly swinging with him. “Me too...Happy Christmas, Katrina.” he kissed my forehead, making me close my eyes in content and peace. “Happy Christmas...Santazawa.” I wink at him, as he twitched his eye in annoyance. “Not you too...” he muttered with a grave sigh.

[bungou-stray-dingus]

Seasonal Headcanons

Anime : Bungo Stray Dogs

Characters : Fyodor Dostoyevsky , Dazai Osamu , Atsushi Nakajima , Edgar Allan Poe

(Why is it so flipping hard to find Poe gifs. Poor baby needs more recognition 🖤)

Winter

Fyodor Dostoevsky

* Loves winter time, it reminds him of home, especially when it snows. He finds it beautiful, especially when you stand outside, your hands upturned, trying to catch the flakes in your hands.

* Gets you your own Ushanka after seeing you try it on. “This will keep your head warm.” He says, putting it on for you. “Hmm, seems I have given you mine.” He takes yours off and switches it with his own. “That’s not right either.” He bites his thumb as he thinks. “Ahh, it’s you. Okay, here you go.” Slips your hat back on, he thinks you look perfect, especially when you give him that shy smile as a way of thanking him.

* Kisses the tip of your nose after you come in from outside. The cold turns your nose and your cheeks a bright red. “Gorgeous.” He says, tapping the tip of your nose with his pointer finger.

* Already has a fire burning in the fire place for you to warm up next to. He pulls out his cello to play for you. He likes when you hum along to the tune, your head swaying in time.

* If he notices you look cold he’ll take his cloak off and wrap it around your shoulders. Even if you say you don’t need it, he won’t believe you, so you might as well just go along with it.

* It’s cute how much he cares about you. “I’ll need that back before I leave.” He’ll say, but you’ve already dozed off. Having his cloak around you was second best next to having his arm around you.

* On lazy nights, when the fire was burning slow and the snow was falling, he would pull you on his lap on the couch, wrapping his arms tightly around your waist.

* Those were your favorite times, when everything was quiet, the only sounds were both your hearts beating in sync and the crackling of the wood in the fireplace.

* “Beautiful...” he’d say quietly when you’d fall asleep in his arms, your face hidden in the crook of his neck.

* He’ll lift you slowly, cradling you in his arms, making his way to the bedroom and laying you gently down and tucking you in, pressing his lips to your forehead.

* “Sleep well, my darling.” His lips still brushing against your skin as he said it.

* The winter was beautiful, but he just might have found something more gorgeous than the season.

Spring

Dazai Osamu

* He didn’t really have a favorite season until he met you.

* “The leaves are growing on the trees!” You’d cheer while looking out the window. He started sharing in your excitement at the act of nature.

* He liked laying on hills, your head in the crook of his elbow as you pointed out the shapes in the clouds. You’d turn to look at him, the sweetest smile on your face.

* You’d grab a fistful if wild flowers and you’d sit on his lap, making daisy chains and flower crowns. He proudly wore them, just to see the smile on your face when you put the crown on his head.

* You taught him how to make the crowns, and he came home one day with a beautiful crown. “For the pretty princess.” He said as he placed it on your head. The blush in your cheeks matched the pink of the flowers in your hair.

* He’d hold your hand in his as you took walks through the park, he’d twirl you around in the middle of the sidewalk making you blush a deep red.

* You’d wear cute dresses, something that made him thankful that winter was over. He loved seeing the bare skin of your legs in the short dresses that flared out whenever he spun you around.

* Your hair was always up in a ponytail or a bun, making it easy for him to kiss your neck.

* Picnics. He’d take a day off work just to take you out for a picnic when the weather was nice.

* He’d try, but fail, helping you start a flower garden. He’d rather sit back and watch you delicately handle the seeds, talking to yourself about how beautiful they’ll be once they sprout.

* Spring was his favorite season now. Everything came to life around him, but it was your smile, your cheerful exclamations about nature in full bloom, everything about you in spring time made him feel alive. He loved spring.

Summer

Atsushi Nakajima

* You planned sweet vacations for your favorite boy.

* He deserves the best, and you were going to give him just that.

* “Where are you going?” He looked terrified as you stuffed ‘essentials’ into the suitcase. You had to sit down with him and explain to him over and over that you weren’t leaving him, and that you had packed his suitcase too for vacation.

* Poor boy doesn’t know what a vacation is. You kiss him on the cheek and tell him to let you surprise him. He worries about work, you tell him you handled everything already.

* That’s why Dazai was looking at him weird all day.

* He grips your hand tightly as you make your way through the airport, not wanting to get lost in the masses of people.

* Once through the TIA he’s slightly more at ease. You walk hand in hand to your gate and find a seat close to the window.

* He was nervous about getting on the plane, after the whole Moby Dick experience, so you soothes him, running your thumb over his knuckles as he gripped onto the arm rest.

* “We’ll be fine, take a nap.” You said as calming as possible, and he sighed, resting his head on your shoulder, letting himself slowly drift off to sleep.

* The flight was long, and when you had finally landed for your layover you were exhausted and your legs felt cramped.

* He tried to be sweet and let you sleep in when your alarm went off in the morning, so the two of you had to run through the airport to get to make your flight.

* He felt so bad and you couldn’t even be mad at him if you wanted to be.

* The plane landed in Nassau, but even the view from the air was beautiful.

* You booked a room for a week at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. It was beautiful, and the view of the ocean was amazing.

* You and Atsushi spent the mornings sight seeing, the Ardastra Gardens and Zoo, Fort Fincastle, the National Art Gallery and more.

* He always looked surprised when you took off your bathing suit cover at the beach, showing off your bikini, a new one every day.

* “Ah... you should put on some sunscreen.” I mumbled nervously, his eyes wandering over your bare skin.

* “Would you want to put it on for me?” You asked, and he nodded quickly, grabbing the bottle in his shaky hands.

* He would glare at the men who looked at you, but he wasn’t one for confrontation, so he walked next to you, wrapping his arm around you, pulling you into the water with him.

* You spent the evenings either out for dinner or sitting in your hotel room, ordering food to your room.

* The climate seemed to change him, he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off you, his hands lingered over your body during late nights.

* You loved this side of him, he kept you up every night until the sun began to rise, golden light shining in through the window.

* You were covered in hickies and he was covered in scratches, you both wore them well, you practically flaunted them when you were on the beach. You were his and he was yours and people would know.

* The vacation ended too fast, you both were slightly tanned and your daily and nightly adventures.

* “Can we do this again next summer?” He asked, his head on your shoulder as you sat on the plane.

Autumn

Edgar Allan Poe

* The first leaf fell, and the others fell soon after. It was your favorite season, everything had a gold and orange hue.

* The air became crisp, the season itself had its own smell, something that you couldn’t quite name, but it was a smell that you enjoyed and looked forward to.

* Afternoons were spent at cafes as Poe worked on new mystery novels, you watched him as he worked diligently, occasionally sipping on his drink and smiling to you before turning back to his work.

* Horror movie marathons, curled up on the couch with Carl in between the two of you. He would use themes and ideas from the movies for the novel he was working on.

* “This is a lot of candy, do you think Ranpo would like if I got him some?” He would ask as you walked through the aisles at the grocery store.

* “If you want to get him some candy you can, honey.” You’d say, stopping your cart so Poe could fill it up with bags of assorted candies.

* Halloween is your favorite, planning your costume for the best night.

* “Maybe I can be a dark and mysterious mystery novelist.”

* “Poe, honey, you’re supposed to dress up as something you’re not.” You’d say, pressing a kiss to the top of his head as you walk by him.

* He helps you decorate, reaching the high places that you can’t.

* He carved a portrait of Carl into his pumpkin, he did it quite well. You proudly displayed it in front of your house.

* Your costume was a favorite, he was a wolf and you were red riding hood.

* He loved your costume, but got a little upset when a bunch of guys whistled at you.

* You didn’t stay out late, deciding to go home after an hour to hand out candy.

* He had drank a bit, which made him less reserved, not that you minded it.

* He didn’t remember much in the morning, but when he saw the love bites that trailed down your body he wished he could.

* You spent chilly evenings lounging on the couch, his head on your lap as you read his novels out loud.

* At night he would make love to you gently, your moans would mingle with the sound of the wind that whistled outside.

* His arms snaked around your body, the warmth emanating from you seemed to envelope him completely.

* He fell in love with you in October, and that’s why he loved fall.