#honestly i’ll be happy if i manage to post one of these but we’ll see!

[lale-txt]

vague plan for this week:

tuesday - attachment issues ch. 01

thursday - soft launch ch. 14

sunday - secret third thing

[bookshelf-dust]

kiss it better

steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 3,176

warnings: swearing, sick fic (sorta), steve not taking care of himself, anxiety, stress, mental breakdown?, best friends to lovers deal (let me know if i missed something)

a/n: hi! it’s been awhile. i’m sorry about that. this has been a very slow process for me. my mental health is shit, and that’s probably obvious. i hope it hasn’t seeped into this too much, but it probably will with the next few things i write. i apologize for taking so long to post, for disappearing, for not really making this the blog it once was. but i’m not the same person i was then. so we’ll see where this goes. i hope you enjoy this one a little. i love you.

————

The shrill sound of a phone ringing scares you awake, eyes flying open, heart pounding so aggressively you fear for a split second that it might burst. 

You sit up quickly, enough so that you make yourself dizzy trying to get your bearings. You roll onto your side, and reach blindly across the edge of your nightstand, grabbing for the green plastic that’s shaking with the force of which it’s ringing. 

You almost fall out of bed, just managing to catch yourself as you bring the phone to your ear. 

“Hello?”

Your voice comes out weak, thick with sleep and the longing for more rest. It startles you and makes you clear your throat. 

“Hey, it’s me.”

The voice on the other line is even weaker than your own. It’s quiet.

“Steve?”

Your eyes find the alarm clock on your dresser, bright red letters telling you it’s just after one in the morning. You might be half-asleep, but you’re conscious enough that your heart rate picks up, registering that this isn’t when your best friend normally calls. 

You hear him breathe, along with some shuffling. He’s nodding his head, but realizes you can’t see. 

“Yeah. Listen,” he drags a shaking hand down his face. “I’m sorry to call so late.”

“Hey, it’s okay. What’s the matter? Is something wrong?”

He goes quiet for a moment, but you wait patiently for him to continue. He must be trying to get something out, and you don’t want to pressure him, or cause him stress in any way. 

Steve huffs, frustrated with himself. 

“I-I’ve got an insane headache, and we’re out of goddamn medicine. My parents were here, and my mom was hungover and I guess she must’ve emptied us out, but it hurts too bad to drive, and…” He trails off, breathing heavily. 

His pause lends you a moment to process, and you decide to speak up. If his head is killing him, you know finding the energy to speak to you, let alone call, has to be draining. You wouldn’t want him to suffer anymore than he already is. 

“Stevie?” you start, happy to hear a small hum that encourages you to go on. He registers what you’ve called him, something you don’t call him often, and his chest aches. “I’ve got some I can bring you. I think all the drugstores nearby are closed.” 

You swing your legs out from under the covers, pushing yourself off the mattress. Pressing the phone between your cheek and shoulder, you pull on the pair of sweats slung over the end of your bed, trying not to bust your ass as you hop into them. 

“Is anything else hurting you?” you ask, gently as can be. 

“Honestly?” he responds. “I think I’m sick. I can’t be sick, can I?”

You stand upright once again, taking the phone firmly in your hand. 

“I think even King Steve can get sick from time to time. I’ll be there soon, okay?”

————

Steve’s not sure you understand him. He can’t be sick. He’s got shit to do. He has a shift tomorrow, and he’s pretty sure Dustin needs a ride one day this week because Claudia is on a “girls trip.” He has to keep working on his college essay, because he’d told you he was almost done, but really he isn’t. 

Steve doesn’t have the time to be sick. And he can’t have you ruining your own schedule to come and babysit him. He’s supposed to be the babysitter. Not the charge. 

He should be able to take care of himself, but of course, the one time his parents come home they clean out his mediocre supply of medicine. Something he’s always stocked up on, given his tendency to get the shit beat out of him, or the nasty string of tension headaches that just won’t quit. 

And his head is killing him. He has his palms pressed to his temples, trying (and failing) to dull the ache. There aren’t any lights on in the kitchen, where he’s sitting on the floor, back pressed to the cabinets. 

He’s trying not to move too much either, because he’s dizzy. This probably has to do with the fact that he skipped dinner, feeling too nauseous to eat. Now that Steve is hungry, he fears he won’t be able to get up and fix anything. 

Maybe you’ll be able to help, he thinks. But that voice is quick with a counter argument. No. I need to do it. 

He perks up at the sound of the front door opening. “Steve?” you call out, careful not to slam the door or yell too loud. It’s also why you hadn’t rung the doorbell. 

Steve raps his knuckles softly against the countertop, hoping it’ll be enough to clue you in. He can’t bring himself to shout right now. You follow the sound, taking the few steps toward the kitchen. 

When your eyes lock on his figure, see the way the heels of his hands press into his eyes, you realize how young he looks. He almost looks small, legs pulled up to his chest, big, lanky body compacted as much as possible. He looks vulnerable. You’re sure he hates that. 

“Hi, Steve,” you say, keeping your voice low. 

He looks up at you, and his face splits into a sweet grin. He’s happy that you’re here, even if that voice is screaming at him, wanting to punish him for asking for help. 

“Hey, honey.” You smile back at him, and his heart rate picks up. Sometimes he forgets how beautiful you are, and then you’re standing in front of him, snatching every last breath from his lungs. 

You set your bag down beside him and reach out, brushing his hair back from his forehead. He feels a little warm, but not feverishly so. 

You move away from him, grabbing a cup from the drying rack. You fill it up with water and crouch at his side. Steve takes the glass from you, head resting against the cabinet to watch as you grab him some medicine. You hand him a few pills, and he takes them quickly. If he doesn’t get this headache calmed down soon, he thinks he might just die. 

Steve keeps drinking the water you gave him, and you push his hair back again, watching the way it curls around his ears. 

He drinks about half of the water before he pauses, taking a deep breath. He looks at you then. It’s mostly dark in the kitchen, but the lamp on the table by the front door is on, so you’re a little backlit from it. Not to mention the moonlight seeping in from the window above the sink.

You look gorgeous. And you came over to take care of him. You got up, at one in the morning, and drove to his house, just because he asked you to. Hell, he hadn’t even asked. He hadn’t gotten the words out. But you’d known. You’d known exactly what he was trying to ask, and you’d offered your help with no qualms. 

Steve’s nose starts to sting, and that pressure from behind his eyes—it starts to release. Before he knows it, his vision is getting cloudy, and he’s crying. He can’t be crying, can he? 

You carefully remove the glass from his hand and move in between his spread knees. 

“Steve, it’s okay. I’m here, and I’m gonna take top notch care of you.” 

“I know you are,” he says, voice breaking. “But I should be able to do it myself. I always do it myself.” He presses his hands against his face, but you catch his wrists and gently pull them away. 

You hold your arms out, and Steve practically falls into you. He buries his face in your neck. He can feel the warmth of your skin, the cotton of your sleep shirt. You smell like soap, that fancy conditioner you use. 

One of your hands finds the base of his neck, nails scratching gently over his scalp, thumb dragging over the top of his spine. Your other rubs soothingly up and down his back. 

“But the thing is, Stevie, you don’t have to.” 

He’s not a loud crier. But he is sort of panicky, breaths coming quick and short, chest heaving against your own. “I know you’ve always had to do a lot by yourself, but you can ask for help, and you don’t have to punish yourself for it, either.”

You feel him nod against your collarbone. His hands are fisting the back of your shirt. Eventually, he pulls away, but keeps his eyes closed. He tries to keep his head turned from your gaze. 

“Hey. Look at me.”

He does, albeit reluctantly. Steve’s cheeks are flushed, lashes clumped together and lips parted where he tries to suck in a good deep breath. 

You reach up, fingers gently sweeping away the remainder of the tears on his face. He leans into your touch, and you let him. You lean forward and press a sweet kiss to his forehead. You’ve never done that before.

Steve recognizes that you’ve never done it before, even if it’s sort of fuzzy. Sure, he’s kissed the back of your hand and you’ve reciprocated, but he’s usually the one to initiate physical affection. You’re too shy most often, even if you ache to do it. 

Fuck, he wishes he were a little more coherent right now. 

“Can you stand for me? It’s late, and I think you need to rest.”

He runs a hand through his hair. “Yeah, sure.” Now that he’s thinking about it, getting in bed sounds so nice. 

You stand first, and watch as Steve pushes off the floor, gripping the countertop on the way up to steady himself. 

“Come on. The stairs are gonna be a pain.”

He reaches out for you, and you let him take your arm. He pads out to the staircase, and you watch each precarious step he takes, hoping he won’t get too woozy and trip. 

By the time he finally makes it up there, he’s wrapped both arms around your waist and buried his face between your shoulder blades. You soften beneath his hold. 

You walk slowly towards his bedroom, and he waddles behind you. You push the door open. “M’kay, Steve. Wanna change clothes and hop into bed?” 

He pulls off of you and grabs hold of his dresser. “I’m not givin’ you a free show.”

You snort. “I’ll go get some more water and be right back.”

His grin fades. “Please be fast.” He doesn’t want you to go. He doesn’t want you to leave him. 

“Steve, I’m practically The Flash.”

He laughs, pulling a pair of sweats and a t-shirt out of the drawer. Usually he’d sleep in less, but with you here he feels he should keep his modesty.

When you return, he takes the water from you, drinking it faster than he probably should. Steve feels like he’s had the shit beat out of him, and for once—he hasn’t. 

You’d sat down on the edge of the bed, not noticing the way he’s staring at you. You look up when he sets the glass down. He drags both hands down his face. 

“What’s wrong?” you ask.

He exhales. “I want you to stay here with me, but I don’t want you to get sick. The idea of you being on the couch, which is like, miles away, is driving me insane.”

“Steve?”

���Huh?”

“Can’t I just sleep on the futon?”

His eyes move towards the other side of his room where said piece of furniture is pressed against the wall. He’d bought it when group sleepovers became a thing after all they’d dealt with. Jesus, his brain really isn’t working. 

“Oh. Yeah, honey. Just don’t want you to go far.” 

You lean forward and push his hair back from his forehead. You’ll need to remember to take his temperature come morning.

“I’m not going anywhere, Steve. I promise. Not until you’re all better.”

————

When Steve wakes up, you’re not there. He starts to panic, thinking maybe he’d been too much, maybe he’d shown you a side of himself he shouldn’t have, that maybe you left. 

But you return to his room just as he’s about to start looking for you. There’s a thermometer in your hand. 

“Morning, sleepy boy. Are you coherent enough for me to check your temperature? Or no?”

He yanks the covers off of himself, and his shirt has ridden up. You catch a sliver of tummy before he sits up fully, and you miss it the second it’s gone. 

“Hit me, I can take it.”

You roll your eyes but stick the thermometer under his tongue when he opens his mouth. When you pull it away, you’re happy to see he hasn’t got a fever. He was warm last night when you kissed his forehead, but you’re thinking it was from stress or just overheating. 

“No fever. What’s buggin’ you today, Stevie?”

He flops onto his back, and his shirt rides up again. You mentally slap yourself for being so enamored by it. All your brain can compute is tummy. Steve’s tummy. “My head still, and my stomach. I feel like I haven’t slept in four years.”

His words snap you out of your reverie. “Four years? That’s incredible. When’s the last time you ate something?”

Steve stares at you for a moment, though it looks as if there isn’t a single thought behind his eyes. “Yesterday…morning. I think. Yeah, I had a banana.”

You stare back, rather appalled at his statement. “Steve.”

“Hm?”

“All you’ve had to eat in the past twenty four hours is a banana?”

“Yep.”

“Jesus christ. Get your ass up and come with me.”

Steve doesn’t move. Rather he watches you move, right out the door and towards the top of the stairs. You pause and turn around, crossing your arms. 

He huffs. And then he slides down the side of the bed like a child before crawling up and following you to the kitchen. 

Over the course of the next few hours, you manage to get Steve to eat, shower, and go for a short walk, weather permitting and all. He’s looking astronomically better than he did last night. 

Steve sits opposite you on the couch, his socked feet in your lap. “What do you think my deal is?”

You rub your hand over his calf. “I think you just had a little bug. Or maybe you let yourself get too stressed out and your body couldn’t take it.”

He blinks. “Is that…that's not a thing? Is it?”

“When’s the last time you gave yourself a fuckin’ break, Steve? When you just took a day for yourself rather than worrying about who needs to go where, or if you’ll have to cover a shift? You have to take care of yourself, or this is the kind of shit that happens.”

“Being overwhelmed about your parents, not eating, worrying about that application, all of that is fucking with you. That headache was probably a stress headache. They’re killer. I want you to be healthy and comfortable, Steve.”

You exhale, and close your eyes. When you open them, Steve has sat up, scooting towards you on your end of the couch. 

He might still be tired, but he can’t believe this. He can’t believe you. No one has ever worried for him in this way. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” you ask. 

He barely even registers your words, too busy memorizing every line on your face. You look so fucking beautiful. It almost makes him angry. 

“I’m thinkin’ about how bad I want to kiss you.”

Your face starts to burn. You shove his shoulder. He looks at the place where you’d pushed, quirking a brow, but grinning nonetheless.

“What?”

“Steve, you can’t say shit like that.”

“How come?”

“Because we’re friends.”

“Best friends.”

“Well yeah, but best friends don’t say that to one another.”

His grin widens. He looks more awake than he has this entire time. 

“Oh, but you haven’t said it.”

You blink. “Huh?”

Steve gets his voice up that little bit higher, doing a cheap imitation of you. “‘Best friends don’t say that to one another.’ Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but that implies you want a kiss too, doesn’t it?”

You drag your hands down your face and flop back against the arm of the couch. 

“So you gonna say it, or what?” He’s shifted, and you can feel him hovering over you, but you refuse to move your hands. 

“Of course I’m thinking about kissing you, Steve.” You suck in a breath and open your eyes, locking with his own. “But you’ve got cooties.”

Steve rolls his eyes before he backs up and yanks on your ankle so that you’re flat against the couch. 

“You did not just lecture me about self-care just to tell me I have cooties. I didn’t even have a fever.” 

“I didn’t even have a fever,” you mock, lowering your voice in what is quite possibly the worst impression of him you could do.

He’s quick about it. Almost stealthy, not that you’d ever boost his ego by telling him so. But his fingers are reaching for your sides, the tips dancing over your shirt, that tiny sliver of hip showing where it’s ridden up. 

Steve is practically drunk off of your laugh. It’s the sweetest sound he’s ever heard, and when he goes for your neck, when you tilt your head and trap his fingers between your cheek and shoulder, he thinks he could die. 

You and your laugh. The fact that you drove over at one in the fucking morning, without even thinking about it, just because you care. That you stayed the night, listened to his pitiful thoughts, took care of him…it’s too much. 

Never in his life did he think he’d find someone like you. Someone who makes him feel like he matters. You’d made him realize how smart he is, how capable. That he could do things for himself and not just to please his dickhead father. 

You have made him whole. 

He lets up when you start breathing extra heavily, only to tickle the underside of your foot before he quits, just to piss you off. You kick him in the side. 

“I think a kiss from my very favorite person might be the best form of self-care there is, honey.”

You sit up. “Wow. King Steve really never died.” He raises his hands like he might tickle you again, but you catch them before he can do any damage. “Okay, sorry!” 

Before he can register it, you’ve leaned in and pressed your lips to his. When he does realize, he lets out a surprised hum, and you can feel that smartass smirk forming on his face. 

When you pull away, he whines. 

“All better?”

Steve falls back against the couch, pulling you with him just to get that laugh out of you again. 

“I’m healed.”

————

please let me know if you liked this! feedback is always appreciated!! comments and reblogs mean more than you know. <33

[shmaptainwrites]

𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 [𝐁𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐘 𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐇]

PAIRINGS —  Bobby Nash x GN!Reader

SUMMARY — complicating their situationship

WARNINGS — sickness (COVID), fever, swearing, mentions of sex

NOTE —This one’s been in the drafts for a while so I’m very happy it’s getting the chance to see the light of day also sorry it took me a few days to post I hated the ending so I rewrote it lmao

For most people the global pandemic meant working from home and staying away from everyone and everything, trying not to get sick. But as a frontline worker and a first responder, that was never really an option for you. For you and the rest of the 118 it meant rapid tests every morning, face coverings at all times, and setting an example for everyone else. 

To top off the complicated situation, over the time of your increased closed quarters at work you had developed somewhat of a situationship with your boss. The rest of your colleagues were unaware (thankfully) and you hoped through everything that would be the one part of your life that remained casual and uncomplicated. And it was until one fateful morning in May 2020. 

“Here’s your test,” you passed a box over to Bobby while he walked up to the kitchen counter, a cup of coffee in hand. 

“And here’s your tea.” 

“Honestly, I’m not even convinced these work,” you noted while pouring the buffer fluid into the small tube. “I have never seen a positive COVID test, how are we supposed to know if these are the real deal?” 

“Hopefully we’ll never have to see a positive one,” Bobby said.

You drank your tea and coffee and prepared something for breakfast while waiting for the time to be up so you could make sure you weren’t sick before you went in for work. 

“Uh, Bobby…” 

You looked down at your test while Bobby came and glanced over your shoulder. You looked back at each other with wide eyes. 

“You can’t go to work,” he pointed to you when the realization dawned on him. “Wait, I can’t go to work. What are we going to tell them?” 

“It’s fine we’ll just call separately, I’ll tell them I got sick you say that you went out to get groceries and got exposed, no big deal.” 

“And you can’t go out so I guess you’ll just isolate here?” 

“Oh God, this is going to end badly, I can feel it,” you pinched the bridge of your nose and shook your head. “One step at a time. I’m gonna go call the team.” 

“At least we know the test works,” Bobby called as you walked to his bedroom and you rolled your eyes. 

You both tried your best to deal with the team, Bobby having a bit of a harder time than you considering you called in first to tell everyone you were sick. 

“I think I managed to convince everyone to stay away for a bit,” you said while putting on a mask, Bobby motioned for you to take the package with you and you nodded, thinking it was probably for the best considering he wasn’t sick…yet. 

“Hopefully it’ll be a quick bug, right? Then things can go back to normal.” 

“Yeah,” you agreed. “And are you sure you’re okay with me staying here? I don’t really wanna be a burden and take over your room or anything.” 

“No it’s fine,” he insisted. “You’re already here and I have to be isolated anyways. Plus, it’s always nicer to have someone around when you’re sick right?” 

You just gave him a small smile with your eyes before retreating into his bedroom and closing the door behind you. 

As soon as it was shut, you could hear Bobby begin to clean up, washing the dishes and disinfecting everything with bleach and Lysol to avoid getting sick. You couldn’t blame him, it was an odd situation, maybe even a little awkward, you’d only ever come over after work and most days you left right after breakfast. 

It had started as a casual companionship that just spiralled into something where everything was unsaid. 

You looked at yourself in the mirror, only then realizing the clothes you had were not the best for being sick in bed. 

“Hey Bobby,” you called from your room. “Can I borrow a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt or something?”

“Yeah, that should be okay, take whatever you’ll need and when you’re better we’ll just do a load of laundry.” 

“Thank you,” you sighed. “And Bobby?” 

“Mhmm?” 

“I’m sorry…that you got caught up in all this and have to deal with me now…I just-,” 

“Don’t mention it, like I said, no big deal.” 

“Right,” you nodded to yourself. “No big deal.” 

—

Two Days Later…

“Uh Bobby!” you called, your voice sounding congested and followed by a loud bronchial cough. “We’ve got a problem.” 

“What’s the problem?” he asked. 

“Buck wants to bring me food.” 

“And?”

“I’m not at my house, what the hell am I supposed to tell him?” you groaned and flopped back onto the bed. 

“Just call and explain that he shouldn’t risk it and you’ve already made something for lunch and dinner.” 

That part wasn’t a lie, with all the spare time in his hands Bobby was cooking up a storm and you had the finest meals every day, but ate them in an awkward silence across from each other, a door between you. 

“Alright, but if I can’t stop him then we’re going to have to deal with the consequences.” 

Bobby didn’t respond so you picked up your phone and called Buck’s cell waiting for him to pick up. 

“Hey, how’s Miss Rona?” he chuckled when he picked up on the other line. 

“Not funny, Buckley,” you grumbled. “Look, even you can hear it, I sound terrible. I don't want you to risk it, Buck, don’t bring me food.” 

“Come on, I’ll be safe! I’ll drop it off at your door and then we can talk on the phone while you eat so you aren’t alone.” 

“No Buck,” you sighed. “I already made food for lunch and dinner, just stay as far away from my apartment as you can ok?” 

“Ok, if you insist, but don’t come crying to me for McDonalds when you get sick of chicken noodle soup.” he chuckled. 

“I won’t don’t worry,” you coughed. “Jesus, I gotta take some more Buckley’s, and please send my regards to whichever family member of yours made such a gag worthy cough syrup,” 

“Not related, but it tastes awful and it works.” 

“I hate how much I love that slogan,” you laughed a little, but it only sent you back into a coughing fit. “Alright, really I gotta go, tell everyone I say hi and that I’m not dead yet, okay?” 

“Will do. You take care of yourself.” 

“Thanks Buck, bye,” you hung up the phone and did exactly what you said you would. Poured yourself some cough syrup and gagged as soon as it went down your throat. 

“You okay in there?” Bobby knocked on the door. 

“Yeah, just the cough syrup,” you moaned a little and rubbed your head. 

“You sure everything’s okay?” he pressed. 

“I just…” you hesitated. “I feel like shit.” 

“On a scale of 1-10 how shitty?” he asked. 

You were silent for a moment before shrugging your shoulders and saying seven. 

“I don’t think there’s much you can do, I have a whole army of medication here, I just have to be careful and rest.” 

“Yeah,” he agreed, but his tone made him seem unconvinced. 

You tried to lay down and get some rest and what felt like minutes later you discovered had actually been closer to sixteen hours and it was the next day and you felt ten times worse than the day before. 

You looked down at the sheets that were soaked with sweat and when you tried to move your whole body ached like you had just run a 40K with zero training. 

You tried to speak, but your throat was dry so you reached for the water first, chugging it before knocking on the wall, hoping Bobby was awake. 

“Everything alright in there?” you could hear him get up and ask. 

“I-I think I have a fever,” you said wearily. “Can…C-Could you come check?” 

“Yeah of course, just let me grab a thermometer and a mask.” 

Bobby was back a few moments later and opened the door to quite the sight. 

“Bet you can’t even believe you slept with me huh,” you tried to tease to lighten the situation, but you could see Bobby had become so zeroed in on your state that it was no use. 

He quickly felt the back of your forehead with his hand before confirming his suspicions with the thermometer. 

“Wow, you’re burning up,” his hand cradled your cheek for a moment, feeling the heat radiate off your sticky and sweaty skin. “Let me go get you some Tylenol okay, and maybe an ice pack too. I’m not leaving you here by yourself.” 

“But what about-,” 

“I need to make sure you don’t take a turn for the worse. I don’t want to have to take you to the hospital,” 

You nodded and quieted yourself, watching as he went to grab you some more medication and that ice pack. 

The cold touch felt amazing against your skin, but it wasn’t long before you were shivering from the fever and wanted to huddle underneath the blankets. 

“Y-You know, I haven’t b-been sick since before I w-was in the department,” you told Bobby. “S-Still sucks a-as bad as I remember.” 

“I can imagine,” he brushed some hair out of your eyes. “If you can, you should try and get some sleep, it might make things a little better.” 

You wanted to listen to his advice, but as much as you tried you could not fall asleep. Your fever continued to get worse, but not bad enough to merit taking you to the ER. 

All the while, Bobby only left your side to bring you more food or something to drink. You wished he would stay far away from you, it was better he didn’t get what you had, but he seemed adamant on staying. 

It was things like this that made it hard for you to separate what you had from a real relationship, which it wasn’t. 

It was just an arrangement where you would meet from time to time and sleep together. 

Sometimes you just wished you could be out with it, ask him out on a real date and go out for dinner because if you were being honest, a couple weeks into whatever it was you were doing, you had already realized you wanted more, but as usual you were too shy to speak up about it. 

“Bobby, c-c-,” you were cut off by another coughing fit, at least you were wearing a mask, it was the least you could do to assure he didn’t get sick. “Sorry, can you pass me one of the cough drops?” 

“Of course, but maybe you should eat a bit more first,” he suggested. “Let me help you sit up.” 

He wrapped an arm around your back and placed you into a seated position before grabbing the bowl of soup for you. 

“Bobby, I think I’m still well enough to feed myself,” you chuckled. 

“It’s not everyday you get pampered, just eat the soup,” he encouraged and you didn’t have the energy to give in. 

You ate about half the bowl before you got full (in your defence it was a pretty big bowl) and Bobby passed you the cough drop to help continue to soothe your throat as the soup had done. 

“Hey, since I’ve already been with you in here, why don’t you come out to the living room and watch some TV with me. It’ll be a nice break from sleeping, trust me.”

“Sure, why not,” you pushed yourself up from the bed and with a little help from Bobby, walked to the living room and took a seat on the couch. 

You both agreed on some random TV show you both hadn’t seen, but by episode three you were knocked out cold. 

Bobby left you like that for a while, thinking it would be best to let you get as much rest as you could, but when you started to toss and turn and mumble things under your breath he had a feeling your fever was coming back and getting even worse. 

“Hey, I think we should get you back in the bedroom where the Tylenol is,” he gently shook you awake, but the fever was making you a little delirious. 

“Will you stay with me?” you mumbled. “Please?” 

“Sure if that’s what you want,” he nodded, helping you up and letting you lean on him while you walked back to the room. 

“Bobby,” you said groggily as you sat down on the bed. “Why aren’t we dating?” 

Bobby certainly wasn’t expecting that kind of question to come from you, but you had a fever, you were barely controlling the temperature of your body, how could you control what you said. 

“Well, I think when whatever this is started we didn’t really think about it…did we.”

You sighed and shook your head. 

“I just think we’d make a good couple,” you said shyly. “Cause I like you, like really like you, and when you do stuff like give me soup and sit with me when I feel like seven shits out of ten shits, it’s just hard.” 

While listening to you, Bobby had opened up the Tylenol and placed two in his hand which he was now handing to you with a glass of water. 

“I know,” he responded. “We can talk about it more when you’re better, how’s that?” 

You agreed and took the medication after which he helped you lay down on the bed. He glanced at you for a moment before lowering his mask and pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead. 

“If it makes it any better, I was already yours from the start.” 

He placed his mask back over his mouth and nose before sitting next to you, his back against the headrest. 

You reached for his hand and he took it, holding it thinking if he squeezed too tight he might break you. 

He really hoped you would get better soon. 

—

Bobby didn’t want to bring up what you had said when you were feverish, fearful that you had said it while hazy from the sickness. He didn’t want to put any pressure on you to have a discussion while you were still recovering, so he thought unless you brought it up he’d wait for you to test negative. 

In the meantime over the next few days as you slowly came out of the slump of fevers and your cough died down, you fell into an easy rhythm of things together. It was simple things, like FaceTiming while eating meals or chatting across from the door, but it felt safe and familiar, like you’d been doing it forever. 

“Time for your test,” Bobby said, coming into the room with a mask and handing you the rapid test. It was just over a week and a half of being sick and even then you’d have to wait at least another week minimum to go back to work. Bobby had been planning on doing the same either way since he was constantly exposed to you. “I already took mine in the kitchen, I'm still negative.”

“Thank goodness. I'm kind of surprised though, we’ve been cautious but not like lock me in the room cautious,” you said. “How did you not get sick?”

“Just the Nash immune system,” he shrugged. “Let me know what the verdict is.”

You nodded your head and took off your mask once he left and began the process of testing yourself. 

On cue, you sneezed when swabbing your nose and Bobby chuckled like he always did.

“Is there like a button or something in my nose that just makes me sneeze every single time I put this up there?” you asked and Bobby laughed. “Hey don’t laugh! One time I sneezed before I could pull it out and I think I poked my brain.”

That just made him laugh harder and you couldn’t help but smile as you swirled the buffer fluid and placed three drops on the rapid test. 

After the agonizing fifteen minutes Bobby waited anxiously for the answer, but when you stepped out of the room without a mask and the test in your hands that spoke for you. 

“It’s negative,” you almost sounded disbelieving. “I-Wow it’s actually negative.”

“Maybe you should take one more just to confirm,” Bobby suggested and you agreed, only to have the second test confirm your suspicions. 

“This is great!” you grinned. “We can get this place cleaned up, relax and rest for one more week and then we’re back at it.”

You and Bobby high-fived and started by cleaning up the room you were staying in. A load of laundry hopefully got rid of any lingering sickness from your clothes and the sheets, a wipe down and vacuum took care of the other surfaces. 

Once the sheets were out of the wash, you and Bobby began to put them back on the bed. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he was going to bring up the conversation he’d promised he’d have with you, but every time there was an opening it didn’t feel right to say anything. 

Instead he decided it would be best to take the next week in isolation in stride and say something when the time felt right, not when you were trapped under the same roof. 

When the day came when you were supposed to head back out to work you could both say with a certainty that you were done with being cooped up in the house and were ready to get down to business. 

Chimney was more than happy to give up his responsibilities as acting fire Captain and as Hen so articulately put it, balance had been restored in the universe. 

“You know it was really weird not having you around,” Buck told you when you sat for lunch together, distances slightly due to the restrictions. 

“Awe so you missed me,” you made a cute squishing motion with your hands and Buck rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah sure, I missed you the same way I miss Maddie for five minutes then she starts hovering and babying me and then I don’t miss her so much anymore.”

“Buck, be nice,” Bobby gave him a warning look. 

“What come on, it's the truth, you’re like my sibling, it’s a compliment,” he insisted. 

“I know it was but the words by themselves really didn’t sound like it,” you chuckled. “Don’t worry Bobby, if he knows what’s good for him he’ll stay on my good side.”

“And who’s on your bad side?” Chimney asked, coming to join you with his food. 

“Currently just Eddie because he used the last of my sweetened condensed milk.” 

“You didn’t label the milk, how was I supposed to know it wasn’t for grabs?”

“Eddie, you know I use it in my coffee when I need an extra kick in the morning, don’t make excuses,” you playfully rolled your eyes. “Anyways, Buck’s always on thin ice, you and Hen are safe,” you noted. 

“What about Bobby?” Hen asked. 

“Hmm,” you sent Bobby a knowing look and he tried to hide the smile that came across his face, after he spent two weeks taking care of you he was on a side the others didn’t even know existed. “Yeah, he’s a few steps above you and Chim,” you said truthfully. “No offence, but you guys don’t make me desserts every week.”

“Fair enough,” Hen agreed. 

After you all finished eating you and Bobby cleared up the dishes so Eddie and Hen could wash them and he quietly asked if you could meet him in his office to talk. 

You nodded your head, unaware of what was to come of it, but when the door closed behind you and you saw Bobby sitting at the edge of his desk with his arms crossed you knew something was up. 

“Is it really just because of the desserts?” he asked. 

“I’m sorry what?”

“Why I’m a few steps above Hen and Chim,” he clarified. 

“I mean yeah,” you nodded slowly. “Bobby, what are you trying to get at?”

He sighed and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. 

“When you were sick,” he started. “Like very feverish, to the point I was almost going to bring you to the hospital, you said something to me. I promised we’d talk about it when you were better, it's just I could never seem to find a good time.” 

“What did I say?” you asked, unable to remember this conversation. 

“Something along the lines of why aren’t we dating. Actually dating, not just sleeping with each other every week.”

“I-I said that?” you frowned and he nodded, but he shifted slightly again, closing himself off to you and you tried to amend what you had said to make sure it didn’t sound like you hadn’t meant it. “I mean I just… I can’t remember.”

He nodded, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, um…what would you have said?” you asked. “If I asked you that now.”

He stayed silent before he eventually shrugged his shoulders, “Honestly, I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just think that if things go on they’re going to get more complicated. I think we should know where we stand.”

“And where do you stand, Bobby?” you asked, coming closer. “Am I on your good side? Or your bad side?”

You reached out your hand to take his and after running his thumb across your knuckles and giving your hand a light squeeze he said,

“You’ve always been on my good side,” he smiled. “And I know I’m a bit rusty, but I’d like to take you out on a date. If that’s something you’re up for.”

“Yeah, I think I’d be up for that,” you agreed and closed the gap between you even more, resting a hand on Bobby’s cheek. “I don’t think I ever thanked you for taking care of me.”

“It’s okay, good practice in case you ever get sick again,” he chuckled. 

“I’m glad to know you’d be willing to take care of me again,” you smiled, you leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I hope that helps a little with the thank you.”

“Maybe just one more,” he said before meeting your lips again just as the door opened and Buck said, 

“Hey Cap, I was just- WOAH,” he exclaimed. “You two?! I-How? Why?! What?!”

You and Bobby quickly pushed yourselves apart as Buck stared at you wide eyed while he was joined by his coworkers. 

Bobby’s face was very red and you couldn’t look up from your feet. 

“What happened?” Eddie asked once he ran into the room. 

“They were kissing,” Buck said, like he couldn’t understand how that would ever be a possibility. You supposed in Buck’s eyes you were both perpetually single forever. 

“What?” Hen asked with a chuckle. “When did this happen?” 

“Um a couple months back,” Bobby said. “Do we really need to talk about this?”

“Yes, we really do,” Chimney nodded. 

“You guys,” you looked up and saw they wouldn’t let go so you looked at Bobby to tell him you’d take the hit. “Look, this started a little while after everything got shut down. We both live alone and  it was hard not being able to see people so since we were in the same bubble we just…started to casually see each other,” you settled on. 

“And it’s still casual?” Buck asked. 

You pressed your lips in a thin line and Bobby shook his head. 

“No, I think I’d say it’s getting serious.”

“It’s about damn time,” Hen grinned. “I have been rooting for you two ever since you got stuck in that elevator together.”

“Really?” you chuckled. 

“Yeah, and plus now Chimney owes me five bucks.”

“Deals a deal,” Chimney groaned and placed the bill in his friend’s hand. 

“So when you got sick?” Eddie asked. 

“I was at Bobby’s, that’s why we both couldn’t come in and why you couldn't drop food off for me,” you explained. 

“Hey, why don’t we leave these two lovebirds alone,” Hen suggested. “I think you interrupted something, Buck.”

She dragged the team out of Bobby’s office and closed the door only for you and Bobby to look at each other and laugh. 

“At least we don’t have to sneak around anymore.”

“Yeah, but sneaking around was kind of fun,” you admitted. “But I’m glad they know. It just makes it more real.”

You held his hand and he gave it a squeeze. 

“I should thank your fever,” he said. “I don’t think I would have ever had the courage to bring this up if it wasn’t for that.”

“Who would have thought, a small positive in a global pandemic,” you chuckled and leaned into his side. And as odd as it was to say, you were both thankful for the isolation.

[psychedelic-ink]

A SAPPY NEW YEARS POST

This year, as some of you might know, has been a hard one for me. I struggled with loneliness, the loss of my grandparents and aunt, and with general feelings I’m unwanted. I’m hoping to leave those things in 2023 even though it’s not that realistic but we’ll see what happens. I also moved to the states this year, which was one of my goals from last year, I honestly don’t think it’s a big accomplishment since all I did was board a plane but I’m still happy I at least managed one new years goal.

However, this year has also been a year of creativity writing wise, stay in bed was born and I can’t wait to finish the series this year. I met new people which I’m very happy about having in my life now and so many new readers.

So, even though I won’t be doing a recap post this year, I still wanted to say thank you to every single one of you who supported me, sent messages, and read my works. And thank you to the friends who’ve been with me. I appreciate it more than you all know. Hopefully this year I’ll be more active and talk to even more of you.

With all that said, happy new year everyone, I hope 2024 treats you all with love and compassion 🎆💜

[carmenized-onions]

First of all HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

I just reread everything for the THIRD time and I finally built up the courage to send my thoughts. I am OBSESSED with this story! You had me hooked from the very first chapter you posted. I don’t think I’ve ever read a fan fiction that was this damn good. Every single detail is so well thought out, you have captured these characters perfectly. I can’t believe that you are writing this one week at a time (we need to get you in the room when they write season 4). Every character is written so well throughout this story, I can tell that you really get this show. I’ve always felt disconnected when reading fan fiction because the writing style is usually so different from how the actual show is scripted, but man… you nailed it. I feel like you understand these characters better than the actual writers of the show. Nothing you’ve written so far has felt out of character. I’m actually furious that this story isn’t cannon because it’s so damn good! I won’t make you read every single thought for every single chapter because that would take me forever to write and I’m not that great at writing. I will however share with you my overall thoughts on chapter 13:

Holy shit! This was THEE chapter. I love a flashback episode and this was PERFECT (I think you should be very proud on how this turned out holy moly). It is mind blowing how well you’ve fit Chip into this story. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a more detailed review of this chapter but next time I promise to write out my thoughts as I read. I am very excited to see what happens next. Have a lovely day!

THANK YOU DEAR, sorry I’m late to all these birthday wishes myself, I’ve got like 20 asks in my inbox, my apologies for my lateness loves, a bitch has been busy. 

THIRD re-read is WILD!! I wish I was still on my once a week release man, I was in my BAG. Hopefully after the move I can finally get back into it. ALSO listen, if anyone knows, how to get in that writers room, i’ll make myself so available. I’ll go anywhere. I’ll meet you on Huron and Orleans right now storer please. (though I do think they already filmed a majority if not all of S4? Which,, I’m not gonna lie I am worried about. They need Joanna Calo back like fucking yesterday. God i’m so in love with her). It really really means a lot to me though as a screenwriter being told so often that I should be in the room. So sincerely thank you!!

AS WELL AS THE STYLING YES!! I consider myself pretty versatile in terms of being able to switch my tone based on what genre I’m working with, but as a little fucking freak, The Bear lends itself very well to my own frantic stream of consciousness constantly over the top writing, I think. So I’m happy about that. And thank you thank you for saying I understand the characters, I’m always always trying to do their personas justice cause they’re !! just so !! I love them. They’re all very rounded out and managing all those little people quirks is always so fun and interesting. I can’t deny I also wish Chicago’s Kindest was cannon. It would be so interesting to see it play out in show perspective, rather than y’know having it as almost always Tony’s perspective going through her days. Ahhhh I can’t think about it for too long or I’ll lose it. 

AND THOUGHTS ON CHAPTER THIRTEEN THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY THEEEE chapter,, I think that’s why i’ve had so much trouble with Chapter 14 honestly, because it was like oh christ. That was my magnum opus. It’s all downhill from here. Hopefully that’s not the case, but we’ll see. I need everyone to gas me up so much when CH14 comes out. Chip is so woven in to the story at this point and it’s gonna personally hurt my feelings so much when S4 comes out and everything I wrote is not possible in future canon because Christopher’s gonna do that to hurt ME personally. Jkjkjkjk. But it is a secret fear I have. It’s fine. 

Thank you so much for your thoughts!! Also listen, I love getting peoples play by plays, but never feel pressured to do em!! Honestly hearing like people’s analysis’ of scenes as a whole that stuck out to them is probably my favourite shit to see— I LOVE IT ALL THOUGH— I DON’T KNOW— ITS ALL VERY GOOD AND I’M THANKFUL FOR ANY AND ALL THOUGHTS I GET!! I’M GONNA SHUT UP NOW!! Hope you enjoy the next one when it’s out see you then !!

[herofics]

Hey ! I seen your posts on teenage Touya ! And I really liked it ! Can I request you the same type of fic with teenager Touya x reader ? (where reader and him are already in a relationship) no problem if you don’t want, but thank you in advance :)

Have a nice day<3

(You said to send this like an ask so)

So this is a bit further into the future in the Dabi/Touya high school AU, I’m still probably going to write stuff that goes between this part and the previous one, but we’ll see. Anyway, part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here and part 4 here. I had to redo this twice because I wasn’t happy with it, and I’m still not sure I am, but I really just wanted to get this out. Might also be a bit of a mess tbh

You and Touya were going to celebrate your one year anniversary by going to an amusement park. You weren’t really that fond of the idea, but he had seemed excited about it, so you didn’t want to disappoint him, and you didn’t have any better ideas.

Your anniversary date happened to land on the weekend, so you didn’t even have to skip school to go to the amusement park. Which Touya probably wouldn’t have agreed to anyway, since his attendance record was excellent and he didn’t want to ruin it. He might have had a bad boy reputation at school, but he wasn’t like that, not really. He was very dedicated to his studies, unlike some others who had a similar reputation to him.

The two of you had agreed that you would come over to Touya’s, since the Todoroki residence was closer to the bus stop you needed to get to and you would walk to the bus from there, since it was just around the corner.

You were pretty nervous in the morning of the anniversary, because you weren’t a huge fan of amusement parks. You didn’t hate them, but they weren’t your favorite place either. Touya had suggested it and he had seemed excited about it and you just wanted to make him happy, so you had agreed to go.

Touya was looking forward to spending your anniversary with you. Honestly, he didn’t care how he’d spend it, as long as it was with you and he got to give you his gift. He had been racking his brain for months about what he wanted to get you, but he had finally found a necklace he liked the week before. He’d gotten the back of it engraved with his and your initials and the date you started dating.

When the doorbell finally rang, Touya basically leapt to open it.

“Hi” you said and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey sweetness” Touya smirked. “You ready to go?”

“Yep, you should grab a jacket or a hoodie though, you’re gonna freeze if the wind picks up”

“Nah, I’ll be fine” Touya said.

“Okay, have it your way, just don’t try to steal my hoodie when you get cold” you joked.

Touya rolled his eyes with an amused expression, and said: “We should go or we’ll miss the bus”

The two of you hurried out the door and walked to the bus stop. The sun was shining, and it was a pretty warm day, but you had a feeling the weather was going to turn. You didn’t have time to think about that anymore though, because you hopped on the bus and started heading towards the amusement park.

You sat next to Touya, who wrapped his arm around your shoulder and was staring out the window. You held your bag on your lap and leaned your head on his shoulder, closing your eyes. Before you knew it, you had arrived at the amusement park. Luckily the place didn’t seem to be packed as full as usual.

“Where do you wanna go first?” Touya asked as you got your passes.

“I don’t know. To be honest I haven’t been to this amusement park before, so you’ll have to lead the way” you told him.

“Fine by me” Touya shrugged and grabbed your hand to lead you through the crowd of people.

A lot of your day was spent queuing for the different rides, but that gave you a lot of time to chat. Touya managed to convince you to get into many rides, and even though they looked scary at first, you had a good time. Everytime you got scared, you held his hand and it always made you feel better.

Touya went on a couple of rides alone, because you didn’t want to go on the fastest ones or the ones that went upside down. You waved at him from the ground every time though. Touya had noticed the wind picking up and the air getting cooler for a while now, but he wasn’t going to say anything, he didn’t want to give you the chance to tell him “I told you so”. You were bundled up in your hoodie, so he wasn’t even sure if you had noticed.

“So where next? We’ve been to almost every ride, or at least you have” you noted as Touya came off the big rollercoaster.

“What do you say we call it a day? I’ve been to everywhere I wanted to go anyway” Touya said

“Sure, we just need to buy some cotton candy, it’s a mandatory purchase at an amusement park” you smirked and took his hand, starting to drag him towards one of the many gift shops.

“Fine” Touya rolled his eyes, but followed you without resistance.

You got your cotton candy, and the two of you started to make your way to the exit and to the bus stop.

“What do you wanna eat when we get back?” Touya asked as you waited for the bus.

“Pizza?”

“Sure” Touya said.

You hopped on the bus and started your trip back to the Todoroki residence.

The half an hour went by fast and before you knew it, you were already walking back to Touya’s home. You had spent the trip in silence, which you didn’t actually mind, since it wasn’t an awkward silence.

As you got off the bus, you grabbed Touya’s hand. Your hands were cold and since he always ran a bit warmer than you, you figured it would be a good way to warm up.

“Are you cold?” you asked as you grabbed Touya’s hand and it was feeling quite chilly.

“I’ll warm up once I get indoors” he said nonchalantly.

You took off your hoodie and wrapped it around Touya’s shoulders, bundling him up in it as best you could.

“Why are you givin it to me? You’re gonna get cold, dumbass” he said, trying to give it back to you.

“It’s not a long way to your house so, I’ll be fine” you smiled and wrapped the hoodie around him tighter.

“Thanks” Touya said.

You walked the rest of the way to the Todoroki residence and when you got in, Touya immediately  gave your hoodie back to you. You followed him into his room and sat down on his bed as he went to find a hoodie from his closet.

“I’m gonna call the pizza place. Is the usual okay?” Touya asked.

"Yep" you answered and started going through your bag.

You were rummaging around your bag, trying to find the gift you had bought Touya. You finally found it as he ended the call and went to get something from his desk drawer.

Touya sat down next to you on the bed and noticed you were holding a small black box in your hands. It was very similar to the one he was holding.

He really hoped you would like the necklace. He was watching your expression as he handed you the box.

You accepted the box and opened it. Inside there was a beautiful silver necklace with a circular pendant that had a little swirl engraved on the front and your and Touya’s initials engraved on the other side.

“Omg, it’s so beautiful” you exclaimed, raising it up by the chain so it reflected in the light from the window.

Touya sighed in relief and said: “I’m glad you like it”

“I have something for you too” you said and grabbed your own box from your lap, handing it to him.

Touya took the box and opened it. You had gotten him a necklace with a square pendant, that had smaller squares engraved inside each other on the front and both of your initials engraved on the back.

“Wow” he said. “I’m never takin this off” he smirked.

“Oh thank god you like it” you sighed in relief.

“Of course I like, it looks cool and you got it for me”

“It’s kind of funny that we both got each other necklaces” you chuckled.

“You didn’t happen to consult that damn bird on what to get me, did you?” Touya asked jokingly.

“Well he is your best friend… but I’m admitting nothing” you grinned.

“I’m askin because I also asked him for an idea on what to get you”

“Ah, so he set us up”

“Basically”

You just looked at each other before you started laughing.

When you calmed down, you said: “Happy anniversary, Touya”

“Happy anniversary (Name)” he answered with a soft smile.

[kartriderville]

Thoughts on KRD's Season 4 Cinematic

So I wanted to get this out as soon as Season 4 was released, but I realized that I wanted to actually play the game before writing anything, so that’s why this is “late” lol. This was also WAY longer than I thought it would be, so I’m going to tag posts like this in the future.

But here it is! My thoughts on the Season 4 cinematic, and maybe a few theories.

Thoughts below the cut!

So, this Season is obviously Halloween-themed since this season’s duration covers the autumn months and of course Halloween itself, so it’s no surprise we’re including supernatural stuff.

In the beginning, we’re introduced to a scene of the ghostly population living in the town they inhabit, and then almost immediately the Rabbit Hole and her lackeys rush through the crowd and towards the looming castle in the background. That can’t be good.

We then see one of the new characters this Season, Draky, who makes a return from past Kartrider games. I don’t know much about him, so I’m pretty happy he’s back so I can get to know him! (Even if his story may or may not have been changed.)

He’s seen doing some sort of ritual, which was almost completed, but gets interrupted by the Rabbit Hole and co. who seem to be after that bell Draky has. A chase begins!

It may just be me, but I noticed this cinematic uses its time well, as it mainly focuses on what’s happening and the action instead of special effects or stuff that doesn’t entirely matter, if you get what I’m saying. I like that! It makes it easier to focus on what’s going on without getting distracted too much by other things.

Also, the animations are still very high-quality, and while I do prefer the more cartoon-y style they had for other collab animations, it’s starting to grow on me a bit honestly.

So Draky gets chased by them, leading them through all the twists and turns of the dark castle. Whatever that bell has inside it is important to him, and the Rabbit Hole is dead-set on getting it.

And one of Rabbit Hole’s minions actually falls out a window from going too fast I guess lmao. It got a laugh out of me because of how sudden it was because damn RIP dude 💀

And just as Draky’s about to get out of danger, the other two manage to stop him (why he couldn’t just zoom past them is beyond me.) They manage to corner him, and when he flies away as a bat, the Rabbit Hole throws a water bomb at him to stop him and steal… whatever essence is inside the bell. I have an idea of what it could be, but I’ll say more about it later.

This was a tiny bit sad, I suppose. Why did they do that to the poor guy? They must be using it for something important if they went through all that effort chasing Draky, but we probably won't get any answers about that until the next cinematic (or better, Scenario Mode.)

So with the Rabbit Hole and gang gone, Draky is left alone mad as ever, and upset. He bats the bell away, but magically, a ghost manages to arise from it. Spirit Kid! She’s also a new character this season. (She’s absolutely adorable, and I like her design very much. I guess KRD heard me wanting Tiera’s hat to emote and said “We’ll give you one better” and made a whole ghost that’s 60% hat 💀)

Seeing how upset he is, Spirit Kid tries to cheer him up and gives him the bell that he smacked away. This doesn’t make him completely happy, but at least he’s not as upset anymore with the reminder. The cinematic ends on this note, with Draky looking out the castle as it pans away. That should be it, right?

WRONG.

Because then we get another small animated clip after the main animation, and it officially reveals Miso as the Rabbit Hole, as well as the identity of her two followers… sort of!

Let me tell you I was actually happily surprised when I saw this part with a friend of mine. Not at Miso being the Rabbit Hole, but at the other two. (I will never not make fun of KRD for accidentally spoiling Miso as Rabbit Hole through a decal on the shop for like 2 days before catching their mistake it was hilarious)

Obviously, the one on the right is Rex, no one could dismiss that from his iconic outfit, but then the one on the left was a little harder to identify for me. I’m pretty sure that’s Derek, but that only leaves me with more questions for the future...

FINAL THOUGHTS (and Last minute theories)

Honestly, out of the cinematic intros we’ve gotten so far, I think this one is definitely up there because it’s the most story-driven we’ve received, and I always love learning more about KRD’s plot and lore, even if it’s bite-sized. It just makes this game more enjoyable for me as I play, knowing there's stuff going on in the background as I'm having fun racing. I can't wait for more!

I have a few possible ideas (theories) about what occurred during the animation so I’ll leave those here:

Spirit Kid’s whole deal is that she’s the little sister of Draky, but without her memories. That energy the Rabbit Hole stole from the bell is what I believe to be the rest of her- all the memories and basically what would’ve made her completely alive if they hadn’t so rudely interrupted Draky. Without it, she’s just a ghost without a body.

That minion on the left at the end of the cinematic next to Miso/RabbitHole was racing Derek, we saw them both at the same place during the WKC Season. Does this mean this Derek is a copy of some sort? Is that the real Rex, or is that also a copy? Possibly, but there’s also another idea to entertain: They’re from the same place Miso is, the future. According to the in-game description, Miso’s from the future and has come back to cause misery, so it’s possible those two were convinced (or forced) to join her crew and travel back to the past. But of course there's also the possibility of those both being the real Derek and Rex, and if that's the case, they better start explaining themselves >:(

And not really a theory but I noticed the description of the Rabbit Hole’s personal kart mentioned something called “Hexnium” and that it was powered by it/enabled it to time travel. I think it's a new material unique to KRD? I don't really have anything to say about it I just noticed it and thought it was a neat little detail.

Okay that’s it from me that’s a lot of words lol if you read all of this: thanks! I just like talking about this silly game.

[nancypullen]

De Fence

We did it! It’s finished! The weather was perfect and Pullen Construction got it done.  Okay, it was hardly a construction job, but it was quite a project.  But it’s finished and it’s pretty.  Pretty is important to me.  I can’t wait to do a little landscaping to dress it up.  

The mister did a wonderful job and I was a capable assistant.  We managed to mark spots for sinking posts and find every rock hard tree root at the same time.  Six inches left or right, no roots, but the spot where the post needed to go - petrified wood.  Still we persevered and got it done. 

Here’s droopy drawers at the beginning.

and here he is when we finished!

Isn’t it just the cutest little fence you’ve ever seen?

The yard slopes down toward the neighbor’s property line and thanks to his math-capable brain we kept it all even and not one bit wonky.  I’m amazed when stuff works. Those lovely shade trees back there actually belong to the town of Denton, though they’re happy for us to trim and pick up after them.  Inside the fence we’ll have our two Jane Magnolias and we’re considering a Dogwood way down at the right end of the fence.  We’ll see.  By the time I’m drawing Social Security it’s going to be gorgeous back there. I’m tempted to put some Lady Banks roses back there, but I really don’t want anything climbing on that fence that will look scraggly in the winter.  I may just plug in some pretty bunches of Black-eyed Susans.  That’s a start. That’s also the state flower of Maryland, so surely it would thrive.  I can’t help but think a pretty hydrangea would do well in that dappled light.  Hmmm.  I’ll probably peck away at it this summer, finding plants on the orphan table at Lowe’s.  It’ll happen. In other news, my dang Kentucky Derby pick has scratched!  Glad I hadn’t placed my bet already. Honestly, I think it was the universe nudging me to look deeper.  You guys, I always look for a gray horse.  If that doesn’t pan out, I look for a jockey in pink silks.  This year there’s a gray horse whose jockey is wearing pink.  Did the stars align for me? Maybe. I’ve placed my bet on Tapit Trice to win.  Cross your fingers. I’m due.  Mama needs to buy plants. I’m off to soak my weary bones and head for bed.  IT’s about to get really busy around here.  I need to make a grocery run because the Edgewater gang is coming for the weekend.  Originally they’d planned to come out so that Tyler could help Mickey get the fence up.  But I opened my big mouth and asked my husband, “Couldn’t the two of us do it?”  I really regretted that after he hit my toe with the post pounder thing.  So now they can come and just relax.  I never know what to cook when they’re here.  You’d think someone who enjoys cooking would just whip stuff out, but Jamie is a much better cook than I am and they eat amazing dinners all the time.  I look at my tried and true stuff and it seems pretty boring.  I’ll probably do a sheet pan supper one night - kielbasa sausage, taters, green beans, and a side of corn muffins.  For Derby Day I‘ll just make pulled pork in the slow cooker.  Add some good buns, maybe broccoli salad (should I do baked beans?) and a dessert, and we’re good.   Do you have a favorite recipe that feeds a crowd and is semi-healthy?  If so, send it to me! 

Okie dokie, I’m out.  If you need me I’ll be in a bubble bath. I hope things went your way today, if not, I hope it wasn’t too bad.  Have a cookie, watch a sweet show, paint your nails, read a good book.  Little things can turn a day around. Sending out loads of love.  Stay safe, stay well. XOXO - Nancy

[lgcmilan]

FUTURE DREAMS 6: FIRST EVALUATION INTERVIEW POST TYPE: SOLO

compared to january 30, milan appears more relax in front of the camera. this isn’t her first rodeo anymore. and, honestly, after this very emotional evaluation (and emotional 2 weeks), milan just doesn’t have the energy to be tensed. and it probably shows on her face since the producer does ask her (again), if she’s going to be okay for the interview. she grimaces while assuring she’s okay. “are my dark circle that bad?” she asks with a chuckle, making the rest of the staff laugh. well, they might be considering the reaction. 

“let’s begin then” the director announces when everyone is in place, and the makeup artists has added another layer of concealer on her face. are they that bad? “you looked quite nervous before and during the performance, why?”

the trainee manages to avoid grimacing once again, but still cannot help the shoulder slump. she’s been questioned on her struggle during practices. there is so much to say, but so little that she wishes to voice out loud. at least, this time, her eyes don’t fill with tears this time. “back then, i said i would be fine with just a few lines. i truly thought i would be when i said that. but when i saw what i was assigned, i begun wondering if my teammates felt like i am too lacking.” this is the most honest she’s been on the matter. an honesty that can only come out once the event is behind. “i am aware that i have a long way to go, but i always try my best. however, at that moment it felt like ‘my best’ was viewed as still something that would pull down the performance for my teammates...” her words are chosen carefully, as to not ruffle anyone’s feather. “only yujin unnie expressed her joy at having me with her. some people likely wonder why this or that person is on the challengers team instead of the dreamers team, and i came to believe that perhaps, some wonder why i am on the dreamers team...” not that she would fault them. they’d probably prefer someone like hailey and nina than her, or jaekyung from the challengers team. “and rather than gain resolve to prove myself, it started weighing on my shoulders. i worked tiredlessly. not to prove that i belonged, but to not embarrass them today. that’s why i was so nervous; i had to do well, i needed to do well.”

“even if no one asked you to?”

she nods. “yes, even if no one asked me to, nor no one directly expressed to me that thought that i was the weakest link, i just couldn’t get these thoughts out of my mind.” she explains. “i couldn’t even ask them, because i was scared that they would just confirm these feelings.” she chuckles dryly. looking back, it sounds silly, yet, at the time felt so valid and logical. there must be a word for this constant feeling of inadequacy and fear that others will realize her said inadequacy... 

“how did you feel when you heard that you passed?”

milan smiles a little. “ i can’t say that i felt proud or happy, nor do i right now. after all, the judges didn’t seem to happy with us, and some of us weren’t safe. however, i did feel relieved. yes, it was relief more than anything else.” 

“are you worried about th next evaluation?”

“if you’re asking if i’m feeling the same way as before the evaluation; not at the moment. i think it will depend on the challenge; if the other’s fates are also dependant on how i perform, maybe i’ll worry again, but i’d rather not think about this for now. we’ll see when we get there.” she explains. and with that, tonight’s interview is a wrap for her. she bows and thanks the staff before exiting, ready to curl in a corner and sleep.

[tdcloud]

HIRAETH IS DONE BABYYY (blog post!)

Happy December, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all that good, jolly old junk you hear this time of year. I’m not really one for the wintertime holidays, but here we are, so let’s try to make the best of it and get a blog post in before we hit 2024.

Just like last month, I don’t really have much of an overarching topic for this month. I think for the time being we’ll keep things short and update-focused as I get my groove back and smooth out stuff on the backend. I have been working hard while resting my brain, believe it or not. There’s a lot of good stuff coming next year! I’m honestly really excited to tell you guys about it, so let’s get to it.

First of all, I’ve got some convention announcements! I’ve gotten confirmation that my next conventions will be taking place in March 2024, and wildly enough, both will be in Evansville, IN. That’s great for those of you who only see me when I go down there, but my GOD that is going to be a lot of driving for me that month. I live in Northeast Indiana, so it’s roughly 4.5 hours one way for me. I do love going down there, don’t get me wrong, but goodness. I’m going to be best friends with my car by the end of that.

If you’re around those parts, mark your calendars for Evansville Horrorcon and Evillecon in March 2024. You can find specific dates over on my Events tab. I’ll only have a half table at Horrorcon, so only expect to see some of my collection for sale there. I’m thinking I’ll be bringing Ossuary, Convergence, and maybe a couple Duskriven titles given it’s a horror convention, but should we have Infaust out by then (which is my goal), you can expect that title there as well. Evillecon will see my full works (maybe minus something like Apricity), as well as all of my assorted merchandise. I’m hopeful I’ll have some Infaust merch there, too, but no promises. 

I’m still waiting to hear back about Ohayocon, which is in January. There’s some convention drama going on that’s put artist announcements on hold for the time being (I hate to say it, but this convention is going the way of Youmacon as well and it’s really, really sad to see). I’ll make a separate announcement if I somehow manage to get into that on social media. Until then, it’s just the two March cons.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I’VE FINISHED HIRAETH!!!!!!!!!! -sound of confetti cannons, vuvuzelas, and champagne corks popping- Legit, this has been nearly five years in the making, and I’m so happy to finally announce that the beast is dead, the draft is done, and the manuscript is now on my editor’s desk and ready to go under the knife at last! We’re going to be turning all of our focus towards beating it into shape once we hit the new year, and given Sun’s squared off several months of her availability for me and my projects in 2024, I’m very, very optimistic that we’ll have this book out in quarter three or four of next year. 

I hope that all of you who have been waiting with bated (and vastly expired) breath all this time are still excited for this release. I’m so goddamn ready to put an end to this series once and for all, and for Ruari, Corbet, Breena, and Shea to have their happily ever after. Thank you all so much for your patience, understanding, and well wishes as I’ve worked on this thing. I really can’t begin to describe how much it’s meant to be to have people ask about this title over the years. All of the tumblr asks, all of the emails, all of the in person questions… It’s never been obnoxious or anxiety inducing like some people worried it might come across. I really can’t tell you how much it’s helped me to just know that there are people out there who WANT this book, who actively have WAITED and HOPED it might be released soon. Knowing there were people waiting got me back on target better than my own wherewithal ever could. 

If you ever reached out to me to ask about Hiraeth, please know that it’s reaching completion and the light of day because you REACHED OUT. Really. Honestly. It’s thanks to you, and please know that I’ve never taken it for granted.

Thirdly, and in line with release info, is Infaust. This is another project that’s taken way too long to get out, but for a very different reason than Hiraeth. I’ve already spoken ad nauseum about the hangups this work has had during its development, so I won’t go into it again here. Just know that December is Infaust Prep month. This is the month where I fully finalize the interior and ready it for publication. I’ll be going over it with a fine-toothed comb, making my last minute changes to it, and packaging it up once and for all for formatting. I’ll also be sending it to Sun for her to read so she can begin drafting up her cover designs (just as soon as she’s finished with her last Oracle of 11 card illustrations! She’s scheduled to be done before Christmas, so I anticipate her picking up Infaust once she’s done with her holiday celebrations). 

As of right now, I can’t give a publication date. While I can tell you all that my ultimate goal is to release before Horrorcon (ideally in February like Ossuary did), I’ve been at this way too long to set a permanent, for-sure date before I’ve got the cover in hand. Too much can change when I’m at the whims of other people with their own deadlines and schedules that take precedence over mine. But given what I know, and given how I know Sun works, you can expect Infaust before April barring something catastrophic happening. I’ll have a lot more to say about its release and all the associated goodies and bundles I’m planning to offer for the pre-order after we’ve rounded the new year. Mark your calendars and keep an eye out for social media posts. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and a much bigger release than I’ve ever done before, so long as I get all my ducks in a row!

Lastly, I’d like to promote my Itch.io again! I’ve only got two smutty horror shorts up (so far), but it’s really been such a fun way to release new works without devoting too much time to a book-length project/something that requires a graphic designer to get out. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I definitely recommend doing so, and even if you aren’t interested in what’s currently up, consider following me over there regardless for notifications on when new stuff comes out. 

I’ll be releasing all of my backlog on Itchio starting in January as I migrate my ebooks to other venues. For those of you who have moral issues with Amazon/Kindle (which are 100% justified and correct). This will hopefully provide an actual storefront for you to pick up my work without sacrificing your soul to Bezos—or emailing me directly the way a lot of you have in the past. They’ll be hosted there for the same price as they are on Amazon ($5), and if you’re pledged $5 to my Patreon, you’ll get access to them via the Itch.io integration feature automatically. I’m hoping to cross-publish on Itch.io for all new releases as well, so there may be fun pre-order opportunities over there when Infaust gets its pub date. 

So… Consider it! Seriously, please consider it if you’d like to keep up to date with my work in an environment I have more control over. I’d love to get a creative community hub going on that site since it really seems like a great place to connect with readers without the drudgery or commercialism of Amazon or the paylock vibe of Patreon. Check it out if that sounds fun to you, and if you’re already over there reading my work, drop a review on Living Dead Boy or Death-Knell! I’d love to read your thoughts!

That’s it for this month. Hope you guys all have a wonderful holiday season, eat a lot of good food, and read a lot of good smut! Definitely pass my work onto any friends who could use some tasty smut in their lives to keep them warm through the winter, and if you’re reading this early in the month, there’s still time to put in an order for a signed book copy or a merch order via my ko-fi store! Get on it, get the goods, and as always, until next time,

T.D. Cloud

[daysofourlivesrecaps]

Tuesday, 4 July 2023

Paulina’s bummed out because Abe’s been declared dead. (Did I mention Abe’s been declared dead? Nurse Whitley Or Whatley I Can’t Remember Nor Can I Be Bothered To Look It Up took a sample of Abe’s blood, then convinced the actor she had posing as his son, Theo, to spread it around the docks and tell the cops he saw Abe drowning. So he did all of that. Fake Theo the Actor, I mean.

So, yeah. Paulina’s actually not being a drama queen for a change because for all she knows, her husband is dead. Also Chanel is being level-headed and supportive instead of whiny and entitled?! Must be a dream sequence.

Speaking of dream sequences, John has one about Abe still being alive. Down at the docks. (“See? We told you we’d use the set if you paid for it! We’re using it SO MUCH!”) In fog that was added in post or maybe, like, delivered via a steamed-up camera lens or something. The point is, there is no way they also sprang for a fog machine or even a block of dry ice. Not this show.

Then John wakes up in a cold sweat and spends the next several segments talking through his feelings with the infinitely patient Marlena. Some superficial lip service is paid to the fact that she has also, as far as anyone knows, lost a dear old friend. But nobody’s here to talk through HER feelings. Quis therapy ipsos therapist? (Don’t bother looking this up. It’s flawless Latin.)

Nurse W.O.W.I.C.R.N.C.I.B.B.T.L.I.U. brings home a rare paper copy of the Spectator, which proclaims Mayor Abe dead.

“Whaddya got there?” says the very much still alive Abraham Carver. So settle in for another episode of Kim Coles Tells Unconvincing Lies! Hopefully we’ll at least get another episode of Body and Soul to help wash this tired old meal down.

Meanwhile, Real Theo gets a visit from Eli, who was easily the hottest dude on this show before he left a year or so ago. (Theo’s looking pretty good himself these days too, honestly.) Eli was here for a weeklong guest spot when I took my little break, and I thought that was the last we were going to see of him. But here he is again! Hooray!

And this time, he brought his wife, Lani! Double hooray!

Lani is Theo’s brother and also Abe and Paulina’s daughter. (Okay, the second part is a bit more complicated because this is a soap. But that’s an accurate enough description.) Oh, and she’s been away for a year because she’s been in prison for murder. The victim in question absolutely had it coming, but she’s a cop and in this beautiful fantasy world, cops are actually held accountable for firing their weapons without following the proper protocol. Ah, beautiful escapism.

Lani got a furlough from prison to bury her dad, because nobody realizes he’s just sitting around at Kim Coles’ house frowning at her really awful fabrications and hating all those stuffed cats. Seriously, by now I bet he could give you an extremely specific reason for why he hates each individual one of them.

Like his Black Patch partner, Steve is also feeling bummed out and guilty over the whole “we didn’t manage to find Abe and now he’s apparently dead” thing. Only Steve is going over the facts with Kayla, rather than opening up about his feelings. Opening up about your feelings is important, mind you, especially dudes this age in this culture. But it’s extremely telling to me that the husband of the surgeon is clinical and logical and the husband of the therapist is weepy and emotional.

Then Theo comes to visit the Johnsons, forcing me to once again play “Do These People Know Each Other and if So, How, Exactly?” 

I lost this round. But given that Theo also paid a friendly visit to EJ recently, I think Theo’s just an extremely likable young man that everyone is happy to see. I’ll buy that.

Back at the Price residence, Paulina gives an outstandingly comedic read in this exchange.

But it’s not a cactus! It’s her daughter, Lani, home (temporarily) from prison!

Lani then demands that Eli take her to the police station (where they both once worked as cops) so she can go over the evidence in Abe’s case. And I’ll get to that in a minute, but GUYS! I GOT MY WISH! MORE BODY AND SOUL! And we’re about to meet one of the great soap bitches of all time. (Nurse Whitley/Watley’s words, not mine. And of course Amanda yelled it. Of course she did.)

Said bitch is Lorna Delorean (no, really), who is played by the woman who plays Kate. And in case you were wondering, this hasn’t stopped being the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, done or eaten.

Lani goes through the case file as promised and finds this professional headshot of Jerry, aka the actor Nurse Wh-atever hired to pretend to be Theo. (I recently discovered that he’s actually the guy who played Theo in the first place, before leaving and being recast with that other guy. Which is a delightful bit of stunt casting.)

“Wait,” Lani says. “He’s an actor? Did nobody think this was a little suspicious?”

And back at the Nurse’s place, Abe continues to watch Body and Soul, only to discover…

…FAKE THEO THE ACTOR, APPEARING ON THE SHOW WITHIN A SHOW AS AN ACTOR!

Days still basically adheres to broadcast standards even though they’re streaming exclusive now and honestly I think this would have been the perfect moment for them to finally break free of all of that because what else could poor, confused Abe say here than “what the fuck?!”

(He doesn’t. But man, he really should have.)

[bittydragon]

Alone in a Cramped Universe - 1

Notes: GUESS WHO ISN’T DEAD BITCHES! So I started writing a new story, one that’s gonna go for a while if I can keep on this train of motivation. I’m trying out a new schedule for managing my time in school and if it works then I’m going to be in a much better place. Taking some time out of my day to write recently has also been refreshing, so I’m starting to go back to writing more. Dunno if I’ll post everything I write since some of it is OC stuff, but we’ll see. Maybe I’ll get courage to post it, though I’m not too sure yet. Anyways, enjoy the first part to my new AU! It’s more of an introduction to the AU and them meeting but I’ll figure story out soon (I hope)

Next

---

Tommy nervously wrung his hands as he paced the tiny room. He was thankful for the fact that he didn’t have to hunch over to walk or even have to crawl for once. Sure, he only had about two inches of space over his head, but it was more than he normally got, so he was thankful.

He had found rather quickly that most places apart from Earth were not suited for humans. Everything was small. Maybe, if he had known about this inconvenience he wouldn’t have volunteered to join an alien crewship all those years ago.

Tommy scowled at the thought of the past crewships he has been a part of. He’s been with many species but they only tolerated him for a month tops before “regretfully” releasing him from the crew, leaving him fumbling to find another crew or return to Earth. And at this point there was no way he’d willingly go back.

Right now he was waiting in an office at a landing dock on the last planet he was left on. He had managed to secure a position with a new crew and was waiting for them to come pick him up. Based on the comm interview they had it was a small and experienced crew, but it was their first time adding a new crew member since they formed. It seemed half of them were not pleased when the captain announced that they were having a new crewmate, let alone a human.

Humans were still a young species to the space community, and therefore a lot of aliens had yet to meet or even see a human in their lifetimes. Tommy found he was often invited to join crews only so the crew could meet a human. It felt degrading honestly.

The captain of the next crew, Captain Philza if he remembered correctly, hadn’t met a human properly, same with his crew, but he seemed to just want an extra set of hands on his ship. It was relieving to know he wasn’t being brought in to be ogled at… again.

A small knock sounded at the entrance of the door, a sound Tommy had learned to pick up quickly. He looked up to see the excitable hummingbird-like alien flitting around, a small tablet in one of her talons.

“Human Tommy! Your crew has arrived!” She flitted over to him and pressed against his cheek, making him laugh in surprise. “I’m gonna miss you! You better visit again! They better treat you right! I’ll fight them if they don’t! Do you have to go? Oh what am I saying? Of course you do! I just don’t want you to!”

Tommy reached up and stroked the strangely rough feathers on her neck, earning a happy trill from the secretary. “I’ll try, I’ll try! And if I get dumped, I’ll do my best to get dumped here again, just for you.”

Tommy walked out of the office, ducking to not hit his head on the heavy metal beams. The familiar buzzing of wings followed him as she let out a distressed chirp.

“No no no! No getting dumped again! I have high hopes! These are the ones! I just know it! They have to be your crew!” Tommy chuckled as he ducked into the landing area, sighing in relief at the much higher roof.

“We’ll see…” She didn’t seem to hear him as she continued moving towards the new ship. Tommy was grateful that the ship actually seemed pretty spacy. He got invited onto a small ship once, it was the one crew he had to leave without being dumped.

The hummingbird alien hovered by the door of the spaceship as the door opened. Tommy grinned and stepped forwards as Captain Philza flew towards the secretary. The two of them chirped out greetings in what Tommy knew was the common language among the avian aliens. 

Watching the two exchange idle small talk was interesting. Tommy was always in awe whenever he saw two aliens of the same species that had size differences like these. While the hummingbird alien could fit easily in the palm of one hand, it seemed Captain Philza seemed almost double her size, maybe bigger. Tommy figured he could hold him in two hands though.

Eventually the two of them switched to common, finally letting Tommy properly understand everything they were saying except for just snippets. He wasn’t quite well-versed on his avian yet, but he could understand some of it.

“While it has been wonderful meeting you, I think I and my crew would like to meet our new crew member. Is Tommy here…” The captain trailed off as his gaze settled on Tommy. Tommy grinned, keeping careful as to not show his teeth (he was not repeating the last incident) and raised a hand in greeting, taking a few steps forwards to properly greet his new captain.

It was painfully silent for a moment and Captain Philza studied him in what looked to be shock. Tommy’s face fell and he let his arm drop and the avian only continued to stare. They had comm calls, he knew what Tommy looked like. So it kind of hurt to see the captain staring at him like a strange new animal.

Eventually, Captain Philza turned to the secretary in what looked to be worry and panic. He glanced up at Tommy before leaning in and lowering his voice. The captain switched back to their native language as he whispered.

“Are all humans that tall? I thought they were smaller!” The hummingbird’s expression turned to be a bit annoyed, and she took a breath to retort, but Tommy beat her to it, annoyed himself.

“Is that going to be a problem, Captain?” He suddenly stood up straight with wide eyes, staring at Tommy in surprise. The captain let out a few stuttering chirps. “Yea, I can understand you. Might not be able to speak it, but I recognize the basics. If my size is going to be an issue, just leave me here so we don’t have to go through the trouble of finding another landing dock to drop me off at.”

The avian quickly shook off his shock, his features now replaced with worry. Tommy watched as the captain spread his wings and flew towards him. The human instinctively reached out two of his hands to be used as a landing platform, which the avian gratefully took, looking up at Tommy.

Tommy noted how his talons were even sharper than the hummingbird’s and he forced himself to hold back a wince as they dug into his skin. He’d have to invest in some new gloves and possibly some shoulder padding if Captain Philza decided he liked to perch all over him, like many avian aliens he’s met before.

“Not at all going to be a problem! I apologize if I sounded rude, that was not the case.” Tommy noted how the captain nervously left out the fact that he didn’t even think Tommy could understand him while speaking his native language, but he let it slide for the time being. “To be clear with you, I did know you were a bigger species. But I guess my crew and myself hadn’t done the right research because we thought you were approximately the size of our formerly biggest crewmate. And um…” The captain looked Tommy up and down in sheepish worry. “He may be only a little more than half your size, so we have to modify the quarters we set up for you.”

Tommy’s eyes widened at that. “Wait, I get my own room? You guys took the time to set up a room for me?” The captain looked distraught and shocked, and Tommy was positive he saw an underlayment of worry grace his features. His wings spread again and suddenly the alien was in his face, clawed hands gently grabbing his nose.

“Why in the cosmos does that surprise you?! Of course we set up a room for you! Why wouldn’t we-?” A saddened chirp sounded from behind them and the two glanced over at the hummingbird alien, now perched and fidgeting nervously. She gave the captain a pointed look and Tommy saw the realization dawn on Captain Philza’s face as he turned back to Tommy.

“The other crews you were a part of didn’t trust you, did they?” The avian’s wingbeats slowed a bit as Tommy glanced away and let out a small noise of confirmation. “This is why I don’t work with other crews, they’re bastards, all of them. Don’t worry mate, you’re one of us now.”

Tommy watched the captain fly away from his face and towards the ship, waving for Tommy to follow him. He couldn’t help but give the avian a hopeful smile as he followed and gave a small wave to the hummingbird before reaching the door of the spaceship where the captain was waiting for him with a giant grin on his face.

“Welcome to the family, mate.”

[vampsquerade]

Can I get an angst Jäger x reader where Jäger gets attacked by the infected and the reader thinks something bad happened but he turns out be okay?

of course you can, sorry if it’s not exactly how you wanted it, i just kinda took it in a different direction haha…ever since i posted that clip of Jäger surrounded by infected archæns, i always wanted to write something about that. thanks so much for your request! ^-^

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jäger x Reader: Unsettling Times

Trigger Warnings: angst with a happy ending, injuries, infirmary rooms, reassurance, crying

Being rushed to the infirmary after being escorted by Rainbow, you’d received word hearing that your husband had been critically wounded after being attacked and having his helicopter shut down. “Marius’ll be alright, young one. I can promise you that much at least. The best of the best are taking good care of him for you.” one of the men escorting you said. You just give him a nod, and soon get to the door of the infirmary. “You’ll be waiting here until it’s safe to see him. They’re checking out some of the wounds he sustained.” another man said to you. You didn’t really care about what they had to say, if you were going to be completely honest.

You just wanted to see Marius.

As you sit there, waiting for what seemed like hours, you’re informed that Marius was finally awake. You’re carefully brought outside of his room, and you couldn’t help but look up at one of his colleagues you recognized. “You can go ahead and see him now. We’ll wait out here for you.” Gustave said. Nodding, you carefully and slowly step inside before closing the door behind you. Marius was laying down on his side in the bed he was in, his bloodied clothes on the ground next to him. “Marius…” you say softly. He turned so he was laying on his back before properly sitting up, and his eyes widened upon seeing you. “Y/N, they brought you here..?” he asked. You nod, rushing towards him and carefully but tightly embracing him.

You were shaking like a leaf as you clung to him, feeling yourself beginning to cry, “I was so scared that I lost you…they told me you were attacked and surrounded by some freakish creatures…” you whisper, voice cracking. Marius carefully wrapped his arms around you, gently rubbing your back, “But look at me now, I’m okay. I…I honestly haven’t felt as scared in my entire life the way I did back there…” he said. “And your injury..? Did the creatures give it to you..?” you ask, pulling away from the hug and gently cupping his face. You look him in the eyes, and still manage to see that glint of absolute terror in his eyes.

Marius then looked away, sighing softly, “No, thankfully. I was grazed by just some metal that came off when my helicopter crashed.” he reassured. “Good…you have absolutely no idea how happy I am to see you’re okay…” you say. Marius smiled softly, before gently cupping your face and wiping your tears that still continued to fall. “I’m happy I’m alive to stay will you, liebe. I was scared I wasn’t going to get to see you again, but just for a moment. Remembering I’m part of an elite team of counterterrorists reminded me that I’d be okay in the end. Reminded me that I’d get to see you again.” he said, stroking your face.

You smile before finding yourself kissing him tenderly, that panic that once fueled you gone. Marius kissed back, continuing to gently stroke your face to keep you calm and reassured. You then pull away, smothering him in kisses now. It caused him to laugh, as he knew you’d never felt so relieved. “I’ll be sent back home with you tomorrow morning. I have to recover before doing anything, and my entire leg can’t move as well as it did before because the area I was grazed in was a bit too close to nearly cutting my leg clean off.” Marius said. “I’ll take good care of you once we’re home…” you reassure. “Liebe, don’t stress yourself out when it comes to caring for me…you were already stressed enough when you were brought here. Don’t do it back home as well.” he said.

You couldn’t help but scowl slightly this time at him, a deep frown on your face. “Marius, I practically already am going to be stressed out over the course of however long it takes you to heal. I wouldn’t be a good spouse if I didn’t, I’d look like I don’t care about you.” you say. “And do you care?” Marius teased. You knew he was teasing, but had to prove you really did, “I would have never married you if I didn’t. That’s cruel of me to say, but it’s the truth. I care for and love you so much, more than anything.” you say, kissing the bridge of his nose. Marius chuckled softly, before now peppering your face in kisses, “Good, because I’m the exact same way for you. Every time you come home and look exhausted after work, I give you the best care you could ever imagine. I’d be in a similar position like you, and probably a bit worse, if I ever got word you were injured or attacked.” he said.

Nodding, you sigh, “Well…I should probably let you get some rest…” you say. “Ja, I’m feeling really drained right now. Thank you for coming, and for worrying so much. I really do appreciate it, liebe.” Marius said, now letting go of your face. You helped him lay back down, giving him a kiss on the forehead before stepping out of his room. “Got everything you needed out?” Gustave asked once he heard you step out. “Yeah, I did…thank you for bringing him back…” you thank, going and giving him a handshake. “Anything for my colleague. It would eat me alive knowing we didn’t extract him on time and leaving you all alone. Now you go ahead and get some rest here, okay? I’ll have Elias escort you to Marius’ room in the barracks.” Gustave said. You give him a nod before looking at Elias, who gave you a soft smile, before you were then escorted to the barracks. Marius was just fine, and you’d get to go back home safely with him.

[dcbbw]

Sunday Snippets

Happy Sunday, Tumblr! I hope everyone is safe and sound, warm and dry. This past week has been one for the books in my corner of the world: in no particular order, I have dealt with Tropical Storm Ian, dental work that required a drill and clamps, the aftermath of a pukey toddler, family toxicity, drama (work and otherwise), and I need to prepare for an interview on Tuesday!

Needless to say I have missed all the late-September tumblr event deadlines I signed up for, but still gonna write the stories and of course give proper credit. Below are snippets from what should be posting this week.

As usual, these are in a state of rough draft, and published versions may be edited/revised.

It’s all below the cut; happy reading!

Guy Time (tentative title), TRR DC AU guys + OC, For the Boys event:

Once the men were settled and a new hand had been dealt, conversation resumed.

“What are some qualities, for you, a woman absolutely has to have to make her a keeper?” Lonnie asked.

All eyes turned to Liam, who was tearing into a quesadilla while watching a frustrating second quarter.

“Me? Okay, we all know I want this with Riley B., but she isn’t the inspiration behind it. Penelope is. I need a team player who has some traditional values. It would be nice if she were gainfully employed, but she can be a stay-at-home if she wants … as long as she has goals and ambitions and is actively working on them. Dinner doesn’t have to be cooked when I get home … we can fix the meal together … but if I’m working late, something in the microwave or on top of the stove would be appreciated. Good morning kisses, at least starting the laundry would be great, someone I can both teach and learn from. She’d never have to do yard work, would be appreciative of presents and gifts, sees my efforts, and matches my level of commitment. In return, I’ll give her all of that back tenfold.”

“What about you, Lonnie? What are you looking for when you get back out there?” Leo tilted his beer bottle to his lips.

“She just needs to be breathing and one of three orifices should be functional. Loyalty would be nice, along with having gotten the streets out of her system.”

“Let me give you Penelope’s number,” Liam offered jokingly.

Lonnie rolled his eyes. “No, thanks! That chick cray. I still remember that fight you two had that night. Silly chick stood in the middle of the street cussing you out for over an hour. At four in the morning!”

Drake choked on his tamale. “What the hell happened?”

Liam shook his head. “I honestly don’t remember the details; I know we were both drunk and she kept calling me a limp dick motherfucker. So, I threw her ass out. At one point, she got naked asking Rhode Island Avenue who wanted all this.”

Siren Song, Perfect Match/Open Heart Crossover, #HYAW:

With a nod, the man hit the button, and they rode in silence; he exited first. The woman rode up two more floors and exited into the administrative wing of the medical facility, the conference room directly in front of her. Double wooden doors affixed with crucifixes were propped open; members of the audio/visual team were setting up laptops and projectors while hospital management clustered around a tall man wearing a navy-blue pinstriped suit. His auburn-colored hair was perfectly styled, and his long, slender fingers were curled around a styrofoam cup.

Her eyes narrowed.

Dr. Ethan Ramsey.

The rumors were true.

Her phone, ensconced in her pocket, vibrated. With a frown of impatience, she quickly removed it. She had a text message:

Leave the facility NOW. We’ll rendezvous at your place this afternoon.

Her lips pursed as she glanced at the good doctor again. With a sigh, the woman turned on her heel, pressing the down button.

I’ll see you soon, Dr. Ramsey.

Inside the elevator, she shrugged off her lab coat, folding it neatly before laying it in a corner of the car; she placed the clipboard and name badge atop it. She was firing back a reply as she walked towards the hospital’s parking garage.

Phase One of Operation Hybrid is in effect.

Inside the parking deck she looked around slowly before heading to her car. The level was full, and the only other person was a tall Asian gentleman; he had a full head of glossy black hair, dark eyes, and a five o’clock shadow covering his lower face.

He wore a black suit with a camouflage backpack and carried a cup of Starbucks in his hand. He acknowledged the woman with a terse nod when their eyes met. When they were close to crossing paths, his free hand went to his jacket pocket, patting frantically as if he had forgotten something.

The woman ignored him, her thumb pressing against the car remote. The man whirled swiftly, silently with a taser in his hand. He aimed it at the woman’s side and squeezed the trigger firmly. Thin, bluish-white streams of electricity traveled through the distance. Caught unawares, the woman went down with a pained cry. The man stepped closer, the heels of his oxford shoes tapping against the concrete floor. He pulled the trigger again before stooping to retrieve her purse.

He removed her wallet, rifling quickly; he left everything intact other than her driver’s license. Her cellphone was nestled in a snug compartment; he pocketed that as well. Tossing the purse onto the ground, the toe of his shoe prodded her once; no movement, but acrid smoke wafted from her body and the smell of burnt wiring scented the air.

With a smirk of satisfaction, he returned to his car and drove off.

One down, one to go.

The Price of Everything, TRR/Platinum AU, @choicesprompts Prompt #2::

It was four weeks past the wedding, three weeks since the miscarriage; while the grief had not lessened, life was beginning a return to normal for the young couple. Kiara spent the first 72 hours following the medical emergency in a private wing at Stormholt Samaritan Hospital, Liam constantly at her side. Once home at the Palace, Liam insisted she stay on bedrest, and he personally tended to her every need. Kiara insisted she was fine with no ill effects, but Liam continued to care for his wife.

One morning, she sat in front of her vanity mirror, wrapped in a sinfully soft white robe watching her husband's reflection as he ran a wide-toothed comb through her tresses.

“I’m agreeable to an annulment,” she said quietly to the mirror.

Liam looked up; there was a frown on his lips, but a flame of hope flared in is eyes before dying out.  “What are you speaking of?”

“The reason for our union is ... no more.” Her voice cracked slightly. “We can go back to being who we were before.”

Liam looked puzzled. “We were good friends who had sex. Isn’t that what we are now?”

Kiara shook her head slightly. “Exactly! We aren’t even best friends! Sex is not a basis for marriage. It isn’t a reason to stay tethered to duty. Let’s get an annulment and you can find someone you LOVE, Liam! I can return to New York and my job. We don’t have to stay married.”

Liam pondered her offer. In the weeks following the loss of their child, Liam had spent every night after Kiara fell asleep searching for Riley Brooks, but he and the Crown’s security team repeatedly drew blanks.

It was as if she had disappeared from the face of the earth.  

The King procured the services of Interpol, New Scotland Yard, the FBI, local law enforcement jurisdictions, and private investigators to assist. But there were simply not enough details.

Her phone number was no longer in service. The bank account information the Crown had on file for her was no longer valid. The bar she used to work at had been torn down, replaced by high-rise condos.

The sole contact Liam had for Riley was of no use. The King had no physical description, no last name, no address for the person. All Liam knew was a first name and occupation.

Good luck trying to find a waiter named Daniel in New York City.

Liam worried his lower lip as he considered how to word his response. True, if there had been no child, he and Kiara would never have considered cohabitation, let alone marriage.

But there had been a baby.

No one, not even their parents, knew.

An annulment after less than 10 days of marriage would cause tongues to wag faster and more furiously than a child conceived out-of-wedlock.

And as horribly selfish as it was, if they separated now, Kiara had something to look forward to. Liam had nothing.

Tagging: @jared2612​ @ao719​ @burnsoslow​ @marietrinmimi​ @merridithsmiscellany-blog​ @queenjilian​ @indiacater​ @kingliam2019​ @bebepac​ @liamxs-world​ @mom2000aggie​ @cmestrella​ @liamrhysstalker2020​  @neotericthemis​ @twinkleallnight​ @umccall71​ @superharriet​  @busywoman​ @gabesmommie1130​ @tessa-liam​ @phoenixrising308​ @beezm​ @gardeningourmet​ @lovingchoices14​ @foreverethereal123​ @mainstreetreader​ @angelasscribbles​ @lady-calypso​ @emkay512​ @jovialyouthmusic​ @21-wishes​ @princessleac1​ @charlotteg234​ @queenrileyrose​ @alj4890​ @yourfavaquarius111​ @motorcitymademadame​​ @bbrandy2002​​

In case you’re interested: @choicesficwriterscreations​ @lizzybeth1986​​

[tarosin]

the great adventures of y/n tommy jack and tubbo

requested: yes/no

an: part 4 of the great adventures series

pairing: platonic y/n/tommy/jack/tubbo

warning: cursing

It was the afternoon before your new adventure with your friends. you had no idea what to expect, however everyone else knew even ranboo, and he wasn’t even joining you all. you would be lying if you said you weren’t nervous, especially after hearing some of tommys plans for future uploads. tubbo had been trying to drop hints about what was going to happen. You honestly couldn’t tell if he was excited or nervous, either way you could tell it was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and boy were you excited. the sound of knocking pulled you from your thoughts.

“hi y/n! sorry for the unexpected visit, i tried to call you but it wouldn’t go through.”

“oh god sorry, tubbo, my phones on charge upstairs, ive just finished babysitting my friends twitch chat.”

“that’s okay, tommy wanted me to see if you want to stay the night as i can take you with me now. he said something about it saving time tomorrow as jack won’t have to go as far and we can get there earlier, i honestly just think he’s slightly nervous and wants to spend time with someone.”

“i’ve not prepared a bag or anything as i was just planning on grabbing everything i needed in the morning, but i’m down to go with you. i’ll pack a bag real quick, make yourself feel at home. you can stay down here or come upstairs with me.”

tubbo followed you upstairs, and helped you pick which outfits would be the best to wear for the trip. around 10 minutes later you finished packing your bag and turned around to see a very pale tubbo, dropping your bag to the floor you pulled a chair up to your bed sitting opposite him.

“you feeling okay tubs?”

“just nerves, I'll be alright, are you ready to go?”

“ready if you are!”

the journey to tommys was relatively quick, you spent it talking about group plans for when ranboo comes to the uk.

tubbo: almost here!

tommy: yes! want to stream for a bit later, just something small could do laugh and the stream ends. i’ll go talk to my mum now!

•••

tubbo: please open the door

tommy: on it

the pair of you stood at the door waiting for tommy to unlock it

“TUBBO! Y/N I'M GLAD YOU COULD BOTH MAKE IT!”

not too long later, you and tubbo had put everything away and sat with tommy planning out a small stream.

“so i was talking with my parents and we can do an outside stream, and set fire to marshmallows!”

“as much as i love fire tommy i don’t think your parents will appreciate arson in the garden.”

“it’ll be fine now grab a jacket, we need to go walk to the shop.”

the three of you set off determined to get to the shop and back before it got dark, tommy and tubbo walked on either side of you as they want you to feel safe. thankfully the shop was only around the corner so you were all only out for about 20 minutes maximum, you probably could have made it back earlier but you stopped every time you saw a pretty rock.

“y/n come on we still need to stream!”

“did you tweet that you were streaming?”

“no he didn’t.”

“then come and look at this pretty rock!”

tommy and tubbo couldn’t help but laugh at how many rocks you managed to pick up.

•••

“guys i think i’d rather just spend time with you all rather than stream.”

“that’s fine, tommy!!”

the three of you sat around the fire updating one another about plans and opportunitie, coming. the conversation swiftly came to an end when tommy had set fire to a stick claiming it was to make the fire grow. you laughed as you heard his mum yelling at him to stop trying to set you and tubbo on fire.

“sorry about that everyone, but look the fire is big again.”

it got colder as the sun went down, so the three of you sat with a blanket draped over you all. his mum offered to take photos for you and you happily accepted, the pictures looked amazing and you posted it to instagram with the caption ‘i am cold and no one is telling me what’s happening tomorrow.’

it was around 11pm when the three of you agreed it was time to go back inside and sleep.

•••

you and tubbo stayed downstairs and tommy stayed in his room. the sound of tubbos alarm woke the pair of you up.

“turn that fucking thing off!”

“this is the fourth time it’s gone off and you’re still not up?”

“that’s because i’m tired.”

“please get ready jack will be here soon enough.”

realisation finally hit today was the day you were finally about to find out what this once in a lifetime opportunity was. tubbo advised you to wear sensible clothing and not wear the zodiac necklace you always wore, so you decided to wear the hoodie ranboo sent you a week ago and leggings.

“y/n you might wanna tie your hair up.”

“tubbo are you sure you’re feeling okay? you genuinely look ill."

“i’m fine.”

jack: right i’m outside so whenever you’re ready

lani: we’re making our own way later on as the hotel we stayed at is closer

y/n: will someone tell me what we’re doing

ranboo: no

y/n: you’re not even joining us how did you get in the gc

ranboo: magic

y/n: fuck off give me a clue

ranboo: i’ve said it since you dyed your hair neon f/c you’d be able to see from way up in the sky

y/n: what the actual hell is that supposed to mean

•••

soon enough you met up with everyone else and lani started recording.

“we’re skydiving, you ready tubbo?”

“WERE DOING WHAT? HOLY SHIT!”

you honestly couldn’t wait to do this. it was something you had wanted to do for a while, tubbo on the other hand clearly didn’t agree, which was evident through his whining.

you stood with tommy laughing as tubbo sat alone questioning why he agreed to this.

“look at him.”

“he’s is not happy.”

you sat next to jack and tubbo watching the video demonstrating what you will all be doing soon. you let out a nervous laugh, as although you were excited, you couldn’t help but be a bit nervous.

“you could fall into the engine and get chopped up.”

“tommy stop scaring tubbo!”

“what if the parachute doesn’t work?”

“free fall to your death.”

“y/n you’re not helping!”

you stood recording tubbo laying on the floor once again whining.

“tubbo there are so many people behind you!”

“i’m sure the parachute won’t fail tubbo, but if it does it was lovely knowing you!”

“uuuuuuugh!”

“i fully agree bo.”

soon enough you tommy and jack joined tubbo on the floor.

“look at the clouds.”

“we’re going to be in them soon.”

“hell yeah!”

“ughhhh!”

you tried not to laugh trying to calm tubbo down a bit before you all jumped out a plane, which worked until you left him alone with tommy whilst you spoke to jack for a while.

“to be fair that looks quite fun.”

“and dangerous!”

“STOP!”

“well sounds like tubbos thrilled to be here.”

the four of you sat on a bench talking about what’s going to happen, and laughing at tubbos nerves trying to make light of the situation.

“look it’ll be fun, tubbo, provided we don’t die there’s a chance we’ll be in more vlogs.. okay so ignore the black cloud of smoke!”

“that’s not a good omen.”

“shut up!”

you wrapped an arm around tubbo trying to make him feel comfortable and reassure him it’ll be fine, only to be interrupted by jack and tommy bickering about eating before jumping from the plane.

•••

the four of you went to the briefing, at this point you were struggling to contain your excitement, and couldn’t help but laugh out of pure joy.

“no, they are listening, they're just excited.”

after doing training for the jump, you stood with tommy whilst someone questioned him about how he got 9 million subs.

“I just went around being incredibly cool.. doing minecraft.”

you and jack burst out laughing whilst tommy went on to make jokes about how much money he was earning.

•••

it was now almost time to jump out a plane. it was around now nerves were kicking in, so you all went around messing about till you were told it’s time to make your way to get ready.

“let’s go gamers!”

•••

“are you a skydiver enjoyer?”

“i am.”

“well that’s always good... please, don’t let me die!”

“y/n are you scared?”

“no, my ranboo merch will protect me, but if i die can we blame tommy for coming up with this?”

“ranboos not going to believe that you’re wearing the jumper he sent you to jump out a plane.”

a few minutes later you over heard a worker say they’re nervous causing you to tilt your head and blink again, trying to process what was said.

“heh???”

it was now time for the four of you to put the equipment on, so you were ready to jump. jack started talking a lot more than usual at a quicker pace due to the fact he was getting nervous. tommy pointed it out and jack trying to argue he wasn’t made you laugh.

“y/n keeps making a lot of jokes about my parachute being shit.”

“sorry manifold should be fine...more than likely...hopefully. only time will tell really.”

“how you doing buddy?”

“i’m feeling okay. i feel my insides doing inside bits.”

“wonderful!”

you were now all waiting to go as a worker jokes about forgetting something.

“y/n you’re going with him!”

“okay, but why?”

“well you said your ranboo merch will protect you..”

someone went by going rather fast causing you to stare in awe.

“we don’t go that fast, do we?”

“no not unless something goes terribly wrong.”

you all stood there laughing.

“stoppppp!”

“y/n, i’m now thinking you should go with them instead!”

“are you trying to kill me off jack?”

•••

you all set off towards the plane, a mixture of excitement and nerves began kicking in.

“tubbos on a lead.”

“oh i’m really nervous jack.”

“look at y/n!”

lani began to record you, who was now way ahead of the others, so you stopped and waved at lani.

“BYE LANI! HOPEFULLY ILL SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!”

the others caught up and everyone had their equipment checked again.

“oh dear.. should be fine.”

“i’m alright, don’t worry my ranboo merch will protect us!” you got on first and that when you realised they set you up, so you jumped last as you were more confident and tubbo was jumping first so he could get it out the way.

you all sat on the plane and waved at the camera.

“hi there!”

“hello!”

“hi!”

“please don’t let us die!”

“we’re really jumping out a plane with a dream stan.”

“this is the highest we’ve ever been.”

“gamers in a plane whatever will they do...hopefully not die!”

“Y/N!”

“sorry tubbo!”

you were currently at 2,000 feet and sat looking out the window waiting to reach 14,000 feet. jack turned to you and tommy, “i can’t believe you’re jumping out the plane in philza merch and y/ns jumping out in ranboo merch.”

“if i die at least ill look great doing it.”

12,000 feet later it was now tubbos turn to jump, he looked back at you all.

“YOU GOT THIS TUBBO!!”

you watched as tubbo went.

“GOOD LUCK TOMMY!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN GOOD LUCK? Y/N?”

“BYEEEEE!”

you laughed as tommy went.

“see you later jack!”

you gave jack a high-five and watched as he went.

“holy shit they actually did it!”

“are you ready, y/n?”

“hell yeah, let’s do this!”

you laughed as you jumped, you couldn’t believe you actually got to jump out of a plane, you waved at camera.

lani met the others as they landed and began telling them about it.

“wait where’s y/n?”

“there they are!”

“Y/N!”

the others ran up to you as you landed.

“i’m glad you didn’t die!”

“thanks jack!”

•••

“would you all do it again?”

“yeah.”

“no.”

“maybe, i’m not sure.”

“i reckon so.”

not too long later, you were all given certificates to celebrate the fact you had jumped out a plane.

“yay it made nearly dying worth it!”

“you’re so dramatic!”

•••

you thought the day was over and that you were going home, little did you know that wasn’t the case.

“were not done for the day.”

“what?”

“heh?”

“you’re tilting your head again.”

“i know it’s because i’m confused!”

“anyway, what do you mean we’re not done?”

“you know george, he’s arrived!”

“gogy!”

“GOGY!”

“can i have a nap in the car please? i’m so exhausted."

taglist:

@l0ver0fj0y

[broadstbroskis]

take my hand, wreck my plans | william nylander

a/n: if you’ve been around this blog for a while, you’ve probably seen me talking about “willy fake dating fic” for quite a bit now...well here she is! settle in for a long read (the longest i’ve posted in one go before) and i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it! so so so much love to literally every single person who cheered me on while writing this, but extra special thanks to @denis-scorianov​ and @danglesnipecelly​ for all your love and support

also shoutout to my girl tswift for the title, evermore still slaps

word count: 21.5k

It’s right in the middle of the busiest hours of the day when Steph’s text comes in, which means Aubrey barely even reads the message. She sees the words dinner and Friday and responds that she’ll be there, and then goes back to trying to fix the clusterfuck of code that one of her coworkers messed up earlier in the morning before her project has to get sent off to a client at the end of the week.

By the time Friday comes around, she’s only just managed to fix the code but the project is finished enough to send off as a first draft, so Aubrey races over to Steph and Mitch’s place after work, knowing she looks frazzled as hell from the look on her best friend’s face the minute she enters their kitchen. “Sweetie.” Steph says, then bites her lip. 

The feeling is mutual to Aubrey, because she’s giving Steph the same once over that Steph’s giving her. She’d arrived from the office, which took casual Friday to the extreme, in her favorite leggings, denim jacket, and converse- still enjoying the last bit of summer before Toronto turned to fall. Meanwhile Steph was dressed up for the evening in jeans and a flowy top. Her hair was done, her makeup looked beautiful; nothing about her screamed casual dinner at home. Certainly not like the messy ponytail Aubrey was rocking, after running over from work.

“Wine?” Mitch offers, breaking the silence, and Aubrey nods immediately, forgetting entirely about...whatever is going on here in favor of the alcohol she’s been needing since she arrived at the office today.

Mitch pours a glass and offers it out, but honestly, fuck that; Aubrey reaches for the bottle instead and takes a sip. “Nope, listen, these motherfuckers-” And then, she cuts herself off abruptly as she catches sight of the single most beautiful man she has ever had the pleasure of even having in her field of vision, leaning against the counter.

“No, go ahead.” Blondie grins, and fuck that, of course, he’s got the most beautiful smile too. “These motherfuckers, what?”

“Fucked up a huge project at work this week.” Aubrey finishes, pretty lamely, compared to how heated she’d started that sentence. 

“Gonna start throwing that at Matts.” Blondie grins again. “Anytime he fucks up a pass to me. This motherfucker.”

“Heh.” She laughs, lifting the wine bottle in a cheers-esque manner, and then, not knowing what else to do, she takes another large sip.

Blondie is still grinning when Aubrey brings her bottle back down and Mitch is doing a very poor job of hiding a laugh, but it’s not hard to see that Steph’s making murder eyes that Aubrey pointedly ignores, so Steph turns her attention away with a sigh. “What’s up, Will?”

“Oh, uh, Matts and Alison nominated me to see if there was anything we could do to help.” Will says smoothly.

“We?” Mitch raises an eyebrow, at the distinct lack of we that arrived with Will.

“Well.” Will shrugs, like that should explain everything, and maybe it does, because Mitch only snorts.

“We’re okay.” Steph jumps in. “We’ll all be out soon.”

Will nods, and leaves Aubrey with one last grin, before he turns and heads out towards their back patio, which must be where dinner is taking place, but as soon as the door shuts behind him, Aubrey turns to round on Steph and Mitch. “What the fuck?”

“Me, what the fuck?” Steph, her best friend since grade school, knows exactly what she’s talking about. “You, what the fuck?”

“This was a setup?”

“You didn’t know?” Mitch cries, turning immediately to his girlfriend and looking incredibly offended.

“Yes she did!” Steph defends. “I literally texted you: Mitch has a single friend we think you’d get along with if you’re interested. Are you free friday for dinner? We were thinking of having you all over. And you said: sounds good I’ll be there.”

“Well, in my defense, work was a dumpster fire this week and I really only skim-read that text.”

“Well now I know why you showed up like that.” 

“Rude, Stephanie.” Aubrey sticks her tongue out at her best friend, grinning immediately afterwards, because Steph’s her best friend and she’s the only one she would let talk to her this way. “Just for that I’m not using a glass the entire night.”

“Not like your first impression could get any worse.” Steph deadpans.

“Meh.” Mitch shrugs. “It’s Willy. He’s done way worse.”

Steph sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose, and then looks over. “Could you use your one free hand then to take a second bottle of wine out then please? For the rest of us who’d like some, to share?”

Aubrey grins. “Gladly.”

That this was meant to be a setup couldn’t be more clear to her as the three of them make their way out to the porch with more drinks and some snacks. Mitch and Steph have dragged some of their comfier patio furniture around the firepit; there’s a couple curled into each other on one of the couches, an empty one with Mitch’s favorite type of beer on the table next to it, and one seat open on the couch that’s occupied by Will. 

Aubrey shoots Steph a look as Steph practically leaps back onto the empty couch, and then she slips herself into the empty seat next to Will. That level of distinct lack of chill is really her thing, thanks Steph.

Steph merely grins back, formally introducing her to everyone around them. And okay, their friends are cool- like Aubrey knows they are; she’s met more than a few of Mitch’s hockey friends before. She’s many-a-time fifth-wheeled dinner with Mitch and Steph and Matt and Syd. She, Mitch, and Steph still had a group chat going with a bunch of Mitch’s old teammates from the Knights. Hell, Strome and McDavid had joined Mitch in playing with her and Steph on their families’ summer softball team last summer.

But she just can’t seem to understand what they see in Will that they think he’d be good for her. Like sure he’s nice enough, and obviously good looking, and like, yeah she has a good time while she’s there, but like, sparks? Nothing. 

Regardless of the lack of sparks between them, it is a fun night, and she curls up in one of the guest rooms in Steph and Mitch’s that night, fully planning on laughing at them the next morning. 

Except, the next morning, Mitch is already gone for practice and Steph’s first question is, “So when are you going to see Will again?”

Aubrey frowns. “Uhh I don’t know. Probably whenever you have us both over for dinner again?”

Steph frowns back. “What?”

“What what?”

“You didn’t, like, give him your number? Make plans? Anything?”

“Why would we?”

“Because he’s perfect for you?”

Aubrey gives her a look. Was Steph even at the same dinner that she was? They, like, barely interacted; Will chatting more with Auston and what’s-her-name or Mitch and Auston, and her with Steph pretty much the entire night. “Perfect for me? Seriously? That’s the guy you think is perfect for me?”

She huffs. If Aubrey didn’t know her best friend better she’d think she was offended, but, well, she does. “Yes!”

“No!”

“I mean, at least give it a shot!” Steph needles.

Aubrey pulls a face. “Why? So we can break up and make things super awkward at anything you and Mitch throw for the rest of your lives? No thanks.”

“I’m telling you.” Steph says. “Perfect match.” But she drops it after that, suggesting brunch, an offer that Aubrey immediately agrees to.

-----

It’s a quick stop for Aubrey to pop home to change and pick up her roommate, Erin, before the three girls head over to what’s long been a favorite brunch spot, laughing as Aubrey and Erin watch Steph fire off a series of snapchats to Mitch featuring her bottomless mimosas- her favorite way of asking to be picked up on his way home from practice.

Erin laughs so hard she almost snorts mimosa out her nose as Aubrey and Steph recap dinner from the previous night, but once she recovers, she hits Steph with a look. “I am begging you to invite me to this next time, solely so I can watch the two of them interact.”

Aubrey gasps as Steph laughs. “Rude!”

Erin giggles, beginning to recount the date she’d gone on last night-her fourth with this guy from the gym she belongs to-and Aubrey finds herself nodding along with Steph in all the right places, as friends should, happy that Erin’s happy, especially after her shitty last boyfriend, and eager to meet this guy for more than the five minutes he’d shown up at their door. 

Her story is interrupted-for Aubrey, at least-by the vibration of her phone, and she checks the text from an unfamiliar number, rolling her eyes when she sees the message.

hey this is will, followed by an amount of emojis that could only actually be from Mitch. 

hi mitch. She sends back.

lol. Comes the response. sorry.

you don’t have to apologize for mitch. i’m familiar

Will reacts to that with a haha and then it’s a while before she checks her phone again, enjoying brunch with her girls and laughing at the look on Mitch’s face as he comes to pick Steph up and realizes he’ll be driving her and Erin back as well.

he’s really found his place between annoying and relentless. Will’s texted, when she checks again a little later, at home on the couch and pleasantly tipsy, deciding what to Netflix with Erin.

that’s his sweet spot. Aubrey sends, and then points halfheartedly at The Office on the screen, well on her way to a post-brunch nap.

-----

Aubrey knows Mitch and Steph well enough to know that’s not the end of it, and sure enough, the subtle (and not so subtle) hints keep coming. But luckily, training camp is about to begin, and so even if they do keep coming, Mitch, and by extension, Will, are both too busy for Mitch and Steph to push anything too crazy on her and Will.

Until suddenly the season begins, and even though things are still crazy for them, suddenly they’ve got days off or afternoons free and she finds that the subtleness of the hints becomes gradually less subtle.

jesus fuck. Will sends one afternoon and she laughs at it immediately, even as he continues typing. tell steph i’m sorry but mitch had to go.

She laughs loudly, which earns her a look from her nearest coworkers. right there with you.

considering just lying and telling him i already took you out last week to just get him off my back jfc. 

tried that already. knew i was lying right away. Aubrey sends back. She appreciates him trying, but come on. That was like, the first thing she tried.

well, Will sends, and then those annoying three dots appear and disappear about four times, before he finally finishes. let’s just go somewhere then and get them off our backs.

time and fucking place. She replies.

-----

Aubrey meets Will at a bar that’s close to her work, a couple days after that text exchange, just in time for the end of happy hour. He’s got a drink in front of him already, that he quickly finishes when the waiter comes to take her order, so he can order another one while she orders one of her favorite cocktails, before it becomes full price again at the start of the next hour.

“You know, I thought Mitchy would have been more…” Will trails off, looking thoughtful, but then continues after a moment. “Smug, when I told him we were going out tonight. What’d Steph say?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong. They’ll be smug to each other.” Aubrey tells him, confident that the two of them are at home right now boasting about the fact that they were right. “But if they think we’re actually on the same page now and they say anything that I hear, that would be the end. Downward tailspin, cut my hair six inches, new tattoo, you name it.” 

Will laughs. “So it’s like that?”

She nods. “A little lacking in some impulse control.” She holds her thumb and index finger up to him, with about 10cm of space between them, to show him just how poor it is, and Will laughs again. 

“Guess I’ll just have to wait for a nice, big I told you so tomorrow.” He says.

Aubrey snickers. “One a day for the next few weeks more like.”

Will shrugs. “Meh, I’ll figure something out to give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“We should.” Aubrey nods absentmindedly, as a comment she’d made to Steph right after the initial dinner comes back to her. 

“Should what?” Will frowns. 

“Give them a taste of their own medicine.”

“Where are you going with this?” Will asks curiously.

Aubrey grins, as the idea starts to form. “A tragic break up to make things so awkward for the two of them that they’ll regret setting us up in the first place.”

Will pauses for a long moment, but then he grins and leans toward her. “I’m listening.”

-----

Steph is bouncing when Aubrey walks into their weekly Thursday barre class. She’s sure she knows why, but Aubrey gives her a strange look anyway when she slides in next to her. “What?”

“What?” Steph repeats. “Seriously?”

Aubrey laughs. “Use your words, Stephanie.”

“Bitch, you know what I want.” Steph says, which makes the woman in front of them turn and give them a scandalized look.

Aubrey giggles. She’d really just wanted to annoy Steph a little but that was totally worth it all. “Yeah I know. It was good. Like whatever.”

“I hate you so much.”

“I’m going to see him again!”Aubrey protests. “What more do you want from me? I’m not going to like, profess my undying love for him after one date. I’m not Mitch.”

“It was like, our fifth date, and he didn’t profess his undying love for me! He just said he loved me!” Steph huffs as Aubrey snickers. She laughs about it now, they all do, a thing she teases both of her friends about, but she vividly remembers the panic Steph had been in coming home from that date. 

“Well.” She says, grinning. “I guess I’ve got four dates to go then. Or maybe Will does.”

“Will’s too chill to do anything like that.” Steph decides, just as their usual instructor enters. “Ridiculous shit is definitely more your move.”

Aub thinks back to her date with Will the other night, where they’d carefully crafted an entire narrative to start this fake relationship, and fights back a grin, because she’s pretty sure Will can be just as ridiculous. He just does a better job at hiding it. 

-----

Just after noon one day, a few weeks into her arrangement with Will, Aubrey’s phone buzzes and she more than welcomes the interruption from the current project she’s working on.

need a favor. Will’s sent, followed immediately by, please.

sure, what’s up?

His name pops up on her screen next and Aubrey frowns, swiping to accept the call. “Hey.”

“I’m downstairs.” Will says and she frowns, both at the skipped greeting, and at his words.

“Of my office?” She blurts.

“Yeah.” Will says, like it’s the most casual thing in the world, and Aubrey pushes her chair back abruptly.

“Uh ok. I’ll be right down.” She’s already pushing the button for the elevator, waving off the coworker calling after her, asking if everything’s okay. 

Will’s waiting outside, with two cups of coffee in hand, and even though he’d said that he was, Aubrey’s still kind of surprised to see him. He passes her one of the cups in his hand and she takes it, thanking him as she does. “So what’s up?”

“I need a favor.” Will says, starting to walk, and Aubrey follows easily, sipping on the latte he’d brought her. 

She laughs. “You said. What do you need?”

“The team’s got this thing on Friday.” Aubrey gives him a look, because she knows what the thing the team has on Friday is, Steph’s been talking about it for a few weeks now, and it is not as casual as Will is throwing it out to her right now. “And I think I need you to come with me.”

“Do you though?” Aubrey says. “Do you really?”

“I tried for you not to.” Will admits, shooting her a grin, which she appreciates. “But, well, it’s a thing I would have brought any other girlfriend to and then Mitchy opened his mouth too…” He trails off.

“So find a dress.” Aubrey sums up.

Will nods. “Please. I’ll pay for it.” He adds, but she brushes it off. 

“If we’re still stuck in this for Blue and White, you can buy me a dress then.” She grins, and Will returns the grin.

“Deal.” 

-----

Fixing her curls one last time in the mirror by the door, Aubrey grabs her clutch and runs downstairs to meet her Uber. She’s late, not like super late, but more so than she’d  hoped to be, even after texting Will that she was running behind with work and that she’d have to meet him at the venue probably, if he didn’t want to be late.

She shoots off a text to him when she gets in the car, letting him know she’s on her way, and makes polite chatter for a few minutes with her driver, leg bouncing anxiously until he pulls up to where she needs to be.

Will’s standing outside the door when she pulls up, like he’s waiting for her as if this was an actual date, looking at something on his phone in the meantime, which gives Aubrey a minute to take a peek at his suit. He looks good; she might not have any desire to actually date Will, but she can absolutely admit to both herself and anyone (including Steph) that he’s probably the most objectively attractive human she’s ever met, and the suit only ramps that up. It’s custom made, perfectly fitted, a navy blue that brings out his eyes, and maybe a little more casual than some others she’s seen but in a good way. 

His choice in suits makes her feel better about what she’s wearing. Aubrey’d been trying to work off what Steph was wearing, while making sure that what she'd picked out wasn’t overly fancy for the evening or too similar to what Steph had already chosen, ending up in a knee length dress with a sheer high neckline. 

“Hey!” She smiles, catching his attention, mildly disappointed that he doesn’t even flinch in surprise, only looks up as smooth as can be and returns her smile.

“Hey.” He slips his phone in his pocket, reaching out for her hand.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Aubrey says immediately, that terrible feeling of letting anyone down instantly relieved when Will waves her off. 

“You haven’t even missed the entire cocktail hour.” He says and she feels her eyes widen as he nods solemnly. “Yeah, it’s like that.”

“Our first stop better be to get me a glass of wine.”

Will laughs, pressing the button for the elevator. “Wouldn’t dream of it being anywhere else.”

Will refreshes his own drink as well, and selects a red wine for her after Aub hems and haws over the options for a minute, a choice that she almost can’t bring herself to take a sip of once the glass is in her hand, for fear that she’ll never be able to drink another Malbec again, guessing this one is well out of her price range based on name and bottle appearance alone. (She takes a sip anyway, it’s as delicious as she’d expected).

Will’s smiling, as if waiting for her reaction, like there’s not a wine she doesn’t like (well, chardonnay, but like, even that she’ll drink if it’s all that available). “Should we do this?” Aubrey asks him, ready to watch him be roasted by teammates for the evening, and he nods, hand moving to the small of her back, leading her deep into the crowd.

But for all the shit he claims to have taken recently about her, they must be on their best behavior, out in public. Everyone he introduces her to is nothing but friendly; the few people she’s met before this event greet her with smiles and open arms, welcoming her into the fold. 

“Are you sure these are the same teammates you warned me about?” She asks Will, when they have a minute to themselves, just finishing up a long and very nice conversation with Justin Holl, Jake Muzzin and their wives, and thinking of the series of texts he’d sent her this morning about “all these assholes.”

“They’re being nice, just for you.” He insists. His arm is still at her waist; it’s barely left there all night. 

“Ugh, so I grew up with seven siblings and I’m not even going to be able to use the skills I got from that to throw down?” She jokes. “What was the point?”

Will actually stops walking for a second, drawing her into him quickly when she stumbles, not expecting the abrupt stop in walking. “You have seven siblings?”

Aubrey nods, wondering if she should bother getting into her family dynamics right now, and settles for a short version. “On my mom’s side, yeah. My parents divorced when I was a baby, and they both remarried. My brother and I have more siblings from both of them; it’s just like a whole thing with my dad.” She winces.

Will’s grinning again, though, like he didn’t even catch it, and he points to himself. “One of six.”

“Oh my god!” She blurts out excitedly, before she can help herself. There’s not many people she knows with sibling counts even close to hers, step and half siblings including, let alone a family like Will’s. “See, you get it!”

“Get what?” She hadn’t even realized that Mitch and Steph had approached them, until Mitch pokes in nosily.

“That younger siblings are actual monsters.” 

“You talk to your sisters everyday!” Mitch frowns, because he doesn’t get it; he never has.

“Yeah, your point?” Aubrey gives him a look as the others laugh around them. “That’s literally what having younger siblings is, and you just don’t know it because you are one.”

“Shots fired.” Steph nudges him.

“You’re the younger sibling too!” he nudges her back.

“Mmm, traditionally, Aub and I count all our siblings together, soo.” She trails off, laughing at the look on Mitch’s face.

Aubrey’s nodding; their families had grown up so close that it wasn’t uncommon to see Steph and her sister hanging around with Aubrey and her brothers, from the time they were children, all the way until today. “That’s why when Cam starts driving me crazy when she’s here next weekend, I’m just dropping her at your place. Basically the same thing.”

“Ohh, so she’s definitely coming?” Steph asks, eyes wide.

Aubrey nods. “Confirmed it with my mom today, I’m going to meet her halfway.” She pauses for the briefest of seconds. “Want to come?”

“Yes! Coffee on the way?”

“Obviously!”

“Yeah, Will and I are definitely going to sit this one out.” Mitch nods firmly.

“You weren’t actually invited, but okay.” Steph pats his shoulder mock-comfortingly. “But we should all do dinner when we get back!”

It takes everything in Aubrey not to show the internal panic on her face. She’s insanely close with her sisters, despite the age gap- she’s close with all her siblings, the brothers that she’d grown up probably terrorizing their parents together and the younger ones that terrorize them all now. It was probably unrealistic to think she could make it through “dating” Will without him meeting any of them, especially knowing how close Steph is with them too. “Yeah, that would be fun.”

She feels Will squeeze her side gently, almost comfortingly, but before they can get much further with this conversation, someone’s coming around and asking them to find their seats for dinner, so they split off to their tables, with promises to make plans for the following Friday over the next few days.

-----

Will’s quiet on the drive home after dinner, in his very expensive car, which is fine because Aubrey spends that time marveling over it. Like, she knew he was boujie, but, wow. 

“Is your sister staying all next weekend?” Will asks, abruptly interrupting Aubrey’s caress of the soft leather of the seat beneath her legs.

“Hm? Oh yeah.” She nods. “Cam’s been a super pain since Kayls started high school this year since she’s still back in junior high, but worse since Kayls just got invited to her first high school party and it’s next weekend.” She sees Will’s wince out of the corner of her eye and laughs. “Oh my god, you don’t even know the half of it! When I texted Cam to invite her up next weekend, she was like why would I want to come hang out with a bunch of old people like you anyway?” 

Will’s laughing and Aubrey’s jaw drops until he shares, “When I was home last summer, my youngest sister made me drop her off at a friend’s house three doors away because I wasn’t cool enough to be seen with.”

She actually laughs at that- if Will, an actual professional hockey player, isn’t cool enough to be seen with, then who is?- but the attitude is so familiar.  “They’re super close, Kayls and Cam, and like I kinda get why Cam’s being super annoying about a lot of shit. Like, I know she feels like she’s being left behind. But god, does she have to take it out on the rest of us?” She shakes her head, clearing both the thoughts and a piece of hair out of her face. “It’s just the age, my mom and I talk about it all the time. They’ll be nice again in a few years.”

Will glances over at her briefly with a look of panic on his face, before flicking his eyes back to the road. “That’s not really a comforting statement. As someone with three younger sisters,” He clarifies. “Not someone meeting yours this weekend.” Aubrey giggles. “But actually, I was wondering what your plans were with her on Saturday night? If you wanted tickets to the game for you guys?”

“Oh!” Aubrey blinks in surprise. “That would...that would actually be really nice. She’d like that.”

“Yeah?” She can hear the smile in Will’s voice.

“Well, she’d like the flex on all her friends on Monday.” Aub admits, knowing that her sister could probably care less about actually seeing a Leafs game. “And on the boys, they’d be super jealous.” At his glance, she clarifies. “Cam’s a triplet.”

He mutters something under his breath and she giggles again; she’s pretty sure that was Swedish and she can guess what it was. “But they’re not coming?”

“Not this weekend.” She confirms. She is definitely not hosting all three of Cam, Tyler, and Danny for the entire weekend. No way, no how. “But once they find out you’re offering tickets? I’m sure my phone will be ringing.”

“You know where to find me.” Will shrugs, pulling up in front of her building. “Thanks for coming tonight.”

Aubrey grins at him. “Fooled Steph and Mitch no problems.”

It feels like it takes a second for the comment to register with Will, but when it does, he returns the grin. “Yeah, no problems.”

-----

Steph waits until they are well on the road to meet her mom and both sisters (because in a surprise twist that everyone saw coming, a high schooler got grounded and a party was cancelled) sitting in stop and go traffic, before bringing up what Aubrey knows she’s been dying to ask. “So how’s Will?”

“Fine?” She responds, before she remembers that she’s supposed to know these things and hastens to finish. “It’s been a busy week with like, work and this shit, but like, he’s good.”

Steph makes a noise, like she’s unsatisfied with that answer and Aubrey gives her a look after she’s braked with the masses, waiting for it to pick up again. “But, like, how are the two of you?”

Ah. Ok. So that’s what this is about. “We’re good.” She assures Steph, absolutely certain her best friend is going to see right through her. “Just like, figuring shit out, you know? It’s still new.”

Steph’s nodding. “I mean, it wouldn’t be if you’d just gone out when Mitch and I first brought you to dinner…”

“Stephanie.” Aubrey says warningly, picking up speed, probably with too much hope that the traffic has cleared.

“Fine!” Steph laughs. “I know, I can’t say I told you so to you or you’re going to panic and break up with him and probably dye your hair and get bangs or something, but like. I’m super happy for you guys. You were so cute last week.”

“What?” Aub says blankly, because she really doesn’t have much else to say, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because Steph’s on a roll now.

“Like, Will couldn’t take his eyes off you the entire night.” She continues. “It was super cute; he kept, like reaching for you, you kept finding him.” She taps Aubrey’s leg excitedly. “Ok, I know I said I wouldn’t, but I’m too fucking excited and I knew you’d be perfect for each other, I knew it.”

“Oh, look! There’s a tattoo place right at the next light.” Aub says loudly, even though she has no intention of getting a tattoo right now- all four of her tattoos were impulsive decisions and the three threats she’s made since she’s gotten in the car feel like far too much thought, not to mention the time crunch they’re on to get back for dinner-but it does serve as the threat she intends. Steph clearly has no desire to try and talk her out of getting one today and switches the topic to something she just saw on the Insta of one of their friends, which lasts them until they pull into the parking lot that’s serving as the meeting point.

“Aub!” For all that Cameron pretends she’s too cool for everything, just like every 14 year old Aubrey can remember, she throws herself at Aubrey the second that Aub and Steph get out of the car. 

Aub squeezes her back, wondering when she got so tall. “Hey Cammie.” Cam swats at her as she pulls back. She hates that nickname, the one that Aub and her three older brothers have called her basically her entire life, but they’ve never stopped, no matter how much their youngest sibling had begged. “Where’s Kayls?”

“Here!” Kaylee huffs from next to their mom, who’s chatting with Steph, has been since she hugged her the minute she got out of the car. 

Aubrey’s eyes narrow, taking in the sibling who looks most like her. “Is that my sweater?”

“No.” Kaylee says too quickly to be true. “Are we ready? We have dinner plans, right?”

“Meeting Aubrey's new boyyyyfriend.” Cam sings, and Aubrey shoves her hand in her sister's face. 

“Not if you’re going to act like that, we don’t.”

“Girls.” Their mom pauses, mid-reach for Aubrey, to give her youngest two daughters a full-on mom look. “Be nice.”

Aubrey laughs at the looks on their faces, before clutching at her mom. “Hi momma. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Her mom squeezes. “Thanks for this gift.” She whispers and winks because Aub knows that her mom loves all eight of them dearly, but these two in particular are driving her nuts right now. “See you Sunday, at Luke’s.”

“Bye, I’m sure I’ll call you ten times before tomorrow!” Aubrey waves at her mom as she gets in her car, sliding back into the driver’s seat of her own, where Steph, Kaylee, and Cam are chattering to each other as they buckle their seatbelts. 

It’s just as she’s pulling back onto the road that Kayls gasps. “Aub, I think I forgot to pack toothpaste.”

“Ohh, me too!” Cam realizes.

Aubrey exchanges a look with Steph quickly. It’s not looking promising that she won’t be making a call to her mom, to talk her off the ledge.

-----

“What do you mean, you didn’t bring pants?” Aubrey rubs her temples as she stares at her sister.

Kaylee shrugs. “I forgot to pack them.”

“I forgot shirts.” Cam calls from the bathroom, where she’d just showered. “Can I borrow one?”

“Did you bring anything?” Aubrey asks wearily. “Toothbrush? Underwear?”

“Of course I brought underwear.” Kaylee huffs, sounding legit offended, like she didn’t forget to pack pants on a weekend trip away.

“Well excuse me for thinking you might not have, since you didn’t bring anything else!”

Her phone buzzes on the nightstand again; it’s got to be the third or fourth time, but she’s honestly been so caught up in her sisters that she hasn’t had time to check. “Just, like, grab whatever from the closet. We’re already late.”

Sure enough, it’s Will texting, letting her know he’s downstairs. be down in a few, She responds, not bothering to go into the whole pants story. “Girls! Three minutes!” She grins at their shrieks, packing a couple things into her purse and laughing to herself as she listens to them get ready. “Kayls! Cam!”

“We’re ready!” They rush out together, Kayls dressed in a pair of her favorite jeans and Cam in one of her favorite sweaters-how they always manage to find her favorites is ridiculous-but they don’t have time for her to make them change. 

“Ugh.” Aubrey just says instead, ushering them out and locking it behind her. “Come on, Will’s been waiting.”

“Will’s here?”

“Yes?” She frowns at the two of them. “Where else would he be?” But Kaylee and Cam are already giggling to each other, enough for her to roll her eyes to herself as she leads them out to Will’s car, knowing it’s definitely too much to expect them to just be cool.

“Hey.” Will greets, as she slips into the passenger seat.

“Hi.” She returns, smiling at him.

“Uh, hi?” Cam says impatiently from the backseat. Will laughs, but Aub gives her a look.

“It’s been literally two seconds. Could you, like, chill?”

“Nope!”

Aub side-eyes her again, but turns back to Will. “These are my sisters, Cam and Kaylee.” They greet him eagerly, a sentiment he returns, and then spends the entire car ride to the restaurant where they’re meeting Steph and Mitch at answering every question they ask with absurd patience. 

“Oh, I smell garlic.” Kaylee says, once Will has dropped his car off with valet. 

“It smells delicious.” Aub corrects, because it’s definitely heavy on the garlic, but it smells heavenly. 

Will smiles over at both of them, though Aub’s not sure if he means it more for Kaylee or her. “This is one of my favorite restaurants.”

“Really?” She blurts out, before she can stop herself, and he nods, reaching for her hand. 

“Great food.” He confirms. “Come on; Mitch and Steph are already here.”

That certainly serves to get her sisters moving-all her younger siblings have stopped being impressed by Mitch but they still love seeing him just as much as they love seeing Steph- and they push their way into through the doors quickly enough that Aubrey rushes to catch up to them, not trusting them alone, and tugging Will along with her.

Cam and Kaylee have already found Mitch and Steph, already chatting away with the two of them, like they didn’t just see Steph two hours ago in the car, and Aubrey and Will slip into the last two seats at the table. 

“You good?” Will nudges her as they sit. 

Aubrey nods. “Yeah. Pretty good.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Pretty good.”

“Well, Frick and Frack may legitimately drive me crazy this weekend but.” She shrugs. “We’ll see.”

“What happened to dropping them off with Steph if they drove you too crazy?”

She laughs. “God, if only, Will. If only.”

“Will!” Kaylee interrupts, looking up briefly from her menu. “What’s good here?”

“Will! What’s this mean?” Cam adds and Aubrey takes a deep breath, even as Will looks like it’s his absolute pleasure to walk them through the names of some of the different dishes on the menu. 

“Wine, please.” Aubrey requests from the waiter, the second he arrives at the table. “Literally, anything you’ve got.”

But Will waves that off, ordering a bottle of red for the table, in perfect French. “Show off.” She grumbles at him quietly and he grins at her from over the top of Cam’s menu, before he goes back to helping her out.

From her other side, Steph’s hiding her own smile, or rather, doing a very poor job at hiding one. “What?” Aubrey presses.

“Nothing.” Steph says. “Just happy to be having dinner all together.”

“Well that’s bullshit.” Aubrey calls her out, at the very blatant lie; Mitch snorts into his hand to cover his laugh. “But always happy to be having dinner with you too.”

Steph beams, clinking her wine glass with Aubrey’s the second the waiter fills them both. “Again, tomorrow, pregame?”

Aub looks over at her sisters, who have moved away from asking Will menu questions and are, instead, asking him questions about the bun in his hair. “Assuming you aren’t bailing me out of jail instead? Sure.”

-----

Aubrey Dupont: we’re going to do apps with steph pregame but want to say thanks again for tix tonight! want to do dinner again with us after if you’re free? 

Will Nylander: i’m free dinner sounds good 😁 it’ll be late though once I get out

Aubrey Dupont: that’s fine! Id say breakfast but we’ve got to leave pretty early tomorrow to get to my brothers to knock a wall down!

Will Nylander: ….holy shit cam was serious

Aubrey Dupont: 😂😂lollll yeah they’re opening up the dining room and living room! We’re all going out to take the wall down, we’re supposed to meet Steph and Mitch and then head out

Will Nylander: lol does mitch know? he booked us a tee time Sunday 

Aubrey Dupont: stfu he did not😂 lol he probably just doesn’t want to get iced that early

Will Nylander: haha what??

Aubrey Dupont: hahaha the first time steph brought him home to meet our families, it was my parents Christmas Eve party, my brothers iced him like three times in the first hour. He was so trashed he couldn’t even walk back next door to Steph’s house. 

It’s just like a thing we do, all our siblings and he was not prepared for it at all 😂

Will Nylander: sooo if I left one in his locker this week, how much trouble would you be in?

Aubrey Dupont: lol a lot but it’d be worth it, you should 100% do that

Mitch Marner: we’re knocking down a wall tomorrow wtf why didn’t you tell me? I’ll brave a Smirnoff to knock down a fucking wall. What time are you and Will picking us up?

Will Nylander: i fucked up, sorry

-----

“That’s really cute!” Zach Hyman’s wife smiles as she hands Kaylee her phone back. 

“Thank you.” Aubrey mouths to her, as Cam and Kayls flock to the phone to check out the pictures she’s taken of them, and Alannah smiles at her knowingly. Aub’s sure she’s got sisters of her own. 

“I’ll see you soon.” Alannah promises. “We should do dinner soon, the three of us, next time the boys are out of town.” And then she’s pushing her way toward Zach before Aub can respond to anything.

“Not a word.” Aubrey says warningly to her sisters, as Steph snickers, thinking of how picky the two of them are about pictures almost always.

“These are actually really cute though.” Cam says, like she even means it.

“Yeah, she did good.” Kayls adds, sliding her phone back into her purse.

“So happy they meet your standards.” Steph says dryly.

“They are the ones to meet.” Kayls flips her hair and it’s all Aubrey can do to fight back a laugh. She honest to god forgets how funny they are sometimes, when they’re driving her as crazy as they are now. 

“You’re too much.” Aubrey tells her and Kaylee grins, looping her arms around Aub’s shoulders and squeezing tightly. “Okay, now you’re really too much. You’re suffocating me; get off! Look,” She nudges Kaylee away, noticing quickly that Mitch has appeared recently- without Will, but with Auston-and tries to draw her attention there instead. “Mitch is here, bother him instead.”

Kaylee peers over. “Honestly, who even cares about Mitch? I’d rather bother Will instead.”

Mitch’s jaw drops as Steph and Auston laugh, but Aubrey feels the tension immediately in her shoulders. “Jesus Christ, could you just say thank you to Will so he doesn’t think you’re a literal monster like the rest of the world does?”

“Thanks, Will!” Kaylee and Cam chorus, and she glares at them right up until she feels a presence at her side and realizes he’s actually right there. 

“It was great to have you guys here this weekend.” Will smiles at them, sounding absolutely sincere, not a hint of sarcasm. 

“We had so much fun.” Kayls is already gushing before Aub can even turn her death glare to her. 

“What’d you guys do today?” Will asks her and again, it’s the sincerity that gets Aub, like he actually cares to listen to her sisters tell him about the brunch place that she and Steph took them to this morning, the stores they hit afterwards, a few of their favorite spots, before they had to go home and get ready for the game. 

He’s sweet and attentive, asking all the questions that he should and nodding in all the right places. “You guys still want dinner?” He asks, probably as soon as he can find a time to interrupt. He’s got to be absolutely starving after that game.

“Yes.” Aubrey answers for them all; she doesn’t really care what her sisters actually have to say on the matter. If Will’s hungry, they’ll eat right now whether they want to or not.

“Can we go back to that bakery we went to earlier, first?” Cam asks, and Aubrey straight up glares at her, but before she can even say no, Cam’s already whining to her. “Oh my, god, seriously? Stop, Aubrey!”

“Ryan, like, swears you’re fun; I just don’t see it.” Kaylee adds, about their brother, the one just younger than Aub.

And like, Aubrey knows they’re just trying to get under her skin, but like, Jesus Christ. “That’s because Ryan’s an actual adult and whenever you two come up here I have to be your literal mom, because you forget to bring toothbrushes and pants and use manners!”

“Take like four deep breaths.” Will says, in that chill way he is about basically everything, and immediately Aubrey feels her glare swing over toward him. That’s basically being told to calm down and there’s literally nothing fucking worse than that, doesn’t he know that?

Probably not. He’s probably never been told to calm down in his life. Jesus, what was it again that made Steph think he was perfect for her?

Mitch, probably recognizing that Aubrey’s about to lose it, pulls Cam into his side for a one-armed hug, mentioning that he’s starving, which at least cues Kaylee into the fact that Will might be too. “Yeah, dinner does actually sound good.” Her eyes flicker over to Will first, before landing on Aubrey, and only when Aub sees the flicker of remorse in them does she actually take that breath that Will had mentioned. 

“What time are we meeting in the morning?’ Steph asks, and Aub knows she’s looking to smooth over any potential blow up.

“9:22.” She deadpans, laughing at Mitch’s face.

“It’s supposed to be a nice day!” He protests. “I wouldn’t have made a tee time if you two had told me we were knocking down a wall! I had to hear it from Willy! What’s this shit?”

“Kicked out of the group chat again.” Aub shrugs, even though she knows well and truly that he hasn’t been- and won’t be again until sometime early spring, when someone does it symbolically for a day as they do every year.

“I’ll kick you out of the group chat.” Mitch says childishly, as Steph tries to collect him, Auston already ready to leave, and promising Aub that they’ll make plans later that night about the next morning.

“Will, where do you want to take us tonight for food?” Kayls asks, as they part ways in the lot.

Will looks a little startled. “Oh! Uh, what-where do you guys want to go?”

“We want to go where you like to eat.” Cam says. “We’ll eat anything.”

Will looks at her for confirmation and Aubrey nods; none of them are picky eaters. “Sushi?” He suggests and both girls nod excitedly, racing off towards Will’s car. “See?” He nudges her as they walk to catch up. “They’re fine.”

She glares up at him; he bumps her again and then again, repeatedly until she smiles. “They’re not awful.” She agrees, especially now that they’ve reminded her just how nice they can really be, at times.

Will’s grinning, matching her own smile. “I know you love them.”

“Don’t call me out like that, William.” He mimes zipping his lips and she laughs. “Ugh, you dork. Let’s go eat.”

-----

Kayls and Cam are in peak hurricane form, only barely dressed and nowhere near packed and ready to go, when Will texts to announce that he’s arrived to pick them up in the morning, so Aub just responds with her apartment number and tells him to come up.

He arrives at her door a minute or two later, with a guest in tow. “Mitchy invited him.” Will explains sheepishly, as he and Auston make themselves at home at the breakfast bar in her kitchen.

“Sorry to just, like, crash.” Auston adds.

Aubrey blinks at them. She feels like Will, of all people, should know better. “There’s legit eight of us; we adopt strays all the time.” He cracks up at that; they both do actually, and she smiles, just as Kayls shouts something about Cam stealing her leggings, from where they’re still in her room gathering her stuff.

“They’re not even yours!” Cam shouts. “Aubrey, tell her I got them first.”

“Well I was planning on wearing them!”

“Well you didn’t say that!”

“It’s just like being at home.” Auston says, smiling fondly enough that Aub laughs. “Make sure you check the straightener before you leave or they’ll fight about who forgot to turn it off in the car.” And then she straight up cackles; that’s a fight she knows well.

Auston and Will are both laughing as well, even as she hears her sisters shout for her. She ignores it, running her hands over her temples and turns towards the cabinet. “Coffee?” She asks them, and they both laugh as a muffled shout can be heard.

“Please.” Will says and Auston agrees so she pours mugs for them both, making idle chit chat, interrupted occasionally as they wait for her sisters to finally appear and be ready to leave. 

They do, eventually, far later than Aubrey would have liked, and late enough that she’s grinding her teeth about it, loud enough that Will nudges her gently when she passes him to get her coat. He’s right though, it’s not like they’re in a rush to get out to her brother's house, but she’s anxious enough by that point to get moving that she doesn’t even realize what Kayls has taken from her closet to wear until they’re all climbing into Will’s backseat. “Oh my god, what are you wearing?”

“They’re literally yours!” Kayls snaps back and that’s not a lie, but it’s not what Aub’s got issue with either. It’s the absurdly clashing patterns in her leggings and oversized long-sleeve.

“I never wear them together.”

“That’s because your fashion sense is basic a-f.” Kayls pronounces each letter individually and Aub knows, she knows that Will and Auston are laughing at the look of disbelief on her face, even if she can’t see them. “You should take some tips from Will; his is on point.”

“Thanks, Kayls!” Will beams at her through the rearview mirror.

Aubrey ignores him. “Will’s homeless, that’s why he dresses like that.” She deadpans, which he protests immediately even as Auston cracks up.

“You’re not homeless.” Cam says to her, and it’s the fake innocent thing that does it for Aub. “Will could live with you.”

Aub pulls a face even as Auston just laughs even harder and Cam stares at her like she’s waiting for an actual answer. “Walked right into that one.” She mutters to herself, as Will meets her eyes in the mirror. He’s fighting back a grin; she can see the laughter in his eyes. “Will, coffee at the next Tim’s, please?” She’s going to need one to get through this.

Will’s full on grinning now, but he pulls off at the next exit in search of coffee and hands over his credit card before she can even object. The rest of the ride to her brother’s house feels like it passes in a flash, Kayls and Cam tumbling out of the car to greet Luke practically before Will’s even put it in park. 

The only thing that stops Aubrey from having a complete heart attack is the immediate sense of calm she feels from no longer calling herself in charge. Luke’s here; he can deal with this shit now.

She feels Will laughing at her as they exit the car. “I thought you’d be more nervous.” He says, as they walk toward her brother, side by side, with Auston.

She snickers. “For what?” And then leans herself into Luke for a hug. “Hi!”

“Jesus, what’d you give them before you brought them here?” Luke returns the hug. 

“Literally anything that would shut them up.” She says, dead serious, and then introduces Will, and Auston, almost as an afterthought. 

Luke is friendly and welcoming, like she knew he would be. They’ve never had the overprotective sibling relationship she hears about from people. They’re too close in age, only a year apart in school; or too close in general, sharing too much as they grew up shuffled to their dad and stepmom’s every other weekend for their court-mandated time. She’s never doubted that he has her back, but he lets her live her life, no matter how stupid the decisions she might make (though he’s certainly not shy about telling her when he thinks she making one).

“Fitz and Steph and Mitch here yet?” She wonders, as they walk inside, the chatter between her sisters and sister-in-law already evident.

“Running late.” Luke says. “But Ryan’s upstairs sleeping. He stayed last night.”

She grins at him, contemplating running up to wake him, but in the end decides against it, settling for following the sound of her sisters’ voices into the kitchen. Rachel’s standing at the counter, setting out snacks and listening patiently as Kayls and Cam detail their entire weekend to her.

“-Will got us tickets for Saturday’s game-”

“-we ate at this amazing sushi place-”

“Rach!” Aubrey interrupts, tugging her sister-in-law away from Kayls and Cam, who are talking over each other. “Come meet Will.”

Rachel sends her a grateful look and immediately turns her bright smile at Will and Auston, introducing herself to them both and offering them drinks. By the time that she, Luke, and Aub finish getting drinks for everyone, Ryan’s coming downstairs, rubbing a hand over his face sleepily, and the introductions begin all over again.

Then Aubrey and Steph’s parents come in with her two youngest brothers, which cues another round of that, and then finally, Steph, Mitch, and Fitz roll in, which has Aubrey cackling when Auston leans over and whispers. “You didn’t tell us your brother is Little Fred?”

“What the fuck are you on?” She frowns at him, but Will’s got the same look on his face.

Will nods over at Fitz, the stepbrother who’d been in the same grade as her growing up and one of her best friends for about as long as she could remember. Said brother is currently trying to mess up Cam’s hair with one hand, while fighting one of her triplets, Tye, for the last danish. “He’s come out with us a few times, I guess with Mitch? He looks like Fred.” She gives the two of them a look. Literally the only thing her brother and their goalie have in common is red hair. Will shrugs. “Little Fred.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” She declares. “The bar is so low.”

“Must be.” Ryan nudges her side. She hadn’t even heard him come up beside her. “Dating you and all.” 

She flips him off and he grins; Ryan’s actually the sibling closest in age to her, with the way all their birthdays work out, but from Luke to Ryan, all four of them are close and when Steph and her sister were added in there as well…well, the group chat gets chaotic.

“Hey!” Her mom snaps her fingers at them. “I don’t want to see any of that today.” And Aub can feel it in her face, the look she’s giving back to her mom, like certain that she’s not serious, because, honestly, has she met any of them? She peeks over at Ryan; he’s fighting back a laugh and that’s all it takes for her mom to lose it, the seriousness on her face quickly turning into a laugh.

It’s enough to get them all moving though, toward the wall they’re going to be tackling today, where they’re divided into teams by her stepdad and Steph’s dad, the only two who competently know what they’re doing.

“Ohhh!” Cam says immediately drifting towards the power saw. “Can I use this?”

Will pulls it away from her hands before she has the chance to even touch it and Aubrey’s calling out to her stepdad. “Mike! Are we stuck with these people all day?”

“Yes.” Her stepdad calls back; he’s already showing Tye and Danny how to demo their end of the wall.

Aub looks at Will and immediately mouths, “I’m sorry,” but he’s already loudly laughing at her. She kinda hates that he’s laughing at her, but she hates even more how contagious his laughter is.

-----

It’s a little past dinner time and Aubrey’s exhausted, too tired even to take her empty pizza plate to the kitchen trash can from where she’s sitting on the family room floor. 

Around her, the rest of her family is in a similar state. Ryan’s actually asleep on one end of the couch, and on the other end, Auston’s half-heartedly grumbling at Derek Carr and the Raiders, while Steph’s lying across Mitch’s lap on the other side of the room. It’s about as quiet as they’ve all ever been, even Mitch and her sisters, which is how she knows they’re all exhausted.

Next to her, Will’s been quietly munching on a plate of fries since he finished his pizza a while ago. Aubrey reaches over and steals one from him. “Hey!” He protests.

“You’ve had the whole plate!” She thought she ate a lot; she honestly doesn’t know where he puts it all. “I just wanted a couple!”

“A couple?” Will repeats and Aubrey nods with a grin, reaching out and swiping another one from the plate. “Keep this up and we’re going to have to stop for second dinner on the way home.”

“I could probably eat again by then.” She rationalizes, stealing another. 

Will laughs, sliding the plate over a few inches toward her, and Aubrey grins triumphantly. It’s quiet for a minute, or mostly quiet, the only sound for the next minute Auston moaning about a fumble, and Kaylee and Cam asking a question about it and then giggling to each other about it before they even get a full answer to it. 

It’s Auston’s perplexed face that reminds her and she nudges Will as she goes in for another fry. ���Hey.” She bumps him again, grabbing his attention. “Thanks.”

Will hums, sounding almost confused, and glances over at her. Every time Aubrey thinks it’s impossible for him to be more good looking, he proves her wrong; and always doing the most innocent things. He’s just looking at her, with this tiny little smile, but the light’s catching his eyes and they look impossibly blue and gentle, so soft like the rest of him does right now, in a way he almost never publicly is. “For what?”

“For putting up with my sisters all weekend and their increasingly ridiculous comments.”

Will laughs and he’s so close that she can feel the vibration. He’s leaning back against the wall again, but his head’s tilted a little, just barely leaning against hers, and Aub leans into it a little as he starts to talk. “My two youngest sisters play this game, every time we go to the airport, yeah? After we’ve said goodbye and everything. It’s like this competition between them, for who gets the last touch. And they’ll like chase me down as far as they can until I get to security, back and forth between the two of them…”

Aubrey’s already giggling, picturing the scene. “Same shit, different day,” She summarizes the weekend.

He flicks his finger across her nose and she giggles again. “Bingo.”

-----

It’s only when they’re back in the car and on the highway back toward Toronto after stopping for sushi for a second dinner that Auston says, sounding entirely too casual to actually be casual, “So, like, what’s really going on here with you two?”

Aub feels her stomach drop and it takes everything in her not to look at Will, who of fucking course, plays it enitrely cool. “What do you mean?”

Auston leans forward, from the middle seat in the back, which he’d generously offered to take so that she could sit up with Will even though she’d insisted he’d want the leg room up front; she’s starting to wonder if there was more to it than that. He gestures between the two of them. “It’s just, like, not how you usually are with girls.”

Will’s head whips back to look at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He demands.

“Will!” Aubrey hisses. “Eyes on the road.”

Auston’s cackling as Will turns his attention back to driving, but continues to eye him up through the rearview mirror. Aubrey twists in her seat; she can still stare him down. “So anyway,” He continues. “There’s that. And then, I mean, I was in the car with him when you literally texted him your apartment number. That was pretty sketch.”

Aub swings her gaze over to Will. “It came over Bluetooth.” He defends. 

She pats his thigh. “Stick with hockey, kay?”

He laughs, and when she looks back at Auston, he’s laughing too, but he’s also got this thoughtful look on his face. “So anyway, what’s going on?” He presses.

“Steph and Mitch.” She says finally, after exchanging another look with Will.

“Ah.”

“That’s it?” She frowns at him. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Well, I mean, I’m sure there’s more to it, but like, I have met them before.” Auston grins when she and Will both laugh. “So what’d they do now?”

“Do you have an hour?” Will drawls.

“I have beer upstairs.” Auston offers, since they’re basically pulling up to his apartment, and since Will looks over at her for confirmation, Aub barely even takes a second before agreeing.

“Any wine?”

-----

It’s actually kind of crazy how relieving it is for someone else to know about her and Will, outside of the two of them. Aubrey hadn’t even realized how much it was weighing on her until it’s not, until the three of them had spent three hours laughing about it, recapping the entire thing and then just laughing about nothing.

She notices right away that it's equally relieving to Will, that the two of them will drift over to Auston when the team does something together, or that she’ll get a snapchat from one of them from the road that features Will and Auston off doing something ridiculous.

Steph calls her out on it one day, when the two of them are at a game one night. “I did not introduce you to Will for the two of you to spend time with Auston.”

“You ditched me last night!” Aubrey protests, but really, Steph’s not wrong. That was one time, because Mitch’s brother wanted to introduce his new girlfriend to them, and she’s been out here avoiding invites like it’s her job.

Steph continues like she didn’t hear a thing. “I introduced you to Will so that we could have great couples’ friends and hang out all the time, so why aren’t we?”

“I thought you introduced me to Will because we’d be perfect together?” Aubrey bitches and Steph gives her a look, so Aubrey promises that she and Will will do dinner with her and Mitch again soon.

Dinner soon, to Steph, apparently means that weekend, and Aubrey finds herself in Will’s car again, with a bottle of wine and a plate of dessert, driving out to Etobicoke on Friday night. “I like that I’ve claimed this seat now.”

Will laughs. “What?”

“It’s always set where I want it to be!” She grins. “Perfect leg room!”

Her phone buzzes as Will laughs again, but it only takes a quick glance at the screen to click back out of it. “You okay?” Will asks.

“Huh?”

“You just got real quiet, real quick.” He says, turning onto Steph and Mitch’s street. “Everything alright?”

Aubrey huffs out an aggravated breath, trying to decide what, if anything, she wants to say. “My other dad is being...my other dad.”

“Oh?” Will parks in their driveway and she huffs out another annoyed sigh as her phone buzzes in her pocket, knowing it’s just her half-brother again with more shit about their dad. 

“He’s like…” She gathers her stuff and tries to find the words as they walk inside. “I don’t even know. Everybody’s been freaking out since some lady tagged him in a bunch of pictures on Facebook last week but my siblings are at dinner with him right now and they asked him about it and he told them he’s not seeing anyone.”

“Wait, seriously?” It’s the first thing Steph says to her; Aub’s been bitching to her about the whole thing for a week now and she’s more than familiar with her issues with her dad. 

“Yes!” She cries. “My sister asked if he was seeing anyone, he said no. I guess one of the boys asked if he’d taken any trips lately, because of the pictures, and he said no. So he’s just straight up lying and I don’t know why!”

“Maybe,” Will says. “He’s not actually lying.”

Aubrey pats his arms gently. “You’re new here, so I’ll let that terrible thought pass.”

Will looks taken aback but she can barely spare a thought for that as Mitch says, “Maybe he got secret-married again and is just waiting until you’re all there to tell you-OW!” Steph elbows him hard and he grins anyway. “What? I’m just saying!”

“I already went to therapy once this week, Mitchy.” Aub mock-glares at him. “I cried for three hours and only didn’t dye my hair blue because Steph came to pick me up for the game. I don’t need to go again. Keep that shit to yourself and get me some wine.”

Mitch laughs; he’s equally familiar with her post-therapy routine and her feelings for her dad. “Alright fine.” He says, but there must still be something on her face because Will’s hand comes to rest on her shoulder right after that and he rubs it gently for a minute before he comes to sit next to her.

Conversation turns lighter after that- to Mitch’s brother’s new girlfriend, who Steph liked and Mitch thought was only okay and then to Will’s sister’s new boyfriend, who he hates-before they’re all more focused on food and a game later in the evening. 

It’s easy to ignore her phone buzzing when Aubrey and Mitch are dominating Steph and Will at Codenames (or calling cheaters, because Will and Steph most definitely are), but much harder to ignore in the car when she and Will are alone again, and Aub barely even notices when Will doesn’t make the turn for her place, instead just driving straight to his place.

“Oh.” She says quietly when he finally parks and they’re in the garage, instead of just pulling up out front of her building, like he has been recently.

“Didn’t want you to dye your hair blue tonight.” Will deadpans and Aubrey laughs, surprised that it’s kind of watery. 

“Fair, it was definitely a risk.”

Will smiles at her gently. “I’ve been told my guest room is supremely comfortable.”

Aubrey raises her eyebrows; she can siphon out the source of that one. “I hear your brother has pretty shitty taste.” She says and he laughs, that loud one he’s got that she can’t help but smile at because it sounds so ridiculous, but Aubrey’s already getting out of the car, ready to follow him up before he can see.

Will’s condo is pretty much everything she expected- a lot of modern pieces, a lot of white, very Scandanavian- but there’s plenty of Will in it as well. A lot of family pictures. Some hockey stuff-both Leafs and Team Sweden-but not an overwhelming amount. 

She’s still looking at some of the pictures (he looks so much like his mom) when he returns with a couple glasses of wine, and she accepts hers with a gracious smile. “Thank you.”

“We’ve been at this long enough for me to know that wine’s your thing.” He jokes and she laughs.

“I meant for bringing me here.” She shoves at his shoulder; annoyingly enough he doesn’t even move. “I definitely would have done something stupid.”

“What are friends for?” Will smiles and there’s that annoyed feeling again, maybe even more so than just a minute ago, tugging at her stomach, for really no reason. They are friends now, in pretty much every sense of the word. They hang out, they text, they do all kinds of things. It’ll actually probably be hard for her, to not be friends with him, or at least pretend to be, when they have to “break up” for a bit to annoy Steph and Mitch. 

“Yeah.” Aubrey says and it just sounds off so she takes a sip of her wine right away so he can’t see whatever her face is doing. “If you were really my friend, you’d let me borrow some sweats to sleep in. You know. Since you kidnapped me to bring me here.”

“Ohh, I don’t know if we’re that close.” Will says, but he’s laughing as he walks toward his room so she knows he’s kidding.

It’s a pretty quiet night between the two of them once they make themselves comfortable, just chilling on the couch and watching Netflix, and Will’s not stingy with his pours so Aubrey pours herself into his guest room a little tipsy, and maybe that’s why she texts him from bed. You were right, your guest bed is pretty comfortable.

*Supremely* comfortable. Told you so 😜

-----

Aub’s still in Will’s absurdly comfortable guest bed when her daily FaceTime call with her sisters comes in and she answers it without thinking. “Hey.”

“Where are you?” Kaylee asks immediately. “That’s not your room-oh my god, are you at Will’s?” She blurts and Aubrey wants to smack herself.

“That’s Leafs stuff!” Cam exclaims, popping her head into the frame. “You never wear Leafs stuff! Oh my god, do you live there now?”

“Back up, calm the crazy.” She’s cutting off this spiral before they’ve got the story of her and Will eloping spread to her entire family. 

Kayls pouts. “You never let us have any fun.”

“I do not want a call from Grandma this afternoon asking me why I got married to the blond hippie from the Leafs because you two can’t keep your mouths shut and she saw one bad picture.” 

Cam’s jaw drops in outrage. “That’s so rude, we would at least send a good picture out! Like she’d know how hot he really is; there’d be no need to google and accidentally come across a picture of him in a Sugo hat.”

That’s it. She’s up for good now. Aubrey throws the blankets off herself and sits up off the edge of the bed, rubbing her temples in hopes it’ll make her tiny hangover headache go away. Limited success. “You googled him?”

“Of course we googled him!” Kayls says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Aub, oh my god, he’s got-”

“I’m leaving this room right now.” Aubrey warns; she’s already at the door. “Stop talking about him like he’s not here.”

Cam immediately launches into a story about a couple of the girls on her field hockey team and something that had happened at practice after school yesterday, a story that she’s still detailing when Aubrey walks into the kitchen to find Will also looking into his phone with a fond look on his face as a loud jumble of voices shout back to him in what she can only assume is Swedish.

“Coffee’s back there.” He points, greeting her with a smile. “And mugs above it.”

“Thank you.” She’s pretty sure, from the expression on his face, that he knows how much of a lifeline that’s about to be for her.

“Hi Will!” Kayls calls and Aub glares at her, but Will calls back a greeting in return before returning to Swedish, but definitely in an argumentative tone.

It’s a couple more minutes of that-listening to Will speaking in Swedish and going through her usual morning nonsense with her sisters-before Will lets out the smallest groan and then looks at her. “My sisters want to say hi.”

“Oh.” Aubrey says, surprised more than anything.

And before she can really say anything, Cam adds. “Yes! Then we can talk with Will!” Which is how she finds herself sitting next to Will with his dog curled in her lap, both their phones in front of them, speaking with her sisters and two of Will’s sisters.

It’s pretty much maximal chaos, but when they both end their calls a few minutes later, Aubrey’s still smiling as she runs her hand through the dog’s fur and Will’s laughing to himself. “Mmm, good luck to you.” Aub nudges him, easy enough to do since she’s still sitting flush up next to him. “When they’re in town next month. They’ve probably all followed each other on Instagram by now already. Best friends in no time.”

“Gonna be busy with games.” Will says weakly. “Practices, media things. Think it’s gonna be your problem.”

“Like hell.” She laughs, shaking her head when he joins in and doesn’t stop. “Oh my god, that was not that funny!”

“Just thinking of all the ways they’re going to torture us when they’re all together after they’ve spent the last month talking shit about us in a group chat.” Will says, somehow still laughing about that, because he’s literally the most chill person on the planet. Like of course he’s not even bothered by that.

“I don’t have enough food in me to deal with that thought.” Aubrey declares, laughing decidedly less at the thought of actually meeting Will’s family. In person. Where they’ll have to actually see her and see what a farce this is. “Feed me.”

Will shrugs. “Let me change and we’ll grab brunch.”

Aub looks down at the very large sweats she’s borrowed to sleep in. “We’ll stop first, yeah?”

“Depends on how hangry you are.” Will calls back, already walking away.

She pulls a face at his back at that one. She’s actually pretty hungry, but like, she’s not dumb enough to go out to brunch with him in a walk of shame. Not when there’s already a group chat forming about her on Instagram. She doesn’t need Leafs Twitter coming for her too.

-----

It’s easy to settle in a routine from there; meeting Mitch and Steph for dinner a few times, joining Steph for games and then leaving with Will for a second dinner after, and easily splitting off to spend time with her own family and friends or catching up with them when Will is off on road trips. 

It’s so easy to settle into a routine like that, a relationship routine, that she lets herself get lulled into a false sense of security, the message from her dad catching her off guard completely one day.

“What’s wrong?” Will asks, when they’re at dinner after a game. It’s their thing now; pick a restaurant and grab some food right afterwards before he drops her off at home. It’s a nice way to wind down actually; she usually looks forward to it.

Tonight though, Aub has been uncharacteristically quiet since they met up and she was a downright bitch earlier when she and Steph were fighting about something. Like, she knows they’ll forget all about it tomorrow, but still. She owes her best friend coffee at the least. “Hmm?” She looks up at him, barely hearing his question. 

“What’s wrong?” He repeats, giving her a look before she can fight him against answering.

She pushes her food around a little-very uncharacteristic for her, and she can tell even Will’s picked up on that. “My dad wants to meet us all for dinner this week, which means he probably did get secret-married again.”

“Oh.” Will makes a face and Aubrey returns it, laughing when he contorts his even worse. “And that’s-I mean-again?” He finally settles on and she nods, ready to drop this bomb.

“It’ll be wife number six, but secret wedding number three.” She says, delighting in the way his jaw drops. “This is just, like, what he does; he just announces he wants to have dinner with us and then shows up and is like and here’s my new wife, like it’s super casual, and then we all wonder why I need therapy when he’s out here hiding wives and families like it’s a fulltime job.” She finishes, only realizing how heated she is about it when she looks up to find Will staring at her with wide eyes.

“Um.” Will starts.

“Sorry.” Aub hastens, flushing.

“No!” Will says. “No, don’t apologize at all, you can, like, share whatever you want. I just...I got like half of what you just said.” He gives her an apologetic look. “Missing a big chunk of this story.”

“Right.” Aub nods, pretty proud of how calm she sounds. Dr. Seth is going to be so impressed with her next week. “Sorry. We haven’t talked about the two secret families he was hiding when I was growing up. Ok, I’ll back up.”

“He what?” Will cries, but Aub waves him off, diving into the whole history of her dad, her half-siblings, and her step-moms...as well as their various divorces. 

“...and that brings us to now.” She takes a sip of her wine thoughtfully; Will has long since drained his and refilled. She’s pretty sure she didn’t miss anything. “And dinner that’s going to be an absolute disaster.”

“Do you want me to come?” Will offers.

“No!” She says immediately. That’s like-god, that’s the worst idea ever. They do not need to get her greedy father involved in this, who’d take one look at Will and see dollar bills. She’s accepted that she can’t change the way her dad treats her (after many years of therapy); she’s got another dad who loves her and it’s not fine the way her dad doesn’t remember her birthday or what she does for work or pretty much anything important about her, but it is what it is. But like, she’s not going to subject Will to it. “It’ll be-fine.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You think so?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “But thanks anyway.”

Will purses his lips. It’s clear that he doesn’t love that answer, but he doesn’t say anything more on the subject, asking her instead if she wants to split a dessert, as if he doesn’t already know the answer to that question, and Aub, grateful for the change in topic, even agrees to let him pick this time.

It’s a rare gift.

-----

Aubrey knows she had a little too much to drink at dinner with her dad, but she’s not so drunk that she can’t recognize that this is Will’s door she’s standing in front of, knocking loudly and repeatedly. 

She has only a moment to contemplate that-that it’s here she chose to come to after yet another disaster dinner, instead of Steph’s or her brother’s or back home to her own place-before Will’s opening the door, the confusion passing quickly over his face when he realizes it’s her.

“Hey.” He beams and steps back, silently inviting her in, but Aub doesn’t want him to go further away from her. That’s why she came here. “Whoa, hey!” Will says, as Aub steps in the condo and presses herself against him. “Are you-” He lets out a strangled choke as she tiptoes up and loops her arms around the back of his neck. “-okay?”

“Peachy.” She says, pulling him down to kiss her.

It’s not really a great kiss; Will’s kissing her back for a moment, and then pulling back. “Wait-”

“No.” She whines, leaning in for another, and he does it again, caught up for a moment in kissing her, but then it’s like his thoughts catch up to him and he breaks it.

“Aub, we shouldn’t- we aren’t-”

And like why shouldn’t they? They’ve been doing this fake relationship for a while now and not able to hook up with anyone else because of it. He’s objectively the hottest person she’s ever seen. There’s no reason that’s coming to her right now that says she shouldn’t. “We’re friends now!” Aubrey says, running her palms over his shoulders. God, why weren’t they doing this the entire time? “Right?” And Will nods, slowly, but it’s a nod, “It’s fine, friends hook up all the time.” 

“You really want this?” His thumb brushes her cheek as she nods and only then does he pull her back in for a kiss.

-----

If Aubrey thought Will’s guest bed was comfortable, it’s really got nothing on his actual bed. She rolls over, curling into the pillow a little more and opens her eyes to see the sliver of sunlight coming through catch the edge of Will’s face, that one piece of hair that’s sticking up that should be unattractive, but is totally not.

It’s really just unfair.

The sound comes from behind her and Aub jumps when she realizes it’s Will’s alarm going off.  It seems like it barely even fazes him; he just reaches across her and silences it; his arm falling across her when he drags himself back.

“Hi.” She smiles.

“Hi.” Will laughs and it lights up his whole face; she can’t help the hand that comes up to trace over his features. “Come on, that’s not fair.

“What’s not fair?” Aubrey asks innocently, trailing her nails down his chest.

He groans. “I have to go. Skate.”

“You don’t have to go.” She pouts and he groans again.

“You’re making it really hard to have to.”

“Good.” Aubrey giggles, only stopping when Will shuts her up with a kiss.

“Really hard.” He repeats as she rolls her hips into his.

“Fine.” She sighs, flopping onto her back, and she knows the move does exactly as she’d intended when his eyes go right to her chest. “I guess I’ll just have to stay here in bed until you get back.”

“Please do.” He insists, leaning over to kiss her again. “Fastest skate ever.” Will promises.

“You can’t control that.” Aubrey reasons, even as Will’s shaking his head at her while he climbs out of bed.

“Fastest skate ever.” He repeats.

She can’t really confirm or deny that it is; but when he does return, pulling her out of a doze by jumping on top of her, there’s coffee on the table for her too. It’s cold by the time she gets to it.

-----

“You guys are being weird.” Steph comments one night, as Aub’s cheering after Will scores a tie-breaking goal. 

“What?” Aubrey gives her a look. “What do you mean?”

“You and Will.” Steph says, like it should be obvious. “You’re like-” She breaks off, making a noise of frustration.

“You’re in the honeymoon phase.” Alannah supplies helpfully and Steph lights up.

“Yes!” She cries and Aubrey glares over at Alannah but she merely smiles back. “But it’s like, you’re back in it? Like, you weren’t for a while and now...you can’t take your hands off each other again!”

Aubrey doesn’t really know what to say to that. She’s not denying that she and Will have been all over each other ever since that first night they slept together. She can’t even remember the last time she went to her apartment for anything more than to pack clothes and she’s lost track of the number of times she’s reached out for him only to find Will already reaching for her.

But before? She can’t think of any moment where they were ever like they are now. Like there’s too much space between them even when she’s right next to him. Or this pull that brings her toward him no matter where he’s at.

But she doesn’t...she doesn’t know what to say about that. Because it’s not like anything has changed between them. They’re still friends; they still laugh and joke as usual, still gossip about their friends together, are still just waiting to drop a big break up on Mitch and Steph. 

Nothing’s changed, even if maybe, she thinks, something has.

So she shrugs at Steph and says, “We’re just happy. Is that so bad?”

Steph beams and leans her head against Aubrey’s shoulder, and like, Aub knows that’s exactly what she’d been hoping for since she introduced her to Will, but Aubrey still feels like something wasn’t right about what she said.

-----

Aubrey tugs on the Nylander jersey that drapes over her frame as she and Will walk into the hospital conference room. “Are you sure about this?”

“It’s tradition.” He grins. “Stop playing with it.”

“That’s what she said.” She says as dryly as she can, managing to keep the face until he laughs, and then she cracks up with him. 

That’s how the two of them walk into the conference room where the team is meeting; laughing so loudly that everyone stops what they’re doing to turn and look, but she and Will only get a bunch of fond smiles before everyone turns back to their own conversations.

Steph gives her a knowing look when they approach hand in hand, which Aubrey ignores pointedly. “You didn’t warn me we’d have to actually go things wearing this dumb jersey when you plotted to get us together.”

“Oh I didn’t?” Steph says innocently as Mitch and Will sputter in protest. “Must have slipped my mind.”

“Dumb jersey?” Will nudges her.

Aub shrugs, looking up at him with a cheeky grin. “It’s a little big. Might have some trouble getting out of this thing.”

Will grins. “I’m sure some help can be arranged.”

Mitch feigns gagging. “There are children around.”

Wills hand drags up her side briefly-too briefly- as he grins at Mitch. “Where, Mitchell?” But he backs off and Aub does too, both of them catching up with teammates and wives and girlfriends around them.

Or they back off a little, but Aub still finds herself drawn int0 his orbit, especially once they start splitting off into groups to move through the hospital to go see the kids. His hand will brush against hers as they move between rooms; she’s bumping her shoulder against his arm comfortingly as they talk with parents.

It’s not very subtle, but they don’t need to be. Except…

“What is going on?” Auston hisses at her, in passing, as he’s about to step inside the room Will’s just about leaving.

“Nothing.” Aub says innocently, but Will reaches for her hand when he leaves, opting for a fist bump with Auston instead, and Auston’s eyes widen, but Aubrey tugs Will along before he can say anything. “Come on, let’s grab some water real quick!”

The diversion doesn’t last long; Auston catches up to her only two rooms later while Will’s in talking hockey with a little girl and she’s waiting outside, leaning against the wall. He joins her, looking in as well for a moment, before looking over at her. “This is a terrible idea.” Auston says flatly.

“You were on board with it!” Aubrey hisses, trying to keep a smile on her face.

“That was before I realized you guys were sleeping together. Now it’s going to backfire and go to shit.”

Aubrey frowns. “Why?”

“Why?” Auston repeats, like he can’t even help himself. “Oh my god, you don’t even-” He stops abruptly. 

“Don’t even what?” She prompts, when it’s clear he’s not going to continue.

But he doesn’t continue. He just rubs his temples for a minute and mutters under his breath. “Fuck me, how do I have to be the smart one here?”

“Hey!” Aubrey protests, offended. “I am always the smart one.”

“Not right now.” He says cryptically. “And it’s hard to tell who’s being dumber: you or Willy.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Aubrey frowns, but Auston’s already walking away. “Auston!” He ignores her. “Auston!”

“Hey.” Will’s reaching for her arm gently. “What’s wrong?”

Auston’s out of sight now anyway. “Nothing.” She shakes her head, clearing her thoughts and then looks up at him. “Next room?”

-----

“What are you doing Friday?” Aubrey looks up from scrolling through her family’s group chat; Will’s peering at her from across the island.

“Nothing.” She says, after thinking about it for a minute. “What’s up?”

“We play my brother on Saturday.” He says and the shoe doesn’t drop until he adds, “So my parents and sisters are coming in for a bit. Watch the game. Do early Christmas. Hang out a bit.”

“Oh.” She bites her lip. It shouldn’t-it shouldn't be weird. He survived a whole weekend with her sisters, he’s met her entire family; they’ve gone out a few times with varying numbers of her brothers since then. It just...feels weird now.

Will eyes her carefully for a second but continues. “They come in early Friday morning and I made dinner reservations for that night, if you want to come with us.” 

He says it super casually, the way he is about pretty much everything, but she knows him well enough now. There’s a little hopeful tone at the end of it, almost like a question even though it’s not phrased as one. “Yeah.” She says, and even though she’s already nervous about this dinner that’s literally days away, it’s worth it to see the smile grow across his face. “I’d love to come with you guys.”

“They’ll be excited.” Will says, which really undersells just how excited his sisters actually are when they do roll into town later in the week.

Daniella throws herself at Aubrey the second she walks in the door, chattering excitedly about meeting her, and spending the weekend together, and dinner that night, all before Aubrey can even put her purse down. She doesn’t know what her face is doing but whatever it is is bad enough that Will says something to his sister in Swedish and follows it up with a glare when she giggles something back to him.

It works though; Daniella detaches herself, but she does stay close, almost bouncing along next to Aubrey as she steps further inside. “Come on.” Will nods toward the kitchen. “My parents are in here.”

Fuck, his parents. She takes a deep breath. “Cool.”

He grins. The panic must definitely be showing on her face, but his sister just keeps talking through it- Aubrey can relate- or Daniella just doesn’t notice it in her excitement. But Will does, still grinning at her, and she brushes against him purposefully with her shoulder as she goes to follow Daniella, only for him to grab her hand as she passes.

“You don’t have to be nervous.” He squeezes her hand and the only thing that stops her from frowning is his sister. It’s kind of a harsh reminder of the circumstances that she is meeting his family under, the details behind what’s happening here, and that someday-probably soon even- they’ll go back to...well, she hopes that they’ll at least still be friends. 

Even if they stop hooking up.

Danielle goes right up to Stephanie in the kitchen, the two of them whispering to each other in a way that immediately reminds Aub of Kaylee and Cam, enough that she has to fight back a laugh. But it’s Will’s parents that really draw her attention. Michael and Camilla are exactly how she’d pictured from every story Will’s ever told her, full attention on her as soon as she and Will enter the kitchen.

“This is Aubrey.” Will introduces.

“Hi!” She smiles, hoping it’s bright and warm enough to hide her nerves. 

And it works- or more likely, Will’s parents are as perceptive as he is- because they jump right into chatting easily with her. 

She loves them immediately.

They’re warm and friendly, like they’re welcoming her, even though they’re the ones who spent hours on a plane recently. Will’s mom- Camilla, she insists- draws her into a conversation about her family right away- “William told me you have many siblings as well.” “Mum!” “Mum, they’re the best!”- which keeps them going for a while until Michael reminds them they have a reservation to keep. 

“You can keep talking at the restaurant.” He teases Camilla, who’s glaring at him. “Some of us are hungry!”

She rolls her eyes at him- a look that is so similar to one Aubrey’s seen Will make a thousand times- but it serves to get all of them moving. They do keep talking at the restaurant, Camilla shoving her own son out of the way to pull Aubrey in the seat next to her, and Daniella sliding in the seat on her other side before Will can grab it, only for him to mutter something to her in Swedish, sending her quickly sliding over to the next one.

Dinner seems to fly by but it’s actually a few hours later that they’re returning home, pulling out a bottle of wine for a night cap. Aubrey’s just about preparing to go home to her own place before Will’s mom stands up and kisses the top of her head, right in line with all her own kids, promising to see her in the morning, and then the night wraps up and Will’s pulling her into his room, like it’s any normal night.

“Are you-” She trails off abruptly as Will walks right to the closet, like no strange thing. But, what did she even want to ask? Are you sure you want me to stay? It’s not going to be weird if I do?  

“What’s up?” Will pops his head out of the closet.

“Nothing.” Aubrey shakes her head, moving to brush her teeth. She’s not even sure she knows where that question was going; she can’t explain why tonight feels weirder than any other night that she’s climbed into his bed before.

It does though, and that’s made even more evident by the way she tosses and turns once they climb into bed and turn the lights off, settling in on what’s become her side of the bed, right after she brushes her teeth and runs through her nightly skin routine.

It feels like it shouldn’t be so hard to sleep- it’s been a long day, following a long week, preparing for Will’s family to arrive, but she can’t seem to get comfortable and her thoughts are racing.

She rolls over again, facing Will this time, only to find him looking at her with amusement. “You okay?”

“Can’t sleep.” She admit, biting her lip

Will grins, pulling her close. “I can fix that.”

“I’m not having sex with you while you’re parents are here!” Aubrey hisses.

“No?” Her breath hitches as his fingers dance lower down her stomach and then-

“Will!” She laughs, as he gently pinches a ticklish spot.

“Shh!” He’s grinning, she hates him so much. “My parents are-”

“Don’t say it.” She says, surging up to kiss him so he can’t finish that sentence. God, she hopes his walls are thick.

-----

“Stop.” Aubrey hears Will right outside the door. “Go away.”

She can hear one of his sister’s respond, but the actual words get lost in the chaos of her own sisters’ FaceTime, which she’s wrapping up as she lies in bed. It’s loud enough outside that she knows Will’s family is awake already, bright enough that she probably should get up, but she’s too comfortable to make herself move.

“Daniella!” She hears, followed by something in Swedish just as the door opens and a blonde head pokes in.

“See! She is awake!” And that’s all the warning she gets before Daniella is jumping up right next to her.

“Daniella!” Will snaps again, but Aubrey’s already sliding over to make room for her.

“She’s fine.” She assures him, wrapping her arm around Daniella’s shoulders as she cuddles in close.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Daniella says to her brother, not bothering to pull herself away from Aubrey’s iPhone screen, where she’d barely wasted a minute before jumping into chatting with Kayls and Cam. 

Will’s leaning against the dresser and shaking his head in amusement, watching as Aubrey manages to finish up her call (a task much harder with Daniella in her ear, calling just as much nonsense back as her sisters do), but there’s a soft smile on his face that Aubrey almost can’t bring herself to look at, so she starts twirling her hand through the ends of Daniella’s hair. 

“I can’t believe you two.” Daniella huffs, and she’s so much like Will, just loving her hair played with; Aubrey tries to hide her grin because she knows he’d fight her on it if she had to say it out loud right now. “Not even inviting your sisters here for the weekend.”

“Why would we invite ourselves into that kind of roast?” Will says dryly. “The two of you are bad enough.”

“Like you’re not going to talk about us anyway,” Aubrey adds. “I’ve seen the receipts.” She teases. “I know you talk about us on instagram.” 

“You talk about us on instagram?” Will demands immediately.

“No.” Daniella says, unconvincingly.

“They talk with my sisters every day.” Aubrey whispers to him and laughs when he turns his outraged face toward his sister, who avoids his gaze completely.

“Seriously?” Will cries.

Daniella shrugs. “We have a lot to say.”

“I’ll give you a lot to say.” Will says, mock-threateningly, before throwing himself on the bed on her other side and poking his finger in her side until she’s laughing so hard that she’s begging for him to stop. He does, after one last poke, which Daniella returns with a pout. “Go get dressed.” Will nudges her. “Or Aubrey’s going to go to brunch without you.”

“Aubrey wouldn’t do that.” Daniella says confidently, standing to leave. “She’s nicer than you.” 

Will barks out a laugh. “Is she?”

Both Nylanders turn to look at her, just as she’s swinging her legs out of bed and Aubrey shrugs. “I wouldn’t leave your sister behind.” She says, grinning when Will laughs and Daniella’s got her phone out of her pocket before she even leaves the room.

-----

Will and Alex are close. Aubrey knows this. She knows they talk pretty much everyday whether it’s texting, Facetiming, or even actual phone calls. They’re brothers, sure, but more than that; they’re best friends.

And maybe that’s why it’s hard not to shrink under Alex’s gaze the second they meet. It’s not that he’s not friendly when Will introduces them, returning the smile she gives him.

It’s just that his gaze feels piercing in a way that none of the rest of his family did. It feels like Alex sees through all of her but more than that; he’s studying all of her and doesn’t like what he sees.

God, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do if Alex doesn’t like her.

She tries to be bubbly and bright, more listening than contributing to this conversation that’s mostly just brothers catching up. She knows that dinner later, and at their early Christmas celebration tomorrow, will really be when she gets to make her big impression on him. 

“Willy!” John Tavares calls, looking apologetic about the interruption. 

“Be right back.” Willy pats her arm gently before jogging down the hall and now Alex’s full attention is on her. Now she can’t help but shift her weight from foot to foot, even as Alex smiles at her. “So, Aubrey, huh?”

She fights back the urge to bite her lip. “Yup.”

“It’s exciting to finally meet you.” He grins and Aubrey’s jaw drops a little. “Will talks about you all the time.”

“He-he does?” She asks quietly. It’s about the most unexpected thing Alex could have said to her.

Alex bursts into laughter. “Uh yeah.” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, but before she can press anything further, Will’s back, slinging his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her into his side tightly. 

“Ready for second dinner?” Will presses a kiss to her temple.

“Always.” Aubrey leans into him, ignoring the knowing look that Alex is sporting currently and the feeling in her stomach that doesn’t quite feel like butterflies.

-----

Aubrey tries to give it a few days after the Nylander’s leave town, hoping the feeling in her stomach will calm itself, but when it’s been a week and it hasn’t settled, she’s forced to admit that she’s going to need outside help.

Can you let me in? She sends, when she’s sure she’s outside the right door.

Open. Come in. 

She frowns at the response, opening the door. “I don’t love that!” She calls as she walks deeper in the condo. “You should really-” She stops abruptly, as a blonde whips her head around to glare at her and Auston stares at her wide-eyed. “Oh!”

“Oh?” The blonde repeats, kind of mockingly, but also seething, and Aubrey doesn’t really know what to do, so she looks over at Auston, who’s pointedly avoiding both of their eyes. “Unbelievable.” She shakes her head, shoving past Aubrey and only when the front door slams does she hear Auston breathe.

“What the fuck?” She asks him immediately, “You could have just said no, it wasn’t a good time to come over!”

“I wanted her to leave!” He protests. “I tried everything! She even volunteered to come take Felix on a walk with me!”

Aubrey cackles, barely managing to compose herself at Auston’s glare. “Well, go and get his leash. We can walk and talk.”

She gets quickly distracted by Felix’s excitement for a walk, snapping like twenty pictures on her phone, before Auston finally prods her about the reason she even wanted to meet today. “So what’s up?”

She takes a deep breath. “Am I in love with Will?”

“Are you in love with...are you fucking kidding me?” Auston responds immediately, looking at her like he had that day they were at Sick Kids- like she’s completely missing something that everyone else knows.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes.” She says reasonably.

“Oh my fucking god.” He says, sounding distressed. “Don’t you have, like, a therapist for this shit? How did I get drafted for this?”

“I mean, yes, I do, but I haven’t gone into the details of it with Dr. Seth before this and I don’t think an hour would cover it.” She says; she’s thought about that already. Auston rubs his temples. “Stop that.” Aubrey chides. “Your hairline is bad enough.”

“Well you’re not helping!” Auston cries. “Jesus Christ, am I in love with Willy? Where the fuck have you been?”

“Egypt, I guess.” She says and he stares at her flatly until she explains. “Denial?”

“Fuck off, I hate you so much. Oh my god.” He groans. “Willy would have laughed so hard at that, fuck you.”

The worst thing is that she knows he would have. He’d have laughed and laughed and laughed, his eyes crinkling and his smile bright and warm, so loud that she couldn’t help but join in.

“Holy shit.” Auston says quietly, watching the smile on her face. “You’re really in deep.”

“Ugh, yes.” Aubrey groans, covering her face. “I hate it. I hate these feelings. I hate not knowing. I hate-”

Auston cuts her off, choking out a laugh. “Not knowing? Not knowing what?” And then he chokes again, once he looks over at her. “Not knowing if Will-” He stops abruptly looking like he’s got a secret that he shouldn’t be telling. “Come on, you aren’t this dumb.”

“You’re being serious?” She says quietly, looking over at Auston hopefully. 

He avoids her eyes, bending down for a minute to pet his dog, but Felix absolutely betrays him by trying to run towards a new smell on a nearby bush, giving him absolutely nothing to look at instead of her. “I mean, come on.” Auston gives her a look. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Did he say it?”

“No.” Auston shakes his head, tugging gently on Felix’s leash to turn around. “But Aub, really? He brought you to meet his whole family.”

“He met mine too.” She reminds him. “And so did you!”

Auston shakes his head. “You...you just don’t see how he looks at you.”

Aubrey bites her lip, but she can’t resist asking. “How does he look at me?”

Auston doesn’t even have to think before he responds. “Like the rest of us aren’t even in the room.” 

“Oh.” She says quietly, looking down at the ground. Felix is just trotting away happily, like Aubrey’s entire world hasn’t been flipped on its axis. 

Auston, at least, seems to recognize the effect of what he’s said. “Look, even if you’re not ready to talk with him, just, like, look at the guy. You’re not in this alone.”

She’s definitely not ready to say anything, but, well, she could give that a try. Just try and see what Auston sees.What everyone sees apparently. “Alright.” She agrees.

“I won’t say anything.” Auston adds. “You two can figure this mess out on your own.”

“You’re the best.” Aubrey declares, leaning up to kiss his cheek.

“I know.” Auston smirks, pulling Felix’s leash out from under her feet.

“Jerk.” Aubrey laughs, shoving his shoulder gently. “If you didn’t have the second best dog in the world right here, I’d push you harder.” She crouches down to scratch Felix’s ears, only for Auston to pull him out of her reach.

“Second best?” He cries, outraged. “Nuh-uh. You don’t get to pet my dog after that kind of disrespect.”

“I just ranked your dog above Zeus!” She protests. “But Pablo’s my boy.”

Auston releases his hold on the leash a little and Felix trots over toward her arms as he teases, “I thought we just agreed Willy was your boy.”

“Yeah, well,” Aubrey scratches behind Felix’s ears, smiling as his tongue lolls out. “Man’s best friend.”

-----

Will’s acting funny when Aubrey sees him the next day.

She only catches him for a few minutes before the game, when they briefly cross paths at his place when she goes to pick up a jacket she left there, and she doesn’t know how to explain it, but something just seems...off.

It’s like...he barely looks at her when she’s in there digging around what’s become her side of the bed and then he brushes past her, muttering something about how he needs to go and for her to just lock up whenever she’s done, which would be fine, except he usually waits for her if she’s around when he leaves so they can walk out together.

Something’s just off.

“Are you sure you didn’t fight about anything?” Steph frowns at her, later that night. “Even like a small, stupid thing that maybe you brushed off? Because you do that.”

“No!” Aubrey swears. “At first I thought he was just annoyed about the book, because the book I’m reading right now takes place in Sweden, so like every few pages I ask him if it’s real? Or what it’s like?”

“God, you must be the most annoying girlfriend.” Steph giggles.

“Don’t even, I know everything about you and Mitch.” Aubrey pokes her and Steph giggles again, admitting defeat. “But no! He wouldn’t even look at me! Something’s up!”

Steph purses her lips. “That is weird.” She admits. “It’s very...not Will.”

“No!” Aubrey cries. “Will doesn’t sit and let things stew! He doesn’t care enough about what people think about him for that.”

“So why is he acting like this then?” Steph asks and Aubrey blows out a frustrated breath.

“I don’t know!” She says. “And I just want him to tell me what’s going on.”

The rest of the game is fairly uneventful for the two of them, slipping quietly out of their seats after the win and chatting between themselves and a few other friends as they all wait. One by one, the boys all make their way out of the locker room, and Aubrey frowns as even Auston and John walk out, stopping briefly to chat with her, before even they go, until finally, finally, Will steps out, his face flickering when he sees her. 

“Hi?” She says, a little annoyed.

“Hi.” Will says, like nothing’s just happened, like he didn’t just do a double take of the worst kind at her mere presence.

“What’s wrong?” She frowns, reaching out for him and gently sliding her hand on his forearm.

“Nothing.” There’s no other word for it; Will flinches. 

“Will.” Aubrey breathes as he shrugs off her arm.

“It’s nothing.” He repeats. “I’m just tired.” Which is so clearly a lie and she frowns, ready to call him out, but he reaches for her hand and says, “Let’s go eat,” with such finality that she doesn’t really know how she’d bring it up.

All she knows is that his hand feels cold in a way it never has before and the silence they sit in at dinner is like nothing she’s ever felt with him, even before they started sleeping together.

-----

“Merry Christmas!” Cam throws open the front door dramatically before Aubrey, Will, Steph, and Mitch have barely even shut their car doors. “Come on, you’re late!”

“Oh boy.” Aubrey mutters and she hears Steph and Mitch laugh.

Will, however, is as quiet as he’s been all drive up to her parents for their annual Christmas Eve party- as quiet as he’s been all week, as he’s been since whatever happened- and it makes her wonder why he even came. She’d told him he didn’t have to come if he didn’t want to; he’d just given her this tiny smile and asked her what time they had to pick up Mitch and Steph.

“How are we late?” Steph asks, as all four of them start yanking off coats and scarves the second they walk in the door. “None of the neighbors are even here yet!” 

Cam huffs at that bit of logic and turns on her heel, walking away from them as they laugh, which cues Aubrey’s brothers into their arrival. Tye and Danny poke their heads around the corner of the wall, calling for Mitch immediately to show them how to do something on a new video game, but right away they’re thwarted by their mom. “Later.” Mitch whispers to them, as Tye and Danny grin, following the four of them into the kitchen. 

In the kitchen, they find Aubrey and Steph’s moms working in tandem- the way they always have on Christmas Eve- to finish the appetizers and set food out. They stop only briefly to greet their daughters and their daughters’ boyfriends, and to direct them on where to put the desserts they brought, before they’re shooing them all right back out.

“Dads in the basement?” Steph asks, like they all don’t know the answer already, and Danny nods, leading the way down the stairs, where Fitz and Ryan have already started a beer pong game against Mike and Tom.

“Shotty next.” Mitch calls, while he waits for Aubrey and Steph to say hi to their dads.

“You gonna be able to walk back next door?” Fitz snorts out a laugh.

“That was one time!” Mitch protests. “Nobody warned me how much drinking there was on Christmas Eve!”

“It’s like we hadn’t spent the last four months together before that.” Aubrey deadpans, focusing more on watching Will greet her stepdad with the same enthusiasm as he had her mom, and her brothers, and Cam.

But then, he comes back to her side, and when she goes to tangle their fingers together, his hand stays limp, just kind of letting her do what she wants, not returning the gesture at all, instead of pulling her closer like he used to.

“Guess I thought you two were the anomaly.” Mitch teases. “Then I learned I’d have to bring my A game all the time.” 

“Yeah buddy.” Tom says, looking over at his daughter’s boyfriend right after he sinks Fitz and Ryan’s last cup. “Who’s with you?”

-----

By the time Mitch and Will get demolished in beer pong, Aubrey and Steph are fighting back a laugh at their dads’ light buzz already going and the neighbors have started to arrive, which brings a temporary pause to pong play for more introductions.

The neighbors all love Will, which, of course they do. Aubrey’s not surprised at all. He’s funny and charming and personable, just has this air that draws people in, and every one of her mom’s friends finds her at some point after they meet Will to gush about how wonderful he is.

“Yeah.” Aubrey says, almost helplessly to Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Morris, as she watches Will with Kayls and Cam across the room. “He’s pretty great.” They smile knowingly at her, Mrs. Jones winking as she passes, leaving Aubrey to watch them with a fond smile on her face.

It’s Will who notices her staring first, because of course it is. Kayls and Cam are oblivious to everything around them. He catches her eye, still laughing about whatever they’re talking about, and there’s a second where his smile grows when he sees her, a second Aubrey feels a grin growing across her own face.

And then it all stops abruptly as something flashes over Will’s face, and as quick as the grin was there, it’s gone.

Aubrey frowns and watches as Will returns to talking with Kayls and Cam again, but notices the smile on his face seems forced now. She wants...well, she doesn’t know exactly what she wants, but she’s tired of not knowing what’s going on with him.

“Hey.” Fitz nudges her shoulder. “It’s too early for you to be sad about going to your dad’s tomorrow. Come take a shot with me.”

“I-” It’s not that. She starts to say, but stops herself. Today’s not the day to try and tease out whatever’s going on with Will. Whatever it is could wait until after Christmas. “Yeah, sure.”

Fitz grins, leading her over to the makeshift bar, corralling a few friends as they go, but by the time he starts pouring, the crowd around them has gotten bigger. Will’s standing next to her, but the space he’s left between them feels so purposeful, and it only makes Aubrey frown as she listens to Fitz’s Christmas toast, as he cheers to a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, to good friends and great family. “And a way too cool future brother-in-law.” He jokes. “Don’t fuck this up, Aub!”

“Yo!” Mitch protests loudly as Aubrey feels the breath get stuck in her chest. 

She can’t even look at Will, so tense she can hardly bring her shot glass up to her mouth. The alcohol barely even burns and she knows it’s not because she’s too drunk to taste it; the numbness of her brother’s comment still stinging, and it’s well after she’s deposited her shot glass on the counter that she realizes, “Where’s Will?”

Mitch frowns, looking behind them. “He was right here, wasn’t he?”

Aubrey nods slowly, trying to stand on her toes and search for him. “Can you just-” She starts.

Steph’s right on her wavelength. “You look up here; we’ll check downstairs.”

Will is nowhere to be found on the main floor, so she heads upstairs and finally finds him in the room they’d thrown their bags in earlier. “Hey.” She breathes out a sigh of relief. “There you are.”

“Here I am.” Will says quietly. He’s in front of the taller dresser, looking at the bulletin board covered in pictures from high school and college- one of the few relics left in the room from when it was hers before her mom refashioned it into a guest room. 

“I’m sorry about Fitz!” She blurts. “He didn’t mean any-”

“We should be wrapping up soon, right?” Will says abruptly, interrupting her.

“What?” Aubrey frowns, shocked. That is...not at all what she thought he’d say.

“This?” He gestures between the two of them. “Like, Mitch and Steph definitely think we're a thing. Can call this off soon?”

“Um.” Aubrey tries to breathe but something’s definitely restricting that ability. “We…what?”

“We can stop this pretending.” Will says, like it’s obvious, and Aubrey feels her stomach drop. This...this was all pretend to him. “Do that break up that’s going to crush them. The whole reason we did this.”

“Right.” She swallows the lump in her throat. “Uh yeah, we can do that.”

Will shrugs. “Cool.” He says, and then turns and walks away, leaving Aubrey standing there wondering where exactly she went wrong.

-----

“Ok.” Steph snaps her fingers and only then does Aubrey look up from the Leafs vs. Calgary game that her best friend invited her over to watch that she’s paying absolutely no attention to- and hasn’t actually been able to focus on all night. Her best friend is standing in front of her, holding a new bottle of wine, and looking concerned. “I’ve asked for your glass like four times now. What’s going on?”

Aubrey bites her lip and holds her glass out. If she’s going to do this, they’re both going to need refills. “I have to tell you something.”

Steph frowns immediately but fills Aubrey’s glass and then her own. “Uhh, ok? What’s up.”

Aubrey doesn’t know whether she needs a deep breath or a sip of wine to settle her nerves. She goes for both. “Will and I aren’t together.”

And maybe...maybe that was the wrong way to phrase it, because Steph’s face just falls. “I’m so sorry, babe.” She says, reaching out and rubbing Aubrey’s arm. “I really thought-” She shakes her head and Aubrey’s still trying to figure out what she said wrong, what she can say to make her see what she really means. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Aubrey says and Steph looks like she wants to reach for the wine bottle and pull her in for a hug at the same time, until she continues. “No, I mean; Will and I aren’t together now because we were never really together at all and no, I’m not okay either, actually, now that you mention it.”

Now Steph frowns uncertainly, like she doesn’t know what to say. And that look? The one on her face right there? If it didn’t feel like her heart was already breaking, she’d be cherishing that look.

Now she can’t even enjoy it.

“You’re going to have to explain this one to me.” Steph says, her voice carefully neutrally.

So Aubrey does- beginning with the night that Mitch and Steph had had them over and her and Will’s plan to get them to stop nagging, to when they’d started sleeping together, to how it felt like they were together for real and on the same page, right up until they weren’t.

“I wanna be so mad at you right now.” Steph says, after a long silence.

“You should be.” Aubrey admits. “I would be.

“Well, you’re making it really hard looking so sad.” Steph glares. “And being so dumb.” Aubrey’s jaw drops, even if the callout is probably well deserved. “Will looks at you like you are the center of the universe. He looks like his entire day has gotten better every time you walk into the room. For God’s sake, he willingly met your dad on Christmas last week! You cannot honestly tell me you think he doesn’t really want to be with you!”

“He told me he wanted to stop!” Aubrey cries. “He was the one who said we should do the breakup!”

“Well if you don’t want to, then tell him!” Steph dares.

“Stephanie.” Aubrey frowns. 

“What?”

“I can’t do that!” Aubrey hisses.

“Why not?” Steph pours another glass of wine for herself and then passes the bottle over. Aubrey accepts eagerly. “Did Will tell you why he wanted to stop this...dating thing?”

“...no.” Aubrey sighs. It’s another thing that’s been driving her crazy.

“So ask him.” Steph says plainly. “And tell him you don’t want to stop.”

Aubrey bites her lip nervously. “But what if he says no?”

“Honestly the worst thing that happens here is that you still break up.” Steph says gently. “But this really just sounds like a matter of you two actually needing to talk about where you stand. Will’s not a mind-reader, Aub; he can’t have known you didn’t want to stop things, especially if this was all your idea in the first place.”

Ugh, she’s right. “I hate everything about this.” Aubrey sing-songs. “Including the fact that you even introduced us.”

Now Steph grins. “You do not hate that we introduced you. You just hate feeling vulnerable.”

That’s too accurate to address, so Aubrey flips her off and reaches for the wine again.

-----

Will picks her up for the Leafs annual New Year’s Eve party and it’s unfair because no one should look that good dressed in black pants and a sweater, but there’s Will waiting by the car with a beanie on his head and a pea coat left open, for maximal torture is the only reason Aubrey can think of.

“Hi.” She breathes, running across the street to him as best she can in her heels. 

It takes him a second to respond. “Hi.” He says finally, opening the door for her. “You uh, planning on blinding us all tonight?” He teases, once he slides into the backseat of the uber with her.

Aubrey giggles at the lame joke as she looks down at her glittery skirt. It’s such a lame joke but she’s just so relieved he even made it. That they still have dumb things to laugh over. “Hmm, over-under on how many of us are wearing something sparkly tonight. 10?”

“Over.” Will answers immediately and she giggles again.

The ride doesn’t take long so it’s only a few minutes before they’re pulling up to the club, where they run into Travis Dermott and his girlfriend exiting their uber at the same time. “Nine more.” Will whispers in her ear, as Kat turns to greet them, and they both catch sight of a sparkly tank under her jacket.

“Hush.” Aubrey bites back a laugh, but only barely, before she pulls Kat in for a hug. Inside is about as loud as she’d expected but once they all step upstairs into the VIP section roped off for them, it’s easier to hear, easier to think, and easier to breathe.

Or at least, it is for a moment. She can feel Will’s eyes on her from across the room, where he’s at the bar ordering drinks for the two of them, and she and Kat have gone to say hi to more people.

“So, uh.” Steph says, in lieu of hello. “I don’t think Will’s being weird anymore.”

When Aubrey turns and follows Steph’s eyes, Will’s still looking at her, unashamed in his gaze or getting caught. He winks back at her, grinning when she smiles at him. “No.” She says slowly. “I guess not.” Steph just grins at that, kind of smugly, and Aubrey huffs at that, turning away to greet Morgan and Tessa behind her.

It’s not long before Will returns with drinks, still grinning as he pulls her immediately to the dance floor. He pulls out some of his most ridiculous moves and Aubrey laughs, harder and harder the more she drinks, and then finally falling against him after he and Mitch attempt the Toosie Slide together. 

“Why are you laughing?” Will demands, wrapping an arm around her waist and taking her hand, leading her into some weird kind of slow dance, even as the song changes into something by The Chainsmokers.

“I just like seeing you like this.” She grins.

His brow furrows. “Like what?”

“Just-” She doesn’t know how to explain it. How open he is right now, how loose and easy and warm he looks because he’s just able to be himself, and how happy she feels to be with him, especially when he’s like this. “Just happy, I guess.”

Will grins again and presses a loud kiss to her temple, that she barely has time to giggle at, because he says, “Always happy to be with you,” like it’s the most casual thing in the world. 

And Aubrey gasps in shock, but she doesn’t think Will even notices, because he’s dipping her back over his arm right after that and then she’s too busy laughing again.

-----

Steph flops down on the remaining couch seat and ignores the look that Auston sends her in favor of fanning herself with her hand. “Sure.” He says dryly. “I’ll move over a little.”

“Would you? Thanks.” She snickers and he shakes his head fondly at her.

“How about you?” He looks over at Aubrey. “Gonna squish me in the corner even more?”

Aubrey’s already settled herself on his other side, on the edge of the couch. “Nah, I’m good here.” She bumps her shoulder against his.

“Is it even possible to squish you in the corner?” Steph muses.

“Why are you squished in the corner?” Aubrey asks, confused. “What, you couldn’t find a date for New Year’s?”

“I make it a point to not bring dates to holiday parties.” Auston says and Aubrey’s jaw drops.

Steph’s snickering into her palm though, so it’s clear this particular brand of assholery isn’t unfamiliar. “Holidays and events.” She cackles. “Keep those expectations low.”

“Although now that I know that all it takes to make a girl leave is to just have you walk in my house the next morning…” Auston trails off thoughtfully.

Aubrey shoves at his head, ruffling his hair on purpose, but she can’t help but laugh along with him. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’ve got better things to do than that.”

“Like what?” Steph says, too innocently to be real. “Will?”

“I’m leaving.” Aubrey stands, as Steph and Auston both laugh. “I don’t have to listen to this.”

“Is noon good tomorrow?” She hears Auston call after her, while Steph cackles next to him. “How about 12:30?” She flips him off over her shoulder, without looking back, instead pushing her way around Fred and his new girl, to find Will where she’d left him at the bar with Mitch.

But at the bar, she finds only Mitch, who’s looking a little confused. “Where’s Will?” She asks.

“Um.” Is all Mitch says and Aubrey frowns immediately. 

“Mitch, what happened?” Aubrey says flatly and Mitch caves right away.

“I don’t know!” He says. “We were just ordering drinks, watching you guys, everything seemed fine, and next thing I know, he was walking away!”

“Well where did he go?” She asks impatiently, barely waiting for Mitch to point before she’s shoving her way through the crowd.

It feels like she circles the entire building before she finally finds Will, and it’s more like she happens to run into him than she actually finds him, which just annoys her even more, enough that she grabs his hand and pulls him outside to a spot far enough away that it’s quiet enough to talk.

It’s not quiet- it’s still New Year’s Eve and there’s people all around them going up and down the street- but it’s far enough from the door that they can’t feel the music anymore, at least. 

Will’s staring at their hands, still linked, but he’s not saying anything, and even though she’s the one who dragged them out into the cold, he’s the one who started acting weird in the first place, and she feels her annoyance grow. “I thought we were having a really good time tonight?”

Will sighs. “We were.” He pauses. “I was, at least.”

“Ok, I was too.” Aubrey says slowly. “So, what happened?”

Will sighs again. “Look, it’s fine, like this was never supposed to be a thing with us, yeah? I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at me. I’ll get over it.”

She’s so confused. “Get over what? Why are you mad?”

“I saw you,” Will says. “Coming out of Auston’s one morning. I was driving past, after practice on my way home.” He shrugs, almost casually, but she can see in his face how hurt he is. “And like, we were never supposed to be a thing.” He repeats and she frowns. Why does he keep saying that? “So I’m not mad at you and I can’t even be mad at him. But I saw you and Matts together and I knew I liked you more than you liked me.” He shrugs again, trying to play off his words as light as casual, but Aubrey’s trying to put the pieces together of what he said. “I know you’d rather be here with him tonight, but that’s why I can’t do this anymore.”

“Oh my god.” She breathes. “You’re so dumb.”

“Hey!” Will protests.

“We’re so dumb.” She corrects, because, really, it’s the truth. “I was at Auston’s that day because he was the only one who knew about us at the time and I needed to talk to someone about if I’m in love with you!”

Will doesn’t move for a second, the longest second of Aubrey’s entire life. “Where, uh, where’d you land on that one?” He asks, like he’s kind of nervous for the answer.

And Aubrey can relate; there are butterflies in her stomach, even though she’s positive she knows how this is going to end now. “Pretty strongly in favor for.” She says and Will beams, that bright smile that lights up his entire face. “I didn’t get to tell you earlier, but I’m always happy to be with you, too.”

“That’s good.” Will says mildly, and Aubrey grins, waiting for the rest. “Because I really love seeing you smile like that.”

Her jaw drops a little. She’s not upset about what he said at all; it’s just so not what she expected him to say. And in that moment of silence, Will grins down at her once more, before leaning down to kiss her.

-----

It’s late the next morning by the time Aubrey tumbles out of bed, yanking a t-shirt of Will’s over her head. Will’s been up for at least an hour already, and she kisses his cheek as she passes, giggling as he lightly pats her ass in return.

“Coffee’s still warm.” He says.

“I still love you.” She teases. “That’s not changing just because you kept the pot warm.” Will flips her off and returns back to the game he’s playing on his Switch. “Have you seen my phone?”

“Near the front door.”

Most of her stuff is still by the front door, thrown hastily down when they’d come in late last night. Her phone’s still got a little battery left, filled with messages from late last night and earlier this morning, but one in particular catches her eye.

Steph LaChance: i told you so 😉