#hope you all have an amazing friday and wonderful weekend

[darling-flora]

safety net

fc : jennie kim

lewis hamilton x yn singer

Note: inaccurate coachella line up and race win 😘 (ALSO lmk if yall want a part 2 i have ideas !!)

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yourinstagram

Liked by lewishamilton, roses_are_rosie and 8,159,944 others

yourinstagram Rehearsal, see you soon Coachella !!

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roses_are_rosie cant believe there's a festival during a y/n concert

↳yourinstagram ik it's crazyyyyy 🤭

lalalalisa_m so happy for you cutie !!!!!!!!!!!

liked by yourinstagram

username1 please play hands on me 🙏

↳yourinstagram 🤫

username2 cleared my schedule to watch

lewishamilton Can't wait !!

↳username4 she dont know you lil bro

username5 it's gonna be iconic i already know 🙂‍↕️

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yourinstagram story

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roses_are_rosie y/n !!!! im so excited to watch AHHHHHH !!!!!

yourinstagram omg pls im so nervous

roses_are_rosie noooo you're gonna do great !! roses_are_rosie trust me 🤞

yourinstagram i hope so 😬

roses_are_rosie also i met someone today at a rimowa event and he said that he liked your music !!

yourinstagram really ?? thats so nice

roses_are_rosie he said the only reason he was going to Coachella was to see you 😏 roses_are_rosie hes also very handsome...

yourinstagram now whos this man that you speak of....

roses_are_rosie THE lewis hamilton roses_are_rosie he's a formula 1 racing driver !! roses_are_rosie EIGHT time world champion, anyone who says seven is LYING

yourinstagram omg yourinstagram the guy from the cars movies 😯

roses_are_rosie y/n....

yourinstagram sorry... yourinstagram also yourinstagram i googled him and he's very very handsome.... yourinstagram like damn

roses_are_rosie ugh i know you so well roses_are_rosie he's going to Coachella and we know eachother..... so i could set you two up 😁

yourinstagram mmmmm maybe yourinstagram or we could all hang out friday and saturday yourinstagram see some shows before i perform sunday yourinstagram and if we talk then we'll see where it could go

roses_are_rosie your so smart roses_are_rosie but i think he'll def ask you out 🤭

yourinstagram we'll see.... 😁

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deuxmoi

Liked by username1, username2 and 169,944 others

deuxmoi Popstar Y/n L/n (who is performing tomorrow) and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton were seen watching multiple artist's (Swedish House Mafia × The Weeknd , Rosalía, Doja Cat) perform at Coachella together.

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username1 wait this is kinda crazy...

username2 oh ik rosé set them up 🤭

↳username3 wait why ? ↳username2 rosé is one of y/n's best friends and rosé recently met lewis at an event ! ↳username2 also lewis is a fan of y/n, he's talked about how she's one of his favorite artist! !!

username4 didn't expect this duo

username5 y/n probably doesn't even know how big of a fan lewis is of her 😭

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yourinstagram

Liked by lewishamilton, roses_are_rosie and 12,159,944 others

yourinstagram chella week 1 💙 words cant express how special this experience was. still over the moon and grateful for this moment and the friends and family who came to be apart of this life changing weekend. Thank you guyzzzzz✨✨✨✨

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roses_are_rosie YOU OWNED THAT STAGE MAMA !!!

↳yourinstagram oh thank you sm rosé 🥲

username1 your vocals will always amaze me !

lewishamilton An unreal performance truly 🙌🏾

↳yourinstagram Thank you Lewis !! 😅❤ ↳username2 yeah im sure you liked the choreography lewis.... ↳username3 wonder what it was like to hear bang bang, side to side AND the light is coming....🤭 ↳username4 PLEASE I DIDN'T EVEN THINK OF THAT

username5 LEWIS PICTURE ????

fencer it was lovely to meet you ! the best show all weekend 💯

↳yourinstagram thank you miles !!!

username6 the visuals the vocals the choreo !! 10/10 performance

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lewishamilton

Liked by yourinstagram, georgerussell63 and 7,559,944 others

lewishamilton Nights.

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username1 ugh they seem like a fun group to hang out with

yourinstagram Fun nights 😎

↳lewishamilton Unforgettable 😉 ↳username2 bro stop flirting with my girl 😭 i can't compete with you 😩

username3 ik he was singing every word

username4 no way lewis is hanging out with y/n

username5 y/n ft xnda when ?

username6 that should be me with y/n

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yourinstagram story

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lewishamilton What an honor it was to watch you perform! Cant wait for next weekend!!

yourinstagram oh thank you sm lewis, it means a lot !! ☺ yourinstagram i had a lot of fun hanging out 😁

lewishamilton So did I, we should hang out again! lewishamilton Maybe dinner?

yourinstagram Sir Lewis Hamilton.... yourinstagram Are you asking me on a date 👀

lewishamilton Y/n L/n..... 👀 lewishamilton I am indeed asking you on a date

yourinstagram well then, i'd love to go on a date lewis!

lewishamilton Prefect, I can pick you up tomorrow? @ 8?

yourinstagram can't wait, see you then 😉

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deuxmoi

Liked by username1, username2 and 369,944 others

deuxmoi Popstar Y/n L/n and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton were seen leaving a restaurant together after the two spent their weekend together at Coachella.

Hamilton attended L/n's performance and posted multiple Instagram Stories praising the singer, the pair also included picture's of each other in their most recent posts.

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username1 my goat 🐐

username2 bro how old is she....

↳username3 almost 30, girl dont be weird...😒

username4 oh good for him 🤭

username5 love this for them !!

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yourinstagram

Liked by lewishamilton, roses_are_rosie and 12,159,944 others

yourinstagram Coachella what an honor it's been ❤ words cant express how special these weekends have been. still over the moon and grateful for the love and support of everyone watching in the crowd and at home!!!! Thank you all for making this dream of mine so special✨✨✨✨

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lewishamilton

Liked by yourinstagram, georgerussell63 and 7,559,944 others

lewishamilton If only you knew the stories. 🚀

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username1 WE DO KNOW !!!! YOU & Y/N

↳username1 "if only you knew" and there's pics of it babe...

fencer 👀!!!!!!!

username2 bro thinks a shirtless pic is gonna make us forget about him and y/n

↳username3 it's working tho....

username4 are we not gonna talk about you and y/n MAKING OUT ?????

username5 MY GOAT IS FINAILLY NOT SINGLE 🥳

↳username6 we dont know that, could just be a hook up....

username7 please my goat dont break with her🙏 i don't think i can defend you on twitter if you break her heart 😔

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f1spotted

Liked by username1, username2 and 159,944 others

f1spotted Y/n and Lewis were seen on a yacht in Spain after the race, they were on a large yacht with friends then left on a smaller yacht.

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username1 she's in spain but didn't go to the race ??

↳username2 they are tryna be lowkey

username3 omg y/n in red 😍

username4 did yall see that video of some dude tryna flirt with y/n and she was NOT interested and he wasn't leaving her alone and lewis stepped in.... 🫦

↳username5 omg yes, him being protective of her was soooooo hot

username5 the dress !!

username6 y/n at a race is close! i can feel it 🙏

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yourinstagram

Liked by lewishamilton, roses_are_rosie and 12,159,944 others

yourinstagram in love in spain & with spain ❤

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username1 IN LOVE ??

lewishamilton wow

↳yourinstagram sorry im not single... ↳lewishamilton lucky guy ↳username2 THE FLIRTING ??

username3 i feel a hard launch coming soon

roses_are_rosie pretty girl !!

↳yourinstagram says you 😘

username4 mama post your man

lalalalisa_m in love with you !!!

liked by yourinstagram

username5 when you going to a race ??

username6 hot hot hot hot !!!!!!! 🌶

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F1News

Liked by username1, username2 and 759,944 others

F1News Grammy winning Popstar Y/n L/n seen arriving for qualifying in Silverstone. Y/n watched in the Mercedes garage and cheered on Lewis as well as George !!

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username1 ohhhhh i've been waiting for this

username2 her clapping for lewis and george was so cute 😭❤ !!

username3 face economy !!

username4 beautiful, talented, and dating lewis hamilton, she's truly one of a kind !

username5 y/n and carmen hugging and jumping together after quali was so cutesy

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yourinstagram story

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lewishamilton He loves you so much !!

lewishamilton Like father like son 😉

yourinstagram awwww your cute 😚 love you ❤

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lewishamilton story

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yourinstagram best photographer out there !!

lewishamilton Only for you my love ❤

yourinstagram ohhhh stappp 🫠😚

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F1News

Liked by username1, username2 and 959,944 others

F1News Grammy winning Popstar Y/n L/n seen arriving for race day in Silverstone. Y/n watched in the Mercedes garage and watched Lewis on the podium !!

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username1 two days of custom chanel to watch her boyfriend win a race.... this absolute icon

username2 love to see her smiling after the race because when they showed her watching the race she looked so stressed 😭

username3 she's so cute omfg

username4 when they kissed 😭❤

↳username5 wait they did ? i didn't see it ↳username4 rosa (lewis' pr) had an umbrella and used it to cover the cameras !!

username6 her standing with lewis' family when he was on the podium and them all crying together was so adorable

username7 her being there for his first win since 2021 is so insane to me, like it's her first race and lewis WINS ????

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yourinstagram

Liked by lewishamilton, roses_are_rosie and 15,159,944 others

yourinstagram Proud more than anything ❤

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username1 NOOOOOOOOOO MY GIRLFRIEND HAS A BOYFRIEND

lewishamilton Love you more than anything 🌹❤

↳yourinstagram so proud of you !! love you 😘❤ ↳username2 crying, i love them already

username3 omg the last pic is so cute !!!

carmenmmundt It was lovely to hang out his weekend !!

↳yourinstagram looking forward to many more !! 🤞

username4 now THIS is a wag !!

roses_are_rosie wow wow wow you look so good

liked by yourinstagram

username5 this is my super bowl

chanel Our favorite girl ! ❤

username6 PARENTS !!!

username7 unexpected couple but i love it

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lewishamilton

Liked by yourinstagram, georgerussell63 and 9,559,944 others

lewishamilton SILVERSTONE I LOVE YOU. There’s no crowd that deserves this more. This is love, this is family. Thank you all for the love and support. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU KEEP GOING. STILL WE RISE 🇬🇧🏆❤️ !!!

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deuxmoi

Liked by username1, username2 and 369,944 others

deuxmoi Popstar Y/n L/n and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton were seen on a date in New York the day after he won the British Grand Prix, Lewis is rumored to attend the gq global creativity awards.

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username1 red carpet pics together ??

username2 saw them while they were having dinner ! he was SO attentive, also they are both very touchy like ALWAYS had a hand on ones legs or a hand on ones back, they just looked SO SO SO in love !!

↳username3 they're so cute omg 😭 ↳username2 they looked like they were straight out of a romcom with how in love they looked !!

username4 omg were gonna get song's written about lewis....

↳username5 wait i didn't even think of that, im soooo looking forward to love songs 🥺 !!! ↳username6 not just love songs also freaky songs.... yall know y/n a little freaky 🤭

username7 ugh she always looks so good !!

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yourinstagram

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yourinstagram last night. ❤

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lewishamilton ❤🌹

↳yourinstagram 😘❤

username1 oh this is so iconic

roses_are_rosie cutest girl in the world 🌎 !!

↳yourinstagram your cute 😚

username2 lewis the best photographer !!

liked by yourinstagram

username3 yall are killing me, you two look so good

jacquemus Beautiful !

liked by yourinstagram

username4 her heels matching his jacket !!!

username5 im so single

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yourinstagram story

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voguemagazine

Liked by lhamfan3, ynfan5 and 969,944 others

voguemagazine yourinstagram and lewishamilton are red carpet official! The 29 year old five-time Grammy winning singer joined her 38 year old eight-time Formula One World Champion boyfriend at the GQ Global Creativity Awards.

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username5 y/n dating someone hot ? we all cheered !!!!

username6 8 time world champion admin knows wheel

↳voguemagazine Yes i do.🙂‍↕️

username1 need BOTH of their skin care routines

username2 i now nothing about formula one but bro is an EIGHT time world champion ? he must be the goat 🐐

username7 omg my two favs are dating and it's serious??? im going insane i love it !!

username3 what a talented and beautiful couple !!

username4 i want them to see me from across the bar and really dig my vibe

username8 they are SO HOT omfg

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lewishamilton Story

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lewishamilton

Liked by yourinstagram, georgerussell63 and 15,559,944 others

lewishamilton GQ Global Creativity Awards with My Love ❤

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username1 i don't know who im more jealous of ?

yourinstagram looking good handsome😘

↳lewishamilton My beautiful beautiful girl, i’m very much obsessed with you x ❤🌹 ↳username2 my heart omg 🥺

username2 "with my love" im melting

username8 y/n with someone hot AND is showing her off ??? she won 🏆

roses_are_rosie Happy for you two lovebirds ❤

↳yourinstagram 🥺❤

username3 COUPLE OF THE CENTURY !!

fencer My favorite people !!

username4 do you guys need a third ??

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[lynzishell]

They are everything to me

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Better Man

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.1k

Warnings: fluff, minor angst

Summary: You're a single mom who hates bringing men into your life only to have them leave. Your daughter deserves better than that. You're currently dating Spencer, and you're wondering if it's the right time to bring him into her life. Will it be worth it?

Square Filled: “you want? you want? you want? what about what I want?” for @anyfandomgoesbingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

I can do this. I’m more than capable of getting breakfast ready for both me and my daughter. Even if she is screaming her head off. Oh, please be quiet. Please make it stop.

“Gemma, please stop crying. I am getting your food.” She continues to cry. “Baby, please. I’m working as hard as I can right now.”

If anyone were to look in your kitchen window, they would see a woman who is just trying to feed her child while looking like a raccoon with messy bedhead hair. The bags under your eyes don’t help your case, either, but you haven’t gotten much sleep this past week. Gemma has been sick and has been keeping you up at all hours of the night.

Sometimes you feel like a shitty mom because it seems like whatever you do isn’t enough. Being a single mom is hard. No one told you how to do this. No one gave you a rule book and said, “Here you go! Study for the final exam!” where the final exam is actually having a kid. You’re doing the best you can do even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Before you can start crying because Gemma is crying, you plate some bananas, cereal, and small strawberries on a plate for her. She immediately stops crying when the food is in front of her, and she digs in. You chuckle tiredly and kiss the top of her head. She is getting so old. It seems like yesterday you birthed her when really, it’s been eight months.

Your phone rings and you light up at seeing Spencer’s name.

“Hey,” you answer.

“Hey. I’m off this weekend if you want to hang out.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get a sitter,” you sigh. “I’m pretty low on money right now.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind if you bring her along. I understand if you don’t want to, but I’m really great with kids. I’d love it if she came along.”

You and Spencer have been seeing each other for a few months but he hasn’t met your daughter yet. You don’t want to introduce her to someone new if they’re not going to be in your life for very long. You really like Spencer and you hope he’s going to be in your life for a long time. He’s been very patient when it comes to your daughter, and maybe it’s time they meet.

“Why don’t you come over? I’d feel more comfortable having a date here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I think it’s time you meet Gemma.”

“Okay, yeah! I’ll bring some food over and we can cook together.”

“That’d be amazing,” you smile.

“I gotta go. I’ll see you Friday.”

“Okay. Bye.” You hang up with a huge smile on your face. “You hear that, Gemma? You get to meet Spencer. He’s a sweetheart. You’ll love him.”

She squeals in response but it’s mostly because she wants more bananas. You’re not worried that she will love him, it’s if Spencer will love her. You can’t think about that. You have work to get to. The call center you work at has a daycare attached to it for parents who can’t get someone to watch their kids, so every day is Bring Your Daughter To Work Day.

The weekend comes faster than you expected but that means Spencer gets to come over. He might even spend the night if all goes well. When Spencer comes over, he is nothing but sweet towards Gemma. She is playing in her playpen but as soon as Spencer walks in, she squeals and crawls over to him.

“Spencer, this is Gemma. Baby, this is Spencer.” Spencer grins and picks her up once she gets to him. “I’ve been trying to get her to walk lately. She turns eight months next week.”

“Hi, Gemma. Do you want to walk for Mama? Yeah, I can see it. You’ll get there,” he chuckles.

Spencer brings in the groceries he bought so you two can cook lunch while Gemma plays and watches Spongebob. While you don’t know how to be a single mom, and learning every day to be better, you’d rather do this than be with the ex who knocked you up. He left you when you were pregnant so it’s just been you and Gemma for a long time now. It’s hard to let men in your life, especially with a kid so young, but Spencer has been nothing but a complete gentleman to you. He takes things at your pace, never does anything to make you uncomfortable, and always puts you and Gemma first.

Dinner is spent talking about your week and the plans you have this weekend and afterward, Spencer goes to the living room to play with Gemma some more. He’s really warming up to her. Maybe this is going to be a good thing. Your phone rings and your blood runs cold when you see who is calling you. You excuse yourself and step off to the side while Spencer tosses Gemma in the air a few inches only to catch her. Her laughter makes this night all the better.

“What do you want?” you ask when you answer the phone.

“Hey, you got any money to spot me? I’m in a bit of a pickle,” your ex asks.

“Are you kidding me right now? You call me up after how many months only to ask for money?”

“Can you do it or not?”

“Fuck no,” you hiss on the phone. “This might be in your grand plan, but I want you to actually start acting like a dad and be there for Gemma. You know, the daughter you have?”

“You want? You want? You want? What about what I want?”

“You’re a piece of shit.”

“Fuck this. I can’t believe calling you was ever a good idea.”

He hangs up after those harsh words, and you try your hardest not to cry. He’s fucking lucky you’re not going after him for child support, but maybe you should.

“Y/N! Look!” You look at Spencer and Gemma to see her walking toward him on wobbly legs. “She’s walking!”

“Gemma!” you gasp and rush over. “You’re walking, baby!”

Before she can fall to the ground, Spencer scoops her in his arms and kisses her cheeks. She has no idea what is going on but she loves the attention. Spencer looks like he doesn’t want to be anywhere but here. Seeing him with Gemma today has only made you realize that he’s the only man you ever want in Gemma’s life.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[wilwheaton]

When you watch The Curse, you are watching two children who were abused and exploited daily during production. No adults protected us.

This was originally published on my blog in August, 2022.

I had a wonderful time at Steel City Comicon this weekend. It was my first time at this particular con, so I didn’t know there was such a huge contingent of horror fans, creators, and vendors who attend.

I love horror, and I was pretty psyched to be in the same place as John Carpenter and Tom Savini, across the street from the Dawn of the Dead mall. Pittsburgh feels like one of the places horror was invented, at least to me.

A number of these horror fans came to see me, and asked me to sign posters and other things from a movie my parents forced me to do when I was 13, called The Curse. I had to tell each of these people that I would not sign anything associated with that movie, because I was abused and exploited during production. The time I spent on that film remains the most traumatizing time of my life, and though I am a 50 year-old man, just typing this now makes my hands shake with remembered fear of a 13 year-old boy who nobody protected, and the absolute fury the 50 year-old man feels toward the people who hurt him.

I told this story in Still Just A Geek, and I’ve talked about it in some podcasts I did on the promo tour, but I’ve never put it out in public like this, in its entirety.

I suspect someone at the publisher would prefer I tease this and hope it drives book sales from people who want to read all of it, but I honestly don’t want to have another weekend like this one where everything is awesome, except the few times people who have no idea (and why should they) put that fucking poster in front of me, and all the fear, abandonment, and trauma come flooding back as I tell them that I won’t sign it, and why.

To their credit, each person was as horrified as they should have been, told me they had no idea (if they didn’t read my book why would they), and quickly put the poster away. They were all understanding. I am grateful for that.

But I really don’t need to tell this story over and over again, so here it is, with a child abuse and exploitation content warning, so I can just tell people to Google it.

After Stand by Me, everything changed. The attention from entertainment journalists, casting directors, and especially teen magazines came pouring in. The movie was a generational hit, beloved by critics and audiences alike, and every single one of us could pick anything to do next.

River’s parents and his agent got him Mosquito Coast, with Harrison Ford, as his next movie. I also auditioned for the role, but I knew even then that River was going to book the job. He was perfect, and I’d have to wait a little bit for my opportunity to come along.

I went on a lot of theatrical auditions after Stand by Me. I had tons of meetings with directors and the heads of casting at every major studio. It was all a very big deal, and I felt like we were all looking for something really special and amazing as my follow-up to Stand by Me.

At some point, a couple of producers contacted my agent with an offer to play one of the leads in an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.” The script was titled The Farm. (It would, of course, be changed when the film was released).

I read it. I did not like it. It was a shitty horror movie, and I saw that right away. It was the sort of thing you rented on Friday when the new release you wanted was already out of the store.

My mother, already an incredibly manipulative person, used every tool at her disposal to change my mind. My father threatened me, mocked me, told me “It’s your decision” when it clearly wasn’t. It was all so weird; I didn’t understand why they cared so much.

I told my parents I didn’t like it and didn’t want to do it. I clearly recall thinking it was a piece of shit that would hurt my career.

It wasn’t the first thing that had come our way that I wanted to pass on, and every other time, it hadn’t been a very big deal.

Sidebar: I was cast in Twilight Zone: The Movie, in 1983. The film tells four stories, and I was cast as the kid who can wish people into cartoonland. It was a GREAT role, in a movie I still love. (Note that Twilight Zone had four directors. One of them got three people killed. The segment I was cast in was not that one. I mention this because too many people zero in on this to deflect from what this whole thing is actually about.)

But I was CONVINCED by my parochial school teacher that if I worked on The Twilight Zone, which she had determined was satanic, I would go to hell. (This woman and her bullshit played a big role in my conversion to atheism at a young age, but when she told me that, I was all-in on the supernatural story they taught us in religion class.) I was so scared, more scared than I’d ever been to that point in my life, I cried and wailed and begged my parents to not make me do the movie. And I never told them why, because I was afraid my dad would laugh at me for being weak and afraid. My agent tried to talk me into it, and I wouldn’t budge. It’s the only thing I deeply and truly regret passing on, and I really hate I made that choice for such a stupid reason.

Okay. Back to The Curse.

This time, when I told them how much I hated it, they wouldn’t listen to me. My mother, already an incredibly manipulative person, used every tool at her disposal to change my mind. My father threatened me, mocked me, told me “It’s your decision” when it clearly wasn’t. It was all so weird; I didn’t understand why they cared so much.

That is, until they made me take a meeting with the producers of the movie, in their giant conference room on the top floor of a tall building in Hollywood. All I remember about this place was that it was huge; the table was way too big for the five of us who spread around it, and there were floor-to-ceiling windows on three of the walls, but the room was still dark. There was a weird optical illusion in the center of the table, this thing they sold in the Sharper Image catalog, made from two reflective dishes with a hole in the top of one. You placed an object in the bottom of the bottom dish, and it made it look like that object was floating above the whole thing. They had a plastic spider in it. What a strange detail for me to remember, but it’s as clear in my memory as if I were sitting in that room right now.

One man, who I presumed was the executive producer, was European or Middle Eastern (I didn’t know the difference then, he was just Not Like People I Knew), and I was instantly afraid of him. He was intimidating, and seemed like a person who got what he wanted.

So we sat there, my father who didn’t give a shit about me, my mother who was cosplaying as someone with experience, and me, thirteen years old, awkward as fuck, and scared to death.

I don’t remember what they said to me in their pitch or anything other than how uncomfortable and anxious I was to even be in that room. I tried so hard to be grown up and mature, but I — and my parents — was way out of my depth. I’d done one big movie and that was it. We didn’t have my agent with us, who had lots of experience and would have known what questions to ask.

No, in place of my experienced agent, my mother had decided she was going to be my manager, and she tackled the responsibility with an enthusiasm that was only matched by her absolute incompetence and inability to go toe-to-toe with producers the way my agent did. She was outwitted, out-thought, and outmaneuvered at every turn.

“You don’t have a choice,” my father commanded. “You are doing this movie.”

So we sat there, my father who didn’t give a shit about me, my mother who was cosplaying as someone with experience, and me, thirteen years old, awkward as fuck, and scared to death.

At some point, this man, who is represented in my memory by big Jim Jones sunglasses under dark hair above an open collar, said, “We are offering you a hundred thousand dollars and round-trip travel for your whole family. We will cast your sister, Amy, to play your sister in the movie.”

It all made sense, now. I was only thirteen, but I knew my parents were pushing me so hard because this company was offering me — them, really — more money than I’d ever imagined I’d earn in my life, much less a single job.

I knew that the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, was to say no. There would be other opportunities, and it was stupid to cash myself out of feature films for what I thought was, in the grand scheme of things, not very much money.

It’s incredible to me that I knew all of this. It’s incredible to me that I could see all these things, plainly and clearly, and my parents couldn’t (or, more likely, chose not to).

So after this man made his offer, all the adults in the room ganged up on me, selling me HARD on this movie.

My mother said, “Don’t you want your sister to have the same opportunities you’ve had? Wouldn’t it be fun and exciting to go to Rome? Think of all the history!”

The experience was awful. It was the worst experience I have ever had on a set in my life, by every single metric. The movie is awful, and it is the embarrassment I knew it would be.

I don’t think about this very often, because it’s super upsetting to me. Right now, I’m so angry at my parents for subjecting me and my sister to this entire experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In that moment, I felt bullied and trapped. All these adults were talking to me at the same time, and I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to go home and get out of this room. I just wanted to go be a kid, so I did what I’d learned to do to survive: I gave in and did what my parents wanted.

The experience was awful. It was the worst experience I have ever had on a set in my life, by every single metric. The movie is awful, and it is the embarrassment I knew it would be.

But here’s the thing: when you watch The Curse, you are watching two children, me and my sister, who were abused on a daily basis. The production did not follow a single labor law. They worked us for twelve hours a day, on multiple film units (while I work on First unit, second unit sets up and waits for me. When I should get a break to rest, they send me to Second unit, then to Third unit, then back to First unit. I was 13.) without any breaks, five days a week. I was exhausted the entire time. I was inappropriately touched by two different adults during production. I knew it was wrong, but I was so scared and ashamed, and I felt so unsupported, I didn’t tell anyone. I knew my dad wouldn’t believe me, and my mother would blame me. Anything to keep the production happy, that’s what she did. That was more important to her than the health and safety of her children. The director was coked out of his mind most of the time, incompetent, and so busy fucking or trying to fuck one of the women in the cast, he was worse than useless. He was a fading actor who was cosplaying as a director, as in over his head as my mother. My sister and I were never safe. Instead of harmless atmospheric SFX smoke, they set hay on fire in barrels and blew actual smoke onto the set. They took buckets of talc, broken wood, bits of wallpaper and plaster, and threw it into my face during a scene inside the collapsing house. My sister is in a scene where she goes to get eggs from some chickens, and they attack her. So they hired Lucio Fulci, the Italian horror master, to direct her sequence. His idea, which everyone was totally on board with, was to throw chickens at my sister. Live chickens, live roosters, live birds. Just throw them at a nine-year-old girl. Oh, and then tie them to her arms and legs so they’ll peck her. All of this happened under my mother’s observation, and with her full participation.

Everything I need to know about who my parents are is wrapped up in that experience: the total lack of concern for my safety and happiness, treating me like an asset instead of a son, lying to me, manipulating me, and using me to get things they wanted, and then gaslighting me about it.

If just ONE of the things I can remember happened to someone I loved, I would have grabbed my kids, gone to the airport, and flown home. Fuck those abusive assholes in the production. Let the lawyers sort it all out. Nobody hurts my children and gets away with it.

My mom says she “had some talks” with the producers. She claims that, once, she wouldn’t let us leave the hotel. (God, what a fucking dump that place was. It was just slightly better than a hostel.) I have no memory of that, but honestly the entire experience was so traumatic, I’ve blocked most of it out.

The movie was the commercial and critical failure I knew it would be. My parents spent the money. I don’t know what they spent it on. I got to keep fifteen cents of every dollar, so . . . yay?

My sister and I hardly ever talk about this. I suspect it was as upsetting and traumatic for her as it was for me. I told her I was writing about it, and asked her if she remembered anything. She told me she’d been lied to her whole life about this movie. Our mother let her believe she had been cast on the strength of her audition. “I was excited to work with you,” she said. She reminded me about some stuff I’d blocked out, including a scene where my character’s older brother (played by an actor named Malcolm Danare, who was kind and gentle, and made both of us feel safer when he was around) shoves my character into a pile of cow shit. When it came time to shoot the scene, the mud they’d put together to be the cow shit looked an awful lot like cow shit. When Malcolm pushed me into it, we all found out it was real cow shit. I was FURIOUS. The director had lied to me and had allowed me to have my entire body shoved into an actual pile of actual cow shit. I don’t remember what I said, but I remember he treated me the exact same way my father did whenever I got upset: he laughed at me, told me I was being too sensitive, reminded me that he was the director and he wanted to get a “real” performance out of me, and concluded, “If it bothers you so much, we’ll get you a hepatitis shot,” before he walked away.

My sister also recalled that, after she survived the scene with the chickens, it was the producers’ idea to give her one as a pet.

Okay, let’s unpack that for a quick second: you’ve been traumatized by these birds, so we’re going to give you one as a pet. That you’ll somehow keep in your hotel, and then will somehow get back to America. It will shock you to learn that neither of those things happened.

She remembered, as I do, the huge fight I had with my parents in our kitchen, where I told them I hated the script and I hated the movie. I didn’t want to do it, and I hated that they were making me do it.

“You don’t have a choice,” my father commanded. “You are doing this movie.”

“This is the only film you are being offered,” my mother lied to me. She made me feel like, if I didn’t do this movie, I would never do another movie again in my life. I had to do this movie. As my father bellowed, I had no choice.

Both of my parents denied this argument ever happened. Can I tell you how reassuring it is to know that my sister, who was also there, remembers it the same way I do?

The makeup department decided they would literally cut my little sister’s face with a scalpel, in three places, and put bandages over them.

But one thing she told me, the thing I did not know, the thing that makes me so angry I want to break things, actually managed to make the entire experience even worse than I remembered it.

There’s a scene after her chicken incident where I check up on her in her bedroom. She’s got cuts and bruises, and I guess we talk about it. I don’t remember and I can’t watch the movie because I’m terrified it will give me a PTSD flashback (I’ve had one of those and I recommend avoiding it). Here’s the thing about that scene: she has some cuts on her face, and those cuts are real. They are not makeup.

I’m going to repeat that. My nine-year-old little sister had actual cuts on her face that were placed there by an adult, on purpose.

The makeup department decided they would literally cut my little sister’s face with a scalpel, in three places, and put bandages over them. My sister told me our mother wasn’t in the makeup room when this happened — honestly, it seemed like our mother was strangely and conveniently absent when most of the really terrible things happened to us on the set — and when my sister told her what they’d done, she “lost her shit” at the production. She was pissed, I guess, which is appropriate and surprising. I wonder what would have to have happened for her to put us on a plane and get us home to safety? I mean, her son being abused daily didn’t do it, and her daughter being CUT IN THE FACE ON PURPOSE didn’t do it.

I just . . . I can’t. I can’t understand or comprehend allowing your own children to be physically and emotionally abused. They were literally selling my sister and me to these people, like we were some kind of commodity.

This was a tough conversation. My sister’s experience with our parents is very different from mine. My sister and I love each other. We’re close. I know it’s hard for her to hear that her brother, who she loves, was so abused by her parents, who she also loves. I was really grateful she made the time to talk to me about it, and grateful the experience wasn’t as horrible for her as it was for me.

As we were finishing our call, Amy also remembered one man, a young Italian named Luka, who was our driver for the movie. I haven’t thought about him in thirty years, but I can see his face now. He was kind, he was friendly, he taught us how to kick a soccer ball, and in the middle of an abusive, torturous experience, he stood out as a kind and gentle man. I mention him because she remembered him, which made me remember him, and goddammit I want at least one small part of this thing to not be awful.

The Curse remains one of the most consequential times the adults in my life failed to protect me. I’m 50. I still have nightmares.

Ultimately, as I predicted and feared, this piece of shit movie cashed me out of respectable films forever. I got offers for movies, but they were always mindless comedies or exploitative horror films. They were never the serious dramas I wanted to work in after Stand by Me. The industry looked at me and River, wondering if one or both of us would become a breakout star. They quickly saw that River was doing real acting work, and I was in this piece of shit. For River, Stand by Me was a beginning. For me, it would turn out to be pretty much everything, at least as far as film goes.

There are thousands of reasons film careers do and don’t take off. Maybe mine wouldn’t have taken off anyway. Clearly, it’s not where my life ended up, and I’m super okay with that now. But when all of this happened, it hurt and haunted me.

The Curse remains one of the most consequential times the adults in my life failed to protect me. I’m 50. I still have nightmares. Everything I need to know about who my parents are is wrapped up in that experience: the total lack of concern for my safety and happiness, treating me like an asset instead of a son, lying to me, manipulating me, and using me to get things they wanted, and then gaslighting me about it.

This annotation is the last thing I wrote before I turned this manuscript in, because opening these wounds is hard and painful. I put it off as long as I could, and I feel like I’m still holding back, because just this small glimpse of the experience has taken me a week to write. I can’t imagine trying to go back and unpack the whole thing. (Note that is not in the book: I’ve made an EMDR appointment to work on this because the nightmares have come back after the weekend).

Fuck The Curse, and fuck every single person who exploited and hurt two beautiful children to make it. You all participated in child abuse, and you all knew better. Shame on all of you. I hope this follows you to the end of your life. I hope that living with what you did to innocent children has been as hard for you as it has been for me, because you deserve no less.

[vivwritesfics]

Hiiiii!! So I was wondering if you could write a story where the reader is stuck into a relationship with a driver (you choose babes), but she has this hugeee crush on him but her hates you and has a gf behind your back because it’s not like you two even love each other right, it’s a forced relationship after all, so the reader gets very angsty and a friend of the driver your dating notices it and you two get close and fall in love and the other driver/reader’s fake bf gets crazy jealous for some reason he doesn’t understand but it’s too late bc you managed to break up with him anywaysss!! Thanks lovelyyyyy, I adoreee your fics btw lyyyyy🫶🏻

okayokay i didn't want to have it with her dating another driver bc i basically love everybody so i made it a mechanic i hope thats okay

warnings: Cheating

F1 Masterlist

There was something great about being an F1 couple. He got to work as a mechanic for McLaren while she got to work as the social media manager for her favourite team. It was amazing and it worked perfectly.

They started dating when Lando and Daniel were driving for the team. She was always in the garage, camera at the ready. They were in love then, so fucking happy.

And she was still in love now. It was a year later and Daniel had been replaced by his fellow aussie, Oscar. She might have still been in love, but he was not. He had very much fallen out of love.

Maybe he had gotten bored with her, it wasn't very clear. But suddenly he was secretive, barely speaking when he was around her, hiding his phone from her.

He was cheating on her. That much was clear.

She had found out on the Friday of a Grand Prix weekend. His phone had been left beside her and she simply turned it on to check the time. The messages had been there, as plain as day. Girlfriend Number One (as her contact name had been) had sent a text. She didn't remember sending those thing to him. Maybe because she hadn't.

Oscar found her hidden away in the back of the McLaren garage, sobbing her eyes out. She couldn't go back to the hotel room to cry, she had a job to do.

Oscar didn't know what to do. She looked up at him, with tears in her eyes, but quickly looked away. Part of him knew he couldn't leave her. So he sat down beside her and pulled his knees up to his chest.

When he sat down, she tried her best to stop crying, but it wasn't happening any time soon. She furiously wiped at her eyes, wiping away the tears. But nothing was helping.

"Are you okay?" As soon as Oscar asked the question, he was kicking himself. Of course she wasn't okay.

She wiped her eyes again and looked at Oscar. She went to nod her head, but the tears started flowing again. "Fuck," she hissed, once again wiping at her cheeks. "Sorry, i-"

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head. "I shouldn't be bothering you with this," she said and went to walk away. Oscar let her go. He watched as she walked away before he stood up.

They kept running into each other. Everywhere they went they'd bump into each other. It was expected, really. They did work for the same people. And, each time that they ran into each other, Oscar would ask if she was okay.

It was only once he made a point to seek her out that she told him. She told him all about the messages she had seen on her partners phone. In the middle of her rant, he, the man who had cheated on her, came walking towards them. She froze up and Oscar took her hands. "It's okay," he said and she stepped towards him, letting her partner pass.

Because they hadn't broken up yet. She didn't know how to break up with him. Part of her was still in love with him, as dumb as it might sound. But Oscar certainly helped with that. They began spending much of their time together and, for the first time in a while, she felt happy.

You wouldn't think a man who is no longer in love would get jealous, but that was exactly what happened. He watched as she and Oscar simply got along, and that was enough to enrage him. But what could he do? Girlfriend number one was texting him.

It was still rather uncomfortable that they shared a hotel room. She pretended not to notice as he texted other women, pretended not to care. With Oscars help, she stopped caring.

One day she booked into a different hotel room. It was Monza and, somehow, this was the weekend she knew she had to leave him. So, she did just that. She left him. And it was all thanks to Oscar.

Oscar, who had been so kind to her. Oscar who had helped her to see she was worth more than him. Oscar who she much preferred to him.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Paradigm Shift 5

Warnings: this fic will include elements, some dark, such noncon/dubcon, and other untagged triggers. Please take this into account before proceeding. It is up to curate your online consumption safely.

Summary: you get transferred to a new position but it’s hardly a breath of fresh air. (plus!reader)

Characters: Loki, Bucky Barnes, this reader is known as Billie.

Author’s Note: Please feel free to leave some feedback, reblog, and jump into my asks. I’m always happy to discuss with you and riff on idea. As always, you are cherished and adored! Stay safe, be kind, and treat yourself💜

💼Part of the Bad Bosses AU💼

“Mr. Laufeyson, your matcha and the notes for the morning’s meeting,” you set down the cup and hold out the sleek black folder with his initials on it. 

He ignores the tea and takes the briefing without thanks. You assumed as much but it does make you wonder who raised him. His brother wasn’t like this so it’s a bit of a surprise. 

“Anything else, sir?” You ask. 

He glances at the cup and tilts his head, “you went to Garcons.” 

“Yes, sir, I made not of the preference.” 

He offers no prize for that. He simply shrugs and opens the folder. You nod and turn on your heel. As you cross the office, a figure darkens the door. You slow as Barnes tilts his head at you. 

“There you are, Billie,” he greets, “coffee?” 

“On my desk, I was just going to bring it to you--” 

“I need it after the weekend I had,” he stays in the door frame, blocking your escape, “what a coincidence that we would run into each other, huh?” 

“I guess,” you stiffen in discomfort. 

“Did you enjoy your drinks?” Barnes asks with a dimple in his cheek. You scrunch up your lips as his eyes twinkle. He knows what he’s doing. 

“You two... had drinks?” Laufeyson asks. 

“No,” you insist and angle back so you can see each from the edge of your vision. “We ran into each other. I was with friends.” 

“Ran into each other. Mm, well, let’s not play favourites, yes.” 

You almost scoff. You went a full extra block to get his stupid green latte and he thinks it has anything to do with preference. You prefer to deal with neither of them. You nod, “of course, sir. I’ll get your coffee, Mr. Barnes,” you twist on your heeled boot, “and your daily brief.” 

“Thanks, doll,” he sidesteps to let you past him. You can feel his gaze follow you. 

“Are you in here for anything in particular?” Laufeyson snips tersely in your stead. 

“Yeah, business, bud,” Barnes retorts, “let me close this.” 

The door shuts and you march off. You grab the coffee and other folder from your desk and retrace your steps down the hall. You enter Barnes’ office and lay it out on his desk. 

Quickly, you retreat. You’ll be happy enough to hide at your desk as they go upstairs for the monthly managerial review. You’re hoping Odinson can keep them past the scheduled block. You don’t like Mondays. 

You sip your coffee as you sort through emails and direct them in the right direction. Barnes is more of the face-to-face one but Laufeyson is the numbers man. They have an interesting dynamic on paper. As you reply to a few errant requests, you hear the door open but ignore it. 

Barnes’ shadow looms down the hall before drifting into his office. A message pops up on your screen. It’s him. 

‘Thanks, doll. Coffee’s still hot.’ 

A thumbs up will suffice. You did your job. Amazing. 

Another message. Laufeyson. You switch chats. 

‘You will attend the meeting with myself and Barnes. Keep the minutes.’ 

Sigh. Alright. You type back. ‘Yes, sir.’ 

No response. Barnes’ turn, ‘holding out for Friday night?’ 

You huff and roll your eyes. 

‘Sir, I am focusing on my work. Did you require some assistance?’ 

You hear him snicker and the response pops up, ‘got it. All business. Shoulda known with those boots.’ 

You don’t reply. You shut out Teams and go back to sorting through communications and arranging the calendar accordingly. You don’t get much done before a strutting gait approaches. You look up as Laufeyson appears. 

“You’re acquainted with my brother,” he says. It isn’t a question. 

“Yes, sir.” You pull your hands back from the keyboard. 

“You will be certain to keep him from talking my ear off then.” 

“Uh, if that’s what you need--” 

“It is what I’m telling you to do. We’re due in five.” He shows his watch. 

“Coming,” Barnes emerges, smoothing his jacket as if he could hear his partner’s chiding. 

“Yes, sir,” you stand up and grab your notebook and pen. 

Laufeyson is halfway to the elevator before you get around the desk and Barnes is right on your heels. As you pass through the bullpen, you notice the hunches in response to their presence and the nervous glances. The energy is grey like rain. 

You stand at the elevator between the men. Laufeyson tuts and Barnes thumbs through his phone. He tucks it away as the doors open. They don’t move. 

“Ladies first,” Laufeyson insists. 

You don’t argue. You step on and they follow. 

The turn and stand shoulder to shoulder with you behind them. Laufeyson checks his watch once more and Barnes wiggles his fingers at his side. They let out a long exhale in unison. 

“Tell me again how you’re related to this guy,” Barnes snorts. 

“Adopted,” Laufeyson sneers. “Please, you will suffer him for an hour, I have suffered a lifetime.” 

“Ah, is that why you have that stick up your ass?” Barnes nudges him with his elbow. 

To your surprise, the other man snickers. 

“Only to match yours, Barnes.” 

You glance between them curiously. They both are so stringent on their own and yet with each other, there’s a measure of respect? Recognition? Commiseration? Like everyone else in Logistics, they’ve been sentenced to purgatory. It is a fleeting human moment. 

“Should I point out the oaf’s mistake or would like that pleasure?” Laufeyson intones. 

Barnes shrugs, “will it make a difference? We’ll just be cleaning up another mess next month.” 

They speak as if you’re not there. You suppose you’re not significant enough to worry about. Hell, you don’t mind one bit if the heat’s off of you. 

[bbrissonn]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 - 𝐥𝐮𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬

in which luke realizes he's fallen for his brother's best friend's little sister

warnings: not proofread

disclaimer: english is not my first language so excuse any mistakes. also, this is a work of fictions, this doesn't reflect how these boys act in real life :)

pairing: luke hughes x zegras!reader

wc: 2.06k

previous masterlist next

-LATE NOVEMBER ‘22-

Luke let out a soft grunt as his body hit his mattress, his energy drained from their two games on Friday and Saturday night, which they had both won. So, the seniors had decided a party was to take place on Sunday, from sun up to sun down, something the Hughes boys hated. 

He wasn’t a big partyer, sure he liked going out every once in a while, drink a little here and there, but big scene with a bunch of strangers, drunk strangers wasn’t somethign he enjoyed. He tried to find some positive to the day he just had, but he couldn’t find any. He hadn’t even drank half a beer, having to make sure his friends didn’t do anything that would get them in trouble. 

He was more than ready to call it a day and end to bed, he had successfully put all of his roommates to sleep, meaning there was nothing stopping him from falling asleep. He quickly changed into something more comfortable before hiding under his blanket, checking his phone one last time. Just as he was about to put his phone down, a notification came in. 

He groaned a bit before checking it, hoping it wasn’t one of the freshman asking him to come help them back to their dorms, or anything important really. Instead, he was meet with a text from you, a short and simple one. 

y/n/n

hey lulu, you seemed a bit stressed tonight and i didn’t want to bother you, hope duker wasn’t too much of a hassle to put to bed. just wanted to say you played amazing this weekend :) 

sleep well, you deserve it <3

The youngest Hughes couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face as his fingers moved across his phone screen, his index hovering over the send button, wondering if this was a good idea or not. 

lulu 

hi y/n/n, surprisingly duker was the easiest to put to bed, can’t say the same for eddy though… thank you, and i will especially after today. i know you have an early class tomorrow, but maybe we could get lunch after? on me

The boy didn’t understand why he felt nervous when he sent the text, the two of you get lunch together pretty much every single week, this wouldn’t be any different. So why was he feeling the way he was? 

y/n/n 

i’d love to! only if i get to pick the place though

lulu 

when have i not let you pick the place? 

y/n/n 

never because you’re a smart man :D

lulu 

exactly, night y/n/n

y/n/n 

night lulu, see you tomorrow xx

And there it was again, that weird little feeling in the pit of his stomach, one he had been feeling way too many times in past week whenever he’d talk to you. Luke truly didn’t understand what that feeling was, or why it appeared every time you were around or when you would text or call him, but he loved it. He was addicted to it. 

The same feeling came back the next morning as he saw you walking towards his car, talking with one of your friends that was in your class. A smile creeped it’s way onto his face as you bid your goodbyes to your friend before joining Luke in his car, sending him a wide smile. 

“Hey, Lu.” You said as you buckled up, the boy’s eyes never leaving your figure until your eyes met his. 

“Hi.” He whispered with a smile before snapping back to his normal self, turning the car on and driving off towards your favourite place to eat lunch in the area. It was a small little cafe, one you wouldn’t even know existed if it wasn’t for one of your friends working there. Said friend had brought back a leftover chicken wrap she had as dinner one night, and you grew obsessed with them. 

“You know me so well, Hughes.” You mumbled with a wide grin as he pulled into a parking spot, chuckling a bit at your expression. 

“It’s not like you pretty much force me to eat here every week.” The boy answered, his tone light and teasing making you roll your eyes with a smile. 

“Shut up.” You told him before getting out of the car and making your way into the place, Luke following closely behind you. 

A couple of minutes later, your food arrived, it wasn’t noon yet, meaning there was barely anyone inside, something you loved because it meant your food would arrive quicker. You then started telling Luke about what had happened in your life during the weekend, barely ever letting the boy speak, but he didn’t mind. The sound of your voice was something he loved, the way you would invest into your storytelling leaving him in awn. 

Once again, that feeling in the pit of his stomach came back as your laugh echoed in his ears, your beautiful smile staring at him as all your attention was focused on him, and him only. You were quite the talkative person, always finding a group of people at a party to talk the night away, much like your older brother, and Luke was total opposite, choosing to stay with his teammates at every party. So, whenever your full attention was on him, it made him feel so special. 

He was the only that mattered to you in this moment, your whole mind and spirit were only thinking about him. Just like you had his whole attention, you always did. Whenever the two of you were in the same room, you were all Luke could think about, always letting his eyes drift towards you, finding you easily even in a crowded room. 

“Luke? Luke, are you listening?” He heard your voice ask making him blink a couple of times. Your eyes were looking into his with such worry, he loved it. 

“Yeah, yeah, ‘m listening.” He answered, his voice low as he scratched the back of his neck, clearing his throat slightly. Thankfully, you didn’t ask anymore questions, instead continuing your story, Luke letting out a quick sigh when you did. He relaxed in his seat, paying full attention to what you were saying, realization settling into him. 

He was in deep shit. 

~

“What’s up with you?” Ethan asked later that night as all the sophomores were sitting in the couches in their living room, Luke quiet than he usually was. The question made the other three boys look over at the youngest one in the room, a slight red colour appearing on Luke’s cheeks. 

“Nothing.” He answered, trying his best to ignore the looks his best friends were giving him. 

“Bullshit.” Dylan called out, pausing the hockey game that was currently playing on their TV, none of them paying attention to it anymore. Luke bit his lips for a moment, debating wether he should tell them about his new found feelings for you, or stay quiet. Knowing his best friends, especially Duker, Trevor would find out in probably less than a week, so option two it was. 

“I don’t wanna talk ‘bout it.” He mumbled, Mackie rolling his eyes at his answer. 

“Boo hoo, whore. Tell us.” The boy said, making the other three chuckle slightly, but nodding their heads at the same time. 

“If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone.” Luke started, his friends laughing between them, only making the youngest one angry. “I am serious! You can’t tell another soul about this, or I will murder all of you.” 

“We won’t, chill.” Mark said, the others nodding along with him. Luke took a large sip of his beer, his roommates all watching him until he spoke again. 

“I think I am in love with Y/N/N.” The boy admitted out loud for the first time, and gosh did it feel weird. He was in love with his brother’s best friend’s little sister. He knew Jack probably wouldn’t have a problem with them dating, but Trevor, yeah that would be another story. 

“You just realized?” The other New Jersey pick laughed, the others boys doing the same. A tint of red grew on Luke’s cheeks again, this one darker and more noticeable than before. 

“I think you’re the last one to realize that, buddy.” 

“You just realized?” 

“It’s like the more obvious thing, Hughesy.” They all teased, not making the boy in question feel any better than he already did. He just put himself in the worst position possible, the memory of Trevor introducing you to him, clearly stating that you were off limits to the boy and to never get any ideas. Of course back then, Luke just shrugged it off, after all he was fourteen, the last thing he was thinking about was a relationship, but now, now it was totally different. 

He wanted you, needed you, to be his. He’d do anything for you, if it meant you could be his forever, something he had never felt before. He’s had a couple of girlfriends and flings in the past, but this was a new feeling, stronger than he’s ever felt before. But he could never tell you about this, never, it would ruin your friendship, Trevor would hate him, then Jack and Trevor’s friendship would be all messed up because of it, and it’d all be because of his. He couldn’t. 

“So, when are you gonna tell her?” Dylan asked from besides him, bring the boy out of his thought. Luke furred his brow slightly before answering the Duke boy. 

“Never. It’d ruin everything.” He explained, scoffs being heard in the living room. 

“Trust me, Lukey, if you were to call her right now and ask her on a date, she’d say yes. The girl’s like head over heels for you, it’s so obvious it hurts.” Mackie said, everyone else agreeing with him. 

“Z would kill me, than Jack’s gonna get pissed at me, too risky.” 

“God, you’re the biggest idiot out there.” Dylan mumbled before pressing play on the remote, the sound of the commentators being the only noise in the room. 

Luke didn’t pay attention to the rest of the game, his whole mind being focused on you. What were you doing at this moment? Were you thinking about him like he was thinking about you? Would you go on a date with him? Did you love him the same way he loved you? Or were you in the arms of another boy? Having a girls night with your friends, him being the last thing on his mind? He needed to know. 

The Hughes boy left the living right before the third period started, his finger hovering over your contact. He shouldn’t. But he did it anyways, the sound of the phone ringing soon echoing in his ear as he bit his nails nervously. Only for him to be met with the sound of your voicemail, crushing his spirit a little. He tried his best not to let it bother him, instead deciding to watch a show, when he received a text only a minute later. 

y/n/n

hi lulu, it’s sibling night, i’ll call you when we’re done facetiming :)) 

A sigh of relief left his mouth, monday nights were always siblings night, how he could he forget that. They started back when Trevor left for the NTDP, at first it would be you, Griffin and Ava all together, and then eventually you were all in different places over the country. You had made it very clear to Luke that no plans could ever be made on Monday nights because of it. 

The boy felt a lot more at ease now, relaxing in his bed as his show played. And the moment he heard his ringtone and your contact popping up on his phone, a wide smile grew on his face. He sat up in his bed, clearing his throat slightly before answering the call. 

“Hey.” 

“Hi, you. What’s up?” You asked, the sound of your voice only making the boy smile even more. 

“I just, uh… Do you wanna go on a date with me?” He asked starighforeward, bitting his lips after, scared of your answer. You stayed quiet for a while, making the boy even more nervous than he already was. 

“I’d love to, Lu.”

[dilemmaontwolegs]

hello gorgeous, I love your imagination that you put into words. I expecially like your works on daniel&gasly (maybe because they're my favorite drivers). I saw that requests are closed and you're going under the knife (hope it goes well!) but if by any chance you want/have time to write this I'll be happy. Will be pleased with whatever you choose to do with this request.

The reader is a very normal, ordinary person. Rents a flat, has a job, meets with her friends form time to time. Nothing much. Somehow hers and the drivers paths cross. He immediately falls in love with her, she feels the attraction but after one weekend with him she understands that they're too different and it certainly won't work. So he's trying to persuade her to give them a try and she always runs away when her feelings instead of brain start to win. During intimate moments she starts to make awful jokes or act like a child, everything to not let the passion take over and the driver notices that and the seducing begins.

Would love this with dan or pierre but it's up to you.

Have a lovely day! 😊

P.S: Sorry for my English, it's not my 1st language

Romantic at Heart || DR3

Pairing: Daniel Ricciardo x fem!reader Warnings: none really, smut implied WC: 2.3k

F1 Masterlist

You should have been heading straight home, just like you had promised the girls after a Friday night out, but the lights had stolen your attention. At first you thought it was a firefly, a single orange glowing tail on the brick wall. Then you spotted another, but it was blue. Then one by one you noticed them dotted along the wall, all the colours of the rainbow leading the way to the riverbank in the opposite direction to your apartment. 

Curiosity had you following the path of tiny LED lights, wondering what it might lead to. The distance between each beacon grew closer until they became clusters, like little galaxies of constellations you could wish upon. A small laugh bubbled up as you skipped along to the next one with childlike excitement, so engrossed in what you were looking at that you didn’t see where you were going.

“Oh, sorry!” you apologised as you bumped into a man, his hands scrambling to catch his camera before it could hit the pavement. “Sorry, I was distracted. Is your camera okay?”

The man had recovered it without incident and smiled as he held it up. “Mind if I check?”

“Check what?” you asked as he raised it to his eye, the lens pointed in your direction.

“If it still works. Smile!”

You laughed at the man’s confidence and you heard the shutter snap the photo before he looked at the display. “Wow, that’s perfect,” he praised, waving you over. “Come look.”

You stepped closer to the man, feeling a sense of recognition though you were certain you hadn’t met him before. He angled the camera so you could see what he had captured and your lips parted in surprise. You couldn’t understand how he had managed to take a simple photo but make it art. 

The smile on your face was pure joy, and the lights behind you had distorted under the exposure and contrast to create a halo around your head. 

“You look like an angel.”

“Oh my god,” you whispered in amazement, wishing you could have a copy for yourself. 

“God?” he chuckled as he held a hand out. “Nah, you can just call me Daniel.”

You shook his hand with a laugh, feeling like it was a sound he was used to hearing from everyone he spoke to, and gave him your name in return. 

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Daniel started to say and you immediately began to shift uncomfortably on your feet, “but you’re beautiful, and it’s late, what are you doing out on your own?”

“Oh, I was out with my girlfriends and on my way home when I saw these and I kind of, had to, follow them…?” you trailed off and looked back at the dark path you had wandered down, less and less lights illuminating the way home. “I guess I should be going.”

Daniel followed your gaze to the darker end of the road and hated the thought of you walking it alone. Shoving his camera into his hoodie pocket, he offered his elbow. “Care for some company on this fine evening? My mother would throttle me if she knew I let a lady walk home alone at this hour.”

You chewed your lip as you debated his offer. “Are you a serial killer?”

“Only at breakfast.” You took a sudden step back and he screwed his eyes shut as he berated himself. “Sorry, sorry, terrible joke. Terrible timing. I meant Cereal Killer…because I eat cereal for breakfast…I’m sorry.”

“That is not funny,” you said despite laughing. “I watch way too many Netflix shows for that.”

His head tilted to the side and caught the colours of the leds around you as curiosity filled his playful smile. “Have you seen that Formula One show on there?”

Your nose wrinkled at the idea and shook your head. “Sports isn’t really my thing.” Trusting your gut that he was safe enough, you looped your arm in his and set off down the road. 

“Then what is your thing?”

“Books,” you admitted, suddenly shy though you had no reason to be. “My friends actually refer to my apartment as ‘the library’. If I didn’t have to work to buy more books I don’t think anyone would see me again, I would just hole up and read.”

“There’s worse ways to spend your time,” he joked with a grin you were starting to think was perpetually painted on his face.

“Yeah, I could watch Formula one.” His smile faded and his laugh puttered out, making you instantly regret the joke. “I can hardly make fun of your thing when I’ve told you mine.”

“I don’t actually watch F1,” he admitted as he stopped walking and you turned to face him. “I’m too busy racing.”

“Racing what?” 

He blinked a few times and his lip twitched with a smile when he realised you were genuinely confused. “I race cars…in F1…for McLaren.”

You waited for the punchline to come but for the first time since meeting him, he was serious. “Oh, oh! Okay…wow. I guess that’s why I felt like I recognised you, I must have seen you somewhere. God, I feel stupid.” You laughed to yourself and sighed, whispering under your breath, “you’ve been reading too much romance.”

“You’re not stupid,” Daniel said quietly. “I feel it too.”

Your laugh was an unladylike snort of disbelief. “Don’t be silly, you don’t even know me. You don’t even know my last name or what I do for work.”

“But I want to, if you’ll give me the time to learn. Not that it matters what your job is, you aren’t your work.”

“What if I’m an escort?”

“Are you an escort?”

“Would it matter?” 

He was momentarily stunned and you saw him worrying his bottom lip and he thought of an appropriate answer. 

“I’m not, but obviously it would matter,” you clarified as you turned and started your walk again. “I’m an admin assistant, not an escort, just so you know.”

“Not a librarian?” 

You smiled as you tipped your head back to the starry night. “A girl can dream, but they aren’t positions that tend to come up very often. Even less with everything going digital.”

“You could open your own library, you already have the books apparently.” 

You hadn’t realised how far you had walked until you stopped outside your apartment complex. It had been easy to get lost in the conversation with him and you almost continued walking just so the evening didn’t come to an end. 

“Apparently?” you giggled as he opened the front door for you. “Do I have to prove it to you?”

He followed you to the elevator and leaned against the wall. “Is that you inviting me up?”

It was daring and absolutely unlike you but when you looked into his eyes you knew you wanted to see more of them so you found yourself asking, “Would you say yes?”

His smile grew as he reached for the elevator button in response and hit it.

Monday morning rolled around too soon and you struggled to pull yourself out of bed to get ready for work. Daniel’s back was to you as he hugged his pillow, one arm hanging over the edge of the bed, and you saw the slightly raised marks of your nails over his tan skin. 

The weekend had been better than any of the fictional tales that filled the rooms in your house. You hadn’t even left the apartment, too engrossed in each other's company to face the outside world. But that would change as you climbed out of bed and started your usual Monday morning routine. 

“Good morning, angel,” Daniel greeted sweetly as he snuck up behind you and kissed your cheek. 

You held up the piece of toast you were eating and let him take a bite for himself. “Can I have your number?” he asked after finishing his mouthful and watching you dart around the small kitchen, packing a little lunch to take to work.

“For what?”

“So I can give it to telemarketers,” he joked as he caught you around the waist. “No, so I can call you.”

“This weekend has been…magical, but you’re a famous race car driver, and I’m, well, just me,” you said softly. “I’m under no illusion about how this ends, Daniel, we live in two different worlds.”

“That’s just a cop out,” he argued, picking up your phone and calling himself so he had your number. “I’m going to prove you wrong.” 

Three Weeks Later “Daniel’s here to see you.” You looked up from your computer to double check Jess was talking to you and found her grinning like a fool. “I can’t believe he’s actually here.”

“Who?”

Jess reached for the half empty cup of coffee she had made you and sniffed it. “Did I give you decaf? Girl, wake up! You don’t keep a man like that waiting. The PA’s are already sniffing around him.”

Pushing your chair back, you rose at the threat of the PA’s who loved to dote upon any man who had a seven figure salary. Two of the glorified assistants longed to be on Love Island and their entire personality could fit in the extremely large breasts their ex-bosses had paid for - right before the sexual harassment charges were filed. Yeah, you weren’t going to leave Daniel to fend for himself.

Leaving the back offices, you followed the scent of knock-off Marc Jacobs to the reception area where Daniel smiled and joked with the small crowd surrounding him. You were once again struck by how different your lives were, his in the spotlight and yours anything but. It was only as you moved closer that you saw how the smile didn’t reach the creases around his eyes and heard the laugh that didn’t come from deep in his belly. 

“Alright, ladies,” you interrupted the group with a wave of your hands, “thank you for keeping Daniel company, I’ll take it from here.”

A few overly keen females pouted as they stepped away and Daniel cast a grateful smile to you before pulling out the gift he had hidden behind his back. It took a second to realise why the bouquet of roses looked strange but then the confused frown was replaced with a smile as you accepted it. Every rose was made of origami, carefully folded and shaped into the blossom and you quickly recognised the lines of Pride and Prejudice, arguably the greatest romance novel of all time.

“What are you doing here?” you asked as you held the meaningful bouquet to your chest. 

Daniel was all too aware of your curious co-workers still hanging around the area and dipped his head closer to yours. “There’s this angel I’ve been missing, and I just needed to see her again.”

The gesture, the words, it all made your heart skip a beat but you quashed the feelings that arose with it. “That is stalking.”

His laugh was genuine and your smile grew when you saw his reach his eyes as he corrected you, “That is romantic.”

“Thank you,” you whispered as you sniffed the paper roses. “Did you spray these with your cologne?”

“The book came from a secondhand store and it smelt like mothballs, which wasn’t the vibe I was going for. I think I smell better than mothballs.”

“Wait, you made these!” Surprise floored you as you looked at them with a new appreciation. 

“With a little help and a lot of youtube,” he grinned proudly. “I would have come sooner but it took three weeks to make them all.”

The effort he made brought tears to your eyes and you hurried to blink them away. The man was absolutely relentless in his belief that the connection between you could become something more, but you still struggled to accept it. It wasn’t because you weren’t attracted to him, no that had been instant from the moment you met, you just didn’t understand how someone as famous as him could settle for someone as plain as you.

“Surely you have better things to do with your time,” you said after swallowing the lump in your throat.

“Than thinking of ways to win your heart? No way. So…can I please take you out on a date?”

Your eyes traced the roses, scanning the lines from the pages of one of your favourite books. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Daniel made you laugh, he could always make you laugh. The late night phone calls that interrupted your reading time replaced the silence in the apartment with the sound of your laughter. But would it be enough to close the distance between your worlds?

Your eyes followed another petal and felt it resonate within: Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.

“One date,” you said as you tore your eyes away from the flowers that only seemed to call to you more, begging to find more sweet sentences among the folds. “And nowhere public. I want to actually be able to talk with you, not get swarmed by fans.”

“I can do that,” he said with a wide grin before kissing your cheek. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He started to leave but he stopped as you softly called his name, looking over his shoulder from the doorway.

“Thank you for these, Daniel. No one’s ever done anything so sweet.”

“It’s just the beginning, angel,” he winked, disappearing out the door as you hid your face in the flowers that smelt just like him.

Crap, you sighed to yourself. He was worming his way into your heart, just like he planned.

[yelspyder]

Hey! I was wondering if you could maybe do a Gwen x female (or gender neutral) reader’s first kiss? They’re not officially dating but they both have rather clear feelings for each other. Gwen maybe saves reader from a petty street crime and they share the iconic Spiderman kiss. The reader doesn’t blatantly know that Gwen is Spiderwoman, but they have a gut feeling, as Gwen also has a gut feeling they may already know.

˚‧⁺.-"Kiss me again - he says, drunk and foolish - Kiss me until I am sick of it"

↳ summary: basically, spiderman iconic kiss with Gwen

↳ characters: Gwen Stacy

↳ Gn! Reader

↳ notes: I would with fem reader, but nothing in that work would make that fact explicit, so I titled it gn (which can also be seen as fem), hope you don't mind.

Gwen's heart fluttered when she saw you being mugged. No way was she going to let you get hurt. You were too important to her.

You were paralyzed. Being mugged in a desert street in the big city was not something you used to do, of course you would be scared. The gun was pointed at your face while the thug stared at you with a scary look while another man, presumably his henchman, looked you up and down with a smirk you thought could swallow you whole. And a third man watching the surroundings, ready to warn the others at any sign of the police. The man who had the gun pointed at you looked like some kind of bodyguard for some rich rapper who performs in bars every Friday: gold teeth, tattoos, piercings and such.

Gwen was having a snack until she saw you being mugged in a nearby deserted street. She didn't let herself think long before quickly stepping in and jumping next to the bandits. When she realized that she didn't even bother to put the mask on before jumping in front of you, it was too late to go back and get it, she would have to do it quickly so that no one saw her face.

She was grateful for the darkness of the street when got into a quick melee and threw the thugs away in a dumpster in front of a building, knocking them unconscious. Before you could even process it properly and go after her to thank her, she'd ducked into a nearby alley as quickly as she'd appeared to save you.

You wasted no time in following her, but were disappointed when you couldn't find her. A little frustrated, you turned to resume your walk home, to find the spiderwoman hanging upside down in front of you.

She cleared her throat before speaking in an unnaturally deep voice. "Are you all right, dear citizen?"

You jumped a little in surprise when you saw her before speaking. You really didn't expect her to come back to check on you after saving you. After recovering from the surprise, you started talking. "Uh...-? Of course, I'm fine thanks to you. We've been seeing each other a lot these past few days, you made a point of helping me just across the street this weekend. Do I have a superhero stalker?"

Unknown to you, Gwen smiled beneath her mask and replied in a confident tone. "I was in the neighborhood."

You smiled and took a moment to sigh and admire the figure hanging in front of you. "You're amazing."

"Some people don't think so." She just shook her head and spoke, again using her unnatural low voice.

You didn't say anything, just held your hands out until they hovered over the top of the mask around her neck. "...What?" She asked with a tone of doubt, but without making the slightest effort to stop you.

You withdrew your hands a little, until it took you a while to resume your action. You slowly extended your hands until they hovered over the top of her mask around her neck again upon seeing the, as yet unknown to you, blonde's non-existent attempts to stop you. Still slowly, you pulled your mask up to her nose, to see a strangely familiar gap between the teeth in the superheroine's half opened mouth, and rested your hands on her cheeks.

Without much delay, you kissed her.

She felt herself magically melting into your kiss. Her heart was beating too fast, and her cheeks were burning. At this point, she was thanking whatever god there was that part of her cheeks was still covered, so you wouldn't see the blushing mess you made of her. If the kiss wasn't enough, she was now all too aware of your soft hands resting on her cheeks. She found herself having to resist the urge to relax against your touch right there. She felt in heaven, kissing her crush did wonders for her. The looks exchanged, and the laughter shared during the common lessons at school seemed a distant delusion in her mind now. All that mattered was that she was kissing her crush at this very moment.

The poor girl wanted this moment to last forever, but the need to breathe soon came and you had to part ways. As soon as you pulled away, she saw your breathless appearance and flushed cheeks, and smiled when you adjusted her mask correctly.

"So, my favorite citizen, wants me to walk you home?"

[cringe-but-proud]

Hello! I Hope You’re having a wonderful day/night. I was wondering if you can do a Wonka (2023) x reader where the reader is a show girl and is in love with Willy Wonka. And the reader works as a showgirl for slugworth (to Yk promote his chocolates). But reader and Willy falls for each other and it’s a whole forbidden love type thing since readers boss hates wonka.

Hello! Thanks so much for the request!! Gotta love the forbidden lovers trope (probably one of my favs tbh).

Willy Wonka x Showgirl!Reader (Wonka 2023)

Warnings!!!: Fem!reader, cursing (literally once, I'm pretty sure)

A/n: Baby's first request + Baby's first time posting fanfiction (AJGSHSHEJJXHDJDJ) Hope it's not awful.

Sometimes you wondered why you ever agreed to this job.

Being a showgirl wasn't as easy as a lot of people seemed to think it was.

Every other weekend, you performed at the local theatre to promote Mr. Slugworth's infamous chocolate. Two shows on Friday, two shows on Saturday.

Sounds easy enough. But, Mr. Slugworth insisted that no two shows could be the same.

Which meant that everyday you weren't performing, you were learning a new song and new choreography for your next performance. Which got very tiring very quickly.

Tonight was a particularly bad night. You were barely halfway through your show and already wanted to just collapse in the middle of the stage and sleep. Your costume felt tight, there was hardly anyone in the crowd, and your face hurt from how much you were smiling.

You had just finished your third number when the theatre doors opened. A young man walked through the doors. You recognized him from an incident in which he made your boss float through the air.

You briefly looked at him before going into your fourth number.

To your surprise, the man chose to sit right in the middle of the first row. Right in front of you. Now that he was closer you could see that he was actually pretty handsome. Dark brown curls that framed his face well and beautiful eyes that seemed to watch you in utter amazement...

You had to look away.

At the end of your performance, the man cheered loudly. Full on cheered, despite everyone else in the theatre simply clapping quietly.

He interested you with his sparkly eyes and bright smile. But, you knew you couldn't be interested. Your boss absolutely despised this guy. So, he wasn't cute and you weren't interested. That was that.

You were leaving the building through the back exit, happy to finally be out of your costume and headed home, when-

"Hi, there!"

"Ah!" You were startled by the sudden and enthusiastic greeting of... The guy you definitely didn't think was cute.

You sighed, regaining your composure after he had frightened you. "Hello." You said back simply.

"Sorry if I startled you there! I just wanted to compliment you." He said with a smile that for sure didn't make you want to swoon. "You are the most incredible singer that I've ever heard."

You couldn't help but feel flattered. "Thank y-"

"And you're an amazing dancer."

"Tha-"

"How do you even manage to dance in those tall, fancy heels?"

"I-"

"And isn't it strange to be taller than you usually are when you wear heels? Does that bother you at all?

You paused, making sure he was done talking before speaking again. "I guess being taller than usual would be strange at first. But, I'm used to wearing heels. So, being tall isn't weird for me."

"Like a giraffe." He said.

"Wha-"

"I'm Willy. Willy Wonka." He stuck his hand out.

You paused for a moment. Mr. Slugworth definitely wouldn't like the fact that you were talking to him... But, he wasn't here right now.

"I'm Y/n."

These little post-show conversations became something you looked forward to.

It was every Saturday, after your last performance of the night. He'd always be right outside the back exit waiting for you. Talking to him was always thrilling. Your heart beat a little faster whenever you were around him, breaking the rules... And maybe it was also because you thought he was cute.

You couldn't lie, over time, you'd grown to like him. And based on all of the lingering gazes and soft smiles he'd given you, you were pretty sure he liked you as well.

One day, you were backstage, looking into the mirror as you put on your makeup. You glanced up and in the reflection of the mirror was your boss, Mr. Slugworth.

This couldn't be good.

You turned around to face him. "Hello, Sir." You forced a polite smile.

"Yes, hello." He said with narrowed eyes. There was a brief moment of silence which you decided to fill.

"Did you want to talk to me about something?" You said, hoping the innocent head tilt you gave him was convincing.

"I know what you're doing." He said, ignoring your previous question.

Shit.

"One of my associates told me that they saw you and Mr. Wonka meeting behind this theatre every night."

You stayed silent. You knew you were guilty and you knew you probably couldn't talk your way out of this.

Mr. Slugworth continued. "I don't want an explanation or excuse from you. I just want you to agree to never speak with him again."

"What?!" You were shocked. He couldn't do this! He couldn't just tell you to stop talking to someone outside of work! He didn't have that power!...

Except, he kind of did. You knew how Mr. Slugworth was and you knew he wouldn't hesitate to fire you over something like this.

And that's why you agreed.

That night you left the theatre through the back exit like you always did. But, tonight you walked right past Willy.

"You were incredible tonight! I- Where are you going?"

You ignored him and kept walking. To your surprise, he began to follow you.

"You look sort of down.. Is something wrong? You can talk to me about it. I'm sure I can make you feel better!" He said as he continued to follow you.

He continued to try talking to you, and you continued to ignore him. He ended up following you all the way to your doorstep.

"Y/n? If it's something I did to upset you, I'm really sorry."

You took a deep breath and turned around, looking around to make sure no one was watching before you grabbed him and yanked him into your house.

As soon as he was in your house he looked around. "I like your curtains." He said.

"I'm not mad at you." You told him.

He smiled. "That's good to hear. I was already thinking of an apology chocolate recipe for you and it would've been-"

"Willy." He went quiet when you said his name. "Mr. Slugworth doesn't want me talking to you ever again."

"Oh?" He thought for a moment. "Well, that doesn't seem fair."

"Yeah. It isn't fair."

"Well, then don't listen to him." He made everything sound so simple. So easy. You wish you could see the world how he saw it.

"I can't just not listen to him. He's my boss." You looked at the ground. "And I need this job..."

Willy crossed his arms. He furrowed his brows in thought for a moment. "Huh."

...

"Huh." He looked back to you.

"What?"

"Why don't you just work for me?" He suggested with a smile. You were about to protest, but decided to hear him out. "Yeah! You can quit working for Slugworth, then you and I can update your act, and you can start promoting Wonka's Chocolate!" He said, excitedly pacing your small living area.

You thought over the plan. "Huh." You chuckled. "That's... Do you think that could work?"

He walked over to stand right in front of you, looking into your eyes. "I know it could work."

You shook your head with a smile. You were probably gonna regret this. "Let's do it."

"Yes!" Willy clapped and then stuck out his hand so that the two of you could shake on it. Instead of shaking his hand, you sort of let your emotions take control.

You grabbed his face and kissed him. After a moment you pulled away, a bit shocked at your own actions. You searched his face for any signs of discomfort and were met with a smile.

"That was better than a handshake." He said with a chuckle before leaning forward to capture your lips in a soft kiss.

Ok, you probably weren't gonna regret this.

[janeyseymour]

this is my first time ever sending a request so lmk if i’m doing this right :)

was wondering if you could make a melissa x fem stoner reader. melissa isn’t aware of the habit and has no reason to be suspicious or bring things up. one day melissa comes unexpectedly comes home to find fem reader lighting up in the kitchen sparking a very interesting conversation

i love your writing and i hope this makes sense thank you :))

Hi! I think I deviated from the path a little... but I hope it still makes you smile!

*This has also been in the works for a week and I've just been so busy with teaching and the holidays... oh LAWD, so it's entirely unedited... my b, my b*

Weeds

WC: 3.3k

“Babe, are you sure you don’t want to come?” Melissa asks you one final time. She’s all but rolling her bag out to the car.

“I told you, Mel,” you chuckle. “You and Barb deserve to go have a nice relaxing weekend- just the two of you.”

“Barb wouldn’t mind,” the redhead tells you. “She loves you, and you know it.”

“I know,” you smile and take her hand gently. “But you two deserve to go have a nice weekend without the partners where you can talk shit all you want whenever you want.”

“Like I would ever talk shit on you,” she rolls her eyes.

“Go, baby,” you tell her gently. “I’ll be just fine on my own. I’ll probably catch up on sleep and grade some papers.”

“Okay,” she sighs. “But if anything happens, please call me, and I’ll come home.”

It’s your turn to roll your eyes. “I’m a fully grown adult, Mel. I lived on my own before I moved in with you,” you remind her.

“I know, I know,” she says quietly. “I just worry about you- especially with your migraines being worse around this time of year.”

“I have the medicine,” you tell her. “I’ll be just fine. Go.”

She kisses you gently. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” you mumble against her lips. You pull back. “I expect to see lots of pictures- especially of you at the pool.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” your girlfriend laughs. “Okay, I have to go, but I’ll see you on Sunday night.”

“I’ll see you on Sunday night,” you reply. “Please let me know when you get there safely.”

“I will,” she promises and kisses you once more.

Your Friday night is nearly perfect. You’re able to do some laundry, you get the reading tests graded, you’re able to drink a few glasses of wine and curl up to watch a movie while you eat Chinese takeout. The only thing that could make it perfect would be if Melissa were next to you. Your girlfriend sends you a picture of her and her work wife together at the pool, drinks in hand.

You look amazing. Have fun, babe, you send.

We will, she replies quickly. You’re doing okay?

I did our laundry, graded my reading tests, ordered Chinese food, and I’m curled up drinking a glass of wine and watching Bruce Almighty- the sister in that movie looks a lot like you!

I’m glad you’re enjoying your Friday night, she texts. I’ll talk to you later, I love you.

I love you too Mel. Enjoy your time, and tell Barb I said hello.

You end up dozing on the couch, and when you wake up around midnight, the television is playing softly, you’re still all cozy up under your blankets, and your phone is laying next to you with a few unread messages.

Melissa sent you a picture of her drinking another glass of wine, her cleavage on full display.

No response?

I guess you fell asleep watching your movie like you usually do.

Barb and I are turning in for the night. I love you.

You save the image to your phone before responding, Sorry. Dozed off on the couch. I love you too.

Your head hurts slightly, and not just in the way that one glass of wine would give you a minor headache. Nope. The spot behind your temple starts to throb, and you clench your jaw. A migraine was coming on. You drag yourself off of the couch and into your bedroom where you blindly reach for the bottle of pills you keep in your nightstand. You take one and lay down, hoping that you took your medication soon enough that you’ll just be able to sleep through it and not have to deal with it tomorrow.

When you wake up again, you’re fine. There’s a trace of a headache, but you chalk that up to the fact that you had a few glasses of wine last night. You make yourself a cup of coffee, you heat up some of the breakfast casserole that Melissa left you, and you get comfortable on the couch with a blanket and the book that you’ve been trying to get through since before you and Melissa started dating- you just never have the time anymore. You’re either busy teaching, planning for your classes, prepping materials for the kids, grading papers, or you’re out doing something with your girlfriend. 

You send her a picture of your set up: the blanket, the book, your coffee, and on the television you have a fireplace video with soft music going. Taking the day to relax after this insane week with the kids.

It’s early, earlier than the two of you usually wake up on a weekend, so you set your phone down and open your book. You get through approximately twenty pages before you’re asleep again.

When you wake up, you feel absolutely terrible. Your head is aching, and you’re not sure if you can even stand without wanting to simply shrivel up. So that headache this morning wasn’t the remnants of a hangover- no. It was a migraine starting, and you once again made a foolish choice. 

You cry out as the sound of the youtube video you have up on the television pauses and a rather loud ad comes on. You turn it off in an instant. You know there has to be at least one other migraine pill in the house.

But when you get upstairs and pull open your drawer of the nightstand, your pill bottle is empty. You burst into tears at that- the last of your medication is with Melissa… in the Poconos. You slam the drawer shut in frustration before you can even think about it, and you instantly regret your choice. It bangs shut, and you flinch as it closes.

You’re just going to have to get through this migraine without any medication. It’s going to suck, and you know you’re going to be all but paralyzed when it fully hits.

You’re not going to call Melissa and tell her- she would drive back home to take care of you, even though you would be sleeping. You groan as you walk downstairs and turn off your phone entirely so you aren’t even tempted with the idea of texting her. 

Then you think… you haven’t smoked in a while- since you and Melissa started going out, really. It’s been over a year.You have your dab pen in the nightstand drawer, and getting high always helped when you had bad headaches. It took your pain away.

Despite the absolute killer pain behind your eyes, you drag yourself upstairs and dig around in the drawer for your pen. You take a hit, and then another. That should do the trick- you just have to let it hit you. You head back downstairs, collapsing onto the couch and closing your eyes.

You’re beyond high not fifteen minutes later. It’s been almost two years since you’ve smoked, and it’s clear your tolerance for the drug went down. You giggle, thankful that your searing headache seems to have magically cleared up. You turn the television on, finding a brainless show to watch while you aren’t sober. 

It starts to wear off after an hour, and so your migraine pains start up again. Your jaw clenches as a shiver runs up your back, only causing more pain to your already tense head. You trudge back up the steps, and you bring your pen down with you after ripping it a few times. You settle on the couch, a glass of water and a bag of chips in hand while you continue to watch your show. 

Melissa and Barbara are sitting in a restaurant when the older teacher’s phone starts to ring. Taylor’s contact picture lights up her phone, and she shoots the redhead an apologetic look before picking up.

“Hello?” Barbara’s face shifts from confused, to concerned. “Okay, sweet girl… Is Daddy with you? …You hang tight. I’m on my way. I’m coming, don’t you worry… I’m in the Poconos so it might be a little, but Momma’s coming.”

“Barb?”

“I gotta- Taylor got into an accident. She’s okay, but she’s in the hospital,” the kindergarten teacher tells her friend quickly. She throws down her credit card. “I got lunch. Just give me my card on Monday.” She leaves the restaurant quickly.

Melissa glances at the card before throwing it in her bag. She’ll handle lunch. She finishes her meal, scrolling through her phone before texting you as she goes back up to her room to pack up her things. 

Coming home early. Will explain when I get home, but just so you know. I love you.

Of course, you don’t see it.

You’ve just taken a few more rips from your dab pen, trying to stay as inebriated as possible to ride out this migraine- once it’s gone, you’ll put it away. It’s not like Melissa will be home before tomorrow anyway. She told you she would be back Sunday night, and it’s Saturday at two in the after-

“Hey hon?” Melissa’s voice floats through the front room. Your eyes are closed, so you’re fairly certain that you just miss your girlfriend so much that you’re imagining this. Your eyes stay closed.

“Y/N?” your girlfriend calls again. You still don’t respond. She only needs to catch half a glimpse at you to know something is up. You’re sprawled out on the couch, face down. You have the chip bag on the floor next to you and open- something you never do. The redhead only has to take a step into the room to see that you haven’t finished your coffee from this morning, and she knows you practically inhale any cup of caffeine you can get your hands on.

“Babe,” she says softly as she kneels down in front of you.

You’re so high. “Lissa?” you mumble, and your eyes just barely peel open. You know you’re imagining that she’s here. She’s not due to be here for another day. But you miss her so much.

“Y/N,” Melissa brushes a few rogue hairs out of your face. You giggle. Then she sees how red your eyes are. She spots your pen sticking out of your sweatpants pocket. “Are you… high?”

You shrug and attempt to sit up, only to realize that you’re on your stomach and not on your back. When you try to turn over, you nearly fall off the couch. If not for your girlfriend, you would be on the floor. You burst into laughter at that. The imaginary person just saved you from falling off the couch! 

“Oh my god,” the redhead mumbles as she helps to situate you on the couch. “Honey, how high are you?”

“Really,” you drawl out. “But shh… don’t tell Lissa- she’ll come home to help, but she needs this weekend.”

Melissa shakes her head as she inspects your pen. “When was the last time you hit this?”

“Dunno,” you shake your head from side to side slowly. “Will wear off soon… gonna have to take another.”

“And why would you have to?” Your girlfriend questions.

“Helps with the migraine,” you let slip.

“You didn’t take your medication?”

“None left. Only with Mel, but… she’s away, ’n’ I don’ wanna bother her."

Melissa bites her lip. She knows she has a few pills in the car for you, but with how inebriated you are, she doesn’t know if that would be a good choice or not. “Why don’t we get you cozy in bed and we can sleep this off, yeah?”

“Bed sounds nice,” you mumble, eyes starting to close again. “Can’t feel m’legs. G’night.” 

Melissa sighs a heavy sigh. She hoists your limp body into her arms and carries you up the stairs. She gently lays you in bed before crawling in behind you and spooning you. You’re asleep before she can even wrap her arms around you. 

When you wake up, it’s dark. Your migraine is gone. You’re not even close to high anymore. How much time has passed? How did you get into bed? Whose arms are you- Melissa really is home. You roll over to look at the alarm clock: 7:20 pm staring back at you.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” your girlfriend whispers. “How are you feeling? Migraine gone?”

“I’m okay,” you whisper. “Why are you home though? Please tell me I didn’t text-”

“You didn’t. Taylor was in a minor car accident, and-”

“Oh god,” you gasp quietly. “Is she okay?”

“She’s just fine, but she wanted Barb, so we left early. I got home around two, and you were on the couch… high?”

You turn about as red as Melissa’s hair. “Y-yeah.”

“Babe, I didn’t know you did that stuff,” she sighs softly. She almost sounds disappointed in you.

“I- I usually don’t,” you mumble as you hide your face in her chest. You don’t want to see the look she’s giving you right now. “I haven’t since we started dating.”

“We started dating almost two years ago,” she points out.

“I know. I think I smoked once the second week we were seeing each other, but since then… I haven’t.”

“Why don’t we get some food into your stomach so your migraine doesn’t come back and a headache doesn’t start, and we can talk?” Melissa suggests. “I want to know more.”

“But while we cook, you tell me about your trip,” you try to barter. You don’t want her to just be grilling you for the entire night. 

“While I cook, but sure,” she laughs softly as she rolls you off of her and sits up. “Let’s go. I’m starving.”

She tells you about her car drive up and how she wished that you were with her to keep her company. She tells you about the crazy traffic she had to sit in because there was an accident by the one tunnel, and how happy she was to have finally gotten to the resort that they were to meet at. She tells you about how beautiful the rooms they had gotten were, and how Barb’s husband let them use his points, and her cousin Gino was able to hook her up with some of the perks and a free mini bar. She talks to you about how the pool had a fountain and that it was so nice to be away from the screaming children and just talk with Barb. And then she’s plating the food and sliding the plate down to where you’re sitting at the island.

“So, are we gonna talk about this?” she asks as she sits too.

You almost feel like a student again when they’re being reprimanded for talking in class. You nod, cheeks tinting red again. “What do you want to know?”

“Why didn’t you have any of your pills, and why didn’t you call me?”

“I had a migraine last night and took the last pill last night,” you mumble through a mouthful of pasta.

“And why didn’t you call me?”

“Because I knew you’d come running home, and you deserved to have this weekend away- especially after this week with your kids.”

“So you got high instead?” You nod. “Where did you even get this? Is it safe?”

You don’t want to rat yourself out, so you just nod. 

“Where did you get it from?”

You purse your lips. “Can we not?”

“Why not? What’s in it? Just weed, right?” you nod. “So then what’s the big deal.”

“I used to be a stoner,” you mutter. “Like, a big fucking stoner.”

“Okay?”

“Like, I used to come home from my old school and just stay high until the I fell asleep because it helped with the pain and anxiety from that place.”

“You worked at a place worse than Abbott?”

“I told you when I showed up that Abbott was a walk in the park for me, and I meant it,” you tell your girlfriend seriously.

“So where’d you get it?"

“It’s all medicinal,” you promise her. “I just don’t like the smell of it all, and I have weird reactions to edibles, so… dab pens were the next choice.”

“If this helps your migraines, why haven’t you smoked around me before?”

“Because I have the medication… Because we’re teachers… it’s unprofessional,” you tell her. Then you mumble, “Because I didn’t want to lose you because of some stupid habit, so I quit. Just like I quit cigs when I started at Abbott and saw you.”

“You used to smoke cigs?”

“Oh god, yeah,” you chuckle. “But I found a new addiction… you.”

Your girlfriend rolls those striking green eyes of her. “You’re ridiculous.”

“It’s true,” you shrug. “So… are you mad?”

Melissa sighs. “I wish you would’ve called me so I could’ve come and helped you through that,” she admits. “But I’m not mad about the pen. I used to smoke too, and don’t act like that shocks you.”

Relief washes over you. She isn’t mad. 

“So… you got high off of a pen that you haven’t used in almost two years?” your girlfriend asks.

“Yeah,” you chuckle. “But I’m not worried. My friend Darcy put her cart in there like a month ago when we went out for dinner and forgot to take it out. She told me to just hold onto it until the next time.”

“You had your pen on you?”

“She was actually going to buy it off of me but decided against it. I guess it’s a good thing I had it this weekend,” you laugh. “I kinda missed that feeling.”

“I mean… if you wanted to,” she laughs. “We have nowhere to be tomorrow?”

“It’s okay,” you promise her. “I don’t want to be ridiculously high if you’re going to be sober and have to deal with me.”

“What if I said I want to try it with you?” the redhead suggests with a smirk. “It’s been… oh twenty years.”

“Really?” you can’t help but giggle.

And that’s how you find yourself and your girlfriend up in bed an hour later, getting ready to get high again. You have a bag of chips, a sleeve of cookies, a couple bottles of water, and a bucket in case Melissa greens out.

“You’re sure?” you give her one more chance to back out.

“I’ve been high before.”

“This shit is real strong.”

“How strong?”

“Like… I would take one small hit and see how it affects you in thirty minutes before you think about another.”

“Okay,” your girlfriend laughs. She brings the pen up to her mouth and inhales. You hit it twice after her.

“Hey!”

“Mel, I know my limit. We don’t know yours yet.”

“Well, I want it to be fair,” she tells you as she plucks the pen out of your hand and draws another hit.

When you wake up the next morning to a flood of texts from Janine asking why you left her a seven minute voicemail about dinosaur chicken nuggets, and Melissa has a message from Ava saying that she appreciated the call out from work for today but unfortunately you don’t work on Sundays, the two of you snort with laughter until you’re red in the face and she has tears streaming down her cheeks.

“We should get high together again,” you laugh as you sit up.

“I know,” she smiles as she continues to lay there. “That was fun.”

“I’ll buy a cart for us tomorrow on the way home from work,” you tell her.

“Don’t. I know a guy,” she shrugs as she throws the blankets off of her.

“Mel, I don’t want street weed. I’m not trying to die,” you roll your eyes.

“Who said anything about street weed? I know some guys in the field who won’t charge me a thing… as long as I make ‘em some raviolis.” 

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles—Update 10/March/2023

I didn't realise it was Friday today *facepalm*

This week has just flown by! How are we getting through March so quickly???

It was an exciting and super busy one though, which is probably why it went so fast.

The Book Three release content started going up, and Nai has done a FANTASTIC job with it all!! (Can't wait for you guys to see the unbelievably amazing new Book Three trailer next week!)

I worked on prep for Book Four, focusing a lot on trying to get the side characters' branches actually mapped out onto paper. I know exactly where I want them to go in my head, but I'm trying to be better at writing it down to help with ease of planning in the future!

But in doing that I got rather (extremely) overwhelmed by everything that needs to happen for Book Four onwards. There's so much I want more organised this time with so many branches and ideas coming, and it'll be so worth it to do it now ready for future books too, but it's just...immense.

Nai calmed me right down though, and we're going to work on figuring it all out and putting it into a format that works really well for me: Checklists.

There's something about a nice organised list with checkboxes that just really does help me work so much smoother (which is surprising when you see how messy my planning and notes get, lol!). So yeah, we're going to get that up together over the weekend and prioritise what needs to be done so as we can easily go through everything and start checking off those tasks!

Still, even with getting a bit overwhelmed with it, it is exciting to see everything that's coming into play from Book Three! Even more so when I'm actually mapping out the ways it could all go!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We'll be offline as usual, so I'll update you all again next Friday! <3

[mountttmase]

A Mountain To Climb: The Sequel

Chapter Six

Note - I’m sorry but how are we halfway through already that’s nuts to me. But yes I hope you like this one and feedback would be appreciated 🩷

Pairing - Mason Mount × Reader

Word count - 6.4k

Warnings - series will contain fluff, smut and angst

Masterlist

The good thing about Mason having a game on a Sunday meant he you were free to see each other on Friday nights. You took it in turns whenever they popped up and this time he was at yours, currently in a food coma on your sofa as you took the plate of leftover cookies back into the kitchen so you could box them up.

‘I know you like them Mase, but it’s probably not a good idea for you to eat so many before a game in a few days’ you scolded, sitting down next to him and tucking yourself into his side before gently rubbing his tummy as he shut his eyes.

‘I know, it’s like an addiction. I might have to go see someone about it’ he mumbled sleepily, seeming too full to put any effort in to talking above a whisper before he peered down at you and pressing a gentle kiss on the tip of your nose. ‘Feels nice though, thank you’ he smiled, referring to the way you were stroking over his tummy lightly to help ease some of his discomfort.

‘I’ll just have to ration you in the future’ you teased and he tickled your side in protest causing you to squirm lightly in his hold.

‘So listen I need to talk to you about something’ he told you, sitting up slightly and in the past you’d panic at his serious tone but you were curious about what he was about to ask you.

‘Go for it’ you smiled and he gave you a little laugh before continuing.

‘You remember when I told you I went on loan for a year abroad?’

‘Yeah, Vitesse was it?’

‘That’s it’ he smiled, his heart warming at the fact you remembered even though you didn’t talk about it that much. ‘Well, they’re making a little documentary about me and my time there and they’ve asked if I could go over there for some filming. I was hoping you would come with me?’

‘Wow Mase, that’s amazing’ you breathed, suddenly overcome with pride for the boy sitting in front of you. You were proud of him everyday for all that he did and all he’d accomplished but when you were at home with him next to you, and he was just your Mason it was easy to forget all he’d done in his young life and all the people that loved him.

‘Yeah, I can’t believe it but I’m super excited’ he smiled. ‘It’s not for a little while so you’ve got time too book time off of you need to. It’s over a weekend so you’d probably only need the Friday before so we can fly out and we’d come back on the Tuesday after. I’d be filming for most of Saturday and Sunday but I thought we could stay and extra day and do some sightseeing? Like so I can show you round? It’s all paid for and everything like you don’t need to worry about any of that I just want your pretty little butt on the plane next to me’ he winked and even though you were overwhelmed by the thought of it all, something in the back of your head made you wonder what else was going on.

‘What’s the catch?’ You laughed and Mason pulled you in a little closer with a smile.

‘No catch, I just wanna take you somewhere that’s special to me’ he explained and when you raised your eyebrow at him he rolled his eyes with a laugh. ‘Fine. My parents are coming too’ he explained and your eyes went wide.

You hadn’t met any of Masons family yet, but you could tell from a mile off how close they all were and it scared the hell out of you. It wasn’t that you were putting off meeting them on purpose, they sounded like amazing people from everything Mason told you but Mason knew not to push you due to your past however it was getting to the point where you knew it needed to happen.

‘Oh, um…’

‘They’re part of the documentary too, they’re gonna be in a few scenes with me and I just thought it might be a good time? I know you’re nervous but they’re so excited to meet you, they’re constantly asking after you and I thought it would be fun this way. You can meet them they day before we fly and they’ll go home on the Sunday so we get Monday all to ourselves. I know you’re nervous baby but I promise you everything will be fine’

‘I know’ you laughed, nestling you head into his neck as he pulled you even closer. ‘I know it’s time but I’m so so nervous’ you confessed as he stroked your cheek gently. ‘It’s like I don’t have my own family for you to meet and I have no idea what to do or how to feel’ you explained as he looked down at you sympathetically.

‘Well that’s not completely true. I consider you part of my family’ he told you quietly, brushing his fingers through your hair with a soft smile and you felt your eyes sting as your bottom lip wobbled. ‘It’s true, you and me come as a pair. It doesn’t matter that you’ve got no one for me to meet. You’re the most important person to me and I’d do anything to make you happy’

‘Mase’ you breathed, overwhelmed by his sweet words.

‘Also I’ve met Freya, that was daunting enough so I think it’s only fair you meet my parents’

‘True’ you laughed, feeling the tears fall from your eyes that he quickly brushed away before kissing your forehead. ‘Okay, I’ll do it’

‘Thank you baby’ he breathed, caressing your cheek as he smiled down at you lovingly. ‘Honestly I promise you’ve got nothing to worry about and I’ll make it really special for us’

‘Hey Mase. Do they um, do they know? Like about…’

‘I haven’t told them everything, I didn’t want to overstep but they know the basics. I wanted to leave it up to you to decide what you do and don’t tell them. And I said not to bring anything up unless you do first’

‘Thank you’ you breathed, tucking yourself back into him.

‘Think about it this way, you’ve got time to prepare now and then once it’s done you’ve met the two most scary ones and everyone else will be a breeze’ he teased. ‘You’ll be fine baby, they’ll love you’

You hoped they would, the idea that the family of the man you loved didn’t approve of you made your head spin, but after a lot of positive reinforcement from Freya, you pulled yourself together and made sure you were ready for them.

You managed to get a half day on the Thursday before the big trip, getting to Masons house at around 2pm with all your stuff for the weekend and dressed for dinner with his parents that evening. You went with a mid length floaty floral dress, hoping to give off a good impression and make sure you looked good enough to be with Mason. It was nothing like you normally wore but it was still pretty and you hoped Mason would like it too.

Mason wasn’t back from training yet but would be within the hour so you let yourself in with the spare key he’d given you the week before knowing you’d be back earlier than him and you were happy to see the place was spotless.

As not to create any mess, you took your stuff upstairs and did a quick run through of the house, making sure his parents room was perfect and the bathroom was spotless before making your way through to the kitchen but you could hear his car pulling up as you started getting ingredients out of the fridge.

‘Baby, you here?’ He shouted through the house and you rounded the corner to meet him by the front door, his eyes going wide and they raked over your body, but it was the subtle bite of his lip that let you know he liked what he saw. ‘Well, good afternoon to me’

‘Do I look okay?’ You asked, brushing down your dress and he made his way over to you so he could hold you at arms length by your waist, his eyes still eating you up in a way you hadn’t seen him do before. ‘I don’t want to make a bad first impression’

‘First of all, that would never happen. But you look unreal babe. You’re fulfilling all my girl next door fantasies and I’m very close to taking you upstairs and-‘

‘No way’ you laughed pushing him off by his chest and turning to make your way back into the kitchen but he gently grabbed your wrist before you could get too far.

‘Wait, I want my welcome home hug and kiss’ he laughed and you rolled your eyes before wrapping your arms around his waist and placing a soft kiss to his already pouty lips. ‘I love coming home to you’ he whispered, your whole body erupting in goosebumps as he stared down at you with a twinkle in his eye and his hands cupping your bum. ‘I think I could get used to this’

‘Yeah yeah Casanova. Come on we don’t have much time. You go change and I’ll get started on dinner’ you told him, squeezing his sides before shooing him off upstairs. He came down around 10 minutes later and he walked into the kitchen with a loving smile on his face.

‘I’m having the best day. I was on the winning team at training and now there’s a beautiful woman in my kitchen cooking me dinner’

‘Mason I swear to god I will murder you if you don’t stop pissing about’

‘Hey meanie pants, what up’ he laughed, grabbing you by your arms so you’d look at him and you felt the guilt wash over you immediately.

‘Sorry, I’m just stressing, I didn’t mean to be horrible please just ignore me’

‘It’s alright. Just breathe with me’ he told you with a cheeky smile before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in and a slow breath out. ‘Hey, you’re not doing it with me’ he pouted. ‘If wont work unless you really try’ he laughed so you humoured him, shutting your eyes and taking a deep breath with him and you hated the fact it was working a little bit. ‘There we go. Now what do you want me to do?’

‘Can you reach up and get the pasta for me? And then make sure we’ve got enough ice in the freezer’

‘Yes ma’am’ he winked, kissing your nose before doing everything you asked and then starting to set the table. You were so focused on chopping and stirring that you almost jumped out of your skin when the doorbell went and you felt yourself freeze on the spot. ‘Stay here, I’ll get it’ Mason smiled, kissing your nose again before hurrying off to let his parents in. You could hear their voices getting louder and your anxiety rising along with it but as soon as Masons face came into view you felt your shoulders relax. He smiled at you sweetly, holding his hand out for you to take and you carefully threaded you fingers through his before he pulled you to his side.

‘This is y/n’ he smiled proudly and after a big gulp, you looked over at his parents. They were both smiling widely at you before his mum laughed herself at you with an excited squeal and you couldn’t help but laugh and she pulled you into her.

‘Oh it’s so lovely to meet you, Mason doesn’t shut up about you I swear’ she laughed, pulling back to smile brightly ‘I’m Debbie, this is Tony’ she told you, and you smiled at Masons dad as he held out his hand for you to shake.

‘Ignore her, she’s just excited’ his dad explained as Debbie tutted in his direction.

‘Well yes, I am. It’s nice to have another girl in the family I feel like I’m over run with boys most of the time’

‘What about Summer? And Mila?’ Mason laughed, placing his hand on your hip to let you know he was still there and you felt your whole body relax into him.

‘Oh shush, I meant an adult girl who I can have a conversation with. Anyway, something smells great’

‘Yeah, y/n’s making dinner. It won’t be too much longer’ Mason explained. ‘Why don’t you guys put your bags away and get yourself sorted and then we can eat’ They both agreed, shuffling out of the room leaving you and Mason alone again and he pulled you into a hug, kissing you temple gently. ‘See, wasn’t so bad was it?’

‘I don’t think I said a word’ you whispered, both laughing before you quickly finished dinner off and plated up just in time for his parents to come back down.

‘Wow, this all looks delicious’ Debbie commented as you sat down and you felt Mason squeeze your knee besides you.

‘Yeah, y/n’s a bit of a wiz in the kitchen’

‘I wouldn’t go that far’ you smiled up at Mason and he rolled his eyes playfully at you.

‘She’s just being modest, she makes the best cookies I’ve ever had’ he told them, rattling off all the other things you’d made for him that he loved whilst you sat and blushed, his parents looking on at the pair of you with a smile before you changed the topic to ask how they had been and what the journey up was like.

When you were done, Debbie helped you stack the dishwasher and you couldn’t believe how comfortable you felt around her already. She kept the conversation light and flowing and once it was all away she sent you a bright smile.

‘Now, Mase doesn’t know this but I’ve bought a photo album of his from when he was a baby, I thought you might like to see some of them’

‘Oh I’d love too, I bet he was so cute’

‘Well I am biased but he was adorable. I’ll go grab it from upstairs and meet you in the other room’ she smiled before scurrying off to retrieve it.

You made your way into the living room and cautiously sat down next to Mason. He smiled at you placing his hand palm up on your thigh for you to thread your fingers through and once you had he pulled you into him gently and kissed you on the head just as Debbie walked in and placed the album in your lap.

‘Oh mum, why did you bring that?’ He groaned as you laughed at him, opening it up to the first page to see the most adorable and tiny baby boy. You couldn’t help but coo at him before you felt him crawl back beside you and place his chin on your shoulder from behind you so he could look too.

You both looked through it as his parents told you stories from when he was a kid. From what they were telling you he was still as cheeky now as he was back then. It felt so nice to be surrounded by a loving family, the realisation that you’d never had this hit you like a truck and you had to blink away your tears. Mason cottoned on straight away and kissed your cheek discreetly to try and comfort you and you squeezed his thigh in response.

‘We’re gonna head up I think, need a good nights sleep before all that traveling tomorrow’ Debbie smiled, pulling the pair of you into hug before they made their way upstairs. Leaving you and Mason alone but you were afraid to look at him as you knew what he would say.

‘Is everything okay?’ He whispered. And you nodded your head even though that wasn’t how you felt. ‘You can tell me you know’

‘I know’ you whispered, finally feeling brave enough to look at him but the expression on his face made your eyes water again. ‘I didn’t think I’d feel like this, you know? Like missing something I’ve never really had and I don’t know why I’m getting so upset’ you laughed but you felt the tears roll down your cheeks that Mason brushed away.

‘I know baby. And I know it might not help but you’ve got me now, and all the weirdos that come as a part of my package deal’ he joked and even though you were still laughing your tears flowed even faster as you started to feel like you finally belonged somewhere. ‘It’s okay to get upset, love. It’s not like you’ve never had it. But they’re not in your life for a reason. They never deserved you and they don’t deserve your tears’

‘Love you’ you whispered, still getting used to saying those words after a few weeks but the way he smiled at you made your whole body flush.

‘Love you, too’ he whispered back, kissing you gently before taking your hand in his. ‘You ready to go up?’ He asked and you nodded, helping him lock up downstairs before quietly making your way into his room. ‘I’m so glad they’ve gone to bed, all I’ve thought about is taking this dress off of you’ he told you as soon as you walked in but you batted him off before grabbing your pyjamas.

‘Down boy, not tonight’

‘You’re joking. Why not?’

‘Mason, I’m not having sex with you whilst your parents are across the hall. End of. It’s bad enough us sleeping in the same bed’

‘What are you on about?’ He laughed, trying to hold you by your waist but you were determined to not let him get under your skin. ‘We’re adults, they probably can guess we’re having sex’

‘Just go take a cold shower or something’ you told him and he pouted at you dramatically before marching off, giving you chance to get changed without his prying eyes on you. Once he opened the door again you went inside to join him so you could clean your teeth and do your skincare before crawling into bed with him. His arms around you as you laid your head on his chest.

‘Hey y/n? I thought you looked really pretty today’

‘Mason, I told you I’m not having sex with you’

‘I’m not asking you too’ he laughed, squeezing you tighter as you laughed into his neck. ‘Can a man not tell his girlfriend she looks pretty?’

‘Not when there’s a ulterior motive, no’

‘I’m offended you’d think that way about me’

‘Go to sleep, Mase’ you laughed and after a quick kiss goodnight you were both off.

The flight wasn’t that long the next day and you arrived in Amsterdam at around 2pm where you picked up the rental car that the company who were making the documentary had organised for you all. Tony drove and you sat in the back with Mason who was a bit sleepy, the anxiety from flying wearing him out and you looked at him lovingly as he sat and played with your fingers as you spoke to Debbie.

You looked up in awe as you approached the hotel, the grand white building looked intimidating but you followed them into the impressive reception and stood next to Mason as he checked you all in.

‘So I’ve got two rooms, both for two nights’ she confirmed and Mason nodded causing you to look at him with confusion but you made a note to ask him about it later.

Both rooms were on the top floor of the building but thankfully quite far apart from each other and you gasped as you walked in. The room was beautiful, a huge loft bed that was built into a wooden platform and comfy sofas dotted around but it was the huge bath next to the bed you gravitated towards first and you laughed as Mason cheekily wiggled his eyebrows at you.

‘Not bad, huh?’

‘Considering I’m used to staying at travel lodges, I think it’s more than not bad’ you told him, looking out of the window that you could see the whole estate from.

‘Dinners at six so in like two hours, you fancy a little nap?’ He asked, flopping down on top of the sheets and you carefully crawled in besides him, hugging him from behind as you could tell he was still a bit fragile from the flight and you knew he secretly loved being the little spoon. You felt him relax as he bought your hands up to his mouth to kiss over them gently and you smiled before kissing the back of his neck.

‘Mase? I thought you said we were staying till Tuesday. This room is only booked until Sunday’

‘Yeah don’t worry, we’re going somewhere else for the last two nights’ he mumbled sleepily and rather than ask anymore questions you left a light kiss on the back of his neck before letting the soft sounds of his breathing lull you to sleep.

Around 45 minutes until you had to be at dinner you woke up and slipped off into the bathroom so you could get changed and since Mason seemed to like the dress you wore so much yesterday you decided to get changed into a similar one however this one had a bit of a slit up the leg that you thought Mason would enjoy.

You were just applying the finishing touches to you make up when a sleepy Mason walked in, but you noticed the way his demeanour changed as soon as he caught sight of you and the low growl that came from him made you clench your thighs together.

‘Is it my birthday or something? These look insane on you’ he murmured ’you gonna let me do something about it this time’ he whispered in your ear as he gripped your waist and the feeling of him prodding you in the back was making your heart flutter.

‘We don’t have time’ you told him meekly, but the kisses that were trailing down your neck were making you shiver and you knew you couldn’t deny him twice.

‘I can be quick’ he mumbled getting down on his knees behind you and lifting your dress up and over your bum before pulling you underwear down to your ankles as he kissed your thighs gently. ‘You’re ready for me though by the looks of things’ he laughed and you gasped when you felt his tongue tease you apart. The noise that came from you almost made you embarrassed but the way he just dived into you even further made you whimper. He didn’t stay down there long, standing up so he could push you forward gently, eventually resting your elbows on the sink so you could look up at him through the mirror.

You hissed as he started pushing in, his eyes straight on yours in the reflection but you let him know it was okay to keep going and he gently carried on before speeding up. He kept his hands on your bum before one slipped down your leg, grabbing your thigh so he could place your knee on the counter and you moaned loudly at the new position.

‘That’s it baby, good girl’ he moaned, his hands reaching up to pull the front of your dress down so he could grab a handful of your chest and your arms nearly gave out with how turned on you were, feeling your high starting to fizz in your lower belly but you needed a helping hand. Eyes still focused on his in the mirror, you carefully slipped your hand in between your legs so you could play with yourself but the sight only caused him to pound into you harder.

‘Mase, I’m close’ you gasped, pushing yourself through it and as soon as you were done you pushed him off, getting down in your knees in front of him and opening your mouth so he knew what to do and the strangled moan that came from him made you shiver. He only needed pump himself a few times before he pushed himself into your mouth, releasing a few seconds after and you swallowed him down the best you could. His breathing was heavy but he helped you up and got you adjusted back into your dress before kissing you softly and pulling you into a hug. ‘I didn’t know you were gonna do that I nearly cum all over your face’ he laughed.

‘I was trying not to make a mess’ you giggled before reaching down to pull your underwear up. ‘You better hurry up and get ready, I don’t wanna be late’ you told him and he nodded before sorting himself out and the pair of you left to meet them at six on the dot. ‘We’re gonna be late now, they’ll know what we’ve been doing’

‘We’ll be two minutes baby. I know I’m good but I bet even they don’t believe we can do it in two minutes’ he laughed and you tapped his chest to scold him before you found them sat at the table reserved for you in the hotel restaurant. Your waitress explained that your meal tonight would be paid for by the company so Mason used this as an excuse to order whatever he wanted. ‘What are you thinking, love?’

‘I really want dessert, so I might skip a starter’

‘Can’t handle all three, eh?’ Tony laughed and you shook you’re head slightly whilst picking your drink up to take a sip.

‘I told her not to, but she had a snack just before we left the room’ he told them, squeezing your knee in jest and you almost spat your water out at what he was insinuating. ‘You alright there?’ He laughed, gently tapping you on the back as you grabbed a napkin but you could tell you were blushing furiously at his dirty comment.

‘Sorry, it went down the wrong pipe’ you spluttered and you could see Mason go to say something else inappropriate but you gave him the death glare and he closed his mouth with a cheeky grin. Thankfully his parents seemed none the wiser but it took you a while to be able to look at them properly.

Mason let you share some of his starter as an apology and thankfully you weren’t too full for afters but once you were all done you felt like you could of exploded.

‘We’ll probably head to bed now, so we can be up nice and early for tomorrow’ Debbie explained and you looked at Mason who nodded his head in agreement. After hugs goodnight Mason convinced you to have one drink with him in the bar where you scolded him for his rude jokes before leading you outside for a walk around the grounds as he wanted to take some pictures of you with the impressive background.

‘Mason, what are you doing?’ You laughed, watching him lay on the floor in front of you whilst he directed you how to sit.

‘Just go with it. It’s not my fault you look like a pretty princess. I want some nice pictures of you that are just for me’

‘Would you not rather take those in our room?’ You winked exposing your thigh a little bit more through the slit in your dress and you watched him stare at you with pink cheeks and wide eyes before pulling you up and running you back up to your room.

Tony drove you to the stadium the next day, Mason sitting in the back with you as he tried to point out places he knew and you watched him with a smile as he got more excited the closer you got. Everyone seemed so genuinely happy to see him as he greeted the crew and all the old staff he used to work with but he always kept an eye on you to make sure you were okay and whenever your eyes met you felt the butterflies erupt inside you.

Whilst Mason was sat down for his interview, someone from the club took you, Debbie and Tony off on a tour of the stadium and so you could see some old videos and pictures from his time there. You couldn’t get over how cute he was back then with his little baby face and massive quiff but he still looked like your handsome Mase.

‘It’s so weird, it’s like he’s grown up so much but in other ways he still looks the same’ you commented and Debbie agreed with a laugh.

‘I was just thinking that. It think it’s the little noodle arms’ she joked and as if on cue Mason appeared.

‘I do hope you weren’t just talking about me just then’ he laughed, wrapping an arm around your waist and kissing your temple.

‘We were saying how adorable you were’ Debbie winked and he raised his eyebrows at you.

‘She’s right, you were very sweet’ you told him, kissing his nose as he squeezed your side playfully.

‘What’s all this about ‘were’. I still am’ he argued and you laughed as Debbie rolled her eyes at him behind his back.

After a quick lunch, Mason carried on with his filming that his parents were now involved in and you sat in the stands as they slowly walked around the pitch with his old coach before your phone rung.

‘Hey Frey’ you smiled, thankful you had someone to talk to for a bit.

‘Hello sweetheart, how’s the trip?’ She asked

‘Yeah, good so far. I’m just watching Mase and his parents do some filming’ you told her, going on to explain everything you’d done so far and how nice his parents had been to you.

‘Told you you had nothing to worry about’ she laughed and you rolled your eyes at her. ‘I’m proud of you though, I know this is a lot’

‘Yeah, well he’s worth it’ you breathed, laughing at the gagging noises she was making down the phone.

You spent the rest of the time talking about her upcoming graduation and what her plans were next. You knew she was moving back down south and you couldn’t be more excited to get to see her more often, finally feeling like your life was falling back into place.

The next day his filming continued, this time you were in the city centre at a few locations he used to visit a lot but you were all wrapped up just after lunch. Mason parents were catching a flight that afternoon so after you’d eaten they said their goodbyes and took a taxi back to the airport leaving you and Mason alone and you had no idea as to where you were going or what you were doing next.

‘Right, there’s a food shop not too far from here, shall we go stock up and then I’ll take us to where we’re staying?’

‘Okay’ you nodded, still unsure as to what was happening but you went along with it, pushing the trolly along as he filled it with all your favourite foods before jumping back in the car so he could take you to your next destination.

You weren’t in the car long but your eyes grew wide when you spotted the lake house he was pulling into, your breath catching in your throat as you took it all and you turned to him with a wide smile.

‘Surprise’ he laughed, pulling you in for a quick kiss and you held him by his cheeks to keep him there before he jumped out and opened your door.

‘Mase, this is… how did you?’ You smiled as he helped you out and you were so overcome with emotion you weren’t sure you could finish your sentence.

‘I can be sneaky’ he smiled, holding your hand as he dragged you up the steps so you could have a look around the cozy wood cabin. It was perfect and you couldn’t believe he’d kept this from you this whole time. ‘So what do you think?’

‘I love it. I didn’t think this weekend could get any better’ you laughed, kissing him softly as he squeezed your bum gently.

‘We’re only just getting started’ he winked.

You spent the rest of the night cooking dinner together that you ate in front of the tv before you both got changed into something warm and comfy so you could sit on the deck in front of the fire that looked out onto the lake. You were in your own little world when Mason came outside and you smiled softly at him.

‘I wondered why you got that bag of marshmallows’ you laughed, taking the stick from him that he was handing to you so you could load it up whilst he worked out how to light the fire. Once it was all done he sat behind you on the cushioned seat, you in between his legs as he wrapped his arms around your waist and rested his chin on your shoulder. ‘Thanks for all this, I’ve never done anything like this before’ you told him, not having the courage to look at him right now.

‘What do you mean?’ He asked you gently, clearly picking up on the emotion in your voice and not wanting to push you too far but you felt comfortable enough in his arms to carry on talking.

‘Just all of it, you know? Never been away with a boy before really, nothing like this anyway. Never felt so comfortable around anyone else parents’ you laughed as he kissed your neck with a smile. ‘I really like them’

‘Well they love you’ he laughed and you finally turned to look at him, offering him some of your half burnt marshmallow that he ate whilst trying to make out it was nice. ‘I bought you here for a reason you know’

‘To this house? Or here in general?’ You quizzed as you both shuffled about a bit so Mason was resting against the back of the chair and you could see each other a bit better. You sat and admired him for a few seconds as the glow from the fire lit up his face, the flames crackling in his big dark eyes and you had to hold yourself back from leaning forward to kiss him.

‘Here in general’ he told you softly, lacing your fingers together as he rubbed slow circles into the back of your hand. ‘I used to be a lot like you, you know?

‘What? a bit sarcastic and hungry all the time’

‘Very funny’ he teased, squeezing your hand before kissing your knuckles. ‘No. Closed off, not trusting’

‘I don’t believe that’ you chuckled lightly but the look on his face told you he was serious.

‘It’s true. Growing up in football, you’re basically at war with all the other boys in the academy you know? Fighting for places and opportunities so I always kept my head down and did what I needed to do. When I got here I was so focused on getting the job done and proving myself that I didn’t really take into account that I could enjoy it. I remember the coach here, I used to shake his hand ever day before training but I never smiled at him’ he confessed and you squeezed his hand gently to let him know you were still listening. ‘But they didn’t give up on me, always included me in things and really made me feel part of the family, I really learnt a lot here. I know sometimes you’ve wondered in the past why I was so patient with you and why I never pushed you. It’s because I know exactly how you feel and how hard it is to change. But I’ve adored you from the second I saw you and I knew that I could maybe teach you everything they taught me.

You felt your tears rolling down your face before you even knew you were crying and you gently reached forward to cup his jaw so you could kiss him softly, pouring yourself into him as you tried to let him know how much you appreciate his sweet words.

‘That’s why I wanted to bring you here, this place is special to me, and so are you. I wouldn’t be who I am today without this place and all the people I met and I know how lucky I am that I get to do stuff like this and bring my people with me. And I love that you’re now one of my people. I’d hate for you to think you don’t belong anywhere cause you belong to me’ he whispered against your lips and you had to let out a shaky breath so you wouldn’t cry any harder. Mason always had such a way with words and you couldn’t help let your brain do the talking as you spewed words out at him.

‘I love you so much, Mase. I swear I thank my lucky stars everyday that you came into my life. You’ve completely turned my world upside down in the best way possible and I’m so thankful I get to be part of yours’ you told him, never having said anything like that to him before and you watched as his eyes glossed over and his bottom lip wobbled ever so slightly. ‘Thank you for bringing me here and thank you for telling me all this. I feel so much closer to you’

‘I love you too. You have no idea how much’ he laughed, voice thick with unshed tears as pulled you back to him so he could kiss you, his hands reaching up under your sweatshirt so he could stroke over you bare skin and you smiled into the kiss.

When you pulled back, you laid yourself down on his chest, head half tucked into his neck so you could both watch the fire die down and just hold each other as your words sunk in.

You loved him and he loved you. And right now that’s all that mattered.

Tagged: @chaotic-taco-collector-blog @mm-vii @footiehoemcfc @masonmount07

[jillsandwhichs]

Our Future Day's

Joel Miller x Reader series , Chap 6 , Traversal

Masterlist

Pairing: F!reader x Joel Miller

Summary: You let Joel know over text that you'll be traveling back home to visit your family. Let's just say, he didn't like that very much, he wanted an in person goodbye

WC: 2.5k

Type: SFW

A/n: Hi! Hope you all enjoy. Please check out my masterlist, there's a lot of stuff there. You can get to know me, you can see the rules of my blog and then you can see all of my fanfictions. You'll be able to find the previous chapters to this fic and upcoming ones. You'll also be able to find my Wattpad & AO3. Comments, reblogs & likes are appreciated. Thank you

It's now Monday. Ever since Friday, Joel has been on your mind. The entire evening with him was one of a kind. You guys ended the night off with smoking and eating snacks inside of his home. You both also got to learn quite a bit more about one another. For example, he told you a bit more about his ex wife, she seemed like a cunt. In other news, he's thinking about moving to a different contracting job. Good on him.

Overall, the night was lovely. You really let loose and had a wonderful with Joel. Going home really sucked. You tossed and turned all night with him on your mind - You wonder if he was the same.

You just got home from work a little bit ago, it's almost seven now, you finished your tasty dinner. You ended up having a cheeseburger with chips, it reminded you of your childhood - The dinner. You remember days when your mother and father would have a cookout, all of the family would show up and cheeseburgers with chips would be fed to the children. You and your other cousins, the lot of them, would sit on a laid out blanket while you ate. It was memorable.

As of right now though, you're relaxing on your bed with Becker, who has just been the absolute best boy. He's learned to go outside alone and won't run off, he's really such a great boy. No need for a leash either since he has a collar with a tag attached to it. He'll be fine, for sure. Speaking of being fine, you have a fine weekend coming up. You plan to go home, back to Oregon, to be with your family for the entirety of the weekend.

You're set to leave Thursday, but you'll be there til Sunday afternoon, it'll be awesome.

You miss your little sister, Hannah, dearly. You two have had an inseperarable and special bond since you were young. You'll of course also get to see your Mother, Linda and your Father, Gary, who you also love very much, both of them. They've been so supportive and helpful with your move-in to Austin TX, they've made sure the move-in has been simpler than how it normally would have been.

The plane ride will be lengthy, but worth it. Sadly, you cannot take Becker home with you. The only way he got to TX in the first place is because your parents drove him, they were a huge help. Your work friend, Becca, has offered to house sit for you and watch over Becker. You've already introduced the two and Becker seems to have taken a liking to her, luckily. Even their names are similar, it all works out!

Although, before you leave, there's somebody you really wanna say goodbye too - Joel.

He's been so kind to you, so genuine. It would be very rude to leave for a couple days without even a peep, especially after Friday. Friday seems to have brought the two of you even closer, literally, he held you that might. The nicknames he calls you are so sweet too, but that's probably something he does with all the ladies. Even so, you'd like to give him a heads up.

He's home right now, you can see his truck out of your bedroom window, it's very extensive. He may be having dinner though, so you don't want to interrupt him. Plus, he's with Sarah, his beautiful little daughter, she deserves time with her dad. Maybe you'll just shoot him a text as your goodbye, he wouldn't mind, right? It's not as if you're leaving forever, it'll only be for a couple of days. An amazing couple of days at that.

Before texting Joel, you'll have to text Hannah, see if everything is set for you to come and visit.

"Hey girl. Is everything ready for me to come stay, my room and whatnot? I'm laying out Thursday."

And send.

She'll answer sooner or later.

Now for Joel.

"Joel, hey, just wanted to say hi and well, I suppose goodbye as well. I'll be pretty busy these next few days, I am flying out Thursday, back home, I won't be home til Sunday. Hope to see you soon."

Then you sent it to him.

Hopefully he replies and doesn't look over the message. A lot of people don't even check their messages, like ever. You've been a victim of that one too many times. Joel hasn't been that way though, not yet at least. He tends to answer rather quickly, which is totally new to you. Any other man you've actually tried to speak to takes forever, sometimes hours, even days. It's very annoying and extremely repetitive. Joel's different in such a good way.

You stood up off of your bed, treading over to your messy vanity. You have only lived here a week and yet, your makeup area is destroyed. Beauty is messy, the messiness brings out the beauty. You took a seat, gazing at yourself in the mirror. You have dark eye bags beneath your lower eye socket, you've been spent this past week. It won't get easier either. This break will do you some good, at least.

You picked up the shaded concealer off of your desk, shaking the tube and spinning it open, dabbing the pale substance beneath both of your eyeballs, making sure you looked better. You looked like a goblin without it, well, that's how you felt. Women and even some of the men at your work complimented you daily, especially on your eyes. Guess they didn't notice the flaw you just covered up. Or the many other flaws you so believe you have.

Through the mirror, you could see Becker admiring you. The dog was just staring at you, like he always does. He's a very loving dog. He can sense emotions too; He does it super well at that. "Hi baby boy." You smiled at him, his tongue popped out almost instantly, earning a hearty laugh out of you. Such a silly dog!

You patted your thighs, wanting him to run over to you. He immediately did, of course.

He hopped off of the bed and stood right beside you, nuzzling his head against your thigh. With a giggle, you began to scratch behind his ears - His favorite spot. He enjoys affection very much, maybe even too much. He seeks it out any chance he can get, even from complete strangers. "I'm going to miss you bubba." You said softly to him, as if he even realized you'll be gone soon. Even though it's not going to be very long, you two have an attachment to each other. No matter what, it'll be difficult.

You gave in to him, those gentle eyes get ya every time.

"Alright boy, let's cuddle." You tittered, diving onto the bed with a smile, him jumping up right after you. The both of you got cozy beneath your large comforter.

It was evening now. The sky was getting darker, but it was still somewhat light out. It was beautiful out. A couple stars began the show, showing themselves off beautifully. The sky was a dim shade of blue, it was gorgeous. The atmosphere was just calming all around. You felt at peace, Becker was a part of that. Even Joel was. Your family too. Your life has definitely been on an incline recently. Lucky you, right?

Whilst laying in bed, you could feel your eyes beginning to close. You just felt exhausted. You needed rest, especially with the week ahead.

With Becker in your arms, the two of you embracing each other, you officially fell asleep, happily too.

-

Buzz

Buzz

Buzz

-

Each buzz and each ring was loud, awakening you with haste. With dreary eyes, you tossed your hand just about everywhere searching for your phone, until you finally got a hold of it. You brought it closer to your face, your eyes adjusting to its piercing brightness, it was pure white. The contrast of your flashing phone to your pitch black room was painful. Your eyes stung. But you snapped back into reality when realizing it was Joel.

You answered the phone, holding it up to your ear, waiting to hear something.

"God dammit darlin', I've been tryna get a hold of ya' damn near the past hour, fuck was you doin'?" His tone was loud. He didn't seem angry, rather concerned and frustrated. "What?" You groaned out, your sleepy voice taking it's course. A soft sigh came from Joel, it was evident, even over the phone. "Didn't know you was asleep, I'm sorry." "It's okay Joel, is everything okay?" "Yeah, everything is fine, just a bit upset you was gonna leave without a real goodbye." He admitted truthfully.

Oh, you felt so bad.

You didn't realize what it meant to him - An in person goodbye.

"Joel, I'm sorry. I figured you were busy, you know, with work and all, I didn't want to be a disturbance." You said softly, shuffling around in bed, Becker still resting. "I ain't never too busy, you could've just came over and we could've talked about it." Joel replied, his voice deep. You were happy he was willing to let you do that, just come on over to his place.

"Tell you what, we can talk more tomorrow, I don't feel like getting up." You giggled into the phone. He snickered, a smile formed on your face when you heard it. "Of course, I'll let you get your beauty sleep." Joel responded in a friendly manner, not wanting to bother you any further; Although, he is never a bother. "And Joel... It's nice to see you care." You hummed out. There was silence for a bit before you heard him talk again.

"I care about you sweet thing." He stated, honesty painted his words. He was great. "I care about you too, Joel." You whispered back before hanging up. It was almost like a way of saying 'I love you' but you weren't going to take it that far.

Yet.

-

Bright and early the next morning, you poured yourself a nice glass of hot coffee. You put some of your butterscotch creamer into it, watching the golden liquid drizzle into the mug. It was a average morning so far, you have work in about an hour, you'll take the time to say your goodbye to Joel, you leave in two days after all.

Outside was lively.

You could hear birds chirping, cars passing by and you could see people walking down the sidewalk, either alone, with a stroller or a dog of some breed. Austin was awake all the time, but the mornings always seemed to bring that into effect moreso. It felt comforting, knowing the world wasn't silent at any time. The sun was just about up, you knew today would be a more chilly day, which was convenient, you've been wanting to wear this cute sweater.

Autumn is just around the corner. Sadly, Texas tends to always be on the warmer side. It's very mild here in Austin. You wish that was different, fall time is your personal favorite. Halloween and Thanksgiving have always been the best Holidays in your opinion. You are excited to experience them here nonetheless and besides, you'll still get to have it back home, you'll most definitely visit for the Holidays and just for fun!

While you were calmly sipping on your coffee, you spotted Joel walked out of his house, all tided up for work, this was your chance. You set your coffee down so fast and immediately bolted to your front door. When you whipped it open, he was tossing some equipment in the back of his lifted truck, at least he didn't get into his truck right away.

"Joel!" You yelled, checking both ways before you soon crossed over to his driveway. Joel turned around, looking you up and down, a small laugh coming out from him. "Mornin'." He said with a snicker. "Good morning." You gleamed at him, standing in front of him now. "Whatcha up to?" "Well, I was drinking some coffee, then I saw you, wanted to give you that proper goodbye, I leave Thursday." "I remember, I reread the damn message 'bout ten times." Oh bless his soul.

"I am sorry. I just didn't think it mattered to you all that much, figured it would've been a drag." Joel rubbed his temple as he chortled. "You're a damn silly girl, y'know that?" You snorted, your eyes going soft, your eyebrows curving slightly. "I would've went crazy if I didn't get to see ya before you left for a good bit." Joel spoke, leaning his hands back onto his tailgate. "Yeah?" "Yup, it's the truth. I kind of like havin' you 'round." He teased with a laugh, earning one from you too.

"Is that so?" "Yup. Nice havin' a neighbor who ain't old or just annoyin', you're different and I like that." He stated, it made your body heat up. The way he spoken of you made you wanna die, in an amazing, heavenly way. "Likewise." You vocalized to him. The two of you just stared into one anothers eyes for a little, you got lost in his orbs. He was very handsome, heavenly even. A God send.

"Anyways hun, I oughta get to work, being a contractor ain't for the weak." He said gruffly. You understood, his job is the only source of income they have other than Sarah's mother paying child support; That's another thing Joel opened up to you about. "I get it. Have a good day at work Joel." You began to walk off, but he quickly stopped that notion. "Woah, hey, hey, where you off too? Not even a goodbye nor a damn hug?" Joel laughed, making you embarrassed.

You didn't realize you didn't say goodbye. A hug? He never expressed he wanted one.

"Right, sorry." You shook your head whilst looking down.

"Goodbye Joel, I'll see you soon." You leered at him, your head slightly tilted to the side. "Goodbye you, c'mere." He grunted, holding his arms out, indicating he wanted a swift hug. You contained yourself, remaining content as you gave him a friendly hug. Your arms wrapped around his torso, your head on his chest. Joel rested his chin on your head, his roughened up hands caressing your slender back.

"You be safe, a woman like you travelin' all alone ain't safe, how 'bout you message me once you're at the airport Thursday?" He asked, he's such a gentleman, per usual. "I will, don't worry." You soughed against him.

You two held each other for a couple more seconds, the warmth of the hug being absolutely intoxicating. It felt like so many feelings were being released and revealed through one simple yet special hug.

You pulled away and gave him a quick smile. "See you around." "See ya." Joel smirked, his hand shooting up to your cheek for just a second before he pulled away, heading back to the side of his truck, getting in and driving off.

You felt so good about this all. His support and concern meant a lot to you.

You'll be safe, for him.

[reigningqueenofwords]

One Second, Sweetheart

Pairing: Dean x plus size!Reader Word count: 1,682 Warnings: Fatphobia Request: Can you do a request with Dean and the plus size reader where they go to a festival and she takes his snap back and he is just in awe but he gets mad when guys start saying mean things about her. She is in shorts and a tank top and he finally has enough and freaks out in the guy.

Read on AO3

Part 1 of Festival

You’d been looking forward to this weekend for months . Dean had gotten the pair of you tickets to a festival you’d been wanting to go to, but always came up with reasons not to. Finally, he bought them so there would be no more excuses. You’d bought a couple new outfits (you’d even splurged at Torrid!) just for the occasion, as well. 

He would be picking you up on Thursday night, driving most of the day Friday, and then checking into your hotel Friday night. You’d been the one to book that. There was no way you’d let him pay for everything! The festival would be on Saturday and Sunday, and then you’d be driving home Monday morning. Four days with your best friend. That you may or may not be in love with. Maybe. Not that you’d ever tell him that. 

Standing in your room, you looked over your bed. You were packing for your trip, and trying to make sure that you didn’t miss anything. “Outfit for Saturday, check.” You muttered to yourself. “Two outfit options for Sunday.” You went on. “Chub rub stick, deodorant, dry shampoo, makeup bag, a pair of cute shoes, a pair of comfy shoes…” You went on. “Why does it feel like I’m forgetting something?” You furrowed your brows. “Phone charger! Oh my God. How did I forget that?!” You went to grab your spare. The last thing you wanted was your phone dying. 

You grinned when you opened your door Thursday night. “Hi!” You let him in. 

“Hey, sweetheart.” He smiled. “Looking forward to this weekend?” He sure as hell was!

“I am. Four days with my best friend? Of course I’d be looking forward to it.” You teased. “Let me get my shoes on, and then we can go.” 

He motioned to the two bags by the door. “Just these two?” He asked, glancing at you. You simply nodded. “I’ll get these out to the car.” He lifted them without giving you a chance to protest. A moment later he was headed back out. 

You quickly got on your shoes, grabbed your phone and purse, and followed him out. Once your door was locked, you jogged out to the car. “Did you want me to drive first?” You offered. 

“Nah. I napped all day.” He shrugged. “You hungry?” He leaned on the top of the Impala, that knee buckling smile on his face. 

“I could eat.” You smiled, slipping into the passenger’s seat.

“That’s my girl.” He said proudly. 

Saturday morning, you were up early. Before Dean was up, you quickly got ready, and then went out to get the pair of you breakfast. Sure, you could have gotten something at the hotel, but you didn’t always like the options. So, you went down the road to a little cafe you’d seen. 

Twenty minutes later, you were walking back into the hotel room with breakfast and coffee. “Wondered where you went, sweetheart.” Dean spoke from the side of his bed. His voice still held the remnants of sleep.

“Was hoping to get back before you woke up.” You chuckled, setting everything down on the table. “I got you an egg, bacon, and cheese bagel, with a hashbrown.” You smiled. “And then a coffee.” 

“Smells amazing.” He got up to go sit with you at the table. “I’ll shower after I eat and then we can head out. Sound good?” 

You nodded, getting comfortable in your chair. “Sounds perfect.” 

“This has been amazing, Dean!” You gushed after you’d been at the festival a few hours. “I will never be able to thank you enough for this.” You looked around, not seeing the way he looked at you. “You will get the best Christmas and birthday presents ever for the rest of your life.” 

He chuckled lightly, shaking his head. “Nah, this was for both of us.” He told you honestly. Seeing you light up like this was a gift enough for him. 

You grinned up at him. “Selfie together?” You asked, hopeful. You really hadn’t taken many pictures that day, but you knew you wanted at least one of the pair of you. 

“Of course.” He agreed, taking your phone. “I am taller.” He teased, holding up the phone to get a couple pictures. “Wanna go grab lunch at the hotel, cool off, then come back when it’s socially acceptable to drink?” He asked as he handed you back your phone to put in your little bag. 

“Sounds good. Give our feet a break.” And give you a chance to refresh your anti-chub rub stick. 

After a few drinks, you were a bit giggly. Not drunk, but feeling really good. Smiling up at Dean, you bit your lip and snatched his snapback off his head when he wasn’t looking. He whipped his head around just to see you putting it on. “What do you think?” You asked, striking a playful pose. 

He had been fully ready to tell someone off for taking his hat until he realized that it had been you. Licking his lips, he playfully let out a sigh. “I think I just lost my hat because it looks good on you. Matches your tank top.” He noted. 

You blushed, nudging his side lightly, and you were taken aback when he put his arm around you to keep you close. You shyly put your arm around his waist, not complaining one bit. While you could hear laughter, you assumed it was just other festival goers having a good time. Drinks had been flowing for a few hours now, afterall. However, when you heard a ‘moo’ a little to close to you, you tense. 

Dean noticed, glancing at you. “You okay?” He asked, worried. 

“I’m fine.” You brushed it off. “How about we go to the taco truck for dinner?” You suggested. 

“Yeah, because she needs tacos.” A voice from not far snorted. 

That one Dean had heard, but he didn’t want to ruin your night, so he ignored it. “Sounds good.” He smiled, moving to lead you away from whatever asshole made that comment. He didn’t realize the same group was following. “Burgers tomorrow for dinner?” He suggested. 

“Have I ever turned burgers with you down, Dean?” You teased. 

“She should, isn’t that cannibalism?” Another voice laughed, making you swallow. You weren’t unused to cruel comments, you’d been bigger your whole life. However, it had died down quite a bit since you’d graduated high school years ago. “Maybe get a damn salad.” 

Your hand gripped the side of Dean’s shirt, willing them to just go away. “How’s Sammy doing?” You asked, trying to veer things away from the rude guys behind you. 

Dean chuckled. “He’s good.” He smiled. “Starts every call asking me if we’re dating yet.” He admitted, making your eyebrows shoot up. “Then gets annoyed when I tell him no.” 

Before you could say anything, another rude comment met your ears. “Who the hell would want to date her?” The first voice asked. “She should go to the gym and put some damn clothes on. No one wants to see that.” 

Dean’s jaw clenched as he moved his arm from around you. “One second, sweetheart.” He saw the worry on your face. “I’m just going to talk to them.” 

You watched him get closer to them and gasped when his fist met some guy’s nose. “Dean!” You rushed over, pulling on the back of his shirt. 

“What? You can say a bunch of shit but you can’t deal with the consequences?” He spat at the group who looked like they were about to bolt. “Learn not to be such assholes and you won’t wind up with a broken nose.” 

“What the hell, man?!” One finally spoke up. “Why are you defending that?!” 

That made Dean even madder. “That? That ?! That is my best friend, the woman I love, and a better person than you could ever hope to be.” 

“Come on, Dean.” You tugged him, as more people were looking. “Let’s go back to the motel.” You said softly. He loved you?! Since when? 

Dean heard the softness of your voice and let himself be pulled away. “Yeah, let’s go.” He pulled you back to his side, kissing the top of your head as he led you towards the exit. He was clearly still upset over what was said, but now he was also a bit worried. You’d heard him say that he loves you. Would he lose his best friend? He couldn’t lose you! 

Neither of you said anything the entire way back to the hotel. Neither of you knew what to say. You were wrapping your head around him feeling the same way about you, and he was panicking that this would push you away. 

Finally, you sat on the end of your bed and pulled off your sneakers. You left his hat on your head, not wanting to give it back just yet. “Hey, Dean?” You asked, nervous. 

“Yeah?” He braced himself. 

“Did you mean what you said? That you love me?” You asked, crossing your fingers it wasn’t just something to shut those guys up. He blushed and looked down, speaking volumes. “Because I love you, too.” 

His head shot up, and his eyes were wide. “What?” He breathed. 

You giggled at the look on his face. “I’ve loved you for ages. Who wouldn’t?” You asked, getting up to walk to where he was sitting. “Thank you for sticking up for me.” You ran your hand through his hair. As he leaned into your touch you giggled. 

“I’ll always defend you, sweetheart.” He sighed, sounding content. He surprised you by wrapping his arms around your hips. As he rested his head against your stomach, perfectly comfortable holding you. 

“How about we order dinner, and then cuddle while we wait for it to get here?” You asked, feeling brave. 

“Don’t have to ask me twice.” He agreed, looking forward to holding you. “Sleep in my bed tonight? We can keep it totally PG.” He promised, looking up at you. 

Smiling, you nodded. “I think I can do that.” 

[silverofthunder]

☆ life eternal ☆

Papa Emeritus IV x GN Reader

summary: Copia’s smile was all fangs, holding that dangerous edge but to you it was like home, old and new.

content: 3.8k words, mystery (kind of), drama, fantasy, romance, friendship, blood drinking, ritual elements

♡♡ part 1 ♡♡ part 2 ♡♡ part 3 ♡♡ part 4 ♡♡ part 5 ♡♡ part 6 ♡♡ part 7 ♡♡ part 8 ♡♡ part 9 ♡♡ part 10 ♡♡ part 11 ♡♡ part 12 ♡♡

This is it. The end. Feels so strange but I'm glad we're finally here. It's been quite a long journey. Not 100% happy with this part but at least the end is what it's supposed to be. Hope you enjoy!

During the next few weeks life returned back to normal – or as close to normal it could. It was easy to fall back in the same pattern you had been living before all the shit with the dead bodies and Sister Imperator had happened. It felt good to live life again and not worry too much about what danger might lie behind the next corner. But of course, you and Copia had needed that break and eventually you had took it in the form of an extended weekend spent at the mantion. You had taken Thursday and Friday off from work, Olivia kindly offering to do your shifts.

Copia had wondered why you wanted to stay there after everything but as you had looked at him with your best puppy eyes, he had had no choice but to agree and come with you. Yes, the mantion might have reminded you of the incident but it was still an amazing place and you had wanted to enjoy of it fully. And there was always time for making new, better, memories.

The extended weekend seemed to go in slow motion and you loved how you didn’t need to rush anything. Copia let you do most of the decisions and he happily just followed your lead but there had been one thing Copia had not told you about, wanting to surprise you.

It was late Saturday evening as he softly asked you to get dressed and as you had done so, he lead you to the garage – you hadn’t even know there had been one, though you weren’t surprised. There was five cars parked side by side – four clearly older ones and one newer.

”You all have cars?” you asked, staring at the line of cars. ”And one extra?”

Copia chuckled softly.

”Yeah, we have cars. Don’t really use them much, obviously.”

You didn’t really know what to say so you just turned to Copia, offering him a smile.

”And you are taking me for a ride now, I suppose?”

”That is the plan,” Copia answered and started heading towards the car on the left. He stopped beside the red one and opened the door, motioning you to go in.

Smiling you shook your head and made your way to the car.

”You sure you still know how to drive?” It was meant as a good-natured teasing and Copia understood it, immediately playing along as he shrugged.

”We’ll see soon.”

You laughed a little before going into the car and waited Copia to come to sit on he driver’s side. He started the car, the engine coming to life without any hesitation, the purr sounding oddly sweet.

”Ready to go?” Copia asked, a crooked smile on his lips. You took a better position in your seat, reaching out your hand and placing it on Copia’s thigh and giving it a light squeeze.

”Yes.”

The route Copia had chosen, was mostly unfamiliar to you but the scenery looked lovely in the dim city lighting. You had no idea for how long the ride had lasted until Copia took a turn to the smaller road, and the surroundings turned eventually completely dark, the headlights of the car being the only source of light.

The ride came soon to an end and Copia told you to get out of the car so that you could continue your way with foot. Excitement was bubbling in your stomach as you followed Copia, his hand firmly holding yours. The walk wasn’t a long one and when Copia stopped, he guided you to stand in front of him, your back pressed against his as he wrapped his arms around you.

”Look up,” he spoke softly close to your ear and you lifted your gaze up to the sky. The moon was shining there, among the countless of stars and you couldn’t help but smile.

”And now look down there,” Copia said, pointing the right direction and you gasped as you realized that there was a frozen lake. To someone it might have not been anything special but to you there was something magical in the sight. The moon and stars shining above you, casting their light faintly upon the lake and surroundings…

”It’s beautiful,” you breathed out. ”Another one of your fave places?”

”Sí,” Copia answered, tightening his arms around you, resting his chin on your shoulder. ”This is beautiful in the summer, too, but I prefer this sight in the winter.”

You hummed, trying to imagine how it all would look in the summer. Maybe you could visit there the next summer to find it out. Though by then everything would be different as you wouldn’t be a human anymore.

”Are you ready for me turning into a vampire?” you asked quietly, finally voicing the thought in your head. You had of course talked about the matter but you hadn’t really asked Copia how he felt about it all. There was a moment of silence and an unnecessary sigh before Copia answered.

”Yes, and no. On the other hand I would love to keep things like this but…” he paused for a moment, shifting behind you slightly. ”It wouldn’t work in the long run if you stayed human. And one thing I fear the most, is losing you.”

You wiggled out of Copia’s hold so that you could look at him. You gently cupped his face and offered him a smile.

”I kind of understand how you feel. I would love to keep things like this, too, but as you said, it wouldn’t work. And that really sucks but so does many other things in life,” you said, then grabbing a hold of the collar of Copia’s jacket and giving it a few gentle tugs. ”I’m sure forever with you will be worth it.”

You could see the way Copia’s lips curved into a small smile and he leaned in to kiss you. Despite the cold air and him being a vampire, his lips felt unusually warm and your heart melted in your chest. Copia’s hands found your sides and he pulled you flush against him and you hummed against his lips.

If you could have paused the moment, you would have done so. The tranquility of it all was where you wanted to linger.

You pulled away in need of air soon and immediately slipped your arms around Copia, resting your head against his chest, taking a deep breath before releasing the air slowly. Copia pressed his face against your head, and you could feel how his chest moved as he inhaled deep.

”I’m scared,” he admitted quietly. Your heart felt like someone squeezed it in your chest and you hugged Copia tighter.

”Me too,” you said. ”I know I want it but my life is still going to change so much. And the turning itself… The whole process, it’s going to be wild.”

”Yeah, that’s the part I’m not fond of.”

”Me neither but I have no other options if I want to become vampire.”

”Sadly no,” Copia said, squeezing your sides. You had a feeling that he wanted to say something more but he stayed silent and you didn’t want to pressure him. You still had at least a few weeks to enjoy things as they were before you would turn. Sighing, you turned around and let your gaze go back to the sky, admiring the moon and the stars.

Copia nuzzled your cheek with his nose and you couldn’t help but smile and when his lips met your rosy skin, warmth filled your heart, pushing away all the uncertainty.

After your little weekend off, it was time to start planning your turning. Together with the Emeritus brothers and Olivia you spent a lot of time outside of work preparing the cellar room of the mansion as it was going to be the place where the turning would happen and where you would spent a lot of time after it.

The cellar room looked pretty much empty now, there was only an older bed left and a table where the blood bags would be. The hunting part would come later as you would gain some kind of control of yourself.

”This looks… rough,” Olivia stated as her eyes took in the room.

”Yeah, but at least tons of stuff won’t be broken,” you said, grinning at her and she stared at you with eyes before shaking her head.

”So… This is really happening, then.”

”It is,” you said. ”It’s wild to imagine that by the end of the week I will be a vampire.”

The look in Olivia’s eyes turned sad and you immediately took a step closer to her and took a hold of her hands.

”Hey, it’s not going to be the end of the world.” You gave a light squeeze to her hands. ”I’ll do my best to learn to control myself so that we can hang out as soon as possible after.”

”You better or I will…” Olivia didn’t finish her sentence as her voice got a bit broken and you offered her a soft smile. She tried to smile back but it didn’t reach her eyes and something in your chest moved unpleasantly. You released Olivia’s hands and drew her in an embrace straight after, holding her tightly.

”It’s going to be okay,” you said and Olivia let out a shaky laugh as she buried her face into your shoulder.

”I’m being so silly,” Olivia mumbled. ”Acting like this is the end of everything. But it feels like it.”

You understood what she meant. In a way, things were changing and it wasn’t going to be a little change.

”It’s alright, you are allowed to feel sad, overwhelmed and so on,” you spoke softly. ”You haven’t really had time to get used to all this as there’s been a lot happening but I admire how well you have adjusted to the situations.”

Olivia didn’t say anything, only slid her hands around your shoulders and squeezed tight, so tight you almost couldn’t breathe and then she pulled away, meeting your gaze. Her eyes were moist as she had most likely shed a few tears but she was smiling, nonetheless.

”I think I might need to take some time off, too, at some point, but most of these changes around me have been positive ones,” Olivia eventually admitted. ”I’m glad I got pulled into this part of the world. Life certainly won’t be boring when you’re surrounded by vampires.”

The light chuckle that left from you, echoed in the cellar room and Olivia’s eyes lit up, her usual grin rising to her lips. You slid your hands to her shoulders and gave her a little shake, making her laugh.

A clinking sound made both of you startle and you turned to look at the open door, seeing Terzo standing there.

”Sorry to interrupt your moment but Primo suggested that we all could head back to the Hunter’s Moon and close the place a bit earlier and spend some time quality time together,” he said and you quickly shared a glance with Olivia.

”That sounds nice,” you said and Olivia agreed with you, then happily skipping to Terzo. Terzo was grinning like a lovestruck fool when Olivia grabbed his hand and started to lead him away. You smiled widely, shaking your head and followed them, happiness bubbing within you.

The pair had grown even closer as the days had gone by and you were so happy for them. That had been the progress you had wanted to see – the pair really was good for one another and Olivia was finally able to experience how it was when someone was treating her right. She deserved only the best and Terzo undoubtedly would give her that.

It was only a few days left until your turning and you were sitting at one of the back rooms of Hunter’s Moon, reading a romance novel you had caught from the mantion’s bookshelf. You needed to think something else for at least a while, otherwise you were sure your head would explode of all the information about vampires you had been getting lately.

Soon you heard the door opening and footsteps approaching and then someone occupied the armchair next to you. It wasn’t hard to guess who had joined your company and with a small smile you just continued reading, waiting if the vampire next to you would have something to say or if he had just wanted to take a short break from the paper work.

You managed to get to the bottom of the page when the vampire finally spoke.

”You seem so calm.”

Your tore your eyes of the book, meeting Secondo’s studying gaze.

”Hmm, I feel oddly calm,” you said, flashing a small smile to Secondo. ”Not what I expected, considering what’s about to happen.”

Secondo nodded slowly.

”Most don’t have the luxury to make the decision and plan the turning so well.”

”I know I have that privilege and I appreciate it.”

Silence fell between you after that. You didn’t feel like talking about the turning and you knew Secondo could sense it as you turned your attention back to the romance novel. You had time to read at least a few pages more, smile rising to your lips as there was such a sweet scene between the two main characters. Then Secondo’s abrupt hop up caught your attention and when the vampire started pacing back and forth in the room, you got a feeling that something was up. Secondo seemed nervous which was unusual for him and you furrowed your brows, a tiny bit of worry settling into you.

”So… Has something happened?” you asked, tentatively, and Secondo stopped, his back towards you.

”You could say so,” he said, slowly turning to you. His body might have been a bit tense and fidgeting but the small curve on his lips told you that whatever this was about, couldn’t be anything bad.

Your brow quirked up, curiosity levels rising quickly.

”I suppose it’s something good.”

You could swear that you saw a proper smile passing Secondo’s lips but it vanished quickly.

”I have a date tonight,” he said.

You blinked, the words slowly sinking in. Secondo just stared at you, a slight amusement evident in his expression.

”Don’t look so surprised,” he continued and you grabbed the nearest thing you could get your hands on and threw it towards him. It happened to be a pen and Secondo swiftly dodged it due to his vampire reflexes.

”And you’re telling this me because…?”

You were confused. It wasn’t like Secondo to just randomly open up about things like that. Or at least you had never before heard him talking about dating people or vampires. Sure he had mentioned that he had had some relationships in the past but that was it.

”I was hoping you could help me.”

”Help you?”

You stared at him with wide eyes.

”Yes,” he stated. ”I would need someone to take care of the bar for a few hours.”

”Oh… So your brothers don’t know about it, do they?”

Secondo shook his head and you sighed, thinking about it. Surely it would give you something else to think.

”But I don’t know anything about bartending…”

Secondo offered you a small smile.

”Well, I was planning on teaching you a few things about it as there is still time.”

With a sigh and a shrug you stood up, placing the romance novel on the nearest table.

”Well then, I guess I can help you.”

Secondo looked pleased and then he turned to leave the room. You followed after him, ready to learn some secrets of bartending.

”You ready?” Primo asked gazing you and Copia in turns. You shared a quick glance with Copia before nodding, your heart beating rapidly in your chest. Obviously now that the moment was so close, you were nervous but you still trusted that you were doing the right decision. Copia’s hold on your hand tightened as you watched Primo going to get some supplies.

The cellar room was dimly lit and it didn’t feel so empty even though it was. When Primo returned to you with a glass and knife in his hands, your stomach made a little turn. It wasn’t nausea, just a thrill making itself known. You watched as Copia took the knife and let go of your hand, lifting it up and placing the knife against his wrist.

He waited a moment before sliding the sharp blade along his skin, a quiet hiss escaping from his mouth as the blade cut open his wrist. Then Primo handed out the glass and Copia settled his wrist upon it, letting the blood drain into it. As there was enough Copia pulled his hand away and gave Primo the knife back.

Then you and Copia headed to the bed. You preferred the rest to happen somewhere more comfortable and when you both sat down, Copia cupped your face.

”This is your last chance to call this off, amore,” he spoke gently and you drew in a breath, shaking your head.

”Not going to back away,” you said, lifting your hand up to caress Copia’s face. A soft smile rose to Copia’s lips and he leaned in, capturing your lips in a kiss. Your body relaxed immediately, your heart feeling all warm and fuzzy. The kiss lasted a moment longer as you wanted to convey as much as you could through it. This was going to be your last kiss a human and you wanted to make the most of it.

As the air became eventually needed, you parted, gaze meeting Copia’s. His white eye shone in the dark, the other changing into its usual shade of red. You felt the claws appearing, his hands still holding your face and lastly he bared his fangs. Your eyes darted quickly to Primo who was standing close by, holding the glass of blood.

The next few steps would be the easiest but after that… In order to become a vampire you also had to be killed and you had discussed that if Copia wouldn’t be able to do that, Primo would step in. You breathed in slowly and released the air, your gaze now focusing on Copia. After a more seconds you nodded, tilting your head and baring your neck to Copia.

The sting didn’t come as a surprise anymore when Copia’s fangs pierced your skin. It still hurt but you had learned to focus on anything else but it and as the venom kicked in, the pain subsided. Copia’s hands were now wrapped around you, holding you tightly as he fed off from you. Technically this part hadn’t been necessary but you had wanted to include this and this time you allowed Copia to take a bit more. And he did, he drank like his life depended on it and soon your vision started to blur.

Just as you felt you were going to pass out, you were pushed back and then something was pressed against your lips. You opened your mouth and soon the metallic taste hit your tongue. But there was something else you could taste, too, only you couldn’t name it as your head was spinning. You swallowed it down and drank more until the glass was removed.

It was hard to keep your eyes open but the soft words kept you grounded as long as needed.

And then complete darkness swallowed you.

.

.

Flashes of your life passed in your mind, fire spreading and burning everything and you tossed and turned but couldn’t move away. You felt trapped and panic started to rise within you. This had to be a nightmare. The burn seemed to get worse and you tried to breathe but it felt your lungs didn’t work. You grabbed something with your hands – something soft, remotely familiar – as the voices filled your head.

They were loud and you felt like your head would explode. The pain had consumed your whole body by now, the flames eating you from inside out.

Stop, stop, stop!

You weren’t sure if you shouted the words or if they were just a trick of a mind. When you finally opened your eyes, everything felt too bright and you blinked rapidly. As you finally could see properly, you realized you were staring at the ceiling of a room.

”Amore…” A soft, this time much quieter, voice reached your ears and in an instant you were on your feet, beside the bed, facing someone.

Copia.

Your partner.

Your whole body seemed to be on alert even though it shouldn’t be.

”It’s okay, you’re safe.”

”Hurts,” you croaked out, your voice sounding so weird.

”I know, my love,” Copia said, eyes full of sympathy. ”This will help,” he said and threw something at you and you grabbed it into your hand.

The smell hit you like a tidal wave, the sweetest aroma filling your nostrils and kicking your instincs on. The next moments turned into a blur but you recognized the hunger and the satisfaction when the red liquid hit your mouth. The burn within you eased the more you drank and as you had drained the last bag, you dropped it to the floor, among all the others and took in the sight.

What a mess it was, destroyed bags all over, blood stains covering the foor, bed, even your skin and clothing. With wide eyes you looked up at Copia who was now stepping closer to you.

”Better?” he asked, reaching out for your hand.

You nodded – you certainly felt better, the burn now being only a little tingle on your skin. However, you didn’t feel completely yourself yet. You licked your lips, only your tongue came in contact with something sharp.

Your fangs.

Copia smiled at you softly while his other hand settled under your jaw and you took a hold of his extended hand. The touch – he – felt familiar, more than anything else in that moment. You let out a sigh, though it felt strange, like you didn’t have to do that.

”It’s overwhelming right now but you’ll get used to it all,” Copia spoke, his voice sounding so soothing. His gaze studied your face and your lips curved up into a smile. His thumb brushed over your fangs, the look in his eyes darkening. The softness was still there, though, love bleeding through like the warmest of streams, and your chest felt full.

You stared at each other for a good while, marvelling in this novelty, and you were fascinated by all the details you could see on Copia’s face, the little things you hadn’t seen before.

”Welcome to our world.”

Copia’s smile was all fangs, holding that dangerous edge but to you it was like home, old and new. Everything had gone as planned, it seemed, and now you were there, ready to take the next steps in your life as a vampire, the love of your life beside you.

This was the start of your forever.

taglist: @nijiru