#i also very much appreciate it being a lower budget title THAT HAS NO VOICE ACTING IN TEXT BOXES YAAAHAAAAAA

[castleinthemist]

> four crystals of elements > fairies relating to crystals > crystals are decaying so world is going to shit > direct quite from the title crawl form ff1 > creature guy with the vivi eyes hidden under a hood straight up looking like a crystal chronicles character > main character's idle battle stance is lightning's > published by square penix > yeah ok harvestella is a ff game in spirit

[imaginesandinserts]

Irreverent Pt. 39 - Dinner Party

Title: Irreverent Pt. 39 - Dinner Party Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Reader Rating: M Words: 5812

Irreverent Series Masterlist

Clyde was handling another assignment so you were working out of Quantico for the time being. You'd learned really quickly that not everyone had a Penelope Garcia at their disposal and you needed to skill up fast. You'd bribed her with concert tickets and a very handsome Elliot Greenberg as her escort in exchange for teaching you the basics.

Elliot worked for the white collar crime unit in New York after the BAU rejection and had recently made the transition to Quantico for sex crimes. The two of you had kept in touch over the years and he'd hit you up when he'd moved back. He'd broken up with his girlfriend back in New York for the job - which really just told you the girlfriend hadn't mattered all that much. Elliot was smart, good looking, and doing well at work but you knew he also had a nerdy streak that Garcia would appreciate.

It was kind of fun being on the other side of a case and watching Penelope in action. You figured it would be easiest to learn on the job so you'd stayed holed up in her office and the two of you worked together with the team on a case. She taught you how to do some of the less complex stuff and you got to flirt with Hotch anytime he called for an update - it was a win-win really.

When they got back, he'd decided to have everyone be home for a week and do reports and consults to coincide with your schedule. No one was really complaining about a week of no travel.

Aaron had gotten home before you as you'd had a late afternoon meeting with McKinney to update him on your progress. When you walk in, you can smell roasted spices wafting from the kitchen. Aaron had always enjoyed foods from other cuisines but with you he'd really embraced cooking it as well, since you'd lived all over and had curated your own recipes over the years. If your nose wasn't mistaken, he was trying his hand at your Chicken Vindaloo recipe.

You walk into the kitchen to see him wearing an apron and manning the stove while Jack sits at the island doing his homework.

"Hi baby." You greet Jack and place a quick kiss to his head before going over to observe Aaron's handiwork - it smelled pretty good and he already had the rice cooker going as well. Jack mumbled a hello and you could tell something was off. You raise an eyebrow at Aaron who mouths "Soccer" to you, peaking a glance backwards at Jack's head bent over his worksheets.

Aaron and you had decided to sign him up for soccer lessons, figuring it was a good age to get him into team sports and be a little more active in a structured setting. Apparently he wasn't taking it too well, though you couldn't fathom why.

You take a quick taste from the spatula that Aaron had been using to stir and add a little pinch of salt to the pan. He throws you a mock glare. "I was getting to it," he mutters, shooing you away.

You leave him to the cooking and go sit at the island by Jack. Grabbing a tangerine from the fruitbowl, you peel it and break off a piece. "Orange for your thoughts?" you ask Jack.

You can see him hesitate but he still reaches out for the small slice, putting his pencil down. "I don't want to do Soccer," he confesses, reaching for another piece. Aaron's back is turned and he appears to be bustling around the kitchen.

"What part of it do you not want to do?" You pop a piece of tangerine into your own mouth as well.

He seems to consider your question as he chews on another piece. "It seems messy and the other kids seem mean."

You and Aaron had taken Jack by the soccer field a couple of weeks ago and you realize he's referring to the mud covered kids all pushing one another. Jack was a sweet and sensitive kid and you could understand how that was maybe a stressful situation for him. But you also wanted him to give it a shot because it would be good to do some team activities - help him make some more friends and be more active.

"It does seem kind of messy," you agree. "But I don't think the other kids will be mean. You're good at making friends and as long as you're nice to them they'll be nice to you."

He thinks over your response and you know you can seal the deal. "If you don't like it after you give it a fair shot, then we can discuss. Is that okay?" Jack was a reasonable kid and you and Aaron tried to give him choices as much as possible.

"Okay, Y/N." Jack nods, grabbing the last piece of tangerine from your palm.

"You know," you lean in a bit to Jack, lowering your voice, "your family has a special history with soccer fields."

"We do?" He quirks an eyebrow at you and he looks so much like Aaron in that moment. The cheeks are all Haley but the expression is completely Aaron.

"Well, you know how your parents met, of course," you confirm with mock seriousness.

Jack smiles and nods. "Pirate #4"

You laugh, ruffling Jack's hair. Aaron had kept his word to Haley and he did his best to make her a part of Jack's life as much as you could. But you had a feeling this wasn't a story Jack knew yet. Jack had been obsessed with all of the Disney movies lately so you know he'd appreciate a good romance story.

"Yes, your parents met during the play. But your dad was quite the young soccer star when he was in high school." You look and see that Aaron is adding the finishing touches to dinner and undoubtedly listening in. Jack has turned fully to face you, bringing his chair a little bit closer to yours.

"Well, your mom started to go watch him practice and go to his games. After a game where your dad scored the winning goal," you pause as Jack hangs on every word, "they were hanging out on the field and your dad finally plucked up the courage and asked your mom to be his girlfriend."

"That's pretty cool, I guess." He smiles, turning to look at his dad. "But not as cool as Buttercup and Wesley. Can we watch The Princess Bride again after dinner?"

You and Aaron laugh as he nods and tells Jack to go get washed up for dinner. The three of you had already watched The Princess Bride a couple of times and Aaron insisted that Inigo Montoya looked exactly like his old boss, Gideon. He'd pulled up pictures to show you, but you just didn't see it. It was probably the longest argument the two of you had had in recent memory.

As Jack leaves, Aaron turns to look at you, his face identical to Jack's from earlier, eyebrow quirked just the same. You know he's wondering how you knew that story about him and Haley because it sure hadn't been from him.

"Jess and I bonded while you were gone," you explained with a small smile. "He should know your love story."

Aaron nods as you get up to get changed for dinner yourself. He adores that you go above and beyond to make sure that Jack feels connected to Haley. Sometimes, though, he worries that you end up minimizing your role in his and Jack's life in the process.

As far as Aaron was concerned, Jack got to be witness to his favorite love story.

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

With the whole team at home base for the coming week, you and Aaron decided to host the long postponed dinner party that you had initially aimed to have as your relationship reveal party. Between the team jumping the gun on you and then all of the work and cases, it had gotten pushed back indefinitely. However, now seemed like the right time to do it. You'd planned it for the end of the week when both Henry and Jack were invited to a birthday sleepover and all of the adults had the next day off.

Emily, Derek, and Penelope were all bringing dates. Rossi was seeing Strauss but knew better than to invite her to a team thing. You still remembered worming that particular secret out of Aaron. You had known something was up when you'd happened to catch his face when Rossi told him. You'd been too far to actually hear what caused that face, so you'd brought it up later. In his defense, he'd valiantly tried to protect Rossi's secret, but you had your ways. When he'd finally given in and told you, you regretted having tried so hard to get it out of him. Rossi and Strauss. Just the thought of it made you shudder.

However, with that large of a group, you decided to get some outside help, though you'd still make dessert. You'd left for lunch to go meet with the caterer, taking Rossi along with you since he'd actually be helpful. Aaron was in some budget meetings through lunch anyways and you'd grabbed him a salad on the way back. You thanked Rossi for joining you and he took Aaron's food up with him as you turned to see Derek and Emily hanging out by her desk.

"Hey, so what'd Hotch mess up?" Derek asks as he sees you.

You're confused for a second as to what he means but then you catch sight of the large bouquet of flowers on your desk. Your heart stops. You recognize that arrangement - the ostentatious roses arranged artfully. You'd forgotten what day it was. After he missed last year, you'd thought he'd forgotten - that he'd moved past it finally. This was the first time they'd arrived at the office. Usually it was sent to your home so you could deal with it in private.

You approach your desk not bothering to look for a note. Quickly, you pick them up and place the bouquet in your trash can, in the hope that no one else would see them. Both Derek and Emily eye you curiously.

You have to make sure your voice will come out steadily before you speak. "They're not from Aaron."

You hope they'll just go back to their conversation as you sit down in your chair, your mind whirling. You'd have to deal with this situation. Him sending them to work was an obvious escalation and to what end, you couldn't be sure.

From the corner of your eye, you see Derek stand from his spot on Emily's desk. He walks towards you with purpose and before you can stop him, he's reached into the trash can and fished out the note.

"Matthew? He's sending you flowers?" His voice is low and he looks troubled, holding the note in his hands and taking a seat on your desk instead. Seemed like him and Emily had decided he'd deal with it, as she was conspicuously missing, leaving just you and Derek in the bullpen.

You sigh internally. It had been too much to hope that they would've just ignored it. "It's our anniversary," you explain, looking around and making sure there wasn't anyone else around. "He didn't take the break up well. Now he sends flowers every year to torture me - though usually he's tactful enough to send them to the house."

Your revelation does nothing to ease Derek's mind. If anything he looks even more worried now than before. "So he's escalating. Trying to get your attention."

"He's not going to actually do anything," you say, trying to sound reassuring. "I can handle it, Derek." You place a hand on his knee closest to you and look firmly up at him. The last thing you needed was for Derek to be all worried and nosey about the situation. Or worse, for him to tell… "Do not tell Aaron."

He looks at you as though you're stupid and you can tell he's going to argue with you, but you really don't want to bother Aaron with this. Not in the one week you guys have at home together. "I mean it, Derek. He has a thousand other things to worry about. My sociopath ex does not need to be one of them."

Derek frowns and you know he's racing through the thousand cases you guys have done on stalker exes and escalation. Luckily for you, Matthew was too lazy to actually stalk anyone. Unluckily, he still found the time to order you flowers to remind you that he'd once been a very large part of your life. You didn't even like roses. With a glance up to Hotch's office, Derek nods, knowing he won't be able to convince you otherwise right now. He drops the note back into the trash can as Emily returns and you all go back to pretending to work.

It's late afternoon when you hear Hotch calling your name from the upstairs landing. "Y/N, can you come up here please?"

You'd gotten very little done, your mind whirling with what to do about the Matthew situation. You just wanted it to be over. You briefly wonder if Aaron wants to talk about the meeting with the caterers or Jack's schedule for the following week when the two of you will both be away. You enter his office, closing the door behind you.

"Hey, what's going on?" You walk in and take a seat on his couch. The blinds facing the bullpen are closed, but the ones facing outside are open, casting a warm glow around the room. Curiously, he hasn't moved back to his desk and is standing in front of you, with a concerned look on his face.

"When were you going to tell me about the Matthew situation?" he asks, placing his left hand on his hip and looking every bit the part of SSA Aaron Hotchner instead of your boyfriend.

You let out a breath. You couldn't believe Derek had told him, after you'd specifically asked him not to. And now he had that furrowed brow and the concerned face and he has a deadline from Strauss on the new budget. This wasn't what he needed right now and you knew it would distract from everything else.

You grit your teeth and stand up, ignoring his voice, and open the door to his office to scan the bullpen until you catch sight of who you're looking for. "Agent Morgan," you call out, "could you please join us up here?"

Derek looks up at you before he quickly walks upstairs and enters Hotch's office. He goes and stands by Hotch while you close the door once again, undoubtedly knowing what this was about. The two of them made quite the image - frowns marring both of their faces though Aaron's was less pronounced. I knew moisturizing was a good call.

Squaring your shoulders, you cross your arms across your chest, facing the two of them. "Figured it was more efficient to just talk to you both together. Save you the trouble of finding each other afterwards," you say, your tone hinting at how annoyed you were. Not that either one of them had the decency to look ashamed. If anything they looked defiant.

Aaron started to speak but you cut him off.

"You two need to realize that I can handle my own problems. If I say Matthew isn't an issue, trust me. If I say I have it handled, believe me that I do."

"No." You expected that, but not from Derek. Maybe from Aaron, but not from Derek.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, no. Not with our jobs. Not knowing what we do. I'll tell Hotch, I'll tell the whole team. The more people on the lookout the better."

"I -"

"Morgan's right. So, let's figure out what to do."

"There's nothing to do. He sent flowers, not a bomb. Leave it alone. If the worst thing he does is send me flowers once a year - well people have dealt with worse. You're both overreacting."

"You expect us to do nothing? What about when he escalates?"

"He won't!"

"You can't possibly know that." His entire demeanor is stiff and tense and he's aggravated with you for not taking this as seriously as he is.

"I was with him for four years, Aaron. Trust me. I know him. He has nothing to gain from an escalation and everything to lose. He's married, he doesn't exactly want me back. He just hates that I dumped him and once a year he remembers that and gets pissed off and drunk and in his own passive aggressive way, chooses to do this. It's not worth any of us wasting a second more of our time on!"

Derek looks like he'd rather be anywhere but standing in the middle of the two of you at that moment.

Aaron breathes out slowly before he speaks, as though if he takes a moment it'll prevent him from shaking you into seeing it his way. "I still would like for the team to be on alert. Just in case." It would appear he'd decided on the reasonable approach.

You groan, but know that's the best you're about to get. At your nod, Aaron and Derek exchange a look before Derek moves to leave the room.

"Hey," you stop him as his hand touches the doorknob. "Next time I ask you to not tell my crazy, overprotective boyfriend something. Just don't."

He grimly shakes his head at you. "No promises."

You narrow your eyes at him. The two of you will be discussing this later.

Turning away from you, he nods at Hotch before opening the door and closing it behind him.

Aaron sighs before sitting down on the couch next to you. "Why wouldn't you just tell me?" he asks, as though he's afraid of the answer.

You know he's genuinely worried about you and grasping at the implication of you not telling him about this. You reach across the couch cushion and grab his hand, squeezing it. His fingers intertwine with yours instantly.  

"Aaron, if I thought - for even a second- that this was some sort of actual threat, you'd be the first person I'd tell."

Which was the truth. If there was any chance that Matthew was a threat to Aaron or Jack, you'd have told him immediately. As it stood, however, your ex boyfriend was nothing more than a coward who got off on his little annual psychological warfare.

He nods, his mouth a straight line.

You spend a few more minutes in his office reassuring him properly (How convenient that the blinds were already shut), before leaving him to finish up the rest of his work.

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

Derek watches from the bullpen as you exit Hotch's office, not a hair out of place, though he could imagine that hadn't been the case a minute earlier. He sees your eyes dart around furtively before making a quick phone call. You say barely two words before hanging up.

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

Ricky Costello had the self-assured charm of a boy who had never questioned his place in life. He'd grown up scrawny and had to learn how to fight and stand up for himself. As he'd grown older and filled out some, people knew better than to pick on him or anyone he was friends with. He was loyal, headstrong, and the smartest of the family - which is why his father had pulled some strings and gotten him into a good school where he could learn something and be of some use to the family.

You'd met Ricky in your accounting class when he'd tried to partner with you for a project, thinking you'd do all the work for him. He'd had to rethink that strategy when you'd shown up at his dorm room, pretended to be his girlfriend to get rid of his flavor of the week, and then promised to continue ruining his chances with every gullible freshman unless he did his share of the work. Needless to say, the two of you had the best project in the class.

You arrived at the bar he'd texted you the address to. It was in a quiet street just off central downtown and at six in the evening, there were only commuters headed back home. No one paid much attention to you as you quickly looked around before entering.

The place was mostly empty save for an older couple seated at a table in the corner. You see Ricky seated at the bar and you make your way towards him. Feeling someone approach, he turns around, a grin breaking out on his face when he sees you.

"Hi Doll," he stands and wraps you in a hug that lifts you off the ground and elicits a small squeal of surprise.

"Hi Ricky." Your face lights up at the sight of him. It had been a while.

He indicates to the bartender for another round, before guiding you to a small table at the other corner of the bar. He pulls out a chair for you as the bartender sets down two glasses of scotch.

"Cheers," he says, lifting his glass and clinking it with yours. "To seeing old friends."

"Cheers," you smile, taking a sip, your eyes studying him. He looked older, the beginnings of grey could be seen near his temples. His leather jacket hugged him just right and he'd grown out his usual stubble into a full, well-kept beard. His smile was still very much him - a little cocky and every bit as affectionate as you remembered it.

The two of you drink for a while as he catches you up on all the drama your old group had gone through recently - the weddings, the breakups, the kids. It was odd to have missed out on all of it.

"So, tell me, why'd you really call?" he asks, leaning back in his chair, his hand playing with the rim of his glass.

You take a breath, mimicking his posture. "Matthew is planning on running for Congress."

He takes in your pursed lips and the tenseness of your shoulders. "I heard," he says slowly, deliberately. "Been meaning to pay him a visit. Congratulate him."

"Congratulate him for me too."

The quirk of his lips tells you he knows why you're telling him this. There was no love lost between Matthew and Ricky. If they were in the same room they were bound to get into it. You'd done your best to keep them sequestered in different parts of your life - however some events were inevitably meant for larger groups.

He nods with a soft laugh, before indicating to the bartender for a second round, which is delivered promptly.

"You should come back, Y/N. Give up the straight laced thing. The crew, we miss you, doll." His voice is earnest and for a moment you see the hint of the boy who'd confided all his secrets to you during study sessions that had bled into the early morning hours.

You smile, and your voice catches ever so slightly. "I've met someone - and well, he's pretty much as straight laced as they come."

Ricky laughs at that and you know he's just a little surprised. "What's his name?"

"Aaron." His name feels right at home in your mouth.

"Nice Catholic boy?" His face is one of boyish teasing.

"I always did have a thing for those," you joke. And you know, you know Ricky will take that in the friendly manner that it was meant.

The two of you wrap up and Ricky closes out the tab before walking you back to your car. As you're about to pull out of the parking spot, he leans into your window, placing the lightest of kisses to your cheek.

"Tell your boy Aaron, he's the luckiest guy in the world."

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

You hear the front door open and close as Aaron arrives, having dropped Jack off at the birthday party sleepover he was invited. You'd spent the day making sure you'd made enough tiramisu for all the guests while both Jack and Aaron snuck bites of it when your back was turned.

You've just finished dusting off the final pan with cocoa powder, when you feel Aaron's arms circle your waist from behind. You have to slap his hand away as it makes its way into the dessert. Him and Jack had polished off half a pan that morning and at this rate, you'd have none left for the actual guests.

"You can't eat all of the dessert before the guests get here. At this rate, you're pretty much cut off from it entirely. I don't think I can make it again if you and Jack are going to be like this," you scold, turning and poking at his stomach.

He doesn't have the decency to look even a little embarrassed. He just smiles and shrugs, his arms encircling your waist again. "I'll just have to find something else to eat instead, I guess."

His words send a spike of heat and desire through you. The two of you had been making the most of being home at the same time and every night had ended with him between your legs - one way or another.

Shaking your head, you escape his hold and move to clear the island for the caterers. He was relentless, however.

"You expect to wear this and have me keep my hands to myself?" His voice is a deep rumble behind you as his arms cage you against the island countertop and his mouth finds your pulse point. He's referring to the off shoulder dress you'd changed into while he'd been gone, highlighting your collarbone magnificently. It flared out from the waist, making you look like the epitome of the perfect housewife you had once been destined to become.

"I'd hoped you'd at least wait till the end of the night," you retort. His arms are warm and his chest firm behind you and you really didn't have it in you to push him away again. You were pretty helpless against him.

"I always like to get a head start." You can hear the humor in his voice as he pushes you against the counter a little more firmly, his arms coming from around you to clear the space right in front.

"Aaron." His name escapes you with a soft sigh as he plants warm kisses along your neck down to your exposed shoulders. He sweeps your hair to the front, lips traveling down your spine as his hands move underneath your dress, finding the waistband of your underwear and then slipping inside to find you wet, warm, and waiting for him.

He lets out a groan at the feel of you and can't help but grind himself against you. He knows he's working against the clock and is surprised you've let him get this far.

You let out a sharp gasp as his thumb presses against your clit and he inserts two fingers deep within you. He had the art of getting you to come, down to a near science. He quickly pumps his fingers in and out, his thumb rubbing your clit in repeated circles. With his other hand he brings your head around and captures your lips. The press of his lips against yours is a feeling you'll never tire of you.

You come embarrassingly quick, fluttering around his fingers, your back arched and your ass grinding into his hard length behind you. He turns you around, his mouth hot and needy against yours. When you pull away, his eyes are blown wide and there's a sheen of sweat on his forehead from the exertion of keeping himself from simply plowing into you.

You make quick work of his belt buckle and help him work his jeans and underwear down, eager to have him in you. With one eye on the clock behind you, he hoists you up to the countertop, placing you on the edge, and enters you swiftly, eliciting a loud groan from you.

"Fuck, sweetheart. Always so ready for me. Always tight…wet." His voice is rough and low and makes the coil in your stomach tighter and your breath come out harsher. He moves efficiently, his head tucked into the crook of your neck and his arms working to keep you balanced on the edge.

His breath is warm against your neck, and he's panting and leave wet open kisses to any skin available to him. Your fingers dig into his shoulders, holding on for dear life as he thrusts into you. You're close and you know he is too based on how irregular his movement is becoming.

You remove one hand from his shoulder, pulling on his hair to move his head enough to reach his mouth in a lazy kiss. He groans into your mouth as he comes, drawing your orgasm out right after, causing you to tremble against him.

As you come down, you're entirely slumped against his chest and he's moved you to sit more firmly on the island. You know you look nowhere near as presentable as you did fifteen minutes prior, but you're finding it hard to be too upset about it.

Still, you can't help but be a little bratty about it. "I'm going to have to redo my makeup," you whine against him.

Laughing breathlessly, he picks you up to carry you upstairs. It was a wonder he had the strength to do that right after. You could barely stand up when he deposited you outside the shower.

The two of you work quickly to get cleaned up and Aaron is the one to let the caterers in as you redo your hair and makeup. You fish out another dress - one with sleeves and a higher neckline. You couldn't afford to be pulled into the coat closet with people around.

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

An hour and a half later, the party is in full swing. Emily had brought Henry Eastwood - Senator Williams's Chief of Staff. The two of you had run into him while out shopping a few weeks back and having recognized you, had come up to say hello. You had a feeling that had Emily not been with you, he would've entirely ignored some girl his boss had dated for a few weeks a year or so ago. However, you couldn't deny that they made a handsome couple.

Penelope had brought Elliot - the two of them had really hit it off and you were happy to see her smiling and laughing with someone. You'd given in and allowed Rossi to bring Strauss and you were pleasantly surprised to see her being on her best behavior around Aaron. Derek had brought Savannah and they were talking to JJ and Will.

You walked to the kitchen to open up another bottle of wine and refill everyone's glasses. It seemed Savannah had followed you, empty glass in hand. Laughing, you top off her glass with the almost empty bottle in hand, before opening the next one.

"Thanks for having everyone over," she says, taking a drink from her glass.

"Of course. Aaron and I honestly meant to do this ages ago, but work got away from us."

You have a feeling Savannah wants to talk to you about something else, however, so you don't say much more, trying to give her the chance to speak up.

She looks around a little nervously, but seems to make up her mind. "You're different for Derek, you know. Different from Emily and Penelope. He's very protective of you."

"I'm protective of him too," you respond softly. You know what she means however. You and Derek had gone through the worst thing in the world together and only came out the other end because of one other.

"Savannah, you have nothing to worry about," you reassure her, knowing that's what she really needed at the moment. Her and Derek hadn't had much time together lately and you could understand feeling insecure. "Derek loves you and you're good for him. You challenge him and you're the first girl I've seen him be so head over heels for."

She smiles and you know that helped a bit. "Thanks."

The two of you each grab a bottle and head back to the main living room. As you pour more wine into Dave's glass, you catch Aaron's eye and you feel warmth pooling in your stomach, the promise of a good night ahead of you. You walk around the room and top off everyone, making sure there's enough appetizers still out.

Derek offers to help you carry back the empty platters and follows you into the kitchen. "So, I heard something interesting today," he says, placing the platters on the counter.

You hum, as you grab more of the stuffed mushrooms from the warmer and arrange them on the empty platter.

"Cops responded to a call about a break in in New Hampshire, placed by someone's neighbor," he pauses and he knows you're listening. "When they get there, guy living in the house was obviously beat up, but his wife seemed alright. Just a little shaken up. Funny thing is - dude refused to press charges, even though cops could tell that the house had been broken into."

Your posture has gotten incredibly stiff as he spoke. He knows. You don't say anything, simply look at him apprehensively.

"Tell me," he continues, "what's the Italian mob's going rate to put the fear of God in someone?"

You take a breath, before meeting his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't. Probably get the friends and family discount," he trails off, grabbing the platter and walking out of the kitchen.

Crap. He really did know. He knew about Ricky. Which meant he'd probably gotten Penelope involved as well.

Quickly composing yourself, you carry the other platter out, joining him by the appetizer table.

"Derek - "

"Don't worry. Garcia won't say anything."

You look at him, and you know he won't either.

"Thank you."

He nods, popping another mushroom in his mouth and smiling at you. He wouldn't be doubting you again when you said you had something under control.

He wouldn't tell anyone. When Hotch asks him later about the Matthew situation, all he'd say was that it was handled. Hotch would pause, look at him, but then trust Morgan to know that it was really handled.

[cheeseandpoofies]

Entré - pt. 1

summary : Rachel, the daughter of super famous superhero actor, has a crush on the uprising pop star, Shawn Mendes, but too awkward to be around him. 

word count : 2,6k

warning : none

Met Gala is one of the most spectacular fashion event in Hollywood. There is no doubt on that. So when her dad, Robert Downey Jr. announces she gets to be invited to be there, she can't help but squeals in happiness. She fastly moves her legs following her dad as she start questioning things.

"I will be there because of you, or because of me?"

Her dad turns around with a frown on his face, "Why is it because of me? It's definitely on your side, yourself make it to the Gala."

She nods, definitely with sparks in her eyes, but with rather calmer way than the first time she reacts. Her dad gives her the invitation and she takes it very carefully. To be frank, she never expect that she will be invited. She herself is an uprising actress, still in her early careerㅡthe fourth year, to be exact and just finished her eight movie that will be released next year.

Earlier this year, she was starring in the romance movie, The Next Time We Met with Timotheé Chalamet. Which becomes a total hit, the movie that sets her on her throne after Seized by Desire the 2017 hit drama-romance movie.

So when Robert announces that she'll go to Met Gala this year, she shouldn't be that surprised. She still is, nevertheless.

"Are you going?" She asks after reading the invitation for like twenty times already.

"Me? I'm not, some of my friends will go, though. You can meet them there later."

"Who?"

Robert Downey Jr. glances at her with a smile. "There are more than one name but hers will be your favorite, honey."

The daughter and father duo is looking at each other waiting for him to continue. "It's Letitia Wright."

She gasps, "No Way!"

"I know, i know. Now go find your mom and ask her to help you find the designer you'll be working with."

++

Working in the same field as her dad was never easy. She started a bit late than the other celeb's children who continues their parent's legacy in the industry, but she never regret her decision. She started as a supporting role in her first movie, didnt have more than twenty minutes of appearance in total of 105 minutes movie.

But then she got another role, another role, and it kept bigger, more remarkable and more desirable each movies. The older she gets and the more movie she's starring in, the more hate she receives as many people thought she got the privilege of being RDJ's only daughter.

While she believes she got her first role thanks to her dad's connection, she doesnt agree with the saying "she can't act but she's there thanks to her superhero dad." She worked hard to be where she is right now, and she knows she can actually do her job right. So every time she heards or read the hate, she's hurt.

She's been very concerned about it and sometimes it gets her, no matter how much she tries not to think about it. With her going to Galaㅡalone, let's bold that oneㅡher mind wanders everywhere since this morning.

She and her crews booked some rooms in a hotel that very close to Metropolitan Museum of Art, considering they live in Malibu and there's no way they will go straight to the place from Malibu. Danielle, her stylist and also a close friend of her, sees how she keeps starring at the cells without blinking.

"Rachel," Dan calls her.

"Rachel Downey, you better not zoning out."

Rachel blinks her eyes several times and tilts her head, seeing a wary face of Danielle. "Oh, sorry."

"We'll start touching your face five minutes from now," Danielle announces. She was about to ask Rachel but knows people are around and Dan doesn’t want to make Rachel feels uncomfortable for asking things.

Rachel nods, "Well, tell me if I can sleep for a bit when they do my hair later."

"Didn’t get enough sleeping?"

Rachel shrugs, "Four hours."

Danielle's shaking her head in disbelief. "You kidding me. How can you not sleep in your big mansion and fluffy bed?"

"Oh trust me, when you're stressing out even the fluffiest bed cant help you to sleep."

"Don't take pills again." Dan replies with lower tone as she keeps her hand busy on a pouch. Rachel watches her closely and understand what she means, so she just casually nods.

The next time Dan starts announcing the make up artist can do their work now also the hair stylist that is responsible for Rachel's look this noon. Time goes pretty fast and her look's done for today.

She's wearing a haute couture dress from Elie Saab's 2017 Fall/Winter collection with straps on each side of her shoulder, it’s tight on the chest giving a sexy look. The color of her dress matches her pale skin perfectly.

She was given a lot of options that made her take some time to decide. But in the end, Rachel has decided she doesn’t want to steal that much spotlight so she just go with the dark color.

A half of an hour later, she's inside the van with Danielle, Seth, her driver, and Brad, her manager going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"You okay?" now that there are only four of them, Danielle tried to bring up the conversation about Rachel's well-being.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"If you need anything, Brad will meet you inside, right, Brad?"

"Yeah, as long as you don’t get lost."

Rachel chuckles a bit, "I won't."

"So, are you going to meet Letitia right away after you arrive?"

"Well, it depends. I think i'll just greet anyone that i know, around me, later. I've told Letitia and she said she comes with someone."

Dan stares at her, "She got a date?"

"Kind of."

"I have some names that you might want to greet later, Rach."

Rachel notices the change of her friend's tone so she looks to Dan, "Who?"

"Ansel."

"He's coming?"

"Yeah, I got it from someone."

Rachel and Ansel was once worked in a small budget movie four years ago and she remembers him, being too nice but she's too stupid to know that he's flirting. They are fine now, though. He's like an old friend to her.

"There will be Gigi, and Bella as well on the list. Maybe you want to greet them later."

Rachel knows that Dan tried to change the topic so she just nods. "Maybe."

"And, you know who else coming," Danielle changes her voice again and this time Rachel almost rolls her eyes.

"You didn't tell me, Dan. Of course I don’t know."

"You sure?"

"Of course."

"It's Mendes."

Oh. Shawn. Shawn Mendes

++

The moment she gets out of the car, she receives a lot of flashlights and people calling her name from every corner, making her immediately lost her control of breathing for seconds. Rachel manages to breathe properly and starts to walk through the red carpet with a tint of smile on her lips' corner.

Rachel manages to get inside, however, and finds a lot more people with cameras and lights coming for her. She keeps walking, sometimes stops for posing here and there, and then she sees Winona, E! Reporter waving her hand and coming closer.

Obviously, she's getting interviewed.

She puts her best smile as she is greeted with "Rachel! It's good to see you here."

"Nice to see you too, Winona."

Winona smiles widely and slightly switches from Rachel to the camera in front of them, "You look stunning! You take Heavenly Bodies quite literally, don’t you?"

Rachel laughs along with Winona, "I hope my look matches the theme well."

"It does, really. So dont worryㅡso, mind to tell us what are you up to after the success of your recent movie?"

"Ah, I'm still attending some interviews and tv shows. And, thank you by the way, I appreciate everyone who showed loves and support for my work."

"We'll do that for sure if it's you. And how's working with Josh Hutcherson?"

"It's fantastic! He's an amazing actor and he taught me a lot of things," Rachel chuckles. "I was awkward for doing some scenes in the movie but he's very gentle and supportive so I can loosen up."

"The make out scenes, isn’t it?"

Both of them laugh at the topic, and Rachel feels her cheeks are getting warm, surely will look a bit red on camera. "Yeah. Yeah."

"Is your dad okay with that?"

"Uh? Huh, he was fine," in fact, he wasn’t, at first. He took the script and do some screening before giving permission to her. "He's really a supportive parent, I'm glad."

"That's really great, I wish he was here with us," Winona looks a bit sad and Rachel lets out an "aww" to her.

"He wished he was here too, he said hi for everyone!"

"Okay, thank you so much for your time, send my hi back to your dad!" Winona sends her goodbye, Rachel follows her with nods and bid goodbye too, she turns around to take the stairs.

And there, she sees him. Her cheeks that was gotten warmer earlier, is getting hot as she watches him walking in and go straight to the stairs. Shawn Mendes, the uprising pop star that recently released a self titled album, a greek god straight from his face.

Rachel tries to not look and walk to the stairs, taking a few steps then stops to take a pose. She walks higher and stops again, moves around. The corner of her sight notices how Mendes sees to her direction for few seconds but she just pretend she doesn’t see.

She's getting there, almost, only to be greeted with a voice of a man. She turns a bit and see Ansel walking to her direction. Rachel smiles, "Ansel!"

"Rachel!" They meet and his hand almost goes to her wrist before realizing cameras still around them so he awkwardly takes his hand back.

"Very nice to see you, you look stunning."

"Thank you, you're not bad yourself."

"I'm always good, Rachel."

The remark makes Rachel chuckles and they keep walking inside. She's shifting her dress so she can keep walking without embarrassing herself, as she asks, "You're alone?"

"Yeah, you don’t get a date, do you?"

"My dad supposed to be, but he didn’t get the invitation."

Ansel looks surprised, "Him? How come?"

"I guess I'm getting more fame than him?" and that sends Ansel to a rather big laugh. He sees her laughing along, as well as trying to make herself not messing up the steps.

"Need a help?" Ansel offers his hand.

Rachel sees him, debating inside whether she should take his hand or not. But he's there, waiting for her with the same pose so she takes her hand and climbs the stairs with his guide.

"Thank you,"

"No worries."

They keep walking to the inside with his hand on hers and she honestly doesn’t mind it. He is a very carefree person, but also very thoughtful. He keeps his distance but still throwing some good jokes to make her laugh.

When they almost arrive, a pat landed on Ansel's shoulder and makes him stop to turn around. There they find Shawn Mendes, looking all smiley to see his friend.

"Shawn!"

"Ansel! How are you man?"

"I'm doing good, you're getting busier these days."

Rachel decides to stay a bit behind Ansel so he gets the space for himself, and she takes the chance to look at Shawn, the man she's been listening to lately. Rachel admits she's a fan of his music, saw him several times in award show but never got the chance to meet this close.

Shawn Mendes is a very attractive person, looking so tall and well-build. The smile he always shows to everyone is so warm, and lovely.

"So you got a date, huh?" Shawn's eyes move swiftly to her, giving a friendly look.

"Trust, me, I wish i did."

They laugh, and Ansel takes her closer to him, "Rachel, this is Shawn Mendes, you must be know him already. And Shawn, this is Rachel Downey."

"Hi. I'm Rachel."

Shawn's eyes are not moving anywhere as he takes her hands to handshake. His lips build a smile as they touch each other, "Hello, Rachel."

Rachel takes her hand first as she tries to maintain her feelings. She looks away a bit as soon as their contact broke, making Shawn taking off his hand as well.

"Where's Hailey?" Ansel asks.

"She's on the table already," Shawn points at a direction and they see Hailey sits with some other people.

"You guys got your table? I think it's okay to come with me and sits there."

Rachel notices his stares again so she replies, "Oh, actually I have to meet my manager first to take my purse. And Ansel.."

"Well, I don't mind sitting there, should I go with you to find your manager first? I'll tell my manager to switch my table as well."

Shawn's eyes sparks with his friend's answer and it gets Rachel's coughing a bit. "Uh, okay, if he doesn’t mind."

"He'll be fine with it," Shawn replies, sounds so certain.

Rachel nods and she tells Ansel not to go with her as she won't take long. They all agree to wait for her on Shawn's table so Rachel finally gets out of the awkward situation.

On her table she sees her manager waiting for her, Rachel walks as soon as possible and as she reaches her table, she lets a loud of sigh.

"You wont believe me, Brad!"

Brad watches her trying to control her breath, "What's going on?"

"I met Ansel, and he was greeted by his friend. And his friend gave an idea for me and Ansel to sit with him on his table. How's that possible?"

Brad creeps up a smile as he knows what happened, "Is it Mendes?"

Rachel gives him a look, "Don't tell anyone."

He laughs with her answer. "You should just go, he's the one who invited you."

"I know, but I’ve heard the committee don’t like who sits randomly without the guide list. So i'll just stay."

"You're being too uptight."

"I don’t care," she replies.

"So you're just staying here?"

"Yeah, it seems like that."

"They'll be waiting for you, Rachel. Sitting with them won't hurt you know? It's better than stuck in here without people you dont know."

"Yeah, I know.. But.."

She thinks being around someone as hot as Shawn wouldn't be best for her, a clumsy and stupid person.

Rachel looks up as Brad gets up from his seat. She notices the room is getting full and of course her manager has to leave and wait outside until the main event finished.

"I'll just text Ansel later."

Brad looks pretty amused, so he just nods and pats her shoulder. "I'm leaving. Tell me your time of leaving later."

"Okay, okay."

So that's what happened, with Brad's leave a small group of people coming to the table so she stood up to greet them one by one. Letitia Wright looks straight to her as she walks closer, definitely more than pleased to see someone she knows here.

"Rachel!"

"OH! Letitia!!"

They share hug to each other for few seconds, and Rachel takes a seat beside her to make Letitia sits there. More people comes, and they both greet them one by one. But clearly having Letitia beside her is more than enough, she's happy her friend is here.

The thought of Ansel and Shawn disappear from her mind for the moment.

++

[olicitysecretsanta]

Wrapped up

For @sadfangirl05 by @sparklesannie

Fluffy: Best Friends AU. 

“Smoak!” Oliver called out as he made his way through the whole IT department of QC finally making a stop at the door to her office.

Head of IT Department

Felicity M. Smoak

He’ll never get used to that title—even though she’s been the head of the department for five years already.

“Smoak- hey there you are! You said you were coding but you weren’t in the server room.”

It’s where she normally goes to code, it’s the only place where she knows she won’t be disturbed.

“Yeah, I decided to do it from my office.” She says without even looking up, her voice muffled by the pen she’s chewing on. The only one who can understand her when she does this is Oliver, but of course he’s had a ton of practice. “What’s—Do I smell coffee?” She asks finally looking up and yanking the pen from her red colored lips.

Oliver smiles. After all these years he’s finally figured out how to get Felicity’s attention when she’s coding.

Coffee. 

“Indeed, you do. Here,” Oliver offers her a big to-go cup from Jitters. “I bought you a Peppermint Mocha to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season.”

“Very thoughtful.” Felicity hums appreciatively as she sips her coffee. “Thank you. So…what do you really want—and don’t say nothing because we both know you only bring me coffee when you need something from me. So… shoot, what can I do for you?”

“You know me too well.” Oliver winks at his best friend. “When does Hanukkah start this year?”

She looks a little surprised and confused by the question but still answers all the same. “Tomorrow. Why?”

“I was thinking it’s about time we learned about our holidays. So I’m staying over at your place until Hanukkah is over and I was thinking you could come over to my place to celebrate Christmas.”

“I’ve never done Christmas before. But I’m so busy with the company and the new software we’re implementing. I’m sorry Oliver but I’m gonna have to pass.”

“Lis come on. All you do is work, work, work. Besides you’re the boss here, which means you can—”

“Uh-uh. Don’t ‘Lis’ me you know I can’t resist it. And you’re one to talk Mr-I’ll-sleep-when-the-restaurant-opens. When was the last time you took a day off?”

Feeling attacked Oliver crossed his arms over his chest. Yes, he has been busy too, and like Felicity, he too is the boss. He’s been working nonstop for the past six months on opening his very own restaurant. And with the opening date getting closer he’s been spending a lot of time making sure everything is set in place. “Fair enough. How about I’ll take the time off if you agree to celebrate Christmas with me.”

A beat of silence passes as Felicity wages wether to say yes or no, then a huge smile appears on her face and a sparkle in her eyes he’s never seen before. “Oliver Queen you are way too easy. Of course I’ll do it. And since you can actually cook we can even make latkes! Ooh! This is going to be so fun!”

Did she just trick me into taking a mini vacation.

Smoak: 1

Queen: 0

*****on the last day of Hanukkah ****

Felicity insisted that he didn’t have to buy her presents for Hanukkah but he did it anyways. He wanted to, plus he liked showering his best friend with gifts.

He got her a lot of useful things like, computer parts and processors, earrings, makeup, a beautiful red dress he insisted she saved for the Christmas dinner his parents hosted every year. He also got her a new platinum menorah with her name engraved on the bottom, a collection of Doctor Who DVDs and lastly a hand stitched red stocking to hang on her fire place.

He got a kick of saving the stocking for last.

“Aww! It has my name on it!” She jumped excitedly from the couch to hug him. “Thank you!” She presses her lips to his cheek.

Oliver could feel his face getting warmer thanks to the rush of blood that flowed up to his cheeks. It’s not the first time she’s kissed his cheeks but that doesn’t seem to matter.

It’s embarrassing that he’s almost thirty years old and has a crush on his female best friend. Total fucking cliché.

“Whoops! Sorry about that.” And he’s still blushing when she uses her thumb to wipe the lipstick stain she left there. “So what did you think? You like Hanukkah?”

“It was really nice. Definitely way more meaningful than what my family does to celebrate Christmas. Now I feel like you’re not going to like it.”

“I doubt it. Not that I know much about it but it always looks fun in the movies.”

***** Christmas Eve ****

It was Christmas Eve and Oliver called Felicity to make sure she remembered to pack a bag. Sure she had a change of clothes at his apartment but that was for emergencies only.

She would crash at his place often especially around the time the quarterly reports were due at QC. She would work until the wee hours of the night and she would stay over at his guest room since he lived so close to the office.

He also kept an overnight bag at her place. More often than he cares to admit he’s faked being drunk or drunker than he really was just so he could stay over at her place. In truth it wasn’t just staying over at her place that he liked, what he really liked was that she babied him. She would tuck him into bed, drop a kiss to his forehead—probably thinking that he wouldn’t notice. But he did.

He’d tried to confess his not platonic feelings for her but he never went through with it because he knew she wouldn’t take him seriously if he was ‘drunk’.

He knew that she cared for him but just how much he had no idea. She never crossed any boundaries or said anything that might even suggest she even found him attractive.

They were just friends. Best friends.

“So we can stay at my parents house—”

“I think you mean castle.”

“Mansion?” He offers and he can practically hear her nod in approval over the phone. “As I was saying, we can stay over there tonight so we can have a proper Christmas morning with family and presents.”

Originally they planned to go to his parents’ dinner then go back to his apartment and then open presents on Christmas morning. But Oliver knew that the more time he spent alone with Felicity the more opportunities he’d have to screw up their friendship.

And there is nothing more important to him than Felicity.

“Yeah, That sounds nice. By the way thanks for helping out again with Christmas shopping. It’s really difficult shopping for billionaires.”

Oliver chuckles, he had the same problem shopping for Felicity’s presents. Though his problem had more to do with the what he really wanted to buy her not his budget.

“No problem. So I’ll pick you up around six, that okay?”

“Yeah, see you. Don’t forget the wine!”

“I won’t.”  

********** *********  

He knows how gorgeous the red dress he bought her is. But he’s not prepared at all to be so blown away by the way it fits her. The straps hang low around her shoulders and the sweetheart neckline accentuates her collarbones and makes her neck appear to be even longer. Tempting him to run his hands over her body and plant kisses all over her neck and shoulders. Her hair is done up, pulled back into what looks like a low bun and a couple of curls frame her face that is devoid of her usual glasses. A thin gold chain he recognizes- it was a birthday present from earlier this year- hangs from her neck. The dress is loosely draped on her lower body, a high split on her left leg shows a decent amount of gorgeously toned thigh.  

Felicity looks smoking hot. Pun very much intended.  

Felicity has been waiting for a good minute by the door, but his brain has yet to register that.  

“Is it too much? It’s too much, right? Is it the hair? Maybe if I wear it down instead—”

“No! No. It’s good like that. You, um,  look very—you—Wow.” Since when does he fumbles like an idiot? Oliver shakes his head as if to shake his brain back to function. “You look incredible, Felicity.”

She smiles brightly at him, her cheeks seem pinker than usual. “You don’t look bad yourself. Come on in, I’m gonna need help with my bag and the pre— did you bring the wine?”

“Yes. It’s in the car.” Oliver smiles as he walks past her to grab the wrapped presents she bought for his family. He can feel her eyes on him.  

Is she checking him out?  

Oliver bends more than necessary making sure to really bend his knees thus flexing his butt. He hears a whimper and oh yeah, she’s definitely checking him out.  

But when Oliver turns around he sees why Felicity is making that noise. She’s struggling to reach the zipper on her back it’s halfway done.  

So she wasn’t checking him out.  

“Oh, here let me. I got it.” Oliver drops his cargo and walks over to Felicity. He gently grabs the zipper with one hand and with the other he secures the ends of the zipper before pulling it closed. “There. All done.”  

Zipping up his best friend was not a good idea. He hadn’t planned to be in such close proximity much less this level of domesticity. Her soft skin beneath his fingertips, the smell of her perfume enveloping him and when she turns around he realizes just how closely together they were standing.  

Her eyes roam over his face before smiling. “Okay then let’s go.”  

Oliver helps her into her coat and grabs her bag and the presents.  

They are greeted by his sister when they get to the mansion.  

“Speedy. Good to see you.” Oliver drops a kiss to his baby sister’s forehead.  

“Merry Christmas, Ollie.” His sister responds. “Felicity, I didn’t know you were joining us.” Thea says as she hugs Felicity.  

“Yeah, well Oliver convinced me to celebrate Christmas with him this year.”  

His sister arches an eyebrow at him. She knows about his not so little crush on Felicity. Apparently it’s more obvious than he thought, the only one who doesn’t see it is Felicity.  

“Well then, come on drop you coat and let’s get you a drink.” Thea offers and pulls Felicity along to the main living area.  

Oliver hands off their bags and gifts to Raisa and she assures him she’ll put them up in their room. Rooms. She definitely said rooms.  

When Oliver steps into the main room looking for Thea and Felicity. He finds Thea by the bar but she’s with her boyfriend Roy not Felicity.  

He spots Felicity over with his parents by the fireplace, he walks over.  

“Oliver, dear.” His mother greets him with a hug and a kiss. “My beautiful boy.”  

“Mom.” Oliver widens his eyes in mock embarrassment, still he presses a kiss to her cheek then turns towards his father to hug him. “Hey, Dad.”

“Son.” Robert replies with a smile and offers him a glass of scotch which he gratefully accepts.  

Oliver continues to watch the exchange between Felicity and his mother.  

“I must say Felicity that dress is stunning.”

“Oh, thank you. Actually it was a Hanukkah present from Oliver.”  

Moira glances back at him, clearly impressed by his taste in women’s fashion. “Good choice. Very festive and very beautiful.”  

______________________

The rest of the night goes off smoothly. They have dinner in the formal dining room. Oliver makes sure to point out to Felicity that his parents only ever use the formal dining room for special occasions such as Christmas or birthdays.  

Felicity asks about their traditions for this holiday. Oliver tells her about when he and Thea were younger, how they used to race each other to see who could finish eating a candy cane first. Thea always won because she cheated. Also he liked seeing his sister win.  

Once they’re done with dinner they move back to the main living area to watch It’s a wonderful life before going to sleep.

“Well if you all excuse us Robert and I will head to bed now. We’ll see you in the morning.” Moira excuses herself and her husband.  

Thea fell asleep on Roy halfway through the movie so Roy gently picks Thea up and heads upstairs to their room.    

It seems like it was just yesterday that his baby sister used to run circles around him and Tommy. Oliver still can’t believe that Thea is twenty-three years old, a grown woman right before his eyes. He couldn’t be more proud of his sister. She is currently finishing off college to join Tommy’s latest business venture gentrifying The Glades.  

“Hey,” Felicity pokes his side pulling him from his thoughts.    

He’d forgotten that he lent her his jacket and he can’t help the way his chest tightens when he looks at her and sees her being dwarfed by his clothes. “I’m sorry I spaced out. What’d you say?”

“It’s midnight. Merry Christmas.” Pushing herself up by pressing a hand to his chest Felicity presses her lips to his cheek where they linger before sitting back down. Felicity burrows her face in his chest and sighs in contentment.  

“Merry Christmas.” His heart hammers at a painful pace threatening to jump out of his chest. He can’t help it. Felicity is looking up at him with that joyful smile of hers that brightens up your day. Suddenly Oliver thinks that she can feel his traitorous heartbeat, then she speaks.  

“Oliver?”  

“Yeah?”

“I kinda wanna get out of this dress.”

Holy shit, Smoak! What are you doing to me? Oliver thinks to himself. If it were up to him he’d rip off that dress with his teeth.  

“Of course.” Oliver gets up from the couch and offers her a hand up. “Come on, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”

Oliver shows Felicity to her room that’s actually across from his. He helps Felicity unzip her dress then he’s gone to his room. He barely sleeps that night with the image of his hands gently taking off her clothes.

*****XMAS MORNING *****

Felicity knocks on Oliver’s bedroom door, giddy with excitement. She’s practically bouncing on the balls of her feet but Oliver doesn’t open the door. So she opens the door and walks in to wake him up.  

It’s not the first time she’s done it, she does it all the time when he sleeps over at her place.  

Oliver lies face down with his arms hugging the pillow, the duvet is a mess wrapped around his legs. He’s shirtless but Felicity can see his pj bottoms peeking out from under the covers.  

Damn his gorgeous perfectly toned ass.  

“Oliver.” Felicity gently sits on the edge of the mattress and shakes his shoulder.  

In a swift -and not thought through- move Felicity lays down on top of him and puts her arms around his torso, her hands coming to rest one across his chest and the other on his abs. “Come on! It’s time for presents!” She squeezes him to emphasize her urgency.  

Oliver grumbles in response something she can’t understand. “What was that?”

“I said,” Oliver turns his head to the side so his voice isn’t muffled by the pillow anymore and grabs both of her hands and pulls them to his chest. “This has been gift enough.”

Felicity’s heartbeat quickens to an alarming rate, she’s still plastered to his back and all she wants to do right then and there is plant one on him. Oh how she wishes she could have the guts to make a move already. But she doesn’t so she settles for dropping a kiss to his cheek. “Oh, well then I guess I’m the gift that keeps on giving. Come on I wanna open presents!”  

—————  

After copious amounts of coffee and delicious french toast, Oliver and his family gather around the Christmas tree to swap presents.  

He is happy to see that everyone has given gifts to Felicity despite her invitation to go along with him was last minute. Moira must have sent Raisa on an emergency shopping trip.  

Oliver and Felicity are the ones left to swap presents.  

“Merry Christmas Felicity.” Oliver says as he extends a manila folder for her to take.  

He watches intently as she opens it and studies the contents. He can see the exact moment when she realizes what he’s actually giving her.  

“Oliver! You can’t be serious!” She screeches.  

The papers state that he’s giving her twenty five percent of his trust fund. He is investing in her. Her dreams and her vision. Because he believes in her.  

“I am serious, Felicity. For as long as I’ve known you all you ever talked about is your dream of one day creating your own tech. So of course I’m giving you that chance. I believe in you.”

Unshed tears shine in her eyes and she smiles at him still not knowing if she should laugh or cry. Oliver hugs her to him and she settles comfortably on his chest. “Thank you so much, Oliver.” She whispers as he drops a kiss to her forehead.  

Felicity squeezes him before pulling away to pepper his cheeks with kisses, one lands half on his lips. They both blush profusely but before anyone can say anything, specially his sister, Felicity urges him to open up her gift.  

It’s a small green box wrapped with a red bow. It doesn’t weigh much, in fact it almost feels like it’s empty.  

Carefully he unwraps the bow and takes off the lid of the box. He’s confused by what’s inside it.  

Mistletoe?

Does she even know what you’re supposed to do when you’re under it?

Everyone is quiet waiting for his reaction. When he finally finds his voice it comes out lower than he anticipated. “Umm…Do you know what this is for?”

Felicity doesn’t say anything, instead she puts both hands on his cheeks and pulls him to her. She plants her soft lips on his and it feels like time has stopped. Everything around them disappears and it’s just him and Felicity like he’s always wished.  

He’s ripped from this fantasy when he hears his sister ‘aww’ from behind him.  

“Felicity?” He asks dumbfounded because he’s an idiot that hasn’t realized Felicity’s feelings for him. That this isn’t one sided.  

“I’m tired of waiting for you to get a clue. You are a good friend—the very best. You’re smart, caring, charming and handsome and I’ve been waiting four years for you to ask me out!”

“I had no idea you felt this way.”

“I’ve been single since the day we met. Do you have any idea how many dates I’ve turned down?! A lot Oliver, a lot. Not even a coffee.” Thea chuckles at that in the background while Felicity continues to lay it on him. “You seriously didn’t notice? I thought I’d made it obvious with the forehead kisses, the hand holding, the lingering glances…I’m pretty sure I cuddled y—” she doesn’t get to finish because Oliver is kissing her now.  

One hand on her back the other cradles her cheek as he kisses her. Right there in the middle of living room, in front of his family.  

Best Christmas ever!!

Hope you liked it <3 happy holidays

[nerrojj]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review

IMDb

Title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Distributor: Lucasfilm (Disney)

Director: Rian Johnson

Writer(s): Rian Johnson

Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence.

Running Time: 152 min

Synopsis: Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: 93% “Fresh”, Top Critics: 96% “Fresh”, Audience: 57% “Liked It”

Metacritic: Critics: 86 out of 100, Users: 5.1

Cinemascore: A

My Review

Preface: At the time this goes up I’m sure a lot of you have already seen the movie, but for those of you that haven’t this review may contain SPOILERS. I would like to freely talk about the movie in my review.

Source Material:A continuation of the Star Wars saga. Some story elements are clearly inspired by to the original trilogy.

Entertaining Value: 7.5

Action Elements: This movie is jammed packed with action. It has three or four big action set pieces, each taking up a good chunk of the film. The film also sprinkles in a few smaller action scenes for good measure.

Comedy Elements: The humor in this film felt fairly Marvel-esk. A good amount of the jokes were direct references to other Star Wars films, which were more or less “inside jokes.” The film also had some characters that should be the “straight man” telling jokes. Adding this type of humor was the least of my problems.

Dramatic Elements: I think the dramatic tension was one of weakest parts of the movie. There were a few scenes that got me choked up and made feel true sadness because they involved Carrie Fisher and nostalgia to the original trilogy. All those scenes were through the filter knowing that Carrie Fisher isn’t with us anymore.

Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: This film like all other Star Wars films before it, showcases both fantasy and sci-fi elements. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some visual effect accolades be given to this film.

Cinematic Value:

Acting and Dialogue: 6.5: To be honest this may be both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill’s best on-screen performance. Granted that’s not saying much because our sample size for both of them is basically Star Wars. There were a few times I distinctively heard hints of the Joker’s voice coming out of Luke. Personally, I think the new character that we were introduced in The Force Awakens did a good job in their respective roles. I didn’t much care for any of the new character introduced in this film, but that is more of a writing issue. For me, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, and Domhnall Gleeson were the performers that stood out the most.

Cinematography: 8: Rian Johnson is more of a visual storyteller and knows how to compose beautiful cinematic shots. I also appreciated the attention to details that were happing on screen. Being a filmmaking nerd, stylized or cool camera tricks, turns my crank. A films composition can affect how much I enjoy a film or not. This film delivers on that department.

Direction: 6: Rian Johnson filmography is short, most of them leaning more on the side of a lower budgeted indie movie, which includes Looper. With that being said, he wouldn’t have been my first choice to direct a Star Wars film. During the early stages of this film, I remember reports say this film was going to be darker in tone, like how Empire Strikes Back is darker in tone to A New Hope. I think Rian Johnson overall did a decent job capturing those darker tones.

Editing: 5: Editing is where the story comes together. It’s the editor’s job to keep the flow of the story moving. This film is paced a bit on the slow side. I think that the slow pacing is due to two factors. Frist, there’s no focus on the main character and their journey through the film. The film has three or four different viewpoint/storylines happening relatively at the same time. They cut between Rey & Luke, Poe &The Resistance, Finn& Rose, and Kylo & The First Order. All These storylines do converge in the third act, but by that time I was a bit worn out. The second is one to many large action set piece. I would have cut the Finn & Rose side adventure on Canto Bight aka the casino planet. I felt what they “accomplished” during that scene didn’t press the story forward.

Screenplay: 5: The overall story was okay at best. The major problem I had with this film is it didn’t feel 100% like a Star Wars story. I’m okay with a genre film set in the Star Wars universe that type of idea gave birth to one of the best Star Wars films ever, Rouge One. I can even get behind a director/writer who wants to bring something new to the universe. I’m okay with expanding upon / exploring an old concept in said universe i.e. The Force. I’m okay with averting some of our expectations, but I’m not pleased with throwing away story tropes that are at the heart of Star Wars. When I go to a Star Wars film I want a “Hero’s Journey” type story. Call me a purist if you want, but that’s what I expect from a Star Wars film. I have the most faith in a filmmaker who can be original but still play in the confines of the Star Wars sandbox, especially when dealing with the saga films. I wanted/needed a “No, Luke I’m your father” type moment. I know others will argue that there where multiple moments like that in this film, but I believe all the payoffs to those big reveals were cheap. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Sound and Music: 9: I always love the score to Star Wars. It was nice actually hearing John Willimas’ scoring Star Wars again. The only real negative I can think of is I don’t really have a rememberable theme in this film like The Imperial March, or Duel of Fates. The sound design was fantastic. There is one scene where one of the new characters destroys another ship by jumping into hyperspace. They cut the sound completely and it was one of those defining moments of the film.

VFX: 7: The visual effect was top notch. I said it before, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see some visual effect accolades be given to this film.” You may be asking, “If they are that good, why the score of a 7 then.” Well, I personally didn’t like all the overly CGI creatures, like the space cows or native species on Ahch-To. I also didn’t much care for the Porgs in general. They didn’t ruin the movie like the “Roger-Roger” battle droids, and the Gungans from the prequels. I was fine with them being space puffins on Ahch-To, but they began to annoy me later on in the film. Out of all the new creatures, I enjoyed the crystalline foxes on Crait.

Overall: 6.5: Overall I thought the movie was good but as a Star Wars film it was very disappointing

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Digimon Adventure tri.: “Reunion”

Alright, I’m finally talking about tri after I cried about it for a week! I’m just going to cover each “movie” even though each movie is split in four episodes. I haven’t gone for individuals episodes for things like this (Generations is the only exception so far because the episodes were so short), so that’s the format I’ll be sticking to. I’m not going to go into too much detail when it comes to explaining the plot, so you should only read these if you’ve watched it. I mean, I always talk spoilers anyway, but this is just your obligatory warning in that regard. Onto my opinions past the break!

Digimon Adventure 02 was a bit of a failed attempt at Digimon Adventure trying to go for being “darker and edgier”. It had its moments where it did succeed, but a lot of times it either spiraled into something even cornier and sillier than the original (not that this was a huge problem for me) or it suffered from bad writing problems, some that weren’t even the fault of the writers’ themselves. 

tri is obviously another attempt at this, but at the same time I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue here. It’s clearly targetted towards the audience who watched Digimon Adventure years ago, and that’s not bad. While it’s probably too early of an example to use, it’s not much different from the new Samurai Jack mini-series. It’s clearly going into full-on adult themes (down to serious blood injuries, guns, etc.), but the charm so far doesn’t seem necessarily lost. The show has simply grown up with its audience when it comes to discussing more serious topics. I think tri is very similar in this regard, and a lot of it has changed in the process, but I still feel some of the same heart from it even if it is vastly different.

Still, that doesn’t mean tri doesn’t have its own problems. To be frank, right off the bat, “Reunion” is a slow start. And for what’s essentially a mini-series compared to its predecessors, you would expect them not to waste too much time. While I appreciate that tri mostly isn’t rushed, I feel like a good chunk of “Reunion” spends too much time establishing some elements while not spending enough time on others. For example, I feel like they spend too much time establishing what all of the original DigiDestined are up to when I don’t think it would take very long to show how busy they are with their own lives. On the other hand, I don’t think enough time was spent on each of the DigiDestined reuniting with their Digimon, which is ironic considering this is titled “Reunion”. We do get nice moments like when Agumon and Tai reunite as well as Joe and Gomamon, and even Mimi and Palmon to a short extent. The others are kind of just glossed over, which is a shame because I’ve always felt one of the strongest elements of Digimon Adventure is the bonds between the DigiDestined and their Digimon.

With each “movie”, there’s a central idea that’s focused on, and they’re typically things that weren’t covered in the original series or Adventure 02. For “Reunion”, there’s a big focus on the effects of fighting with Digimon in the real world, especially surrounding the consequences like the destruction of property and the psychological effect on bystanders. This is something I actually felt was always kind of ignored and brushed off with both Adventure and Adventure 02, and I guess that’s because they didn’t want to get too real about the violence. But here, they don’t shy away from it. They downright zoom in on smashed up cars and buildings, show people running away and even mothers crouching down and shielding their children from oncoming debris. And Tai, now being a young adult, actually understands these consequences and it begins to burden him greatly. It’s actually pretty powerful and I’m glad that they actually used tri to touch upon this subject.

At the same time though, despite not ignoring this element, they still completely ignore that Digimon have been in the real world and caused mayhem not once, but twice. At first I kind of let Adventure 02 get away with it considering its continuity was already kind of screwy by the time Digimon really began to have a serious impact on the real world. But here, there’s really no excuse and they honestly could have done more with it. I think it was good that they had people who didn’t understand that not all of the Digimon were out to hurt other people, even having some people saying things like “I hope they die!” and actually pissing Matt off. But this actually would have been more powerful if there were students who recalled the previous incidents, maybe even with some having PTSD over it and having the media connect the new incidents of tri to the past incidents of Adventure and Adventure 02. It just feels like a wasted opportunity considering that these episodes tried to focus on these kinds of themes.

One complaint I know a number of people have for tri is that they feel Tai is out of character. Honestly, I never really got this impression. Obviously, he’s not the same kid he was in the original Adventure or even in Adventure 02, but I think that’s the point. The idea is that Tai has grown up and changed, and some of the group (especially Matt) even call him out on it. I don’t think he’s necessarily a broody teenager either--he’s just a boy who is in the midst of growing up but is having to deal with some really heavy responsibilities in the midst of it all, especially since he’s always been seen as the leader by everyone else.

On the note of bad characters though... Yeah, let’s address the elephant in the room. I know a lot of people (though not all) really don’t like Meiko. And I can see why. I’m only covering how she is in this movie (since I’ve watched the first three so far as of the time of writing), and... yeah. She comes in really sudden as a “transfer” student and she so happens to be a DigiDestined herself, with her own Digimon named Meicoomon (it kind of bothers me that she shares a similar name with her own Digimon coincidentally?). She’s extremely timid and bashful, but deep down she’s clearly a good person at heart and... Yeah, you know the drill. Immediately she comes off as a badly done self-insert Mary Sue character, so she clashes hard with the rest of the cast. I’m not sure if it’s intentional on the writers’ part, and in “Reunion” she doesn’t do a whole lot, but she definitely does not leave a good first impression as a character.

That mostly covers the most important story bits for “Reunion”, but there’s still a lot to talk about considering it’s the first entry of tri. First we get a look at the new animation style, which I know people rag on too. I... honestly like the style of it. It’s definitely a lot different, but I like the soft colors of it. And contrary to some people, I think the DigiDestined look fine too. They look like they’ve aged naturally, so I don’t think the different art style bothers me enough. The actual animation at times is wonky, at least for “Reunion”. I think it’s still good and looks fine at some places, but there’s other places where it looks off. Naturally, it’s a step up from the original Adventure and Adventure 02, but those had much lower budgets and are much older as well. It definitely doesn’t quite have the same unique appeal that Hosoda’s smooth animation from the original Digimon Promo movie and Children’s War Game/Our War Game! had.

The Digimon evolution animations are also worth touching upon. I know some people don’t like them, but they’re honestly more exciting than what the original series did since they were just the Digimon... spinning for about thirty seconds mostly. That’s not to say I didn’t like them, but here there was more thought put into these new ones. I guess some people are bothered that these animations use CG, but considering Digimon are digital creatures, it makes more sense than when Pokémon renders their creatures in CG sometimes for no good reason. The way they’re shaded also still blends in well enough with the art style of the series, so that makes it less jarring. I guess one issue I really have with them is that they seem to have... a rather choppy framerate? I know that sounds really weird to talk about that in animation and not video games, but it really seems that way. It feels like there’s some lacking fluidity in certain places. 

The music sounds fine, and I do have to commend them for remixing songs from the original series. The remixes of Butter-fly and Brave Heart are really good and I think they fit for the fact that this is years later from Digimon Adventure (it’s kind of weird to have to remember that tri technically takes place in 2005), but the originals are probably still my favorite personally. The new remix of I Wish sounds very techno-ish too, which makes sense for this series. But considering they did get Ai Maeda to sing it (who is the Japanese voice actor for Mimi), I have to wonder why they didn’t get the original actors for the DigiDestined back. Maybe it’s because the characters are older (also, Sora’s original actor unfortunately passed away, but I believe she was still alive when tri started), but they did get all of the voices for the Digimon and they all sound fine. I still can’t believe Gomamon is voiced by Junko Takeuchi (who voices freaking Naruto), but she still does an adorable job voicing him. The new actors for the original DigiDestined still sound fine and even sound relatively close to their original voice actors while still sounding aged up. Overall, none of it is really a problem.

One of the other problems with tri for people is that it’s far more story focused, so there are way less battles. It’s kind of similar to Pokémon Generations in that sense. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more fights, especially since the battles in “Reunion” aren’t that great compared to some of the fights from Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. It’s also another element that tends to be a bit rushed, especially in the fight with Alphamon. Omegamon just sort of happens (and then just sort of leaves due to Tai’s lack of confidence apparently), and I wasn’t a big fan of how the evolutions were just sort of rushed through all the way to Omegamon. I’m not sure if it was tri’s way of doing a Warp Digivolution, but I think it would have been better to have dedicated Warp Digivolution animations instead of rushing through every evolution stage for Agumon and Gabumon. I guess it’s also a personal gripe that I feel like Omegamon’s appearance should be built up to rather than rushed (especially after seeing Children’s War Game/Our War Game!), but at the same time it is the first movie of the series, so I think Omegamon will inevitably get some proper treatment later down the line.

I do have my gripes with “Reunion”--it’s pretty slow-paced and said pace is unbalanced on top of that. While the art style is good, the animation is weird at times. And the story has some good moments, but there’s some obvious problems and even missed opportunities. But I’d still be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it overall. It’s good to see the DigiDestined at it again, but at the same time... I really wonder just what the hell tri is doing with Adventure 02. I guess watching this whole thing through will be the only way to find out.

Overall, I don’t think it’s the strongest of starts, but I had fun getting back into the Adventure universe once again and seeing a lot of my favorite characters return.