#i also woke up so sweaty because i forgot to turn the fan on before i slept (texas heat x__x)

[yoshistory]

i was feeling so fucked up and frustrated and took a nap and woke up instantly back to normal. soooo nice. i had a dream i infiltrated the worst person alive to me's house and threatened him by sending the message "$2.5 million. you have 5 hours" while waiting in his house to kill him and following him around as he moved. awesome dream

[uwuwriting]

Hawks, Bakugou w/future children

Request:  Hey I love your writing so much 💕 can you do future children with Bakugo and Hawks? - @toshiiiiiiiiii​

Writing the last future children prompt was amazing. I like writing about them so much. Sonce I’ve already written for Hawk’s kids before and I’ve given them names we’re just going to roll with those names. Hope I don’t disappoint. Love ya.💖💖💖

warnings: fluff and maybe some crying.

Hawks/Keigo Takami

-He was on patrol, just flying around when he was hit by something square in the chest.

-It knocked the air out of him and he began coughing....and falling....pretty fast.

-Realizing that he was about to hit the side of a building, he spread his wings and maneuvered his body, shielding the thing clinging to his coat with his arms.

-He landed on a nearby roof and let out a scream when it wiggled in his arms.

-Looking at the CHILD in his arms for the first time, he immediately noticed to the little red wings on their back.

-A giggle erupted form the ball of golden locks and it looked up at him with large e/c eyes. 

- “You didn’t dodge daddy! I’m faster than you!”

-He almost dropped the small girl at the word ‘daddy’.

-Eyes like saucers and with no oxygen in his lungs he looked at the girl more closely. 

-A mini you with some of him sprinkled on top. 

-She ruffled her wings, leaning back into his chest and nuzzling his jacket, her small fists grabbing the flaps.

-Keigo didn’t know what to do for the life of him.

-He was standing on a roof with a kid that literally fell from the sky and looked like his lovechild, how couldn’t he NOT panic?

-He looked at the little girl again only to find her fast asleep, her thumb in her mouth and it made Keigo’s heart flip in his chest.

-She was just so adorable.

-Wrapping his arms tighter around her in order to shield her from the cold air, he took off again heading for your shared apartment. 

-He forgot everything about his patrol, the only thing on his mind was you.

-The family you would create, judging by the girl currently using him as a bed. 

-And the little girl he would eventually have.

-Oh he couldn’t wait.

-Landing on your balcony, he found the door open -as it always was when he was on patrol- and slipped inside. 

-He was met with a really messy living room and happy squeals coming from the bathroom.

-Readjusting the child in his arms as she stirred slightly, he walked to the bathroom door and opened it. 

-There you were, ruffling the hair of a h/c boy who was sitting on the sink, giggles emitting from both of you as the boy tried to grasp your wrists.

-The boy was the first to notice him and he shouted an excited ‘Daddy!’ as he hopped down and ran to him.

-Right on cue, the girl opened her eyes and looked around, her eyes landing on your form and making grabby hands at you.

-The two kids switched adults in a matter of seconds.

-They both nuzzled into the respective ‘parent’.

-You look at Keigo and just winked at him, scooping the little girl up and taking her to the bedroom.

-All four of you cuddled on the bed for about an hour after which Keigo had to return to the skies.

-The next morning you were the first to wake up and so you made breakfast for the three of you.

-You knew that Keigo would be home soon and you would have to figure a way to undo the affects of the quirk that sent the twins here.

- Kai, the eldest of the two, had explained through his sobs that they were both hit by a time travel quirk during a villain attack that happened nearby.

-You had also learned that him and Daia, always got into trouble and Keigo always told them to be extra careful while out in public. 

-They didn’t listen of course and so they ended up here.

-As they ate you patiently waited for Keigo to come home.

-You had much to talk about.

-Exciting things will be said and done.

Bakugou Katsuki

-He was returning to the dorms after an intense work out.

-He was sweaty and gross all over and he couldn’t wait to take a cold shower.

-Maybe make something to eat.

-And maybe cuddle you.

-He was so invested in his daydreaming of you that he didn’t hear the sounds of explosions approaching him.

-That was until those same explosions were by his ear and the figure just passed him with ease not sparing a glance his way.

-He was taken aback so much that he had to stop walking and stare as the relatively small floating figure drifting further and further away from him.

- “TOO SLOW YOU OLD BASTARD!”

-Did-did that lil shit just?...

-Boy is running after that arrogant nobody like there’s no tomorrow.

-However it turns out that they’re fast and shit hits the fan when they starting making fun of him again.

-Katsuki swears he can see red.

-They chase each other for about an hour.

-After that the smaller figure starts losing speed and finally Katsuki tackles them to the ground.

-That’s when he realizes that they are way smaller than him, almost like a child.

-Not almost....it IS a child.

-The little boy groans as it rolls off of Katsuki and shakes his ashen locks to get all the dust out of them. 

-He was panting heavily, sweat running down his forehead as his arms were wobbling dangerously.

-Katsuki could tell that he would soon fall flat on his face by how much his arms trembled, so before he could collide with the ground he wrapped an arm around the boy’s stomach and lifted him up.

-He began to walk towards the dorms with the boy in his arms like a satchel. 

-The boy had gone limp, mainly due to the overuse of his quirk and because it was wayyy past his bedtime.

-Bakugou made a beeline to his room once inside, ignoring Kirishima’s greetings and texting you to meet him in his room.

-Laying the boy on his bed and throwing a jacket over him, he quickly used the bathroom and changed into something less...sweaty.

-After that he waited for you to arrive. 

-It wasn’t curfew yet so you could roam freely so it didn’t take you long.

-You hadn’t managed to knock twice before Katsuki opened the door and yanked you inside. 

-You were about to scold him when you noticed the small lump on the bed.

-Your gaze switched between Bakugou and what you realized was a sleeping child. 

- “I have to take a shower. Stay here with him...please.”

-Okay now Bakugou saying please is even weirder that the child currently sleeping on his bed.

-He promised that he would explain what he could after his shower.

-And like that you were left alone with a sleeping five year old. 

-You were scrolling through your phone when you heard whimpers coming from the little human. 

-Immediately, you sat on the bed and brushed some of his hair from his forehead and rubbed small circles on his back.

-He woke up shortly after with tears in his e/c eyes and he looked at you, absolutely terrified. 

-In a flash he lunged at you, wrapping his chubby arms around your neck and his little legs around your waist, more whimpers and sniffles coming from him. 

- “I-I’m s-sorry mommy! I-I don’t know what happened!!”

-You were shocked at his words but pushed all your questions back, opting to whisper sweet things in his ear and rocking him back and forth. 

- “It’s okay baby. I got you.”

-His whimpers turned into sobs and he began trembling in your grip.

-You kissed his head and stood up, bouncing him and trying to calm him down.

- “I-I’m scared mommy!”

-Katsuki was outside the door, resting his forehead on the door frame as he heard every single word.

-He could hear your soft coos and reassuring words as well as his...son’s?? cries. 

-He could barely keep up with everything but he managed to grasp the door knob with trembling hands and twist. 

-He was greeted with your back facing him and a pair of watery e/c eyes. 

-Wordlessly he closed the distance between you and he placed one hand on your shoulder and another on the boy’s head.

-Surprisingly, he made grabby hands to Katsuki who *shocker* obliged, taking the boy into his arms and whipping away the tears. 

-After Tatsuo calmed down, you two managed to get some information out of him.

-You decided to take him to the recovery girl in the morning. 

-Until then, all three of you snuggled together on Katsuki’s bed.

-You on the left, Bakugou on the right and Tatsuo in the middle, securely in his parents’ arms. 

TAG TEAM AY:

@brattyquirks , @the-arcana-fan-fic

[maneskinrollercoaster]

~ You Don’t Even Have Fucking Balls To Choose The One You Love ~

Pairing: Damiano David x Victoria De Angelis

Word count: 1754

Warnings: a bit of swearing and a slight angst but apart from that none

Summary: One little kiss leads to something unexpected.

It all started with an innocent kiss. They’ve just won Eurovision and all the excitement and adrenaline was too much. His soft lips met hers harshly and she wrapped her hands around his neck. Both surprised pulled away from each other and started laughing, not thinking much of what just happened between them and quickly ran to others, jumping from happiness.

Their lips met again a month later after they all went off the stage in Poland, both sweaty and exited from their performance, blood rushing in their veins. No one was surprised really, it was well known that between these two there was always a spark of chemistry that none of them could deny. Little did they know that this spark will evolve in something much more than just innocent kisses.

One night he entered her room silently, in a rush of anxiety and woke her up gently, trying not to scare her.

What’s going on, Damiano? She said and sat on the bed looking a him with a worried expression.

He looked pale, without any colors on his face, eyes watery and his hands shaking.

I’m scared, Vic. What if all this is too good to be true? What if everything we’re doing is gonna end in a blink of an eye? He said and Vic not saying anything pulled him closer in a warm hug, wrapping her arms around his neck.

That night he stayed in her bed and both of them, not really knowing why, got lost in each other, trying hard for everyone not to hear their moans and fell asleep with their naked bodies tied together in a warm hug.

It kept on happening more often during the tour. In a rush of adrenaline they would lock themselves in a fitting room behind the stage and have sex to make all the stress vanish.

Fans saw something was happening and the two of them knew that their unusual relationship is being slowly revealed to the world. All the stage glances, naked pool pictures and all the interactions they had with each other suddenly became visible for the internet. They didn’t care though, still enjoying each other’s company and support.

The truth was, they’ve always been the closest with each other. They just clicked from the beginning and enjoyed spending time together, even after recording. They often stayed up all night talking about their favorite bands, singing their favorite songs or just chatting about everything and nothing. And because their chemistry was so good and their friendship so strong, they didn’t see anything bad in their small sexual secret.

Not until Damiano’s girlfriend started having doubts about his loyalty. Don’t get her wrong though, Giorgia loved Damiano and she would never even think of thinking of the idea of Damiano having an affair. But all the instagram edits, all the YouTube videos and all the ambiguous pictures of him and Victoria, made her have second thoughts, whether Damiano is truly dedicated to her and only her.

So when she brought it up, Damiano only then realized, what he was doing. He never was the one to cheat but suddenly he found himself cheating on Giorgia with Vic, which was never meant to happen. After all, they’ve been together for four years and he never wanted to hurt her, let alone cheat on her.

So he lied.

Nothing is between us, amore. Are you crazy? You know that this whole chemistry thing is just for show. Also it’s hard not to suspect anything when we’re trying to keep our relationship private. Damiano said and quickly wrapped his arms around Giorgia to assure her of his lie.

She loved him so she believed him. But she wasn’t stupid though and noticed something was different about Damiano. Since winning Eurovision they haven’t been intimate with each other as they used to be before. All they really did was kissing and cuddling but sex almost vanished.

So he lied again.

I’m so sorry, babe. I’m so stressed with all the tour and recording the new album is taking a lot of time. I didn’t realize that I’ve grown distant with you. Let me fix that. He said and kissed her gently.

That night, Damiano tried to cover up his lies and cheating, with sex, which by the way wasn’t all that great for him. The truth was, all he thought about was Victoria and their little secret.

Time passed by and both of them grew closer and closer with each other, slowly catching feelings and making it obvious that something is in the air. It was harder for them to cover it up so around boys they’ve acted as if they were together. Ethan and Thomas didn’t mind, as much as they felt bad for Giorgia, they loved seeing Damiano and Victoria so happy.

The whole band with some of their friends went on a vacation to Bali. Beautiful views, crystal clear water, amazing weather, and everything would be perfect if not the fact that Damiano brought Giorgia with him. He couldn’t do anything about it though, he didn’t want her to suspect anything and it would look stupid if everyone took their closest people and he wouldn’t take his girlfriend.

Victoria couldn’t stand it. All the kisses, all the hugs and their constant laughter. Damiano looked completely lost in Giorgia and Vic’s heart ached at the sight of them having so much fun together. She wanted to be on her place after all and that’s when she realized that she’s head over heels in love with Damiano.

They couldn’t avoid it - you would say. But Victoria really thought at first that their relationship was strictly sexual and everything else between them was just a friendly love. Turns out she was wrong and her feelings for him were strong and sincere.

She told him then.

I can’t hide it anymore Dami. I can’t hide that I’m in love with you. She said and he looked at her with surprised expression.

Damiano knew his feelings and he knew he felt the same, but admitting it to Victoria and more importantly, to himself, hit him harder than he thought it would. He just then realized that he has to choose between staying with Giorgia and hurting Vic, which would possibly cause making things worse for the band, or staying with Victoria and hurting Giorgia, who after all, always been there for him for the past four years. Pretending wasn’t an option anymore.

I love you, Vic. And I don’t know how, but we will get through this together. He said and hugged her the tightest he could, afraid that she will slip through his fingers sooner than he thought.

Days went by and their new album Teatro D’Ira vol 2 was ready to be released. Many songs were about Victoria and her being more and more involved in their relationship, couldn’t stand a fact that Damiano would spend every night at Giorgia’s place. She couldn’t even begin to imagine him telling her that the songs are about her, lying in her face.

So one day she asked him.

Did you tell her, Dami? Victoria asked, entering the studio where Damiano was preparing instruments.

He promised Victoria that he will talk to Giorgia and end things with her as soon as it’s possible. He tried to avoid it, buying Victoria little gifts and filling her ears with sweet words and I love you’s but he knew that she isn’t dumb and that sooner or later she will demand explanations.

Tell who about what? He played dumb and he couldn’t believe that now he’s lying to Vic too.

Her cheeks turned red from anger and her eyes wide opened, gave him a death stare, not wanting to believe his confusion.

Are you kidding? Still nothing, he looked at her with a fake surprise on his face. Giorgia? About us? Don’t play stupid Damiano, you know exactly what I’m talking about! She raised her voice and Damiano gave up.

I didn’t. I’m sorry. You need to give me some more time. She just got out of the hospital, I can’t just go and slap her in the face with the fact that i cheated on her.

Her going out of the hospital is not an excuse! You were supposed to tell her a long time ago and yet you didn’t. Why? Victoria didn’t care if they will argue at this point, she wanted to get the answers and she wasn’t leaving anywhere without them.

Damiano didn’t know what to say. He was a coward, and after a long time he finally admitted it. He was too scared to tell Giorgia, he didn’t want to hurt her and for the first time in his life, he didn’t have the courage to tell someone how he really feels.

You know what, forget it. You don’t even have fucking balls to choose the one you love! Victoria shouted and stormed out of the studio, shutting the door the loudest she could.

She wasn’t the one to get hurt ever but she’s really fallen for Damiano and over the time their bond got stronger. She really felt like he was her soulmate, someone she was always looking for. But now she was crying over a guy for the first time in her life which she promised herself that’s never going to happen.

The tension between them was obvious. Thomas and Ethan could see that something is wrong, but not wanting to make things worse, they let them be. The concerts were less charismatic and their energy wasn’t showing that much, which made fans suspect too.

But the thing that happened next blew everyone away.

I wanna be your slave I wanna be your master. Damiano whispered to the microphone and quickly walked up to Victoria, pulling her in for a passionate kiss.

The crowd went crazy, they were screaming, crying and taking pictures, throwing things on the stage like flowers and clothes but Victoria and Damiano forgot about everyone around. It was only them, kissing on the stage and millions of butterflies flying in their stomachs. The feeling was indescribable, finally being able to do it in front of the fans, but Vic felt even more special because in that moment she knew that Damiano stated his feelings towards her.

It took me a while but the truth is that I would always choose you. He said, leaning his forehead against hers and they both smiled, enjoying each other’s presence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello everyone!

Just a little disclaimer, this one shot is not by any means meant to send hate towards Giorgia or anything like that. It’s also not meant to harass Victoria and Damiano, it’s a pure imagination for all those who like to see some Damoria content.

I hope you enjoyed reading! ❤️

Tag list: [ @teenyweenynightghost , @superchrystaldrug , @unitersmoonshine ]

[inkedstarlight]

Bittersweet: Chapter Ten

Summary: It's the first Christmas in six years where the three Archeron sisters will all be celebrating together, and Nesta struggles with feelings of guilt. Also her new neighbor gets on her nerves, making things a little awkward during their Christmas celebration. Notes: Read it here on AO3! Warnings: brief mentions of self-harm and depression, PTSD Bittersweet Masterlist

She stared into the water’s depths. Most pools were crystal blue, lapping quietly under the sunshine. This one was different. The water seemed to be thicker, like it was heavy. Dark like an ocean during a storm. Violent, unceasing. But confined neatly in the underground walls of the pool.

Nesta’s toes were at the edge as she stared into the water with a contemplative stare. She could barely see her reflection on the pool’s surface, for it was distorted and translucent and almost ceasing to exist. No matter how hard she squinted her eyes, she couldn’t tell what she looked like to everyone else.

It was silent around her. So quiet that the only audible sound was her shallow breaths. Just Nesta and the water and the night. She closed her eyes.

But all serenity was lost when hands pushed her from behind, launching her into the pool face first.

 She had been right. The water was heavy. That was the first thing she noticed as she sunk lower and lower into the pool, struggling to keep afloat. Nesta squinted her eyes open but it was dark, as if she were alone in space among nothing but stars.

Except there were no stars below the surface. There was nothing down here.

Nesta tried to use her arms to propel herself upward, to no avail. Her limbs were moving in slow motion, her kicking legs barely moving an inch. She tried and tried and tried, but she only kept sinking downward instead.

 Her throat constricted with terror as she realized she wasn’t going to make it.

Nesta’s feet hit the bottom of the pool. She raised her eyes skyward. Somehow, she could now see what awaited above the water’s surface. The water above was no longer opaque; she could easily see through it as if it were a normal pool. But she knew it was anything but. Nesta noticed that, despite the transparent surface, the black water that directly surrounded her still remained. It was like she was trapped in a bubble of her own darkness, light unable to protrude within.

 A shadow reflected off the pool's surface as a figure approached the edge. Her mother stared down at her. She looked so far away, but Nesta could see every pore of her being. A twisted smile played at the curve of her mother's lips.

 “I told you no one would ever love you.” Her voice was muffled, but Nesta heard it as if it had been shouted into her ears. The words rang in her head, echoing what her mother had said over and over again.

Nesta clutched her wrist instinctively, squeezing tight and feeling nothing. Her lower lip trembled, but no tears escaped her eyes.

You were right, Nesta tried to say. But when she opened her mouth, she only inhaled water. Nesta choked as she felt it drip into her lungs.

A dark figure stepped beside her mother.

“It was your fault,” Tomas sneered down at her. An empty bottle of whiskey was in his hand.

I know, she tried again, only allowing more water into her mouth. Nesta clawed at her throat as if she could release the water that was burning in her lungs.

Her father appeared next.

“You're the most selfish person I know,” he accused. Disappointment was written all over his face. “You are useless to this family."

 Nesta agreed. She choked on another mouthful of water.

Then, she came to the edge of the pool. Her hair was a mousy brown. It could have been beautiful if it weren’t twisted in knots full of neglect. Nesta could nearly see every bone in her body. Her teeth rotting from starvation, her skin bumpy with acne. She was fragile, but her eyes could destroy. Her arms were exposed, red crisscrossed cuts visible all over. It was like looking at Death itself.

“You don’t deserve to live," the girl's voice - Nesta's voice - was cold and unforgiving.

This time, Nesta didn’t say anything. She didn't have to.

She just opened her mouth and invited the water to fill her lungs. A small, haunted smile played at her lips as she drowned.

Everything turned black.

The water went still.

Nesta awoke with a gasp only to be blinded by the bright light of the morning. Sunlight peered through the half-closed blinds and into her dusty bedroom. She looked down to see that the sheets were tangled up around her sweaty body, the comforter thrown completely off the bed. A quick glance at the clock told her it was just past eleven.

She noticed Iroh staring at her from the foot of her bed as if he were waiting for her to wake up. She patted the empty space next to her and he immediately slinked his way closer to her. With a quick nose-boop and a lick on her chin, he purred as Nesta gently stroked his impossibly soft fur. She tried to control her breathing as she comforted Iroh.

Her night terrors were getting worse. She’d always had them, sure, but they’d never been this frequent - nor this vivid - since her undergraduate years in college. Now, they were happening nearly every night. Often enough that Nesta didn’t even bother to try to sleep some nights. She was scared to see what her consciousness had in store for her when she conceded to sleep.

Nesta wiped off the sweat on her forehead and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her head ached painfully, most likely due to the millions of thoughts that were constantly circling in her head. She checked her phone and groaned when she noticed the date. She’d completely forgotten today was Christmas.

With a heavy sigh, Nesta managed to heave herself off the messily made bed. With a quick look at the sheets, she noticed the wet spot on the pillow, most likely from tears that were shed throughout the night.

Pathetic.

Opening her door and padding to the kitchen, Nesta noticed the wreath Elain must've hung on their door. It looked like a massive flower crown rather than a wreath. It screamed "Elain."

Before Nesta could make her way to the fridge to take a couple sips of whatever the fuck kind of alcohol they had, something else caught her eye as she passed the front door.

She stopped dead in her tracks.

“Elain!” she called out for her sister, her eyes still on the door, unwavering.

Elain popped her head from the kitchen archway. Her cheeks were covered in flour, and she was wearing her chef hat. She looked adorable. “Merry Christmas, sleepyhead! What's up?”

Nesta pointed to the very obvious new locks that were now on their door frame. “Did you install new locks on our door?”

Elain followed her gesture and seemed to hesitate. “Er, no... not exactly.”

Nesta tapped her foot on the floor and waited for her to finish.

Elain raised her hands in surrender and sighed. “Okay, okay. Cassian may have come by early this morning.” Nesta’s mouth dropped to the floor. “I tried to pay him but he said it was a Christmas gift.”

Elain must've seen the anger on Nesta's face. She knew – both from what Nesta had told her and the behavior she’d noticed – that Nesta wasn’t exactly a huge fan of Cassian. Sensing that Nesta was seconds away from stomping her way to Cassian's apartment, Elain called out, "Nesta, just wait - "

But she was unable to finish her sentence. Nesta was already storming out the door and up the stairs to the third floor.

Air whooshed in her ears as she climbed up the stairs. She was pissed. No, that was an understatement. She was livid.

Why the fuck did Cassian find the need to insert himself into their lives beyond the “family” dinners they attended? She had no interest in seeing his face outside of Feyre's house. She didn't want him to interfere with her and Elain's lives. It wasn't like they needed help - she certainly didn't need his help.

What’s he playing at?

As she approached Cassian's door, a thought wiggled its way through the angry cloud in her head.

Nesta wondered... wondered if she would have been this bothered if she hadn't awoken to that nightmare this morning. Would she even pay Cassian any mind? Would she perhaps be thankful for what he did?

She scoffed inwardly. No, her moodiness was Cassian's doing. He was responsible. And he was going to pay for pissing her off.

She banged loudly on the door, not a care in the world if she woke up his neighbors.

A few seconds passed before the door opened, revealing Cassian. He was wearing a white tee and low-hanging, grey sweatpants, hair sticking out in every which way. His eyes were red with exhaustion as if he’d only gotten an hour or two of sleep. Dark purple shadows were under his eyes. Gods, he looked horrible.

It was then that Nesta remembered what she’d overheard from Rhys and Feyre’s conversation the other night.

He's not the same.

Do you even notice how lost your own fucking brother is?

I don't want to lose him.

In all honesty, Nesta forgot that Cassian had been in the Marines for five months. Maybe it was because he - along with everyone else - hadn't even mentioned it since meeting Nesta.

On the other hand, his physique was certainly a reminder of the time he served.

But Nesta blocked out her sister and Rhysand's conversation. She wouldn't allow herself to have an ounce of sympathy for this man.

Nesta didn’t waste a second as she shoved a twenty-dollar bill in his face. “Here.”

She was prepared to storm away from him right after, but she paused as he looked down at the money with a puzzled expression. “Uh, what –“

“For the locks,” Nesta explained impatiently. You dumb oaf, she wanted to add.

Cassian looked up from the money and raised a brow at her. Shaking his head, he extended it back to her. “I don’t want it.”

“It’s not a request,” Nesta seethed. “Take the damn money. I don’t want your charity.”

“Charity?” he repeated, baffled. She noticed that his hand tightened around the money he held.

Nesta only narrowed her eyes in response.

He sighed and leaned on the doorframe, realizing that this wasn’t going to be an amicable conversation. “It’s not charity.”

“Isn’t it though?”

“No,” Cassian told her, finality in his tone. He was getting frustrated. Good. “It’s a friendly gesture because I was the one who broke them in the first place.”

They both glared at each other.

“I don’t want to be your friend,” Nesta spat, craning her neck just to be able to glare into his eyes. Gods, he was tall.

“I never asked you to be my friend,” he growled impatiently. His voice was getting louder. Sighing, Cassian tried to compose himself. “Rhys – who will more than likely become your brother-in-law – is my brother. That means we,” he gestured between them, “are going to see a lot of each other, whether you like it or not.”

Nesta chewed her bottom lip in contemplation. She wasn’t quite sure what it was about Cassian, but there was something that just… irked her. Maybe it was his arrogant attitude or the way he taunted her or the way he reminded her of herself. Either way, he was a thorn on her side and she wanted him out of her life. But she knew that wasn’t quite a possibility, unless she decided to up and leave her family again.

That wasn’t an option though. Not this time. Not again.

“If I could get your brother out of my sister's damn life, I wouldn't hesitate for a second," Nesta snapped. "But for some reason, Feyre likes your fucked up family. So just stay out of my fucking way, okay?”

She didn't care how cruel it was. She wanted to get a reaction out of him.

She wanted him to hate her.

Cassian stared at her speechlessly for a moment. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to find the words, but decided against it. He turned away to close the door in her face.

Nesta scoffed at his back, just loud enough for him to hear.

Cassian stopped in his tracks, turning slowly to face her once more.

“You know, I thought maybe we could be friends,” he laughed humorlessly. “I thought the locks could be a peace offering. But then you opened your mouth and Gods, was that just a fucking treat,” he spat out before taking a step closer to her. "Insult me, that's fine. But insult my family again, and I'll make the time we spend together a living hell."

Nesta’s fists clenched tightly at his words. "You've already done that."

Cassian shot her a smirk. "What can I say? It's pretty entertaining to watch you lose control."

 Ugh!

“Gods, you’re insufferable!”

“Merry Christmas to you too, Nesta," he sang before slamming the door in her face.

“Fuck you," she told him, but it was too late. Cassian had already gotten the last word in.

It wasn’t until she got back to her apartment did she realize that the twenty-dollar bill had been slipped into the pocket of her jacket.

She cursed Cassian all the way to hell.

----------------------------------

It was about five o’clock in the evening when Elain and Nesta drove to Mor and Aurra’s house; they took turns hosting every once in a while. It was dark outside, the lampposts on the side of the street providing a soft, yellow glow. In its light, the flurries of snow were visible as they floated down, down, down. The radio was on, a Christmas tune playing quietly in the background. Elain was staring out the window, dessert in lap, as Nesta drove.

Nesta was tapping her thumb on the steering wheel when Elain turned to her.

“You know, we haven’t spent a Christmas together in…” Elain trailed off as she tried to count.

“Six years,” Nesta finished quietly. She didn’t need to do the math. No, she knew exactly how many years ago she’d lost her family.

A contemplative silence grew between them. Nesta shifted uncomfortably, her words hanging in the air.

“Well,” Elain murmured, turning to look at Nesta. She reached across the center console and took the hand that was resting on Nesta’s lap. “I’m happy we’re together. I… I hope we spend the holidays together even after this year.”

We will, Nesta promised silently. She wasn’t sure if it was a promise to herself or to Elain. It didn't matter because she had every intention of keeping it.

They turned onto Mor and Aurra’s street and pulled up to their driveway. There were several cars parked next to each other. Nesta recognized Feyre and Amren’s car. Her eyes slid to the one next to Amren’s. She recognized it from her building’s parking garage. Cassian.

Elain began unbuckling her seatbelt when Nesta stopped her. “I, uh… I actually wanted to give you your gift here,” she explained, biting her lip. “Privately.”

Elain smiled. “Okay.”

Nesta handed her a poorly wrapped box. “I suck at giving gifts, as I’m sure you remember,” she prefaced.

Elain giggled. “How could I forget? That was the best part of every Christmas,” Elain remembered fondly. “Feyre and I would always look forward to getting your gift. Remember that one year you captured all those fireflies in a jar, but when we opened them on Christmas Day, they were all dead?”

Nesta nodded with a little smile "You thought I did it on purpose. You kept screaming 'How could you?!'"

Elain burst out laughing. "I was quite the dramatic."

"No," Nesta murmured. "You're an empath, and I love that about you."

Elain's eyes widened in surprise, but it was quickly replaced by a smile that could melt hearts. "Nesta, I - "

"Just open the damn gift," Nesta joked. Elain conceded, but not before leaning over to plant a small kiss on Nesta's cheek.

Anxiety filled Nesta's stomach as she watched her unwrap the box with a delicacy only Elain could possess.

“It’s…” Elain’s brow twisted as she inspected it. "Cookie cutters?"

Nesta nodded in confirmation. She'd found them online the other week. They were pink plastic formed into different kinds of flowers and very clearly made for kids. But Elain loved pink and flowers, so Nesta was quick to add them to her shopping cart.

"I know that you don't bake cookies that often, and I know they look like they're made for kindergartners, but - "

"I love it!" Elain squealed, clutching them to her chest. "I've never had cookie cutters before!"

Nesta held her breath. "You don't have to pretend like you like them. I have the receipt."

Elain turned her body to her and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm not pretending. They're from you, and I love them."

The sisters hugged each other before gathering their things and heading to the house.

It was boisterous inside. Christmas music played on the speakers as everyone chatted and laughed with each other. Right as Elain hung her jacket in the closet, Azriel approached her with a smile. She grinned up at him, cheeks flushed as if she'd had a few drinks. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the living room.

As Nesta walked past the foyer, she saw Cassian talking with Azriel at the bar area. He seemed to sense her stare, because his eyes met hers in just a matter of seconds. She quickly looked away and approached Amren.

"You're looking cute," Amren complimented her as a greeting. Nesta was just wearing a grey knit sweater and dark jeans, her golden hair flowing down her shoulders. She didn't often wear it down.

"You look hot," Nesta shot back with a grin. Amren was always stylish in her clothing. Tonight, she had on a long-sleeved black velvet dress, adorned with a ruby necklace and earrings. "Cute" didn't quite do her justice.

Amren reached behind her and grabbed a full wine glass to hand to Nesta. "Here. You're going to need this."

Nesta gratefully accepted, taking a gulp or two before leveling a stare at her friend. "What does that mean?"

Amren shrugged. "There's always some sort of drama on the holidays. Especially with you and Rhysand in the same room. What's with that?"

Nesta snorted. "I have a feeling my dear sister shared a little too much information about me to her wonderful boyfriend."

"Rhysand can be difficult," Amren agreed, taking a sip from her wine glass. "He just wants to protect people he loves. But with that being said..." Amren leaned in closer and whispered, "He's being a fucking asshole, in my personal opinion."

"Cheers to that."

Just as Nesta was about to tell Amren about her interaction with Cassian that morning, a loud shattering noise interrupted them. Nesta looked to the other side of the room where Elain was staring down at her broken wine glass that had fallen on the floor. Mor came over with a broom and paper towels, and Elain apologized over and over again. Mor just laughed it off and reassured her it was okay.

Everyone resumed their conversations, but Nesta noticed Cassian was frozen in place, his eyes still on the shards of glass that were pooled in dark red wine. He didn't look as though he was breathing, and she saw his hands shaking at his sides. His face was pale like a ghost. He looked... haunted.

Nesta took a step forward but stopped when Rhys walked up to Cassian. He leaned in close and whispered something. Cassian's stare didn't falter, but he nodded absentmindedly at what Rhysand had said. Then, Rhysand guided him into the hallway. And although they disappeared from her view, Nesta found herself continuing to stare in their direction.

--------------------------------------

Nesta was sitting on the couch after dinner, her third glass of wine in hand, when the cushion next to her sunk with someone’s weight. She looked to the left to see Cassian sitting beside her.

Rhysand and Cassian were gone for about fifteen minutes before returning to the festivities. They both came back looking better, though Cassian remained quieter for the rest of the night. No one mentioned their brief absence.

"I know you saw."

Nesta barely heard his whisper as everyone gathered around the tree in the living room. No one was paying attention to them.

"I don't want your pity."

She didn't even look over to him as she responded. "Good. You don't have it, asshole."

Nesta could have sworn she saw him smile out of the corner of her eye.

As everyone began opening gifts, Nesta moved to the armchair that sat in the corner. It had been a long night, and she was utterly exhausted. She observed as everyone traded gifts. Since Nesta had already given Elain her gift, the only other person she needed to give a present to was Feyre. Luckily, Elain's present for her was arriving late so Nesta didn't have to worry about opening that in front of everyone. She'd assumed that no one else would be expecting a gift from her, nor would they give her something. She'd assumed correctly.

It was nearing nine o'clock when only a few gifts remained under the tree. Nesta's heart stopped when Rhysand handed a present to Elain. She knew he hadn't gotten her one, and that was fine. She didn't give a fuck if Rhysand liked her or not, much less if he gave her a Christmas present. But to make it so apparent in front of everyone? To deliberately not give her a gift? Could he be more of a dick?

Nesta willed herself not to turn red with embarrassment as Elain began opening the gift. She didn't even want to know if anyone noticed.

Elain thanked Rhysand after unwrapping the customized cookbook stand. It was fucking engraved with Elain's name on it. Engraved.

After the final gifts were given out, Nesta looked down at her lap to see what she'd received. Feyre had gotten her a $20 gift card for gas. And that was it.

She didn’t belong here. It was like they were sending the message to her in all caps.

But then Amren threw something at her. And it wasn’t a softball toss – no, she chucked it at Nesta. Caught off by surprise, Nesta just barely caught the neatly wrapped package. She merely looked down at it before raising her eyes to where Amren sat.

Her friend was smirking and tilted her chin at the gift, silently demanding Nesta to open the damn thing.

Everyone watched with curiosity as Nesta opened her gift. She held up what was inside and inspected it.

It was a homemade bracelet. The kind that six-years make for their friends. Only, instead of multi-colored beads, they were just black. And instead of the words "BFFs Forever" or some shit, it said, "Amren is my best fucking friend."

Nesta stared at it. Then she laughed. Not a fake one. A real, loud laugh. A sound she hadn't made in months. It was brief, but it took everyone by surprise.

She grinned across the room at Amren, whose eyes were full of mischief.

Thank you, Nesta mouthed.

Whatever, bitch, Amren responded with a wink.

Everyone around them began to clean up the wrapping paper that littered the floor. Nesta remained seated. She put the bracelet on and admired it.

If Nesta had looked to where Cassian was sitting quietly on the other couch, she would have seen the ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

---------------------

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[baekberrie]

🌸should have kissed you longer ➝ bbh🌸

🌸 Romance, fluff, shy boyfriend au

🌸 Baekhyun x Reader

🌸 Valentine special💕 Have a lovely read sweetheart!💖✨

                                                    ♡ ♡ ♡

His palm felt slightly sweaty and hot against yours as you stopped in front of your house, from the corner of your eye you could see that the boy was at all costs ignoring any type of eye contact with you- his cheeks were painted in a faded shade of pink, yours were no different, however, when he stole a glance at you: you were caught staring and you did the same as he had and snapped your face in the other direction as you felt how the blood became hotter around your cheeks.

Two shy teens who liked each other very much, that was what the two of you were classified as.

Still too shy to come out of their comfort zones.

Baekhyun had recently taken the habit of walking you home back from school, people found it amusing to see the school's shyest people bond together- it hadn't been something too demanded, it had happened very spontaneously. Neither of you liked to talk, especially you, yet, from the very moment you saw the boy, you hadn't been able to help it but to feel drawn to him. Always stealing glances at him in the corridors, getting heartbeats whenever your eyes met-hence, it was a period of your life where you found yourself satisfied with the whole day after sharing even a second of eye contact with him. It had been very odd...The way your body reacted to it, the first time your heart had made jumps inside of your chest,

To be true, getting close to him hadn't been easy either, Baekhyun didn't trust easily, and your lack of words made it hard for him to understand you. But somewhere in the middle of your journey, you found yourself speaking way more than you'd usually do. Around Baekhyun, you wanted to smile, laugh and express your feelings with every muscle you had.

Even though you were now dating Baekhyun was still very stubborn in showing his feelings, and while to others', that could have occurred to be something very frustrating you never found it in yourself to mind it because deep down you were the same, you rarely ever smiled unless you were in the company of this one boy or your few close friends. You understood that Baekhyun wasn't being that way on purpose, he just needed more time than the other's to completely warm up. Already, the fact that he had started dating you proved that even though the rare smiles, he felt something for you and he wasn't faking it.

"I-I'll walk you home," His voice had been very low, almost muffled by the way his lips had been pursed into a shy pout while the blush spread greatly all the way to his ears, shiny eyes staring down at his feet and a bashful hand scratching the back of his neck. That had been how it all began, and ever since, he'd been the one to keep you company on the usually lonely way home. At first, there had been a certain distance between the two of you- but without realizing it, you had started walking closer and closer. It had started with small shoulder bumps that Baekhyun's hand had started urging to hold yours, however, he had ignored the embarrassing thought for several weeks. Then...His knuckles felt yours and before he had known it; his orange fingertips had curled around your pink ones, sending a wave of warmth to spread into both of your chests. Heartbeat echoing in his ears as he felt the heat radiate in front of his face.

Progress was made, because now he was holding your hand without feeling like his heart was going to explode (mainly when there weren't many people around) and instead of feeling all too shy, he felt mainly happy, because your hand was always so warm and inviting that whenever you had to part, he would find himself feeling disappointed and cold.

Today, his hand held yours in a clamped way, it was an unusual manner of holding your hand that he had never used, it was sweaty and nervous, you wondered if something was wrong. When you stopped in front of your house, Baekhyun didn't let go and you took that as a clue that he had something to say. But for that, he needed to gather up his courage, you could tell from the way he was balancing on the ball of his feet and puffing up his cheeks with a troubled expression displayed on his face. After a good while, he cleared his throat and absentmindedly reached with a hand behind his neck, turning his face to side- giving you a full view of his profile. Baekhyun shyly glanced at you from under his lashes, cheeks flushed as always.

"Want to go on a date this evening?" His voice had a soft tone to it, it was a silky sound that never failed to soothe your senses, soothing and smooth like the petals of a rose. The question was short and had no elaboration, but that's how he did it, he knew that he would start sputtering nonsense if he let his tongue roll to say everything that he actually wanted to, but he didn't want to come off as weird and overwhelm you with his many words. Although he didn't show it, he had so much that he wanted to tell you, he didn't like to talk, but you, with you he felt like he would never be able to shut up if he ever was to start that kind of conversation. You woke up such an enormous amount of feelings within him that he sometimes still came to wonder how it was possible, that one single person could make him feel so many things at once.

Your lips curled into an unexpectedly bright smile and for a second Baekhyun felt like his feet were being lifted from the ground. His mouth was left agape at the beaming beauty in front of him, at that moment the first thing he did was connect you to flowers- sunflowers to be specific. He was sure, you were the brightest of them all. His heart swelled at the view of your glistening crescent moon and couldn't help but have his own lips lift into the boxy smile of his that you loved so much, with his pearly with teeth showing.

I'm so happy I could die. He thought.

"Yes! I want to go!" The enthusiasm seeping from your words gave him a sweet sensation and he nodded in approvement.

"Then I'll come to get you at seven, okay?" When you nodded he flashed another small smile and immediately left without another word. Happily, you stepped inside your house, already wondering what outfit would be the best for this occasion, simple maybe?

                                                    ♡    ♡   ♡

You had no idea whether the movie theatre being almost completely empty was a good thing or not, but Baekhyun also had an unreadable expression on his face which told you that he was probably thinking the same thing. It occurred to you that it wasn't an important detail so you decided to forget about it.

Your thoughts wandered further to Baekhyun, and how different he looked this evening. Seeing him in clothes proper for school was one thing and you had never imagined that a casual thing as an outfit could make one look so distinct.

He looked taller, manlier but still gentle thanks to his soft features, you reasoned. Baekhyun's legs were hugged by a pair of light blue jeans and the outfit was completed by a pastel yellow sweater, the collar of a white shirt peeked neatly from the hem of the sweater. His ashy brown hair fell into waves on his forehead and it wasn't even fair to say that he looked perfect, he was much more than that, you could've sworn that his figure felt like a magnet to your eyes because your gaze would always end on him no matter how much you tried to stop yourself from being that way.

Once you had double checked the ticket the two of you started walking up the stairs to your assigned seats. The room was already dark and the commercials were being played on the big cinema screen before the movie itself. People in their seats were by now just dark silhouettes. The soft material of the chair sunk down under your weight as you carefully sat down and a relieved sigh heaved from your lips. Although it wasn't the first time that you and Baekhyun sat so close to each other, you couldn't help but feel extremely self-conscious. Millions of thoughts were running through your head and it was making you feel dizzy. Baekhyun wasn't doing anything and yet his sole presence was having such a strong impact on you all of sudden, how were you going to survive a whole movie when his shoulder was so tightly pressed against yours? When his fingers were dangerously close to yours, how were you going to calm down your furiously beating heart? The sound of it was so loud in your ears and you feared that the boy next to you could hear it crash against your ribs.

Helplessly, you squeezed your eyes at the warmth radiating off your cheeks.

This was no good, huh.

"Are you okay?" Baekhyun's whisper came so swiftly that you found yourself almost flinching away from him, waking up from the panicked daze, his warm breath was fanning your ear as he spoke as quietly as possible- so that he wouldn't disturb the other people in the room, who also seemed to be couples. His care should have been something that calmed you down and that made you feel reassured, however, this time it was having a completely different effect. Neither of you noticed that the movie had already started playing, Baekhyun just wanted to make sure that you were fine, you had been making painful expressions ever since you had sat down and to say the least, it was starting to worry him. Frantically, you gave him a quick nod, maybe a too quick one because to him it seemed as if you were doing it just to not make him worry.

A crease formed on his pretty face and he forgot about his incredibly shy persona, gently clasping his thumb and index finger around your chin, turning it to his direction. His glittering orbs dilated once they met your dark ones, you could see the genuine worry flashing through them- it made you feel slightly guilty because he was worrying over nothing really. You were fine, but just today your body had to act up like that, it was frustrating. All you had wished for was a sweet evening, intertwined fingers and soft conversations but your nervousness was keeping you from doing so, even regular glancing made your heart squirm with a helpless feeling that you couldn't quite put your finger on.

"Are you sure? You look pale," He insisted softly, absentmindedly moving his hand to cup your cheek. You wondered if he knew what he was doing to you, what he was doing in general because you were sure that an every day Baekhyun would have turned into a flame at this point, but now there was not even a hint of blush on his cheeks. Maybe it was the different environment that also made him feel different.

This time you gave him a slower and hesitant nod, and that didn't go unnoticed by Baekhyun as he gave you a troubled look while trying to figure you out. Baekhyun was a complicated person but in the end so was you, in your own odd way.

Had you already mentioned that he looked perfect? Because from this angle he was looking even more breathtaking, and it wasn't helping that the pad of his thumb was so delicately grazing the apple of your cheek, hitching your breath inside of your throat as your teeth dug desperately into your lower lip. His scent reached your nose and the flower-like fragrance was making you fall into endless dizziness.

"Y/n," Baekhyun called, his voice sounded distant and you noticed how his stare was wavering, eyes not resisting to steal a quick glance at your pursed lips. The legs were trembling together with your hands and you were sure that your poor heart would stop functioning if it went on in this way. His knee bumping into yours was way too warm for you not to notice it and the dazed glances Baekhyun gave your lips made you wonder how you were still alive. You noticed how the blood had been forming on Baekhyun's cheeks, warming them up at his own actions.

"You should..." He murmured, "Breathe-" his thumb tugged your lips away from the grip of your teeth and somehow you managed to let out a little sigh even though it felt like your lungs would stop working right away. He was too close for you to reason properly. You had never been this close before- it was something so odd and intimidating, but at the same time it woke up a certain curiousness inside of you and you just felt how you wanted to know more about it. With your faces so near, noses bumping against each other and eyelashes kissing your cheeks, warm breaths mingling in front of your mouths, what awaited you if you choose to stay in this position? What was going to happen if you for once forgot about who you were and the fact that you were too shy for such close proximity?

Could Baekhyun's lips promise you a world of wonders that you would never forget?

And those were the last words leaving your thoughts before you shut everything else out and let your sleepy eyelids fall close, lips coaxing ever so slightly open and Baekhyun felt his heart in his throat as he inched closer to place his lips on yours.

And then it happened, at first, it was your lips flatly pressed against each other because neither of you knew what to do, but it didn't feel wrong either. His lips were soft and warm, so incredibly warm. You felt his hand move from your cheek and chills traveled on your skin when his fingers spread across your neck and before you knew it; his mouth was slowly moving against yours with uncertain movements. Only after a small while of contemplating, you did the same, clumsily trying to follow the rhythm of his own and you felt how his mouth twitched for a second as if he was holding in a laugh. Soon after your lips were already locking perfectly with each other, low sounds echoing when your mouths detached ever so slightly.

Your chest was heaving as you parted and while the moment had felt so slow then, now that it was over you realized how much shorter it had actually been. With your cheeks flushed, you absentmindedly reached with your fingers to touch your lips who were still pulsing with Baekhyun's pressure. What he had just done finally sunk into his skin and his eyes widened greatly and his cheeks turned into a color you hadn't thought had been possible for a human. With an awkward clearing of throat, he sat back against his chair and pretended to watch the movie although it was already too late for him to try to understand anything about it by now. After all, the sole fact that you had kissed felt like a movie to him.

And the rest of the evening continued like that, with a blooming feeling tickling your chests.

By the time that you were back in front of the door to your house, the night was as dark as ever, with small glittering lights spread all over it and a bright moon shining down on the roads. The spring air was a nice kind of chilly, it wasn't too cold but just perfect for anyone to walk around without any extra clothes. In that blooming night, Baekhyun's hand was still in yours and the wordless minutes spent in front of your house passed by fastly.

From under his lashes, he gave you a shy glance and although it was hesitant, in his eyes was such a loving look that your heart reacted crazily to it, flipping inside of your chest, making butterflies tickle your belly.

A gasp left your lips when his lips were suddenly pressed against yours, Baekhyun's squeezed eyes flashed in front of yours and before you could react and kiss him back, he had already stepped back, a hand covered the blush on his face as he looked away bashfully.

"Goodnight Y/n," Biting your lip you muttered the words back and entered the house, leaving Baekhyun with his thoughts. Signing loudly, he reached out for his temple, rubbing it slightly while a little smile grew on his lips, though, it disappeared soon after as he bent down into a crouching position, hands covering his face. His heartbeat was furious and painful, the way that you made him feel.

Slight regret filled his thoughts.

"I should have kissed her longer.."

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡♡ ♡ ♡

aaaanndddd that's it! I hope you enjoyed this and that it could make your valentine's day even better! Please tell me what you think ♡

(sorry in advance for weird sentences and stuff that don't make sense)

Anyways my loves, have an extraordinary day filled with love and great company with a smile on your faces! And if you don't have anyone to spend it with I still hope that you can on this day give yourself a lot of appreciation by treating yourself to nice things! Much love, your P.✨💖🌸

[spaceskam]

Moirai (4/7)

yep guess who updated for once 

[ao3]

(part one - part two - part three - part four)

Michael woke, startled and out of breath for the umpteenth time since they discovered Felicity.

He looked over to see Alex sound asleep and cuddled up with a pillow in his arms and another between his knees. Michael’s head was still fuzzy with his dream and he couldn’t offer more than a hand in Alex’s hair before turning his gaze to the fancy baby monitor that Isobel insisted on getting them. It had a camera and it showed Felicity asleep inside the mosquito net-esque thing they’d constructed around the bed to make sure she didn’t take herself anywhere or hurt herself. She seemed fine tonight. So did Alex. So why did he feel like he was on fire?

The dreams had originally started the first night of having her and they were nothing more than hazy images that left him confused and sweaty. Over time, though, they got clearer and clearer. Now, four weeks later, he was getting vivid images of shadows calling his name, luring him to the underground tunnels of Pitlochry. He knew logically he should stay away, but he couldn’t fight away the feeling that he needed to go back.

A few days prior, he’d subtly asked Alex if he thought they may have left something back at Pitlochry. He’d said no, that he’d grabbed everything they saw and that there was no reason to return, but it still didn’t shake the feeling. Even if he found nothing, he needed to go back there whether Alex wanted him to or not.

“Hi.” Alex’s groggy voice tore his eyes from the baby monitor. His face scrunched up through a yawn, his hand reaching out to stroke Michael’s arm lazily. It managed to coax a smile out of him.

“Why are you awake? Your alarm goes off in an hour,” Michael said, forcing himself to lay down. Alex replaced his pillow with Michael’s body.

“Then why are you awake?” Alex whispered. His voice was always much higher when he was waking up or almost asleep. It was a sweet little tenor that typically had Michael reeling. This morning, however, he was a bit preoccupied with trying to figure out how to get back to Pitlochry without him finding out.

“I don’t know. Thought I heard Fiz,” he murmured, finding the lie believable enough. Alex thought so too.

“Did you want me to bring those papers to Kyle?” he asked as he snuggled a bit close. They were almost done completely registering Felicity’s existence, Alex’s computer skills and ties to the military helping out on doing things in a slightly illegal way. All they needed now was for Kyle to sign off, saying he did indeed see the mother who had abandoned her at the hospital. Then she would be all Michael’s for real.

He knew Alex didn’t mean to give him an idea on how to go behind his back, but he did. Michael couldn’t go back there by himself. There was a chance that his trance-like state had to do with the pod as well as Felicity and he didn’t want to risk getting stuck where no one could find him because he got mentally sucked into nothingness. But Kyle could be of assistance.

“Nah, I’ll do it, gotta talk to him about something anyway,” Michael whispered. Alex shifted, pressing a soft kiss to his chest.

“About what?” he asked softly. Michael didn’t answer, letting Alex’s palm glide over his body before resting at his hip. “Just wondering why you’re willingly going to see Kyle.” Alex tacked on, a small smile on his lips as he continued to kiss up his chest.

“Can’t say,” Michael said, trying to give a smile. He’d just have to come up with something he could plan for Alex that would require Valenti’s help. Maybe a birthday party.

“Alright, be cryptic,” he said, moving to catch Michael’s lips in a sweet little kiss. Michael pulled him closer. What better way to get over that mindfuck of a dream than a little bit of Alex in the morning.

Their lazy morning sex was kept short. Alex’s alarm started blaring just after mutual lazy handjobs, their foreheads meeting in the middle to gather their breathing before they reluctantly climbed out of bed. It was one of those days that Michael really could’ve slept in since he didn’t have to be at work until noon, but he didn’t see the point in it when Alex had to get up.

Alex went to take a shower and Michael stepped under the water for a few seconds to wash off, leaving him with the promise of washing the sheets since they hadn’t been careful in not getting shit everywhere.

Michael fell into their normal morning routine with a little bit of lightness now that he had an idea on how to try and make the dreams stop. He made coffee with Felicity swinging herself in the doorway, he kissed Alex goodbye while handing him the lunch he’d packed, and he sat on the back porch while feeding Felicity and drinking his coffee. It was a good routine. A comforting routine.

One that would be better if he wasn’t so bitter from the way his nights always went.

He didn’t waste much time after he finished his coffee. He got Felicity dressed, threw the sheets in the dryer, and locked up the cabin before heading for the hospital with the papers in hand. He shot Kyle a text before taking Felicity out of her car seat.

Michael found it weirdly easy to slip into a life where he had someone to care for. Sure, it helped when he was able to catch a break here and there and his friends had been great at assisting, but he enjoyed doing most of the work. It was cathartic in a way. All the bullshit in his life was worth it if it meant he found her before someone else, someone dangerous, did.

“I need you to do me a favor and I need you to not tell Alex,” Michael said the moment he walked into Liz’ redone lab. Kyle was already there waiting for him. A look of annoyance crossed his face at his words.

“What are you trying to keep from Alex?”

“I’m literally not going to tell you anything until you promise me you won’t tell Alex,” Michael said simply. Pitlochry was all he could think about. He needed to get there, figure out what was calling him back. As much as he didn’t want to go with Kyle, he was also his best bet next to Alex. Alex, who had made it very clear he didn’t want to go back there.

Besides he had seen Michael breakdown before they went the first time and he had seen how he had been effected when they actually went. He didn’t have to be a genius to know that, even if he tried to bring it up to Alex, he would not be a fan of the idea.

Kyle eyed him for a minute before reaching for Felicity. She went to him easily and Michael wondered if that was her silent way to get him to comply. The only human she ever willingly went to was Alex. Yet, today, she curled up against Kyle with her fist wrapped around his thumb. She was staring right at Michael.

“Okay, fine, what?” Kyle sighed. Michael grinned.

“I need you to go back to Pitlochry with me.”

“What?”

“I’m, like, 99% sure we forgot something by the pod. Like, I think we were distracted by her and distracted by whatever it was doing to me to check out the area, so we need to go back and check it out,” he explained. When Kyle didn’t look too convinced, Michael continued. “I’ve been getting these dreams since we went and they’re just getting more intense. I need to go and see if that’ll make them go away. And maybe it’ll explain something about why she was there. You know I wouldn’t be coming to you if it wasn’t seriously fucking with me. And, fuck, you were there, you know I can’t go by myself.”

Kyle sighed slowly and looked down at the baby in his arms. The tail of his lab coat slowly started lifting, fluttering in the wind that wasn’t there. She smiled. He caved.

“Just, why are keeping it from Alex? Wouldn’t he be helpful?” Kyle asked, trying to hide his amusement at her mentally playing with his coat. She was good. Michael would have to bring her around when he was trying to convince other people of things too.

“Yeah, but he doesn’t want to go back there. And I get it, I do, but I don’t want to worry him. It’d be easier to just go ourselves. If we don’t find anything, then there’s no stress on his part. If we do… then I’ll tell him, but that’s afterward and he won’t have anything to worry about,” Michael promised. He knew he’d really have to play his cards right considering Alex was too smart for his own good, but it was worth it.

“Fine, fine, you got a point. The guy doesn’t need more shit than he’s got. What day did you want to go?” Kyle asked, carefully eyeing the empty beaker that slowly but surely started to push its way towards the edge of the table.

“What day do you have off?” Michael wondered. He grabbed the beaker.

“Thursday’s the only day I’m not on call until the weekend.”

“Perfect, Isobel’s already watching her that day. I’ll just tell Alex that I have to work late and we can leave early,” he explained. Kyle’s eyes skirted across the room as he nodded.

“It’s a date.”

-

Alex’s leg throbbed as he climbed out of his car in Isobel’s driveway. It had been a long ass day at the base and while he technically could take as many breaks as he needed, he didn’t like to take them. It was bad enough when he relied on his crutch, the last thing he wanted was to have someone ask if he needed help. They didn’t seem to understand that if he was struggling that bad, he would’ve just gone home. Now that he was off, though, he was limping just a little and he was more than ready to get home.

“I’m about to lose it, I swear,” Isobel said the moment she opened the door. Alex grinned and stepped inside.

Isobel’s entire living room looked straight out of a movie. Every object had floated off the shelves and was circling the room. Felicity was levitating somewhere in the middle of it, smiling widely and kicking her feet in celebration of her little magic act.

“Does she do this all the time? How do you deal with it? How do you make her stop? I can barely even get to her without bumping into a million things!” Isobel complained, groaning. She looked a little more disheveled than usual which probably had everything to do with this being the first time she watched Felicity alone.

“I mean, kinda. Never this much, though,” Alex acknowledged, slowly plucking things out of the air and putting them back where they belonged. Isobel started following his lead.

“Yeah, well, it started out with just a picture of me and Max and I told her to put it down because I didn’t want her to break it, but then she just did it to something else. It was like every time I told her to stop, it got worse,” she grumbled. Alex could picture the proud little smile on Michael’s face. He would’ve thought it was as funny as Felicity clearly did.

“Yeah, no, she was doing that specifically to piss you off. You kind of just have to catch stuff and put it back and she’ll usually leave it alone.”

“Alex, she is going to be the actual worst when she gets older, you know that, right?”

Alex snorted, heading for Felicity this time. “Oh, I’ve already told Michael that as soon as she’s able to completely comprehend, that we’re going to start teaching her what she can and can’t do and control.”

“Seems like she has a ton of control already.”

“Not really. Micahel helps level her out a lot, but sometimes when it’s just the two of us, she’ll throw shit when she’s crying or something,” Alex admitted, bringing her to sit against his hip. “Sorry, she was a lot, though.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. We were good for most of the day. Also, like, do you know where Michael is?” she asked. Alex blinked a couple of times before he raised an eyebrow.

“Work. Where else would he be?”

“Okay, well, hate to break it to you, but he’s not at work,” Isobel scoffed, collapsing into her couch. Alex stared at her hesitantly for a moment before following her. What the fuck did she mean he wasn’t at work? “He has never not answered me before. I even tried to call him, like, mentally and he straight up ignored me. He must be doing something super fucking serious if he won’t answer me. He’s literally stopped having sex to answer me before.” That was true, he was there.

“I mean… he told me he was at work. I don’t see what he has to lie about,” Alex said. The look on her face was anything but comforting. He shifted in his seat.

“I mean, maybe he is. I just… You know what, I’m sure he’s at work. Don’t mind me,” Isobel said with an empty laugh, waving it off. Alex sat there and mulled over what she had just said.

By the time he did leave, he had already decided he wouldn’t be going straight home. Michael was at work. He had to be at work. So, Alex picked up some late lunch/early dinner for them and headed towards the junkyard. When he got there, Michael’s truck wasn’t in sight. He even asked Sanders only to be told he had called in.

Alex’s first thought was that something bad had happened. He tried not to let himself get too nervous but still took it upon himself to drive around town to see if he spotted him anywhere. He wasn’t at the hospital, the Crashdown, the Wild Pony, Max’s, or anywhere else it seemed. As a last-ditch effort, he went to Kyle’s.

He didn’t know what to make of it when he found his boyfriend’s truck in another man’s driveway after having lied about going to work. It reminded him of earlier in the week when Michael had been pretty insistent on meeting Kyle himself. Alex tried really hard to keep his thoughts positive. Maybe there was an explanation. None of them would be good enough to explain him fucking lying, but maybe it existed. He would just go home and wait.

“I’m gonna kill him,” he said through a smile as he looked at Felicity through the rearview mirror. She smiled at his tone.

At least someone found this amusing.

-

“Guerin!”

Michael wasn’t sure how long Kyle had been screaming at him, but he knew it was at least a good while before he noticed. Assumption had proved right and something had overcome him, leading him to ignore Kyle in favor of heading down into the tunnels. Only this time it was past the pod.

“Guerin, I can’t see shit!”

Michael didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer.

Then his feet stopped moving. Michael’s eyes slid closed without much of a warning from his brain, staying shut tight. His hand moved out in front of him, concentrating on… something.

“Guerin. Guerin. Oh my‒Guerin, what the fuck?!”

That something slammed into Michael’s hand with a force that rivaled his own, throwing him to the ground and leaving him out of breath. His eyes still wouldn’t open, instinct moving to cradle the whatever to his chest. What little part of his brain that was in his control told him it was some type of stone.

“Guerin, are you okay? Hey, talk to me, talk to me,” Kyle urged. Michael could vaguely feel hands on him, but they felt like they were touching him over 5 different layers of clothes. He knew it was skin to skin, but, god, it didn’t feel like it.

Then he was being dragged.

He didn’t really catch anything in between that. All he knew was that eventually, somehow, he started regaining clarity. His eyes opened to see Kyle leaning over him in some form of light, huffing and puffing as he pressed two fingers beneath Michael’s chin. He blinked a couple of times.

“Hey, are you okay? Are you with me?” he asked. Michael groaned halfheartedly. He was exhausted. “Michael, I just spent 30 fucking minutes dragging you through a dark tunnel and then up a flight of creepy-ass stairs, you can at least talk to me if you’re with me. Seriously, if you’re hurt, Alex is going to kill me.”

“What happened?” he asked groggily, trying to lift his head only to find that to be too much work. Kyle got in his face, holding open his eyes to check his pupils or something. Michael did his best to swat him off but found that his hands didn’t actually move.

“Well, we got here and it was fine, then you stopped talking midsentence. Then you were like fucking speed walking down the steps and through the tunnel. And you said we were gonna look at the pod, so I stopped around there, but you just kept fucking going. Kinda lost you for a minute until you turned into the human torch,” Kyle explained, still checking over him to make sure he was okay.

“Huh?”

“Yeah, dude, you lit up. I guess it was just your hand or something, I don’t know, but it was bright. Then this tablet thing came, like, flying towards you and you hit your head pretty hard when you hit the ground.”

“Tablet thing?”

“Yeah, this thing,” Kyle said and patted his arm. Michael used all his energy to look down to see his arms had a death grip on some stone slab. He furrowed his eyebrows before letting his head fall again. Kyle’s hand stopped it from hitting the ground again. “I swear to God, you want to give yourself a concussion.”

“Mmm, what’s on it?” he asked. Kyle sighed.

“I don’t know, dude, I can’t see it. Look, can we leave? I want to get out of here. Besides, we have about two hours to get you back before Alex starts wondering and it’s a three-hour drive.”

Michael did his best to help Kyle carry his body weight, but he felt like nothing more than a sack of bones. Everything ached and his legs seemed to weigh a ton each, dragging on the floor even when Kyle was supporting him for the most part.

“Thanks,” Michael said once they exited the prison. It felt like a weight was lifting off of him already. His mind felt a little clearer.

“Yeah, well, I’m only doing this because Alex would probably be sad if I left you to get mind warped,” Kyle grumbled. Michael managed a smile as he got dumped into the passenger seat of Kyle’s car.

“Yeah. That’s why.”

It took him no time at all to go straight to sleep.

-

Michael still felt heavy with fatigue as he climbed out of his truck and trudged towards the cabin. He was more than ready to just curl up against Alex and sleep for a million hours before trying to figure out what the tablet was for. It had only a few inscriptions on it, none of which he couldn’t read, but they didn’t seem to be too different from the ones on the console glass. So, clearly, it was something he was meant to find. He still needed Kyle to tell him exactly what happened because he was still fuzzy on the whole thing, but that could wait. Even if he was super intrigued to know how his hand lit up.

He entered the cabin with a yawn, fully expecting Alex to be sweetly curled up on the couch in his comfy pajamas. Except, tonight, Alex was sitting in the kitchen, staring at nothing and still in his uniform. Okay.

“I’m home.”

Alex looked up with a level of stoicism that made Michael feel nauseous. Man, he could not catch a break today. Alex tilted his head.

“How was work?”

Michael slowly sat across from him. “Fine.”

“Yeah, I bet. ‘Cause I went to bring you food and you weren’t there.” Uh oh. “And so I was really fucking worried and searched the town for you because I thought something happened, but then I found your truck at Kyle’s. You hate Kyle. I can’t think of a goddamn reason why you would be with Kyle and then neither of bother to answer your phones. Can you explain that to me?”

He was not rested enough for this.

“Look, just tell me. Are you sleeping with Kyle?” Alex asked, resignation in his voice. Michael’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

“Oh, oh my god, ew, no, what? Alex, what? No! Why would you even think that?” Michael sputtered out, a new level of disgust at the idea. Valenti wasn’t as bad as he thought, but he definitely wasn’t about to sleep with him. Much less cheat on Alex. Fuck all of that.

“Because you lied to me and I thought we were done with lying. I thought we were being honest and talking things through and trusting,” Alex explained. Michael could see that he was hurt and that was a lot worse than the aching feeling in his head or how tired his body was.

Still, he sighed and bowed his head. “Okay, I’m sorry I lied. I just… I knew you didn’t want me going back to Pitlochry.” This time it was Alex’s turn to look incredulous.

“I’m sorry, what? You went back to Pitlochry? For what?”

Michael reached in his bag and shuffled around before he brought the tablet to the table. It looked bleak and plain, but Michael knew better than that. Something about it was special and it was calling to him. He could feel it.

“I know you said you got everything, but I couldn’t shake the feeling there was something there. And, yeah, it fucked with my head again, but that’s why I brought Kyle. I should’ve told you, I just didn’t want you to worry. But I guess I should’ve figured out that you would’ve pieced something together,” he admitted. Alex let out a breath of relief, leaning back in the chair and he brought the tablet with him. Michael watched his fingertips glide over it, his eyebrows furrowed as he took in the admission. “I’m sorry.”

“You should be. What happened?” he asked. Micahel huffed a dry laugh, shrugging his shoulders.

“Couldn’t really tell you. Something got in my head to find this thing and then I hit my head and it was like that plus something in my mind and I kinda shut down for a bit. Kyle tried to explain it to me, but I wasn’t exactly coherent, so we’re just gonna have to talk to him tomorrow. And, don’t worry, he checked to make sure I didn’t have a concussion, like, eight times, I’m fine. Well, I’m fucking exhausted and am like two minutes away from passing out, but I’m fine,” Michael assured. Alex nodded slowly, concern still on his face as he stared. Michael could tell he had a million questions, but, in true Alex fashion, he chose to ask no more. “I can’t believe you thought I was sleeping with Kyle.”

“I didn’t really, I just couldn’t fucking think of anything else. This… makes more sense and I am pissed at you for not telling me, but it’s better than you being dead or fucking Kyle, so I’ll be mad at you when you’re less tired. We’ll work on the tablet and what happened at Pitlochry tomorrow,” Alex said. Michael nodded and slowly let his head hit the table.

Except that really fucking hurt, so he picked it back up.

“Do you wanna go take a bath? I’m sore, you’re sore, and I was still worried about you for the last five hours, so I’d like to cuddle with you if that’s okay,” Alex said softly. Michael grinned sleepily. If a healthy relationship meant discussing your issues calmly and ending it with cuddles, he kind of regretted not trying this out before.

“You really wanna sit a pool full of my filth? Kyle dragged me across the floor,” he pointed out. Another wave of concern hit Alex’s face, discarding the tablet to reach across the table and grab Michael’s had. Michael stared at the tablet for a few seconds before forcing his eyes on Alex.

“Fine, we’ll wash off in the shower first,” Alex said, “How’s that sound?”

Michael brought Alex’s hand to his lips and gave the tablet one last glance for the night before he stood up. It could wait. Alex deserved his attention much, much more. It would have to wait.

“Sounds like the best thing I’ve heard all day.”

[alltheselights]

emmaa i think you should post a snippet of your wip because of the wip meme thats going on 🙏🏾🙈 if you want thouuu xx

I have no idea what meme is going around, but since I’m sooooooooo late in posting the actual fic, I’ll post a snippet. This is part of the first chapter of my fic. If you want some context for it, this snippet is from the fic that I describe briefly in the second to last bullet point here.

Also, fair warning - there may be typos in this and it may change somewhat before the final fic is posted.

–



Louis startles awake some time later. For a second, with his headphones on, he can’t figure out why he woke up so suddenly. Then he realizes it’s because the plane is moving unsteadily, jerking somewhat and causing the luggage around them to jostle in its compartments.



Louis yanks his ear buds out of his ears.



“What’s happening?” He asks, and he can hear how scared his voice sounds.



“It’s just turbulence,” Harry says from next to him, and Louis turns toward him. He has a concerned look on his face, the same look that people get when they’re approaching a wounded animal.



Louis can hear a voice over the intercom reassuring the passengers of the plane that they’ve encountered turbulence and requesting that they fasten their seatbelts, and Louis follows the instructions with shaking hands.




“Hey, Louis,” Harry says. “Are you okay?”



Louis digs his nails into the armrest.



“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he says, body tensing with every jerk of the plane.



“Listen,” Harry says, leaning toward Louis, who is trying very hard to look unbothered by the fact that their plane may or may not be seconds from plunging them all into the ocean. “I don’t know if you fly a lot or not, but I fly back and forth between London and New York City quite a bit and I swear this happens all the time. I know it’s scary, but—hey, Louis,” he snaps his fingers, forcing Louis to look at him instead of moving his eyes rapidly around the first class cabin. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you this is just normal turbulence.”



Louis barely hears him. All he knows is that the wine he drank is churning in his stomach ominously and his blood is rushing in his ears and the entire place is shaking. Their plane, thousands and thousands of miles in the air, is jerking around and moving up and down and Louis is fucking terrified.



A particularly hard jerk of the plane causes a woman’s glass of wine to knock over, and something in Louis just fucking snaps. Maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s the stress of his work disaster, or maybe it’s the fact that what was supposed to be a relaxing plane ride back to the UK has forced Louis to deal with a devastatingly attractive man, a bitchy and neglectful nanny, and an impending plane crash. In retrospect, Louis will decide it’s probably a combination of all these factors, but in that moment, all he can focus on is his own panic.



“We’re gonna fucking die,” Louis says, shaking off Harry’s hand, which is gently clutching Louis’ arm in a comforting gesture, and grabbing it in Louis’ own sweaty hand. “This plane is on its way down and we’re going to fucking die. After the absolute shit day I had, this is how it ends for me. It’s like a sick joke.”



Harry squeezes Louis’ hand, looking alarmed.



“I really don’t think ⎯”



Louis cuts Harry off, not listening.



“Listen mate, I’m not ready to die. I’m not ready. I haven’t even had the chance to make my mum proud yet. My childhood friend, fucking Stan, that arsehole, goes over to my mum’s house all the time to have tea and he tells her all about the amazing things he’s doing with his career, and here I am, a fucking failure who lies to my mum to make my job sound more important than it is. I’m a goddamn marketing assistant, I mean ⎯ what the hell?”



“You’re not a failure,” Harry says kindly, his voice low like he’s trying to talk someone off the ledge without making a scene. What’s even the point in talking Louis off the ledge, at this point? Every bump of the plane makes it clear that Louis’ death is imminent. What’s the point of anything anymore?



“Oi, you don’t have any fucking clue, mate. Want to know how my morning went?”



Louis continues before Harry has the chance to respond, squeezing Harry’s hand more firmly.



And then it just all pours out.



All of it.



Not just the events that transpired that morning, either. Oh no, Louis isn’t able to stop the word vomit (better than wine vomit, but not by much) after telling Harry, who he hadn’t known before he stepped into first class and allowed his eyes to fall on this fine specimen in a pristine black suit, just sitting there like a fucking wet dream, about the humiliating experience of spilling orange juice on the suit of a random businessman and ruining an important business deal for his company.

Instead, he keeps going.



“It’s probably better that I die now because once my boyfriend hears what happened at work, he’ll probably break up with me. Which might be a good thing, actually, because he keeps begging me to move in with him and I really don’t want to. He’s always such an arse when important people are around at work and it makes me feel like shit. He just comes around to make me look like an idiot and then three seconds later he’s like, hey, Louis, I need your help with some paperwork, which actually means…”



And going.



“…Sometimes Liam asks me to go to the bar with the guys after work, but I’m too tired, so I tell him that I’m headed to the gym, and then I really go home and put my joggers on and watch shit telly for hours with Zayn. So now Liam thinks I’m some kind of gym freak, when actually…”



And going.



“…I shouldn’t have gotten the tattoo, but to be fair, they shouldn’t have given it to me when I was that wasted. Isn’t that against the law? So now I have to get fucked with the lights off and refuse shower sex because shower sex in the dark is dangerous and would probably end in a concussion, so…”



And going.



“…It’s just embarrassing, a 27 year old man who can’t cook, so I tell everyone that I’m…”



And going.



“…Lottie bought me these fucking panties as a joke, right, and I was never going to wear them. Then one day I’ve got a huge meeting, right, my first at the company, and I haven’t done laundry in like three weeks because I hate doing laundry, so I just say, well, fuck it, and put them on. The meeting went so well and I’m not usually superstitious, but I won’t tempt fate either, so now whenever I have an important meeting, I wear panties. I forgot them when I flew to New York, so that explains why…”



And going.



“…When I realized what Cleo had done to the sheets, I cried. I’m man enough to admit it…”



And going.



“…I went into his office to feed the goldfish and he’s just floating there upside down, the poor fucker, and Niall had put his faith in me so I couldn’t tell him. I ended up heading to this pet shop and I found one that looked similar and just…”



And going.



“…I’m not a huge fan of beer, I prefer fruitier drinks, but I feel like a twat at a bar ordering that, so I…”



Louis doesn’t know what’s come over him, but by the time he stops talking, his mouth is dry, his lips are chapped, and he’s told this man every single secret he’s ever had in his life.



He’s panting, finally having run out of words entirely, and that’s when he takes a second to glance down at his hand, still clutching Harry’s so tightly that the poor man’s knuckles are white. Harry is staring at him, mouth open and eyes wide, and then Louis begins to tune into the rest of his surroundings.



The plane isn’t moving. The plane isn’t fucking moving.



“We landed,” Louis says, somehow finding his voice again as the realization washes over him like a cold rain. His throat feels dry and scratchy from overuse.



“Yes, we did,” Harry says calmly. His eyes are smiling.



“We didn’t die,” Louis says, ignoring the fact that most of the people in first class are already grabbing their carry-on luggage and filing out of the plane.



“No, we didn’t,” Harry confirms. Now his mouth is smiling.

“I’m—” Louis begins, and then cuts himself off. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what just happened. I know I can talk, I mean, my mum and Zayn and Brad and everyone I know, actually, they tell me all the time, but that was a lot. You should’ve stopped me.”


Louis then realizes that he and Harry are still holding hands, and he drops Harry’s hand like it’s scalding.


“You didn’t really pause long enough for me to step in, truthfully,” Harry says, and Louis watches as he stretches and wiggles his fingers, probably testing whether they still function after Louis gripped them hard enough to cut off the circulation for god only knows how long. “But I didn’t want to anyway. It seemed like you needed to let that out, and I didn’t mind. Please don’t worry about it.”



“Don’t worry about it,” Louis repeats in disbelief. “I just told you every single one of my deepest darkest secrets and you hadn’t even met me before we got on this plane.”



“It happens?” Harry says as he unbuckles his seatbelt, shrugging. He then gives Louis the dorkiest smile Louis’ ever seen on such a beautiful person.



“It really doesn’t,” Louis, says, groaning and unfastening his own seatbelt.



“Well, it happened this time,” Harry amends, finally getting to his feet and reaching his hand out to help Louis up in a very unnecessary gesture. Louis accepts the hand anyway.



Louis has a slight headache throbbing at his temples, a consequence of the wine, probably, and he’s too overwhelmed to deal with an attractive human that just listened to him rant for hours when he should’ve slapped Louis across the face and told him to shut the fuck up.



Louis grabs his backpack from where it’s been sitting at his feet this entire time and takes one more look at Harry, who is currently cracking his back with an expression of mild discomfort.



“Uh, thanks for dealing with all this,” Louis says quickly, gesturing to himself to make it clear what “all this” refers to. Harry, who’s now stopped cracking his back, pauses and opens his mouth, likely intent on saying Louis’ words aren’t necessary and he was happy to deal with Louis treating him like a diary for the past several hours because this guy is some kind of fucking saint.



As the reality of what Louis confessed to this poor man sets in, he can feel the humiliation spreading. He takes one last appreciative look at Harry, trying to memorize everything about him to file away in the back of Louis’ brain, which is where he plans on shoving this memory as soon as possible.


“Anyway, bye!” Louis adds before Harry has the chance to say anything else.


And with that, Louis turns on his heels and half walks, half runs out of the cabin, barely even hesitating for long enough to thank the pilot and members of the cabin crew he passes on his way out.



Since Louis didn’t check a bag, he’s able to keep up his brisk pace while he passes through Heathrow. In fact, he doesn’t stop until he hails a taxi outside the airport and is sitting safely inside, giving the driver the address for his building and trying to ignore the scratchy feeling in his throat.



In another universe, one where Louis and Brad weren’t together and one where some things actually go right for Louis, he would’ve loved to have flirted with Harry on the plane, maybe even gotten his number by the end of the flight. In this universe, however, Louis has faced one disaster after another in a single day and spent the past few hours completely humiliating himself in front of a man who would probably rather watch paint dry than ever hear another word out of Louis’ mouth.



Things didn’t work out for Louis today, but it’ll be fine. Come Monday, he’ll work things out at Kiwi Corporation and figure out a way to save his job.



And as for the word vomit thing on the plane, well. It was an embarrassing experience and Louis will have to try very hard to block it out of his memory, but it’s not like Louis will ever see Harry again.



Why would he?

[whereintheworldisaca]

October 14, 15 & 16

14th - Low key day. Accompanied Yaneth to her doctors appointment. Javier dropped us off, and we decided to walk back since it wasn’t far from their house. We stopped by exito and picked up some groceries for lunch and walked back. She made a spinach quiche, a salad and stuffed chicken with cheese. YUM 

15th - Friday we went to Ortega. A town in Tolima, also the town that Javier (Yaneth’s husband) grew up in. We left around 1 because Javier had some work to finish in Bogotá. The drive wasn’t too bad and luckily we didn’t hit much traffic on our way out of the City. We arrived right before 6 pm. There we met up with Tia Anita (Yaneth’s mom) and her brother, Alonso, and his wife, Esperanza. (As I am writing this, Javier has just got back and brought dunkin’ donuts). They both live in Ohio, and actually moved there from Hackettstown! Small world. I also met a neighbor of theirs who they call Chapi. He owns a few farms and produces Cacao and plantains. For evening snack we had mazamorra, which is made with dried corn cooked in milk? They also gave us some panela to mix in with it to make it a little sweeter. IT wasn’t bad, just kinda plain LOL. I’d have it again with a little more panela and some cinnamon.

Stayed up late playing board games with Sofi. The area was really beautiful, just painfully hot and humid. I was also told the mosquitoes were a force to be reckoned with. I had yet to experience it. I also wore long pants and a hoodie to protect myself. For which I’d say I did pretty well for the first night. 

Went to bed at 12:30. It rained very hard and we lost power. 

16th - Woke up at 6am sweaty and sticky. Due to the lack of :power, all the fans had turned off and everyone else woke up with mosquito bites. The mosquito bites look different? They don’t itch, they are just flat red circles that almost look like some kind of rash. It isn’t until you accidentally brush over them, or your clothing rubs against it that they itch like CRAZY, but the area affected just stays bright red and relatively small. Kind of like a zit.  They served me tinto (black coffee with a LOT of sugar) and pan. 

Yaneth told me they were heading to the plaza to buy some food for the weekend. It was a very short walk to the Plaza. Javier told me that people from the surrounding farms would come every saturday and sunday to set up shop in the Plaza, exactly like a farmers market. Except more yelling. Everyone selling is trying to get your attention by getting in your face a little bit. It was very distracting but also kinda funny. There were also a lot of people pulling around carts with produce, especially younger boys, either selling it or buying to to sell in town. From the Plaza you could also see a series of mountains that are smaller and have a flat top. They are the Cerros de los Abechuchos. It’s really neat to see them in contrast to the large pointy mountains behind them. Then we walked to the town center and bought salpicon (a fruit drink with a lot of cut up fruits) and avena from a street vendor. It was SO good and refreshing especially because it was so hot out. 

We finished our browsing and got back at 9:30am to eat Tolimense tamales for breakfast. I was told that the reason they were kind of spicy was because of the pepper. Not gonna lie, I couldn’t tell that it had pepper, but regardless they were amazing. Some family friends of theirs stopped by and dropped off their kids while they finished work. Johis, 12, and his little brother who was 4. Sofi and I played with them while Laurita was in class. We threw around a football and played rana (pretty much a ring toss game) until lunch time. I was EXHAUSTED. 

I almost forgot! They introduced me to a new fruit called Guama. It looks like a huge hardshelled green bean, but inside are cotton ball-looking fruit. You eat the cotton part and spit out the seed. It was really refreshing and hard to get the fruit off the seed, but eventually I got it! Javier showed me how he used to make fake earrings with the seeds when he was younger. It was pretty hilarious. The split open the seed just enough to hold open and clip onto the ear. 

at 2pm lunch was served and we ate Sancocho with rice and ají. The ají was really good and really just tasted like pico de gallo. I went down for 10 minutes before they woke me up to take a walk back into town with the whole gang. We walked to the park (similar to marietta square) and had ice cream and hung out there until it got dark out. On our way back we met another family friend of theirs at a panadería. We had FRESHLY BAKED BREAD and water. it was so good. I had one with arequipe in it. The croissants sold for 200 pesos a piece. I was Shooketh. 

When we got back we started winding down and visited with their family friends. Who asked me lots and lots of questions LOL it was fun. Laurita and Sofi made a lemon pie, which we shared the following day. It also rained very heavy overnight. 

[coloringthegreyscale]

Hi, despite my body’s popular belief, I am in fact still living

So this counts as me surviving my first Pride, motherfuckers!

I’m eating pizza, listening to music, and contemplating life’s questions like “Why the fuck am I still awake?” but for those who want to hear about this, here it is:

So Friday, we got there at around 3. Doors didn’t open until 6, so that meant we could wander around the Short North for a few hours. There wasn’t much to do other than wander around the shops and make friends with the staff at Pressed Grill while we ate loaded cottage fries and waited for my phone to charge. Spoiler Alert: Phone didn’t actually charge and in fact the battery died while it was off and plugged in, so fuck everything for about five minutes until I decide that I’m not going to let my bitchy phone ruin my fucking night.

Then, it’s what every single person who ever purchased a ticket to an event with general admission - it’s the standing game.

Standing game that lasts 3 and a half fucking hours.

So we used this time wisely by making friends with the people around us. I, miraculously, without the aid of my phone, managed to run into @dottiethunderfuck​, but we couldn’t talk very well because we were about two rows of people away from each other. Thank you, Dottie for giving me more encouragement! I wish we could have talked more. You’re a gem of a human being.

So everything started an hour and a half later than it was actually supposed to. First it was the underwear fashion show put on by one of the local gay businesses, hosted by our very own  Virginia West and Crystal Something Something. (Nina West was billed to host with Virginia, but is out for five weeks due to an expensive foot surgery that keeps her off social media, and no one is buying this story, what the fuck guys?). They talked about the rally Virginia headed because Pence was in town that day, and this is pretty much an excuse for me to say I love our gay city and drag queens. Also, turns out my roommate was high school friends with one of the models. Surprise!

Then, after what I think it was probably 5 hours at this point, after the fashion show and the opening music act, The AAA Girls came on and they were all gorgeous. They performed four or five songs I think? The banter was hilarious, the uncoordinated choreography was great. I loved watching them.

After was a lightning round of a meet and greet, so if this story doesn’t seem very detailed, it’s because I literally had about a minute to meet three queens. Went like this.

So first off, I need to mentioned that the art that I made was small in scale, but because of the wood and the watercolor paper, and the fact that I knew it would probably get jostled around a lot, I had wrapped them in tissue paper.and wrote which belonged to who so I wouldn’t get them mixed up. I neglected to unwrap them before I handed them out and I probably should have, but you live and you learn. I still fucking gave them the thing when I almost forgot to bring them twice.

So Courtney was the first in the line, so I struggled with the art being like “hold on, I actually have gifts for you guys!” and I handed them off to each of them. I vaguely remember Courtney saying something like “Oh thank you” and then “Oh, it’s beautiful!” but I dunno. I could be making that up? I know she said something. Did I say this was fast and I was super nervous?

So Willam actually gestured me back and asked me my name and then introduced herself (thanks Willam, for speaking to me like we were just normal strangers who met for the first time and not like I’m a nervous idiot fan who can’t properly speak to people - that’s not sarcastic, that’s entirely serious). She asked me if I wanted a photo and then said something like “Come, settle into my sweaty armpit” and then wrapped her arm around me. Photo taken, she wished me a happy pride, thanked me for the gift, I’m pretty sure I got a hug at some point and then I was passed off to Alaska, who hugged me, thanked me for the art and said it was beautiful. Over, done. I’m shaking. But fuck it. Done.

Apparently the roughly 45 seconds I got with them was lucky because we found out the next day that about 40 people were turned away. There were a lot of rumors hopping around and people were admittedly incredibly upset and bitter, but guys - do not blame the queens. I am certain that if they’d known there were people still waiting, they would have stayed. The whole event seemed to have hit a huge hitch somewhere and it wasn’t very well laid out. So be mad and what not, just try to keep a level head if you can.

Anyway, we walked back to our car, went home, got about three hours of sleep, woke up at around 7 to get ready and head back down so we could get a decent place for the parade. Which was two hours long. I got hugs from my coworkers who were marching in the parade and then at some point ended up just sitting on the street with my new #lovewins flag that we need to figure out where to put it.

Another long walk down to the festival, passed out on the grass, wandered, and then caught a ride back up to Short North so we could eat proper food at Pressed Grill (if you guys are ever in the Short North in Columbus, this is one of those places you need to try. Food is decent price, staff is super friendly, and everything is delicious). Then cue another walk, back to the car, said goodbye to friends we met up with, and then back to Axis.

Sidebar: On our way back, we were going to cut through the convention center because it provides a bit of relief from the heat and also bathrooms. Origins was happening the same time, so there was a crowd of people. As we were passing, an older guy looked at me and said “You need to drink some water. You look bad.” My roommate commented that that was a rude thing to say, to which he adjusted his wording to say “Oh, I just meant she looked tired and probably should stay hydrated to stay healthy.”

Yes, hi. Not sure who died and made you my dad, but I’ve been walking for like twelve hours with minimal sleep. I’ve been drinking all day. So kindly go fuck yourself.

Anyway! Back at Axis, we keep getting conflicting stories on what is happening with Adore’s meet and greet. The irritating part about this, is that it’s before her performance and during the giant drag show that’s happening before it, and we keep getting different information. @dottiethunderfuck​ comes to the rescue again, finds me, and tells me that it’s definitely inside the club in the VIP lounge at 9 pm, but capacity for the lounge is only 50 people, so it’s best we get there early. So we book it to the upstairs because fuck taking chances at this point, and also fuck standing and double fuck being in the heat.

So we chill for the next hour, sitting, chatting, people watching, etc. Until we start to line up for the meet and greet that Adore DEFINITELY had, do not let any trolls on Instagram try to convince you otherwise.

So here’s the twist of the fucking story. Roomie is usually the bold and collected one of the two of us, while I’m the one riddled with social anxiety. I felt like I was actually doing a pretty good job at keeping my cool, up until Adore walks past and says hi to everyone and then I look over to realize that Roomie has completely lost all of her cool and is like “Holy fuck, I’m meeting Adore, what now?” and I’m standing there like “well if your going to panic, what the fuck am I going to do?”

This time I at least had the conscious thought to unwrap the gift before I give it to her. But here we go:

Roomie had me video her meeting Adore. While doing so, suddenly Adore is smiling and waving at me. Apparently, Roomie had told her that I was excited to see her but I’m very shy and nervous, so I might be very quiet. She steps off after getting her photo and second hug and now it’s my turn.

So I’m greeted with an instant hug. She didn’t even wait for me to get to her, she met me halfway, and I handed her the art saying I had a gift and she looked at it in disbelief, the conversation went a bit like this:

“Wait, this is for me? I can keep this?” “Yes.” “This is beautiful! What is it? Watercolor? I love it!” “Yes.” (it’s also got a bit of charcoal but I digress)

At this point, she was fiddling with it to try to stand it up on the table and she turns and looks at me and asks me if I’m alright. I tell her I’m fine, I’m just a very nervous person. But I’ve got her attention now so I conjure up every single bit of courage that I have to tell her what I kept forgetting to say to Bianca and Courtney and Willam and Alaska.

“I wanted to make you something to say thank you, because you made me smile when I really really needed to.”

It’s a very simplified statement on what kind of mindset I had been in about 10 months ago, but she hugged me again and said something to the effect of “That’s incredibly sweet. Thank you so much. You’re too sweet.”

She said something about how she couldn’t wait to show it to her cousin, that he’d love to see it because he’s an artist too. We got our photo together, she thanked me again and wished me a happy Pride, I told her to have a good night and we parted ways.

So yes, guys. For those who think that Adore didn’t have a meet and greet, she did. If you didn’t know about it, that’s the combined fault of yours and the coordinators who didn’t explain things to the staff. So that clusterfuck, again, is on them and not on the queens.

Anyway - back down to catch the second half of the giant ass drag show going on outside.

Yeah, hi. We’re Columbus, OH and our drag scene is fucking a-maze-ing. Hi. Motherfucker. Stage nearly broke down it was so shook by all that talent.

We also knew one of the queens and we were SO PROUD to be able to tip her on a stage with this kind of a crowd. She’s come so far. She fucking worked it.

I got my fingers sucked on by one of the queens taking my tip. So there was that.

I ended up next to @dottiethunderfuck​ again and we both kept shooting heart eyes at each queen and king that came up on that stage because hi, did I mention that Columbus has a fucking great drag scene because it definitely does. I love them.

Then Adore was announced, she got up on stage and did her set, which was very short, but she was absolutely hypnotic. When I could see her. Some asshole decided he was going to try to tip her and wouldn’t move. Roomie at one point tapped him on the shoulder and was like “She’s not going to take your tip. She’s not that kind of performer.” He tried to start a fight with her. It was stupid. She’s a presence, though.

Second she left the stage, we had to bounce because we were about to pass out.

AND THAT WAS MY FIRST PRIDE!

I don’t have pictures of the meet and greet yet, because those were taken by the club and are to be posted on Facebook later. Thank you everyone who helped me through my random breakdowns leading up to this. It was probably a good thing that I didn’t finish the Bianca costume, but I at least got to make some art that I was relatively proud of and managed to give it away (which is a problem for me, if you knew me).

I’m going to continue to lurk in my dark room now and cuddle my dogs because I have to work tomorrow and I definitely don’t want to.

[the-sinnamon-roll-writes]

Moving On

As stated in a previous ask, I am an absolute sucker for angst and discontent. I’m also a fan of happy endings though, so it usually works out. Stranger Things fic, takes place after the end of season 2, so there are spoilers, if anyone still hasn’t watched it. Eleven has a tough time adjusting.

She was running. She didn’t know where she was, or where she was going, only that she had done something wrong. And something was following her. The long hallways were dim and ominous, seemingly endless. She didn’t want to know what would happen to her if she got caught. Left, right, on and on in the dark. Right, left, just keep moving through the mud and around the trees. Left- suddenly she realized she was in another world. The hallways had disappeared, leaving her outside in the cold. Still dark, but eerily silent and familiar. The upside down.

“If you find Will...” a voice, seemingly from nowhere, trailed in and out, making it hard to discern exactly what she was meant to do. “... I’m coming for him.” Will. She had to find Will. It was her fault he was lost, she had to focus. There was something else. Someone else. What was her name? It started with a B. Barb? Barbara. Will and Barbara. They were both missing because of her. Focus. Think of Barb, find her, help get her to safety. Images began to appear, shapes scattered along the floor. Bones, animal and human alike, some with meat still attached, others totally stripped clean. Her skin started to crawl when she saw a corpse with enough flesh and matted red hair to recognize. Barbara. This was her fault. Her chest was tight, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe the more she stayed there. Barb was dead because of her. She was dead. Gone. “Gone. Gone!” Her soft whimpers soon grew to shouting, then just wordless screams. She couldn’t pull herself out, she was stuck in the upside down with no one, no one but the corpses she had made. She would have to stay and watch them decay, or be eaten, for who-knows how long, all the while knowing she was responsible for it. Her throat was raw, but she couldn’t keep herself from wailing. How many people’s lives had she impacted? The Holland’s, the Byer’s, Dustin, Lucas. Mike... Eleven was suddenly shaken awake. She was immediately, almost overwhelmingly aware of her racing heart and damp cheeks, and then of Jim kneeling down beside her bed. “Hey, what’s goin’ on here?” he asked quietly, brushing her hair back away from her sweaty forehead soothingly. “You were crying in your sleep. Loud enough to wake me up. This is the third time this month, what’s this about?” Third time she’d woken him up with it, at least. It hardly seemed like a night went by without being visited by some sort of nightmare. Sometimes she was helplessly watching monsters devour her friends, other times she was still at the lab, being tied down and tested like a lab rat. However, the most recurrent, and the most awful one was when she was trapped in the upside down, and forced to face the harm she had done. That was pure torture. How could she explain that? The thought of his face when she stumbled her way through and explanation was enough to put her off. “N-nothing. I’m okay.” She tried to sound reassuring, but he was having none of it. “Right, I guess that’s why you woke up screeching in the middle of the night. Come on kid, talk to me. Maybe I can help.” “No.” Her voice was more firm as she slowly woke up and came to her senses. “I don’t need help. I’m okay.” “It doesn’t look like you are. You’re pretty run down.” “Tired. I want to go back to sleep.” Skeptism radiated from his face as he looked at her. After a moment though, he nodded and stretched his arms up over his head, yawning. “Fine. Do you want me to stay in here with you until you fall asleep again?” She hesitated for second then nodded back. “Yes.” It was hard to say if El was asking him to stay to appease him or because she genuinely didn’t want to be alone. Either way, Hopper pulled up the chair that was kept in her room and made himself comfortable beside the bed.  Eleven’s hand managed to creep out and hold on to one of Jim’s. She inched towards him until she was holding his forearm as well, regardless of how uncomfortable he was. For his part, he didn’t say anything, only resuming to gently stroking her hair until he was sure that she had fallen back asleep. Then, with a heavy sigh, He slowly pulled his arm free and stood up to go back to bed himself. ••• It took Jane a while to get the hang of school. The swarms of other students was overwhelming to her, and she just knew they were all staring right at her. No one stopped to say anything to her. What were they thinking? Did they somehow sense that she was a freak among them? About all the things she’d done? She tried to tell herself that they were just looking because she was new, but questions like those kept popping up against her will. To top it all off, Mike wasn’t even there. Jim- Dad - had said that he’d gotten her in the same classes as Mike, so she would have someone there to support her and to help her keep up with the other kids. But two periods in and there was no sign of Mike anywhere. She didn’t see Dustin or Lucas, or even Max for that matter. She was alone, surrounded by strangers. Hopper had instructed her not to use her powers, but it was near impossible to resist with so many people brushing up against her, clipping her shoulders, and pushing her left, right, forward, backward. By lunchtime, Eleven was more than ready for a break. Rather than go to the cafeteria with all the other kids, she tagged out and went to find an empty classroom to eat her lunch. It was quiet there, and the lights were off. The little light that shone into the room from the hallway was just enough for her to make out what she was eating. Around halfway through her meal, she reached into the backpack Hopper had gotten for her and pulled out the clunky walki-talkie that seemed to take up half the space in her bag. Then she wiggled her jacket off from around her waist and wrapped the sleeves over her eyes. It only took her a moment to find herself in the pitch black void once more. She had to repress a shudder before she could make herself do what she meant to do. Focus. Mike, Dustin, Lucas. Find them. To her relief, she heard what sounded like Dustin’s laugh, right of where she stood. As she made her way over towards him, the figures started to grow clearer. Dustin, Lucas, and Max were all sitting by each other around a cafeteria table. So they were in the lunchroom. Okay. No way she was going in there. Where were Mike and Will at? They didn’t appear to be with their other friends. She closed her eyes and bought up a picture of Mike in her head, once again focusing hard to find him. Soon enough, she starting to hear sniffles and coughs, this time behind her. She spun around and saw Mike laying in his bed and looking extremely worn out. Luckily he almost always kept his walki-talkie on hand. “Mike?” He jumped at the sudden noise, but quickly recovered. Snatching up his walki, he hold it up to his mouth and said, “this is Mike, I copy. Who is this?” “Eleven. Where are you?” “I’m home sick. I’ve been throwing up all morning. Why?” She shifted around for a second. Even if he couldn’t see her, Mike picked up on her hesitation. “What is it?” “I’m at the school. It’s my first day here and I don’t know anyone.” “Wait- seriously? I’m so sorry El, I didn’t know.  I can’t believe I’m missing-“ he was cut off when he jerked forward and heaved into a bowl beside him. Jane turned around, in part to give him privacy, part to keep from gagging herself. He managed to regain a semblance of composure again and continued. “What do you mean you don’t know anyone? Aren’t Dustin and Lucas and Max all there?” “I haven’t seen them in person. I don’t think they’re in any of my classes.” “Oh yeah, we all have separate classes in the morning. I forgot... why aren’t you at least with them at lunch?” “It’s too loud. I started going into the food room-“ “Cafeteria.” “Yes. Cafeteria. There was too many people. They were all pushing and shouting. I didn’t like it.” Her answer was short, but predictable. She didn’t have much experience being near loud crowds, and the few occasions that she’d had didn’t end well. It usually ended in gunfire or accidentally tearing a hole into another dimension. “I don’t think they like me.” She was very matter-of-fact about it even though a part of her had to be at least a little upset. “Oh. Where are you now?” He asked, trying to steer away from her last statement. It would be better to talk about that when he was actually in school and could see what exactly she was picking up on from everyone else. “In a classroom. No one was using it. I haven’t seen Will yet either.” “I called him earlier. He’s sick too. He still has nightmares that keep him up all night. Not getting enough sleep is really taking its toll on him.” Eleven felt a sting of guilt in her chest. Her fault. She couldn’t fix it. If only she could go back and keep him from getting hurt. She would do it in a second. Anything to redeem herself; to mend her mistakes. “I have to go. I think the bell just rang.” In the few hours that she had been there she had realized that the bell was a god to everyone. Despite still jumping whenever it went off, she had to admire the power that little thing held. “Alright. I swear, I’ll be there Monday.” “Bye Mike.” It was only after the walkie had been silent for a moment that Mike looked over to the alarm clock on his bed. 12:22. The bell was supposed to ring in eight minutes. Why had she left then? What could he have mentioned that upset her enough to leave? ••• Thankfully Jane had her afternoon classes with friends. Even if they didn’t have much of a chance to talk, it was still a huge relief for her to be around some familiar faces. Dustin’s smile, Lucas’ pat on the shoulder, the teacher’s friendly nod were all a welcome relief. She even waved back at Max when the other girl had waved shyly (in fact, she had warmed up considerably towards Max after seeing her holding hands with Lucas). They all were sitting around her, and while she wasn’t entirely sure why, she didn’t complain. It just felt safer that way. She knew at least two boys would be holding a grudge against her, although they likely wouldn’t have tried to take her on again. How many stories had people heard? Nerve wracking. Being surrounded by friends made the entire afternoon much more bearable. After the final bell rang, they all walked together toward the front of the school. The other three kept up a constant chatter, asking her how her first day was, if she had enjoyed herself, et cetera, et cetera. Thankfully they were able to keep the conversation going with her simple answers of “okay,” or “it was fine”. They reached the front exit and Dustin and Lucas made their way straight towards the bike rack, and Max produced her skateboard, seemingly from nowhere. “Wait, El, where’s your ride?” Lucas asked. “Dad. I’m supposed to wait here for him.” “Do you mean Hopper? You don’t have a bike?” “No. I don’t know how to ride them except on the handle bars.” Dustin scanned the parking lot as they spoke. “I don’t see the chief’s truck. Do you want us to take you home?” She hesitated. Home did sound appealing after the day. She wanted nothing more than to just go to her room and rest. She had no way of contacting her dad though, if he wasn’t near a radio. How upset would he be if she wasn’t there when he arrived? Better to wait. “I should stay here. He’ll be here soon.” “We’ll wait here with you then, then,” Max jumped in. She nudged Lucas then leaned against the bicycle rack. “I don’t need to be anywhere soon.” Eleven smiled at the three of them and they all fell back into chatting jovially. ••• After nearly 45 minutes, Jim still hadn’t shown up. Despite what Max had said, and despite how much everyone looked to still be enjoying themselves, Jane was feeling anxious. Her friends couldn’t stay there all night with her. Where was he? Finally sick of waiting, she interjected, moving the conversation from what cool Christmas plans they had towards what they should do. “We should go. Dad is probably just working late.” “Alright, but it’s getting dark El, at least let us give you a ride out that way. Just to be safe.” She nodded, and was just climbing on behind Dustin when Hopper came speeding up in his signature Chevrolet and screeched to a halt beside them. “Hey El- what are you doing?” “They were going to give me a ride home.” “I thought I told you to wait here for me,” Hopper said testily. Eleven was a bit taken aback by his tone. After all, he had been the one running late, not her. It wasn’t her fault, or any of theirs, that he was behind. Irritation bubbled up, and she pursed her lips ever so slightly. “I waited. We all did. It’s getting dark, and we all want to go home.” Her tone was clipped and matter-of-fact, and she said it all while staring him right in the eye. He had to admit, she had a point. He’d worked much later than he had meant to. For such a small town, it seemed unusual how many complaints people had. Since the exposure of the (half) truth behind Barbara’s death, he had been extra busy dealing with various anxieties. He was getting calls about strange smells, oddly tasting water, a mystery blight ruining a garden. Thankfully, as annoying as they were, it never took him over 10 minutes to solve the problem. A dead raccoon under the porch, mold growing in an unwashed sink, a jealous neighbor sabotaging a prettier yard, all easily explained. He decided to move on rather than argue with her. “Do any of you other kids want a ride?” A chorus of “no’s” and a scramble to get on bikes and skateboard later, Eleven was getting her seat belt buckled and Jim started to head home. “How was it?” he asked, about halfway there. “Was it fun?” She shrugged, staring out the window silently. “What’s that supposed mean?” “It was good, I guess. There was a lot of people.” Her less-than enthusiastic tone told him that he wasn’t getting the full truth. “Were they nice? Did you meet anyone cool? What’d you think of the classes?” he prodded, wanting to extract more information from her. “I liked the classes. The teachers were nice to me. Everyone else ignored me. I don’t think they like me.” “What? What makes you think that? What about your other friends?” “Mike and Will weren’t there. I didn’t know anyone in any of my morning classes. Dustin, Lucas, and Max were alll in my afternoon classes though.” They were nearing home, and Hopper was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. He’d never had problems like this in school, and Sarah... Sarah had been too young to start having issues with other kids. The problem could wait, he decided, at least for now. He had the weekend to think of a plan to help her. For now, he would just focus on making her feel better. “Want some ice cream?” Lame, but it made her brighten up all the same. “Can I have some? I thought ice cream was for special occasions.” “Well, you made it through your first day of school! And it’s a Friday night, sometimes rules can get broken on Fridays. And some Saturdays. Sundays can be fair game too. Or any time I don’t want to bake anything for something sweet.” He pulled up the driveway to his house and parked right out front. “Weekends?” “Yeah! Tell ya what, why don’t we go inside and watch some movies. We’ll have some junk food for dinner tonight. I’ll call for pizza. What kind do you want?” “I thought you said we were going to start eating restaurant food less. We were going to start fixing healthier meals, right?” “Oh, you don’t want pizza then?” he asked skeptically. “I didn’t mean we’d stop eating out forever. Every now and then is alright. We can make something tonight if you want, or we could start eating right tomorrow. I’ll leave it up to you.” “Cheese.” There had been no hesitation, and Jim smiled over at her and nodded. As they climbed out of the car and started walking inside, he confirmed, “so cheese for you, pepperoni for me. We’ll go inside, you go ahead and get washed up, I’ll get it ordered. Alright?” “Alright.” With that, she dashed inside, and was already in the bathroom by the time he got inside. Time for dinner. ••• About halfway through the second movie, they were surrounded by empty pizza boxes and snack wrappers, and Jane had fallen asleep beside Jim on the couch. She was slouched over and had her head resting on his shoulder. How she could sleep like that was beyond him, but he didn’t want to bother her. He figured he could just finish off the movie and then just carry her into bed and made no move to wake her. Until she started hyperventilating. Her breathing was strained, and she was shaking like a leaf. She had been whimpering softly, but it quickly escalated into panicked cries. It all came over her so fast that Jim barely had time to process the situation before she bolted up right, gasping for air. Unable to think of what he could do, he put an arm around her shoulder and started to rub her back. As soon as he touched her, she turned around and practically threw herself into Jim’s arms, sobbing into his shoulder. “Hey, woah- what’s wrong?” He instinctively shifted his arms so that he could hug her tightly. “Was the movie to scary for you?” Although he’d been trying to lighten the mood, Jane shook her head, still not capable of speaking without tearing up and crying again. So he settled for just holding her closely and rubbing her back. It took nearly thirty minutes for her to wind down to just a few sniffles here and there. Even then, he waited until she was finally able to breathe normally before he asked again. “What were you dreaming about, kid?” That was it. She couldn’t keep quiet anymore. It was time to come out and tell Hopper what was going on, and look for help from him. She found herself incapable of meeting his eyes as she started to tell him all about her nightmares. Each one in great detail, while Jim listened patiently until the very end. ••• “Joyce, I don’t know what to do.” Despite the fact that it was the middle of the night and she should have been asleep, Jim was thankful that she answered the phone. He had nearly flown into a panic himself, angry and upset that there seemed to be nothing he could do. “What happened?” “It’s Jane. You know she’s woken up crying in the middle of the night a few times. It’s gotten worse. It’s almost every night now. And the nightmares she’s been having- she told me about them.” “What are they about?” Joyce sounded tired, but concerned. They were both whispering, in an attempt to let all the young people sleep soundly. “All kinds of shit. The lab, the demigorgon, the portal, all of it. She’s blaming herself. Joyce, I don’t know how to fix this.” Silence for a moment, as Joyce chewed her lip anxiously. “This one’s kinda out of my league too, Hop. She’s been through so much, I wouldn’t know where to begin to help her.” “Come on, hasn’t Will ever had nightmares? He’s seem some pretty messed up shit too. How does he handle it?” he asked, almost desperately. “Yeah, he does have nightmares. But El has been through so much more than Will has. She’s gonna be hurting inside for a long, long time. Will has been seeing a therapist though, and he’s saying it’s been helping him with a lot.” Hopper sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe that’s the right way to go. Do you have any other ideas? At all? Her case isn’t exactly normal. I don’t think many shrinks deal with government conspiracies on this scale so often. And I don’t want anyone trying to patronize her because they don’t believe her. She doesn’t deserve that.” “I don’t know- but she should be a part of this. It’s her life. At the end of the day, El is the one you need to discuss it with. At least start there. Maybe she  just needs some reassurance. Any way you decide, you should talk to her first.” “Yeah...” Hopper trailed off wearily. “I don’t want to stress her out anymore than she already is. I know this is asking a lot, but Joyce, could you come over and help me? I don’t know what I’m doing here.” “Of course. Dinner tomorrow night, around six? I’ll bring the boys with me. Between all of us, we should be able to come up with something.” “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” “You sound like you need some rest. Go get some, Jim.” ••• The next day Jim tried to be a little extra nice to Jane. He stayed home from work, made a big breakfast with all of her favorite things, spent nearly half the afternoon reading with her, trading off every few pages as usual until they finished the novel. She was making impressive strides in reading comprehension and loved to dive into new stories. Neither of them bought up the events of the previous night, and if Eleven had heard him talking to Joyce on the phone, she didn’t say anything about it. “So what do you want for dinner tonight? No more pizza, we’re eating something relatively healthy. You gonna help me make something? The Byers are coming over, and I don’t want to feed them leftovers.” “Your spaghetti is good,” Eleven offered up. “And I think I could help.” “What else?” “What?” “What else are we gonna serve? We can’t feed them just spaghetti, we gotta get some veggies, protein, you know, a decent meal.” “Pears.” Her immediate response took him by surprise. How she had jumped so quickly to pears? “We should give them pears.” “Well- yeah, we could slice up a few pears for people. But pears aren’t vegetables. You can tell because pears taste good,” he added with a wink when her brow furrowed subtly. “Do you think you could put together a salad? It doesn’t need to be fancy. I’ll help you figure out what to toss in it, but you can wash them and chop ‘em up.” “Okay.” It was one of the first times she’d worked in a kitchen to make a real meal from scratch, and she was eager to help. ••• An hour later dinner was on the table and the Byers were knocking on the door. Jim opened up, stepping aside to welcome them in, noting that there was a third person among the boys. Mike. He patted the boys on their backs, then raised an eyebrow at Joyce. She just smiled and shrugged in a fashion that made it clear she knew what he was communicating. “I know I didn’t check, but I thought he could help. They’re really close, it can’t hurt.” Will and Mike had hurried over to Eleven upon entering the house, while Jonathan held back beside his mother, eyeing them all fondly. Mike was still sounding stuffed up, but he was looking much more rejuvenated than he had been. Both Hopper and Joyce were pleased to see the genuine smiles on every face. “Good idea. Let’s go eat.” Joyce nodded, and she and Jim started to herd the children towards the dining room. No time was wasted before everyone dig into the food and filled their plates. There was little talking for a few minutes, and the sounds of chewing, slurping, and fork against glass were most of what could be heard. It took less than fifteen minutes for everyone to finish eating, and Jonathan wasted no time in clearing the table and starting to wash the dishes. When Jim started to object, he was just brushed off and ignored. “It’s the least I can do, Hop. You fed us, we can pick up. Right Will?” he asked, elbowing his little brother on the shoulder. Both Will and Mike took the hint and started to assist Jonathan with the clean up. Eleven made to start helping herself, but was stopped when Joyce placed a gentle hand on her forearm. “Jane. I need to talk to you in private. It’s not anything bad honey, you don’t need to look so scared. Let’s go to the living room for a moment.” Joyce’s voice was just as soft and kind as always, so Eleven followed behind her with more curiosity than anxiety. Joyce led her to the far side of the living room, away from the boys, and sat down on the edge of the sofa. Without saying anything, El took a seat beside her and looked over at her expectantly. “Hopper asked me to talk to you. He mentioned that you’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. Could you tell me why?” Suddenly shifty, Eleven became interested in the pillows on the couch, and she shook her head no. “El, honey, it might help to talk about it. You need to be brave and face whatever it is that’s upsetting you, or it’ll just get worse. You can’t deal with it until you acknowledge that.” Eleven looked up to meet Joyce’s eyes and, over a second of hesitation, nodded. “Nightmares. Almost every night. I can’t stay asleep for too long, or they come back.” She was quiet, but at least she was talking. “What happens in your nightmares?” A small shrug and a glance back down at the floor, and Joyce was considering trying to move the conversation along when Eleven answered. And what she did hear broke her heart. Joyce suddenly understood exactly what Jim had been feeling when they talked on the phone. “Bad things. The lab, the upside down... Will and Barbra. What I put them through.” Her voice had dropped so low that Joyce could barely make out what she was saying. Absolute helplessness. It was evident on her face just how deep this went for Eleven. A sort of desolation, the pain of a dozen lifetimes etched into a too-young face. Had her eyes always been so haunted? An hour ago, Joyce wouldn’t have thought that those wide, spirited eyes could have become so tormented. “Sweetie, none of it was you’re fault- no, I mean it,” Joyce insisted over Jane’s scoff, “it’s not on you.” “It wouldn’t have happened without me.” A slight quiver in her voice gave away her distress despite her matter-of-fact words. “Yes it would have. It all would have happened without you. But, we wouldn’t have made it if it was anyone else.” That got her attention, and Joyce ran with it. “Eleven, those men at Hawkins would have done anything to get to through to that place. They would’ve snatched some other child, and put them through the same things they put you through until the got the same results. But they stole you. They took someone who was strong enough, and brave enough to come back and save everyone. That wouldn’t have happened without you.” Jane opened and then closed her mouth silently. Evidently she’d never thought of it that way. Still, she looked hesitant to accept the justification. “They- they might not have found anyone else. Mama was a part of the experiment. That’s why it was me. It couldn’t have been someone else.” “Honey, they would’ve just gotten another woman to be a part of that study. They are the only ones to blame for everything that’s happened.” “It’s true, El.” Both Jane and Joyce jumped at the new voice, and looked around to see everyone else standing there in the doorway, very clearly eavesdropping. Mike took a step forward and continued. “Remember? It’s like I told you, you’re not the monster. You saved me. You saved all of us.” The group of boys all made their way over towards the two girls. Will took a seat beside Jane and put an arm around her shoulders. “I wouldn’t be here without you. I’d be dead in the upside down if not for you.” “Like Barb.” That stopped everyone for a moment before Jonathan spoke up. “Her death wasn’t in vain though. Barbara helped to throw the door open at the lab. We got justice for her. It wasn’t your fault El. Nancy doesn’t blame you either.” Eleven looked around the semi-circle around her. Her mouth opened, then closed, pressing her lips tightly together. Her chin trembled against her will, and she was aware of teardrops welling in her eyes. It felt as though her throat had swollen up, and she wasn’t able to get out any of the words she wanted to say. If she even did have the right words to express herself. Thankfully, the others appeared able to read her mind. Almost immediately, Hopper and Joyce gathered her in their arms for a tight hug, catching Will in the embrace. Mike leaned in to touch his forehead to hers, and Will squeezed his arm gently across her back. Jonathan hovered back a step, but set his hand on Jane’s head in an awkward attempt to be supportive. Sitting there, surrounded by friends, Eleven realized that she had people who loved her. Loved her for who she was, and not what she was capable of. All of them were there for her. They cared for her, and she cared about them. For the first time in her life, she had a family. A family that forgave her actions, and were standing by her now through her hard times. Despite the guilt still nagging somewhere at the back of her brain, she felt more happy than she had ever thought possible. It would take a long time for her to fully forgive herself. But El knew that she would have them there the entire time.

[topimagines]

King and Queen- Josh Dun

Request-  Can you do one where Josh and Y/N are 10 years apart? He's 28 and she's 18 and a lot of fans are giving them shit but both their families, Tyler and Jenna are super supportive Because Y/N treats Josh like a freaking King and she's mature for her age

“Y/N I love your senior quote in the yearbook. It's so poetic. I'm shocked you didn’t pick a quote from a Twenty One Pilots song.” Your friend Maddie told you.

“Yeah, I just really liked this quote better. Also I thought I would be a little weird to quote my bo-” you cut yourself off from saying anymore.

Nobody but your parents,Tyler, Jenna, and his family knew about you and Josh's relationship and you weren't planning on telling anyone soon.

“Your what? Fantasy boyfriend Josh?” She teased.

“Yeah. Exactly.” You pushed it off not wanting to let it slip that you have been dating Josh for the past 15 months.

You had met Josh about over a year ago at a club. You were underage and used a fake I.D. to get in. You saw Josh from across the club and his bright pink hair caught your eye. He came over to you and started to talk to you and the both of you instantly had a connection. He didn’t know you were only 17 at the time until he asked if you wanted to head back to his place. That’s when you warned him that you were only 17. He didn’t care, because he wanted to get to know you more than to have sex with you. You were pretty mature for your age and the connection you two had made the age difference seem like nothing.

After hanging out and going on small dates for about 2 months Josh finally asked you out. You didn’t want to tell your parents, fearing they would say it was unacceptable that you were dating someone 10 years older than you. Josh insisted saying it was the right thing to do. They took it fairly well just warning Josh to not mess anything up.

Now 15 months into the relationship you were about to walk across the stage of you high school and be in the real world. You were excited, because that meant you and the yellow haired boy you loved so much can go far away for a bit together.

Your friends were all fans of Twenty One Pilots and whenever they brought them up you so badly wanted to talk about Josh. When your friend went on about how hot Josh was you got a bit jealous, but she didn’t know you were dating so you couldn’t be mad. When Josh went on tour you facetimed nightly and he made sure to stop by whenever he had a day off to see you. You and all your friends went to the concert that was closest to you and when you went missing after the show you had to come up with an excuse that you got sick and your mom came to pick you up, when really you were hanging out Tyler, Jenna, and Josh then later went to Josh’s hotel room for some “privacy”.

Everyone who knew about you two were super nice about it and often forgot you were still in high school. You talked about mature topics and you got along with everyone. Jenna and you were extremely close too. She always said you were like her long lost twin.

When you turned 18 Josh made sure to see you and spend as much time with you as possible. It was hard since he spent a lot of time on the road, but you didn’t mind, your facetime dates were always some of the best.

It was the night before your graduation and you were on the phone with Josh. It was one of your usual facetime dates. He was at the airport on his way back to you and you laid on your bed taking in the sight of your boyfriend.

“So you excited to graduate babe?” he asked.

“Yup, but I’m more excited to see you.” you said.

“I know. Only 11 hours, 45 minutes and 43 seconds.” Josh said looking down at his watch.

“That’s cute you have a count down.”

“I’m always counting down for you baby.” he said and you laughed.

“I love you, but it’s getting late and I should probably sleep.” you said while yawning.

“Alright. Good night love.” he said blowing you a kiss then hanging up.

You fell asleep and before you knew it the feeling of lips on your forehead woke you up.

“Josh.” you nearly tackled him with a kiss.

“Good morning beautiful.” he said before kissing you again.

“I’m so glad you’re here” you said hugging him close.

“I know and although I would love to hold you all day, it’s almost 10 and you need to get ready.” he said letting you go.

You frowned before walking over to your vanity where you started your makeup. After 2 hours of makeup, hair, and conversation you were finally ready.

“Wow, you look stunning.” Josh said before kissing your lips deeply, then there was a knock on your door and you mom came in.

“Sorry to barge in, but we have to go. Oh Josh It’s good to see you.” she said hugging Josh.

“You too. Now you heard her Y/N, go get our graduate butt in the car.” he said and you rolled your eyes while walking out of your bedroom and downstairs.

Once at the ceremony you had to part ways with Josh early and you left him with your parents. They all got along quite well so you had nothing to worry about. It was better if he wasn’t near you, because you didn’t want anyone knowing you were dating. You hoped nobody recognized him or asked who he was with.

You met up with a few friends and took a seat. After waiting for a while Maddie nudged you.

“Y/N look there is someone with Yellow hair over there.” she said pointing to Josh. “what if it’s Josh Dun.” she laughed.

“Maddie stop, why would Josh Dun be here.” you said then changed the topic again.

It was finally time for your name to be called so you could walk across the stage.

“Y/N Y/L/N.” the speaker said and many cheers were heard.

You knew Josh was cheering and it made you happy knowing he had come.

Once the rest of the ceremony ended you quickly found Josh and your family (thanks to his hair).

“Y/N congratulations.” Josh hugged you tight.

“Thanks, but keep it casual.” you whispered in his ear and he let go of you.

“So let’s get out of here before anyone recognizes Josh. We’ll do pictures back at home.” your dad said.

You and Josh walked back to the car distance between the two of you. It was times like these that it was hard to not be able to hold hands with your boyfriend or simply walk next to him, but it was better this way.

Once you got in the car you pulled out your phone that was buzzing like crazy.

There was a bunch of texts from your friend Maddie telling you to look at Josh’s snapchat story. You immediately opened snapchat and went to Josh’s snapchat story. There was a 10 second video of your name being called while you crossed the stage and him cheering.

“JOSH.” you said while hitting his knee.

“What?” he asked confused.

“Why did you put this on your story?” you asked while playing the video again.

“Oh shit. I meant to send that to Jordan and Ashley. I’ll take it down.”

“Josh I bet a lot of people already saw it. What are we going to do?” you aid franticly.

“I say just leave it. Let people guess who you are. I mean it’s only a matter of time before people catch on.” he said calmly, helping you calm down.

“You’re right. Plus people are just going to think I’m like your younger cousin or something. Which is gonna be weird when they find out we’re dating.” you said and Josh laughed.

“See it’ll all work out. Now let’s go back to your house and party.” he said pumping his fist in the air.

-2 months later-

“Y/N, I’m so glad you and Josh decided to make your relationship public. It’s so exciting being able to go out with the both of you and not have an awkward distance between the two of you.” Jenna told you.

“Yeah it’s great.” you said with a fake smiling.

“What’s wrong?” she asked sitting down next to you.

You sat there and listened to the song playing in the background for a minute before answering.

“Just people say things about us and our relationship and they don’t even know anything about me. People say I pay for Josh to date me and I’m probably a complete nag being 10 years younger than him and all.”

“You can’t listen to them. They all just want to be in your shoes. Josh loves you and you’re not a nag at all. I often forget you’re even younger than us. You’re very mature and I know for a fact that they don’t know the first thing about you. If they saw how much of a king you treat Josh, they would love you. I think once you give it some time, they will warm up to you.” Jenna told you and the music ended.

You saw the two boys running off stage so you stood. Josh opened his arms for a hug and you dodged him, but he still got a hold of you.

“Ew, you’re all sweaty and gross.” you whined trying to squirm out of his grasp.

“Say you love me and I’ll let go.” he told you and you laughed.

“I love you.” you rushed.

“Say it and mean it.” he told you.

“I love you.” you said slower then kissed him.

“That’s better.” he said letting you go.

“So adorable.” Tyler said walking away with Jenna following him.

No it was just you and Josh. well there were other people around, but it just felt like the two of you. It always did.

“I always mean it when I say it.” you said.

“I love you too.” he said kissing you again. “Now you need a shower and so do I. What do you say we save some water and take one shower.” he said with a smirk on his face pulling you along to the shower.

He really was your king and you were his queen. You didn’t care what his fans said. They didn’t understand and they never. They didn’t know you but Josh did and his opinion was the only one that mattered to you.

[mldrgrl]

The Fall

by: mldrgrl Rating: pg13 Summary:  Hank’s story immediately following Runaway Bride**

**I haven’t felt compelled to do this for awhile, but this story is not going to make any sense if you haven’t read the last two installments.  Really, it shouldn’t make any sense if you haven’t been keeping up with this series, but at the very least, read the previous two to understand what’s going on.

The Leopard Cannot Change Her Spots Runaway Bride

Hank portrayed himself as a pessimist most times, but in reality, he was an eternal optimist.  He could hope for something to happen for years, if he had to.  His on again off again decades long relationship with Karen was proof of that.  So, true to form, he hoped.  On the way to the airport, he hoped Stella was right behind him.  At the security checkpoint, he hoped she'd come running, maybe cause some sort of scene about cutting in line to join him and pull her badge out to frighten/impress someone.  Waiting in the terminal to board, he hoped she'd stroll up dragging her suitcase behind her.  Buckling his seatbelt, he hoped she'd be the last to board right up until the point the flight attendants closed and locked the door.  

Hope didn't end there.  Going through customs at JFK, he checked the arrivals board and saw at least a dozen flights from London landing later in the day.  And there was always Laguardia to consider, and Newark.  He hoped she'd show up at the loft an hour or two behind him, catching the first available flight she could get since she missed theirs.  Because hope allowed him to tell himself she'd simply missed the flight.

Even calling her to leave a message on her voicemail that he'd made it in okay and he loved her gave him hope.  After all, her phone could be off because she was currently in flight, not because she was avoiding his call.  

He told Becca that something had come up last minute for Stella at work.  She'd be along on a later flight and not to worry, everything was fine.  The wedding was still set for tomorrow evening.  He wasn't sure Becca believed him, but he would hold out until the sun set tomorrow if he had to.  

It had been dreary and overcast when Hank left London, but clear and sunny when he landed in New York.  He took it as a good omen.  Tomorrow - the wedding day - was the first day of fall.  It certainly didn't feel like fall, too hot and bright for the season.  It reminded him of a quote he particularly liked from grad school when one of his professors had been fixated on the opening passages of books and the importance of hooking a reader in.  Indian summer is a woman.  Ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle, she comes and goes as she pleases, so that one is never sure whether she will come at all, nor for how long she will stay.  He’d liked how provocative and suggestive it was.  Now, it just seemed kind of fitting.

He considered calling Karen and telling her the truth, that he wasn't sure if the wedding was going to happen, but that would mean accepting it as a possible reality, and he wasn't ready to do that.  Hope was something that could only be pried out of his cold, dead hand if he wanted to hold on to it at times.

The loft smelled musty to him.  He turned on all the fans and opened a window to air it out, but that just let the hot air in.  He spent most of the day sprawled out on the couch in his underwear, jet lagged and sweating.  When the sun finally started to fade and it became a little cooler, he grabbed a bottle of whiskey and made up his own drinking game.  A sort of version of ‘she loves me, she loves me not,’ only the point was not to pluck the petals from a daisy, it was to drink until he passed out.

First shot, she loves me.

Second shot, she loves me not.

Third shot.  Fourth shot.  And so on.  Unfortunately, he lost count.  His vision blurred and he slipped into unconsciousness.

He was enmeshed in a very elaborate dream where he was floating in a pool filled with blue flowers.  There was a Ferris wheel on one side of the pool and a circus tent on the other.  A barker stood outside the tent on a platform, shouting at Hank to step up and see the unknown riches inside the tent.  He tried and tried to entice him inside, promising exotic sights, the likes of which had never been seen before, but Hank shrugged and continued to float, moving his fingers through velvety soft petals, absolutely content.  He was pretty sure, whatever that barker was selling, he'd seen it.  There was no curiosity left in him.

He looked over at the Ferris wheel and it was empty, except for one rider at the top.  When the wheel came down, he saw it was Stella and he waved to her.  He rolled off his raft and swam through the flowers to get out of the pool.  He left a trail of petals behind him as he crossed to the wheel.

“Can I ride with you?” Hank shouted.

“Yes,” Stella answered.

The wheel continued to turn, and Hank couldn’t find a way to stop it.  There didn’t seem to be any gears or a system in place to control it, so the wheel just kept turning.  One of the times she passed, he saw a brake in the car with her.

“Pull the brake,” he called to her.

“I don’t know how,” she answered.

He watched her go by and the wheel just kept turning.

It was dark, save for an elongated, window-shaped patch of streetlight on the floor by the couch when Hank woke up.  There was a noise somewhere.  Running water and footsteps.  He knew that couldn’t be right.  He tried to get up, but he was dizzy and lethargic and still sweaty from the heat and the alcohol and his body wouldn’t really cooperate.

“Don’t get up,” Stella said.  At least, he thought it was Stella.  He couldn’t be sure if he was still in a dream or if he was hallucinating.  He also couldn’t see her, but he could smell her jasmine perfume.

He relaxed and took a healthy, deep breath.  “Didn’t really want to anyway,” he mumbled.  

Something cool was placed over his forehead and then around the back of his neck.  He sighed.  Small hands caressed his chest and his sides.  He forgot, for a moment, where he was and why he felt like shit.  When he remembered, he groaned and struggled to open his eyes.

“Stella?” he asked.

“I’m here.”

He felt her sit beside him on the couch, her hip next to his, a hand in his hair.  All he could see was shadows.  He brought his hand up, feeling his way to her shoulder and then curled his hand around her neck.

“What time is it?” he asked.

“Half past four.”

“Mm.”  He felt her lean her head into his hand when he lifted it to her face.  His arm was heavy though, and he had to drop it back to his abdomen where he scratched his stomach lightly.

“Do you still want me?” she whispered.

He chuckled and coughed, a whiskey-flavored vibration tickling his throat.  “You gotta be fucking insane, Sherlock, if you’re gonna ask me something like that.”

“Will you still have me?”

“What’s today?”

“Saturday.”

“What’s today?”

“I believe it’s to be our wedding day.”

“Mm.”

“I need to apologize to you.”

“Apologize in the morning when I don’t have whiskey dick.”

“You know it’s not you I’m afraid of, right?  It’s me.”

“I don’t know how a Ferris wheel works either, but we can figure it out.”

“Go back to sleep,” she whispered, her lips grazing his.  “Brush your teeth before you find me in the morning.”

“Mm.  When I collect on my apology?

She slipped away from him and he reached out, but he couldn’t find her.  His heart raced.  He tried to push himself up in a panic, afraid these last few minutes had been a manifestation of his hope-fueled imagination.

“Stella?” he called, searching in the dark.

“I’m right here.”  Her hand squeezed his shoulder and she pushed him to lay back down on the couch.

Hank reached out and took her hand, feeling his fingers until he found the ring and then he relaxed.  “You’re gonna marry me by the end of the day,” he said.

“Yes.”

“That’s so fucking crazy, Sherlock.”

“It is.”

“You will be here in the morning won’t you?”

“I’ll be here.  You have an apology to collect.”

“Mm.”  He smiled.  “I can’t wait.”  He loved make-up sex.  And then she was going to marry him.

The End

[cupcakes4747]

Don’t Play With Me, Boy | one

Taehyung is the love of your life. Or so you thought.

Word Count: 818

Warnings: none for now

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Genre: fluff, slight smut, celebrity!reader au

Song: Blackpink’s Playing With Fire

A/N: BOi this fic is gonna kILL ME and aLL OF yOU

one | two | three | four

You wiped the sweat off your forehead while taking a drink of water. The concert was a total success. You were an international sensation. You had always loved to sing and dance, and performing onstage was your favorite thing to do. Ever since you had gotten a record deal, your career had just gone uphill from there. You were currently on tour and had just finished your last concert, which was in Los Angeles, where you lived. Suddenly you felt a pair of arms encircle you.

"You were amazing out there, baby." It was your boyfriend, Kim Taehyung. He was also a singer, from a Kpop boy band called BTS. "Ew, you're super sweaty," he joked. You giggled at his comment while your manager told you to change and the stylist to fix your hair and makeup. Right after the concert you had a fan meet, and you had the best, sweetest, most supportive fans ever. You walked out to where the fans were and spent the next two hours talking to them, taking pictures, and signing autographs. You loved your job.

You and Taehyung walked into your penthouse and you changed into your pajamas. You went to the kitchen to get yourself a glass of water, and felt a pair of arms hugging your waist.

"Who are you trying to seduce in those shorts?" your boyfriend asked in his super sexy deep voice as he started kissing your neck. You were beyond exhausted from the concert, but it was hard to resist your smoking hot boyfriend.

"What are you trying to say?" you asked with a smirk on your face. You loved teasing him like that, even though it annoyed him because he also found you equally as irresistible.

"I think you know what I'm trying to say, princess," he said in a voice one octave lower, which you didn't think was possible, while hugging you even tighter. "I wouldn't recommend teasing me, love. You'll have to suffer the consequences." You suddenly broke free from his grip and ran to the bedroom and jumped on the bed while giggling. Taehyung walked in with a confused look on his face. You showed him some aegyo, a skill he taught you. He pounced on top of you. "Who told you that you were allowed to be this cute?" he asked while tickling you.

"Is this my punishment?" you asked cutely. It definitely was a punishment, since you were the most ticklish person ever. Taehyung gave you one of his signature smirks.

"Nope," he said simply. Then suddenly he started kissing you very passionately, not being afraid to use his tongue.

"Oppa, I'm way too tired for this," you complained.

"Sweetheart, I'm not giving you an option. Just let daddy do all the work." You cringed at his nickname for himself.

"Don't expect me to call you that, weirdo."

"Someone looks like they want a punishment." God you just wanted to wipe that stupid smirk off his face. He tried to take off his shirt in the sexiest way possible.

"Ew you're such a wannabe just let me sleep."

"Look princess, you started this mess by wearing those shorts, so now you need to clean it up." Your needy boyfriend didn't look like he was going to give up anytime soon you just gave in.

"Ugh fine you perv," you joked while unbuckling his belt.

The rest of the night was filled much pleasure. You both were always so busy with work, it's been a long time since you have had intimate time with each other. You both forgot how good the other person felt.

You woke up to a strong arm around your waist. You turned around to see your shirtless boyfriend with no makeup and messy hair. Even then, you still thought he was the most beautiful thing in the world. You shifted back a little and cuddled with him more. This woke him up, causing him to give you a kiss on your cheek.

"Good morning my angel," he said softly. You both have been together for a long time, almost two years, but he still managed to give you the same butterflies he did from day one. You smiled and tried to get out of bed, but his muscular arms weren't letting you budge.

"Babe let me go," you complained. You were starving, as you hadn't eaten anything since before the concert yesterday. Since your tour was over, you were on break for a while. Unfortunately, your boyfriend wasn't, and he was leaving for South Korea tomorrow. You sighed at the thought of sleeping alone at night. "Seriously let me go I'm hungry." He pulled you closer. "I'll make both of us pancakes," you offered. Suddenly he let you go and pushed you off the bed. "Weirdo," you thought. "One more day with my Taetae until he leaves for a few months," you thought to yourself.

[harries-bum]

That One Night Part Two H.S.

Part One HERE

Your palms were sweaty and your face went cold as Harry stopped you. His eyebrows were furrowed together as he stared at your belly and you could tell he was angry. You knew he was going to be which is exactly why you were trying to avoid him.

"What about?" you said, trying to be nonchalant. You began walking back towards your booth but Harry grabbed your arm, stopping you. People were beginning to stare, noticing the Harry Styles, and two girls eating lunch together began taking pictures. You felt embarrassed, so you tried to end the conversation as quickly as possible. "Look. We can talk later, okay?"

"Fine, but we're having this conversation. Come by the Carlyle around 10:30 tonight. That's where we're staying for the next couple of days," he told you, and walked away without another word. Your heart was pounding in your chest as you stood there for a moment, wondering if that actually just happened.

You walked back to your table and saw Liza standing up. She was grabbing her phone and handed you yours before saying, "Hey, I already paid, so we can go."

You were very grateful to have Liza in situations like this. You kept your face down as you past Liam and Harry and didn't say anything until you got to the car. Your heart was pounding so fast by the time you were outside that you felt like you were about to have a heart attack.

"I seriously hate you and love you Liza," you said, once the two of you were driving. "Oh my god. What am I going to do? He wants me to go to his hotel after their concert to talk. He was so pissed Liza."

"Well, you're going to go and have a probably unpleasant conversation with him. It's his kid. You know he's going to want to be apart of he or she's life." She pulled into your driveway and parked. "I really don't think it's going to be that bad, and if it is terrible, I give you complete permission to punch me. I would come in, but I've got class in thirty. I think it will be fine though. What time do you need me to pick you up?"

"Um, I don't know. He want's me to be there at 10:30 tonight," you told her, thanking her and grabbing your bags before walking inside.

You set your bags down and plopped down onto the couch, rubbing your growing belly. When did your life turn into such a mess? All you were supposed to be worrying about was getting to class on time and hanging out with friends, not going to doctor's appointments and buying baby clothes.

You looked around your apartment and stared at the small baby bouncer that your mother had given you. It was the first baby item you had gotten and ever since then, things just continued to change. Laying back down on the couch, you turned on the t.v. for background noise, and stared at the ceiling.

You woke to the sound of your phone vibrating on the end table and you sat up, grabbing it. It was Liza calling you.

"Hey! I just realized the time, and I'm on my way! I totally forgot that you don't have a car to get to the hotel, and I figured it be better to get there before everyone is leaving the concert."

Your heart dropped as you looked at the clock. 9:45. "Okay, thanks Liza. I didn't even think about it. I'll see you in a few." Your breathing became shallow as you stood up, panicking. After a momentary freakout, you grabbed the white dress that was loose and threw it on. It hid your baby bump a little better than the super small shirt you were wearing earlier.

Your feet were beginning to swell as well, another perk of pregnancy, so you put on your only comfortable pair of flats and waited for Liza to pick you up. Once she was here, you made your way downstairs and got in her car. It was silent as she drove you to the hotel. Once she was parked, she looked at you. "Hey, babe, don't worry. It will be fine. Do you want me to wait here for you?"

You shook your head. "No, I don't know how long it will take. I'll just take the bus if it's super late. I've got my bus card, so I'll be fine."

"No, just call me when you're ready to leave. I'll come even if it's at three in the morning," she said, giving your hand a small squeeze. You got out of the car and walked into the hotel, sitting down in the lounge area, waiting for Harry to get there. Feeling bored and out of place, you pulled out your phone to look like you had something to do.

Soon enough, screams could be heard and in walked the four boys with their massive body guards. You stood up, looking for Harry, but he was hidden well. Then, his head peaked up, looking around the room before he spotted you. He pushed past the guards and came over to you.

"Come on. Let's go to my room so we can talk privately," he said, grabbing your hand and pulling you along with him. The two of you were alone in the elevator, and to say it was awkward was an understatement. Neither of you said anything, the only sound in the room was the cheesy elevator music.

The elevator let out a chime! and opened the doors, letting you out into a narrow hallway. You followed Harry quietly as he led you to his room. He sat down on his bed and you sat down on the opposite one, staring down at your fingers. You weren't really sure what was going to happen, but he broke the silence first.

"Is it mine?"

You were kind of insulted. It's not like you slept with every guy you met once. "No Harry. But I really couldn't tell you who the father is because I'm such a whore," you responded, sarcasm seeping out of your voice. "Sleeping with you was a one time kind of thing. I don't just sleep around, but really, thanks for thinking that."

"Well, fuck. Why didn't you tell me?" He wasn't yelling, but he was definitely pissed. His hands were clenching and unclenching on his thighs.

"I don't know. Maybe because I didn't exactly have anyway to contact you," you told him, rolling your eyes. He was acting like this was all your fault.

"Maybe you shouldn't have snuck out and you'd have my number!"

"My fucking bad that I couldn't predict the future!" You stood up and began pacing, a habit you had when you were mad. "This isn't exactly easy for me, Harry! I wasn't supposed to have a fucking baby right now! Especially not with you! I'm supposed to be in college, struggling to afford rent and eating ramen. Not wondering how I'm going to support a baby for the rest of my life!"

"I don't know what you want me to do, Y/N. I have my whole career in front of me."

His comment made you livid. As if you didn't have a life waiting for you. As if you didn't have dreams and goals. "I knew it was a mistake coming here. I didn't tell you for a fucking reason, Harry. This is why! At least before I could pretend you'd be happy and excited."

You grabbed your phone and began to walk out the door, but he stopped you.

"Why would I be happy that you got pregnant? This is a mistake and you know it."

"It takes two to make a baby, but do you want to know the real difference between you and I? I am dealing with it. I am going to the doctor and I am buy the clothes and diapers and formula. You are running away. I thought you'd man up and at least offer to help." You wanted to scream.

"How much did it cost? I can help with that." he offered softly, trying to calm down.

"Oh my god! I don't want your fucking money, Harry! I just wanted you to maybe be happy that you're going to be a dad! You know everyone of your fans think you'd be the best dad ever, and it's really disappointing to see that that's not true."

A few minutes of silence passed before he spoke next. "I want to be involved," he told you, grabbing your hand and pulling you to sit next to him. "I just don't know how involved I can be. But I'll try!"

"I don't know." You didn't know if you could handle a life of everyone knowing your business and having an opinion on it. But that was the life that came with Harry. You also weren't sure how you could handle someone in your life one day, then disappearing for six months.

"You can't keep me away from my own child. Just let me help the best I can," he insisted. "Maybe we could be like a family or something?"

"Harry, do you even know my last name?" you asked, half joking. You'd only met once and slept together after that. It's not like you knew each other at all.

"No, but let's get to know each other. What do you say?" he smiled at you, this being the first time you'd seen his cute dimples the whole night. "Oh by the way, is it a boy or girl?"

"I don't know yet. I have a doctor's appointment in a couple of days to find out," you told him. 

"Well, here's my number," he said, grabbing your phone, "so you can let me know the minute you do. I'll come back as often as I can. I want to be here for you and our baby." He paused and smiled, "So, what is your last name?"

You laughed and smiled, spending the next few hours getting to know each other. Maybe this could work, you thought, smiling at the father of your baby.

So there’s part two! I hope you guys enjoyed it and let me know if there’s anything you want me to write!

MASTERLIST

[elevenhoursinfront-blog]

26th March 2017

The alarm went off at 0700. I was straight up to get ready. I woke Steve up but he could stay in bed for an extra hour if he wanted to do so. I hate that men take so little time to get ready, I wish I could be up and ready like them. I showered, washed my hair and shaved my legs. I meant business today! I had to get ready in the communal bathroom as everyone was still asleep in our room. The bathroom is stupid hot so I wasn’t looking forward to getting ready. I was hot from my shower already. I dried my hair and straightened it. By this time, I was bright red like a tomato and sweating from head to toe. I had to sit down in my room to cool down. I cant put makeup on with a SULA! (Sweaty Upper Lip Alert, in case you didn't know). 

Hair did, makeup done and dressed by 0845... I said to be down for breakfast by 0900 - I'm early. We went down and made some toast. I took advantage of the 'free breakfast' to make our lunch, too. I made ham sandwiches for the afternoon prior to the race as Steve was bound to be half dying from starvation and we had chicken, rice and peppers for after the race. Must. Remember. Forks. Thanks to the backpacker that left their fresh ham in the free food basket! Every hostel has a basket of food that people can leave if they don’t want it and/or moving on. You have to check this often and quickly as the good stuff goes fast. Mel found the ham and took it for us. It was a fresh expensive pack and she's vegetarian. She's a good’n. 

We finished our breakfast and sorted out our bag. Water, towel, food, jumper, lunch and dinner, GoPro, phones and tickets! We left and headed to the tram stop outside Flinders Street Train Station (lovely building, I will get a picture soon). There were loads of people going in the same direction. I love it when there's a massive event going on, the likelihood of me getting lost is minimal because I just have to follow everyone else. We squeezed onto the tram and headed towards St Kilda Road - Gate 8. The majority of the people on the tram got off at the Grand Prix gate 8 so they must've had the same idea as us. We stood in the queue for about 20 minutes. We were early so that would be why. The queue was ridiculously massive already - two streets long. We had to go over a bridge before getting into the gate. As soon as it hit 1030, the line was moving. It wasn't a slow moving line either so we were at the ticket barrier before 1045. Our tickets were scanned, our bags were searched and we were in! 

The skies were grey but Steve said it's meant to clear by midday. I was counting on that. We walked around for a while, looking at the stalls. We went over to a Merchandise stall and looked around. We bought a cap and programme. I was getting excited. It looked just like your average UK festival with Heineken tents, burger stalls, Police and Ambulance everywhere.

After our walk, we went to find our seat. I say seat like I could afford the $5,000 seat by the start/finish line... I meant the cheap one on the grass. We picked turns 9/10/11 area and it was on a hill so we could have a good view of the track sitting down. It was right by the front, too. We put our towel down and chilled out for a bit. They had pre-race entertainment. Other races were on-going, not that I knew what was going on. We had a good view of the TV, too so it was a perfect spot.

By midday, as Steve said, the sun was burning. I forgot sun cream. Honestly, I'd forget my head if it weren't screwed on... I forgot forks, too. Even though I remembered in the morning. GREAT. None of the stalls had plastic cutlery either, it was all finger food. God sake. 

Steve wanted to go for a wonder so I said I'd stay and sunbathe. It was annoying that there was only two of us, we couldn't go off together. I laid down on the towel and before I knew it, my phone was ringing. Steve said that he had just met Mark Webber and wished he had our programme there with him so he could sign it. Plank! 

Steve was on the opposite side of the track to me and we were waving to each other. I took everything out of my handbag that was important (Mac Lipstick, GoPro and Phone), put it in the backpack and went for a walk. 

If our towel and bag goes, then so be it. But I couldn't sit there for another 6 hours! We would find another spot if it gets taken.

I walked over the bridge to Steve and we went for a wonder. They had a lake in the middle of the race track in Albert Park. There was a bridge for people to walk over, thankfully. It was the weirdest bridge I had ever been on though. It was inflatables stuck together on top of the water. It felt like walking on a plastic water bed. I can't explain it. If you jumped, the water would ripple. The water was rippling anyway as there were so many people walking across at any one time. It gave a great view though, of the CBD. 

We wondered about the main part - the big screen TV, the Melbourne Walk (where the celebs walk past), the show cars etc. We stood at the Melbourne Walk for a while to see whether anyone came past, like Mark Webber again. Steve was the only person who knew who he was. The rest of the crowd was like "That's whats his name?". Steve had to tell them all.

Nobody past us for a good half an hour of waiting so we walked about again. We looked at the Jaguars as Steve wants one (a lad can dream). We took a few photos and headed back to the towel to see whether it had been taken. A few hours had past so I was sure it would've been. It wasn't... My bag and towel both in the exact same spot as I left it. I doubted Australian's. If that were England - gone within seconds! We sat down and had our sandwiches with a beer that Steve treated me too. It was roughly 1 hour until the race started. The planes were all out doing fancy patterns in the sky. It was great to watch, their formation was so good. After that, the fighter jet came out! It was so loud, it made my belly rumble. The ground was shaking and it was miles away from us in the sky. I got good videos of it but no video will ever show how amazing it was in real life. I was shaking from it!

We were out of water so I sent Steve to fill our bottles up. Australia has hydration stations almost everywhere which is brilliant considering one bottle is like $5. He returned, with no water and two Magnums... He is completely hopeless. They were thoroughly enjoyable in the heat though. We just sat on the grass watching the planes and listening to the commentary on the tannoy.

I then left to find water as Steve would probably return with two more beers if I had sent him. I found the hydration station after about 15 minutes of looking as lost as anything. I also found the Ambulance station where they were giving away free sun cream! Hallelujah. I mean, it was probably 4 hours too late at this point but anything is better than nothing. It was also 50+ so it should help for the next 4 hours of sun. I smothered myself in it and poured a heaped amount in my palm. I tried to carry two bottles of water and a dollop of cream in the heat over a hill. Then I had the difficulty of finding Steve amongst 1,000 other people. I found him eventually, and he smothered himself in cream. I put a load on the back of his neck and made him wear at hat backwards as it was bright red. I'm so thoughtful! 

The Australian National Anthem played and everyone stood up. We felt obliged to stand up too so we did. It was then announced that Dan Riccardo couldn't begin the race due to a faulty car from the practise lap... Aussie's were not happy. Before we knew it, the race had started. Two laps in and Daniel managed to start. He wouldn't get anywhere two laps behind but he couldn't not go in his own country. The little boy I was sitting next to was extremely happy he got to see him race. 

Hamilton was second to Vettel, who I placed a bet on to win. I wanted Hamilton to win obviously but his odds were like $1 as I mentioned. Steve's bet was out before the race had even started... 

At lap 47/57, we left our spot. We headed over to the main screen where the Melbourne Walk was. If we were going to get an autograph, it would be there. We watched the end of the race from behind the track - we could see the seats of the rich watching track side. We were behind the podiums which was better than nothing. Vettel won the race and I won the bet. We watched everyone running onto the track celebrating. Red everywhere! After about 40 minutes of the race finishing, they pulled the celebration poppers releasing all the confetti. I managed to catch one yellow strip and Steve caught a green one from the air. I put them both in the back of my phone case so I can always say that I caught them at the Grand Prix celebration.

We were one of the first at the Melbourne Walk but it started to fill up quickly. I'm pleased we got there when we did. We were right at the front. We were alongside some die-hard F1 fans which was half annoying, half good. They knew most of the staff and security by their first names and managed to get people over. They're obviously there every year without fail.

We waited about 2 hours and my feet were killing. I wanted to get my programme signed for my Dad. Standing in the sun at a gate was not enjoyable at all. It wasn't until Marcus Ericsson came out. He signed my programme and I was very happy (not a clue who he was but Steve said hold it out so I did). When I was about 3, my dad had stood in a queue for a teletubby teddy that I wanted for hours. This was returning the favour.

After Marcus, Felipe Massa came out. Again, not a clue on this guy but Steve said to hold it out so I did. Happily, he signed away. That was two autographs on my programme! I was almost ready to leave, I had been standing there few hours and it was 1900 already. The after party was starting and people in massively expensive cars started to turn up. The cars were that expensive, they were probably worth more than my house and life if I'm honest.

The die-hard fans told us that the two cars parked in front were for Daniel Riccardo and Lewis Hamilton. I was waiting for this! We were only allowed to wait until 2000 when the gates would start to close. Before I knew it, Daniel was standing in front of us! I was absolutely gutted when he missed out my programme. He must've signed about 20 but not mine. I was upset because he was the first person I knew of and it would've been nice to get his autograph. Never mind. 

We saw David Coulthard and Alonso too, but they didn't have time to stop for us... They both appeared to be massively miserable. We saw Nicky Lauda who got into a car but waved to us. Grosjean cycled past us, too. To confirm, I still haven't a clue who these people are. Steve is listing them for me. He told me when to hold to book out or not. 

It was dark and cold. I put the hoody on and I was seriously knackered. It had been a long day and we still had dinner to eat. The die-hard fans were talking to security. They were talking about how horrible Hamilton is now - that he used to be lovely before he got too famous and became an arse. He does what he can to avoid people but apparently, he's trying to change. Hamilton didn't come out for us which was a massive shame. His car remained parked in front of us but it got to 2000 and we had to leave. 

I rang my dad straight away to tell him how our day was. He's an F1 fan so he text when he woke up to see whether I enjoyed it. We jumped onto the tram (after asking someone for help like your typical tourists). 

We got back to the hostel by 2100 and microwaved our dinner. It was Mother's Day back home so I managed to quickly call my Mum and Stepmum. I love speaking to family, it's so difficult with the time difference. 

All in all, an absolutely brilliant day. I couldn't believe how much I had enjoyed it. I'm so pleased with my programme even if I have spilt my strawberries on it and ruined the top right corner (I was devastated, sorry Dad). We were both exhausted, in bed and out like a light before 2300.