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azzie89 · 4 months ago

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Gravity-Epilogue

(A Lukas Matsson Fanfic)

Chapters: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Epilogue

Warnings: smut (18+)

Two Years Later

Lukas could be described as moody ever since you left. Tom faced the brunt of it. He did let the new CEO keep Greg as his assistant but he gave strict orders that Greg was to never be within his eyesight. He still blamed the snitch and never wanted to see him. But Lukas was never in a good mood. He was mostly quiet and morose.

He wasn't in New York often, though. He hated being there; he hated being reminded of you. He spent most days on his phone just flipping through the few pictures he had of you.

He did try to move on from a couple of times. He went on a few dates with some supermodels. They all ended after the first date. They would talk but then his thoughts would wonder. He'd end up on his phone, staring at pictures of you, while they talked incessantly. He never called them back after that.

Now there was one. Tom, without him knowing, had set him up. He made Greg find a girl that looked exactly like Ella. Then he set them up to bump into each other at a club. Lukas was very interested at first. But then the girl smiled for the first time and he lost all of it. It wasn't your smile.

So dates ended pretty quickly within the first six months. Sex was a completely different issue. He'd pick up random women that fit his standards but he quickly learned that he had a problem. Even with them bare in front of them, he could not get it up.

He'd have to look at all those dirty pictures you sent him just to get hard. He thought that fixed it. But he'd go soft immediately as soon as he entered them. He had to resort to jerking himself off to those dirty pictures and sex was off the table.

So he was a very frustrated man. He was frustrated with you, with himself, with the whole fucking world. He was just frustrated and he missed you. His chest ached just thinking about you.

And he couldn't sleep anymore. He could barely sleep before you. Now without you, he was getting at most two hours of sleep. So he was tired and frustrated. He was completely miserable and every day where he didn't get to see you felt like hell.

And he was true to what you wanted. He didn't call or text. He didn't send someone to spy on you. He left you alone. The only thing he ever allowed himself to do was ask Tom once a month if you were still with your uncle. The answer was always the same.

And life moved on. The days felt like they dragged. Time felt like it moved so impossibly slowly. It felt like the longest two years of his life. But then one day the answer had changed.

He didn't usually attend one of these things: a charity gala. But Tom informed him that you were coming. He was there early, waiting for you to walk through the door.

Tom was slightly freaking out as he commented quietly to Shiv, "She's still coming, right? Because if she doesn't, I am totally fucked."

"She's coming, Tom. There was a dressing wardrobe malfunction but she's coming," Shiv shook her head. "You can calm down."

You coming to the gala was sort of a plan by Tom and Shiv. Shiv invited you and Tom told Lukas that you were coming. They were playing matchmaker with the two of you.

And then you did show up. You were one of the last to show up. He saw you come in from a distance as where he was sitting was far from the door. But as soon as caught sight of you, he stood up. It was just on instinct. A gut reaction.

"See, Lukas, I told you she'd show up," Tom said, smiling. "There was never anything to worry about."

He merely hummed before sitting back down. His eyes were glued to you as you walked in. He noticed you didn't have bangs anymore but instead your hair was parted down one side. And he noticed your dress. Of course he did. You wore the most provocative dress he'd ever seen you wear.

It was a red satin dress with slits on both sides to show off your legs. It was completely backless with a huge plunging neckline that ended just above your belly button. Your breasts were covered by the smallest amount of material and completely on display. Fuck.

You wore it so confidently. You wore it like you were not afraid to flaunt what you had. You did it effortlessly with the most breath-taking smile he'd ever seen on you.

And then you were walking over here and he didn't know what you wanted. He got up and left the table. He only came back when you were settled and someone was speaking at the podium. He sat down and went on his phone.

He wasn't sure if you even noticed him. You didn't seem to have a reaction nor even look his way. That didn't matter; he was just waiting to be alone with you. So when you got up to go to the refreshments table, he followed shortly after you.

He approached you at the table and he just stood there, staring at you. He didn't really know what to say. But then you startled a little when you looked his way and noticed him as you clutched your chest.

"Right. Fuck. Hey," he scratched the side of his head as he started to ramble nervously. "I can say hey to you, right? I can greet you? Or do you not want that? Because I can fucking leave and..."

You placed a calming hand on his torso for a moment before removing it. You barely seemed bothered while he stopped breathing momentarily. Then you smiled a bit in amusement, "Yes, you can greet me."

He was lost staring into your eyes before he blurted out, "Ella, can we talk?"

You exhaled deeply before you spoke, "Tomorrow. For coffee at eight. I'll text you the address. Does that work?"

"Yeah. Yes," he agreed quickly.

"Okay," you smiled. "Tomorrow then."

And you went back to your seat. He stood there for a minute. Then he decided he didn't need to be there any longer. He wouldn't be able to handle staring at you and not talking. So he left and stayed up all fucking night.

"Shiv, he left. He fucking left," Tom whisper-shouted as Ella made her way back. "This is a clusterfuck. He's gonna fucking fire me, Shiv."

"He's not gonna fire you, Tom. How would he check in on Ella if he fired you?"

____

Lukas was there early. He already ordered for you because he knew what you liked unless that had changed. He was tapping his foot the whole time until you walked in the door covered in a light layer of sweat. You had earbuds in but you took them out once you came in.

You smiled once you saw him and walked over to the table. He swallowed as he noted you were only wearing a fucking sports bra with yoga pants. Jesus. He was sure you trying to test his focus.

"Hey," you greeted before you leaned down to kiss his cheek. He stopped breathing again.

Then you noticed the second cup of coffee, a frappe, and he pushed it towards you, "Vanilla, right?"

"Yeah," you smiled before you took the seat across from him. Vanilla had always been your favorite. But specifically a vanilla bean frappe. It was simple but sweet. You still had your sweet tooth.

You sipped on it before he asked, "You run now?"

"Yeah. I like it," you smiled again. "Clears my head."

He noticed you were full of smiles now. You gave them out easily. And you looked fuller somehow like you weren't as skinny. He wondered if you ate more now; you only ever ate such small portions back then like you were afraid to gain weight. But it seemed like you fixed that habit. And your skin just seemed to fucking glow. You seemed to glow.

"And...what else changed?" he questioned, holding himself back from spilling all the words he wanted to say.

"Well, I really like camping. I'm planning a trip next month," you informed. "And I'm off my meds now."

"You are?" he asked softly. "And you're...fine?"

"Yes," you smiled again. "I didn't need them anymore. I've been off of them for a year."

He hummed before he leaned forward to place his arms on the table as he asked quietly, "And did you...forgive me?"

"I think..." you mused. "I think I forgave you, Lukas, the moment I walked out the door."

He swallowed before he blurted out, "Ella, I still fucking love you. There hasn't been a fucking day where I haven't thought of you. Ella, I want you back."

You sighed and leaned back in your chair as you crossed one leg over the other. You were so cool like a fucking iceberg and he could not read you. You looked away for a moment as you bit your lip.

You didn't know how to feel about Lukas. You had talked about him to your therapist a long time ago and you knew you loved him back then. Because of that, you'd always feel affection for him. But you had changed. It didn't stop your mind from thinking about him from time to time. It was usually in random moments and you'd smile as you thought of your memories with him. You'd feel a longing.

"I want to make myself clear: I don't need you anymore," you finally turned your gaze to him.

Your words fucking hurt. He thought you were about to break him all over again. He thought you were about cut off any idea of them being together.

"But...I want to try again," you said before you started to smile. You found that as you said it, you really did want that. "I would like that."

"Okay," he smiled slightly. "And what does that entail?"

"You can take me on a date. Next week. I'll let you pick where and when," you clarified. "But here. In New York."

"Just one date?" he deflated a bit.

"If I like it, I'll let you take me on another," you said before you stood up, grabbing your coffee. "That's how dates work, silly."

"So we're doing things normally now?" he grinned in amusement.

Last time they did everything completely backwards. They started with the most intimate step and worked back. They really had been a mess, hadn't they?

"Yes," you smiled before kissing his cheek. "I'll see you next week."

And you left.

_____

For a month, they went on more than ten dates. Most of them were in New York but some were in Sweden. You only communicated with him during the dates. You were determined to move slowly with him.

Lukas noted how you didn't space out anymore. You were always there, always present. You still rambled, though, and quite adorably. And then there was that smile; you wore it so easily now. It made him happy for you.

Lukas was ever so patient. He never held your hand or put his arm around you. He never tried to kiss you. He didn't want to do anything until you told him you were ready. You could tell he was tense just in the way carried himself like he was afraid to screw it up.

You kept him at arm's length because you were afraid to fall back into the same patterns. You didn't invite him into your apartment nor did you ever enter his house. You weren't ready for something to happen between them that you couldn't turn back from. But you couldn't deny that everything flowed just as it always did between them. And you realized you were still in love with him.

You didn't know quite how to handle it until one night in Sweden. It was a work party thing he had taken you to. It wasn't a date exactly but he had invited you.

You were talking to someone before you glanced over at him. You noticed he was talking to some pretty brunette probably just a bit older than you. You felt a prickling sensation and you realized you were jealous. You realized you wanted him to be yours again.

You wondered why you were even waiting. It was obvious that Lukas was the one for you. He was still the love of your life and you never ever wanted to get over him. You didn't just want to be dating anymore or taking these baby steps. You didn't need to. You wanted him.

And it didn't matter if Lukas was still gravity to you. He was a type of gravity. He was love. The feeling that gave you butterflies and made you smile even more than you already did because you were own gravity now. It didn't mean you couldn't collide with his. And you intended to.

He had excused himself eventually from whoever the woman he was talking to and he had to take a phone call. He took the elevator up to his office on a floor above. You followed slowly and took a separate elevator. When it stopped, you stepped out onto an empty floor.

You walked to his office and leaned against the doorway. He had his back turned as he talked on the phone. It was something about Gojo but you didn't pay attention.

You just admired him for a small moment. You had noted it briefly earlier but he looked really handsome. He was in black business slacks with a black round-neck sweater that was not tucked in. He was like a black hole you wanted to be swallowed by.

When he finished his phone call, you stepped into the room before stopping about five feet in front of him. He turned and his eyes widened a bit before he tucked his hands in his pockets with a small smile, "Hey."

"You didn't have to come up here," he stated.

"I know."

It was silent for a moment as you stared at him. He stared at you. There was an undercurrent of tension between them.

Then you took a deep breath as you spoke, "If you ever hurt me again, I'd walk away from you, Lukas. And you'd never get me back. Even if it's years down the line and we have a kid, I'd still leave you."

"Ella, I wouldn't," he promised. "Not ever fucking again."

You closed the distance between them slowly until you stood right in front of him. You looked at him.

"I love you," you confessed as you stood up on the tips of your toes. You ran your hands up his chest and over his broad shoulders before looping your arms around his neck and bringing him down to your level before you muttered close to his lips. "And I don't want to move slowly anymore..."

Then you kissed him. As your lips molded with his, he literally groaned which made you smile slightly. You felt electric as you kissed him softly and slowly. But you wanted more and so did he.

It quickly turned into hungry, fast kisses. As soon as they finished one kiss, they brought their lips back together for more. Their lips pressed incessantly against each other before his hands gripped your hips tightly. He picked you up without breaking their kiss and carried you over to his desk before setting you down.

Your hands traveled down. You pushed up his sweater to reach for his belt. You stopped kissing him to focus on undoing it.

"Ella..." he questioned, panting.

"I want this."

"Ella, I don't have a fucking condom."

"I'll take Plan B."

You undid his belt before his hands hiked up your dress. You pushed down his pants to reveal his erection. You remembered he was big but you forgot how big he was. You spread your legs for him.

He moved your lace panties to the side before placing his tip against your slit. Then he pushed into you and he groaned as he felt the walls of your pussy close in around his dick. You let out a little gasp as you braced yourself with your palms flat on the desk behind you.

You breathed so heavily as he continued to slide his dick into you. You didn't have sex for two years and just him entering you put you close to your peak. When he was fully inside you, your eyes nearly rolled back. You were so full. Your stomach even bulged from his dick.

And with just one thrust, you fell apart and orgasmed. You moaned his name. Your muscles clenched and your toes curled. Your pussy clenched around his dick and Lukas did not last long, either, because after one more thrust, he came inside of you.

He smacked the desk with his hands as he groaned. You felt his warm seed gush into you. And it seemed to be never-ending. You felt strings upon strings of his cum jet into you like he had been pent up. And your pussy clenched his cock even harder, begging him for more.

He finally softened inside you. He stayed inside as you both panted. Then he slowly pulled out. His cum leaked out of you. He grabbed some tissues off his desk and cleaned you up. You were sleepy now and you did not want to go back to the party.

"Can we leave?" you said as he leaned his forehead against yours after cleaning you up.

"Yeah."

_____

When they got back to his house, you had livened up a bit. Only because you wanted him again. Once they were in the doorway, they stood facing each other and you realized this was the first time you'd stepped inside since you entered society again.

Lukas bit his lip as he stared at you, stared at your body, before he swallowed, "Are you tired? Do you want to lay down or..."

You crossed the distance and pulled him down to you, kissing him. He melted and his arms immediately wrapped around you. Then you pulled away slightly as you traced his lips, "Yes, I am tired, but I want more of this."

And he kissed you again. You let him kiss you for a bit, getting lost in it, as he backed you against the wall. Then you reached around you to unzip your dress. You only unzipped it a little bit before Lukas tugged it down harshly where it stopped halfway around your pelvis, being too tight without unzipping all the way.

But Lukas got what he wanted. Your breasts were now revealed as you weren't wearing a bra. He immediately moved to attach his mouth on one, sucking and licking at the supple breast as his hand played with other. You leaned your head back against the wall, letting out a low moan.

Once he was done, his lips traveled down your stomach as he muttered against your skin, "So fucking perfect."

You smiled as you teased, "And don't you forget it."

He grinned, "You're such an egotistical little minx now, aren't you?"

"Your minx," you bit your lip.

"Yeah?" he smiled as he gazed up at you. You watched as he kept his gaze locked with yours while he licked a stripe ever so slowly over your belly button. You threw your head back and let out a low moan of yes. And it was a long night filled with pleasure.

In the morning, he was spooning you and his fingers ran up and down your hip soothingly. He seemed to choose his words before he asked nervously, "Ella, when you weren't with me, did you ever...have you ever..."

"Have sex with someone else?" you realized what he was trying to ask. "No."

"Really?" he seemed all too excited.

You giggled, "No, Lukas."

You turned your head to look at him, "What if I had said yes?"

"It wouldn't fucking change anything but I don't..I just don't like the idea of someone knowing what you're like, you know, intimately," Lukas explained.

You hummed before you asked curiously, "What about you?"

"I, uh, tried," he admitted. "Yeah."

"Tried? What does that mean?"

He struggled to find words because he didn't like admitting it, "It means that part of me doesn't fucking work when it's not you."

You blinked before you realized, "Oh."

Then you smiled as you teased, "You couldn't get hard? Like at all?"

He rolled his eyes, "No."

You giggled a bit, "What did you do?"

That made him grin a bit as he admitted, "Looked at all those nude photos you sent me."

"You did?" you smiled.

"Yeah," he said before he questioned. "Are you gonna start sending those again?"

You chuckled before you bit your lip, "Maybe."

You did start sending those again. You liked getting him all worked up so that when he saw you again, he practically attacked you with lust. It was fun to you.

And when he attacked you, it was at home in Sweden. After that night, you moved in with him. A week later, he had proposed to you.

You said yes so the two of you were now engaged. Again. You found out when he proposed that he had kept the rings. So you wore the same ones you had picked out two years ago.

You got married to Lukas a month later. All of your siblings showed up. You did not marry him in Sweden nor in New York. You had always loved weddings so you wanted something grand and Lukas kept saying: whatever you want. So you chose the venue and picked the Palace of Versailles in France.

It was a wedding that cost millions but that was nothing to the two of you. You had your own custom made white wedding dress that was slim but had a long train. It had a sweetheart neckline.

You didn't have anyone walk you down the aisle (and up the staircase). Not Connor nor your Uncle Ewan. You didn't need anyone to give you away. You were joining yourself with Lukas.

So within two months of being back, you were married to Lukas. It may have seemed rushed. But you knew you loved him and you didn't need to wait. You didn't want to.

For the next month, the two of you were absolutely insatiable with each other. You would see the gold ring on his finger and you'd want him. Or the making out would turn all frenzied. All you knew was that month was wild. It was a like really long honeymoon. You were sure you had tried every position and fucked him on every single surface.

But just because you were married didn't mean you were having his kids yet. You wanted to wait and enjoy some of your married life before you started having babies. So that's what the two of you did.

The two of you were extremely happy with each other. Sometimes he would have to go to New York for business. He'd take you into Waystar with him. You'd wait until his meeting was over and then he was right back with you, holding your hand or having an arm wrapped around you.

Shiv noted how you were always smiling or laughing and that was how Lukas was, too. She noted how Lukas would hardly let go of you like he was afraid to lose you all over again. The two of you may have been a bit clingy but it was a happy relationship. Shiv couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.

She never told you that, though, even when you came over many times to spend time with your niece. And Shiv noted how good you were with her kid. The kid she hardly spent time with. Here you were, younger, and doing better at everything in life. But she pushed those jealous feelings down; she didn't want to ever poison herself against you, her baby sister.

But you lived in Sweden. You only visited your family every once in an awhile. Well, the family that wanted to see you. Kendall did not. He still could not accept you were with Matsson. But you didn't care.

You had your own little life with Lukas. You sold your art studio in London and got one in Sweden. You submitted many of your paintings to art galleries and you would go see them when they got hung. It made you quite proud.

Once, you took Lukas on a very short two-day camping trip. He absolutely hated it. He couldn't access his phone due to no service out in the middle of nowhere and he had nothing to do. He couldn't fish or make a fire. He was useless out in the wild. You were very amused as he was very clearly such a city boy. But you knew he very much enjoyed the nights cozied up in the tent since you had sex with him then.

But Lukas didn't go camping ever again. You did, though. Lukas was so miserable when you did, too, because he couldn't get in contact with you. You were gone and he didn't like being apart from you.

You went on a two-week camping trip once, too. You would fish and you liked the peacefulness. You'd draw, too, when you were out there. When you got back, you texted Lukas to tell him so. Thirty minutes later he was practically sprinting into the bedroom where you were unpacking your clothes you had taken with you. He picked you up off the ground and trapped your arms to your sides as he hugged the life out of you like you'd been gone for a century. Butterflies erupted. He really missed you.

"Don't ever fucking leave that long," he pleaded. "Please."

You couldn't help but placate him as your heart squeezed, "Alright."

You never went longer than a week after that.

But the months quickly passed and the holidays were thrust upon you. It was Christmas. Everyone in your family was coming. Well, everyone except Kendall. He had responded with yeah, yeah, maybe which was an obvious no. You wondered if he would ever get over Lukas now being the head of Waystar or that board vote that decided it.

But it was the morning of the big holiday. You were exchanging gifts with Lukas out by the gigantic tree you made him get. You had decorated it in red and green lights with the help of the staff (who you had left presents for under the tree and they were allowed to go on break after today for two weeks). He sat on the couch in a tank top and pajama pants while you were in an oversized t-shirt.

You had gotten him a black watch since his broke. He refused to get another one until he did a deep dive on the best watches. You knew that if you got it for him that he'd wear it though and the problem would be solved. You had gotten him some other miscellaneous things.

Then you opened yours. You had gotten a necklace studded with so many diamonds. It basically glimmered. You teased him, "Did you just pick the most expensive thing you could find?"

He bit his lip, "Yeah. Yeah, I did."

You smiled. Then you opened your next one and found a set of paints. You had gasped once you saw them.

"I talked to some, I don't know, expert and he said these were the best so..." Lukas said.

"You talked to an expert?" you gave him a look.

"I don't know. Some fucking artist," he replied.

You giggled before you kissed his cheek and thanked him. You really did love these set of paints. You opened multiple other presents all related to art before you opened the last one.

Your eyes widened as you looked in the box. You picked it up. It was a small pistol.

"Lukas, why is there a gun?"

"You're always going fucking camping, you know. I figured protection for my girl," he said before smiling at the end as he said my girl.

"I don't even know how to shoot it."

"Yeah. That's why I bought you lessons, too."

You smiled a bit as you shook your head. You put the gun back in the box before you moved to straddle him. You placed your hands on his shoulders and massaged them a bit, "You're such a worrier."

"Well, yeah, I got to look out for you. My Ella."

You smiled before you kissed him sweetly. Then you muttered against his lips, "Maybe a little overboard."

"No. It's not overboard if it works and I never lose you," he argued.

"So you think a bear is more competition than you can handle?" you joked.

He chuckled, "Yeah. Maybe."

You hummed before you kissed him again. They shared short, sweet kisses for awhile. But then their little make-out session had to end. You had a lot of planning to do.

You had Freya, an older woman who was their maid, set up the dining table for this event. You also coordinated with the chef, Lars. You were a bit anxious about it all.

"Miss Ella, we know what to do," Freya assured. "It will go perfect. You should go get ready before your guests arrive."

"Thank you, Freya," you smiled before you went off.

You went and got dressed. You wore a short red dress. You fixed your hair and it took a long while for you to do that. And you wore the necklace that Lukas got you.

You fumbled with your hands as you came out of the bathroom and fretted, "Do you think it will go well?"

He had been on his phone as he sat on the bed and waited for you. He was wearing a simple red t-shirt and black track pants. He put his phone away once you came out and he stared a bit in awe, "You're so fucking gorgeous."

You blushed a bit, "Thank you but..."

"It'll be fine," he assured you.

"But both of our moms here and my siblings and...it's going to be a mess, isn't it?"

"No," he smiled in amusement. "Well, maybe just a little bit."

"Lukas!"

He stood up and grabbed your hands, "Ella, relax. With you involved, nothing could ever be a fucking mess."

You smiled, "I love you."

"I love you more, hjärtat."

Lukas had been right. It was not a mess. Roman was, well, Roman with his gross jokes and you couldn't help that. Their mothers kind of smothered everyone but it was mostly went off without a hitch. Shiv and Tom brought your niece and you had immediately picked her up, propping her up on your hip. You talked to her animatedly before giving her a giant cookie that was made just for her.

"She's great with kids, uh?" Tom commented to Lukas.

Lukas hummed as he watched you with his hands in his pockets. He would wait but he desperately wanted kids with you.

The rest of the evening went by perfectly. Well, there was the one instance where his mother and yours (they seemed to get along great) asked when you were having kids. You had choked on your wine.

"We're not in a rush," Lukas answered nonchalantly.

But besides probing questions, it was fine. Hours later they had all left and the house was finally quiet again. You breathed a sigh of relief.

"I told you," he wrapped his arms around you from behind. "Nothing to worry about."

You leaned back into his embrace, "It was my first time hosting so..."

He kissed your shoulder before he asked, "Are you tired?"

"I...Yes," you answered nervously.

"Alright," he said and then he picked you up to carry you bridal style. It made you gasp and giggle. Then he carried you to the bedroom before setting you down.

"I'm gonna change," you said.

He nodded as he took off his shirt and his pants before climbing into bed. You headed to the closet in excitement. You had this all planned since two weeks ago. When you came back out, you were dressed in red lingerie that had a bow over your breasts.

"So there's one last present I had for you," you announced.

Lukas had been on his phone. He had one hand behind his head as laid half-propped against the headboard. His eyes glanced up and then did a double take.

"Fuck, Ella."

He licked his lips and you smiled. You crawled onto the bed towards him before straddling him. You took his phone and set it on the bedside table.

He went to reach for you but you grabbed his hands. You entwined them with yours as you kept his arms bent and up in the air.

"Before you touch me," you stared at him intensely. "I want you to know that I'm ready now."

"Ready for what?"

"To have kids with you," you declared before you held a small smirk. "So do you want to unwrap me now?"

His eyes had stared at you for a few shocked moments. Then he practically attacked you with lust. You had giggled before you got lost in the feeling with him. And it was a very, very long night.

When you woke up in the morning, you could still feel the length of him inside you. His cock acted as a plug to keep his cum inside you. You could feel that he was hard again which made wetness seep out of you and down his shaft.

You wanted him to fuck you. Again. And when he woke, he did. He flipped you onto your belly and straddled your thighs as he fucked you from behind. His cock pounded into you practically making you bounce with each thrust. It was so primal and aggressive.

It made you orgasm rather quickly and your toes curled. Your back arched and you were aware of your painfully erect nipples pressing into the satin sheets. He fucked you through your orgasm with your pussy clenched tightly around his cock as he kept thrusting. His hands moved underneath you and he manipulated you to lift your ass a bit, making him drive deeper into you. You moaned at the new angle even as your front was practically being nailed into the mattress.

You orgasmed again and you felt like you were seeing stars. Your pussy clenched even tighter around his cock and he groaned. He made a few more sloppy thrusts before he gripped your ass cheeks rather tightly as he came inside you.

You felt his warm seed spill deep inside of you. Again. You mewled at the feeling despite the walls of your pussy already being sticky from the seed he painted them with all night.

You wanted him to keep that doing that. Maybe you were cum drunk. You didn't know. But you felt so full and content. You never wanted him to leave you.

He stayed inside you for thirty minutes as they laid there a bit out of it and panting. He was half on top of you. Then he pulled out and you felt so empty as his cum started to leak out.

"I'm gonna take a shower," he commented.

You merely hummed and followed him. Your legs ached a bit. But you didn't focus on that. Your mind was in a fog. You were in a blissed-out haze. And every kiss you shared with him felt amplified and you felt like every cell yearned for him.

Maybe the steam of the shower was making you all fuzzy but when they got out, you fucked him on the bathroom counter. Then you took him back to bed. They just ended up spending the whole day in bed together having sex.

Every day after that, he fucked you. They weren't as bad as that first day but every night he'd fuck you. But they did fuck once at a restaurant in the bathroom. You were bent over the sink with your hands on the white porcelain. You could not believe you let him to do this but you were just as bad as he was.

"When I said I wanted a baby, I didn't mean you should have sex with me relentlessly."

"So you don't want me to fuck you?" he had a smug grin as he gave you a particularly deep thrust making you gasp.

"You're such an ass," you panted.

"An ass you love," he still had that stupid grin and his blue eyes were so bright with happiness. He was so damn pretty. You couldn't help but love it. God. You were so in deep with him.

"Yes, I love you. I love you, Lukas," you uttered and the overwhelming amount of affection you felt made you orgasm before he had even thrusted inside of you again. And your words did it. He groaned before he came inside you.

That was what it was like leading up to New Year's. You found out you were pregnant only a couple days after the new year began. You were so ecstatic and Lukas was happy.

But then the nausea set in. The first trimester was hard for you. You were sick nearly all the time. Your breasts were sore and you were just exhausted.

You'd often wake up in the middle of the night puking. Lukas was so good with you. He would get up and hold your hair, he'd give you back rubs, and he'd even stay home with you. He didn't often go into work besides four days out of the week.

He was just very attentive with you which you appreciated. When the second trimester came around, the nausea had subsided. Your breasts grew and you went up two cup sizes by the end of the trimester. Lukas loved playing with them which felt really great.

But something else had changed in the second trimester. Your libido increased tenfold. You felt like an animal. You were attacking Lukas for sex practically all the time. You would even go to his work just to have him fuck you on his desk.

At night, you'd have very dirty dreams. When they ended, you were all hot and bothered so you'd wake him up pawing at him for sex. You felt quite terrible that you were interrupting his sleep. You had even cried about it once. Lukas just kissed you and told you that you were being silly; like a switch flipped, that calmed you right down and you stopped crying.

One night, you were having sex with him. You were straddling him and you had been bouncing on his dick. But he had gone soft. You had pouted, "I need you again."

He stroked his cock to get it to become hard again as he joked, "It's like you're trying to break my dick."

"What? No. I love you," you frowned like he'd said the worst thing in history and tears built up in your eyes. "Why would I want to break it? How could you ever think I'd want to hurt you?"

Lukas chuckled, "Ella, it was a joke."

You sniffled, "Don't say stuff like that."

"Okay," he complied.

"I love you too much," you replied before you kissed him.

You kissed him shortly before you trailed kisses down to his neck. You muttered against his skin, "Love you so much."

You moved down to kiss his chest and you sucked before nipping at the skin as you mused, "Just want you all the time."

"Fuck, Ella."

And he was hard. You sunk down on his cock and began to bounce again. You began to have sex with him again.

The second trimester had been filled with a lot of sex. But you had also found out the gender of your baby. You were having a boy. The room that you had once painted for a baby was set up once again. Your belly started to show and Lukas was always kissing it.

You let everyone in your family know. Connor seemed the happiest for you. But you didn't much care who was happy and who wasn't. It was your life and you were happy for yourself. That was all that mattered.

Then the third trimester came and that had to be the worst. Your breasts grew even more and you now had an H cup. Your belly was swollen. Your back hurt. Your feet hurt and you had slight edema. You were very irritable. You just wanted the baby out of you.

You practically ignored Lukas. You didn't even let him hold you at night. The hormone you blamed him for knocking you up. It was unreasonable but you couldn't help it. You were so emotional.

One day he went to kiss you before he left to go to work. But you just turned your head. When he said he loved you, you merely hummed.

But as soon as he left, you started crying. You felt terrible. You ran out the door after him and stopped him before he even got in the car.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," you sobbed. "I love you. I love you so much. I don't want you to leave and not know that."

"I know," he responded as he wiped your tears away with his thumbs before kissing you softly. You eagerly pressed your lips back to his and let all of your frustration melt away.

When the kiss finished, you explained, "I'm just so tired and sore. I just want this baby out and I'm being mean to you. I'm terrible."

"You're not terrible," you argued. "But let's fix some of that, yeah?"

"What about work?"

"Fuck it," he said before he shuffled you inside. "I'm taking care of you."

And he did. He had you take a bubble bath. He gave you a massage. At the end of the night, you'd curled up against him in bed and held onto him tightly.

Things hadn't been as lovely as that day had been. You still got snappy and moody with him. But that all changed when you had the baby. You had an easy labor with a spontaneous birth.

You took on the role of mother very easily when you took your baby boy home. He was named Mattias. You doted on him but he cried nearly all the time. You were exhausted.

You and Lukas were exhausted. You barely got anytime to yourselves. But five weeks after the birth, you had gotten up to take a shower. You basically knew now when Matti would wake up. So you got up to take a shower but when you stepped out, breast milk leaked out of one of your breasts.

You groaned in frustration as Lukas came into the bathroom. When he saw the situation, he did something you did not expect. He grabbed you by your hips when you went to grab a hand towel, keeping you in place, before he leaned down and licked the trail of breast milk up from your abdomen, cleaning you off.

Your stomach twisted and you felt a low heat in your belly. You thought it was extremely hot. It turned you on and realized this was the first you had been in months.

When he was done, you grabbed him by his neck and pulled him to you. You kissed him. Your hands ran up his bare chest since he didn't wear a shirt to bed. His hands grabbed at your hips before picking you up and setting you on the bathroom counter.

You panted as you pulled away from him and argued, "Matti will wake up soon."

"I'll be quick," he replied.

You glanced at the baby monitor on the counter that was silent. Then you looked back at him and spread your legs for him. He pushed his sweats down to his thighs, revealing his erection. He lined himself up with your slit before pushing into you. You gasped a little.

It had been months since you had sex with him. And this wasn't I love you sex but I need a release sex. It was quick and rough as he plowed into you. Your kisses were short and hungry. Desperate. Your nails scraped his chest as he made you orgasm and his orgasm quickly followed yours.

The both of you were panting once you were done. His lips attached themselves to your neck, planting soft kisses on your skin. You moaned a little and tilted your head back to give him access.

But then the baby monitor was filled with sound. Matti was crying. You groaned a little bit in exhaustion and you went to move off the counter but he squeezed your thighs lightly, "I'll get him."

You nodded and he left. Matti, like clockwork, needed to be changed at around six in the morning. Then he'd go back to sleep for about twenty minutes before he'd cry again to be fed. You rested for a couple of minutes before you got up to take another shower.

When you got out and you were actually dressed, you went to the baby room. You found Lukas holding Matti against his chest and rubbing his back as he slept ever so soundly. You smiled as you saw it.

You watched them for a few more moments before Matti started to cry. You stepped in and took him before you fed him. Breastfeeding was a long process that took about forty minutes and you were doing this eight to twelve times a day. It was a lot but you were always quite happy (even though exhausted) as you cooed at your baby boy and gazed at him lovingly.

Your baby boy was the center of your whole world. A week later you found out you were pregnant again, an accident. But it didn't matter; being a mother made you happy. This pregnancy (and every other) was much easier and less intense; you became a mother that actually didn't mind being pregnant. You would have another boy, Julian, that also became your greatest treasure in life.

After having Julian, like clockwork, you got pregnant again only six weeks later. You had another boy named Elias. After giving birth to him, you moved with Lukas into another house.

The one he had contained a lot of open space in the living room and such but very little bedrooms. They needed something bigger and more comfortable for a family. This new house also had an art studio. You were overjoyed with it.

Almost as soon as you moved in, you got pregnant again. You had another boy named Nikolaj. Then you got pregnant a fifth time and finally had a girl. She was named Annika.

After her, you had two more boys one after the other. Tobias and Henrik. When you were pregnant with Henrik, you had gone to New York with Lukas. He had something to do with Waystar. You went shopping while he was in his meeting. Mattias, now almost seven, wanted to go with you and so did Nikolaj, who was almost three. Nikolaj was extremely attached to you and shy. So you took the both of them with you while you left the rest with Freya who had became something of a nanny.

When you were out with them, you were approached by a man in the store. You had caught him talking to Mattias. He had an odd smile on his face as he went to reach for him, "You look so much like your father."

"Mattias, come here," your voice was stern as you grabbed his hand and tugged him behind you. You already held Nikolaj, propping him up on your hip.

"Leave my kids alone please," you tried staying cordial with him.

"You have another one," he smiled even wider as his eye twitched. "He has his blonde hair. And you have another one growing..."

He quickly reached out and placed his hand on your pregnant belly. You gasped before stepping back and you smacked his hand away, "Don't ever touch me."

His smile turned to a frown, "You bitch. They're ours. You can't keep them from us."

He went to lunge for you, his hands reaching for your neck, but you quickly let go of Mattias and punched him. Then you grabbed Mattias, gripping his hand so tightly, and rushed out of there. You went to the car where Sven, your driver, was there. The man had followed you and Sven wrestled him to the ground. He kept him there until the cops came.

An ambulance even came. They doctored up your hand as Sven watched your kids. Apparently, you had sprained it from hitting the guy so hard in the face.

Then Lukas showed up. The boys took off towards him as soon as they saw him. He crouched down and hugged them both tightly to him, "My boys. Are you hurt? Did you get hurt?"

He let go of them to turn their hands from side to side, inspecting them for any injuries. Nikolaj spoke, "Mommy saved us."

Mattias added on, "Mom is hurt. She punched him."

"Come here," he picked Nikolaj up and held him. He placed his hand on the back of Mattias to shuffle him forward to the ambulance.

Lukas found you and looked at your hand, "You're hurt. It is broken?"

"It's just a sprain," you assured.

He sighed before he leaned over and kissed the top of your head. Then he did it again seemingly just to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"And the baby?"

"He's fine. He's tough," you smiled as you rubbed your belly with your non-sprained hand.

He sighed again before he picked up Mattias as well. Mattias laid his head on his shoulder as he held both of his boys tightly.

"You're never going fucking anywhere alone again."

"Dad said a bad word," Mattias smirked.

"Yeah, I did. But I'm mad right now," Lukas explained.

"Alright," you agreed as you stared at your boys. You never wanted anything to happen to any of your children.

It had been some deranged fanboy of Lukas that had did it. He went to jail for a year. After that situation, you always had security now.

Nothing bad had happened again and a couple of months later, you gave birth to Henrik. You got pregnant one last time and had a girl. She was named Linnea.

After her, you had decided that eight kids was enough. You had your tubes tied in a procedure. You were no longer having anymore kids and you didn't have to worry about contraception.

Now you just raised your babies. You took them camping or taught them how to paint. Lukas played video games or soccer with the boys. You would have a family night where you played a board game which got very animated. All of them seemed to have a competitive streak in them.

They all had the blond hair of Lukas and his bright blue eyes. But they had your facial features like dimpled cheeks and little noses. They were absolutely adorable. They all got the tall gene, too, so you were the only one in the family that was short.

You were so happy and you gave them all the love you had. You made sure that each one of them knew that they could choose whatever path they wanted. Lukas did, too. If they didn't want to go into business, they didn't have to.

For example, Tobias had gotten really into soccer. You along with Lukas attended each one of his games. He actually ended up becoming a major soccer player.

Each one of your kids was well-adjusted and they all chose their own paths. Not a single one of them took over the business. Lukas had actually ended up selling the whole thing, Gojo and Waystar, and got a massive payout.

When the kids all moved out, you and Lukas downsized to another house. You didn't need one so big anymore. You just lived your life with Lukas and checked in on your kids constantly. You always had to know what they were doing. You wanted to make sure they were happy like you were.

But the years went on. You would go on hikes with Lukas or cozy up to watch a movie. They were very lowkey when the kids moved out. You still did a lot of painting.

You grew old with Lukas until, well, you couldn't. When you were in your late sixties, he passed away. You supposed you weren't necessarily surprised because there was the large age gap between them but it still hurt. You were lonely for a long time. You lived alone and did everything alone.

When you got a bit older and you couldn't even paint because of the arthritis in your hands, you moved in with Nikolaj. He took care of you until you passed as well. In the those last few months, you held a deep longing. Because the gravity that always held you to the Earth was no longer there. It was in your memories. And you died in your sleep with a smile on your face. You let gravity take you to that place in your mind, the one with Lukas, and you died swimming in the pictures and moments of your life forever.

It was peaceful. It was a life worth living. And you hoped your children found a gravity that made them happy with life like you did.

#fanfic #fanfiction #kendall roy #logan roy #lukas matsson #lukas matsson x reader #roman roy #shiv roy #gravitylukasmatsson #succession

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nephilimeq · 2 months ago

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Good Morning Beautiful

Prompt: Grumpy/Sunshine

@bucktommyfluffebruary

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62721625/chapters/162347893

“Fuck. You.”

Tommy grinned and said, “Hey, c’mon, Evan. I know it was a long day yesterday, but we gotta get on the road,” and lightly slapped his ass, but his boyfriend merely grunted and shot him a dirty look from under the pillow that he had buried his head beneath and the airman chuckled.

“I know, I know, it’s early, but if we don’t leave now, we won’t get home ‘til a lot later, soo…indulge me?” he gently asked, leaning over and batting his eyes as best he could.

Evan made another noise of protest—but then said, “Fine, whatever, but you owe me,” and Tommy nodded and patted his shoulder and said, “Okay, you got it.”

He shifted off the bed and moved to pack up their things, most of it being dirty laundry as they had spent all of yesterday wandering through Redwoods National Forest and Evan had insisted on making the most of it, meaning that he had taken every path that wasn’t technically a ‘path’ and had managed to get every single inch of his clothes covered in dirt. It was a rather impressive feat, to be honest, Tommy thought to himself as he threw Evan’s ruined shirt into their designated laundry bag.

He cast a look over his shoulder where his boyfriend was still buried under the covers, looking thoroughly irritated at being roused at such an early hour, which honestly didn’t make much sense considering that only two days ago he had woken up a little bit before five am without any complaint.

Curious, he asked, “You woke before five on Friday…why are you struggling today?”

“N’t the s’me,” he muttered into the pillow.

Tommy snorted.

“Come again?”

Dragging his head out from under the pillow, he said, “It’s not the same. That was the morning before a road trip,” he explained, thumping his hand rather ineffectively on the mattress for emphasis. “This is a full day after we’ve done all the fun stuff and now we have to slog back home…you get the difference?”

The airman placed a pair of dirty socks into the bag and blithely responded, “The difference is you suddenly don’t want to go home to our house anymore. The magic has died.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it!” he snapped back at him, still grumbling, and Tommy chuckled and shook his head, still putting laundry away, baffled that for only being there for a day and a half, not even quite two days, the two of them had managed to create an entire load of laundry for them to do when they got back home. Evan once more burrowed back under the pillow and he decided to let him stay there for the time being.

Tommy whistled as he continued to pack—and Buck wanted to murder him. He could dump his body deep in the woods and no one would find it, he reasoned to himself as he felt every muscle in his body protesting at the thought of being stuck in the car for another eleven hours.

Before, it had been an adventure, but now it was just a drive back home.

Still, he thought about how Tommy had almost sounded upset at thinking that Buck didn’t want to go home, which couldn’t have been further from the truth. Hell, he was still excited every single time that he thought of it as their home, the word still not quite feeling real—but he was tired. Like, bone tired. There was some sort of weight in his limbs that told him that trying to move from the bed would only send him like a lead ball through the floor.

He had never been a morning person.

Never.

One of the reasons why he enjoyed being a firefighter, actually, was because of the fact that they kept irregular work hours.

As Buck had never been able to keep a healthy sleep schedule, being able to randomly catch naps throughout the day and then having a solid six to eight hours at least three to five times a week worked out for him—which was why he wanted nothing to do with forced early mornings.

He listened to Tommy move around the room, wondering if he resented being the one to pack them up…which was exactly the motivation he needed. Buck slowly rose from the bed and said, “Okay, here to help,” and managed to roll over to his back…and then stopped. “…maybe not. God, why does it have to be so early?” He threw his arm over his face, blocking the faint slip of light that was poking through the blinds, telling him it was actually later than he thought.

“Wait…what time is it?”

He could hear the grin in Tommy’s voice as he answered, “Almost seven. We’re getting a late start,” he admitted, and Buck felt his hand on his ankle. “I let you sleep for a couple more hours, figured it’s okay if we get home kinda late. Your shift tomorrow isn’t until three in the afternoon, and mine’s not till four…”

God, why was his boyfriend so perfect?

Deciding to voice his annoyance, Buck whined out, “Fuck why are you so goddamn perfect?”

The airman chuckled and said, “Dunno, guess I was just born that way. Come on, Evan,” and gently patted his ankle a second time. “I’d like us to make some decent time today.”

Buck was tempted to continue to lay on the bed for a while longer, still not wanting to get up and leave, part of his reluctance coming from the fact that he also genuinely didn’t want to leave. They had just had ana amazing day together and all he could think of was keeping every day the same. He knew that things would get rough at some point—it had to, right? No relationship came without its troubles…but with Tommy whenever they had any sort of disagreement they stopped and talked it over so it wouldn’t become worse.

…so maybe this time it was different.

“Evan! Up!”

Okay, now he sounded pissed.

“I’m up, I’m up!”

He forced himself to sit up and then was proud of himself when he stood and started to pick up a few things, giving his boyfriend a self-deprecating smile, feeling genuinely embarrassed that it had taken him so long to get up from the bed. Sure, he wasn’t a morning person, but that didn’t mean he had the right to be an asshole.

Their fingers brushed as they both reached for their chargers, and he flushed and said, “Sorry for…you know. That was kinda rude of me,” and Tommy nodded.

“Yeah, a little, but you’re helping now.”

He nodded and continued to help, and before long they were back in the truck and were on the road—but this time without any roadside attraction to distract him from the fact that they had a long ass drive ahead of them. Buck made himself as comfortable as he could against the passenger’s side window and tried to fall back asleep, ignoring the amused looks that Tommy shot in his direction, not caring, as he all he wanted was just a little bit more sleep.

Tommy watched him and wondered how he had fallen in love with someone who was most definitely not a morning person. Evan was about halfway asleep, and he kept on shooting him fond looks as he drove, their first rest stop not for another two hours. He’d had the army drill into him some pretty strict routines and he now had an internal clock that kept him on a schedule that he had learned to enjoy, being able to wake up easily, even after only a few hours of sleep…

…but Evan on the other hand always took forever to wake up, routinely hitting snooze on his phone alarm far too many times for his own liking. Tommy wondered if he could train it out of him—but decided that it was one of his boyfriend’s quirks that he could learn to live with.

The radio played softly in the background, and he tapped his fingers on the edge of the steering wheel.

Tommy thought about their road trip up…

…and then came to an impulsive decision, grinning at the idea, knowing that Buck would love it. He reached out and pressed an address into the GPS, excited for when Evan woke up. It would be the perfect surprise.

Buck had woken up just enough for when they had stopped at the gas station to fill up, and then Tommy had told him where they were headed and he had tried to convince him that road head was perfectly safe, but his boyfriend had denied him (though Buck was certain that he could convince him one day).

A few more hours went by with some easy conversation and some games of twenty questions, and then Tommy pulled off at exit that lead to Big Sur.

Buck grinned.

Apparently the airman had decided that he wanted to take his boyfriend back to the beach once more time, and—as dumb as it sounded—Buck was so excited he was practically bouncing out of his seat. As much as he had loved Redwood National Forest, he found that as hypnotizing as the trees had been, there had been something bigger from the ocean that had made his mind go quiet in a way that nothing else ever had, except for Tommy’s hands on his body.

He felt the last vestiges of sleep finally leave him as they got closer to the beach, his skin feeling like there was a buzz just underneath it, and he bounced his knee as they pulled into the parking lot, still not quite believing that his boyfriend had known what he needed without him saying anything.

“Seriously, babe, you have such good ideas,” he said as he nearly jumped from the truck.

He heard Tommy chuckle and reply, “I had a hunch that the beach would perk you up. Looks like I was right…”

He shot him a look as he made his way to the beach, grateful that he had worn shorts for the drive home, purposely leaving his shoes in the car as he practically jogged down the sand to the water, noting that there were even less people than before, despite the pleasant weather and nearly perfect day.

His mood lifted the second he got up to ankle deep and he looked back at Tommy once more time…

…and thought of just how damn lucky he was to have him.

Just as he was thinking about how much he loved him, he was taken off guard by two arms wrapping around his waist and throwing him over a broad shoulder, and then he was thrown into the water and he came up sputtering and ready to ask his boyfriend what the hell he was doing—but then he saw Tommy’s grin as he said, “That’s for what you did to me on our beach weekend,” and he snorted and shook the water out of his eyes and swept his hair back from his face.

“Okay, fair enough. But you do realize that we’re gonna have to dry off before we get back in the car?”

Tommy nodded.

“Worth it.”

God, he loved him.

#bucktommyfluffebruary #buxktommy #buck x tommy #tevan #tevan fic #tevan fanfiction #fluff #grumpy x sunshine #evan buckley #tommy kinard #nephilimeq fanfic

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black-arcana · 2 months ago

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Ex-BUTCHER BABIES Singer CARLA HARVEY Teases Debut THE VIOLENT HOUR Single 'Sick Ones' Feat. CHARLIE BENANTE, JOHN 5

THE VIOLENT HOUR, the collaborative project featuring former BUTCHER BABIES singer Carla Harvey and her fiancé, ANTHRAX and PANTERA drummer Charlie Benante, will release its debut single, "Sick Ones", on April 11. A teaser for the track, which features a guest appearance by MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist John 5, is available below.

At least some of the early recording sessions for THE VIOLENT HOUR have been overseen by producer Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER and URIAH HEEP, among many others.

Earlier today, Carla shared the following message via her social media: "It's about to get VIOLENT. The first @theviolenthourband release 'Sick Ones' featuring @john5official is out April 11.

"Holy crap, my heart is pounding! @charbenante and I have been working on this album for the last year and and seeing it all come to fruition is intoxicating. I'm just as excited for you to hear Charlie's work on guitar as I am for you to hear my vocals. LET'S GOOO".

During an appearance on an October 2024 episode of The Ward Bond Show, Harvey, who works as a grief counselor and an end-of-life specialist, spoke about her decision to leave BUTCHER BABIES after a 15-year run. Reflecting on BUTCHER BABIES' formation and her eventual departure, she said: "It's quite interesting because [prior to BUTCHER BABIES] I had come to a point living in L.A., you get opportunities and they're snatched away from you. You make money, then you lose your money. And I was so tired of the entertainment business. And I was, like, 'I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna play music anymore. I don't wanna act anymore. It's too much. Nothing is ever gonna happen with it.' So that's when I went to mortuary school and I was committed to only working in funeral service from then on out. Well, after a couple years of working, I got my dream job at a very big mortuary in L.A. And at the same time, I got an opportunity to start my band and go on tour for the first time in my life. So I had to make a choice in that moment. I've committed myself to this death-care career. Do I drop it all, everything that I've worked so hard for in school, and go on tour with this band and just see what happens one final time, or do I just stick on my path? And I chose music in that moment, and that was 2009 that I really committed back to music, and 2012 we went on our — we were touring non-stop, so there was no way I could work in funeral service anymore. Well, it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me because our career just exploded, and so I got the best of both worlds. I had gotten my education. I had gotten a taste of working in death care, and then I could still live out my dream, and I am so grateful for that. The last 15 years of my life have been spent on stage, entertaining people in a capacity that I never dreamed I would have, especially after so much disappointment in my early years in L.A. So I got to do that. I got to be a rock star. I got to do all the things. And then 15 years later, my mind kind of changed again. [Laughs]"

Elaborating on her decision to leave BUTCHER BABIES and return to the death-care industry, Carla said: "So there's so much that goes into being in a band, especially as you get older and your life changes, you have relationships, you have a partner. I have a stepdaughter, and the idea, all of a sudden, of being on the road 10, 12 months out of the year became just a lot to handle. And in a band there's five people, and half of those people may feel like they want to be on the road constantly all the time and then some people are, like, 'Maybe it's halftime.' So it doesn't always work out for the greater good of everybody."

She continued: "My dad said something to me once years ago, when we had started the band, and he meant it in jest. He said, 'I saw you singing on the Internet. Don't quit your day job.' And at the time I was, like, 'That's the nastiest thing you could say.' But I'm glad I never quit my day job. In fact, all the while, the last 15 years, while I've been on tour, I've been getting more education and getting more certification so that I could continue on because I always had that need to still be in death care in some aspect. I founded my grief coaching company so that I could still be of service to people who need me in that capacity. It was very important to me. And then last year, I was on this major summer tour. We were playing sheds, the outdoor amphitheaters and it was wonderful and every day you're up on stage singing your heart out, but, man, I saw this post about [innovative solidified remains company] Parting Stone looking for a partner success manager. And I thought, 'Man, I wanna apply for this. I wanna see what happens if I can take this job.'"

Harvey added: "There's just so many moments in life where you really have to assess what's best for you. Life changes. And also another thing about the entertainment industry and the music industry, it's not the same as it was for musicians 20 years ago, 10 years ago. My future husband's in a legacy band. They never have to worry about having a real job — ever. But bands my size? You're not breaking the bank. You're not really earning a livable wage unless you're on the road 12 months out of the year. You can't support yourself. So I've always had other jobs, whether I'm painting pictures for people or doing my grief coaching on the side. That's a day job that I've been able to maintain throughout my career with music. It was a necessity as well as a passion, because otherwise I'd be couch surfing somewhere. [Laughs] I have nothing. So it's really hard to live passionately and just follow your dreams without something to fall back on or something to assist you. And I tell this to a lot of people, and some people are, like, 'No, man. I don't want a backup plan. This is the only thing I'm ever gonna do.'

"I always thought about, 'Okay, this is awesome right now. What about when I'm 60? What am I gonna do then?'" Carla said. "Because my mom is 72 and she's working all the time still. She loves working. We're not 70-year-olds that are gonna be sitting on a couch or 60-year-olds that aren't gonna be out doing something. Life is different. We're still gonna be working. We have to do something, and I'd rather have that be a career rather than a job that I'm forced to have to sustain myself in the [later] years."

BUTCHER BABIES announced their split with Harvey in July 2024, saying in a statement that "Carla has been an integral part of our journey, bringing her unique talent, passion, and energy to the band," and wishing "her all the best in her future endeavors."

Carla, who co-founded BUTCHER BABIES in 2010 with fellow vocalist Heidi Shepherd, confirmed her exit from the band in a separate post, saying that she was "super proud" of her work with BUTCHER BABIES and adding that she was "not done making music and performing."

In the fall of 2023, BUTCHER BABIES completed a European tour without Carla, who sat out the trek in order to undergo emergency surgery on her left eye.

In January 2024, Harvey and Benante announced that they were officially engaged.

BUTCHER BABIES released a double album "Eye For An Eye..." and "…'Til The World's Blind", in July 2023. The double album celebrated the tenth anniversary of BUTCHER BABIES' critically acclaimed debut, "Goliath", released on July 9, 2013 via Century Media Records.

Smitten with tales of the Sunset Strip, Harvey made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles from her Native Detroit to play a little rock and roll…and instead found herself the entertainment report for a groundbreaking cable TV news program. After hosting two series and acting in a variety of television programs, movies and commercials, Harvey took a break from showbiz to earn her degree in mortuary science. She embarked on a successful career in embalming and funeral directing before going back to her first love: music.

In addition to writing and recording, Carla has a passion for drawing and penning comic books. Her love affair with the genre started when she discovered the Incredible Hulk at four years old. She spent the majority of her teenage years holed up in her room listening to PANTERA and developing an affinity for drawing her own scantily clad comic book characters. Dubbed a "comic book master-mind" by Hustler magazine, Harvey's first published comic book "Butcher Babies" (a fantasy, horror concept surrounding her now-former band),premiered and sold out at its Comic-Con San Diego debut, leaving fans chomping at the bit for her next comic, "Soul Sucka". Shortly after, she released her first full-length novel, "Death And Other Dances", to rave reviews. Carla's art has been featured in Famous Monsters magazine and has graced the cover of iconic Heavy Metal magazine.

Photo courtesy of TAG Publicity

#carla harvey #the violent hour #sick ones #john 5

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jodilin65 · 18 days ago

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I'm so tired of selfish people and one-sided conversations; I really am. The kind where someone says something or shares a picture and you comment and ask questions, and then you do the same and you don't get shit in return. Why care about those who don't care about me?

Slept well and have had amazing energy so far throughout my day. Kept thinking it would tank any second, but it's still holding steady. Tom thinks that as long as I stay in bed for 8 or 9 hours without getting up, if I wake up too early, that will help. The vitamins may be kicking in too, along with my mending gums.

Still feel like I'm hypo, though, because my weight is up a couple of pounds, and I'm not overly warm, wound up, or having trouble sleeping. I also haven't been very regular. I'm dreading the moment I trade these symptoms in for hyper symptoms, but my TSH should definitely be dropping—especially with all the vitamin D I'm now taking in the multivitamin supplement I started 5 days ago.

Gave up on Menla because I didn't feel like I was getting anything out of it any more than I did with Helen, a real human.

I think I might also give up the idea of getting a haunted doll and communicating with it because I just don't think I have that ability. I think different psychics have different abilities, and if there's anything unworldly out there to communicate with, I don't have that talent. I just sometimes know the unknown or things I shouldn't know, regardless.

Our cucumber plant has sprouted some cute little yellow flowers! Also, I clipped some of the romaine leaves to add to my turkey sandwich earlier.

It's been very windy ever since I got up, so I don't dare go outside for fear of triggering my asthma and allergies.

I'm still amazed at how well I slept. I slept on my favorite flat, skinny pillow and spent a lot of time on my stomach. Makes me wonder if maybe I should clean the bathroom off the bedroom more often—not just for dust, but because the shower stall isn’t one-piece and is therefore more susceptible to mold and mildew. I just cleaned it yesterday.

Right now, the bot is finishing up vacuuming the kitchen floor, but I'm going to mop it myself because it doesn't do a great job with that part.

We had a little bit of rain, and I guess we're going to have some more coming through later on. Because of it, I'm guessing the Honker won't be leaving tonight.

My thumbnail still has fungus that just doesn't want to quit, but I'm terrified to take the medication for it, so I'm still using the lacquer. I also don't understand this nail splitting I've been having lately. How is it that I can stop polishing my nails and wearing nail stickers only to have my nails start splitting? I have a couple of fingernails and a couple of toenails splitting, but my research says it can't be anything serious.

Had quite a few PVCs today for some reason.

Tom will be going for a 2-hour evaluation for cataract surgery next month.

The Easter challenge I was expecting to launch went live about 4 days ago and consists of five rides—four in the US and one in Canada. I rode in Washington State, and now I'm in Central Canada.

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blue-velvet-valentina · 6 months ago

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Son of war chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Heather was able to get dressed quickly, throwing on some leggings and an oversized crochet sweater, getting herself groomed and ready, warming the car up so her mother would not be cold on the trip. She picked up her dog and headed to her mom to get her ready.

“Sorry I’m late mom, I wasn’t paying attention, and I forgot to set my alarm.” She said after coming in and setting the dog down to let him eat some already dispensed dog food in a fancy bowl her mom set aside.

“It’s okay, I got myself dressed, I just need to get the bed made.” Her mom said. The woman looked older than her age of 64, her illness aging her quickly as it sucked her life force. She did manage to dress herself better than Heather as usual with a skirt and lace blouse, full makeup and jewelry.

“I just worry, one day you can take over the world, the next you can barely get out of bed.” Heather said getting the dog a treat of a dried fish.

“I promise I am okay. Now, I know it will be a full day and once were done I just want to sleep.” Her mother retorted almost demandingly. Heather just nodded, too tired to argue anymore.

She waited for her mother to finish making her bed as Heather made her mother tea to go and arranging her medicine in order for the morning. As soon as her mother finished her medication, Heather helped her mother in her car and headed to the doctor's office building in the city. Each appointment brought her mother more anxiety with long wait times from each appointment. Her mother has been ill for as long as heather could remember, memorizing every hospital trip, every time her mother was ill, every time she was near death to claw back.

It took about 3 hours and almost five appointments, but they were completed. Heather went to the laundry mat and went to wash all of their clothes and meanwhile set a grocery order with mom to be delivered. Laundry was soon done before they could arrive back to put away the clothes and food. Heather got her mom inside to take off her shoes and eat the soon to be delivered take out, going back outside to start folding her clothes, she felt like she was being watched. She felt the air moving around her differently than the windy afternoon from the cold front.

Heather started to fold her clothes, bagging her summer bedding for the year and putting it away. She turned to grab her undergarment box and noticed her things had been shifted from her dresser. It may not have been noticeable normally, but to Heather she knew, her books to be read was even out of order that they were and was missing one of her novels in her anthology. The sudden change shook her, thinking she was robbed, but she knew if she was because of her security system and they never went for anything valuable like her TV, laptop, her game systems, even her water heater since there was a rash of stolen appliances and copper wiring/pipes in the county. She lived in a rural suburb where it was small enough to not feel the stress of the city, but it was big enough for a short drive to major stores and most of them deliver to her address. She did not want to alert her mother, so she just checked the cameras while she finished with the laundry and saw nothing. The feed did not look manipulated or anything just poof, a tiny shift and the other books moved with the lack of a book. It a nerved her, but she felt it could just have been her mind playing tricks on her since it has been a stressful few days alone. She finished her laundry and not long later she put away the groceries for her mother and spent time with her cooking a small dinner for her due to her being too tired to cook for herself.

Heather finally got a sliver of time to herself, she got herself ready for bed and decided to sleep early, lulling to sleep before the room was even dark. Her dog hopped up on a chair by her bed then her mattress before snuggling near her in bed huffing before settling to sleep with his blanket.

Meanwhile…

“I still cannot believe you would steal her book, you are going to get in trouble for using the portal and while injured you know that right?” A man said looking at a book the other man stole scolding him.

“It didn’t look like she was reading it, besides, I will put it back when I’m done.” He said cockily waving it a bit.

“Really? A brute like you “reading”? Another man said laughing.

“Kung Lao, he CAN read, he isn’t stupid.” The first man said.

“Well, la-de-da Raiden, didn’t know you had a new best friend” Kung Lao said with a playful pout.

“Keep that up and I will show you how much of a brute I can be you farmer!” Reiko yelled Kung lao who quickly shut the wood door giggling from the other side of the closed door before the sound of a knife embedding itself into the door, the blade now stuck on the other side.

“ He is an idiot, but you really need to stay calm to heal faster. You were close to developing an infection.” Raiden said shaking his head picking up the empty bowl that was once filled with Madam Bo’s food.

She had been stuffing him full for a few days to recover, the offending blade had poison and inoculated with rotten material. Reiko tried to fight the infection in outworld, but when he was too sick to stand, it gave serious concern to his father and commanded he would go to Earthrelm where they had the ability to find what the infection was and treat it quickly. Time moves differently between relms, so recovering in Earthrelm was much slower and he felt bored. The boredom made his mind wander and found the woman who saved him by atleast cleaning the wound. When the doctors from the Special Forces finally got to start treating his wounds, they said he could have died in the Living Forest and instead of the poison affecting him, it was the infection that was settled in. He hated the needles in his body, the beeping of the machines that were pumping him full of antibiotics incessant and annoying. Finding her he felt at ease, he saw she was always seemingly tired, her mind and heart always full of others or needless tasks, but hardly any for herself. Every whisper about her appearance or body she seemed to feel it was a wound stabbed deep inside. He was able to grab the book and woke up with the book in his hand. A small scifi horror novel that grabbed his interest. He took his time absorbing the details when Raiden and Kung Lao caught him with the book and the portal sealing up not far from him.

#mortal kombat #mk1 #mk1 2023 #fanfic #fan fiction #mk1 reiko #mk reiko #reiko

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call-me-the-cassie · 1 year ago

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The Mood Lift

Written for the Jilytober 2023: Masquerade Challenge @jilytoberfest Prompt: am taking the stairs because there’s a huge dog inside the lift and my office is 20 floors above and oh look at that, this handsome man always climbs 22 flights of stairs.

Lily Evans was a very professional young lady. She wasn’t the kind to dilly dally at work at all, no, she left her personal life at the door of the Scrivenshaft’s skyscraper when she came in every morning and worked diligently for eight hours while thinking strictly professional thoughts in her strictly professional attire. And if she thought less than strictly professional thoughts on her one-hour break, well, that was nobody’s business. It was a break, after all.

Not that there were very many unprofessional thoughts, even at break. Lily liked to stay present in the moment, and she was reasonably happy at her workplace. She may not build lifelong close relationships there, but she did like her coworkers enough to spend her free time walking across the road to get sandwiches and coffee with them and chat about frivolous nothings.

“...and then I spent the rest of the morning figuring that out, so I haven’t really had a moment to be tired, but now I’m surprisingly drained out”, Lily said, talking to Marlene McKinnon, her next desk neighbor, one sunny Monday as they walked back with their extra strong coffees. It had been a rather nerve-wracking morning for ones still unused to the chaos the office sometimes descended into.

Marlene nodded sympathetically.

“Things can get a little heated up this time of the month”, she reassured. “You’ll see it’s nothing to be alarmed by soon enough - all bark and no bite.”

They walked into the building, moping just a little about Mondays, and then an awkward silence reigned briefly as they waited for a lift.

“This building is way too tall if you ask me”, said Marlene to fill the silence. “I have to get here five minutes early just to account for the lifts, and one of them is always out of order.”

“I’m not a huge fan myself”, Lily admitted. “But what can you do? It’d take way longer to take the stairs.”

“Ha! I’m not sure I’d make it to the top at all!” Marlene laughed, and Lily thought that was the end of small talk about lifts.

She was so very, very wrong. She was soon to discover that the lifts weren’t a topic of small talk at all, no, they were the roadblocks on every employee’s path to success, the cog in the otherwise smooth machinery that was Scrivenshaft, the creation of the very devil himself to wheedle hapless young women into damnation.

Lily hated the lifts. Soon they were eating up two thirds of her lunch breaks, till she gave in and started packing herself a little snack to avoid having to leave her desk, and she may have forgiven that, and the fact that they seemed to grow more and more unreliable every day, forcing her to come in earlier and earlier and leave later and later every passing day, if only there was limit to the lifts’ crimes against humanity.

The lifts were evil incarnate, and yet, she depended on them for her very survival. It was an entirely unbearable situation, and someday something would have to change, but she soldiered on bravely till he came into the picture.

It was after nearly a fortnight of suffering that she first saw him. She was still new, still not quite filled with bitterness, still hopeful that the struggles were temporary, and therefore still capable of being surprised when she saw someone make their way to the stairs instead of standing in line for the lifts as they all did.

“Who’s that?”, she whispered to Dorcas, one of those employees who had been much longer than most of them. “I know the lifts are tiresome but… he’s not really going to walk up twenty flights of stairs, is he?”

Dorcas looked bored.

“Maybe he doesn’t need to go up twenty floors”, she replied briefly, which was entirely unhelpful, because there weren’t any offices below the fifth floor anyway, so the man was in for quite a trek either way.

Lily would later find out that all of Dorcas’s replies had a tendency to be brief, the older woman was notoriously unforthcoming with information. She would also notice that Dorcas had never answered her question, and she still had no idea who the man was.

Once she’d seen him, he seemed to appear constantly before her, leading her to assume that he must work there as well. When Marlene couldn’t help her figure out who it was with the little information she had, she took to trying to find out more about him in non stalkery, professional ways.

Perhaps her professionalism was wavering just a little bit.

She made a little game of it, just now and then, noticing little things about the mystery man to tell Marlene, who was proving her wrong by quickly becoming a fast friend of hers.

“He wore a blue shirt”, she’d first described, but that predictably led nowhere, and with time she found ways to be more specific.

“I saw him on the twenty second floor today, I can’t imagine how he’s doing it”, she said another day, and that was a little more helpful.

“He basically skipped up the stairs! How does the man have so much energy?”, she’d grumble sometimes.

“I suppose that explains how he’s so fit”, she’d admit, but only on break, because that was an unprofessional thought, and she only had them on her breaks, and only in front of Marlene, although others in the office had heard of lift man by then.

Months passed.

“It’s a little unfair, you know”, Marlene would remark now and then. “To call him lift man when all we know about him is that he doesn’t use the lifts.”

“He has made his whole personality about the lifts, Marlie, what else could I call him?” Lily would protest, and Marlene would accuse her of projecting because she herself was becoming obsessed with the lifts, and then the pair would bicker like lifelong friends they might actually be becoming.

Lily was starting to be rather happy, and the walls of professionalism were starting to relax. She was bonding with her coworkers, her work life was proceeding smoothly, and though she was no closer to unraveling the mystery of the lift man -not that there really was a mystery to solve- she rather enjoyed the little game she and Marlene had bonded over.

If things felt too good to be true -and here Lily would have protested that they didn’t feel that good- the fates intended to balance the scales very soon.

The lifts were to blame, of course. As had been already established, they were the source from where all human sorrow flowed into the world, and they could not accept the calm in Lily’s life, her defiance of the chaos they spread.

The lifts demanded revenge, and they timed their vengeance well.

It was a wet Thursday morning, and Lily Evans was running disastrously late. Her once professional bun had been replaced by a slightly sloppy braid, her high heels swapped for sneakers, and her calm, professional gait had vanished in favor of frantic running when she arrived at Scrivenshaft that morning.

She put the causes for her circumstances firmly to the back of her mind and reached out for the lift button. Surely there would be one upside to all of this, surely the lifts would be faster now that everyone was already in their offices, she told herself. The lifts would be kind to her today.

Fate laughed at her naivete, the lifts chuckled at her optimism.

Out of order signs hung proudly on two of the three lifts in the building, a little dust starting to gather on them, and a passerby often noted how problematic the situation could be without doing anything to remedy it.

No one, however, was as afflicted by it as Lily Evans was that day, because when the doors to the third lift opened, and they were, indeed, faster without the morning rush, Lily found herself face to face with what she at first assumed to be a hellhound.

Lily didn’t necessarily fear dogs, but this was no ordinary dog. It looked like a wolf, and when she held its gaze for a moment, Lily knew true terror deep in her soul. She looked around for a moment, realized very quickly that she was all alone at the moment, and bolted for the safety of the stairs.

They weren’t far, but Lily was panting anyway when she reached halfway up the stairs and looked behind to see if she was being pursued.

She was, but not by the creature she was running from.

No, she was facing the lift man instead, and he looked a little alarmed. Panic flared as Lily wondered how much of her antics he had witnessed.

“Hello”, she said, trying to smile. “I’m Lily.”

To his credit, the lift man smiled right back, as if the situation wasn’t absurd at all.

“I’m James”, he replied. “I think I’ve seen you around. Lily Evans, yes?”

And just like that, Lily did know who he was. She had emailed him. They had had at least three brief exchanges in an online meeting. They didn’t work together on a daily basis, but she was still floored for a moment by the realization that she had no idea what James Potter looked like before this moment.

Well. That was partly why she was floored. Lily couldn’t exactly deny that she was momentarily very distracted because she’d never seen him from up close like this before and he was much prettier than she had realized.

“That’s me”, she replied, recovering quickly. “Sorry, it’s been a crazy morning, I didn’t realize you’re James Potter.”

Lift man -James- climbed up the few stairs between them to join her.

“I don’t blame you”, he smiled, “I never put up profile pictures. Can’t have people distracted.”

Lily found herself relaxing a little as he gestured to himself, grinning at his own joke.

“I’m afraid my distraction is unrelated”, she sighed as they fell into step. “It’s the lifts.”

“Work of Satan himself”, James said promptly, and Lily’s heart fluttered a little.

“That’s what I say!”, she exclaimed.

“I concur wholeheartedly”, he replied. “They’re my lifelong nemesis.”

Lily could have kissed him there, as they stopped for a moment at the second floor to catch a breath.

Or so she thought.

“What are you doing?”, she half squeaked as he pressed the button summoning the only functioning lift to them.

“Waiting for the lift?”, he said, sounding confused.

“I thought they were your nemesis," Lily protested. “James, you can’t take the lift.”

“Lily”, he said very patiently. “The stairs don’t go any higher, because no one would climb up more than two flights of stairs, and I sure as hell wouldn’t climb up twenty-two flights.”

Lily looked around. He was right. The stairs didn’t go any further.

“We can take the fire escape”, she suggested. James could accompany her or not, but there was no way she was going anywhere near the lifts ever again.

He looked surprised.

“Lily, I hate the lifts as much as you do, but…”

“You don’t understand”, she interrupted. “There’s a dog in there, a big, angry vicious dog, and we need to get away before the lift arrives and it attacks us.”

She sounded unhinged even to her own ears. James paused for a moment.

“How about”, he suggested “we wait for the lift, and if the dog is still in there, I protect you with my life and we take the fire escape?”

Lily considered this for a moment.

“And I buy you coffee to compensate for the ordeal”, he added.

“Well, okay, then”, Lily relented, pleased that he seemed to enjoy her company as much as she enjoyed his.

They waited, but there was no awkward silence to fill, and when the lift doors opened and no dog presented itself, James gallantly declared that it was doubtlessly a trick of the lifts.

“I believe you completely”, he reassured her.

“I suppose I should buy you coffee instead, since you were prepared to defend me with your life”, Lily offered, hoping he’d take her up on it.

“We could do that”, James agreed, “or we could get dinner together this Saturday and work on a petition to banish the lifts.”

Lily’s eyes widened a bit in surprise.

“As friends, of course”, James added. “We’ve been through so much together.”

“That sounds great”, Lily smiled.

They exchanged numbers and reluctantly parted ways at the twentieth floor.

Despite the morning’s difficulties, Lily found herself smiling a little all day.

James had picked the perfect place for dinner. Light, breezy and casual, perfect for their new budding friendship. Lily was instantly at ease, and she loved the food there.

“Oh my god this is absolutely amazing”, Lily gushed over her pasta.

“I know right!”, agreed James, just as enthusiastic about his onion rings. “I’m pretty good company!”

“No, really, how have I never heard of Leaky Cauldron?”, she said. “This is heaven, James, you’ve brought me to heaven.”

“Underrated gem, this place”, he said. “You’re very welcome.”

“I haven’t thanked you yet”, Lily protested, and then her tone softened. “But I am now. Thank you for offering to fight a dog for me, and for keeping me company, and for bringing me to my new favorite diner.”

“Happy to”, James replied, a faint blush spreading over his face. “You’re pretty good company, my new favorite friend, as long as you don’t tell my old favorite friend.”

“I can do that”, she laughed.

“Speaking of my old favorite friend”, James continued, “I do actually know a bit about the dog’s backstory.”

Lily listened, riveted, while he explained how his friend had seen the dog wandering the streets that morning and decided to launch a very ill thought rescue mission. He reassured her that the dog and the friend were now both safely stashed away at their respective homes, and the lifts weren’t to blame for once after all.

They had more to talk about than either of them expected, and when the dinner was over, they decided to get an ice cream, and when somehow there was still more that they absolutely had to discuss, they agreed to meet for dinner again.

And again.

And then for lunch, and then for coffee. Lily introduced James to Marlene, who gleefully spilled the beans about their speculation about the mysterious lift man, and James introduced her to Sirius, who apologized for his part in scarring her with the dog.

Lily didn’t believe in workplace romances, but she hadn’t believed in workplace friendships either, and she had been proven very wrong there, so she took a leap of faith a few weeks later and asked James out.

“I’d love to get dinner with you this weekend”, she replied deceptively casually one day when James asked her if she had plans, “but I’d like it to be a date.”

And James had beamed , grinning ear to ear as he took her up on it.

And then professionalism went out the window entirely as he leaned forward, just a little, and left a kiss on her cheek.

“See you soon, Evans”, he said as she stood there, beaming back at him.

Maybe, just maybe, the lifts weren’t the spawn of the devil after all.

#jilytoberfest #jilytober2023 #jily #masqueradechallenge

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ali-annals · 1 year ago

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The Very First Night

Jasonette, T, 3.1k | Masterlist

Present

Marinette’s phone rang sharply, jolting her awake.

“Uh,” she answered, not awake enough for anything coherent.

“Miss Marinette?” a cultured British voice asked.

“Felix? It’s one-thirty in the morning, you clown.”

“I apologize for the early call, but I am not Felix. My name is Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne family butler. Master Jason told me about you, and I thought you should know that he is currently unconscious after a mishap on a case he was working on,” Alfred said soberly.

Marinette was now much more awake. “Jason’s hurt?! I’m assuming it’s bad or you wouldn’t call. Can I come visit?”

“Of course, Miss Marinette. I shall prepare Master Jason’s room for you, although I imagine most of your time will be spent with him. My apologies for waking you so early with such unfortunate news.”

“No, thank you for calling me. I’ll call you back at this number when I have my flight details, if that's alright?”

“Certainly. Good day.”

“‘Bye.”

Marinette hung up and flopped back in her bed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. Now, more than ever, she wished she hadn’t given up the Miraculous. She could have portaled over and attempted to heal Jason, no waiting needed. But here she was, across the country and her plans to move to Gotham thirteen days ahead of schedule.

Focus, Marinette! She scolded herself, making herself get up and begin to pack for her flight. Chloe would probably let her take her family’s jet, but she’d question why and be hurt that Marinette hadn’t confided in her…no, flying public was best. She pulled up the schedule and bought the ticket, glad her returned inspiration had replenished her bank account. Last-minute tickets from LA to New York weren’t cheap.

~~~~~

Five months ago

The doors to the glittering ballroom released a burst of noise. Undulating conversation patterns, glasses clinking, bursts of laughter, and exuberant greetings hit the newcomers’ ears.

Little groups of people gathered around round tables, socializing and sipping from tall flutes of champagne or other drinks.

The newcomer approached a table situated close to the middle of the room, the fabric of their gown swishing in gentle steps as they moved.

“Mari! You made it!” a vivacious blonde jumped up to hug the newcomer. “And you managed to drag Luka out, too!”

Laughing, the brunette untangled herself from the embrace. “As if I wouldn’t make sure he arrived, presentably, to an event he’s won an award at! It’s good to see you, Chloe.”

She moved to greet the other occupants of the table, leaving Luka and Chloe to rib each other.

The evening went on, speeches made, awards received, drinks swallowed, and jokes exchanged.

“And of course, our Mari is responsible and ‘focusing on herself’,” needled Chloe.

“You mean, ‘focusing on depriving us of things to tease her about’,” corrected Adrien.

Mari smiled into her flute and took another sip. “The media is bored with my personal life, just as it should be. I only bring one of you as a plus-one and they know we’re all strictly friends. You should try it sometime, Playboy from Paris.” She narrowed her eyes at the blond across the table teasingly.

“Nah, it’s too boring. And having no consistent date keeps them from digging further. I’m a genius, myself; you’re not the only one in this group.”

“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous,” sniffed Chloe.

A little while later, Marinette said her goodbyes and excused herself to continue her work on her new line, which was her first in a couple years. Inspiration had finally flown, gushed, even, and she wanted to take full advantage of it when she could.

~~~~~

Present, 8 Hours After the Call

Alfred was waiting for her with a car and a sign with her name on it when she disembarked from her five-hour flight.

He looked tired and worn but welcomed her warmly.

“Jason always seemed happier when he talked about you,” Alfred confided, pulling into NY traffic with ease. “He only spoke of you to me, however, so the rest of the family do not know about you. They will be confused and likely suspicious of you, but I will handle them.”

“What happened?” she barely dared to ask, but she needed to know.

“He was on a stakeout with Batman, Red Robin, and Nightwing. They decided to act and engaged the criminals. Master Jason was the last to leave the building, as he had found an unconscious civilian under the influence of some drug. He gave them his helmet to filter the air, which was sprayed with some gas. He had a rebreather and was almost out when the building exploded. The criminals had rigged it on a timer, as it was their final time using it when Batman apprehended them.”

Marinette sucked in a horrified gasp, knowing what had happened the last time Jason was in an explosion.

“Do you know…how badly he was hurt?”

“He is currently being kept sedated in the Batcave. He has second-degree burns, a closed head injury, bruised ribs, and

several abrasions, contusions, and lacerations. He also inhaled some smoke, dust, and drugs while he was unconscious before Batman and Nightwing rescued him, but his rebreather prevented the worst.”

The remainder of the ride was quiet.

~~~~~

Five Months Ago

The taxi pulled up to Marinette’s apartment building.

She pushed the button in the elevator and waited patiently for the doors to open; with a quiet ding, she was alerted to her arrival on the floor she’d chosen.

She stepped out quickly, heading determinedly to the black car waiting underground, and slipped into the backseat.

She smiled brightly at the other occupant of the backseat and opened her arms. “Miss me?”

Jason hugged her tightly. “So much.”

A giggle squeezed out of her lungs. “It’s been less than an hour."

“And that’s less than an hour too long, Pixie.” He hoisted her onto his lap and cupped her face in his large, warm hands.

Marinette returned the gesture. “Who taught you to be so smooth?”

“You just bring it out, Pix,” he grinned at her.

She leaned down to smooch him, but he caught her lip between his teeth and tugged gently.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“...nowhere.”

“Darn right.” His mouth covered hers and no more words were exchanged during the ride.

~~~~~

Present, 10 Hours After the Call

Alfred took Marinette’s bags up to Jason’s room, then led her to the clock and down the secret passage to the Batcave.

Marinette spied Jason on the bed in the infirmary corner and beelined for him, ignoring the surprised Bats sprinkled around the cave that Alfred warned off with a stern glare.

Tubes and wires connected Jason to various machines, the white light harshly emphasized the paleness of his skin, and the monotone beeping made Marinette tear up.

She wiped them away and moved to take Jason’s hand in hers. It lay in her grasp cool and limp, unlike his usual warm grasp and the three squeezes he gave her when she took it.

She rested her forehead on his forearm, heartbroken by seeing him lying there so still and pale and bandaged.

Even when he was in her hands, he wasn’t there.

“I miss you,” she whispered.

This aching loneliness was even worse than the first night, when he wasn’t there…

~~~~~

Five Months Ago

“Want something to drink?” Jason held the door open for her like a gentleman, as if he hadn’t been very un-gentlemanly pawing at her fewer than five minutes ago in the back of the limo.

She kicked off her heels and sighed in relief. “Mm, just some water, thanks.”

She followed him to the kitchen and took the glass he handed her gratefully, swallowing the water in three gulps, which he watched in mild admiration and horror.

“How’d you get away from your family so soon?” she asked, refilling her glass (but sipping slower this time).

“Usual excuse-I’m tired of their company and I’m going to work out.”

Marinette grinned at him. “So no excuse, just a delicate rephrasing of your thoughts, huh?”

He smirked at her. “Of course. Heaven forbid I taint some little ol’ lady’s innocent ears–as if li’l ol’ ladies aren’t the most devious people I know.”

“Nonna Gina,” they said in unison, grinning at the remembrance of their first meeting, which was a setup, of course.

Humming a few lines of music that had been playing earlier that evening, Mari began to sway her hips and twirl around the kitchen. She advanced on Jason, who was leaning against the counter, watching her with a mix of emotions in his eyes. She didn’t want to analyze them, so she adjusted her plans slightly; she set her glass in the sink, leaning behind him to reach. As she brought her arm around him again, she tickled him in the only ticklish spot he had (that he reacted to, at least), and immediately backed away, grinning.

Jason’s hulking form came after her with incredible speed, making her shriek with laughter and run away, attempting to evade him.

She headed for the hallway, calling on all her regular workouts and smaller frame to make her quicker than him. She burst into the bedroom and was tackled to the bed by his flying lunge at her, his hands pinning hers above her head and resting his body weight on her.

They both breathed heavily, which was suddenly not from their impromptu game of cat-and-mouse. She stared defiantly up at him, tipping her head back to see his complex expressions.

His eyes darkened and he leaned down to kiss her fiercely.

~~~~~~

Two Months Ago

The dial tone hit Marinette’s ears.

This number is currently not in service.

She hung up and curled around a pillow, feeling unbearably lonely and missing Jason fiercely.

~~~~~

Yesterday

Marinette’s phone rang, breaking her attention from her friends’ conversation. She checked the caller ID and excused herself.

“MDC speaking,” she answered professionally, knowing her friends were half eavesdropping before she moved out of overhearing range.

“Pixie, do you know how much I miss you?” whispered Jason. “These annoyances are driving me to do stupid things like call you in front of them just so I don’t blow us all up and alert the people we’re watching to our location!”

“Aw, poor Jay,” she commiserated. “You need some reminders to keep you from eliminating your siblings?”

“Please.” His exasperated tone in that one word told her volumes.

“You’ll be in your family’s bad books if you do that, which means they’ll keep an even closer eye on you, which means you can’t see me without alerting them to my existence in your life.”

Jason exhaled sharply. “Thank you, Pix. I shall restrain myself. Two more weeks.”

“Two more weeks,” she echoed happily.

She returned to her friends’ chatter around her kitchen island as they gossiped and caught up on the happenings in their lives.

Chloe headed to the refrigerator to refill her water glass. “That’s a cute pic of you, ‘Bug.”

“Thanks!” Mari said casually, hoping Chloe wouldn’t consider the fact that there was a picture of Mari, meaning someone else had to have taken it, or the note in marker on the bottom of the Polaroid, a little heart and infinity symbol Jason had drawn.

Two more weeks, she thought happily.

~~~~~

Present, 19 Hours After the Call

Alfred gently tapped Marinette’s shoulder.

She straightened and rubbed her eyes, taking the tray he offered her. “You need to eat,” Alfred nodded at her. She smiled hollowly back at him and nodded, taking a spoonful of chicken soup.

Once Alfred was satisfied that she’d eaten enough, he took the tray back and suggested she might want to wash up.

With a final glance at the still form on the bed, she followed him up the stairs and into the Manor, then to Jason’s– and now hers, she supposed– room.

The ensuite was stocked with Marinette’s favourite skincare and hygiene products. She looked questioningly at Alfred, who was showing her how the faucet and handles worked in the shower.

His lips tipped up. “Master Jason spent a good deal of time in the store aisle, searching if they had your favourite products here. He was quite excited about your upcoming move.”

Marinette angrily brushed the tears that had welled up away. Why couldn’t she stop crying?

Alfred patted her shoulder and left her to cry in private.

After showering and changing into sweats and Jason’s Gotham Knights hoodie, she unpacked her things and then set off to thank Alfred for the food and meet Jason’s family, who she was sure was unbearably curious about her.

Dick and Damian were in the kitchen with Alfred, also partaking in the soup.

She smiled shyly and waved a sweater paw in greeting.

“Hi, I’m Marinette, Jason’s fiancee.”

Dick choked on his soup and Damian solemnly slapped his back several times.

Alfred gave the males a pointed look from his position at the sink.

Dick wiped his hands on his napkin and stood, extending his hand. “Dick Grayson. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Damian Wayne,” said the spiky-haired boy on the stool, notedly not extending his hand. He nodded at her and resumed his meal, but Marinette noticed he kept his ear tilted towards them.

Bruce and Tim arrived, herded by Babs, Steph, and an older woman Marinette didn’t know.

They paused, seeing Marinette in the doorway.

She extended her hand. “Marinette, Jason’s fiancee. It’s nice to meet you, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Bruce opened his mouth, saw Alfred’s glare, shut it, and took her hand gracefully. “Likewise.”

Tim nodded at her and headed straight for the coffee maker, but the women took her hand and smiled at her when they introduced themselves. The unknown woman was Leslie Thompkins, the doctor primarily in charge of Jason, which made Marinette feel better, knowing an up-to-date trained medical professional was looking after him.

Once the introductions were over, she slipped back down to the Cave to sit beside Jason.

~~~~~

Six Months Ago

Marinette stepped onto the porch, surveying the lush lawn and the small figures running around on it.

Fei Wu’s twin toddlers were being chased by Jason, who pretended to run slightly slower than the toddlers, letting them escape his long arms and legs.

Sabine came out and stood beside Marinette and Fei Wu. “He’s good with children. You picked well, qian jin.”

“Nonna picked us for each other,” said Marinette absentmindedly as she watched Jason finally catch Zhen and hoist him in the air, making him squeal in laughter. He was good with kids and so gentle. It was such a contrast from his violent vigilante persona, but Marinette knew both were a part of him.

The warm sunshine beating down on the three forms collapsed on each other, sprawled lazily in the grass, painted a picture Marinette wanted to keep with her always.

She studied Jason’s peaceful face as he tilted his head more towards the light, sunbeams dancing across his features.

I love him.

Oh no.

I love him.

~~~~~

Present, 55 Hours After the Call

Jason’s eyes fluttered open and his hand twitched in her grasp, waking her from her half-asleep state.

Figuring that he would want water, she held the straw up to his mouth, letting him sip slowly.

“Mari? How are you here?” his voice was scratchy from the smoke and not speaking for a few days, but he was speaking and coherent. Marinette realized she was unintentionally squeezing his hand harder and relaxed her grip.

“Alfred called me. How are you feeling?” she brushed the curls out of his eyes and left her hand on his head.

“I’ve felt better,” he admitted. “But I’ve also felt worse, so overall…”

She frowned disapprovingly at his humour. “Not the time, mon amour.”

“S’rry.”

“It’s fine. I’m so glad you’re awake. You were sedated for two and a half days. It’s May 17th and-” she checked her phone- "May 18th, and 12:14 am.”

“How’s civvy?”

“They were taken to the hospital and released yesterday. They’re fine, thanks to you.”

Jason closed his eyes. “Good. ‘M sorry, but I’m kind of tired…”

“Have a good sleep.” She kissed his forehead and stood to collect a paper to record the incident for his health file.

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

Present, Four Days After the Call

Jason moved slowly across the room to Marinette. She was watching Cass and Steph train on the mats and didn’t hear him shuffling closer.

She glanced up when his shadow hit her. “You’re up!”

“Yep. Doc cleared it, don’t worry.”

“Are you cleared to head back into the Manor?”

“If I take the elevator up.”

Alfred was overjoyed to prepare a snack for Jason and Marinette and they talked quietly in the breakfast nook while they ate, glad to be alone and not have one of his family members hanging around obnoxiously close to them.

“I finally called them and let them know what’s happening,” Marinette referenced her friends. “They were mad I hadn’t told them everything sooner, but they’re finishing packing up my stuff and will ship it over. I expect at least half of them to come with it, of course.”

“Of course,” Jason agreed, familiar with her friends from all the stories she’d told him.

“The apartment is taken care of, so we can move in whenever, and I let Audrey know I’d be back in New York for the foreseeable future, and she and Chloe were able to make sure my space there was kept and ready.”

“You were sure busy, Pix.”

“Didn’t want to think,” she murmured.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. I knew what I was getting into. And none of it was in your power, anyways. I’m not mad, just…I really missed you. It was worse than the first night I knew we were pregnant and couldn’t tell you ‘cause you were off-world.” She wrapped her arms around Jason, careful not to aggravate any injuries.

They held each other for a long time, too wrapped up in each other to notice Alfred shooing away any potential interrupters.

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

Jason recovered quickly, thanks to the Lazarus Pit enhancement, and soon was back to full capabilities.

He and Marinette moved into their new apartment, helped by Chloe, Adrien, and Luka, who’d come along to babysit the blondes.

The Bats soon warmed up to her, especially when they knew she had also once been a hero. The fact that she was pregnant with the first nephew/niece/grandchild probably also had something to do with it.

The next May, seven months after Wren’s birth, Jason and Marinette were happily wed and celebrated by their families.

#jasonette #ali writes #fic #dcxmlb

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pbandjesse · 2 years ago

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I am feeling very very tired. I fell asleep around 6:00 after only working for a few hours today. But being in the sun just wiped me out.

It wasn't a bad day at all though. I slept pretty good last night. And I woke up around 9:00. I didn't have to be a camp and told 12:30 or 1:00 so I was able to just chill. When I got up I felt okay. I decided to strip the bed and change the sheets. I got dressed and I felt fine. I didn't picking up around the apartment and I did some reading and I watched some videos. I had cereal for breakfast and before I decided to leave around 11:30 I had cheese puffs as a snack

I felt real cute in my tyedye t-shirt And when I left the house a woman right outside the door told me I look so pretty today. Made me feel very nice.

Then I spent a couple minutes putting all our stuff back in its place because we have moved it when we drove the Fulwilers to dinner last night. And then I was off.

I decided to go to Hunt valley to go to Rita's for the first time this season. I got a mango misto and it was very nice. The girl at the window was also very sweet. And I felt very smiley.

I got to camp and went to the office to get the key to set up low ropes. And drove up there and timed myself to see how long it would take me to set up. Takes me about 15 minutes. Working with the ladder is the worst part. Later in the day Elizabeth would say she was very impressed by how fast I was.

I would go back to the porch and finish my misto and eat some cold fish and wait for her Celia to show up. We would check in about how we would handle having groups of only five kids. And we decided that I would kind of take over a meeting but in the end it didn't really matter because the group was so small.

We went and got our first group and they were really nice. They were actually really funny and while they didn't talk a time they were laughing a lot and really good at spotting each other and they were very silly. Me and Celia had a pretty silly bit going where I would make a big fuss about asking her to be my spotter and then very dramatically going on the ropes and it was just really silly. But it was a little hard to fill the full hour. With five kids. But it was fine. We did our full hour and then we took a bathroom break and then we walked them up to the horse barn to get the second group and to drop off the first group.

I didn't see any barn staff which was weird. But we got the second group and headed out. I couldn't tell who the shower was at first because no one was introducing themselves but I found who it was before we got over to the bathrooms. And it was a little tough to do this hour because two of the five girls did not want to participate. But the ones that did went all the way down and it was a good time. We were just finished really early so we did the whale watcher but then the chaperone asked if we could be done at 3:00 instead of 3:30 because of some medication needs and meeting up with the other group and it was the whole thing. I did not care but I always get very anxious about timing stuff. So after I walked everyone to the other group which was all the way up at the fort I went to check in with Elizabeth to let her know about the weirdness. Especially because as we were sitting on the whale watcher my first group starts coming down, only 15 minutes into the timed program. So it was very strange. But it's all good. Everyone still had a good time and that's all that matters.

Elizabeth would ask me and Celia to go and check in about putting away tables and chairs and then there were some confusion because they were already mopping down there and then we went to go see if archery tag needed to be put away and it was already done so then I went back to the office and Elizabeth was like you're good to go. So I start to leave and then she calls me and she's like actually couldn't bring us a cooler with water and ice and I was like. Of course. And then after I drop that off I went home.

And I think it was perfect timing because I was fading fast the drive back. I texted James and let them know we needed an oil change according to our sticker and then I would like to get pizza for dinner. So they ordered that and when I got home I got a shower while we waited for food to show up.

As we were eating dinner the doorbell rang again and frustratingly it was the man that's always asking us for money. And he did look a lot better but it's frustrating that he's back. You've been gone for so long and I was really hoping he was doing better and apparently he was also bothering our neighbor downstairs and she's getting really nervous about it because he apparently now knows which car she drives and doesn't make her feel safe. Doesn't make me feel safe either! It makes me feel very uncomfortable that he rings our door bell over and over. And I really don't know what we do because ignoring him doesn't seem to help much. I just hope that he doesn't come back because he promised he wouldn't this time.

I got in bed and would feel very uncomfortable. Just exhausted and hot and bad. And then I got very cold and I had to close my eyes. I told James to wake me up at 7:00 and I'm glad that I took a little rest. I'm pretty dehydrated and I'm going to go drink some water and try to enjoy the last couple hours of the night. I have a very early morning at camp tomorrow having to be there at 8:00 a.m. And then I don't know what the rest of the day will hold. I have two programs and then I'm assuming just some cleaning and prep for the weekend groups. And then who knows. I hope it's a beautiful day.

I hope you all had a very nice day today. I hope you sleep well tonight. Good night everybody.

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edjectedly · 2 months ago

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ONE PERSON LIKED THE POST LETS GO

So a few weeks ago, I went to a concert, normal activity, had fun, had to drive four hours home at midnight, but worth it. I have DnD the next morning and I am dming, but again, worth it. I am exhausted, all my players get inspiration for bringing me caffeine, and life goes on. My spouse's parents show up to take us to dinner while we are playing, but we get our shit together and go eat.

At this point I am exhausted. We get home, we feed our cats, then I get a follow request on instagram. And then I see I have a message request. I'm like oh god a bot. I go to delete it, but I actually read the message and it says "Apparently you're my older sister. I just wanted to reach out and say hi I guess lol"

Spacey.exe has stopped working

I literally sat on the floor in my bedroom for five minutes crying lmao,,, so here's the background on that.

My bio dad is a freak and has a total of 6 kids. At this point I have met 2 of my half siblings only. One who has since died in a car accident. So this kid has messaged me, and was like "Did you know I existed."

Dear reader, I actually did. So when I was like 10/11, my bio dad stole my uncle's motorcycle, then got ran over by an 18 wheeler trying to evade the cops. We thought he was gonna die, yada yada, he didn't, but I did get to meet my siblings were the first time. The kid who messaged me was two at the time, and promptly forgot me after my bio dad ran away to a different state to avoid getting in trouble for the motorcycle thing. Fun times.

I spent several years trying to find them when they got put in foster care, but it didn't work for several reasons. Whatever.

They had forgotten I existed, by virtue of being 2 when we first met, which is fair. Do you want to know how they found out about me? Our bio dad made a fucking gay joke about me, that's how my younger sibling learned about me.

We stay up all night talking despite my exhaustion, etc., etc.. I get to tell them their oldest brother (3 years younger than I) passed away in a car accident in 2020, that's fun. Then the next day, I am tired but it's fine, bout to go to bed early when my brother who has a different dad calls me. He's sobbing on the phone and I am like oh god. So his cat got ran over and he is devastated. Callisto was a sweet kitty, but she had come with the house when my mom and brother moved, and they couldn't get her to just stay inside.

So spouse and I drive an hour and a half to be with my brother to make him feel better. Shit sucks. We go home, think everything will be fine, as it is.

Well a few days later my long lost sibling calls me sobbing, and I am like oh fucking god. They need to leave their house. I cannot fight for custody, but they can't stay where they are. We have convinced their adoptive parents to let us get guardianship which means I am about to be the guardian of a highly traumatized 16 year old.

My friend then got in a car accident, the cat we are fostering nearly died, smaller potatoes but we gotta move around everything in our house to accommodate a new person, having a great time!

Oh also we also just found out my father-in-law has cancer, not the same kind that killed my dad, but still this is happening lmao.

Y'all wanna know about the soap opera that has been my life for the most month and a half?

#ace rambles #vent #rant

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amywritesthings · 2 years ago

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SEEING YOU, SEEING ME (7/7)

Pairing: Joel Miller x F!Reader

Word Count: 600

Summary: Five Weeks Later - The Epilogue of Our Story

Warnings: None; this is just a finale piece.

( Read on AO3 )

Previous Chapter | Masterlist

EPILOGUE

FIVE WEEKS LATER

The dilapidated building that houses Tess and Joel is on your route to the Boston Quarantine Zone occupation office.

It's a thought that never occurred until the moment you stepped foot out of their small studio apartment to greet broad daylight for the first time in days. It's an unassuming space in a row of nothingness, but now?

You thought its significant would mean nothing by now.

You still look every time you pass.

Jobs are just as they’ve always been: messy. Unpleasant. Tiring. From street sweeps to sewage to trash collection, you keep your hands busy when you mind should not. Your arms ache from hard labor.

By the time sunset arrives, you’re too exhausted to dream.

It’s better this way.

Joel Miller doesn’t speak to you; can’t, when he’s nowhere to be found. He signs up for the hardened jobs in the early morning and twilight hours, away from the noise and the crowds. At least, that's what you assuming. He could be running out-of-bounds errands for Tess or trading jobs with that brother of his.

Tess doesn’t bring him up when you pass her in the food kitchen lines. Small pleasantries and jabbing jokes, just like before.

The week spent at their place is virtually a forgotten memory.

(Is it better to be seen once and never again, then not at all?)

On your way to your next sweep shift, Jeanine absently greets you at the touch point, Fedra-issued broom in hand. Yours is the last in the trash can in which they're housed.

She trades you for your proof of labor papers (I was here) and stamps a blank entry to get started. You greet her with just as bland of a reply and take the mangled thing, already feeling the ache in your bones when your hand closes around the handle.

For six grueling hours, you mind your business cleaning up the streets and sidewalks of the third quadrant — sweeping dirtied paths, collecting debris near alleyways, tossing tattered and forgotten Firefly flyers into trash bags.

In a minute, you’ll be free from another day of hardship and free to sit in your apartment alone.

Then you feel something brush against the small of your back.

Immediately you rip your gaze from the ground to connect with a familiar sight: salt and pepper hair, scruffy beard, a worn olive flannel rolled up to his elbows; Joel Miller’s dark eyes stare down at you with an indiscernible question.

Your lips part to say hello, but the words die on your tongue.

All you can do is stare back.

He says nothing, but his hand lingers on your shirt. Waiting.

Joel's drops his arm to his side and pointedly turns his chin towards the nearby alleyway. Like a magnet, your eyes follow.

Then he takes to a slow stroll, leaving you to cross the street and into the threshold where wandering eyes cannot see him.

But you can.

You don’t expect him to stop abruptly at a door, pulling the rusted thing wide open.

He turns to sweep his hand towards it, gesturing an unspoken invitation.

Your stomach flutters with a feeling you abandoned in a bed that didn’t belong to you.

It's reckless, but you'll take reckless if that's what he's willing to give.

Gently you situate the broom's handle against the adjacent brick wall and cross the street, too.

It only takes two steps to make it to the curb.

Twelve to meet him at the door.

You are the first to enter.

Joel Miller is the last to leave.

Author's Note: That's a wrap! I can't believe this is finished, and I couldn't be more proud of the story. Of course, this does not have to be the end, not really! My one shot "reckless." continues these two in the future, and I am happy to hear your thoughts and potentially take story requests in my inbox.

For now, I bid you adieu for the airport. Thank you for the early birthday wishes.

#joel miller #the last of us #tlou #joel miller x you #joel miller x reader #joel miller x f!reader #tlou spoilers #the last of us spoilers #the last of us fanfiction #tlou fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction #completed fanfic #completed series #completed fic #amywritesthings #fic: seeing you seeing me #seeing you seeing me #it's done guys we're out!!!

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myherowritings · 4 years ago

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PART 3. ACCIDENTAL SUGAR DADDY?

SUMMARY. Todoroki Shouto was a wealthy, young CEO who inherited his father’s enterprise. You were a barista at a local cafe who wouldn’t mind some extra cash. One day, Shouto came in during an early morning shift and tipped you such a large sum of money, you were certain it had to have been an accident. To your surprise and complete pleasure: It was not.

PAIRING. ceo!todoroki shouto x barista!reader

WORD COUNT. 2.4k

GENRE. ceo/barista au, fluff, eventual smut

WARNINGS. none in this chapter

A/N. happy new year y’all! :3 i hope you have a good 2021 and here is some flirty ceo!shouto for u to enjoy as we enter the new year hehe ;) thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy! xx sof

SERIES MASTERLIST

“I heard you dropped by this weekend,” you said as a greeting, a playful smile on your lips. “Looking for me?”

If the tips of his ears didn’t tinge pink, you would have guessed Shouto was completely unaffected by your words.

“Mn.” He drew his attention away from your gaze and pointedly adjusted his cufflinks. “Good morning to you too.”

You laughed, accepting you wouldn’t get anything out of your attempt at teasing. “Morning, Shouto. How was your weekend?”

The cafe was quite busy this hour, but Miyazaki took over the other register to alleviate the stress (though, what she really said was so you and pretty boy—who happened to be rich rich—could talk). Whatever the reason, you were glad for a small break whenever you could get it.

“You could say it was busy,” he replied, sounding a bit tired. For the first time since you met him, you actually noticed how exhausted he looked. You wanted to put cucumbers on his eyes and lay his head down on your lap to coax him to sleep. Nonetheless, he smiled softly at you. “And yours? I hope you were able to have time to rest and relax.”

You nodded. “I just slept a lot and caught up on the shows I missed throughout the week.”

“The real way a weekend should be spent.”

His voice was teasing but he didn’t sound mocking. Just...somewhat playful. There was something about his tone that made you want to hear it again.

“Something tells me you need a weekend away where you could just relax and do nothing,” you commented, tapping the back of your pen to your chin. “Do you not have any days off at work?”

He considered this. “Depends what you mean by day off.”

“If you have to ask that, that probably means you don’t have a day off, huh?” you said with a frown, holding your hand over your chest as you sighed dramatically. “You poor thing. Overworked and tired. Maybe I should steal you away one weekend and get you to just relax.”

You were only half-serious.

“Maybe you should,” agreed Shouto, sounding full-serious.

“Maybe I will,” you blurted before you could stop yourself. Maybe you could if you actually had his number… Then, feeling shameful you said, “But, ah, anyway, what can I get for you today? We actually have cheese danishes again!”

His face brightened. “You do? I’ll take five dozen.”

With a laugh you took down his order. You really weren’t sure where all these pastries were going when he bought it, but judging from his expression, you figured it must be somewhere good.

“And for your drink?”

“This time I’ll have a large green tea with almond milk, please.”

You nodded but tilted your head to the side in question. “No coffee with extra shots of espresso today?”

“I add too much sugar and creamer to my coffee,” he admitted sheepishly. “And with all the baked goods I’ve been eating I realized I may have had an excess amount of sweets lately.”

With an understanding laugh you patted his hand that was resting on the counter woefully. “I can definitely relate to that. If too many sweets are bad for you they shouldn’t have made it taste so good.”

Shouto glanced down at where your hands touched, an expression you couldn’t quite discern on his face. Averting your gaze, you quickly pulled your hand back. Was that inappropriate of you? Did he find it too pushy?

“Oh— Sorry about that,” you said, rubbing your elbow with your opposite hand. “Got a bit ahead of myself there.”

“No, it’s fine.” He blinked once. “I didn’t mind.”

Unsure if he meant anything by that and unsure if you were reading too much into things, you simply brushed the topic off and moved on to getting his order in telling him the price.

“Paying by card again, I’m assuming?” you asked before hitting the appropriate button on the screen.

“Correct.”

By now the sight of the sleek and pretty credit card was one you grew rather fond of as he scanned over the payment terminal and signed his name. Was it weird you wanted to examine his signature more closely? Shouto seemed like the type of person who would have a fancy signature that somehow looked like art.

As per routine, you told him his order would be ready for pick up at his right and, before he left the register, he thanked you and gave you another $100.

Did it feel any less strange than the first time he tipped you? Not really, no. But you still weren’t going to complain about a generous tip from a willing customer.

Before he left with his cheese danishes and cup of tea in hand, he stopped by next to you with a small smile.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Y/N.”

You grinned back. “Can’t wait, Shouto!”

— ✩ —

This went on for a whole other week. By this point, he had given you over $1,000 in tip and you were starting to feel like you should give him something in return despite him assuring you he didn’t expect anything.

When you told your friends about the nice guy you met while you were working and they asked for the details, the first thing they said in response to your situation was, “Sugar daddy?”

Before they planted that thought into your head, you just took it as a rich businessman who hated the rich and believed in redistribution of wealth—you couldn’t complain about that. That made him even more appealing, if you must say. But once Kaminari and Ashido whispered those two words, you couldn’t help but see the comparisons.

You had no issues with sugar daddies or sugar babies; as long as they were two consenting adults, what did it matter to you? It just wasn’t something you were looking for at the time and you didn’t want Shouto to get the wrong impression or involve yourself in something you weren’t ready to.

As you commuted to work for your next morning shift, you told yourself today was the day you’d thank him one final time for the tips, but tell him you couldn’t accept anymore. You were sure he’d be understanding but you also hoped it wouldn’t deter him from coming to see you. That was the last thing you’d want.

“Mrs. Miyazaki,” you said between customers. “When Shouto comes in, do you think I can step away from the register to talk to him for a little? I promise it’ll be brief!”

She waved her hand dismissively. “That’s not a problem. Are you finally going to ask him out or something?”

You scratched the back of your neck. “Or something, yeah.”

Thankfully, by the time Shouto arrived today, it was later than he normally came, meaning rush hour was almost dying down.

“Good morning! Someone’s a little late today,” you teased. “Overslept?”

“I wish,” he sighed wistfully. “I had a meeting early this morning and it just ended. Didn’t have a chance to pick up some coffee or pastries beforehand.”

You frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope whoever was hosting the meeting at least provided you guys drinks and snacks!”

He paused. “He did, but… I just thought yours were better.”

Smiling at the compliment, you preened. “Well, I can’t say I’m not surprised. And I’m glad you were able to drop by still. Would’ve missed you too much otherwise.”

Again, you were only half-serious.

“Hm. I would’ve missed you too.”

And again, he seemed full-serious. Not that you minded.

After taking his order and watching him pay, you pulled him to the side, looking over at your boss so she knew what was going on. She gave you a brief nod as you turned your attention to Shouto.

A lapse of silence went by and he spoke up, “Did you have something you wanted to say?”

“Yeah, actually.” You wrung your fingers nervously, hoping you wouldn’t say anything to offend him since you knew his actions were coming from a kind place. “I just wanted to say… I’m not really looking for a sugar daddy right now.”

He blinked once. Then twice. “Pardon?”

You stared at him, unsure what to say.

“I— Sorry. I wasn’t… It’s not my intention to be a...sugar daddy either.” Shouto’s face flushed a bright pink that made your own cheeks warm up in response.

“But the—the money? I just… I guess I thought…” You winced.

So he wasn’t trying to pick up a sugar baby… Well, this was awkward. But regardless, you think you’ve gotten close enough to him to the point where it would feel weird accepting money from him.

“I’m sorry if I was unclear. It really is just a tip to show appreciation for your service here.”

You shook your head. “No! Sorry, that makes sense! My friends just said… And then I…” you trailed off, feeling a million times more flustered than when you started. “Sorry about that. The sugar daddy mishap aside, I still wanted to say that I really appreciate the tips you gave, but I don’t think I can accept them anymore.”

Slowly, he nodded, adjusting the collar of his dress shirt. “I understand. Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened!” you were quick to assure. “I really am thankful, but… I think we’ve gotten too close for me to be comfortable accepting that much money, you know?”

Shouto tilted his head to the side, listening intently.

“Like,” you tried to explain, fiddling with your apron, “over the past few weeks I just think we’ve gotten to know each other more and I think of you as a friend of sorts now.” You peered at him through your lashes, hoping your words were making sense. “I think as a relationship develops—for me, at least—adding money into the mix can cause weird power imbalances if not communicated properly. And I just don’t want that for us.”

He thought through your words for a while before agreeing. “I get what you mean. I wouldn’t want to unintentionally make you feel like you owe me anything, so if you’re not comfortable with it, I can stop.”

“Thanks, Shouto,” you said with a beam, glad he was so receptive. Really though, what else did you expect? From your interactions with him you took him to be kindhearted and open. Of course he wouldn’t be upset over this. “But just to be clear, this doesn’t mean you should stop coming! Right? I don’t want to stop being your friend or anything!”

With a small laugh, he nodded. “Sure. I wouldn’t want to part with my favorite cafe. And I’d like to keep being friends as well.”

Those words warmed your heart. You really were nervous about this confrontation earlier; you didn’t want voicing your opinion to mean ending your friendship. (Although, if you sharing what you were comfortable with was enough to end a relationship, then you supposed it was bound to be a toxic and stifling one in the long run and it was good to know in the beginning to end it before it could grow.) Turns out, however, that you didn’t even need to worry about that. He was understanding and sweet and you were glad to have gotten this out of the way.

“Well, as new friends,” you said, gently nudging his side, “maybe we should get to know each other more? Exchange numbers… Hang out outside of this cafe…” You ran through some suggestions, almost bouncing on your feet in excitement. “I mean, I know you’re always so busy and might not have much free time to hang out. But— If you’re ever free one weekend…”

“I’d enjoy that,” he cut in, saving you from blabbering your mouth off and accidentally embarrassing yourself. “Didn’t you say you’d steal me away from work to relax? I’m still holding you to that.”

The beginnings of a smirk formed on his face as he looked at your flustered expression. Was he teasing you?

You huffed, pretending to be insulted by his playful mocking. “Guess I’ll really have to do it then.”

“Guess so.”

“Maybe you should give me your number first so we could plan it.”

“Okay.”

He handed you his phone and you handed him yours, both of your adding your numbers to the contact list. Smiling, you held the phone in front of the two of you to take a contact picture of yourself for Shouto’s phone. To your complete surprise, he laughed before promptly following suit and taking a selfie for his contact image.

“Cute,” you said when he handed you back your phone.

“You too.”

Placing your device back in your pocket, you looked at him, hand on hip. “Since when did you become such a smooth-talker? Am I going to have to guard my heart now?”

His only response was a shrug, but you could see hints of a smile playing on his face. The two of you seemed to be smiling a lot lately, you couldn’t help but notice.

“I should probably let you go to work now—and I should go back to mine.” You gestured to the growing line at the front of the store. Your manager looked like she had things under control, but you didn’t want to take advantage of her kindness. “You should text me later though. If you want.”

“I’ll do that,” Shouto promised, picking up his drink and pastry boxes from the side counter. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Y/N. And… I’ll message you soon.”

As you watched him leave the store, you were certain you had a silly look on your face as you stared in a trance.

“I’ll turn my phone off silent just for you!” you said to his back, hoping he understood what a momentous occasion this was. Your phone was always on silent (unless you were playing a game, of course). But for Shouto, you could handle hearing the obnoxious ringtone and text tone.

With an amused expression he nodded before waving goodbye.

Later on that day, at the end of your shift, you noticed a new message from a certain someone that made your stomach flutter.

Shouto: Hi there. It’s Shouto :)

You never knew those four simple words would be enough to keep the grin plastered on your face up until the moment your head hit your pillow to fall asleep. But, damn— Were you glad that happened to be the case.

a/n: whY WAS SHOUTO AND Y/N EXCHANGING NUMBERS SO CUTE idk that scene got me all blushy and :DDD HFJDKSF like taking a selfie with shouto and getting his number? only goal in life BFHFGF,, also y/n said no more tips how we feeling? ;o

what to expect in the next part:

an unwanted visitor ಥ_ಥ

shouto has a...proposition for y/n

FLIRTING FLUFF SO MUCH CUTENESS U MIGHT CRY

y/n struggles with their fEeLiNGs~

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queenshelby · 4 years ago

Text

The Secret – Part Four/Final Part

Featuring: Cillian Murphy x Fem Reader

Words: 2050

Warnings: Smut

Tag List (Cillian Murphy):

@lilymurphy03 @deefigs @theflamecrystal @desperate-and-broken @weepingstudentfishhorse @livinginfantaxy @rosey1981 @atomicsoulcollecto @peakyboyslover @nerdy4itall @elenavampire21 @hanster1998 @mariapaiva13 @fairypitou @harry-is-my-sunflower @zozeebo @lauren-raines-x @kasaikawa @littlewierdalien @sad-huffle-nerd @theflamecrystal @peakymalfoyscullymulder @themissthang @0ghostwriter0 @stylescanbeatmyback @1-800-peakyblinders @datewithgianni @momoneymolife @ntmynouis

Cannot Tag (please check your settings):

@l0tsofpennies @margoo0 @trolleydolly @avonlady1985 @chrisevanshoeee @daydreamingnymph @fookingshelby

-----------

Over the next two weeks, Cillian and you continued to keep your relationship a secret on set. You both believed that no one knew that you were seeing each other. But this was far from the truth. By that time, both Emma and Anthony knew about you. Yet they never spoke about it.

Anthony could understand why you and Cillian weren’t forthcoming about your relationship. You only just started working on set during this season of Peaky Blinders and Cillian was one of the producers. There would clearly be some controversy and gossip if people found out especially since there also was a rather large age gap between you.

Nonetheless, you hated to keep your relationship a secret especially when you saw other women on set showing some interest in Cillian.

There was one woman in particular who bothered you and this was Cillian’s new assistant Amanda.

She showed an obvious interest in Cillian and, being Cillian, he was oblivious about it which was somewhat adorable. He never noticed when women were crushing on him, yet he was the one who tried very hard to set everyone else up on dates.

After some filming during early hours of the morning, Amanda had yet another breakdown. It seemed that she couldn’t handle Cillian’s erratic schedule and, whilst you knew that Cillian was somewhat frustrated about it, he remained calm and even gentle, telling her not to worry too much about getting things wrong.

He was a patient and kind man and you loved exactly that about him, but when it came to Amanda, his kind and patient nature irritated you and you were just about to have your first argument.

In his trailer, you couldn’t help but confront him about his interactions with Amanda.

‘You do realise she is doing these things on purpose to get your attention, right?’ you sighed as Cillian read through his schedule for the remainder of the day. By that time, you both had already been up for five hours and you were tired after you had spent all night together with Cillian.

‘Are you jealous?’ Cillian chuckled with a grin on his face, not taking you seriously at all.

‘No, why would I be jealous?’ you asked annoyed just before Cillian took both of your hands into his and pulled you closer towards him.

‘Exactly. You have no reason to’ Cillian said before pressing his lips onto yours. ‘I am in love with you, no one else’ he added as your lips drifted apart.

‘I am just over this…us hiding our relationship from everyone. Despite, she is clearly taking it a bit far don’t you think?’ you pouted, waiting for Cillian to kiss you again.

‘She is very attentive, that’s for sure’ Cillian chuckled, ignoring your comment and your pout, but deep down inside, he was sick of it too. He didn’t like Amanda’s behaviour and he hated having to hide his feeling for you. He wanted to spend every night with you without guilt or having to worry about getting caught, especially after a long day of filming.

‘You aren’t taking me seriously Cilly’ you pouted again and, just after you did, Cillian pressed his lips back onto yours.

Just as you were sharing another passionate kiss, you heard a knock on the trailer door.

‘Cillian, it’s Amanda. Would you like to grab some lunch?’ she asked, causing you to roll your eyes once again with his lips still on yours.

Cillian pulled away and laughed quietly for a moment before he shouted out ‘Sorry Amanda, I can’t. Y/N and I are rehearsing the next scene’ Cillian said loudly but yet politely.

‘We are?’ you asked, causing Cillian to laugh and nod at the same time.

Amanda left shortly thereafter and, just as she did, you placed your thumb over Cillian’s lips suggestively.

‘Alright, so, let’s rehearse’ you whispered and pulled him even closer towards you. In response, with one swift movement, he sat you up on the trailer’s kitchen bench.

‘You do realise this next scene is between Tommy and Lizzie though, right?’ you smiled.

‘I don’t think Amanda realises’ Cillian chuckled before running both of his hands over your legs.

‘Well, you can think about me later during your takes with Natasha’ you giggled as you ran your hand over his crotch and began unbuckling his belt as he positioned himself in between your legs.

‘What are you doing?’ Cillian asked as you finally reached the zipper of his suit pants. You wouldn’t admit it, but you liked it when he was dressed as Thomas Shelby, in the whole and entire outfit.

‘Claiming what is mine Mr Shelby’ you whispered with a slight giggle, causing Cillian to chuckle.

‘The crew is outside’ Cillian said, trying to push your hand away from his already erect cock.

‘Then we'll have to be quiet, won't we’ you responded before freeing his member slowly.

Cillian lost his composure at that point. As usual, when you showed Cillian your desire for him, he was completely under your control, ready to give you whatever you wanted.

He let out a deep sigh as you began stroking his cock for a moment before jumping down from the counter bench again and bending forward to take him in your mouth.

In response to your wet lips touching his hard cock, Cillian took in another sharp breath. It was hard for him to resist you, almost impossible.

You swirled your tongue over the top half of his hard member before taking him all in right against the back of your throat, testing your gag reflex each time.

‘Fuck’ Cillian moaned as he gave into the sensation and you began to bob your head up and down his long shaft.

You continued that for five minutes and by the you were gushing with wetness and couldn't wait any longer, you needed him inside you.

You broke away from his swollen cock and stood up before turning around leaning forward over the counter, facing the door of trailer.

Without words, Cillian positioned himself behind you and lifted up your skirt gently before pushing down your panties in a haste.

He couldn't stop you from getting what you wanted and he was certainly willing to give it to you now that he was all worked up.

Within seconds, he lined himself up with your wet entrance and pushed forward.

‘Mmm, god damn’ you whispered in blissful joy as he instantly hit your sweet spot. He always felt so good when he entered you, stretching and filling you the way he did.

‘Shhhhhh’ Cillian whispered as he began to move in and out of you slowly.

You adjusted yourself around Cillian’s cock and grounded into him, pushing back against him. You wanted him to take you hard, claim you. He grunted his approval as you started bouncing backwards and, as he pushed forwards with several heavy thrusts, you felt like he was hitting you in the throat with each thrust into your centre.

Cillian held your hips, urging you to bounce harder each time and you almost felt him pushing you into the counter with each thrust.

You knew this had to end quickly and, unlike other times where you would try and draw out your high for as long as possible, you let go as he slammed into you over and over again.

All hell broke loose in your body when Cillian reached between your legs to rub his fingers over your clit at the same time he thrusted into you. Stars shot through your vision and you thought you might pass out from the pleasure. You felt Cillian spasm inside you and a flood of his wet cum started leaking from your core.

Your orgasms washed over you in sync and so were you uncontrolled moans as, all of a sudden, the door to Cillian’s trailer opened.

‘Fuck’ Cillian shouted all of a sudden as he pulled out of you and quickly pulled up his pants.

Luckily, anything other than your upper bodies was covered by the counter front of the kitchenette. Nonetheless, it was obvious to anyone what you were doing as Cillian was leaning over you and his face rested on your neck before the door opened suddenly.

You wanted to sink to the ground with embarrassment right then and there as you saw Finn’s face, flushed and full of questions.

‘Amanda organised some sandwiches for you, saying you were busy rehearsing’ Finn said after he cleared his throat with a slight chuckle.

‘It’s not what it looks like’ you said with an equally flushed face.

‘Sure’ Finn said somewhat angrily as he placed the sandwiches onto the kitchen counter and walked out.

‘This…is bad’ Cillian said to you as Finn left and you nodded with agreement. You knew it was bad and unprofessional.

You pulled up your panties quickly and asked Cillian what he wanted to do now that Finn knew.

‘I will talk to him’ Cillian said just before he followed Finn, not knowing exactly what he would tell him just yet.

It took Cillian several minutes to catch up with Finn who, by that point, was furious about what he saw. Cillian knew that Finn was interested in you and Finn had asked Cillian for help several times, wanting to convince you to go on a date with him, to give him a chance.

‘Can we talk?’ Cillian asked as he finally found Finn down at the docks, preparing for his next scene.

‘So, you can find out who else I might be interested in and take your chances?’ Finn asked angrily as he put down his script.

‘Listen, I know it looks bad but I couldn’t tell anyone about it. I am sure you realise why’ Cillian said, causing Finn to nod.

‘Out of all women here you had to get involved with the one woman I am interested in’ Finn said, still annoyed about Cillian’s actions.

‘It was Y/N who pursued me and didn’t exactly plan for this to happen, falling for a woman half my age. It just happened’ Cillian said as he sat down next to Finn.

‘How long?’ Finn asked curiously.

‘Eight weeks. We’ve been keeping it quiet’ Cillian explained, causing Finn to nod.

‘Right. I feel like an idiot now’ Finn responded.

‘I think it should be me who feels like the idiot’ Cillian responded just as Anthony arrived, getting the area ready for the next scene.

‘Anything wrong?’ Anthony asked, causing Cillian to look at Finn with questions running through his mind.

Finn shook his head before telling Cillian politely that he needed to get ready for his next scene with Paul.

Cillian nodded and thanked Finn for his time before making his way back to you.

‘What did he say?’ you asked, desperately wanting to know where this would leave you and Cillian after the recent encounter.

‘Not much really, but I think we need to make our relationship public’ Cillian sighed.

‘Is he going to tell anyone?’ you asked worried.

‘That he caught us having sex in my trailer? Probably not’ Cillian laughed. ‘But, I think that we should still come clean’ Cillian suggested and you nodded in agreement and it was that same evening, over dinner, that you announced your relationship to the crew and the cast.

To your surprise, it wasn’t a surprise at all to some of your friends and cast members that you were a couple. In fact, Anthony had hatched a bet with one of the other crew members who didn’t believe the rumours.

He won $50 pounds and your best friend was glad to know that she would get the apartment you shared to herself for the next few months until filming wrapped up since, no doubt, you preferred spending your nights with Cillian from now on.

#cillian murphy #cillian murphy smut #Cillian Murphy x Reader #Peaky Blinders #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinder smut

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ficsilike-reblogged · 4 years ago

Text

What’s in a Name? Pt. II

A/N: So I know I said that the first part was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done...but this takes the cake. The softest, cheesiest thing I’ve ever written and I will apologize for nothing.

Pairing: Marcus Pike x F!Reader (no y/n)

Rating: PG for mention of guns??? A few smooches or two.

Word Count: 4.2k

Summary: The five times Marcus Pike tries to propose and the one time he actually does.

(Beautiful art by my bb @bucketheadredacted)

Read part one!

Marcus Pike was finally a man lucky in love.

Maybe. Hopefully. God, he really needed to be lucky. Just this once.

He had bought the diamond ring three months after she had moved in—that was him moving slowly! Honestly! He had felt the urge to look at rings only a month after she had kissed him in the park but had refrained, his past failed relationships whispering at the back of his mind. He didn’t want to push her away. Didn’t want to scare her by moving too fast. Didn’t want to break his own heart again. It had been a strange uphill battle to just learn her name—and now he wanted to give her his name, too.

But he loved her. Truly.

And he knew that within a month of stealing kisses and slipping into overpriced hotel rooms between briefings and meetings and auctions across the country. And Marcus hadn’t been able to stop himself from asking her if she wanted to move into his Washington D.C. apartment six months later.

The words had tumbled out of his mouth while they were still half asleep, his alarm blaring in the background, alerting them both that she needed to get up to fly back to New Orleans.

And she…giggled and rolled over to press a kiss to his lips, uncaring of his morning breath. “Yeah. That sounds perfect.”

And it had been perfect. It had been good to come home and see her jacket slung over the back of the chair, to smell her perfume lingering in the bathroom as she dashed out the door, to wake up next to her when they both had a reprieve from their chaotic jobs and not have to worry that they would have to separate again within a handful of hours. It was good even when she tried a new recipe and the entire apartment smelled like burnt noodles for two days.

But he wanted to call her his wife and he wanted to be her husband. He wanted to have a family with her and maybe buy a house a little further outside the city—she had mentioned that she wanted a dog and a cat. “With room for them to run around!” She said with a smile.

And that all circled back to the ring. The platinum ring with the princess cut diamond. The ring he had been hiding for ages. The ring he wanted to put on her finger—if she said yes. Or he would have to tuck his metaphorical tail between his legs (again) and nurse a broken heart (again) and listen to his coworkers well-meaning condolences (again).

“When are you gonna ask her, man?” One of his fellow agents asked as they parked the agency-assigned SUV in the underground lot. Marcus had made the mistake of mentioning how he had a ring waiting at the back of his sock drawer and this agent—and honestly? Marcus couldn’t even remember his name—latched onto that and had spent the last three hours trying to ‘help’ Marcus come up with a plan on how to propose.

Marcus had a plan already. Thank you very much.

“I am going to take her to see the fireworks over the river.”

“Romantic. Good choice.”

Marcus felt himself puff up a bit at that. It was romantic, wasn’t it? This would be fine.

It was not fine.

The spot Marcus had picked was already crowded by the time they arrived—he was still grumbling about the flat tire he had to fix on the way there but his mood shift when he heard her sigh. It was a happy sound that had a smile pushing at his own lips.

“This is a good spot. Good choice.” She leaned over and pressed a kiss to his warm cheek before turning and grabbing the cooler from the back of his car.

Marcus quickly patted his pocket and felt the ring safely in its confines. This could work, right? He just needed to wait for the fireworks. He set a checkered blanket on the warm grass and helped her unload their cooler, filled with her favorite picnic foods and maybe a bit of alcohol too, hidden away in two tumblers. The wind off the river was nice, keeping them from getting too overheated and someone further down the bank had set up a radio, letting music provide a backdrop to the quiet lapping water and the conversations from the strangers around them. He was not the best conversationalist, Marcus had to admit, he was busy rehearsing what he was going to say in his head over and over, trying to imagine if she would cry or smile—or just…say yes. But he made her laugh and earned a few more kisses when he managed to contribute to the conversation and fed her a few of the grapes from the cooler.

It was good…it was fine…until it wasn’t.

It started with her swatting at something on her arm just as the sun had disappeared beneath the horizon. That wasn’t uncommon; the East Coast was notoriously buggy during the summer. It was probably a mosquito.

But then it happened again and again and again until she was standing up with a shriek, wildly hitting at herself. “Marcus! Marcus!”

“Honey?”

“There’s ants everywhere!”

He glanced down and…yes, there were ants everywhere. And then he felt his first bite.

They quickly gained more than their fair share of attention as they both scrambled to get the hundreds of ants off of them, knocking over their food and cooler with unpleasant groans and gasps as they gained more ant bites.

In a rushed haze, still swatting at themselves, they gathered up their belongings and all but dumped them in the back of the car. When their tires hit highway, they heard the first boom of the fireworks.

“How’re you feeling?” She whispered as she rubbed a bit more cream onto Marcus’s back. It had been almost a week since the ant incident and his body was still covered in small red bumps. A testament to his failure.

He reached back, a little awkwardly from his angle on his stomach, and grasped her hand. “I’m okay, honey.” He hummed when he felt her pressed a kiss to his shoulder. Marcus turned his head just a bit and looked at her hand. Her ring finger was still bare. The ring had been tucked away in his bedside drawer after they both scrubbed themselves clean and then all but bathed in calamine lotion. But Marcus was a man on a mission. Having brunch, just to the two of them, all calm and relaxed, was just as good as fireworks.

When she’d been showering earlier, he had called in a delivery from her favorite breakfast restaurant, the florist down the block, and snuck around the apartment to try to tidy up a bit. Not that the apartment needed much. He had set a new set of candles in two overly-priced candle holders and lit them…and then quickly snuffed them out, deeming it too early for candles. He had slipped back into bed just as she emerged in a puff of lavender steam from the bathroom, looking much more comfortable than she had in days.

He rolled over and sat up to steal a kiss against her smiling mouth before coaxing her down onto the bed to apply her share of the strangely scented lotion to her matching set of bumps and bites.

“You know,” she started, face squished in the pillow, “for what it’s worth, I did have a really good time.”

“Yeah?”

“You know I always like spending time with you.”

“Even if you get eaten alive by fire ants?” He asked, a smile pushing at his mouth as his fingers trailed down her back.

She laughed. “Even then.”

He leaned down to press a kiss behind her ear before finishing her layer of lotion and his smile only grew when he heard the familiar, satisfied hum rumble in her throat. A knock at the door had him rising. “I’ll be right back.” Marcus pulled on a shirt as he moved toward the door and opened it, happily seeing two delivery men. He paid them both quickly and moved to the kitchen to set everything up as he heard one of his least favorite sounds.

Her cellphone ringing.

Marcus placed the flowers in her favorite vase but didn’t even move to plate the food he’d had delivered. What was the point?

She came out of the bedroom, rubbing at her temples and her phone in her pocket. “I-”

“You have to go,” he said, finishing for her. “Where to this time?”

She grimaced. “Nowhere fun. But apparently a Pollock has surfaced at an auction set for tomorrow night.” Her eyes darted to the flowers and her grimace softened. “Are these for me?”

Marcus smiled and handed them to her, chuckling as she all but shoved her face into the blooms to inhale their scent. He tightened the knot on the top of the takeout and handed that to her, too. “Here, you can eat this on the road.” And when she opened her mouth to apologize, he kissed the words away. Marcus would never fault her for her job and its uneven schedule, just as she never held his strange hours against him. “Home by Wednesday?” He murmured against her lips.

“Home by Wednesday. I promise.”

When he closed the door to her taxi and waved as he watched the yellow car disappear around the corner, Marcus sighed. Strike two.

Patrick Jane was not who Marcus wanted to see right now. And neither was Lisbon. But that was beside the point. The point was that Marcus hadn’t seen his Honey in almost three weeks because of a demanding client wanting more and more art work so she was flown all over Europe to different auctions and private sales.

He had remembered how he heard her sniffle over the phone when she told him that this client was asking her to pick up more art. “It is good money, really good. I can probably take a few months off after I do this but I…” she hiccupped and his heart broke. “But I just really miss you.”

And that was why he had booked a table at this beautiful and romantic restaurant after she had managed to sleep off her jet lag and rinse the grime of the plane from her skin.

Marcus ordered expensive wine that she knew she only ordered when she closed a big deal and asked the chef to place the ring on the top of the tiramisu he had scheduled to be brought out in exactly 47 minutes.

But that plan had been fantastically derailed when that obnoxious blond man spotted him from across the restaurant and then had the gall to ask the hostess to seat them near each other. (What were they even doing in DC?) For her part, Lisbon looked uncomfortable, too, as they made small talk.

With each passing word and each forced anecdote, Marcus felt himself deflate. There was no way he was going to propose to the love of his life in front of his ex-fiancée and her husband.

“You know,” Jane started and Marcus felt his teeth grind, “Marcus always struck me as a family man.”

She smiled and reached out to wrap her fingers around Marcus’ and squeezed. “He is.”

“Oh?” Jane continued, leaning forward in his seat. “Is a congratulations in order?”

Marcus could hear his teeth grinding but her grip tightened on his hand while her smile remained steady. “That is none of your business. I am sure you can fill your time poking and prodding into other people’s lives. Now, please, you have interrupted my long overdue date with the love of my life with your prattle. I’m sure you’re lovely, but I am done entertaining you.” She raised her other hand and asked for the check which was quickly given. The hostess, for her part, did glance to Marcus to make sure it was okay before he subtly nodded. The ring was slipped back into his hand by a sly waiter.

“Marcus,” Lisbon murmured, “we didn’t mean-”

Marcus stood and buttoned his jacket before helping his Honey into her coat. “Have a good night, Lisbon.”

And they left the restaurant, flagging down a taxi as thunder rolled overhead. Marcus made sure to open the taxi’s door for her and let her slide in before joining her in the backseat. The pair was quiet for a moment, and then two before she started to giggle. The giggle grew into a full-belly laugh that had tears gathering in her eyes and Marcus had to laugh, too. She always made him laugh.

“God!” She said. “He’s so full of himself. And truly, Marcus, I’m sure Teresa is lovely but she has terrible taste in men. Choosing that over you? I would never.”

Marcus felt a selfish bloom of pride swell in his chest. “Yeah?”

She leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. “Yeah. I don’t plan on ever letting you go.”

And you know? That made Marcus smile just as much as putting a shiny ring on her finger. She wanted him forever.

He could propose tomorrow.

He did not propose tomorrow.

Or any day after that for the next three months. There just…wasn’t the right time. The ring he now kept in his suit jacket pocket seemed heavier by the day. Even his fellow agents seemed to pick up on the fact that something was bothering him.

“Fighting with your lady, Pike?” One of them asked as they were huddled around a table in the art storage room, trying to devise a plan to catch a thief who had managed to disappear with fourteen million dollars’ worth of some blueblood’s family heirlooms which included an Artemisia Gentileschi original. It was a brazen heist and obviously a huge case that needed to be their sole focus.

But sometimes his group of agents were a little nosey.

“We don’t really fight,” Marcus muttered as he looked over the blueprints of the family’s home, trying to find a way that the thief had come in and out. The official police report said a downstairs window was open but he didn’t believe that. “We have our disagreements but she is the most levelheaded person I know. The most heated conversation we had was over which diner had the best waffles.”

Another agent gagged. “You two are disgusting.”

“The word you’re looking for is ‘perfect,’ actually.”

Marcus shook his head and bit back a laugh—they really needed to focus on this case. “We’re not perfect.” And they weren’t. No one was. But that didn’t mean he loved her any less.

“Still haven’t proposed, eh?”

“Shut up, man.” There was no heat to his tone as Marcus scrubbed a hand down his face before looking at his watch. It was almost eleven at night. “Go home. It’s late. We can pick this up in the morning.”

The rest of the group grumbled their thanks and disappeared to the upper levels of the building, probably in search of their forgotten dinners before going home. Marcus tapped his pencil on the blueprints, his eyes constantly moving to the door leading into the ‘piano room’ which then led down to the wine cellar. He wasn’t sure why, but something in his gut just told him the answer led to that set of rooms.

“Marcus?”

He jumped at the sudden noise but quickly righted himself as he saw her entering the fenced off storage area, carefully skirting around a prized Greco-Roman statue they had just recovered in Philadelphia. It was no longer a surprise to see her down here, the front desk guards knew her by face and name and all but gave her security clearance, easily letting her through when they knew Marcus was working late. He stood and walked over to her, pressing a kiss to her lips and then forehead in greeting, listening to her hum in contentment as her hands wound around his waist. “What are you doing here, Honey?”

She smiled as she looked at him and shrugged. “I knew you were working late. Couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d keep you company instead of tossing and turning.”

“You know I’m always happy to see you.” He led her over to the table and told her a little about the case, as much as he could without truly getting in trouble, and let her look over his notes.

She frowned as she turned the blueprints around and looked at them. “These people are like…billionaires, right?”

Marcus confirmed it with a frown but let her continue.

“Right. So, last time I was in LA, I was at that big, private auction at one of the gaudiest homes I’ve ever visited. Remember me telling you about that? The host got so drunk that he demanded he show everyone his three panic rooms and the private tunnel he had requested be dug behind his laundry room in the basement. Apparently he bribed the city inspector to keep it off the official blueprints so that a thief couldn’t use that tunnel.” She held up the blueprints and tapped at the wine cellar. “Ten bucks says there’s more to this wine cellar than just some ridiculous vintages.”

Marcus could feel his face lighting up. She was amazing.

They spoke a little longer, about possible suspects and how there was probably more than one thief—or at least a getaway driver—before their conversations shifted.

“The guys upstairs said something funny.”

“Hm?”

“They called me Mrs. Pike.”

His next breath nearly choked him. He was going to kill the guards upstairs. “O-oh? Really?”

“I think it sounds nice,” she said, her tone a little embarrassed. “Not that I haven’t thought about it before.” She smiled a bit, almost nervous. “We’ve talked about it, me and you, but to hear someone else say it…makes it sound…really nice.” She hid her embarrassment behind her hand and shook her head.

“I think it sounds nice, too.” He could do it. Right now. He could do it. They were surrounded by beautiful art. All by themselves. There was a light in her eyes that made his heart squeeze. His hand patted the pocket where he kept the ring and-

-it was gone.

“Marcus?” Her tone was filled with worry and she reached out to trail a finger over the crease that had erupted between his eyebrows, a gesture she did often when he brought work home with him. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. I’m fine, honey.”

He most certainly was not but it wasn’t like he could tell her that or propose. ‘Yes, honey. I lost your engagement ring. Will you marry me?’ Fuck.

The next day Marcus was stopped by the man at the front desk as he headed toward his office. “Everyone’s been telling me about your big plans. Can’t do it without this.” He handed over a small bag and inside…was the ring.

“Where’d you find it?” Marcus asked, stashing the ring in his briefcase this time.

Apparently his pocket couldn’t be trusted.

“Parking lot.”

Marcus could only sigh.

This was it. This had to be it.

If it wasn’t? He was sure the universe was telling him to just give up. They were happy, right? In love? Maybe they didn’t have to be married. Maybe…

No. No, he wanted to be her husband and he wanted her to be his wife. And that was why the ring was (safely and securely) stowed away in his wallet. He just needed the right time.

She was sitting across from him at their favorite diner, a stack of pancakes and a plateful of waffles between them and half-finished milkshakes abandoned near the saltshakers as they tried to guess which type of syrup was in each little carafe from a single bite. It was a game they played a few times before—one they had played on their first official date, actually. It had lasted well past the dinner and museum visit he had planned and into the morning where they had landed at the diner as the sun rose.

“This has to be strawberry,” she said as she finished her bite. “What do you think?” She asked, holding out the fork for him to take.

He took his bite and nodded. “Strawberry, definitely.”

She lifted the carafe and smiled as she read the tape on the bottom. “Point for us!” They high-fived across the table, laughing. The waitress who always served them shook her head with a smile from her place at the counter, knowing their game too well.

Marcus poured the syrup on their next bite and guessed its flavor before letting her take a guess.

“Um…blueberry?” She licked her lips, contemplating. “Maybe?” As Marcus lifted the carafe and confirmed that it was indeed blueberry, she continued. “Oh, a display of Alphonse Mucha is coming to Georgetown.”

Marcus smiled. Over an hour of their first date had been filled with soft whispers and shy smiles in front of a wall of Mucha sketches. They had been asked to leave by a polite but tired museum guard, not realizing they were there past closing. It was one of his fondest memories. One of the first times he realized she was truly special. He fell a little (more) in love with her that night. “We should go.”

“I’ll get tickets!”

This was the time. This was the moment. He pulled his wallet out under the table and curled his finger around the ring and watched as she smiled, wiping a bit of syrup from her chin. “I love you.”

She paused and looked at him, smile continuing to grow. “And you know I love you, too.”

“And I’ve loved you for a long time. You make my life better, make me better. I know our jobs are crazy. But they’re beautiful. Filled with art and excitement. But you’ve really…made my life a masterpiece.”

“Marcus?” Her voice was soft, eyes narrowing just slightly.

But Marcus pressed forward. “And I know that’s cheesy but I-”

And his phone was ringing. Why of all times was his phone ringing? And worst of all, it was the ringtone he had set for his boss. He had to answer. And she knew it, nodding just once with a fading smile.

He stood from his seat and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m sorry,” he murmured before slipping away with his phone pressed to his ear.

Marcus was tired. Tired.

He had been to New York to Miami to Orlando to Atlanta and then finally to Rio. The band of thieves, making a run for it with millions of dollars of art—including a da Vinci sketch. But he and his team caught them before they disappeared into the wind and the art was lost to the black market.

But he was tired.

He yawned as he drove through the mostly-quiet streets, ready to slip back into his apartment and pull his honey into his arms and then…sleep for three days.

That sounded wonderful.

But then his phone rang again.

And he had to answer it.

Thankfully, it was a short call. Someone had just broken in to one of the smaller museums in Georgetown and they wanted Pike to catch the thief in the act. Marcus sighed as he tossed his phone in the passenger seat. If this went well, it meant less paperwork. And then he could sleep.

The museum was dark when he arrived. There was only a faint bit of life coming from around of one the corners and he slunk around in the shadows, a hand on his gun. He was ready. He could stop a theft before it happened. He could-

Marcus stopped dead in his tracks as he realized what he was looking at.

Standing in the center of the hall, surrounded by (electronic) candles and priceless Mucha originals, was his Honey. His Venus.

“Hi Marcus.”

He took one step forward and then two and then three-

And she dropped to one knee and gently grasped his hands in hers, tears filling her beautiful eyes. “You make me smile every day. Even when I feel the need to hide all your socks after you make me mad. You have given me a new way of seeing art, appreciating it. You, Marcus Pike, have helped me grow, helped me breathe when I thought the world was just too much, helped me learn what strawberry syrup tastes like.”

Marcus had to laugh at that, feeling tears start to gather in his eyes. “And pecan, too.”

“And pecan syrup, too.” She squeezed his hands again with a growing smile. “I’ve never known love like this. And I never want to be without it. I never want to be without you. I just…” she hiccupped, a few tears falling down her cheeks. “I just love you. Will you marry me? Can I be Mrs. Pike?”

Marcus pulled his hands from hers and quickly pulled his wallet from his back pocket, pulling the ring (finally), from its depths. “Can I ask you, too?”

She all but tackled him to the sparkling marble floors and pressed kiss after kiss to his cheeks, chin, brow, and lips, a laugh on her tear-stained lips. “Ask me.”

“Will you marry me?” The words finally came out in a rush, his heart beating wildly behind his ribs as he watched her smile. Her beautiful smile.

“Yes.”

A/N: Please let me know what you think!

#marcus pike x reader #marcus pike imagine #marcus pike #the mentalist

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black-arcana · 4 months ago

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Former BUTCHER BABIES Singer CARLA HARVEY Joins LORDS OF ACID

Former BUTCHER BABIES singer Carla Harvey has joined LORDS OF ACID.

LORDS OF ACID's manager Marc Jordan has confirmed that "Carla is set to begin recording vocals for the band's new album this winter and will be joining the band on a 27-date U.S. tour in June."

Says Harvey: "I had three favorite bands in high school: GUNS N' ROSES, PANTERA and LORDS OF ACID. Each one shaped me and uniquely influenced me as an artist. LOA had me hooked from the moment I heard 'I Sit On Acid' as a teenager dancing the night away at Detroit's goth Industrial Haven City Club. My obsession with LOA only grew after I saw Coop's artwork on the cover of 'Voodoo U'. Now I get to record an album and go on tour with my industrial heroes! Pinch 16-year-old me! She'll be the one in the vocal booth. While my new band THE VIOLENT HOUR is set to release its first single in February, I'm adding a bucket list item to my resume: Reigning 'Acid Queen'. Praise the Lords!"

Harvey added: "There's just so many moments in life where you really have to assess what's best for you. Life changes. And also another thing about the entertainment industry and the music industry, it's not the same as it was for musicians 20 years ago, 10 years ago. My future husband's [ANTHRAX and PANTERA drummer Charlie Benante] in a legacy band. They never have to worry about having a real job — ever. But bands my size? You're not breaking the bank. You're not really earning a livable wage unless you're on the road 12 months out of the year. You can't support yourself. So I've always had other jobs, whether I'm painting pictures for people or doing my grief coaching on the side. That's a day job that I've been able to maintain throughout my career with music. It was a necessity as well as a passion, because otherwise I'd be couch surfing somewhere. [Laughs] I have nothing. So it's really hard to live passionately and just follow your dreams without something to fall back on or something to assist you. And I tell this to a lot of people, and some people are, like, 'No, man. I don't want a backup plan. This is the only thing I'm ever gonna do.'

In September 2024, Carla announced that she was launching a new project called THE VIOLENT HOUR. At least some of the early recording sessions for the project have been overseen by producer Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER and URIAH HEEP, among many others.

Harvey shared the news of THE VIOLENT HOUR's launch in a social media post on September 21. She wrote: "It's coming. I've put my heart and soul into my new project THE VIOLENT HOUR over the last 6 months. I can't wait for you to hear it. Keep your eyes peeled for updates. This is a slower process than I'd like...but...I'm pumped!"

In the fall of 2023, BUTCHER BABIES completed a European tour without Carla, who sat out the trek in order to undergo emergency surgery on her left eye.

In January 2024, Harvey and Benante announced that they were officially engaged.

Photo courtesy of TAG Publicity

#carla harvey

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