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justkeeptrekkin · 5 years ago

Note

Sharing a bed for the first time and spooning / hugging. Nothing too explicit but a lot of affection and comfort. I have this headcanon but I can't find any good fic about this

“You know, I’ve heard that the best way to warm up is body heat.”

Hope you enjoy this prompt anon!

***

The neighbours have noticed. The whole street has lost its central heating, the entire place is freezing apart from Aziraphale’s bookshop, and the neighbours have noticed. They aren’t pleased.

There are many cases in which Aziraphale has used his miracle abilities for selfish reasons, for his own comfort. There’s, of course, the whole situation with those nasty mafia type men wanting to buy his bookshop from him, who he’s… dealt with. There’s also all the customers he persuades not to buy any of the books, gently escorting them from the shop with an angelic smile till they find themselves outside, not knowing how they got there.

Today, there’s the central heating. It’s very easy, really, to keep the whole shop warm. And he might have been able to fix it for the whole street, but Heaven still aren’t very happy with him about Armageddon and he doesn’t want to attract unnecessary attention. And, what with the neighbours noticing how toasty his shop is and complaining and causing a fuss, it doesn’t seem worth the trouble.

So now, he’s lying in his bed, something he rarely uses- it also happens to have a duvet, which is helpful on this particular occasion- he’s wearing three jumpers, and he is still absolutely freezing. Lying in the foetal position beneath the sheets, he weighs up his options.

As far as he sees it, he only has one.

That is how, a twenty minute cab ride later, he finds himself at Crowley’s apartment building. After ringing the intercom, it takes a moment for anyone to answer. He dances a little jig on the spot, trying to keep warm, his breath pouring out of him in clouds of steam.

Then:

“What is it?”

“It’s me- sorry to disturb you, I’m- good Lord, it’s so cold-”

“It’s all this post-not-apocalypse business, angel, it‘s messed with the weather,” Crowley says, without missing a beat. “Come on up.”

The door buzzes, Aziraphale pushes it open, and as soon as he steps inside, he’s amazed by the difference. It’s so warm. It’s the warmest he’s been in hours, and it’s making his skin tingle. The elevator journey up to Crowley’s floor is quick, and as soon as the doors slide open, Aziraphale sees him- leaning against the doorframe, waiting.

“Why didn’t you text me you were coming over,” he grumbles.

“I still don’t like it, Crowley.” Referring to the iPhone that Crowley’s fobbed off on him, which he’s encouraging Aziraphale to use and is failing to do so monumentally. “Every time I try and open up the message thing, it thinks I’m clicking on something called iTunes, and then it starts playing music without warning, and it’s just horrible.”

Crowley steps back to let Aziraphale through. “You’d get the hang of it if you tried. Problem with you, angel, ‘s you’re too stubborn.”

Aziraphale ignores him, as he often does when he’s being insulted like this. Crowley’s flat is deliciously warm, and Aziraphale shrugs off his coat with a contented sigh.

“What brings you here this fine evening?” Crowley says in a jokingly formal tone.

“Central heating is buggered,” Aziraphale says, hanging up his coat by the door. He pulls off his scarf, thus shimmying off his bow tie a little, and Crowley appears fascinated by the action. “And you know how hard it is to perform any miracles these days.”

Crowley growls. “I don’t understand-” his whole body slumps with exhaustion and infuriation, “-Why they still won’t leave us alone. Didn’t we scare them enough? Why do they still care? Their plan went to shit, so why? Why?”

“Who knows, dear,” Aziraphale gently drapes the scarf over the coat stand hook, turns to measure Crowley- who’s sloped off to sit at his desk sulkily. Aziraphale watches him from the corridor, continues, “Better not to dwell on these things.”

“Better than being melted with holy water. Or burned with Hellfire.”

“Well, quite.”

Crowley is draped over his chair. Aziraphale stands and lingers. His nose is still cold. Actually, despite it being toasty in here, he thinks it might take a while for his body to reacclimatise. Crowley casts his golden eyes over towards him, where he hangs awkwardly in the sparse room.

“So you’re coming to mooch off me, are you?”

Aziraphale tuts. “No. I had rather thought that the offer was still open.”

“What offer?”He hesitates.

“The- well. The one you made in Tadfield. On the bench. Before we got the bus to London that was actually for Oxford.”

Something in Crowley’s expression shifts. And something in his shoulders, too- his whole body tenses a little. Like someone who’d been expecting a friend to walk into the room has suddenly found the Queen, asking if she can make herself at home.

“Right. Yes, right. You- hang on.”

Crowley launches himself from his chair, snaps his fingers, conjures sofas. Not the Spartan, minimalist type either- no, these are soft and tartan and very much Aziraphale’s style.

“Oh! Lovely. I’ve been telling you for months that you need a proper living room,” Aziraphale notes, rather pleased with how the place looks now. “See how much more homey it is?”

“Right,” Crowley replies, like he’s not really listening. “Um. So, you’re thinking of staying the night then?”

“Ah. Well, if you’d rather I didn’t-”

“Nope. S’fine. All fine, this is fine,” Crowley rushes. “This is fine. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuh- OK.”

And Aziraphale marvels at how suddenly flustered he is, spinning round in panicked circles before magicking blankets into existence, fetching a bottle of Rioja from his cupboards, turning side lights on and main lights off so the place looks warmer, less cave-like, and doing one thousand other things at once that makes Aziraphale soften.

He’s already soft enough, but this is all too endearing for Aziraphale to handle. He’s always taken pleasure from Crowley fussing over him. Right now, the sight of him bustling about the living room- it lifts something inside of him. Something in his chest lifts like bubbles rising to the surface of a still lake.

“Crowley. Crowley,” he repeats, when the demon doesn’t hear him. After the second time, Aziraphale receives a startled expression, brows raised and mouth hanging open a little. Surprised by the interruption. “My dear, you don’t have to do all this. I’m perfectly happy just being here. With.”

With you, he thinks. With you. Just say it, Aziraphale, you coward.

He doesn’t. He closes his mouth, stares at Crowley’s slack expression, then at the wall directly behind him.

“Thank you,” he eventually says. Adds a nervous smile. “For putting me up.”

“Don’t- don’t thank me, you don’t need to thank me, I offered, remember? Just…” Crowley hovers in the makeshift living room. His lips twist nervously, he stuffs his hands in his barely-there trouser pockets, kicks the sofa. “What is it that changed your mind?”

“How do you mean?”

“About staying over. You said. Back then, you said your side wouldn’t like it. Now?”

Aziraphale thinks about this. He looks above the cold apartment- warm physically, cold emotionally- and then at the sofas that have just been produced. Purely for Aziraphale’s comfort.

“I’m comfortable with you,” he says quietly, too quietly.

“What?”

“I’m- it’s nothing.”

It’s not nothing. Aziraphale’s been chasing after comfort for his whole existence, never really finding it except for in the company of one person. The one person he’s not meant to want to be with.

But-

“Well, even if you won’t accept my thank you, I’m offering it nonetheless,” Aziraphale ploughs on- Crowley frowns at him, but allows the change in subject. “So it’s there. If you want to accept it.”

After a pause, Crowley’s frown melts, and he shrugs. He collapses on the sofa. He puts on the telly.

“Alright, alright, don’t go on about it. Let’s see if there’s anything less depressing than the news on.”

***

It’s not that the sofa isn’t comfortable. It’s just that Aziraphale feels at a bit of a loose end.

He’d confidently assured Crowley that he could leave Aziraphale to it and retire for the night. But without his books, and in such a sparse flat, he’s sitting here feeling a little bit of a lemon.

He’s thought about sleeping. He tried, and it just didn’t seem like he’d drop off. He’s only just got the hang of this whole sleeping business anyway- he had a very successful nap after Armageddon, but it appears that he still needs practice. So, giving up, he’s resorted to looking out of the window and staring at the people down below, walking about Westminster in the cold. After a while even that gets a bit dull, so he sits on the sofa again and turns on the television, puts it on mute so as not to disturb Crowley.

And, amazingly, he’s still cold. Not because the apartment itself is cold, but because his body is still acclimatising. He sighs. And he thinks, as he stares at the silent television, that he may need a bath to warm up properly.

The sound of the door bursting open makes him jump out of his skin.

He turns around and looks at the door- it’s open, but no one’s there. “Crowley?”

“I can hear you sighing from all the way in here,” he calls out from his bedroom. “Just get in here.”

“Pardon?”

“You said you could entertain yourself, but you obviously can’t.”

Aziraphale stares about the living room, at a loss. Crowley’s acting as if there isn’t anything remotely intimate about him inviting Aziraphale into his room. Back on that bench in Tadfield, he’d been rather casual then too, offering to let him stay over. Aziraphale had been scandalised and tempted. He’s feeling similarly now.

This time, though, he’s leaning towards tempted.

And so, brushing himself off, straightening his cardigan uselessly, he stands up from the sofa and steps uncertainly into Crowley’s room.

He’s under the covers, laptop leaning against his raised knees. The room is equally sparse, except from a huge piece of modern artwork that- for all that Aziraphale can tell- is simply a large canvas painted black with a little white blob on it. He tilts his head and stares at it for a while.

“Planning on standing there all night?”

Aziraphale’s attention flits to Crowley. He’s sat there, peering at him over the edge of his laptop screen. Huge, yellow eyes. Watchful- and possibly a little bit guarded. He’s growing his hair out, too- it’s looking more like it did a couple of years ago, half tied up in a messy bun.

“Sorry?”

“Just. Don’t think standing and watching me from the doorway is going to be much more entertaining than whatever you were doing next door. You. You could.” His word catch in his throat. “You could actually get in.”

“A-ah. Yes.”

Aziraphale nods to himself, straightens his cardigan out again and walks purposefully towards the bed. When he gets there, he hesitates awkwardly- Crowley watching with wry amusement. He pulls the duvet back and covers himself, knees in the air. Back, uncomfortably, against the railing of the bed.

“Well done, you managed,” Crowley drawls.

“Stop it.”

“Just a bed, angel,” he adds, though the tone is too light.

“I don’t use them very often.”

“Yes, but, see, I was under the impression you still knew how they worked. Just then you looked like you’d forgotten the function of a duvet.”

Aziraphale shoots him a look, but Crowley’s doing something on his laptop. He seems pleased with himself.

Aziraphale straightens out his legs, wiggles his toes.

“It is very warm in here,” Aziraphale admits. “I can see why you like napping so much.”

“Like being warm,” he mumbles, continuing to do something on his laptop that Aziraphale can’t understand.

“What are you doing?”

Crowley sighs. “You’re so nosy.”

“No I’m- I beg your pardon. I thought you were meant to encourage curiosity, snake?”

He snorts. “I’m catching up on Love Island.”

“What’s Love Island?”

“You…” he wrinkles his nose. “You don’t want to know.”

“It sounds nice.”

“It’s- ha! It’s really not.”

“Oh. Is it one of yours?”

“Yep.”

“I see.”

Crowley looks at him. And there’s a strange expression on his face; strange in that it’s almost childlike. Wide eyed and vulnerable.

“I can watch it later,” he says, lips barely moving.

“Oh- no, don’t let me stop you-”

“Nah. Nah, you know what, I’ll watch it tomorrow,” he announces too loudly, closes his laptop loudly, drops it on the floor loudly. “Let’s just sit. Sit and talk. When’s the last time we talked? Just sat and talked.”

“I believe we do that almost every day. And have done for a few millennia now.”

“Yeah, but.”

Not like this, Aziraphale thinks, though he’s too scared to acknowledge that thought. No, he ignores it stoically like a dog being offered medicine, wrapped up in ham. He eats around the pill.

As it turns out, neither of them want to approach whatever direction that conversation was going. So they end up instead talking about nothing. Things that Aziraphale will forget about tomorrow, but are enjoyable in the moment. Eventually, he gives up on leaning against the railing and lies down, and then so does Crowley, until they’re laying side by side. It’s easy to imagine that they’re outside, on some grassy knoll, looking up at the stars. Or the clouds. Heaven.

“I think I’m only just about warming up, now,” Aziraphale sighs, after an extensive conversation about glacier cherries and which side invented them.

“Only just?” Crowley asks, aghast. “I laid out all those sodding blankets for nothing?”

“No, no, you- you did wonderfully, dear.” Aziraphale doesn’t miss the way Crowley turns his head away and stares at the ceiling with a deep set frown. “I just don’t think my corporeal form is used to being cold for so long. If ever I was cold before, I’d just…”

Aziraphale snaps his fingers. Nothing happens, of course; he’s being careful these days.

“Being human sounds rubbish, doesn’t it. Being cold all the time. Getting hungry. Doing exams and running out of phone battery.”

“It has its perks.”

“Yeah. Least we get to experience the good stuff.”

Aziraphale has been watching Crowley, lying on his back with his cheek pressed against the pillow. He’s been watching the way his hair is falling out of its loose ties, red curls around his face in tendrils. He also keeps finding little stray red hairs over his own cardigan; proof that this whole sharing-a-bed thing happened, in case he ever forgets (he never will).

And he thinks of all the things that Crowley has done for him over the millennia. Everything, from the Bastille to books to apocalypses to offering a warm place to stay. He thinks of how much Crowley gives, despite never receiving; thinks of his trial in Hell, and all the cruelty that he’s experienced from the beginning; thinks about how, actually, he understands how that feels. To not be good (or bad) enough, to not be worth the attention, to be treated so coldly. Aziraphale thinks that he understands, in many ways, how Crowley feels- and he thinks of what he can give back, after everything Crowley has done.

“You know, I’ve heard that the best way to warm up is body heat.”

It sounds ridiculous when he says it, not like him at all. But he knows that the only way he’ll be able to give Crowley a cuddle is by dressing it up. By making it seem like he’s asking for a favour, rather than giving Crowley what he deserves. Crowley will readily grant Aziraphale a favour, but will bear his fangs at the sight of a compliment. Aziraphale sees all the demon’s insecurities, and it’ll take every trick in the book to get past those defences.

Crowley’s head turns towards him. Eyes darting about his face. “Oh yeah?”

“Yes. So. If- that is, if you’re a willing participant, you could be that body.”

Crowley huffs a laugh. “An offer I can’t refuse.”

At first, it sounds like a joke. The mocking tone is there, but beneath it, there’s sincerity. It’s so genuine and affectionate and intimate- and that feeling returns in his chest, the happy-nervous bubbles rising to the surface.

“Right,” Aziraphale breathes. Watching the indescribably soft expression on Crowley’s face. “Well, that’s decided then.”

“Suppose it is.”

Now he’s suggested it, though, Aziraphale’s not brave enough to move. Luckily for him, Crowley is. Crowley’s always the braver one of the two, even if he’s technically the bad one.

And so Crowley lifts up an arm, a gesture for Aziraphale to lay his head on his chest. And he does, after a bit of shuffling. Crowley is bony and sharp, but there’s also an obvious landscape to him that makes it easy for Aziraphale to get comfortable- like a particularly chair shaped rock at the beach. Although it takes him a minute to find the right spot, and Crowley grumbles at him to stop moving and sort yourself out, angel. Eventually, though, they find themselves still. Cuddled up, Crowley’s arms around him The feeling of his chest rising and falling, breath tickling Aziraphale’s forehead. His smell. His hair, too close to be able to focus on properly- just a blur of red.

Aziraphale can’t believe his luck.

And at some point, he dozes off. They both do. Aziraphale knows this, because when he wakes up, he finds their roles reversed- they’re lying on their sides, and Crowley’s curled up beneath his chin. Their legs are tangled and so is Aziraphale’s heart.

He simply lies there. He lies there and brings in Crowley close, holds him. Embraces him, offers him all the softness, all the attention that he deserves. Wraps him up in his arms like he belongs there.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #my writing #fic prompt

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bethagain · 4 years ago

Text

I saw a post the other day lamenting that Din probably hasn’t felt the sun on his skin in years, and it reminded me that I never did share a tumblr version of this fic.

So, here's part III of my series On From Here. In which Din moves some rocks, eats some cake, and sits in a sunbeam.

Honest Work

The inn has a mechanical lift. It’s a small square box that lowers on a pulley. A thin cable rises from its roof and disappears into darkness above. Din looks at it skeptically and then takes the stairs. They’re narrow and dark, the treads shallow.

“Leave the key!” the innkeeper calls after him, as he strides across the dimly lit lobby toward the exit.

Making an enemy of his host here is not a good idea.

He pauses to lay the key on the counter. The dull brass shank of it clinks against its worn metal fob. There’s nothing in the room to steal, anyway.

The town center consists of a handful of low-slung buildings, all with the same tile roofs. Din pauses at the window of a repair shop. Everything inside looks old, mechanical, un-streamlined. They’d probably know exactly how to fix up the Razor Crest, with its pre-Imperial control system and antique wiring. If there were still a Razor Crest to fix.

Next is a general store, with bolts of fabric, tools, and fresh produce all for sale together. There’s a four-legged riding beast tied outside, a simple saddle on its back. A woman is choosing meemfruit from a bin near the door. She turns to watch him walk by.

There doesn’t seem to be a proper drinking establishment. At the end of the row is a small cafe, with a handful of tables and a bar at the back. Several of the tables are occupied. Some people on their own, some groups of adults, a couple of families. Most have plates of food in front of them. A shelf above the bar holds an assortment of liquor bottles.

This place will have to do.

He orders a glass of whiskey, for the sake of manners, and settles in at the bar to wait. The armor serves as its own advertisement.

"You're not going to find what you’re looking for here."

He turns toward the voice. The words are from a grizzled man seated at a corner table.

Din doesn’t bother answering, just squares his shoulders back toward the bar again. Every place has someone who’s hiding. And someone else who wants them found.

The man has come over to the bar, now, and is sliding onto the stool beside him.

Great.

"This is not that kind of town."

"Every town is that kind of town."

"Not here." The man signals to the waiter, who pours something from a spigot and sets it down. Tiny bubbles break its surface, making a faint sound of static. He takes a drink. "We didn't hold with the Empire. We don't hold with the New Republic. We live and let live, around here."

"Fine." Maybe if Din agrees, this man will go away.

"You try to bring somebody in, the whole town's going to stop you."

"Look," says Din, "I have no quarrel with anyone here. I'm just looking to earn a few credits."

The helmet’s interface lets him know that someone’s taken the barstool on his other side. The screen fills the gaps in his peripheral vision. It’s a woman, long hair in a braid, sleeveless top and arms of solid muscle.

“Not here,” she says.

The other tables are emptying, more townspeople coming to form a semicircle behind him. Even the children are glaring at him.

Damn.

“All right.” He knows better than to move his hands without a warning. “Let me pay for my drink, and I’ll be on my way.” He reaches slowly for the pouch at his waist, keeping his hand well clear of his blaster. “What do I owe you?”

The bartender names a figure. Din doubles it, setting down the small stack of credits before rising to leave.

The bartender tries to give the extra back. “That’s too much.”

“You keep it,” Din says. “Payment for the trouble.”

“Hold on.” It’s the man on the barstool beside him again. “You really just looking for work?”

Din waits, standing there by the bar. The townspeople stay there in their circle, but hands are starting to drift away from holsters. The weapons here seem to be mostly slugthrowers. Mechanical things, not blasters with their circuitry and electrics. Interesting.

“Any kind of work?” the man asks.

There are limits, even for someone like Din. “Honest work.”

The man grins at him, white teeth flashing through his unruly beard. “You look strong enough,” he says. “If it’s not beneath you, in your fancy armor there. I need somebody to move some rocks."

The job is not at all what Din had in mind, but it does, indeed, sound like honest work. And he’s not in a place to be picky.

He’s sitting next to the bearded man on a plank across the front of a high-wheeled wooden cart. The cart is pulled by two solid-looking beasts, four-legged and shaggy. Their pace is sedate and steady, the cart rolling easily over grassland. They’re headed toward a row of trees in a valley, between rolling hills.

The trees mark a stream, the man says, and on that stream is an old stone dam that diverts the water. “We’re opening up new farmland. Need to get that water back in its proper course. Get it down to the right place on the land. My regular crew could do it, but it’s heavy work. They’re not itching to volunteer.”

“Why not use an antigrav lifter?” Why pay a man for a whole day’s work, when a simple machine would cut that down to a couple of hours.

“We’re not big believers in tech around here. Parts have to be imported. Electric’s complicated to repair. We don’t care to be dependent on anyone, any more than we have to.”

That explains the shop in town, then, with its antique machinery in the window. And the hotel lift, and the drying jets that don’t work anymore.

“That’s why the slugthrowers?"

“You noticed. That’s right.” The man chuckles. “Keeps things calmer, too. If you have to forge a new bullet every time you use one, you’re a little less likely to draw.”

The cart trundles along. The sky overhead is a clear blue, the sun warm. Din nudges up the cooling system in his armor.

They go along a little way among the trees, until they’re beside a narrow stream of clear water. It emerges from a low pile of stones at the edge of a pond.

From his seat on the cart, the man points to a smaller valley that runs off to the right. “The pond drains over that way, now. Pull the dam out, and it’ll run the way it should again.”

Din takes in the clear stream, the small oval pond, the branching valley. “Who’s using that water now?”

“The folks over yonder were a little too friendly with the Empire,” the man says. “Town asked them to leave.”

“Did they leave?”

“I thought you bounty hunters had a rule about asking questions.”

“This isn’t a Guild job,” Din says.

“Suppose not." The man turns to reach toward the back of the cart, and Din tenses. But he’s just picking up a wooden box by its leather handle. He hands it to Din. "Here's lunch. We're not fancy but our crew eats well. Water in the stream's safe to drink. And don’t worry, there’s no one left to come bother you.”

He waits while Din climbs down from the cart. “You could walk out when you’re done, but it's a long way after a day's work. I'll be back to get you at sundown."

Din watches the cart make its sedate way back through the trees, the shaggy beasts pulling at their traces, the man humming off-key as he goes.

He finds a flat rock to put the lunch box on. It contains a dented metal cup, a stack of wrapped sandwiches, some pieces of a fruit he doesn’t recognize, and a generous slice of cake that smells of ginger and dark sugar.

He closes the box back up again and goes over to inspect the dam.

This certainly isn’t his usual kind of work. But a ship needs fuel and a man needs food, and pushing on to the next port with just the credits he has on hand feels reckless. Unwise. Plus, being in debt to Boba Fett is like a deep itch under his skin. It’s not comfortable. He wants it gone.

Din is no engineer, but piloting a ship means he’s used to thinking in three dimensions. He considers the shape of the dam, the way the rocks are stacked atop one another, the chinks where the water flows through. The thing looks like it was hand-built, the stones large enough not to move with the water but small enough to be picked up. The original stream cut a gully into the soil, but it’s shallow, the dam itself only a bit over knee-high.

The forest floor here is carpeted with broad, leathery leaves. Wide-trunked trees are spaced far apart, with little undergrowth between them. Their canopies cast shade across the ground. Here and there, a few sunbeams find their way through.

If he starts at the far side, removing the rocks in vertical columns, the stream should come slowly back to life. His gloves will protect his hands from the roughness of the stone. His boots are already sticking in the mud at the edge of the water. They’re water-resistant, good for a while in a rainstorm, but they’re going to be soaked through by the time he’s done.

At first, muscles complain at being asked to move in ways they’re not used to. This steady pattern of bend, lift, bend is very different from the sudden, sharp quickness of a fight. His daily workouts are rigorous but they’re precise, prescribed patterns. Each of these stones has a different shape, a different weight. Keeping his feet out of the water, keeping his balance on the slight slope makes each one its own physics problem, its own little challenge.

Soon enough, though, he’s settled into the rhythm of it. He remembers to use his legs when lifting, to save strain on his back. He kicks up the cooling system again, as sweat begins to gather under the armor.

The armor’s physiological monitors are simple, but they register heartbeat, breathing, temperature. Normally, he ignores the ping that says it might be time to take a break, to drink some water and catch his breath. Because normally, when that ping goes off, taking a break would either be desperately stupid--in the middle of a firefight?--or stupidly desperate, like during the hours walking the Tatooine desert back to Mos Eisley, carrying the wreckage of a speeder bike, no water at all on board.

This time, he gets the dented cup from the wooden box and carries it over to the stream. It’s already flowing faster, but his work has kicked up sediment. Din goes back to the box, grabs one of the wrapped sandwiches, and sets out to find the pond’s other outlet.

It’s not far. The other stream burbles over a few rocks at the edge of the pond, then curves through another shallow gully and off down a gentle slope and away. One of the great trees rises nearby, a couple of its wide roots undercut by the water.

He’s starting to feel chilled as the cooling system interacts with sweat-dampened clothing, so he switches the cooling circuits off. The helmet’s interface tells him the air outside is still warm.

Din considers, sandwich in one hand, cup in the other. There is a sunbeam crossing over the tree roots, making the water sparkle.

The forest around him is quiet.

Decision made, he dips the cup in the stream, then chooses a spot to sit on one of the wide tree roots, back against the trunk. He balances the cup on the leaf-covered ground, sets the sandwich down beside it. Then he lifts the helmet from his head, setting it in his lap as he rests his head on the tree’s rough bark, eyes closed against the brightness of the sun.

When did he last feel sunlight on his skin? It’s been a while. Before he picked up the child, surely. It hasn’t been safe to let his guard down. How long before that, though? He thinks back, but it’s a blur of work, the halls of the Nevarro covert, the streets of strange towns.

Din knows better than to stay in the sun for long. Skin that’s always covered has no defense against UV rays. After a few minutes he shifts to the shade, sitting crosslegged on the forest floor. The water from the stream is sweet, with a slight mineral taste underneath. The sandwich isn’t bad either, fresh bread dotted with different kinds of grain, slices of some kind of tender meat and crisp green leaves with just a hint of bitter.

He makes his way back around the pond to continue the work. Wiggle each stone free. Lift, carry. He’s building a sort of stone cairn, setting each one down neatly, just because it feels good to see the thing take shape.

His gloves are soaked by now, as he has to reach into the water to get at the lowest rows of stones. The water can’t be good for the circuits in the vambraces so he sheds those, too, setting them down on the flat rock beside the wooden lunch box, where his helmet already sits.

He could keep the cooling system running, but it’s not designed for this kind of exertion. The constant movement will keep the power cell charged, but he’s sweating in spite of it, and the chill from the beskar is a distraction instead of a comfort.

He’s already vulnerable without the helmet and the vambraces. He lays out cuirass, pauldrons, hip and thigh plates on that flat stone. His hand pauses on the blaster, but if it’s waterlogged it’s not going to work at all.

He looks down at the thick fabric of the flightsuit, already wet at wrists and ankles. He's got another layer underneath it. May as well leave that too.

He makes a detour through another sunbeam on the way back to the dam.

Without the armor to filter the outside world, he’s aware of the warmth of the sun on his back. Of the change in temperature between sun and shadow.

Without the helmet’s interface, he marks time by how the patches of sun creep slowly across the forest floor.

When a rush of water takes him by surprise, soaking him from elbow to wrist and chest to hip, he sheds his shirt, laying it out on the stone cairn to dry.

The air is still warm. The water that splashes his wrists is cool. He pauses again for food, then sets back to work. At one point he cups his hands in the running stream and drinks, then runs wet hands through his sweat-soaked hair.

Clearing the last few stones means sinking his hands into mud to wrest them free. When he’s carried them over and set them atop the neat pile, he looks down and finds he’s covered in mud from chest to waistband.

His employer said he’d be back at sunset. Din looks up, judging the height of the sun in the sky. Late afternoon, he guesses, edging into evening. It’s unpleasant fitting the helmet back on over wet hair, his face still damp with sweat, but he does it. The chrono built into the interface tells him there’s a good two hours until sundown.

He turns a slow circle, heat and motion sensors overlaying his vision, sound turned up high. There’s birdsong high above him, but otherwise the forest is still.

He fetches his shirt, piles the armor and flightsuit into his arms and carries it all to the edge of the pond. Then, thinking what the hell, he shucks boots, socks, and leggings and wades on in.

Din doesn’t know how to swim. It’s not a skill he normally needs in his work. It’s not a skill he particularly needs now, either. But the mud is pleasantly soft against his feet, the water soothing to tired muscles. He ducks his head under, scrubs at the dirt on his chest, rinses away sweat.

For the second time today, he uses his shirt to dry off. The approach of evening is bringing a slight chill to the air, so he pulls his other clothes back on, fastening the flightsuit over his bare chest this time before setting the pieces of his armor in place.

Back at the flat stone he considers another sandwich, decides on the cake instead, and then sits there a while, licking sugar from his fingers and watching the stream at its full strength now as it sparkles its way down the valley.

True to his word, the man is back with the wagon just as the sunbeams finish fading. He takes note of the neat cairn, and of the unfettered stream. “I wasn’t sure you’d really do it,” he says. “Guy like you. Work like this.”

Din just looks at him, impassive behind the helmet. He’s pretty much done with dignity these days, but this man doesn’t need to know it.

“Well,” the man says. “We’re clearing more land tomorrow. If you want another day’s work.”

“I’ll take my pay for this one.”

“Of course.” He counts out the amount they agreed on and drops it into Din’s hand. “I mean it. We can always use a strong set of hands.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Where are you staying?”

Din names the inn.

The man nods. “I’ll drop you there?”

“That would be fine.”

The first stars are out by the time Din steps down from the wagon, credits in his pocket and the last two sandwiches in his hand. He picks up the key from the innkeeper, climbs the narrow stairs, locks the door of the room behind him. He hangs his wet shirt in the shower room, lays out his wet gloves and socks to dry, strips off the armor and sets it carefully on the floor. His skin smells faintly of mud and minerals, but he can’t be bothered to shower. He sits by the window to eat, watching more stars emerge from the clear, dark sky.

The money in his pocket won’t buy much. It’s a little more fuel, another day or two of getting by.

He’ll leave in the morning. Probably.

He still has no idea where to go.

#the mandalorian #fanfic #din djarin #my fic

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sleepnginstardust · 5 years ago

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Werewolf boyfriend and girlfriend (part 1/??)

I really enjoy the short stories by @momolady @monsterywriting and @monstersandmaw. So I wanted to write something that hopefully would live up to some of their amazing writing. Fair warning I don’t have anyone who’s able to proof read for me so I’ve as best as I can to make sure that everythings okay. Let me know if y’all find anything! This

Castle Hill, the sign was almost too perfect. When I was first looking at places to move this place hadn’t even occurred to me than someone I know of brought a listing to my attention.

“I know you’re thinking of moving to a less populated place, wouldn’t want anyone to bother your writing now would you!” The little jab at my writing career was annoying, but kind of spot on? I had been stuck in a rut for my second novel in my series for a while and while I don’t mind living in a densely populated area. The noise and just all of the people get to me after a while. It takes more energy for me to head to the corner bodega than it should. So I had been looking for a house in a small town that was within at the most a three-hour drive from the city.

The listing my acquaintance had posted on my facebook was for a house in the small town of Castle Hill. Bigger than what I needed but still cheaper than owning an apartment in the city. So I booked a viewing.

The realtor I talked with was surprised when I contacted them, he said something about not a lot of newcomers to the town. Never a good thing to hear if I ever wanted to sell the house again. I vaguely remember asking a few more questions. Something about the community college that was in the town and I asked about a motel or an AirB&B in the area.

The realtor laughed, he said that there was a small Bed and Breakfast in the area and that he could give me the number if I was serious about wanting to see the house. It was odd when he asked me again if I was serious about seeing the house. When I said I would be up at the end of the week to see the house, he hesitated and said that he looked forward to someone so obstinate.

So I drove the three-ish hours, it took to get to Castle Hill, the drive was gorgeous. The busy city by the bay slowly gave way to winding roads through farmland. Slowly the farmland gave way to rolling hills and soon the hills became forests. The trees were small at first then slowly growing larger the farther I drove.

By the time I reached the town sign, I was truly in a forest. There were small clearings here and there, in fact, the town was built in one such clearing. The town sign showed the edge and while it was a large clearing tree still peppered the area causing a rustic feel that I remember from my childhood spent in the mountains.

Quaint wooden walkways were in place of the concrete sidewalks I was used too. It made me feel like I had moved back in time. The Old Fashion buildings made everything, even the modern day coffee shop seem like it had all been there for years. As I drove past I saw, a butchers place, a florist's and a small hardware store.

The small crafts store was something that drew my eyes, it's bright exterior showed only a small portion of what was inside. As I made my way through the more suburban portion of the town I started to notice all the families. Naga men and women with their clutch of young, I saw a small satyr with a stunning woman and three children jumping up and down. I saw a beautiful Centaur woman with an equally stunning woman and a small centaur girl jumping around them.

As I pulled up to the Victorian house a woman not much older came out to greet me. She stood tall and proud which honestly made me feel a bit like a slob. especially after driving the three and a half hours it took me to get here.

"You must be Abigail, I'm Kara. It's so nice you are able to join us. I'll show you the room." As she took me through the house I looked at all the old photos slowly morph into newer ones. I felt like I was walking through a carefully preserved museum.

"Okay, is this a family home? I'm seeing photos from the 1880's 1870's at the earliest." Kara paused for a moment and looked back at me while giving a small smile.

"I'm surprised you noticed, most people just assume that I find old photos in antique stores or something like that." I looked down with a small blush on my face. History was one of the few things I enjoyed. Feeling a little embarrassed I muttered something I don't remember.

"My family has been in this area since the early 1860's. This house itself was built around 1904 right after the large earthquake that struck San Francisco." Kara showed me the house along with many more photos of the town from the early days.

The house itself was beautiful. Old but wonderfully kept wooden floors and antique looking wallpaper throughout. Each room was its own separate room. The furniture in each room seemed like it had been made especially for each room. The dining room had a large table with what seemed like 14 chairs.

She showed me the kitchen with its cozy dining nook where Kara explained that she served both breakfast and dinner there if I would want to join her. I couldn’t turn down such a wonderful woman so I readily found myself agreeing.

Finally she led me up the stairs and to the upper story where opened the door to a decent sized bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. The entire room smelled lightly of lilacs, which normally would bother me but with how light the sent was it didn’t bother me.

She carefully bowed out and put a key with rose shaped key fob attached on the nightstand. Slowly I dragged my battered carry on bag onto the almost pristine white luggage stand. I carefully pulled out my small makeup bag and a small toiletries bag. I put away the small amount of clothes I brought with me and debated whether to keep the sweater in the bag or with me. I pulled it out just in case.

After that I freshened up in the bathroom. I reapplied bits of my foundation and added a translucent setting powder over the top to cover my greaseball forehead. I pulled out my favorite lipstick and put that on instead of the tinted lip balm I had been wearing most of the day. I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that this was going to be the best I was going to look for the day.

Grabbing my laptop bag I made my way down the stairs. As I hit the downstairs landing I heard Kara talking with another person. I slowly made my way into the sitting room where I had heard the conversation coming from. I pulled short before the doorway and knocked like the sheepish person I am. I looked and saw Kara sitting down with two people both in firefighters uniforms. Not the heavy kind but the lighter kind that they wear while on duty.

“Look I know I’ve been here for” I checked my phone. “An hour, but I promise I haven’t set anything on fire. That I know of.” The Female firefighter snorted, and the male one had this stupid grin. One I kind of wanted to punch off of his face. Sort of.

“Oh Abigail This Anita Galassia the Chief Firefighter for the town.” The man made a disgruntled noise and Kara made soothing motions. “And this is Anita’s Second in command Nathan Fraye. They were checking in on me, one of my neighbors had a bad fall (she’s pregnant with her first child) and they wanted to assure me that if anything happened they would be here lickty split.”

“Wait, firefighters still do that? Sorry my local firefighters live an hour outside of the city and hardly know anyone.” Anita and Nathan hadn’t stopped looking at me even while Kara had been talking and I started to feel the anxiety creep into my brain. I felt like I had been cornered by two wolves, and my flight or fight feelings started to kick in. “Oh I forgot, I’m heading down to that coffee shop. You didn’t say anything about wifi and I have a few things I need to send in to my editor.”

“Oh my gosh Abigail I am so sorry! I do have wifi. I know I have the information around here somewhere. If you still want to go to the cafe I can have the password for wifi when you get back.” I nodded, feeling my anxiety kick it up a notch and my heart rate go up. I gave a small wave and started to turn around.

“Abigail right? Did you want us to take you down there? The fire house is close by and it wouldn’t be out of our way.” I turned back around looking at Anita’s earnest smiling face.

“Ahh no thanks I drove like three and a half hours to get here and a short walk would help get the cobwebs out of my brain before I have to edit like six chapters.” Anita’s face fell a little and she nodded.

“Understandable, maybe we’ll see you there. They have some good pastries.” I was still feeling like a cornered deer. So I put on my most brilliant smile and nodded. Waved again and made my way out of the room. On my way out I heard one of them mutter to Kara “She’s cute.”

“Don’t get any fucking ideas horn dog” was all I heard as I quickly made my way out of the house and onto the small sidewalk through the neighborhood. Walking past the houses on my way towards the town center made me realize how many families were here. Like I had seen kids playing before but I only saw three or four of them. Now I was seeing whole groups of them.

In the 15 minutes I had been walking towards the coffee shop I started feeling invigorated and almost inspired. I say almost because as I was passing the local park, I noticed a small group of kids playing. I stopped for a moment and stared. As I watched the children playing I felt a small pang in my stomach. I wanted children but with my busy schedule I couldn’t even fathom having children. I quickly shook my head and started walking again.

Or well I would have if I hadn’t have run into something. Thankfully I didn’t fall over, I just happened to bump into them. I muttered sorry and started walking away.

“Are you okay?” I looked up and realized that the person that I bumped into was someone who could probably bench press me. Again my flight or fight response kicked in.

“Oh I’m fine, sorry for bumping into you.” I gave a small wave to the person and thankfully he took that to mean that I was fine and he thankfully left it at that.

“I’m pretty sure your new in town, if you need anything stop by the local newspaper, I’m Fred, I run it and can help you if you need anything.” Still feeling a little nervous. I nodded and started walking away. I could swear I could feel him watching me as I got farther away.

I started loosening up the farther I got away from the park. I kept my head down and I started counting the squares in the sidewalk. I started looking up when my anxiety started slowly going away. It was another ten minutes to the coffee shop and I was thankful when I noticed that it quiet. I made my way up to the counter and placed an order for just a pot of black tea and a plain scones.

“So are you just visiting or maybe just passing through?” I looked up at the orc girl behind the counter, and tried to figure out why she was asking.

“I’ve got an appointment to see a house tomorrow.” I said in a slightly dead tone. I had hoped the orc girl would take a hint and just leave it. But she was young and wanted to be nice. I think.

“Oh that’s awesome, we don’t really get a lot of new people who’d want to move into a town out in the middle of nowhere. Do you have some sort of business you’re opening up?” She started finally gathering my things as she had been talking and I tried to repress the urge to snap. I know I should watch my temper but damn I was really not in the mood to talk

“I’m a novelist. I need a more quiet area so I can focus a little better on my novel.” At that the girl looked up from filling the small pot of tea. “Hey watch out or yo-”

“Fuck!” my warning came a little too late as she poured boiling hot water over her hand. I put my laptop down on the counter.

“Are you going to need burn gel? Use room temperature water by the way.” The Girl looked at me, I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. She switched over the water temperature and pulled a red bag from under the register.

“Sorry I just realized where I had seen you before. I’ve seen your instagram, you have like a million subscribers.” I had the decency to be embarrassed. I knew I had a few subscribers here and there but I didn’t realize that people would actually recognize me.

“Yeah that’s me I guess.” The girl had remade the teapot and started heating up the scone. I grabbed my bag and saw a table in a corner that faced the street. I pulled out my laptop and looked around the table for a place to plug in. I found one a smalle ways away but still close enough to plug in my laptop.

The girl brought me the scone and the teapot with a murmured sorry. I nodded and took the pot and the scone laying them down on the table. I poured the tea and started nibbling on the scone putting some lemon curd on. As I settled down I opened the email from my editor with the edits he’d like to see and I sat down and started to write.

Writing had always come easy to me, easier than dealing with people at least. With writing I had control over everything, what people said, how people reacted, and honestly it was way easier to deal with things that I put onto paper. My first novel happened that way.

It had started as a way to deal with the fact that I wasn't what people wanted me to be. So I wrote a story about it. Fiction of course, because who would want to read an autobiography about a no one. And it sold, stupidly well. Then I was told they wanted a second book, and a third. So I rolled with it.

Now that I was working on the second book in the series I realized I really enjoyed writing. So here I was 200 miles away from my apartment and my editor trying to finish the last bit of editing before the book went to publication. Listening to the barista girl talk animated with someone.

I heard the clink of someone setting a ceramic cup down on a wooden table. Looking up with a scowl on my face I recognized the two firefighters from Kara’s place. My scowl deepened making me look like I was going to punch someone. Trying my best to ignore them, I went back to work.

”Wow and I thought I was scary when I'm mad.” I ignored the voice of Nathan as put in some rework to some dialogue. ”hello did you hear me?”

”yes i heard you, yes I am ignoring you. I have a few things to finish before my book goes to printing next month.`` I looked up to stare at Nathan who had this bewildered smile on his face. Anita sat down next to Nathan and punched his arm.

“I told you not to bother her, yet here we are. With her about to rip your throat out.” Anita gave a small snort.

“I wouldn’t rip his throat out, that’s too messy. I’d poison him, less blood that way.” I said not even missing a keystroke. I heard someone choke a little, and the sounds of someone thumping on someone’s back. The more I got into writing the less I noticed. I was almost finished with the final couple of revisions when I saw a hand in front of my computer screen. Blinking a bit I looked up.

“Sorry to bother you but you haven’t looked up in two hours and we were starting to worry.” I looked at the clock on my screen and realized I had been at the coffee shop for three hours. It was closing in on Six O’clock and I needed to get back to Kara’s. I looked back up to Nathan.

“Aw crap, I’ve got to get going, thanks for checking in.” I saved what I was doing and closed my laptop. I unplugged the charger from the wall and started shoving it and my laptop in my bag. I shut my bag and stood forgetting I had been sitting for a long period of time. Of course I would get dizzy after having nothing but scones and tea since last night.

As I steadied myself I felt a hand on my shoulder and stiffened. Looking back I saw Anita and Nathan both looking concerned? I didn’t know anything about these people and still they had concern for me. I had no idea why people like them would be concerned but here they were showing concern anyway.

“I’m fine, just haven’t had decent food since yesterday. I’m heading back to Kara’s where she promised a good home cooked meal. I think.” I raised my hands in defeat and walked over the counter. The Barista was looking between myself and the two behind me. “Can I just get a cup of water, need to stay hydrated you know.”

She handed me the cup and I waved to Anita and Nathan and left. As I popped outside I realized how cold it had gotten in the three hours I was there. I shivered a bit realizing that not everywhere was in the 80’s during September. I started walking back the way I came as the street lamps came on. I looked up and noticed that the street lamps were some old time looking ones with the fake flicker light bulbs.

I walked quietly by the stores with bright interiors. As the stores gave way to houses I started feeling like something was watching me and I started getting nervous. I started walking faster and as I was walking past the park I looked over. Two sets of glowing eyes stared back at me and I nearly screamed.

Needless to say, I walked faster back to Kara’s house and as I saw the lights on I quickly made my way inside. Not running mind you, but close. As I opened the door and slammed it shut my heart was racing. Kara came through the door to the kitchen and looked at me up and down.

“Abigail you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” I nodded, not paying attention to what she was saying as she led me into the kitchen. The smell of what seemed to be chicken and something else came to my nose. She took my bag and put it on a hook next to the door over some aprons. “Okay, tell me what happened”

“I- I don’t know, I was walking back from the coffee shop and I started feeling like I was being watched. Which by the way is terrifying because the last time that happened I was nearly killed. Well I started walking faster, not running because then that lets them know you know they’re watching and when I passed the park I look up and somewhere past the park there where these eyes. Two sets of them, and well I started panicking and now my anxiety is throu-” She didn’t let me finish my sentence as she engulfed me in a hug. I tensed up waiting for the whole “You shouldn’t be so cautise” talk I’ve heard from many different people. Instead she just rubbed my back in soothing circular motions.

“Hey, hey it’s okay. I’ll talk to a few people to see what we can do. Now we need some food if you can stomach it. I know sometimes anxiety can be a real monster.” As she said this my anxiety dropped a little enough where I wasn’t hyperventilating. I was still having issues seeing, and I knew from experience that tunnel vision took a while to go away. I started to tremble so much so that my knees finally gave out. Kara grabbed me before I could hit the floor thankfully. She manhandled me into a chair at the table and gave me a glass of water.

“Maybe I should call the fire department for you.” Hearing that all I could think about was the look of pity from Anita and Nathan I would get and my stomach dropped. I grabbed her wrist and shook my head no.

“P-p-please don’t I have medicine in m-my b-bag.” I pointed to my laptop bag, and she hurried over and searched the front bag finding the small bottle of anti anxiety medicine. She brought over the bottle and handed it to me. I opened the bottle and took out a pill and put it in my mouth and drank the glass of water. I put the glass of water on the table and put my head between my legs.

“Do these attacks happen often?” I turned my head to look at her and nodded slowly.

“They were manageable most of the time, but there was this incident about five months ago? I don’t know. Anyway they become worse almost to the point where I couldn’t leave my apartment.” Kara nodded her head and started making a plate of food. I watched her bring a chicken thigh onto a plate before I spoke up. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat that, I’m sorry.”

“Do not apologize. Besides I can make you something easier on the stomach. How about some soup and maybe a grilled cheese?” I looked at her perplexed, this woman had known me four maybe five hours and she had treated me better than my own mother. The tears came faster than I realized and when Kara looked back at me from the freezer where she was pulling out what looked like homemade soup, she gasped.

“Hey, what’s wrong, do you not like chicken noodle, I think I have some leftover Minestrone from last week still,” I started crying harder, trying to make sure the sound wasn’t loud so the neighbors didn’t hear. “Oh dear, what’s wrong, you can talk to me.”

“N-n-n-not e-even m-m-m-my own m-m-mother cared, she just cared that I wasn’t making money for her anymore.” At this Kara stopped put the soup down on the counter and walked over to me.

“Abigail I’m going to tell you one thing about this town. If you do end up taking buying a house here know one thing. We look after our people no matter what. You’ll never have to worry about walking home alone. If you’re ever sick we’ll look after you. If for whatever reason you’re gone for long periods of time we’ll look after your yard and feed your cat if you have one. We care for our people, you won’t be alone unless you want it.” As she said this I started crying even harder this time not caring who heard. Kara just kneeled down and rubbed circles in my back. After a couple of minutes my tears started winding down and the fuzzy feeling of just having a long cry started creeping in.”

“Now Abigail let’s get you some soup, a nice grilled cheese and some more water okay?” I nodded and watched her refill the glass I had from earlier. She gently placed the water in front of me and I hesitantly picked it up.

“I’m sorry for the breakdown there, It had been a while since I had one and I never expected to have one here.” I sniffled and looked around for some paper towels or maybe a paper napkin. Kara was looking at me as she warmed up a thing of soup in a sauce pot. I looked down at my knees very interested in my knees.

“Amelia you don’t have to apologize, most people don’t hold half the things inside them that you probably do and they still break down.” She flipped a sandwich over in a pan on the stove top & stirred the soup. “Honestly one of the hardest things in life is being strong enough to understand that you don’t always have to be strong.”

I sighed, maybe I knew I was due to break down but I had been hoping that maybe I would be able to get through the final draft of my novel and purchase a new house before I had one. Wishful thinking I know, but I had hoped. Rubbing the back of my neck I knew I should say something but all I was able to do was nod and hang my head. I heard the clack of bowls and plates. The rustle of silverware followed.

I bowl of steaming soup was placed in front of me. MInestrone I realized, and a plate with a grilled cheese cut in half was placed next to the bowl. Kara refilled my glass with more water and set it down in front of me.

I looked up and saw her sitting down in front of me with the same thing. I looked at the counter with the beautifully prepared chicken, and rolls.

“I’m sorry, I ruined your dinner.” I looked down feeling like a child who had ruined Christmas for their family. I heard a small sigh.

“Has no one ever told that not everything your body or mind does is something you can control.” I looked up at her then back down quickly. I didn’t have the heart to tell her about all the times as a child I wet the bed only to have my mother slap me for waking her and make me sleep in urine soaked sheets as “punishment”. Kara honestly looked like the type of person to hunt down my mother and punish her.

“If it didn’t come up in my mothers “Parenting for Narcissists” book then she probably forgot.” Kara let out a bitter laugh and I picked up some of the sandwich. I carefully dipped it in the soup and pulled out. The soup tasted perfect, as I expected. The sandwich had a decent cheese to bread ratio. Not that I was expecting anything less.

“I haven’t known you for long, maybe a day or so at this point, but there’s something I don’t get. You seem to be hurting a lot and from what I can tell, what ever drove you to come here terrified you so much that you decided to leave everything you know behind. Why?” I looked down thinking about what had happened, and how people I thought to be my friends acted afterwards.

“I guess I’m prying huh? You don’t have to say anything I know you’ve only been here for less than 10 hours. So finish your soup and go to bed, maybe take a bath. Since you’re the only one here the communal bath has a nice big tub.” I nodded and I finished my sandwich and soup I got and went to go put my dishes in the sink. “Don’t you even dare, just go take a bath and relax.”

“Kara? Thank you.” Kara waved her hand at me and moved to gather the dishes. I left to her too it.

#werewolf boyfriend #werewolf girlfriend #exophilia #my writing #monster lover

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rulesofthebeneath · 5 years ago

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masters of our fates, chapter 1

@ajaysbhandari @pixelburied @itsbrindleybinch @awkwardalbatros @ravenclawpokegirl25 @lilmissperfectlyimperfect @witchiegirl @ajayforlife @furiouscloddonutpeanut

Grace glared into the mirror, trying to make the edge of the wig meet her natural hairline seamlessly. It was a futile effort-- it was always a futile effort-- but for some reason, this bothered her more today than it usually did.

Support group. The idea scared her, frankly. How was she supposed to go up in front of a whole bunch of people and tell them her life story? She could scarcely remember the last time she’d been onstage. Pre-diagnosis, for sure. Back in middle school, when she was just a bright-eyed thirteen-year-old trying her best to fit in.

Now sixteen, she looked into the mirror and shook her head. Three years seemed more like a lifetime ago, when she thought about how much had changed. How much she had changed.

She finally decided to just take the wig off and ran a comb through the layers of her hair cut into a long pixie. She didn’t like it, but it would have to do today. There was no use putting on airs for other teenagers that also had cancer. They’d see right through her ill-fitting wig that could only trick the most gullible. And anyways, her nasal cannula and the cart that she always dragged around with her that held her oxygen canister was a dead giveaway that something was very, very wrong with her.

Sixteen and dying, she thought to herself, seeing her humorless smirk reflected back at her. There had been a time when she was still soft inside. Grace liked that part of herself, but it hadn’t been strong enough to last through the chemotherapy, the surgeries, the doctor’s appointments where she was told she didn’t have long.

And yet, Grace thought, life keeps dragging me along. Like roadkill that got stuck to the bottom of a car tire.

She knew she wasn’t supposed to think like that. That was why her therapist told her mom about the support group that met in the auditorium of some old high school in town. It was the same one she would’ve ended up going to, if it weren’t for… everything else.

Her parents had taken her out of school upon her diagnosis of thyroid cancer, when she was 13. What had followed had been the worst years of her young life, poked and prodded and cut open and flushed with chemicals within an inch of death. That’s what they’d told her, at least.

Her cancer had proven untreatable. Even though she underwent surgery to remove her entire thyroid, the cancer had already spread into her lungs and was slowly drowning her. Chemotherapy didn’t touch the tumors, and the aggressive rounds of every kind of drug that the doctors thought might help caused all her hair to fall out and all the fat on her body to disappear, leaving her skeletal. But even as the tumors grew and grew, even as her skin broke out in rashes and her ribs showed through her skin, even as she spent long nights drowning on fluid-filled lungs, her heart kept beating.

Grace didn’t know why. And sometimes she wished it hadn’t. But it did, and a couple medical trials and a few experimental drugs later, the tumors had stopped growing. And Grace resurfaced, hacking the fluid up and out of her lungs, agonizingly and beautifully alive. Her doctors had called it a miracle, and her parents called it a blessing. Only Grace saw it as it truly was, though.

She saw the collateral damage that her family had faced. She knew her brushes with death had traumatized her twin brother, who was maybe the only person in the world who knew her better than she knew herself. And her parents had given up so much-- their diner, which had been their dream ever since they were newlywed twenty-somethings, had had to go so they could pay for Grace’s treatment. Now her father worked grueling hours as a line cook and her mother worked at a bookshop part time, but cared for Grace full time.

In truth, Grace knew that she had only destroyed their lives. That although nobody would say it, it would’ve been easier had she succumbed to the water in her lungs.

But maybe not. If there was anything worse than dying of cancer, it was having a kid who died of cancer. Or a twin. No, Grace wouldn’t wish that on them. Even though she wished they cared less, she knew she meant the world to her family. And they meant the world to her, too.

But sometimes, it was so hard to breathe.

She made the mistake of mentioning that statement to her therapist, which was what had brought her here. In the living room of her house, with her twin brother fishing their car keys out of a dish on the counter, getting ready to drive her to the school.

As they left the house and started into the warm Saturday morning, Grace squinted to shield her eyes from the brightness of the June sun.

“You clearly aren’t getting out enough,” James said pointedly, though he grinned as he pressed the button on the key fob to unlock the door. “I don’t think I’ve seen you leave your bed at all this week.”

“Sleep fights cancer,” Grace mumbled as she climbed into the car, pulling her oxygen cart in after. She closed the door, making sure it didn’t shut on the line.

“Yeah, but I hear fresh air does too,” James replied. When Grace didn’t answer, he turned on the radio to a pop station. He reversed the car out of the driveway and onto the street they lived on, and they rode in silence.

Not five minutes later, though, James slammed the button that silenced the radio. Grace looked over at him, startled.

“You never smile anymore,” he said.

“I’m dying,” Grace retorted. She made to turn back around to the window, but her line got tangled around a button of her sweater and forced her to spend a few moments with shaky fingers untangling it.

“You’re not, though,” James said, taking advantage of her line malfunction to hold her captive in a conversation. “I mean, your body’s not perfect and your health still sucks, but you’re not gonna die anytime soon.”

“Thanks to a drug that’s expensive as hell,” Grace said, again trying to cut herself out of the conversation. James wouldn’t let it happen though.

“That’s not the point, and you know it,” he said, and even though his eyes were turned towards the road, Grace could feel them flashing with anger. “You were given a chance to live, and instead you just lay around sleeping and watching TV. I know you want to go out and do things, but you won’t let yourself. Why?”

Grace fumed. She was furious at her brother, because his words touched every frayed nerve in her brain.

“I wish I had a dog instead of a twin,” she said finally. “At least a dog wouldn’t judge me.”

“You’d have to clean up its poop,” James said matter-of-factly.

“A small price to pay for getting to keep my secrets.”

James rolled his eyes, though both had calmed down enough for twin smiles to show on their faces.

“Make me a deal, and I’ll leave you alone about it,” James offered.

Grace raised an eyebrow. “What’s the catch?”

“Try to socialize at the support group,” he said. “It’s people like you. They won’t judge you. And besides, you already know Mrs. Silva.”

That was true. Their neighbor, Mrs. Silva, had gone through breast cancer a while back, and had relapsed when Grace was 14. Grace had heard that the high school where her kid, Rory, went had used the school play to raise money for her treatment. She was in remission now.

“Plus, maybe Rory will be there.”

Rory had been Grace’s and James’ childhood best friend, but Grace had lost touch with Rory post-diagnosis. She’d lost touch with pretty much everyone. James and Rory ran in different circles at school, but they spoke occasionally. Grace remembered how they’d run against each other for student body president, with Rory eventually winning when James threw his support behind them. In return, James was their vice president. It had all worked out for the best, but Grace was pretty sure the months leading up to it had been awful for James. She hadn’t been home enough to really pay attention to him, but she could tell he was stressed during his daily visits to her hospital room. She still held a lot of guilt in her heart for not being there for him during his time of need.

“If it means I get to binge-watch America’s Most Eligible once I get home, then fine. Deal. I’ll say a few words to Rory, and their mom.”

“Thank youuuuu,” James said in a sing-song voice, laughing. His laugh was infectious, one of the things Grace both loved and hated about him. She couldn’t resist, and giggled a little too. James noticed, and gasped dramatically.

“There’s your smile! I thought it had gone missing.”

Grace whacked him, but his athlete’s physique hardly noticed her weak attempt. Before James’ grin faded entirely, Grace saw that he had pulled up to the school and she got out as quickly as she could, careful not to tangle herself in her line again.

“Thanks for the ride, James,” she said.

“No problem. I’ll pick you up in an hour?”

Grace pressed her lips together and looked towards the sign that marked the building as Berry High School. Suddenly, she wanted to know what else she’d missed out on, besides the play and the election.

“No, I think I’ll get a ride home with Rory and Mrs. Silva, maybe get dinner with them. It’s been way too long since I’ve spent time with them.”

James grinned, and Grace swore that it lit up the entire day. Regardless of what he said to her, it had been way too long since he’d truly smiled either.

“Damn right it has. I’ll tell mom, and we’ll see you at home later.”

“See you.”

With that, Grace turned and walked through the doors of Berry High School. As soon as she crossed into the front lobby, she spotted the door to the auditorium, conveniently propped open for wheelchair users. She slipped inside as quietly as she could with the oxygen canister rattling around in the cart.

The theatre was decked out in red, the ruby-colored curtains that framed the stage complemented by the deep red seats. Grace ran her hand along the stained velour, wondering how old it was. Then, an enthusiastic voice pulled her out of her reverie.

“Is that Grace?!” the voice said, and then Rory Silva themselves stood up from one of the folding chairs placed in a circle on the stage. They ran down the stairs and threw themselves at Grace, nearly knocking her over with a massive bear hug. Grace was barely able to steady herself by gripping the edge of a seat tightly.

Rory soon noticed that Grace wasn’t hugging back, presumably because she held onto the theatre seat with a death grip and her oxygen cart with the other. They released her quickly, stepping back in horror.

“Oh god, Grace, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”

Grace forced a smile onto her face. She loved Rory like a sibling, but hadn’t expected to be so aggressively greeted within seconds of stepping into the auditorium. The interaction had winded her.

“No, don’t worry,” she managed. Rory nodded, but still looked wary.

“We’re all up here,” they said, gesturing towards the circle of chairs onstage. About half of them were filled, and Grace didn’t recognize any of the faces. One of them was staring at her, a healthy-looking boy wearing a blazer, jeans, and thick glasses. He had one eyebrow raised, and the whole look came off rather condescendingly to Grace.

Great, she thought. Some asshole already doesn’t like me.

She broke eye contact with the boy and turned back to Rory.

“Come on up to the stage. We have a ramp set up and everything.”

Grace snorted, noting the presence of a girl in a wheelchair on the stage. “I sure hope you do.”

Rory laughed, and the two headed up towards the stage. Once Grace rolled her hand-cart up the ramp, which took more effort than she’d hoped, she was greeted by Mrs. Silva, a slight woman not much taller than Grace who was short herself, wrapping her into a tight hug.

“It’s great to see you, my dear. We’ve missed you around the house, like when you and Rory were kids.”

“Well, we’re not exactly kids anymore,” Grace said, and then instantly regretted it as Mrs. Silva’s face fell slightly. God, Grace reprimanded herself silently. Why can’t you just fake your way through a conversation?

To Mrs. Silva’s credit, she recovered quickly. She put on a warm smile. “As a mother, I’ll always see Rory’s friends as the little kids who used to dig up my flowers.”

Grace smiled despite herself, then Mrs. Silva released her. Grace knew she needed to find somewhere to sit down soon, she could already feel herself getting weak. She sat down in the first chair she could find, directly across from Rory… and the boy who had been staring at her, who was now just eyeing her occasionally. It unsettled her, and she wrapped her sweater tighter around herself. She decided to stare back at him, to try and assert dominance, and he raised both of his eyebrows like he was amused. She didn’t dare break his gaze for fear of losing.

A few minutes and a couple people later, Mrs. Silva finally sat in the chair that she had been standing by. Grace tore her gaze away from the boy to face her, but she could still feel his eyes on her.

“Hi, everyone.” she started. “Thanks for coming today. My name is Brenda Silva, but you all can just call me Brenda.”

Like hell I will, Grace thought to herself. I’ve never called you anything other than Mrs. Silva, and I’m not going to stop now.

“I want to go around the circle and have everyone introduce themselves to start. Name, age, and diagnosis if you feel comfortable sharing that. I’ll start: as I said my name is Brenda, I’m forty six years old, and I have breast cancer, but I’ve been in remission for two years.”

She gestured to Rory to continue.

“Oh, um, hi, I’m Rory,” they said, smiling in their characteristic goofy way. “I’m seventeen, and, uh, I don’t have cancer but I’m here to support my mom.” They gestured to Mrs. Silva as deferentially as if she were royalty, making some in the circle let out a small laugh.

The next person to go was a small, bored-looking but rather pretty redhead. “My name’s Skye, I’m sixteen, and I had leukemia as a kid but I’ve been in remission for four years now,” she said, smiling slightly at the last few words. Grace was happy for her too- four years was almost a guarantee of total remission- but a pang of jealousy swiped through her as well. She tried to suppress it.

“Congratulations, Skye,” Mrs. Silva said warmly. “Here’s hoping for five.”

Skye’s eyes widened, but she accepted the comment and ducked her head. Once the attention was off her and onto the next person, she slouched down in her chair. It was clear that she didn’t want to be noticed or singled out. Grace tended to agree with her. There was a time where Grace lived for the spotlight, but that time had passed.

She started thinking about texting James to make him come pick her up after all, but before she could surreptitiously dig her phone out of her back pocket, it was her turn to introduce herself.

“Hi, I’m Grace,” she started softly. “I’m sixteen too. My original diagnosis was thyroid, but it spread to my lungs.”

The others in the circle nodded, and the attention passed mercifully to the next person. Without meaning to, Grace found her eyes on the boy with the glasses again. He was looking at her with interest, almost as if he was trying to analyze her.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been staring when he looked away towards Mrs. Silva. Grace looked down at her lap.

Get a grip, she told herself.

“I’m Ajay,” he said, introducing himself with a rather authoritative voice. “I’m seventeen, and I had osteosarcoma.”

“Had?” Grace asked before she could stop herself. Everyone turned towards her, and she turned red. Ajay’s eyes fixed on hers.

“Yes, had. I went into remission last summer after my lower leg was amputated.” He pulled up the hem of his jeans to show a clearly artificial ankle joint. Grace bit her lip and looked away, embarrassed.

From what she knew about it, osteosarcoma was rarely terminal, but it usually took an amputation to check you out of the hospital. She felt bad for having judged him just because he looked healthy, and she knew exactly how frail she must look with her cannula and her face puffy from the miracle drug. In contrast, he stood tall and bore no signs of the illness that had taken his leg, save for the prosthetic. His hair looked smooth, not a single hair out of place unlike her messy hairdo, and she found herself starting to wish that she had at least tried to put the wig on.

Stop thinking about him, she told herself, and she turned to watch Mrs. Silva as she started a conversation about something or other. Grace effectively zoned out, an action she’d mastered during the long lonely hours of recovery in the hospital or through the chemotherapy treatments. It was second nature by now.

By the time Ajay spoke up again, Grace didn’t know how much time had passed, but his voice startled her into consciousness.

“I just don’t see the point of optimism,” he was saying, “if we’re all going to die anyway.”

“Ajay,” Mrs. Silva said quietly, in a warning tone.

Grace’s blood started to boil, and she knew she was overreacting, but she couldn’t stop it. He wasn’t going to die. His cancer was in remission, he’d been given that chance at life that Grace hadn’t been. Who was he to think he could own cynicism?

“That’s easy for you to say,” Grace retorted, and she watched as his gaze met hers, his eyebrows lifted up again in that amused way, which just made Grace more mad.

“What’s easy for me to say?” he asked, a slight smirk at the edge of his lips. Grace narrowed her eyes.

“That we’re all going to die anyway. I’m dying every day, and you got another chance at life.” As she said the words, she became aware that she was unintentionally repeating her brother’s point from earlier, in the car.

He cocked his head to the side, looking like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. He simply watched Grace, like she was an interesting TV show. She bit off her next words with all the malice she possessed.

“Don’t tell me what it’s like to die, since you get to live.”

“Grace--” Mrs. Silva tried to cut her off, but she was already done. She stared back down at her lap, twisting her hands together, avoiding Mrs. Silva’s eyes. There was no way she could ride home with them now. Not now that she’d said something really impulsive in front of Mrs. Silva’s whole support group. She was already regretting her words.

Mrs. Silva changed the topic and started to wrap up the meeting, and through it all, though Grace looked down, she could still sense Ajay’s eyes on her. As soon as the group finished the meeting, Grace was out of her seat like a shot, pulling her canister after her as fast as she could go until she was finally out of the building.

Up against the wall, she panted until she regained her breath. As Rory and Mrs. Silva walked over to where their car was parked, and the others either drove or caught rides themselves, Grace remembered that she had no ride. She cursed audibly, and at that exact moment Ajay appeared just outside the doors of Berry High, a cane held in his left hand. An amused smile played on his lips.

“Need a ride?” he offered, clearly enjoying the way her eyes flashed at his words.

“I’m fine,” she said curtly, pulling her phone out of her pocket to text James. Before she could unlock the phone, though, he spoke again.

“You were right, you know. I shouldn’t be telling you how to live.”

Grace looked up.

“I shouldn’t be telling you how to live, either,” she argued back. “I barely know you.”

“Do you think we can fix that?” he asked, an eyebrow raised in what now seemed to be a curious gaze, rather than a condescending one.

Grace met his eyes for a few moments, then nodded slowly.

“I do need a ride,” she said. “I was supposed to ride home with Rory and get dinner at their house, but, well…” She gestured to the Silva’s car, already pulling out onto the main road.

“Oh, okay,” Ajay said, clearly not having expected that. “How long have you known Rory?”

“I’ve lived next door to them my whole life,” Grace said, biting her lip.

“Really? I’ve never heard them talk about you.”

Ouch, Grace thought. That was a hard blow, to know her childhood best friend never thought about her anymore, but she supposed it was fair. This meeting had been the first time she’d seen them in a few months, and that visit was hardly more than a half hour long.

“Oh,” she said, and Ajay turned to her as he seemed to realize he’d said something wrong. He opened his mouth, presumably to apologize, but Grace shook her head and he backed down.

“I am pretty hungry,” Grace said, staring off into the distance towards the Golden Griddle. Even when she was feeling her best, she could still be swept away by the waves of guilt over that. They had given up their dream, their pride and joy, just for her.

She would never be able to forgive herself for that.

“Let’s go get lunch, then. On me.”

Startled out of her self-imposed guilt trip, Grace simply stared at Ajay.

“I barely know you,” she managed, repeating herself from earlier.

“I thought we were fixing that?” he asked, both eyebrows raised.

He thinks I’m quirky, Grace realized. That was fair enough.

“Sure, alright.”

Ajay shook his head.

“You’re a very… interesting person, Grace.”

Grace didn’t have a response to that, so when Ajay turned to walk towards his car, she followed him silently.

His car was the fanciest car she’d ever seen, and she couldn’t even figure out how much it must’ve cost. It was a sports car, but he clearly wasn’t really thrilled with it. In fact, once they got into the car, he turned to her before starting the engine.

“I’m not an asshole,” he said, causing her to laugh. “I know how it looks. But there’s a reason why I have this car. And it’s not because I’m a rich snobby asshole.”

“Oh? And what’s the reason?” Grace said through a big smile.

Ajay started the engine, which practically purred to life, and he wrinkled his nose at the sound.

“I can’t share all of my secrets,” he said simply, and backed out of the parking space.

Grace wanted to know more, but she dropped the subject. She actually kind of liked the mystery. One day, she’d be able to get that story out of him.

Wait, she thought. One day? You can’t think like that. Who knows what one day will be?

She shook her head, trying her best to enjoy the moment. The reminder of her circumstances creeped in around the edges, making everything foggy.

“Where to?” Ajay asked, and the fog thinned.

#im going to regret this #no introduction we die like men #i cannot for the life of me remember who's on my tag list anymore #im just tagging people who might read this #like: here:#*offers steaming pile of garbage*#if you don't like it blame taylor she told me to post it #if you've read this far congratulations: it's kind of a tfios au #but don't assume things about the plot #i still have a few tricks up my sleeve #reblog if you get the shakespeare reference in the title #Ajay Bhandari #ajay x mc #hssca #high school story fanfic #High School Story #high school story class act #choices #playchoices #choices fanfic #choices fanfiction #gloria writes #(writes steaming piles of garbage)#chapter 2 to follow cuz i already wrote that but when will chapter 3 be out?#nobody knows #not even me #not even my... finals goddamn test schedule knows #*sigh*#alright kids bye now #my fanfic

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lirlovesfic · 6 years ago

Text

The Choice

A Doctor Who fanfic

Summary: After GitF, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey back to the estate to solve a problem involving the TARDIS herself. But when they see a familiar face, the face of someone who should not exist, they realize the problem is deeper than they thought and could endanger the Doctor’s very existence. Primary characters: Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler. Genres: Romance, mystery, adventure, drama, character study, HN AU, fobbed!Nine, sick TARDIS. Pairings: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose Rating: Adult

Warning: none for this chaper

a/n: I am currently working on editing this chapter-by-chapter, with the hopes of completing a chapter a day until I catch up with myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing it to try to get back into the swing of writing and to build some momentum in order to finish this. Also, there have been some tiny things nagging at me for a while (grammar, punctuation, etc.) so I’ll be correcting as many of them as I can find as I go. The story will not change. In fact, most of the changes are going to be so minor that I doubt anyone (besides myself) will notice. But to keep myself on target, I’ll be posting it all here as I go, with links to the other websites it’s on. I hope you enjoy it.

Catch up: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

This chapter: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

Chapter Seventeen—The Titanic dock, Southampton, 10 April 1912

As Mickey stared at the Doctor, his jaw dropped.

And then he burst out laughing.

"That… that was you?" he asked, barely able to compose himself long enough to get the words out. "That… longhaired toff in the velvet was you? Seriously?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad you find this so amusing," he said dryly.

"Oh, I do. Believe me, I do." He patted the pockets of his jacket. "Where's my phone? Where's my phone?" he said, more to himself than to the Doctor. "I have got to get a picture. Rose is never gonna believe this."

"Stop it," the Doctor said crossly.

"Oh, no, this is way too good," Mickey told him, still snickering. "You are never gonna live this down. Long hair and velvet? I am never gonna let this go."

"I thought I looked rather handsome at the time," the Doctor said.

Mickey made a rude noise as he stuck his hands in his trouser pockets, still searching for his mobile. "You thought wrong," he said. "You looked like a refugee from a Jane Austin novel. Or maybe an escapee from a mental hospital." He paused as he did a final search of his pockets. "Damn. I musta forgot my mobile in the TARDIS. I really, really wanted to get a picture." He sighed. "Just as well. Don't want to remind Rose…"

"Of what?" the Doctor asked, puzzled.

"Of how many women came before her," Mickey said pointedly. "How she's just the latest in a long line. And how much you have a thing for blondes."

"I do not have 'a thing' for blondes," the Doctor said, irritation creeping into his voice.

"Sure seems like it," Mickey countered, intentionally goading him. "Rose, Reinette, that girl…"

"Charley," the Doctor interjected.

"Yeah, Charley," Mickey said. "But then Sarah Jane was a brunette, so maybe it's not just blondes."

"Drop it," the Doctor said coldly.

"Yeah, I'll drop it… if you tell me one thing," Mickey said. "That girl, Charley, you two seemed awfully cozy there when you came out of the TARDIS. You care about her like you do Rose?"

"Of course I cared about Charley," the Doctor said. "But not…" His voice trailed off as he looked down the street in the direction his younger self and his companion had gone.

For a moment they were both silent. In the distance were the sounds of the sea, the ship, and the people that were gathering to board her.

Finally the Doctor took a deep breath. "Well, there's no point in just standing here," he said crisply, as if the previous conversation hadn't even taken place. "Let's get going."

He strode off down the narrow street. Mickey had to jog to catch up.

"So what's the plan?" he asked.

"Same as before," the Doctor said, suddenly coming to a stop. In front of them, the street was filled with people headed towards the dock. He watched them for a moment thoughtfully. "We need to figure out what my last self was doing and what could have made both him and the TARDIS sick while trying not to be spotted by both him and my other self. The one you just saw."

"Have you remembered which way you went the first time you were here?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No," he admitted.

"Makes it a bit harder to avoid them both."

"Yep."

Mickey frowned. "I just remembered something. You never told me what you were doing here the first time."

The Doctor nodded in the direction of the ship. "Charley lost some relatives on the Titanic. A distant cousin of her mother, her husband, and their children, a boy and a girl. Charlie and I were here trying to figure out if there was any way we could save them."

"I thought you said the Titanic sinking was a fixed point."

"It was. Is. And the deaths of a number of the people onboard as well. But it wasn't a fixed point for everyone, including her family. While we were here, we tried to convince people to postpone their trip. We even managed to persuade a few not to board her, but not many."

"Knowing you, I'm guessing that most people just thought you were a nutter."

The Doctor laughed ruefully. "Something like that."

"So, what happened to her family?"

"Charley and I won't find them until late afternoon tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? But the ship leaves…"

"Today at noon."

"So they never got on the ship after all?" Mickey asked.

"No, they did," the Doctor told him.

"But if they were onboard, and you found them…"

"Yep. We were onboard as well."

Mickey stared at him in disbelief. "You were on the Titanic?"

"Yep."

"Wow," he said. And then, "Wait a minute. I'm assuming you didn't have tickets. How'd you get on?"

"Psychic paper. Gets me in everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. There was that one place on Mangelonium, officious people, the Mangeloniums. Sticklers for rules and extremely efficient—but absolutely no imagination, and even less sense of humor—had us arrested, tried, and incarcerated in less than five minutes. They make an excellent crumb cake, though, almost made getting imprisoned worth it—"

Mickey interrupted him. "So were you able to save them? Charley's family?"

"No," the Doctor answered, switching back to the topic at hand with ease. "And believe me, we tried. They were from a poor branch of the family, and they wanted to go to America because they'd heard a rumor you could make a fortune in New York overnight. Wasn't true, but it was a common belief at the time. Anyway, they were in third class. Steerage. After the crash, we were on the way up to the boat deck when one of the children got separated from us. By the time we found him, the lifeboats were already gone. I lost track of them all once we were in the water…"

As one, they joined the throng of people headed for the ship. As they walked, they both continued to scan the crowd for either of the Doctor's previous selves.

"Anyway," he continued, stretching out the word. "I eventually got picked up by a rescue boat. That's when I found out Charley had managed to make her way to one of the lifeboats and had been rescued as well. But not her family."

"Wow," Mickey said, saddened for people he'd never met, nor even heard of five minutes earlier. He paused for a moment thoughtfully. "I always wondered…the crash, was it anything like it was in the movie?"

"Yes, actually it was. Although Hollywood took a lot of liberties with the story, it was a lot closer to reality than you'd think," the Doctor answered.

"How'd you manage to survive?" Mickey asked.

"Time Lord," the Doctor said. "Respiratory bypass, so I was able to hold my breath longer than a human. Cooler core temperature as well, so the icy water wasn't as much a shock to my system. Still cold though. Ended up hanging onto an iceberg. Never been so cold in my life. It was even colder than the time I'd been buried in an avalanche in the Himalayas."

Mickey stared at him. As often happened with the Doctor, he was totally lost at the turn in the conversation, and he wondered what he should ask about first. "What the hell's a respiratory bypass?" he asked finally. When the Doctor opened his mouth to explain, he immediately regretted it. He held up a hand. "Never mind. I'm not sure I want to know. In fact, I'm sure I don't want to know."

They both scanned the crowd, looking for either of the other Doctors or Charley. None were in sight. "So which way?"

"I have no idea," the Doctor said. "Since I don't know what I was doing here, I don't know where to even start looking."

"I had a thought about that," Mickey said. "If that other you and Charley were here to try and save her family's lives, maybe you were here to try and give it another go."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that would be?" The Doctor's voice rose almost an octave as he spoke. "It was risky coming here the first time! There's no way I'd—" His voice broke off. He stared off into space, frowning. "Would I?" The frown was rapidly replaced by an irritated grimace. He let out a growl of exasperation and rubbed his temple vigorously. "Of course I would. Particularly that me! Of all the stupid, idiotic…" He took a deep, calming breath and let it out with a whoosh. It seemed to help, as he continued in a calmer tone. "But if you're right and that's why he's here, that should make it easier to find him. He'll remember where Charley and I had searched, so he'll know where they aren't."

They weaved their way through the masses of people and slowly made their way down to the dock. While they walked, the Doctor began a running commentary as he pointed out the sights: the White Star Line terminal and the gangway that led from the building to one of the upper decks; the lower gangplanks that were the second and third class entrances; the crane that was loading cargo onto the ship; the reporters, photographers, even a film crew, that were capturing the historic moment of the Titanic's maiden voyage.

Mickey barely paid attention to him as he took in just how enormous the ship was. It was probably three times the length of a football pitch, and the huge gold and black smokestacks he'd spotted earlier towered above the rest of the ship, stretching high into the sky. It gave him a crick in his neck, looking up so high. He rubbed it as he returned to scanning the crowd.

"They arrived by train, as did most of the other passengers," the Doctor continued. Mickey knew he'd returned to talking about Charley's family. "And the train's still here. So they have to be here somewhere. Unfortunately, the third class passengers are scheduled to get on first."

"'S like tryin' to find someone at a footie match," Mickey said. If he had thought there had been people from all walks of life in Dallas, that was nothing compared to here. He spotted people in finery: the men in top hats and tails, the women in silk gowns trimmed in lace and wearing elaborate hats. They were followed by others whose their clothes indicated they were maids or valets. Obviously first class accompanied by their servants. There were people similarly dressed to the people they had seen before: in garments made of rough wool, carrying rucksacks, the men in caps, the women with scarves, simple hats, or nothing at all on their heads. Third class, he now knew. And then there were the people who were dressed somewhat in between, not in silk and not in rough wool, the men in ordinary suits and bowlers, the women in dresses and hats far simpler than those from first class, but far nicer than those in third. Second class.

It was amazing how much he could tell about the people here from the way they were dressed.

After several more moments searching the crowd, he shook his head. "This is going to be impossible."

"People are queueing up, but they don't seem to be letting the passengers onboard yet," the Doctor said. He craned his neck, looking further down the dock. "You're right. It's too crowded. We'll have to split up."

"But I don't know what they look like," Mickey protested.

"But you know what I look like," the Doctor reminded him. "Don't forget, although he may be looking for Charley's family, it's me you're looking for, not them." He frowned thoughtfully. "All right, if they haven't boarded yet, the likeliest place they'd be right now is in the inspection queue."

"Inspection queue? Is that like checking passports or something?" Mickey asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "No. The third class passengers would be inspected for lice before they were allowed to board the ship."

Mickey pulled a face. "Lice?"

"Well, primarily lice, but there were a whole host of other things they'd look for. Fleas, signs of illness… Technically, they were supposed to search everyone, but in actuality they only searched third class," he said. "The first time I was here I had forgotten about the inspection queue. By the time I remembered and we searched the queue, they had already been through it and were on board."

The Doctor gestured back the way they came. "You head that way, and after I look around here, I'll head in the other direction. If you find him, watch to see what he does. Without letting him see you. If you don't find him, meet me back at the TARDIS at one o'clock. By that time the ship should have set sail and he should be gone."

"Right," Mickey said.

After he left, the Doctor walked through the crowd, scanning the area around him for a glimpse of closely cropped hair or a leather jacket. It was odd, looking for himself this way. He knew he'd recognize himself head on—after all he'd shaved that particular face for more than a year—but he'd never seen himself from the back. But most of the men around him were several inches shorter than he was, and almost all wore hats of one type or another. Spotting a tall man, bareheaded and wearing a leather jacket, should be a piece of cake.

The honk of a horn startled him. A Rolls-Royce had pulled directly onto the dock. He backed out of the way as it parked. A chauffeur got out from behind the wheel.

"Doctor, where are you?" a female voice called behind him.

He automatically spun towards the voice… and bumped into Charley. His eyes widened. Not good. If she was here, no doubt his younger self was close behind. However, instead of a strategic retreat, he remained where he was.

He couldn't prevent a broad grin spreading across his face.

"Sorry," they said in unison and then laughed.

"No, I'm sorry," she said, raising her voice to be heard over the crowd. "I was looking for my friend and wasn't watching where I was going. He's around here somewhere…" She looked around herself for a second before turning back to him. "I'm Charley, by the way. Charley Pollard."

"John," the Doctor replied.

"Pleasure to meet you, John," she said. "So, do you have tickets, or are you just here for the chaos?"

He chuckled. "Just the chaos," he said. "I'm a reporter with the London Times, covering the Titanic's maiden voyage. How about you?"

"Oh, we're here to see some friends off," she said, looking around as she answered. "But we're having a difficult time finding them. It's a bit of a madhouse right now."

"That's the understatement of the year," he said.

"Not really," she said cryptically.

Before he could respond, a familiar voice called for her from somewhere deep within the crowd.

"Charley? Charley, where are you?"

"Over here!" Charley yelled back.

"Looks like you found your friend," the Doctor said.

"And thank God for that," she said expressively. "It's hard to keep track of him. He does have a tendency to wander off. He gets into more trouble that way."

The Doctor tried to hide an amused snort.

"Charley?" the younger Doctor called again.

"Sorry," she apologized before turning towards the sound of her name. She waved her arm high in the air. "Over here! I'm over here!"

The younger Doctor broke through the crowd. "Charley, where did you go?" he asked. "I turned around and you weren't there."

"I didn't go anywhere," she told him. "I've been here the whole time."

"Did you find them?"

"Not yet," she said. "Doctor, I'd like you to meet… where did he go?"

"The man you were talking to? He headed off in that direction."

"Huh, I wonder why he left so quickly," Charley said.

"Who was he? He looked kind of odd," the younger Doctor said.

"In what way? I didn't notice anything."

"From what I could see he was dressed a little strangely for the period."

She burst out laughing. "You should talk!"

"What do you mean?" he asked, affronted. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Nothing… except that it's fifty years out of date!"

As the Doctor watched from his position behind the car, his younger self and Charley moved out of earshot. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he tried to get in control of his emotions.

He had cared deeply for Charley. Seeing her from a distance had been hard enough, but talking to her, hearing her voice...

But while he lost sight of them in the crowd, it wasn't Charley that he was thinking about. It wasn't Charley he was missing.

It was Rose.

Whatever he had felt for Charley so many years ago, no matter how you wanted to label it, it was a completely different emotion than what he felt for Rose, and seeing his younger self with Charley had just served to emphasize that. And how currently Rose's hand wasn't in his.

Her absence cut like a knife. He missed her so much. It had only been a day since he had last seen her, and he missed her so, so much. The fact that she wasn't with him just felt… wrong. Like a part of himself was missing.

And it was his own fault. He was the one who had left her behind after all. For a very good reason, he reminded himself. And if the TARDIS stopped working entirely, she was better off where she was, on the Estate with her mother rather than stuck in 1912.

But even though leaving her on the Estate had been for a very good reason and was probably for the best, it still meant she wasn't with him holding his hand.

A small, insecure part of himself wondered if she ever would again, even if they did get back. As Mickey had reminded him repeatedly, with the business on the spaceship, the business with Reinette, he had hurt her. Badly. By his thoughtlessness and by his actions, he had hurt the woman he��

Damn it, why couldn't he say it? Why couldn't he tell her how he felt? Why couldn't he even say it to himself?

For God's sake, even a Dalek had been able to articulate it. Why couldn't he?

He sighed in resignation, and with his hands plunged in his pockets, he walked down the dock, searching for himself. And for anything that could have made either himself or the TARDIS sick.

#the choice #nine x rose #ten x rose #ficandchips #fobbed!Nine #revised chap #took a while #but here it is

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aethel · 7 years ago

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last bandom rec post of 2017

Fic and podfic that I haven’t recced here before, for various Bandom pairings, mainly MCR and FOB. Happy ending unless otherwise specified. In chronological order of original posting date:

Wednesday-verse by arsenicjade. First story is PATD, second is MCR. Apparently this series was all the rage in early bandslash fandom; I'm slightly late to the party, but no less enthusiastic! The first story is hookerfic, but mostly about the relationships between the hookers, not about relationships between hookers and johns. And MCR run a free clinic because they want to save everybody, obviously. Podfic of the MCR story by knight_tracer. (2007; podfic 2012)

Podfic by inkjunket of Sing Ourselves to Sleep by Dira Sudis. Gerard and Patrick have a special moment during Warped Tour. The podfic was the first MCR podfic posted to the Audiofic Archive! (fic June 2007; podfic October 2007) How Life Can Be by sevenfists. Pete/Patrick tourfic. (August 2007)

The Way It Works by anew_leaf (bayleaf). Gerard swears off sex with men; Frank convinces him to change his mind. (August 2007)

Podfic by inkjunket of The Sky-High City by sevenfists. Post-band story written pre Danger Days. Frank is depressed and goes to stay with Gerard in California. The story is so jossed at this point that it's barely recognizable, but it's still cute. (fic August 2007; podfic March 2009)

An Inexplicable Occurrence of Angels by stele3. AU in which Frank is a fallen angel who turns up after MCR loses its record contract and Gerard is still living in his parents' basement. (December 2007)

By the Numbers by shoemaster. AU in which Gerard is a fine artist and Frank is his accountant. Very cute, and RsCreighton podficced it for me! (fic December 2007; podfic December 2016) Sweet Caffeine (and Love of Liberace) by bayleaf. Brian makes them do it. Stagegay meta fic. (January 2008)

Nightswimming by Waxjism, the incredibly long and incredibly worth listening to podfic by greedy_dancer, who apparently spent 5 years working on this. I could listen to greedy_dancer's voice all day. The story is a small town AU with Gerard suffering from depression and Frank falling in love with him while dealing with changes at home. Happy ending! (fic February 2008; podfic completed May 2016)

Love: The Package Deal by jjtaylor. amnesia and polyamory and pining and feelings all over the place. Not sure why I delayed reading this so long, since I love everything else by jjtaylor. (BBB 2008) frank/gerard college au not!fic by mxtape (September 2008) Ghost Frank series by jjtaylor. So I checked back to see if I had neglected to read anything else by jjtaylor and Holy Shit I had. I must have passed over this before because Frank starts out as, well, a ghost, and I am not a fan of character death. I did cry, but it has a happy ending. Possibly a little too saccharine, but I needed an antidote. The haunted house and creepy supernatural mystery elements were genuinely frightening to me reading in bed after midnight in my dark apartment.... (December 2008-January 2013)

[a marriage of convenience] by jae_w. Jon Walker/Tom somebody. I don't know who Tom is, and it doesn't matter. AU! (January 2009)

Asimov, the Deleted Scenes, plus sequel, by stele3. Lindsey meets inventor!Gerard and all his little robot friends. (March 2009)

Only Going One Way by ataratah and jjtaylor. A delightful Due South crossover/fusion! Gerard is a mountie, Frank is a Chicago cop, Mikey is missing. (June 2010)

Podfic by klb of The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith. 13 hours long high school/ghost AU with lots of plot and a happy ending, but ghost AU means one of the characters is still deadish, so. I cried. (fic June 2010; podfic January 2013)

Heads Up, Hearts Down by inlovewithnight. Pete/Mikey soulbond high school AU (July 2010)

Podfic by argentumlupine of Can Never Wrong This Right by theopteryx. historical academic Indiana Jones-ish AU with temporary bonding and lots of pining. Frank is Gerard's TA. (fic July 2010, podfic January 2013) Making Other Plans by skoosiepants. Mike Carden/Kevin Jonas AU (December 2010)

Away With The Boys In The Band by inlovewithnight. Very amazing and long history of the band with always-a-girl Mikey. I didn't know what the end game ship was going to be, although I really should have, but I read it for the girl!Mikey and mental health stuff so I didn't care. The Gerard & Mikey sibling relationship is also interesting. (June 2011)

podfic by fire_juggler of Pages In Your Passport by inlovewithnight. AU: Pete is a professional soccer player; Mikey is still in MCR. If anything, it ended too soon. (fic August 2011; podfic July 2012)

podfic by argentumlupine of Half of Something Else by fleurdeliser and tuesdaysgone. Frank/Gerard/Grant. AU where MCR didn't happen, Frank is Grant's assistant, and Gerard is a comic book artist. (fic August 2011; podfic September 2016)

The One Where Bob and Patrick Live Together by Bexless, anonymous Bob/Patrick podfic (fic 2011; podfic December 2017)

Hold Your Heart into This Darkness by tuesdaysgone, podfic trilogy by argentumlupine. Gerard/Korse, Frank/Gerard. Amazing Killjoys verse story with happy ending. I was nervous initially about the power dynamics of the Gerard/Korse pairing in the first part, but it worked so well I kinda shipped it, uh, which should not have been the takeaway from how that relationship played out. (fic 2011/2012; podfic 2014) Other People Were Too Sentimental by skoosiepants. Mike Carden/Kevin Jonas high school AU (February 2012)

Podfic by Rhea314 of Fog, Sheets and Thunder by Theopteryx. Post-apocalyptic postal service AU, with sound effects! Set underground in a nuclear winter, but it ends on a positive note. (fic March 2012; podfic August 2013)

Pete Wentz: Failiest Ally by girlpearl and melusina. Pete/Gabe, but mostly about Pete being in denial to a ridiculous degree. (April 2012)

Podfic by jenepod of We Used To Be Friends by ladyfoxxx. AU where Gerard never started MCR, Frank became a teacher, and Mikey joined The Used. Frank and Mikey were best friends in high school, but then Frank doesn't hear from Mikey for a long time, and it's even longer before he finds out why. I actually found the premise so upsetting (i.e. realistic) it was difficult to listen to, even though the podfic is well done and the story has a happy ending. (fic July 2012; podfic July 2013)

Septicemia by innocent_wolves. A little different from my usual recs, and darker, but it still has a happy ending. No Band AU. Frank is suicidal, and both Frank and Gerard have maladaptive super powers. (finished June 2013)

undeserving of your sympathy by akamine_chan, podfic by argentumlupine. Short superhero AU. (August 2013)

The Heart You Need by flyby. How the Killjoys became the Killjoys....if the Killjoys were telepathic space pirates. Very long, and a bit slow in the beginning, but with a summary like that, obviously I had to read it. (August 2013)

and me here on the ground, podfic by Ande of the fic by ohnoktcsk. Frank/Gerard magic AU. (fic September 2013; podfic September 2016)

Two ways Pete and Gabe get married by lalejandra, podfic by reena_jenkins. notfic. (podfic October 2015)

Love Will Tear Us Apart by melusina. Pete and Patrick don't notice until FOB goes on hiatus that they're soulbonded. (September 2016)

All Shook Up by Jiksa. Pete/Patrick Las Vegas wedding chapel AU. (April 2017) Because Werewolves or Something: A Frank/Dewees Podbook Compilation by dapatty. "Fracta Modi" is my favorite, but they're all good. (October 2017) Epicuros by ??? for me for the Bandom Holidays gift exchange! Lindsey is an android artist on Mars! (December 2017) Twisting Fate anonymous Frank/Gerard soulmate podfic (December 2017)

#mcr recs #fob recs #bandom recs #podfic recs #podfic #bandom #recs #fob #fic recs #mcr #i'm sure there's more good stuff lurking on my ereader #but it's time for dinner

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solitudeatitsfinestxo · 7 years ago

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Endometriosis?!?!?!

As many of you are aware I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis on Thursday. I said after about a year or two but in reality I’ve been battling this since 2014. In a nutshell, Endometriosis is where tissue grows on the womb, and other places including the ovaries, fallopian tubes, inside the tummy, and in or around the bladder or bowel. My aim of this post is to raise awareness and educate people on endometriosis as I think it is such a bleak subject. This thing on a whole is still very raw for me and I’m only touching the base of my story as I am very emotional about it all.

In 2014 I started noticing significant difference in my periods. They were becoming less and less but more painful. My normal menstrual cycle would be around the same time every month on the dot, for about 4 days and I very rarely suffered from pain at all. From 2013- 2015 I had the most stressful period of my life, this is where lost my dad and my mental health state went to pot. I eventually managed to get myself to go to the doctors in 2016 where by this point I had a mega long list of symptoms that didn’t make sense.

As I stated before my first noticeable change was my periods:

My periods had become less and less but more painful. They would only last a day or two, I’d have one very heavy day usually the first but then after the second day it would just be spotting but the pain would linger for the length of normal period ranging from 4-7 days. I began noticing very strange things happening such as bleeding upon wiping after going for a wee when I wasn’t on my period, or after a no.2, I had streaks of blood in both. My bowels have always been temperamental, which is why it was harder to diagnose. Often I’d wake up in the middle of the night in a pool of blood (no exaggeration) and eventually ended up sleeping with a towel in bed my so I didn’t ruin any more sheets. I honestly must’ve ruined about 10 bed sheets. You’re probably wondering why I didn’t use a tampon or sanitary towel: the answer to that is because I didn’t know when I would bleed or not.

Throughout the day I would pass blood clots, again without being on my period, my underwear would constantly be blood stained, as if I was spotting.

I’d have a constant dull ache sometimes sharp in the lower region of my stomach, with occasional lower back pain which worsened in the week before my period, the week of my “period” and the week after, so essentially I would have one week free of pain. I ended up living of co-codamol, which probably isn’t advised but my GP refuses to give me anything stronger, especially as I have a sluggish bowel.

I am constantly bloated, which makes me incredibly self-conscious, body image and body positivity had disappeared I don’t feel attractive. Which I won’t lie I am finding incredibly difficult at the moment. I just don’t want to make effort with my appearance, I can’t stand the way my stomach look, my face is constantly puffy and I look exhausted 24/7. If I could wear a balaclava ALL the time I actually would. I know looks aren’t everything but it’s making me miserable.

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX BABY. Haha no jokes here though. I experience pain during sex a lot of the time to the point where sex doesn’t even appeal to me anymore because I’m petrified of the pain during and after sex, I also bleed a lot after sex, it’s rather messy. (sorry to be grim) It puts a massive strain on the intimacy levels, because ive found that my partners always think they’re hurting me. Which isn’t the case.

My GP in 2016 diagnosed me with stress, and put me on the pill to help regulate my periods. Which I wasn’t 100% for because I knew something else was going on. I stayed on the pill for around two months and decided I still wasn’t happy. Nothing had changed either.

Two months later I returned and said I still wasn’t happy. She sent me for an external and internal ultrasound. My ovaries and other parts of my reproductive system all came back normal, a relief in one sense but still a pain because I still knew something wasn’t right.

I was made to feel like I was over exaggerating.

I knew something was majorly wrong with my body, as I used to have normal periods, I never had all of these problems when I was younger, so why now?

After being fobbed off so many times I decided to leave it, as they were obviously right.

In 2017 a lot of things started to get worse, I was having time off work because of the pain, I was bleeding irregularly more often, and I was miserable, I was stressed out and I thought there was something malicious going on.

I went back to my GP, ended up seeing a male doctor this time, and demanded that he sent me to a Gynaecologist. I showed him my symptoms and for once someone didn’t argue with me.

A month later I had my first appointment with my consultant, who listened to my concerns and explained to me that she thought I had endometriosis. DIDN’T HAVE A CLUE WHAT THAT WAS. After our chat my consultant tried to examine me, she didn’t get very far, I was in so much pain, and was bleeding on examination she decided to leave me be.

I was booked in for my Laparoscopy on 21st September 2017.

On the day of my laparoscopy I was mega nervous, I hadn’t slept a wink and I just wanted it over and done with. I got there about 11am and was sent down to theatre at 1pm. I didn’t return to the ward until 14:45 as I spent a lot of time in recovery (Didn’t come round well apparently)

When I was finally awake properly I was in agony, my body was so weak I couldn’t speak, all I could do was cry, I was in the worst pain imaginable they gave me some morphine when I was in recovery, and I had some codeine when I was on the ward. When it all had kicked in, I was high as a kite, my consultant came round to see me and explained that things had gone well but like we had expected I do have endometriosis, it was found on my womb and was burnt away as much as she could possibly could. I was initially shocked, tearful, but at peace because I finally had answers. When I was under general anaesthetic I had a hormonal coil inserted which will hopefully help with the pain, fingers crossed it does or that’s a waste of time.

My main concern with all of this is that I wouldn’t be able to have children, I still don’t know whether I can but I do know that if I get any growths on my ovaries then it will make it a lot harder for me to conceive, then I have the battle with my lungs, I’m hoping that they stay on my side and keep me healthy enough so that if I am ever lucky enough to conceive I am also healthy enough to carry a child. Right now it feels like my body hates me, I know that my health can be a lot of worse and I’m not complaining but I just feel like a ticking bomb. Ticking away and I don’t know which ones gonna blow first, my Endometriosis or my Cystic Fibrosis.

My recovery seems to be going okay, I’m able to walk around a lot more, I can’t bend as much as Id like, the pain is unbearable of a night time, and I’m sleeping most of my days as I’m so tired. So if i don’t reply to you all for a while I’m not being rude I’m literally exhausted.

but on a more positive note Thank you all for your lovely get well soon messages and feel free to message if you have any personal questions, I will always try and help you as much as I can x

Love Amy x

#endometriosis #endofighter #periods #chronically ill #chronicillness #cystic fibrosis

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bookgirlfan · 8 years ago

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Breaking my Tumblr hiatus to post Riverdale sickfic, because apparently inspiration strikes where it will and has no respect for real life. I wish this was a sign I’ll be back on Tumblr soon, but no, I actually just get busier from here. Maybe in another month!

For @toosicktoocare. This is all your fault.

The first Fred Andrews knew of it was when he picked up the phone to hear his son's panicked voice coming through the other end. "Dad, Dad, it's Jughead, he's really sick and he's not waking up!"

Fred shook his head to clear it, words not processing directly. "Archie, what? Where are you?"

"At Jughead's! He didn't come to school so I texted, but he didn't answer, so I came here to check on him. He won't wake up, Dad!" Archie's voice was rising higher and higher, panic for his friend obviously getting the better of him.

"Stay right there!" Fred ordered, grabbing his car keys, already halfway out the door. "Just stay there, Archie, I'm coming."

If he broke a few speed limits on his way across town, he couldn't bring himself to care right now. His boys needed him, and he'd worry about the tickets later.

Finally, he pulled up outside the Jones' trailer, slamming the truck door open almost before he even turned off the engine. "Archie?" he shouted, taking the steps two at a time in his hurry. "Archie?" The door was unlocked, and inside the house smelt like beer and old sweat. Any other time, it might have made him falter, but now he could see his son across the room, sitting at Jughead's side with his head buried in his hands.

Archie's head shot up. "Dad?" Already, Fred noted, he sounded less panicked.

"Has Jughead woken up yet?"

Archie shook his head. "I tried, but he still won't wake up. He feels really hot, Dad."

Fred crossed the room, bringing his son into a half hug, the best he could do while Archie was still sitting. "Okay. Did you get a thermometer?"

"I didn't think of it. I just wanted to–" His eyes flicked over to Jughead, the rest of the sentence obvious. He didn't want to leave Jug alone.

"Alright. You stay here, keep an eye on Jughead. I'll look for the thermometer. If he wakes up, call out to me." He waited for Archie's nod, then left. It wasn't a big place, and he knew there weren't likely many places for a thermometer to be. Still, he couldn't help but think, it would be much easier if FP was there to tell him, or even do anything to show he cared that his son was lying on the couch, too sick to even wake. Fred knew very well that if it was his kid, Archie would already be tucked up in bed with a glass of water beside him; he didn't even know if FP knew Jughead was sick at all.

The thermometer was in the first place he looked, the bathroom cabinet. He didn't take the time to look around any further, just took it to the kitchen to wash off the dust, then returned to the main room.

Archie looked up as he entered. "He still hasn't woken up. Should we be calling an ambulance, or a doctor?"

He laid a hand gently on Archie's shoulder. "Let's just check his temperature first."

He waited for the thermometer to beep, then checked the reading. High, but not dangerously so. "We shouldn't need to call an ambulance, not if we can deal with this here. There's got to be medicine somewhere around here, so I'll look for that while you stay with Jughead." Archie nodded, but still looked concerned. He titled his son's chin up until their eyes met. "Jug will be fine, Archie."

Archie's frown had evened out a bit, so he left, heading back to the bathroom and the cabinet he had found the thermometer in. He hadn't noticed any medicine when he had gone to grab it, but he hadn't exactly taken the time to look around either.

He opened up the cabinet. No medicine. Just a bottle of perfume, a small pink toothbrush, and a whole lot of dust, with a gap where the thermometer had been. He didn't think about what that could mean, just continued searching. The other cupboards had a few more items, a lot more dust, but still no medicine.

He stepped out of the bathroom and back down the hall to the living room, calling out to Archie as he went, "There's nothing here. No medicine, no nothing."

Walking into the main room, he was surprised to see Jughead finally awake – surprised, and relieved. With no medicine in the house, this had turned from a bad situation into a potentially dangerous one, but with Jug awake at least a trip to the hospital should be avoided.

"Wha-?" Jughead started, but was interrupted by a volley of coughs, seemingly endless. Archie helped him upright, murmuring something to him as he ran a hand across Jug's back. As terrible as the situation was, Fred couldn't help but feel a little lighter just watching the interaction.

He moved closer, wanting to comfort his boys. "He can't stay here," he said quietly to Archie. Jughead obviously needed help, and lying on a couch in a room smelling of beer was not going to be enough.

Archie got that light in his eyes, the one Fred, from long experience, knew meant his son had an idea, and would not be letting go easily. "He can come back to our house."

"That's not necessary," Jughead said, voice still hoarse from coughing. He rubbed at his chest, probably not even realising how vulnerable the action made him look. There was no way he was being left alone after that.

Even so, Jughead wasn't his kid. "Where's FP?"

A shrug. "He was supposed to get medicine and come back, but that was hours ago."

He swore quietly, unable to keep it back, or the sarcastic, "Of course," that followed. He'd thought better of FP then leaving his sick son like that. The man must have changed more than he thought.

He motioned for Archie to help Jughead up, supporting him from the other side when the kid started to wobble.

"I really don't–" Jughead began, but Fred shushed him, worried at how faint his voice already sounded. This illness must have been building for a while. He could only hope it didn't get much worse.

"It's fine, Jughead. Let us take you back to your house and take care of you, okay?" Jughead still didn't seem convinced, but Fred was almost past the point of caring. The kid was obviously sick, and wouldn't get any better in this house by himself.

"Please, Juggie."

Archie's pleading seemed to finally be enough to convince him, and Jughead relaxed, muscles loosening. "Okay."

Fred readjusted his grip, careful not to let Jughead fall. Not again.

They headed towards the door.

***

Honestly, Fred couldn't even remember most of the drive home. All he really remembered about it was his boys in the backseat, Jughead looking exhausted even in sleep, and Archie curled up beside him, hand grasping the other boy's sleeve like Jughead would disappear if he didn't. That image stuck with him even as he parked the truck in the driveway, prompting Archie to look up, blinking sleepily.

"C'mon, Archie," he said quietly, so not to wake the still sleeping Jughead. "Help me get him inside and in a bed."

Archie nodded, hopping down out of the truck and slamming the door shut behind him. The next second he froze, looking over at Jughead.

Jughead still didn't wake.

"Dad," Archie said, voice betraying his returning panic, "Jug's not waking again."

Fred wiped a hand across his brow, wiping away the sweat that had gathered there. "Alright. We'll get him inside, check his temperature again."

Carefully, they manoeuvred Jughead out of the truck, balancing him between them as they headed up to the house. "Archie, can you run ahead for the thermometer?"

Archie nodded, slipping Jughead's arm from around his neck and sprinting for the house. Slightly off balance at the sudden weight, Fred stumbled, then recovered. Up this close, he could feel the heat radiating off Jughead, even through the boy's layers. He frowned. "Archie! Hurry with that thermometer!" He started moving faster.

Archie ran out of the house, panting, the thermometer held out in front of him. "Here, dad. Got it."

"Good." He checked Jughead's temperature and swore. This was anything but good news. "103. We need to get him inside and cooled off, fast."

Archie pulled Jughead's arm around his neck again, tugging at the other boy until he was balanced between them, then started hustling forward, so fast that Fred nearly had to run to keep up. His son had gotten much taller over the holidays, and now it was really showing.

It didn't take them long to get inside the house and up the stairs, despite the difficulties that came from trying to get two people, carrying a third, up the narrow staircase. Worry was a powerful motivator.

At the top of the stairs, Archie pulled to one side, away from the guest room. Fred glanced at him questioningly. "He'll be more comfortable in my room," Archie explained.

He conceded, moving towards Archie's room and lowering Jughead gently down to the bed, where he immediately curled up, cuddling under the blankets.

"Sorry, Jug," he said softly, pulling the blankets back down again. "Not with that fever. Archie," he continued, still leaning over the bed, "get a cool cloth from the bathroom. We need to bring this fever down."

Archie ran out of the room, and was back moments later with a cloth in hand.

The doorbell rang.

Fred sighed. "Alright, Archie. You stay here, bring down that fever. I'll get the door."

He headed for the stairs. The boys should be alright for the few minutes it would take for him to answer the door. They were almost grown now, and even if he didn't like leaving them alone with Jughead so sick, this shouldn't take long. It was probably just Mrs Cooper again, complaining about Archie or wanting to know if Betty had come over. The sooner he could fob her off, the better, and he could get back to his boys.

He came to the bottom of the stairs and headed to the front door, but was distracted by loud rapping on the back door. "Just leave the kids alone, woman," he muttered, heading through the kitchen to the back door.

He opened the door, and FP Jones came storming in, rage evident in his every move. "Where's my son, Fred?"

"Your son," Fred replied, unable to hold back his irritation, "is upstairs, in bed, asleep, which is exactly where he should be."

"He's my son! He belongs in my house, not here!" FP's bellow echoed through the house, bringing Archie to the kitchen doorway. "Who gave you the right to walk into my house and take my son, Fred?! Would you like it if I came in here and took Archie without your knowing?"

At that moment, just to make things worse, Jughead stumbled into the kitchen, pale and shivering. Fred groaned internally. He'd hoped that Jughead would stay asleep, not be woken up by his father causing a ruckus. The kid didn't need the stress right now, not while he still looked like he could barely stand upright.

A moment later, his prediction proved right, and Jughead fell against Archie, who grabbed him around the waist, supporting him as he began coughing again.

Any hope he had that that would be enough to convince FP to leave was dashed by FP's next words. "Jughead," he growled. "Let's go."

Fred cut off his movement across the kitchen, stepping protectively in front of his two boys and crossing his arm. "He's sick, and you sure as hell weren’t doing anything for him." His rising anger forced his voice out as a low hiss. "He was pushing a 103-degree fever when we got him here.”

FP didn't even have the sense to look ashamed. "I went to get him medicine and got a little tied up."

Jughead's bitter laugh broke up their glaring match. "Just save it, dad, and go." He still sounded dangerously ill – even as Fred watched, he could see the way the boy leant further and further into Archie, yet somehow still kept his gaze firmly fixed on his father. It made Fred wonder uncomfortably how many times Jughead had been in this situation before, without Archie there to lean on.

“You really going to talk to me that way." The question came out sounding more like a threat.

Fred made to reply, but Archie cleared his throat, interrupting. “Look, can you just go? Jug’s really sick, and you aren’t helping.”

FP glared at them, and Fred returned it evenly. He and FP had been friends once, but right now, Jughead needed rest, and even an old friendship wouldn't be enough to stop him from kicking FP out if it came down to it.

FP must have gotten the message, as he spat out, "Don't bother coming home," before leaving, slamming the door shut behind him.

The echo hadn't even faded before Jughead was falling, Archie panicking and swearing as he soon became the only thing keeping his friend upright.

In a quick leap, Fred was across the room, helping Archie to brace Jughead's weight. He was worried at the glazed over look in Jug's eyes, like he wasn't even registering what was happening. "I think that fever's risen again." He felt Jughead's forehead and cursed. "He needs medicine, now."

Quickly, he heaved the boy into his arms, carrying him up the stairs and back to Archie's bedroom. As soon as he had Jughead settled, he grabbed the cool cloth from before, wiping the sweat off Jug's forehead. Behind him, Archie disappeared, then came back again, medicine and a glass of water in hand.

It took a few minutes, but soon Jughead blinked back to awareness. "Sorry," he breathed, eyes clouding over with a painful mix of guilt and regret – but at least the blankness was gone.

Fred shushed him as quickly as Archie did. "Don't worry about it." He moved back from the bed, allowing Archie to come closer with the medicine and water.

"You don't have to apologise, Jug," Archie said, smoothing the damp cloth across Jughead's forehead. "You aren't your father."

Jughead smiled at him, and so did Fred. Jughead wasn't the only one who was turning out different from his father, and maybe that would be enough for their friendship to be a lasting one. Quietly, he left the room, letting the new generation of Jones and Andrews support each other like their fathers never quite managed.

#riverdale #my writing #stories #i am so very grateful to Riverdale for introducing me to Archie comics #and my truest fictional representative #jughead jones

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pavlovers · 7 years ago

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unusual asks: 2, 6, 14, 26, 31, 32, 35 (or name a couple bc i already know a deal of yours), 36, 41, 51, 55, 73, 76, 80, 94, 97 (sorry to send so many asdlfiasg they were interesting)

2. is your room messy or clean?

oh you bet… it’s not that it’s cluttered with a ton of stuff or anything it’s just that i tend to leave clothes all over my bed instead of putting them where i should and plus my closet and wardrobe are extremely disorganized because i just like shove random clothes in there,, same with other drawers full of school supplies and stuff, i can never put away stuff neatly it seems

6. describe your personality in 3 words or less

bore, bored, and boring

14. if you can live anywhere in the world where would it be? why?

oh man idk, i think i’d just like to live somewhere where it’s not easy to be isolated, like right now i live in a small house where there’s no sidewalks in my neighborhood and it’s impossible to walk down the street without a car zooming past and i’ve lived here for about 11 years and i only know one of my neighbors and i just hate it a lot. i remember before i moved when i was 5, i lived in a small city in a multi-residential house, and me and the three other kids who lived in it would always hang out together, and my grandma would like to take us to the small little cluster of grocery stores and bodegas less than a mile from our house and buy us candy and fun-yuns and stuff, and maybe i just remember it so fondly because i was just a little kid, but i really do miss that.

26. how many pillows do you sleep with?

i’m a one pillow kinda person, more than that bothers my neck

31. 3 favorite boy names

um elijah, oliver, and leo i guess

32. 3 favorite girl names

mia, alexandra, and uhh natalie ? take all of those with a grain of salt because like honestly i dont think i feel strongly enough about names enough to have favorites

35. who is your celebrity crush?

if you follow me you pretty much know who all of them are,, uhh lemme think who don’t i post about too much

brandon flowers is,, a big one like i don’t get how he just looks!! like that!!

ooh alexa chung is lovely and gorgeous and alex turner never deserved her

and um,, yeah i guess i do post about him frequently, but gerard way is truly one of the most beautiful people to exist

36. favorite movie?

um idk honestly, but i guess i’ll say either the breakfast club or heathers

41. top 10 favorite songs

currently: fob’s cover of i wanna dance with somebody by whitney houston, there is a light that never goes out by the smiths, flaming hot cheetos by clairo, empty by kevin abstract, don’t panic by coldplay, music when the lights go out by the libertines, pale shelter by tears for fears, desert song by mcr, the numbers by radiohead, and isolation by john lennon

51. how old were you when you found out santa wasnt real?

well my parents never really gave me presents for christmas, and whenever i got stuff from other relatives or whatever they wouldnt tell me it was from santa so i guess i always knew he wasn’t real

55. what is your dream job?

i’m not really sure what i’d like to do yet, but if i was good at it, i think it’d be cool to be a baker, my cousin is one, and he has the quaintest bakery and makes the best chocolate croissants, and idk it just sounds fun

73. do you want to get married?

idk, i guess it depends if i ever find someone i want to marry

76. what color looks best on you?

oh lol idk i don’t put nearly enough effort into how i look to notice… black maybe? sjdnjdfjhfdjj

80. what is your biggest pet peeve?

i think pretty much all my pet peeves boil down to people who are narrow-minded and can’t listen to or respect other people, while it’s talking over/ignoring others in conversation, or being inconsiderate of people’s feelings.

94. favorite lyrics right now

I’m big, humongous, enormous and smallAnd it’s not fair that I am nothing and nobody’s there

- Declan McKenna, Humongous

so i decided to finally check out his stuff at the beginning of this month because he was showing up in my recommended a lot, and man for being pretty young (18? 19? im not quite sure) he’s putting out some insightful stuff. this is probably my favorite song of his i’ve heard thus far, and it just like, hits the nail on how frustrating it is to be a teenager. you’re bigger, and you have to make big decisions about the future, but older adults still look down on you like you’re small, and oftentimes don’t value your opinion. it’s enough to make you feel worthless and that “no one truly understands”.

97. dark, milk, or white chocolate?

milk definitely, i think dark chocolate is so bitter, and i havent had white chocolate since i was little so i honestly cant have an opinion on it

#ask #aaaahh im sorry i hate keeping u waiting #i had community service and then my dad surprised me with tickets to see black panther #but thanks so much ur right these questions are interesting and i had fun answering them #love ya diana

0 notes

goarticletec-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Black Friday 2018 smart home deals: Google Home Hub, Facebook Portal, Apple HomePod, Alexa gadgets and more

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/black-friday-2018-smart-home-deals-google-home-hub-facebook-portal-apple-homepod-alexa-gadgets-and-more-3/

Black Friday 2018 smart home deals: Google Home Hub, Facebook Portal, Apple HomePod, Alexa gadgets and more

November is a time of tradition: Colder weather, football, turkey feasts with friends and family — and, of course, scouring the web for the best Black Friday deals.

Sure enough, here you are! And, if it’s deals on smart home gadgets that you’re after, you’ve come to the right place. They’ve been some of the hottest Black Friday sellers in recent years, especially now that big names like Amazon and Google are essentially all-in on the connected home. With Black Friday just 3 days away, expect more of the same in 2018, with lots of deals on Alexa and Google Assistant gadgets, smart thermostats from names like Nest and Ecobee, connected lighting kits, video doorbells, app-enabled robot vacuums… you name it.

To that end, here’s a running list of all the upcoming deals we’ve spotted thus far. We’ve kicked things off with deals from Amazon, then followed suit with brick-and-mortar bargains from Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Lowe’s and Home Depot. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for online deals from names like Newegg and Dell, too. And yep, some of these bargains are available right now — including a number of notable Amazon bundles on Echo speakers that bring the price-per-device down below the individual Black Friday prices.

Other stores are sure to follow as Black Friday draws near, and we also expect to see plenty of online deals direct from the manufacturers themselves. As soon as we spot any new offers or price drops, we’ll update this page, so keep it bookmarked. (Last updated Nov. 20.)

And remember the usual caveats: Most of the deals won’t actually be live until Black Friday, Nov. 23, and CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page. And click that gallery above if you just want to see our 10 favorite smart home device bargains of the season. I’ll keep that updated as new deals come in, too.

(Oh, and if you’re looking for the best smart TV deals, or deals on smart appliances and kitchen gadgets like the Instant Pot, we’ve got those listed in separate posts. Just click the links to see the full rundowns.)

Got it? Good. Now let’s get to the deals.

Abode Iota All-in-One Smart Security System for $259 (save $70)

It was back at CES where we got out first glimpse at Iota, an all-in-one security system from Abode. Along with a night vision camera, it includes built-in Zigbee and Z-Wave hubs that let it connect with things like smart lights and smart locks. Plus it promises to work with Alexa, Google Assistant and — eventually — Apple HomeKit, too.

The Iota starter kit also comes with an open/closed sensor for your front door and a key fob to arm and disarm the system at the press of a button. Originally priced at $329, the kit is currently marked down to $259 as a Black Friday special and expected to ship out on Dec. 17. Note that you’ll need to pay extra if you want to add 24/7 professional monitoring or a cellular backup.

See at Abode

Read more on CNET

Amazon Echo (second-gen) for $69 (save $30)

Ian Knighton/CNET

Amazon’s fleet of Alexa-enabled smart speakers goes on sale starting Thanksgiving Day, and that includes a $30 discount on Alexa’s flagship, the second-gen Amazon Echo. That discount brings the price down to $69, more than $100 less than the original Echo sold for. And note that the popular Product Red Edition Amazon Echo is now back in stock — that one will cost $69 on Thanksgiving, too.

That price looks like it’ll be available elsewhere, too, including at Target and at Best Buy — and also Kohl’s, where you’ll get $15 of in-store credit for every $50 that you spend on Black Friday, meaning that you could buy the Echo for $69 and get an extra $15 to put toward something else. Hmm…

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Dot (third-gen) for $24 (save $26)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Amazon has a relatively aggressive discount in store for the new, third-gen Echo Dot, too. At just $24, you’ll be able to get it for more than half off (and a dollar cheaper than its rival, the Google Home Mini, which I’m sure is just a coincidence). And yep, like a lot of these Echo deals, you’ll find the same price at major retailers like Target, Best Buy and Kohl’s, all starting on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22).

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition for $50 (save $20)

Sarah Tew/CNET

It usually costs $70, but starting Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22), Amazon will sell you the Echo Dot Kids Edition in any color for $50.

If you’re looking to buy in bulk for a couple of kids, you can save even more starting now, as Amazon is now offering a three-pack of kid-friendly Echo Dots for $100. That brings the cost for each one down more than 50 percent, and saves you a total of $110.

See at Amazon

Read more on CNET

Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition and Kids Edition Fire Tablet for $100-$180 (save up to $90)

Starting Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22), Amazon is offering discounts on the Echo Dot Kids Edition bundled with a Kids Edition Fire Tablet. You’ve got three options depending on which tablet you want:

For my money, I’d probably go with the Fire HD 8 bundle.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Dot (second-gen) for $20 (save $10)

Ian Knighton/CNET

Amazon already cut the price of the last-gen Echo Dot down to $30 when the new one came out last month, but the company is marking it down by another $10 for Black Friday, bringing the price all the way down to $20. I don’t know why you wouldn’t just pay the extra $4 for this year’s model, which offers a noticeable uptick in sound quality, but hey, maybe you’re just going to connect the thing to an external audio setup anyway. In that case, this might be the deal for you.

Expect to see this deal elsewhere, as well. For instance, it’ll be available at Best Buy starting at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22).

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Look for $50 (save $150)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Here’s a very steep price cut for the Amazon Echo Look, a smart selfie camera with onboard Alexa voice controls and the ability to offer fashion or shopping advice based on your personal style. It usually sells for $200, but you’ll be able to nab one for just $50 starting Thanksgiving Day.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Plus (second-gen) for $110 (save $40)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Also $40 off: the just-released, second-gen Amazon Echo Plus, which you’ll be able to get for $110 for Black Friday. It takes the Echo and adds a slight improvement in sound quality, plus a built-in temperature sensor and a Zigbee radio that can connect directly with things like smart lights and smart locks. Amazon will even throw in a free Philips Hue White LED with purchase. Starting Thanksgiving Day, look for the same deal — free bulb included — at Best Buy, as well.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Show (second-gen) for $180 (save $50)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

If you’d like an Alexa device that comes with a touchscreen, then the second-gen Echo Show is your newest option. You can save $50 on it on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22). Best Buy will have the same deal available in-store starting at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, too.

Bonus: As of now, Amazon will sell you two Amazon Echo Shows for $340, which is $120 off of retail. At $170 each, that’s $10 cheaper per Show than the official Black Friday deal.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Spot for $90 (save $40)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Another Alexa touchscreen option: the semispherical Amazon Echo Spot, which might rightly claim to be the smartest alarm clock ever. You can score it for $90 starting on Thanksgiving Day, a savings of $40. Best Buy and Kohl’s are offering the same deal.

If you’d like to double down, Amazon is now offering a two-pack of Echo Spots for $160. That’s a savings of $100 — and $10 less per Spot than the Thanksgiving sale price. You’ll see the discount once you’ve got the Spots in your cart.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Echo Sub with two Amazon Echo smart speakers for $250 ($80 off)

Here’s a deal that’s available right now as an early special — buy the new Amazon Echo Sub with two Amazon Echo smart speakers for $250, a savings of $80. Just do me a favor and check if this two-Echo-speakers-for-$100 deal from QVC is still live first — if so, it’s actually cheaper to do that and then add in the Echo Sub at its full price of $130, bringing your total to $230.

Another option — upgrade to a bundle with the Echo Sub and two Amazon Echo Plus smart speakers for $320. That deal is also live right now on Amazon, and it’ll save you $100.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Amazon Fire HD 10 with Show Mode Charging Dock for $145 ($60 off)

David Carnoy/CNET

The Show Mode charging dock basically transforms your Fire Tablet into an always-on, Echo Show-style smart display. As of right now, you can get the two packaged together for $145, which saves you $60.

Already have a Fire HD 10 and just want the dock? Starting now, Amazon’s knocking $10 off of the price, bringing the dock’s cost down to $45.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET Review

Amazon Smart Plug for $5 with purchase of any Echo device (save $20)

Ry Crist/CNET

Picking up a new Echo Dot, or any other Echo gadget on Black Friday? You can tack an Amazon Smart Plug on to your order for just $5. Plug it in and plug something like a lamp or a space heater into it, and you’ll be able to tell Alexa to turn it on and off via your new Echo gadget. And if you’d rather shop at Best Buy, it looks like it’ll be offering the same deal.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Anova Wi-Fi Sous-Vide Circulator for $100 (save $60)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

It usually sells for $160, but right now, Best Buy will sell you Anova’s Wi-Fi-equipped sous vide circulator for $100. It’s a great way to cook meats to the exact temp of your choosing, and the Wi-Fi lets you monitor the cooking remotely on your phone, even if you aren’t at home.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Apple HomePod Smart Speaker for $250 (save $100)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Here’s a rare discount on the Siri-powered Apple HomePod, available at Best Buy in either white or space gray for $250, a savings of $100. The deal begins Thanksgiving Day at 5 p.m.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

August Smart Lock for $120 (save $30)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Starting Thanksgiving Day and ending Cyber Monday, August will offer its third-gen August Smart Lock for $30 off, bringing the cost down to $120. That edges out the current sale price on Amazon by a few bucks. The larger August Smart Lock Pro gets a Thanksgiving discount, too, bringing its price down to $179 and saving you $50.

See at August

Read the CNET Review

Blink Indoor Cam Systems for up to $116 off

Chris Monroe/CNET

Amazon bought smart home camera startup Blink late last year — this year, it’s offering big discounts on Blink Indoor starter kits, and the deals are all live right now. Here are your options:

Don’t ask me why a single add-on cam costs more than the one-cam starter kit, which also includes the system’s hub.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET Review

Blink XT Indoor/Outdoor Security Camera Systems for up to $150 off

If you’d rather get a Blink camera system that you can use outside, then you’ll need to hold out until Nov. 21, when the weather-proofed Blink XT systems go on sale. Here are your options:

See at Amazon

Read more on CNET

Brewie Plus Beer-making Machine for $1,499 (save $1,000)

Brewie

It’s not often that you get to save $1,000 on a single smart home gadget, but that’s exactly what you’re getting if you buy the Brewie Plus direct from Brewie this Black Friday (Nov. 23). The Wi-Fi equipped beer-making machine helps you monitor and control the entire brewing process to help ensure better tasting homebrews. It usually costs a hefty $2,499, but Brewie is marking it down to $1,499 for Black Friday only.

See at Brewie

Read the CNET Review

Chamberlain MyQ Garage Hub for $60 (save $20)

Chamberlain’s MyQ Garage controller lets you open or close your garage from your phone, and it works with a bunch of popular smart home platforms. On Thanksgiving Day, Best Buy will offer it for $60, saving you $20.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Cree Connected LED for $12 ($3 off)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

It’s the smallest discount in this roundup, but hey, nothing wrong with saving a few bucks per bulb if you plan on filling your home with automatable Zigbee smart lights like these. And, despite the fact that they’ve been out for a few years now, Cree’s Connected LEDs, which work with Zigbee controllers like the Philips Hue Bridge and the Amazon Echo Plus, are still some of our favorite bargain bulbs.

Look for them on sale at Home Depot this Black Friday — both the soft white and daylight versions, I might add.

See at Home Depot

Read the CNET review

Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat and an Amazon Echo Dot for $199 (save $100)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Ecobee is discounting a couple of its connected thermostats for Black Friday this year, including the current-gen Ecobee4. That model comes with a separate room sensor that lets you track the temperature away from the thermostat, which is really handy if your bedroom runs a little too warm or a little too cold at night. It also has Amazon’s Alexa built right in.

It usually sells for $249, but you’ll find it for $199 online at Amazon and on Ecobee’s website right now. That said, the best place to buy it is at Best Buy, where you’ll also get a brand-new Amazon Echo Dot thrown into the deal for good measure. That’s a fantastic offer, and it’s live on Best Buy’s website right now.

If you don’t care about using your thermostat as an Alexa access point, you can save even more by going with the previous-gen Ecobee3 Lite, which Ecobee is currently offering for $139, or $30 off. Like the current-gen model, it works with remote sensors and with Google, Siri and Alexa for voice controls. The only real difference is that it doesn’t have Alexa built in. By the way, you’ll find that same $30-off deal listed on Amazon.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Ecobee Switch Plus for $79 (save $20)

Chris Monroe/CNET

If Alexa in your thermostat sounds interesting, then how about Alexa in a light switch? Ecobee pulled it off with the Ecobee Switch Plus, a smart, in-wall light switch that works with all of the major voice platforms, and also includes built-in microphones and a speaker to let you talk with Alexa. It’ll be marked down by $20 wherever Ecobee thermostats are sold, and the deal appears to be live already on Ecobee’s website. Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe’s have deals of their own going as well, to varying degrees.

See at Ecobee

Read the CNET review

Emerson Sensi Smart Thermostat for $89 (save $40)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Another smart thermostat option getting a Black Friday price cut: the Emerson Sensi, one of our favorite budget picks. The Sensi isn’t anything fancy to look at, but it still does the job admirably well. It also works with both Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit. Starting Nov. 22, you’ll be able to score one from Newegg for just $89, saving you $40.

See at Newegg

Read the CNET review

Eve HomeKit Gadgets for up to $20 off

Chris Monroe/CNET

Formerly sold under the Elgato brand name, Eve’s smart home gadgets all work with Apple HomeKit, with sensors that let Siri keep track of things like temperature and air quality in your home. There’s also a HomeKit-compatible smart light switch and connected contact sensors that can track when doors or windows are opened or closed. Starting Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22), Amazon will offer sales on all of it.

Eve’s team calls these “Likely Promo Prices,” so the actual numbers are subject to change, but here’s the list:

See at Amazon

Read the CNET Review

Facebook Portal (10-inch) for $150 (save $50)

James Martin/CNET

It’s brand-spankin’-new, but the Facebook Portal video chatting hub is getting a Black Friday discount at Best Buy that starts at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. You’ll be able to get the smaller, 10-inch version for $50 off. You’ll find the same deal online on Amazon and, of course, on Facebook.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Garadget Smart Garage Door Controller for $65 (save $34)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Chamberlain isn’t your only option for smart garage control — this little doodad called Garadget can get the job done, too, and it works with Alexa, IFTTT and Google Assistant. Newegg will have it marked down to just $65 on Black Friday, which is a steal.

See at Newegg

Read the CNET review

Geeni Switch and Charge Wi-Fi Smart Plug for $15 (save $5)

We haven’t tested this specific smart plug, but my ol’ pal David Priest reviewed an earlier version of Geeni’s Wi-Fi smart plug and came away impressed, giving it a four-star review. This one adds in a pair of USB charging ports, and looks like it won’t block adjacent outlets. Plus, it works with Alexa and Google Assistant to let you turn anything plugged into it on and off using voice commands.

At $15, it might make a great stocking stuffer — and the deal is live right now on Home Depot’s website as an early, pre-Black Friday special.

See at Home Depot

Read the CNET review

Geeni Outdoor Smart Wi-Fi Plug for $20 (save $5)

For an extra $5, you could upgrade to Geeni’s weatherproofed outdoor smart plug, which would be a really thrifty way to help automate your holiday decorations.

Here’s what Dave Priest had to say when he reviewed the Energi early last year: “The Geeni Energi stands out as one of the best affordable smart plugs on the market. When further integrations are added, it’ll be a fantastic product.” Now, the things work with Alexa and Google Assistant, so it sounds like it might be a great time to give Geeni a shot.

At any rate, $20 for a well-connected outdoor smart plug is a heck of a deal — comparable models from names like iDevices typically sell for at least twice as much. And, like the other Geeni switch, this deal is available online right now as an early special.

See at Home Depot

Read the CNET review

Google Home Hub for $99 (save $50)

Chris Monroe/CNET

It’s only been out for less than a month, but that didn’t stop Google from discounting its new voice-activated touchscreen by 50 bucks for Black Friday. Small but mighty, the Home Hub’s Google Assistant smarts are a great fit for your kitchen countertop, and you’ll be able to score one for just $99 at Target on Black Friday, or from Walmart, Best Buy, Kohl’s or Lowe’s starting Thanksgiving Day. Want to buy it even earlier? Jet will offer the same deal starting the day before Thanksgiving at 10 p.m. ET.

US Cellular says it’ll be offering a Black Friday deal on the Home Hub, too, and while it isn’t saying what the actual discount will be just yet, I’m guessing it’ll be the same $50 off that we’re seeing everywhere else. One nice thing: If you spend at least $120, US Cellular will let you spread the cost out over 12 months with no money down and no interest.

No matter where you get it, $99 is $80 less than what you’ll pay on Black Friday for its rival, the Amazon Echo Show. The gloves are off, Alexa!

See at Target

Read the CNET review

Google Home Mini and C by GE Bluetooth Smart Bulb for $25 (save $30)

Chris Monroe/CNET

The Google Home Mini smart speaker will be available for $25 on Black Friday at outlets like Target, but the best deal we’ve seen comes from Lowe’s, where the same $25 will get you the Home Mini packaged with a free C by GE Bluetooth smart bulb. This combo is designed to work right out of the box, so as soon as you screw the bulb in and turn it on, it’ll automatically pair with Google Assistant for voice controls.

See at Lowe’s

Read more on CNET

Google Home Mini smart speaker for $25 (save $25)

James Martin/CNET

Like most stores that carry it, Walmart is offering the Google Home Mini on its own for half off starting Thanksgiving Day. It doesn’t come with a free bulb so it’s not quite as good a deal as you’ll find at Lowe’s, but Walmart does have the new aqua-colored version as an exclusive, which is why I’m giving it a separate mention here.

See at Walmart

Read more on CNET

Google Home Mini and Chromecast Bundle for $45 (save $29)

Walmart

Walmart is also offering the Google Home Mini packaged with a Chromecast media streamer for $45 total, which is about 30 bucks off the combo’s usual price. These two are a good pair — plug the Chromecast into your TV and you’ll be able to tell the Home Mini things like, “OK, Google, play The Great British Baking Show on Netflix,” plus other nifty tricks.

Walmart calls this deal an exclusive, but Jet.com is offering this same bundle at the same price, and you’ll be able to get it starting the day before Thanksgiving at 10 p.m. ET. That’s a bit earlier than Walmart, for what it’s worth.

See at Walmart

Read more on CNET

Google Home Mini and 30-piece Tasty Cookware Set for $99 (save $131)

Walmart calls this bundle an exclusive too. In it, you’ll find the Google Home Mini packaged with a 30-piece cookware set from Tasty that includes ceramic, nonstick pots, skillets and frying pans in red, copper or blue, all for just $99. The combo usually retails for $230, so this might be worth it for the cookware alone.

See at Walmart

See more on CNET

Google Home for $79 (save $50)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Prefer a smart speaker with a little more oomph? The full-size Google Home gets a Black Friday deal, too, with a $50 discount available basically everywhere it’s sold bringing the price down to $79. Look for it at Target, Best Buy, Dell and Kohl’s starting Thanksgiving Day.

See at Target

Read the CNET review

iRobot Roomba 890 for $350 (save $150)

iRobot

Target has a bunch of vacuums and robot vacuums marked down for Black Friday, but the biggest discount we’re seeing is the $150 you can save on an app-enabled Roomba 890. That discount brings the price down to $350, which is about as low as we’ve ever seen a current-gen smart Roomba sell for.

Willing to spend a little more? Right now, you can get the top-of-the-line Roomba 960 direct from iRobot for $499, which is $200 off the regular price.

See at Target

iRobot Roomba 675 for $200 (save $100)

You can get a smart Roomba for even less by going with an earlier-gen model. Best Buy will offer the app-enabled Roomba 675 for $200 starting on Thanksgiving, which saves you $100 off of the retail price.

See at Best Buy

iRobot Braava Jet 240 for $170 (save $30)

Want a robotic floor cleaner that can mop? iRobot’s Braava Jet is one option, and it works with iRobot’s app for automated cleaning controls. You can get $30 off right now as an early Black Friday special on iRobot’s website.

See at iRobot.com

Read the CNET Review

JBL Link View Smart Display with Google Assistant for $200 (save $50)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Newegg is the only outlet I’ve seen so far that’s offering a Black Friday discount on the JBL Link View, a voice-activated, Google Assistant-equipped smart display that impressed us when we tested it out.

That said, the $199 sale price isn’t anything exceptional. I’m currently seeing the same price as a non-Black Friday deal from a number of other outlets — and if I were buying a Google Assistant touchscreen on Black Friday, I think I’d much rather snag the equally smart Lenovo Smart Display or the Google Home Hub, which will each be available for $99.

Still, a deal’s a deal, and this is one you can buy right now if you’re so inclined.

See at Newegg

Read the CNET review

Lenovo 8-inch Smart Display for $99 (save $100)

Chris Monroe/CNET

We’ve tested all of the impressive new Google Assistant smart displays this year — Lenovo’s was the first, and I think it’s still my favorite. Best Buy has the 8-inch version marked down by a hundred bucks for Black Friday, bringing the price down to $99. That’s the same price as the Black Friday deal on the smaller Google Home Hub.

Best Buy made this deal live as an early online special for a few days, but that window is closed, so you’ll have to wait until Black Friday for another chance at it. Some might want to hold out to see if Lenovo’s larger, 10-inch version of the Smart Display gets marked down, as well. Best Buy has that model included in the “up to 35 percent off” section of its Black Friday ad, but no final discounts or sale prices have been announced for any of those yet. If it gets marked down by the full 35 percent, that’d bring the price down to $165. I think I’d still rather spend $99 on the 8-inch model, but it’s still something to keep an eye out for.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Leviton Decora Smart Dimmer Switch for $40 (save $10)

Chris Monroe/CNET

As connected dimmer switches go, this Leviton Decora model isn’t the fanciest-looking, but it is more affordable than competitors from iDevices, Lutron and WeMo, it needs no hub, and it works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Nest. You can knock an extra $10 off of the price at Home Depot on Black Friday.

We haven’t tested this one, but we did test a separate, nearly identical Decora switch that’s designed for use with Apple HomeKit (and Apple HomeKit only). Doesn’t look like that one will be on sale for Black Friday, but between the two, I prefer this non-HomeKit version’s versatility. And if you don’t need the lights to dim, the cheaper, non-dimming version is ++st:%7B1002374963%7D:st+cnn:%7B0:0%7D+oos:%7B0:1%7D+qu:%7B1002374963%7D:qu” target=”_blank”>$10 off on Black Friday, too.

See at Home Depot

Read the CNET review

LG ThinQ WK9 Xboom Smart Display for $199 (save $100)

James Martin/CNET

LG just released its own Google Assistant smart display to compete with Lenovo and JBL (and, y’know, Google). And good news! Here at launch, it’s already marked down by $100 to fit in with the Black Friday crowd.

The bad news? LG’s full retail price for the thing is a hefty $299, which means that the sale price is $199 — $100 more than you’ll spend for Lenovo or Google’s smart displays this Black Friday. We already like those, and it’s very hard to imagine that the LG version will be $100 better than either of them. (Let alone, y’know, $150 better after Black Friday passes. Yeesh.)

Anyway, a deal’s a deal, so I’m including it in this rundown, but this one feels about as skippable as Black Friday gets.

See at LG

Read the CNET Review

Lifx Multicolor Wi-Fi Smart Bulb for $40 (save $20)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Starting Thanksgiving Day, Best Buy will offer both the standard-size and floodlight versions of the current-gen Lifx LED for $40 each, a savings of $20 per bulb. That’s a good price on good smart bulbs that are brighter than comparable bulbs from Philips Hue.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Meater Plus Wi-Fi Meat Thermometer 2-pack for $110 (save $19)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Meater Plus is a wireless Wi-Fi meat thermometer — just stick it in whatever hunk of meat you’d like to cook, pop it in the oven, and track the temp from an app on your phone. We were impressed when we tested it, and starting Black Friday (Nov. 23), you’ll be able to save 15 percent on two of them on Amazon, bringing the total cost of the bundle down to $110. A single Meater Plus usually costs $99, so that’s a pretty decent deal considering you could give one as a gift and keep the other for yourself.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET Review

Nanoleaf Rhythm Starter Kit for $180 (save $50)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

I’m not seeing it in Best Buy’s Black Friday ad, but the team at Nanoleaf tells me that the retailer will have the Nanoleaf Rhythm starter kit for $50 off. They tell me you’ll find the same deal at Home Depot (we’re still waiting for that retailer’s ad). No matter where you get it, that’s a good deal on this weirdly likable smart lighting kit, which includes nine triangular, color-changing LED panels that stick to your walls, plus a microphone-equipped Rhythm accessory that syncs lighting changes with whatever music you’re listening to.

Just keep in mind that new, square-shaped Nanoleaf Canvas panels are scheduled for release in early December, so you’ve got new options coming very soon that might be worth waiting for.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Buy a Nanoleaf Rhythm Starter Kit, get a free Nanoleaf Remote

Chris Monroe/CNET

Starting Black Friday, Nanoleaf will toss in its unique, 12-sided Remote accessory when you purchase a nine-panel Nanoleaf Rhythm Starter Kit for $230 direct from the Nanoleaf website. The Remote is truly one-of-a-kind, letting you switch between color-changing scenes by rotating different sides to the top and it can trigger Apple HomeKit scenes, too. It usually costs $50 on its own, so this is a decent deal, and right on par with the Best Buy offer as far as value is concerned. Just decide whether you want the Remote or not, and go from there.

See at Nanoleaf

Read the CNET review

Nest Cam Indoor for $129 (save $70)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Nest’s smart security cameras are all pretty solid picks, but they don’t come cheap. Fortunately, you’ll be able to score a pretty sizable $70 discount on the original Nest Cam Indoor at Target this Black Friday, bringing the cost down to $129. It’s not the newest model, but it’s still a worthy pick, especially at this price. And by the way, if you don’t want to wait for Black Friday, you’ll find the same deal available at Lowe’s starting Nov. 22, and on Jet starting Nov. 21 at 10 p.m. ET.

One other note — Best Buy claims it’ll have Nest gear marked down by up to $70 starting on Thanksgiving Day. No specifics on any of those deals yet, but I’m guessing they’ll be the same ones that I’ve posted here. Keep an eye out, though.

See at Target

Read the CNET review

Nest Cam Outdoor for $149 (save $50)

Nest

Prefer Nest’s weatherproofed outdoor camera? The rugged, weather-proof Nest Cam Outdoor typically sells for a steep $199, but you’ll be able to pick it up for $50 off at Lowe’s and Kohl’s starting Nov. 22.

See at Lowe’s

Read the CNET review

Nest Learning Thermostat (third-gen) for $179 (save $70)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Nest’s smart thermostat is basically an icon of the smart home at this point. If you’ve been holding out for the right price to make the upgrade in your own smart home, then perhaps this $70 Black Friday discount from Target will do the trick. And yep, Lowe’s will have the same deal starting on Nov. 22, as will Newegg and Kohl’s.

If you want the absolute best bang for your buck, then I’d actually suggest getting it at Kohl’s, since the store is offering $15 of in-store credit for each $50 you spend. As a result, the $170 Nest deal would yield you an extra $45 to shop with on top of the savings.

See at Target

Read the CNET review

Nest Thermostat E for $99 (save $70)

Chris Monroe/CNET

The plastic-bodied Nest Thermostat E costs less than the stainless-steel Nest to begin with, and it’s just as smart. Target will offer it for $30 off on Black Friday, but the best deal we’ve seen comes from Dell, where you can score one for $70 off starting on Nov. 21. That’s the best price on this thermostat that I’ve ever seen.

See at Dell

Read the CNET review

Nest Hello Video Doorbell for $179 (save $70)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Here’s a terrific deal on Nest’s excellent video doorbell, which our camera and doorbell pro Megan Wollerton called “the smartest video doorbell available today.” $70 off is about as much of a discount as we’ve ever seen on it — look for the deal in-store at Lowe’s and also Kohl’s starting on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22. Dell will also offer it online starting the day before Thanksgiving. And again, the in-store credit offer at Kohl’s will net you an extra $45 to shop with.

Kohl’s says that some Black Friday specials will be available online starting today (Nov. 19), so if I see this one live early, I’ll update this space and let you know.

See at Lowe’s

Read the CNET review

Nest Protect Smoke Detector for $99 (save $20)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

It’s not the biggest doorbuster I’ve ever seen (especially for a piece of tech that’s been out for a few years now), but hey, here’s Nest’s smart smoke detector marked down by $20. Dell will have the same deal online starting on Nov. 21.

See at Target

Read the CNET review

Netgear Arlo 3-Camera Starter Kit for $189 (save $110)

Joshua Goldman/CNET

Netgear’s battery-powered Arlo security cameras are a popular pick for home security, and Newegg’s offering a good Black Friday deal on a first-gen, three-camera starter kit that’ll save you over a hundred bucks.

The deal starts on Nov. 21 — if you miss it, look for an almost-as-good deal at Walmart, where the three-camera Arlo kit will sell for $199. On Black Friday, you’ll also be able to score discounts on refurbished Arlo starter kits and add-on cameras at Fry’s.

See at Newegg

Read the CNET review

Netgear Arlo Pro 2 4-Camera Starter Kit for $580 (save $220)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Meanwhile, Best Buy has the newer version of the Arlo cameras available in a four-camera starter kit for $580. That sounds like a lot, but this kit usually sells for $800.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance 3-Bulb Starter Kit with Remote for $120 (save $70)

This Philips Hue starter kit includes three color-changing bulbs, a wireless remote that docks on the wall like a light switch when you aren’t using it, and the all-important Philips Hue Bridge that needs to stay plugged into your router in order to control the lights from your phone or sync them with Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant. It usually costs $190, but on Black Friday, Best Buy will sell it for $120. That’s a terrific deal — $30 less than you’d typically pay for just the bulbs.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Philips Hue Lightstrips for $60 (save $30)

Colin West McDonald/CNET

If you’ve already got a Hue Bridge and just want to expand your system, these Hue Lightstrips look great beneath cabinets and behind TVs, and $60 is about as low as they ever sell for.

See at Best Buy

Read CNET’s first take

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Smart Bulb for $40 (save $10)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Just want to expand your existing Hue setup with an additional color-changing light bulb or two? On Black Friday, Best Buy will sell them for $40 each, a savings of $10.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Philips Hue White LED four-pack for $40 (save $10)

Amazon

If you don’t care about the colors and just want to fill out your home with automatable white light, this four-pack of plain, vanilla Philips Hue White bulbs will sell for $40 at Best Buy on Black Friday. This four-pack usually sells for $50, which is already a pretty good deal.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Buy a Philips Hue 4-Bulb White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit, get a free $50 Target gift card

It isn’t marked down, but if you buy a four-bulb Philips Hue White and Color Starter Kit from Target this Black Friday, the retailer will throw in a free $50 gift card. If you were so inclined, you could turn around and use that card to pick up a bonus bulb for your new setup.

See at Target

Read the CNET review

Ring Alarm 5-piece Starter Kit for $169 (save $30)

Ring

It usually sells for $199, but on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22), Amazon will mark the Ring Alarm 5-piece Starter Kit down to $169, saving you $30.

See at Amazon

Read the CNET review

Ring Floodlight Cam for $199 (save $50)

Ring Floodlight Cam

Looking for a smart security light to hang above your garage? You could do a lot worse than this floodlight from Ring, which packs a built-in night vision camera and motion sensor, plus the ability to customize those motion alerts using “activity zones” within the camera’s field of view. Look for a $50 discount on it at Lowe’s between Nov. 22 and Nov. 25.

See at Lowe’s

Read the CNET review

Ring Video Doorbell 2 and Amazon Echo Dot (third-gen) for $139 (save $110)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Here’s one of the best smart home deals we’ve seen this year: the Ring Video Doorbell 2 with a new, third-gen Amazon Echo Dot for a total of $140. The Ring on its own usually sells for $200, so this is a particularly good value if you’ve been itching for an upgrade at your front door.

Like a few of the other deals listed here, Best Buy initially listed this online as an early special, but that offer is over now. You’ll get another chance at it starting Thanksgiving Day.

Note that you’ll find the same deal available on Amazon. And if you just want the doorbell and don’t care about the Dot, Fry’s will offer the Ring 2 for $129 on Black Friday only.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Ring Video Doorbell Pro for $179 (save $70)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Fry’s is also offering a Black Friday discount of $70 on the Ring Video Doorbell Pro, which offers a slimmed-down design and 1080p video.

See at Fry’s

Read the CNET review

Sengled Element 3-Bulb Starter Kit for $30 (save $20)

Sengled

If you’re looking for a good deal on smart bulbs, you might consider jumping on this Sengled Element starter kit, which will be available at Best Buy starting Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, for just $30. With three bulbs and the Zigbee hub that controls them, that’s cheaper than the two-bulb starter kit usually sells for.

See at Best Buy

Sensibo Sky Air Conditioner Controller for $89 (save $29)

If the turn toward colder weather already has you thinking ahead to next summer, then maybe the time is right to score a deal on a smart air conditioner controller. If so, you’re in luck because the Sensibo Sky, which smartens up dumb AC units to let you automate them as you come and go, will be available for about $30 less than usual this Black Friday. Along with app-enabled automation, Sensibo lets you control the cool with voice commands using Alexa or Google Assistant. And yes, you can use it to automate a heater, too.

Bonus — you can pay a slightly lower $83 each if you buy a Sensibo three-pack ($249 total), but you’ll have to buy directly from the Sensibo website.

See at Amazon

Read more on CNET

SimpliSafe Home Security Systems with SimpliCam for $170 (save $200)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Best Buy’s also offering nice discounts on SimpliSafe home security packages, which usually start at $270 but will be available starting at $170 this Thanksgiving. On top of that, Best Buy will throw in a free standalone SimpliCam with your purchase. At the start of November, Best Buy was also offering a free video doorbell with these kits, but they seem to have yanked that deal away and replaced it with the SimpliCam for Black Friday. Damn.

Still, that’s a lot of value for a very strong security system that’s won multiple Editors’ Choice Awards here on CNET. Typically, a baseline SimpliSafe kit and SimpliCam would cost you about $370.

Another option available right now: Ordering direct from SimpliSafe’s website, where all kits and accessories are 25 percent off through Nov. 21. That includes full systems and standalone add-ons like the SimpliSafe video doorbell, which would be a nice addition to the discounted kits that you can get at Best Buy.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Sonos One Smart Speaker for $175 (save $25)

Sarah Tew/CNET

With built-in Alexa controls and Google Assistant controls coming next year, the platform-agnostic, premium-sounding Sonos One hits the smart-speaker sweet spot at its usual price of $200. Scoring one for $25 off at Best Buy sounds just fine to me.

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

Sonos Beam Soundbar with Alexa for $350 (save $50)

Sarah Tew/CNET

Best Buy is also offering the Sonos Beam, an Alexa-equipped sound bar, at a savings of $50. Like most of Best Buy’s deals, the sale starts at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22).

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug two-pack for $23 (save $17)

TP-Link

You’ve got plenty of good smart plug options, but at less than $12 each, these TP-Link plugs might be the cheapest ones I’ve seen that include real-time energy monitoring of whatever’s plugged into them. They work with Alexa and Google Assistant for voice controls, too.

We haven’t reviewed these exact models, but we tested the mini Kasa smart plugs and came away satisfied with the experience. These bigger versions use the same hardware and the same app, so they should work well as a cheap way to expand your smart home setup.

See at Newegg

Read the CNET review

Vayyar Walabot Home for $99 (save $150)

Vayyar

Walabot Home is a smart home device from Vayyar that uses radar to detect falls — a useful precaution for older relatives who live on their own. We’re still waiting for a chance to test it out, but if you’re interested, you can score a $150 discount on it now through Cyber Monday if you buy direct.

On top of that, Vayyar will knock $50 off the asking price of Walabot DIY, a nifty scanner that sees through walls to help you locate studs, pipes or even pests. Just $49 through Cyber Monday.

See at Vayyar

Read more on CNET

WeMo Dimmer, WeMo Mini and more up to 35 percent off

Best Buy’s ad lists several smart home gadgets that’ll be discounted by “up to 35 percent” on Black Friday (here’s the list). Those devices include the WeMo Dimmer light switch and WeMo Mini smart plug, two popular Wi-Fi gadgets that let you automate your lights and appliances. Both work with Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and Apple HomeKit, too.

Now, the team at WeMo confirms to me that each product is indeed getting the full 35 percent discount, which will bring the WeMo Mini down to $20 and the WeMo Dimmer down to $50. Both are good deals that you’ll be able to score starting Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22).

See at Best Buy

Read the CNET review

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thefabkilljoy · 7 years ago

Note

1, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25-27, 29, 30-33, 36-38, 41-44, 47, 51, 53-55, 59, 60, 61, 64, 67, 70, 72-74, 76, 81-87, 89, 99 sorry it's so many ^.^

Iddhsgsbshsj okay here we GO ((sorry for how long this post is about to be in advance lol))

1. 6 of the songs you listen to most?It’s kinda hard to answer this as I listen to so much and fluctuate between which genre I want to binge listen to but prob something from p!atd, mcr, or maybe Hamilton idk I’ve been listening to a lot of that recently for some reason

5. What does your latest text message from someone else say?“Oki” ,.,….. like okay but weirder I guess

9. Ever had a poem or song written about you?Nothing other than like family projects by my brother and this one time a friend wanted to write a song about me because I came back from a week vacation in Canada but it never happened oh and I think I was in a couple raps lmao

10. When is the last time you played the air guitar?lol like last week at a friend’s house when I was imitating pharah’s new dance emote in overwatch

11. Do you have any strange phobias?I don’t think I have “"strange”“ ones but I faint around needles and I’m claustrophobic

14. If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?Ew,,.,. Outside,.,. Uh well I only go outside on obligation so probably walking the dog or going out with some friends

15. Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?Is this,,.., metaphorically?? I can’t tell but either way probably most of the time behind but I guess it matters on the situation?

16. Favorite band?My Chemical Romance or Panic! At The Disco because my emo phase will never truly leave me

17. What as the last lie you told?Uh idk I don’t lie very often,… well I just told someone I couldn’t go to something when I just,,, didn’t want to and I also just told someone I ”“appreciated their words”“ when I sure af didn’t

19. What does your URL mean?Well my URL on almost everything is TheFabulousKilljoy ((mcr ref)) but THAT was obviously taken so I made this and it’s the only website I’ve ever used it on

20. What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?Everything and nothing hella

23. How do you vent your anger?Do nothing until I get over it or go to the vent channel on a discord server I’m on and complain

24. Do you have a collection of anything?When I in third grade I collected erasers, then in fourth I collected silly bands, and then after that not really anything unless you count the growing landfill of empty water bottles I’m too lazy to throw away in my room

25. Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? Shrug probably voice chatting bc discord doesn’t support video chat yet ((I use discord a lot of you haven’t noticed))

26. Are you happy with the person you’ve become?More or less, but I believe I still have a long way to go

27. What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?Hate: anything too loud that isn’t musicLove: rain!!!!

29. Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?Nope and yep, ghosts don’t really make sense to be real and duh of course there’s other life out there somewhere do you KNOW how big this universe is??

30. Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm. A supernatural blanket which I lowkey hate because it has the main characters on it and isn’t THAT terrifying to see when you’re trying to sleep and iron pills for my anemia

31. Smell the air. What do you smell?Shampoo because I just got out of the shower

32. What’s the worst place you have ever been to?There’s this house in Vegas that i have to go to every once in a while for vacation that I absolutely despise

33. Choose: East Coast or West Coast?West, I live in California

36. Define art. Anything that somebody creates

37. Do you believe in luck?Eh not really? Maybe?

38. What’s the weather like right now?Cloudy in the 70'sish but no rain :((

41. What was the last book you read?Oh god I have no idea probably the Princeton Review APWH 2017 Study Guide™

42. Do you like the smell of gasoline?Not really but my brother loves it

43. Do you have any nicknames?Killjoy, kj, tfkj, your royal highness ;))

44. What was the last film you saw?I don’t know what the last one I saw was called but the one before that was Dirty Dancing

47. Do you have any obsessions right now?Homestuck, Steven Universe, Still Mystic Messenger for some reason, Supernatural, Hamilton also for some reason I haven’t even seen it, the new FOB album ((can’t wait)), Skyrim, Overwatch, and about 846272 other things

51. Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?Yes, but again it depends on the situation and the person and how, if at all, it was resolved

53. Do you save money or spend it?Save until I get enough to buy something I want ((rn it’s the void sweatshirt from wlf so if anyone wants to throw me like $40 hmu ;;);)););)(;);,),;),))))

54. What’s the last thing you purchased?I can’t remember

55. Love or lust?Love of course

59. Where were you yesterday?Home playing a ton of overwatch

60. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?Yep, a pink skirt I use for Roxy cosplay ((still working on that,,, eventually)) a Steven universe crop top im not actually allowed to wear lol, a flower, one of those eos lip balm eggs, and a flower crown thing from medieval times ((the knight dinner show thing))

61. Are you wearing socks right now?Okay honestly I just got out the shower and I’m very lazy so I’m just sitting here with a towel

64. Where is your best friend?Uh I don’t know probably at her house

67. What were you doing last night at 12 AM?I was on tumblr and discord because sleep schedules are for the weak

70. Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?No I’m an asshole lol, but having shared interests would be nice

72. You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) what do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?Wow that’s dark okay uh I would tell everyone because then I’d just,,, die out of nowhere and they’d be so confused, with my remaining days I’d probably travel and make amends with people and try to do some good things in the world in the month I have left, and I’d probably be afraid but eventually accept it

73. You can only have one of these things; trust or love. Trust, love isn’t 100% necessary and it’s built off of trust nyanyways

74. What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?There’s definitely some but I sure can’t think of them right now

76. In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?Mutual trust, the ability to have fun with one another, shared interests and views, established boundaries

81. What would you want to be written on your tombstone?Something really witty and/or confusing so when people see it in the graveyard they’re just like,,, what the fuck was wrong with her

82. What is your favorite word?I don’t know I need time to prepare for these questions smh

83. Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart. A,,,,,,,, heart

84. What is a saying you say a lot?Oh god I have a lot of terrible annoying things I say a lot like rip, diddly darn, golly gee gosh, big mood, I’d let (her/him/you/them) step on me ((I say that all the time whenever I really like someone or someone says something nice to me lmao)) etc.

85. What’s the last song you listened to?Some Queen song I don’t remember that was playing

86. What’s your favorite color/colors?Black and pastel pink

87. What’s your current desktop picture?Well My computer has the Aperture Laboratories™ symbol from portal, my phone lock screen is my cat with a flower crown I photoshopped on him because,,, i love cats so much,,,, and my home screen is Bubblegum and Marceline from adventure time kissing ((even though I haven’t watched the show in years))

89. What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?There’s probably a ton but my least favorite that always comes up during truth or dare and stuff is "who do you have a crush on?” bc I can’t say that without outing myself bc spoiler alert: she’s a girl

99. If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?“HOLY SHIT THE WHOLE WORLD IS LISTENING TO ME RIGHT NOW I CANT FUCK THIS UP”

And we DID IT! Questions=Answered what a trip ((also something I say too much)) there’s probably hella spelling errors and shit but there’s no way I’m double checking this lmaothanks for asking my dude!!

#killjoy answers #long post #gdi the cut didn't work I hate you Tumblr mobile

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lirlovesfic · 6 years ago

Text

The Choice

A Doctor Who fanfic

Warning: brief, non-explicit depiction of domestic abuse

a/n: I am currently working on editing this chapter-by-chapter, with the hopes of completing a chapter a day until I catch up with myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing it to try to get back into the swing of writing and to build some momentum in order to finish this. Also, there have been some tiny things nagging at me for a while (grammar, punctuation, etc.) so I’ll be correcting as many of them as I can find as I go. The story will not change. In fact, most of the changes are going to be so minor that I doubt anyone (besides myself) will notice. But to keep me on target, I’ll be posting it all here as I go, with links to the other websites it’s on. I hope you enjoy it.

Catch up: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

This chapter: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

Chapter Thirteen—London, 15 July 2007

The night sky glowed red and gold, reflecting the fire on the ground. Fire was everywhere, burning everything in its path. Golden sand to fields of red, trees of silver to towns and cities, everything was ablaze.

Screams filled the night…

John sat up in bed. As the sounds of a woman screaming continued, his sleep-fogged brain realized the cries existed in reality, not just his nightmares.

Rose, he thought.

Convinced that Jimmy had returned and she was in danger, he was on his feet, pulling on his jeans, and out the door within seconds.

Once outside however, it was apparent that the screams were coming from the floor below rather than from Rose's flat across the courtyard. It was Rita and Chuck again. But this time, instead of being angry, Rita was clearly frightened.

John ran down the walkway and headed down the stairwell. Behind him, doors opened as the residents of the Estate again turned out to witness the spectacle, drawn by the same urge that drove people to slow down to witness an auto accident.

When he got to their floor, he found Chuck grasping Rita by the shoulders and shaking her. No one was moving to aid her. A second later, Chuck was on his knees, one arm behind his head, held in place by the pressure John was placing with his thumb and middle finger on his palm and the back of his hand.

"That's enough!" John ordered. Chuck struggled to get away, and John increased the pressure on his hand. "No more! How many stupid apes do I have to deal with in one day?" His voice was laden with disgust. He turned his head and scowled at the crowd. "And what's wrong with the rest of you? Why is it that I'm the only one helping her? No, you're all satisfied to stand around gawking while a woman gets hurt. Useless, the lot of you!"

On the other side of the courtyard, Rose woke to the sounds of screaming. Her first instinct was to go back to sleep. When she was growing up, screaming in the middle of the night wasn't uncommon on the Estate. Her mother had always forbidden her from leaving the flat to witness that dark side of the neighborhood, and as a young child there had been nothing she could do about it anyway.

But she was no longer a young child. She had faced Slitheen and werewolves, Sycorax and Daleks; humans didn't hold the same fears for her as they once had. She slipped on her shoes and headed out of the flat.

The commotion was emanating from the building across the way. She crossed to the railing, but despite the streetlights, she wasn't able to identify who was involved in the fight. It was just too dark.

A commanding voice carried across the courtyard. "I said no more, so knock it off!"

John, she thought.

"Knock it off!" he shouted again.

Rose pushed her way through the gathering crowd and ran flat out down the stairs and across to the other building. Even though she was in the best shape she had been in since she was seven, she was still out of breath by the time she reached the floor where John was.

The Estate was fairly small, and when she had lived there she had known most of the people who lived on it, but she was still surprised when she recognized the rowing couple. Her friend Rita was standing with her back against the wall of the building, one hand cupping her cheek. Even in the dim light coming from the courtyard and from the open doors of the nearby flats, Rose could see she was crying.

John stood in the middle of the walkway behind Rita's longtime boyfriend, Chuck, who was currently kneeling in front of him and whimpering, Chuck's right hand held high behind his head between two of John's strong fingers.

At her appearance, both Rita and Chuck froze, as if the shock at seeing her had made them forget the row that had brought her there.

"Rose?" Rita asked incredulously.

"I thought your boyfriend killed you," Chuck said.

John, however, didn't seem surprised at all to see her. He jerked his head towards the flat.

"Rose, take Rita inside while I finish dealing with this stupid ape here," he ordered.

Rose wrapped her arm around Rita's shoulders and led her into the flat. She shut the door behind them.

The flat was smaller than the one Rose had grown up in, a twin in layout and size to Mickey's only far cleaner. The front door opened up to a small living room, barely large enough for the chair, sofa and television that were in it. On one side of the room were doors that led to the kitchen and bathroom. The single bedroom was in the back.

Rose led Rita to the sofa, and they both sat down. Rose spotted a box of tissues nearby and handed Rita a couple.

"So, when did you get back? I thought you were still travelin'," Rita said. She wiped her face with the tissue and blew her nose loudly.

"I've been back about a week," Rose told her. "But that's not important right now. What happened?"

"Oh, you know Chuck. Same ol', same ol'."

Rose sighed. "What did he do this time?"

"He's been shaggin' everythin' in a skirt," Rita told her. "We've been rowin' 'bout it, and this time, well…"

It was obvious what she meant. There was a large bruise forming on her left cheek and jaw, and her left eye was beginning to swell.

"Rita, how long are you gonna let him do this to you?" Rose asked. "You need to kick him out. For good this time."

"I want to," Rita said. Rose raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "No. Seriously. After this I'm done. But I can't kick him out. Flat's in his name."

Raised voices carried through the thin door to the flat. Chuck was cursing at John. They couldn't hear what John said in response, but his tone was even and firm.

"You must have somewhere to go," Rose said. "I know you have some family somewhere. What about your mum?"

As the cursing outside continued, Rita shook her head. "Can't go there. Mum's new boyfriend is creepy, yeah? Stares at me all the time."

Rose sighed. "Been there. What about Marie? Or Joe?" she asked, naming Rita's siblings. Both lived only minutes away.

"Marie and her husband have three kids now, and his brother is livin' with them too. And Joe's in a bedsit. You know how they are. There's barely enough room for him, let alone me." She paused thoughtfully. "Might be able to stay wi' Dad for a bit. He's always hated Chuck. His flat's pretty small and he's got his girlfriend and her kids there, but I could probably sleep on the sofa for a couple weeks."

"Sounds like a plan," Rose said. "Next step we call him, let him know you're comin'. Where's your phone?"

Rita pointed at the small table crammed between the sofa and the chair. Rose handed it to her and then headed back outside to give her some privacy.

Across from the door, John was leaning against a concrete support beam, arms crossed in front of his chest. He was alone.

"Where's Chuck?" she asked.

"Gone," he told her. "For now. But he'll be back." He jerked his head in the direction of the flat. "Is she okay?"

Rose shrugged. "She will be, if she doesn't take him back again." She crossed the walkway and rested her arms on the railing. The crowd that had formed in the courtyard and the balconies of the other buildings was dwindling as people returned to their homes. John joined her at the railing.

"Everyone's going home," she said.

"Stands to reason. Show's over."

At the sound of the door opening behind them, they both turned. Rita stood silhouetted in the doorway, the light from the flat shining out from behind her, illuminating the walkway.

"Joe's comin' to stay tonight. That's my brother," Rita said, explaining who Joe was for John's benefit. "We'll figure out everythin' else in the morning."

"I'll stay until he comes," Rose told her. As Rita reentered the flat, Rose turned to John. "You wanna come in too?"

"Nah. I'm fine here."

Rose nodded and began to head back into the flat, but before she crossed the threshold she turned back. He had returned to leaning on the post with his arms crossed in front of him. He looked like a security guard or a bouncer at a club.

Or simply just her first Doctor.

He gave her a small smile, and she smiled back before rejoining Rita.

~oOo~

Less than half an hour later, Rita's brother arrived. He and Rita both thanked Rose and John for their help in dealing with Chuck. After the door to the flat had closed behind them, John and Rose remained in the walkway. When neither moved to leave, an awkward silence descended between them.

"What time d'you think it is?" Rose asked after a moment.

"About half three, I imagine," John told her.

"Well, I guess I should get home," she said.

"Yeah, you probably want to get back to bed."

"Not really. Actually, I'm wide awake."

"That'll be the adrenaline in your system," he said. "Fight or flight response. Normal reaction to a row, even if you aren't directly involved in it." He let out an irritated huff. "I'm just glad her brother's here to sort it. I'm tired of doin' it. This whole thing's a bit too domestic for me."

She grinned. "She was lucky to have you here to help her."

He grunted noncommittally. "Nothin' anyone else wouldn't do."

"Liar," she said, and she grinned at him affectionately for a moment before turning serious again. "No one else was helpin' her. Only you."

"And you," he said pointedly.

"We make a good team," she said.

"That we do," he agreed.

A light breeze blew through the walkway. Rose wrapped her arms tightly around herself and shivered. "Might be July, but it's still cold at 3 in the morning."

"I'd offer you my jumper, but I didn't put it on before I left my flat. All I've got is my T-shirt."

She grinned at him again. "Yeah, I noticed," she said cheekily.

John raised his eyebrows at the overt flirt. Before he could reply, she shivered again. He frowned. "You need to get inside." He paused for a moment and then continued hesitantly, "I don't suppose you wanna go have a cup of tea with me."

"What, now?" she asked. "Dunno if anything's open, and I'm not exactly dressed for it." She was still wearing what she had worn to bed, an oversized sleep shirt, bright pink and patterned with something that wasn't clear in the dim light. Underneath she was wearing exercise shorts, and on her feet were her trainers, but no socks.

He chuckled. "Yeah, I noticed," he said. "What's that on your shirt? Looks like… little moons wearing nightcaps?"

Her eyes widened, and she quickly glanced down at herself. She laughed nervously. "Uh, no, actually. Actually they're… bananas in nightcaps."

He grinned. "Bananas are good. Full of potassium. Just never thought of 'em as sleepwear."

"It was a gift," she explained.

He nodded. "Actually… about the tea… I meant in my flat. I don't have much in, but I've got that. So, wanna come up?"

She bit her lip and smiled shyly. "Yeah, okay. I'd like that."

"Fantastic."

~oOo~

As John led them into his flat, Rose looked around the main room. It was Spartan in appearance: nothing was out of place, not a cup, not old takeaway containers, not even a piece of cast off clothing. In some ways it was exactly what she would have expected, stark, with no nonsense furnishings and nothing beyond the bare essentials, exactly the opposite of her mother's flat. There were no pictures on the wall, no photos of family, no stray paperbacks or magazines or tabloids spread out over the table and floor. Even the rundown condition of the worn furniture and the threadbare carpet—worn down to the floorboards in spots—in the room seemed right. They reminded her of the metal grating and the tears on the jump seat in the console room of the TARDIS.

But it still seemed wrong that the Doctor, even a human version of the Doctor who didn't remember he was the Doctor, should live in a tiny, rundown flat on the Estate and not a bigger-on-the-inside Time and Space ship that traveled among the stars.

"You go sit down while I make the tea," he said. "You take milk or sugar?"

"Both," she told him, still shivering.

John frowned. "Hang on one minute." He disappeared into an adjoining room and returned with a blanket—and his leather jacket. After dropping the blanket on the sofa, he handed the jacket to her. "Put this on," he ordered. "I'll be right back."

As he left the room, she slipped on his jacket. She had worn it before, and it was just as warm as she remembered. As she wrapped herself in it, she clutched the collar tightly closed and buried her nose into the deceptively soft leather. Wearing it felt like being enveloped in a big hug from the Doctor, something she hadn't had since he had left a week earlier. She inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of the leather and his aftershave and him. Her mouth curved into a small smile, a smile that slowly faded. Even though he was here, she missed him, missed how well he had known her, missed their shared history—a history that hadn't happened for him yet.

And she missed his next self, his thick brown hair and sideburns, his brown pinstriped suit, his deep, chocolate brown eyes that could see into her soul…

Whether blue eyes or brown, whether leather or pinstripes, she missed the Doctor. John might be the Doctor, but with his memory gone he was missing an enormous part of who he was, and she missed that part of him.

Still shivering a little, she sat down on the sofa and pulled the blanket over herself. I just hope the Doctor and Mickey sort this soon, she thought.

~oOo~

A few minutes later, John carried two mugs into the room. He stopped just inside the doorway. Rose was on the sofa, buried under the blanket he had left for her. Peeking out from under the blanket was the collar of his leather coat.

She was staring off into space, lost in thought and frowning slightly. When she caught sight of him she gave him a bright smile.

"Warmer?" he asked as he crossed over to her.

She nodded. "Loads."

"Good." He handed her one of the mugs and joined her on the sofa.

"Ta," she said. She took a sip. "Mmm, good."

"So how do you know Rita and Chuck?" he asked.

"Rita and I were in school together. Chuck was in the same band as Jimmy. We used to all hang out together." She paused for a moment. "Y'know, I used to be so jealous of the two of them after Jimmy took off, but it didn't take me long to realize I was the lucky one, yeah? If Jimmy hadn't left, that could have been me in there."

John shook his head. "You're too smart for that. It may have taken you a bit, but you would have eventually wised up and dumped him."

"I'd like to think that was true, but I dunno," she said. "I was really messed up back then. Would have done almost anything to keep him."

"You seemed a little down before, when I came back with the tea," he said. "Is that what you were thinking about?"

"No," she said. "Was actually thinking about something else." She paused, as if she was wondering what to say, or if she should say anything at all. He waited her out, hoping she would open up to him. It must have worked, because after a moment she began to talk again. "'S just, I needed to talk to someone, but when I rang him I couldn't get through."

His stomach tightened into a knot. For days he had forgotten, or intentionally ignored, the fact that she had spent the last two years traveling with someone. An older man, according to the newspaper.

"The person you'd been traveling with?" he asked. He forced himself to use a light tone, rather than the jealous growl that threatened to come out.

She looked taken aback at the question. "Yes, actually. He was supposed to be back by now, and when I tried to call him I couldn't get through."

"So you're worried."

"Yeah."

"Is there anything I can do?"

She shrugged. "Not really."

"Why don't you tell me about him," he said.

Her brow furrowed, and she sank her teeth into her lower lip, an unconscious habit that John had discovered usually meant she was nervous.

"Uh… I don't know what to say," she said. "What do you want to know?"

"Whatever you want to tell me. Why don't you start with his name?" he suggested. "How you started traveling with him. Where you went."

"Well, his name's the Do—I mean, his name's… James McCrimmon, but everyone calls him the Doctor," she said. "And he travels, all over. Like, everywhere. We've been to Scotland, Anc—Rome, New… uh, New York, Utah, France." That last location was accompanied by a tiny frown, but then her face cleared. "Once we were headed to Naples, but we ended up going to Cardiff instead. He said he was gonna take me to Barcelona, but we haven't gone yet."

"He doesn't have a job? He just travels around? What, like on holiday?"

" 'S more than that. Wherever he goes, he helps people."

"You said he's a doctor. Is he part of a group… like Doctors Without Borders?"

She shook her head. "He doesn't help like that. Well, sometimes I s'pose, but mostly not. He just helps people with whatever they need. He's… brilliant. Can do most anything he sets his mind to. And I help him."

"Like an assistant?"

"No," she said. "Not an assistant. More like… a friend, yeah?" She met his eyes. "I try to help him, as much as I can, but I don't think he really needs my help." She paused, just for a moment, before she continued in a softer tone. "See, he's all alone. His family's all gone. Mostly I think I'm just someone to keep him company."

He searched her face. The look of melancholy she had worn earlier had rapidly changed to merriment while she was talking about her travels with the Doctor. Now it had just as quickly turned into sadness.

"Rose, were you…"

"Was I what?"

"Never mind. None of my business."

"No, what?"

He hesitated, just for a second, before asking what he really wanted to know. "Were you and he…"

Her mouth twisted into a small smile. "No," she said. "No, we weren't. Aren't. We're just friends."

Without conscious thought he took her hand and squeezed it. "You wanna know what I think? I think, wherever he is, he's probably fine," he told her. "He probably just got held up somewhere. And Rose Tyler, I think you're absolutely fantastic. If he thinks of you as just someone to keep him company… then I don't care how brilliant he is, he's a complete idiot."

She burst out laughing. "If you knew, if you had any idea…"

He gave her a wide grin. "And you can tell him I said that."

"Oh, I will. Believe me, I will."

Still chuckling, she stretched and then winced.

John frowned. "Is your back bothering you again?"

"A little bit," she answered.

"Did you have a hot soak before bed?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, and took some paracetamol. It helped a bit, but what really helped was that thing you did back at the garage. What was it called?"

"It's a form of acupressure. Take off the jacket and turn around."

She slowly slipped off the jacket and set it on the edge of the sofa before turning and facing the opposite direction.

Now that she had taken his jacket off, it became obvious that the sleep shirt she wore was thinner than the shirt she had worn to work, and in the light of the room it was also obvious she wasn't wearing a bra. That in addition to being in his flat in the middle of the night made the situation far more intimate than it had been in the shop in late afternoon. His heart pounded in his chest, and it felt like butterflies had taken up residence in his stomach. He took a deep, steadying breath.

Although his hands weren't cold, he vigorously rubbed them together and then cupped them over his mouth and breathed on them, warming them before lowering them to her shoulders. She shivered.

"Are you cold?" he asked in a low voice.

"No," she said softly.

He swallowed hard before beginning to gently massage her shoulders and back. "Take deep, slow breaths," he said.

He worked his hands from a spot between her shoulder blades upwards to the back of her neck. Her skin was so warm, so soft. She sighed, and it was all he could do to prevent himself from turning the gentle massage into a lover's caress, prevent himself from dipping his head and placing kisses on the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder. He moved closer, close enough to smell a trace of her shampoo. It was intoxicating. He closed his eyes and took in the scent as his thumbs moved in circles over the pressure points on the base of her skull. With a quiet hum, she relaxed against his fingertips.

Finally, after several minutes he had to stop as any more would have done more harm than good. He moved his hands back to her shoulders, reluctant to completely pull his hands away from her.

She turned to face him. Her eyes were wide and dark.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"You're very wel—" he began.

"Not just for the massage," she said. "Thank you for everything. Thank you for helping Rita, and for dealing with Jimmy, and for listening to me talk. Thank you for just being here with me." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, and then rubbed the spot with her fingertips. Impulsively he pulled her into his arms and leaned back against the back of the sofa. She rested her head on his shoulder and snuggled against him, bonelessly molding her body to his. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"Rose Tyler, I'm so glad I met you," he said.

"Me too."

#the choice #nine x rose #ten x rose #ficandchips #fobbed!Nine #revised #this one took so long #a lot longer than I expected it would #I might be able to do another today #but I'm just not sure

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