#i had four loose keys on my laptop and two of them broke while trying to answer this ask. even my laptop hates the mage lmao

[valeffelees]

Headcanon ask: 1 and 3 for good ol' Davy

1. holiday headcanon

DISCLAIMER: YMMV -> the carry on fandom is chill as hell and nobody has ever given me any shit for liking the mage, but im always worried about it anyway, so. small reminder that fictional characters are fictional, and im just some guy having fun! n e way, the headcanon. ive vaguely mentioned her before, but i have an orig character i headcanon as davy's cousin, named corianne cadwallader. even though theyre cousins, she and davy have more of a brother-sister thing going on 'cause they grew up together, davy was pretty much raised by his aunt. (he has other cousins, too, but he and cory are closest in age + she's the only one who can kinda stand him.) and for the record: davy's mother and father were decent enough, kinda on the absent side, maybe, but if you asked him he prolly wouldnt have anything bad to say about them. wouldnt really have anything to say about them, really. so yeah, he lived mostly with his aunt (father's brother's wife) and his cousins. his family wasnt poor, but it wasnt wealthy, either, and it was one of those households with so many people in it that keeping up with necessities spread the income pretty thin at times. when hols and birthdays rolled around, gifts were nice but small, yk? skip forward. davy makes it into watford, the very first in his family to ever have enough power to make it past the trials. i wish canon told us more about the old watford admittance test, but im going off the assumption here that kids take the test at least a year before they plan to attend, if not two or three years, somewhere between 8 and 10. so, the winter before he leaves for school, cory gets this nice leather-bound pocket journal for christmas. she told her mum that's what she wanted, but after she opens it, she immediately turns around and gives it to davy. cory asked for the journal to give it to him. as a going-away present, since he got into the fancy magic school. (davy and cory fall out of regular contact with each other after davy leaves watford with lucy and well, everything.) (but he never gets a new journal.) (when the pages run out, he replaces them.) does that count as a holiday headcanon?

3. sleeping headcanon

what the shit is a sleeping headcanon? evil guy lies down, honk shoo honk shoo snnnorrrk mimimi?? 💀 lmfao no but yeah, i dunno. i dont think he slept very well, i guess. prolly in irregular intervals instead of routinely through the night.

[ask me things]

[the-writing-artist]

Code Secret Santa 2022

A/N: Hey Kaula, it's your Code Secret Santa. I hope you like it. One of your prompts was the gang getting to act like the kids they are, so here they are playing video games (with a hint of Odd/Ulrich just for you~). Timeline is post-Echoes.

Title: How to Get K.O.’d in Your Favorite Game

It was a peaceful day at Kadic Academy.

Key word: was.

Because today was the day Odd Della Robbia had gotten ahold of the television set in the rec room, and when he did, all chaos broke loose. He'd been waiting all week to play his favorite racing game with his friends after the principal had allowed video games in the rec room. And not just any racing game.

Mario Kart: Double Dash.

It was the perfect choice. Aelita had never heard of video games until she had met Odd, and this was the first one she held an interest in, and Jeremie, ever since X.A.N.A.'s defeat, had a bunch of free time now but no idea how to spend it. So, Odd had decided that he, Ulrich, and Yumi would teach the two geniuses about video games and fun (and if he owned Ulrich at the same time, well, that was just a welcome bonus).

However, it got chaotic real quick as he realized that just because this was his favorite game, he wasn't actually the best at it.

"Wha-?!" Odd's eyebrow twitched as Aelita's kart passed him just a millisecond before he crossed the finish line. "How did you-...?!"

Aelita was trying (and failing) to hide her giggles behind her hand, as the tv screen in front of them was flashing the results, showing Aelita's Yoshi and Birdo duo as the winner.

"Nice job, Aelita," Yumi said, a proud smile on her face. "Way to put Odd in his place."

"'In my place'-" The shock made Odd cut himself off mid-sentence. "What did I do?!"

"You were bragging, Odd," Ulrich reminded him, amusement clear in his voice.

"I was not bragging!"

"You said," Jeremie cut in, "and I quote, 'This is my favorite game in the entire world. No one can be better at it than me'." If you were paying close attention, you could hear him trying to stifle his chuckles.

"I'm just surprised that Aelita beat me on her first try!"

The pinkette shrugged, "What can I say? I'm a fast learner."

"And the trash talk?" Odd asked, a knowing smile on his face. "Where'd you learn that? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you didn't learn it from me."

Aelita's only response was an embarrassed smile.

"Good job, Aelita," Ulrich said. "Now, let's see if Einstein's better than Odd at this too."

"Hey!" Odd protested, as Jeremie took the controller Aelita handed to him.

"It's okay, Odd," Yumi was calm. "You don't have to be good at a game for it to be your favorite."

"She's right," Jeremie added. "There are plenty other reasons to like a game. And who knows? I may be bad."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you beat me, Einstein," Odd admitted. "You're a fast learner, too."

"You could hand the controller to someone else," Ulrich reminded him, "if you want to take a break."

"I'm fine," Odd replied. "We agreed that we'd all get a turn with everybody." His voice went soft. "And this game is my favorite because I'm getting to play it with my best buds. We're here not to win, but to have fun."

His mini-speech was met with four identical smiles filled with fondness and affection.

All five of them had worked themselves to exhaustion just to defeat X.A.N.A.. Their time fighting against the AI was filled with sleepless nights, too many excuses to skip class, many bad grades, and way too many close calls for comfort. But they did it, and it was worth it because all five of them were still here. And now, they could afford to play video games without worrying when Jeremie's laptop would go off again next.

"Aww, how sweet. Did you get that from a fortune cookie?" And then Ulrich had to ruin the moment.

"And if I did? Can't I be humble every once in a while?"

"Not when it comes to video games."

"Say that to my face, Stern!"

"I just did, Della Robbia."

Yumi cut in, "Should we give you two a room?" On her face was a knowing smirk, and Jeremie and Aelita's expressions were identical.

The two boy's faces turned red when they realized what she was insinuating, "Yumi!!"

The other three could only giggle in response.

Odd shook off his embarrassment, "Now, enough chit-chat! You're going down, Einstein!"

"We'll see about that, Walking Stomach."

"Hey!"

THE END

[agathaharknes]

yennaia + gamer au

This was supposed to be three sentences and definitely not crack but I just had to... sksjsjssksjjs.

Yennaia prompt: Gamer AU.

LINK TO ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN IN THE REPLIES.

Word count: 1.8k+ Pairing: Yennaia. Rating: T.

Tissaia really had no idea why she was doing this. Perhaps to appease Rita. Perhaps because her addiction to nicotine had worsened over the course of one year of a bloody Continent-wide pandemic and she was loath to use her credit card every time she needed a new pack of cigarettes. Perhaps she was going through a midlife crisis to cope with the fact that being the Chancellor of Aretuza College was already stressful enough without half the generations there trying to fool her subordinates into thinking cardboard replicas or even mannequins counted as attendance or simply because the rest of the Board of Governors (Stregobor) couldn't differentiate between what could be said through an email and what required her to clean her entire house so the background of her call was pristine.

Her controller vibrated in her hands, (Why, for the love of the Gods, couldn't that setting be turned off?) her knuckles turning white from gripping it so strongly. "Oh, for fu- heaven's sake." There, she had been ambushed. Again. A funny and wholly unexpected thing happened, though, one of the users turned on her companions, offing the lot of them with clean headshots the brunette definitely couldn't pull off in the span of twenty seconds.

"Uhh..." What does one say when your virtual saviour just betrayed her entire party on a whim and was being cursed at obnoxiously loudly and vulgarly for it?

Yennefer ignored Sabrina calling her names that absolutely applied to her and her hormonal reaction to a lovely blue-eyed MILF the likes of which she had only seen in her dreams. "No thanks needed, love. I was getting tired of seeing you frown like someone had keyed your car every time you got killed. A pretty thing like you should only have cause to smile." Oh, Gods, now she sounded like a creepy old man that lived in his mum's basement. Great. Good job. Her Social Studies major was an absolute hit. Fuck her life. Fuck Oxenfurt College. And fuck Sabrina's witch-like cackling while she was at it. "Name’s Yennefer." She choked out miserably.

Tissaia scowled at her laptop. Hackers. Amazing. This was the best day of her new normal life. "Mind telling me how you broke through the most expensive antivirus in the Continent, dear? Because now I really need a refund." Now she also needed to contact Aretuza’s IT team on a Saturday night, because she was not about to mess any further with these blasphemous machines, thank you very much.

Wait, what? "That wasn't me... You left your camera on." The woman legitimately squealed at that, her oversized jumper sliding down her left shoulder and exposing just a glimpse of her collarbone as she pinned up her hair into a bun with... were those pens fashioned as swords? Oh, bugger, this was so not the time to get turned on! "Are you alright?" Mercifully Sabrina, Renfri and Phillipa were already accosting someone else, else she was sure the brunette would've completely lost it, more than she already was doing, anyways. "Hello?" No answer.

Tissaia was fishing for her boots when she started ranting, “Oh, don’t you worry! I’m fine! Just dandy! This is exactly how I wanted my life to go.” She motioned with her hand to the space around her. “I wished for nothing more than dealing with complete morons from nine to six, five days a week, whilst trying to make sure my sanity doesn't desert me.” Biting her lower lip for a moment she began checking that the ends of the laces were the same length when she pulled them up. “Running right after to my local grocery store to buy more instant meals that are probably going to give me cancer in five years if the bullshit articles my mother keeps sending me-”

Yennefer had told herself she wasn’t going to allow this wasn’t going to get any creepier than her misguided comment but she still had a gift code for that nice liquor store which conveniently had retailers popping up every six blocks everywhere for the last few months, especially in Thanned isle, only Gods knew why. “This bloody succubus of a twat that is my best friend has been forcing me to constantly use this cursed game by changing the password for my email and then Aretuza’s server and then-” Bingo. One text to Philippa and they had her IP address, with a mortified Triss already calling Jaskier since she was the only one that had managed to get a decent scholarship at that posh college.

This was her future wife who was about to jump from a bridge from the looks of her and they just had to do humanity a great service by saving her from herself and from sobriety.

“Can you believe that tosser? I am a lesbian! I spent my teenage years clad in flannel until my girlfriends staged an intervention kind of lesbian! Yes, Vilgefortz, I will sue you for harassment in the workplace and I will blacklist you. No, Vilgefortz, I don’t want to break quarantine to go on a date with you and I definitely do not want your disgusting cologne anywhere near my-” Tissaia’s head shot up, her doorbell was ringing and she pinched the bridge of her nose, reaching for a new, disposable, mask.

“You stay right there.” She threatened the girl, who had the most beautiful violet… Perhaps she really ought to let Coral get her a therapist. It rang again. “Gods-damn-it.” She thought.

Her plan was going marvellously. She would only have to sleep with a knife under her pillow for a few weeks for blackmailing Sabrina (Who honestly hadn’t the slightest talent to pass off plagiarism as a sudden stroke of genius in her final project without her aid.) into going along with this. The blonde was lighting the candles around the monitor without trying to burn her hair off and had given away her best bottle of cheap but still good wine for the cause. Thanks to Renfri and her frankly psychotic, owl obsessed, girlfriend she already knew what she would be replacing her trauma-ridden last name with! Splendid!

The brunette shut the door on Jaskier’s face after taking the brown paper bag from his hands, spraying the bottle of vodka inside it with so much disinfectant that it dripped down onto her carpet. Taking off her gloves and disposing of them, she grabbed a knife from the counter and ignoring the annoying blue light that came from the kitchen table, “Oh, shit. You’re soulmates. I’ll tell the rest of the girls we’re all fucked.” Tissaia cut off the upper part of the glass in one smooth hit, like Calanthe had taught her when the then teacher could still be considered fun by her groups of friends.

“Shut up, tiddybug!” She heard Yennefer sing-song.

Feeling like being crass the blue-eyed woman took a rather large swing directly from the bottle. Sitting back down, she sighed. Yennefer took a dignified sip from her wine; she could do balanced when her significant other to-be needed to let loose. “Did you like the bottle? It has good reviews from… wait a minute… apparently several alcoholics who don’t know what a budget is.”

Tissaia’s face paled. “I thought you weren’t a hacker.” The woman muttered. She didn’t fancy getting kidnapped and… No, no, no. Fucking Rita. What was the cost of moving, again? If she slept four hours less a day and split her cleaning time in two she could probably trade this house for Stregobor's in-

“I am not!” Yennefer cried. Bloody hell. “You just mentioned that you worked at Aretuza and-” Sabrina had probably started a group call and Phillipa was indeed hacking into her computer to save her arse. The Redanian was currently writing a script for her to follow. “Your username in the game is your surname. My friends and I tried to get into that school a few years back and I do remember that the Chancellor is a woman and that her last name is de Vries.” Her username wasn’t her last name, it was actually something that suggested she was an Ice Queen of the highest order. Queen Elsa from the movie Frozen would be intimidated kind of Ice Queen.

“Everyone is aware the highest-ranking members of the faculty live in chalets near the castle, pardon, the building.” True. According to Triss, that was a part of their contract that if unfulfilled prohibited them from working there ever again. To Yennefer that seemed borderline cruel, forcing them to be available at all hours like circus animals for juniors that didn’t deserve their spots.

“My best friend is a student there and she knows which one is your home because she wants to eventually be a teacher.” Partially true. Until that day came, Triss, like any rational individual, avoided the Chapter’s Village like the plague lingered inside, and wouldn’t be caught dead there unless she had to stop Sabrina from doing something stupid because of the anarchist phase she was going through. Jaskier was an acquaintance of hers of sorts because Triss had tutored his boyfriend Geralt in Biology and being daddy’s boy, he knew which one was Tissaia’s house because he had almost gotten expelled like fifteen times.

“I honestly just wanted to do something nice for you, you sounded like you needed it and… I know quarantine hasn’t been lifted once in Temeria since it all started.” Philippa wrote then that she would probably make for a decent actor without flashing her breasts to the audience every five minutes. She pursed her lips and replied in the mock post-it note to fuck off.

“I… I… Thank you. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed- I’m sorry, darling.” Her pale cheeks flushed at the term of endearment that slipped her tongue and Tissaia bowed down her head, red-painted nails caressing the glass bottle almost reverently. “Say, why don’t you tell me what your email address is and I send you my mobile via chat? The explosions in the background aren’t that, uhm, comforting to listen to when I’d much rather be hearing your voice.” Should she have looked up she would have seen the smile that threatened to split Yennefer’s face. “Only if you want to, of course! I- what am I even saying? Never mi-”

“No! Wait!” She placated. Sabrina squeezed her shoulder as she went to retrieve her phone charger, offering her a genuine smile. “I’d love to.”

“Okay.” Said Tissaia, an awed sound leaving her throat when blue finally meet with lilac. Gods, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Rita could have whichever bottle, all the liquor she wanted from the school’s cellar for indirectly enabling this.

Was one week a proper enough courting period to then buy the engagement ring? Or should she just have Philippa get her the best, costliest one from that jewellery eshop they all liked through some minor fraud that would take her like half an hour at most, today? “Good.” Yennefer de Vries had such a nice ring to it.

[let-me-write-shit]

Like We Used To: 14

A/N: Next Chapter starts the interviews! If there’s any questions you might want to be asked, or if there’s something you’d like me to incorporate in any of the future chapters, let me know! I love hearing from you! 

I’m gonna try to put up the next chapter later tonight, so make it quick!! :) :) 

PLEASE don’t forget to like/reblog/message me if you like it. It’s suuuuper helpful

[CLICK HERE FOR PREVIOUS CHAPTERS]

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“I cannot believe I let you talk me into this,” Elizabeth shifted in the passenger seat of Harry’s car, staring out at the streets of London.

It was nearly 10 AM and the two were on their way to the airport to travel to LA for a week for some promotional interviews for Harry’s upcoming performance in New York next month before a new album is released. Somehow Harry and Judy managed to gang up on Elizabeth. He even got Kate to call her in the middle of her honeymoon to convince Elizabeth to go. So Thursday and Friday were spent finishing up as much work as she could get done, visiting the office to tie up any loose ends and let her staff know that she would be out of town for a bit, and spending her free time relaxing with Harry.

Harry seemed to be spending his free time either watching movies, writing emails, on phone calls, or, what Elizabeth assumed, writing new songs. By the end of the week it was pretty much tradition to end the day sharing a sleeve of oreos and going on a late night walk around town. Luckily her neighborhood wasn’t too busy so no one was hardly ever outside to notice them. At least there was no buzz in the tabloids on Harry’s whereabouts since his appearance at the club the previous weekend.

“Well, with the help of Judy I can be pretty persuasive,” Harry grinned at her, turning into a gated lot. A small plane was parked in the middle of a huge runway with a couple people standing around the bottom of the stairs and a few other cars parked around it. Harry must have noticed Elizabeth’s uneasiness as he parked the car because he squeezed her hand and whispered, “Don’t be nervous, it’ll be fine. I already warned my manager that you’d be tagging along and the band is excited to meet you.”

Elizabeth nodded and the two of them stepped out of the car, letting the wind whip her hair around, clutching onto her purse and laptop bag that hung around her shoulder. Harry walked beside her, his hand on the small of her back, leading her over towards two men and one woman, handing his car keys to one of the men. They all greeted Harry with high-fives and hugs before smiling at Elizabeth.

Harry started the introductions, “Elizabeth this is Jeffrey, my manager,” he introduced the man he gave his keys to and continued, “Lisa does videography and photography whenever we travel, and Kenneth is my bodyguard. We keep him around whenever we travel for work, but usually he’ll only be with us when we’re at interviews and such.”

“Very nice to meet you,” Lisa smiled sweetly, shaking Elizabeth’s hand and earning a nod from Kenneth.

“So you’re Harry’s old school friend, are you?” Jeffrey asked, and joked, “I heard he practically bullied you into coming?”

Elizabeth let out a small chuckle, “Yeah, he just keeps nagging you until you say yes!”

“I know the feeling,” Jeffrey nodded as they all laughed, “Handsome boy, but dead annoying. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you company whenever Harry’s preoccupied. I bet we’re more fun than him anyways.”

“Excuse me, I take offence to that,” Harry jested.

“As you should,” Jeffrey said before looking between the both of them, “So you’ve both got your passports with ya, then? Great. Go on up, then. Everyone’s in there waiting.”

Harry nodded and led Elizabeth towards the steps of the private airplane, almost reaching for her hand before she lightly pushed it away, unsure of what them holding hands might look like. He didn’t seem too phased by that and continued on up. Harmonious shouting occurred as the two walked further onto the plane. Harry gestured for her to sit in the window seat while introducing her to his backing band members Mitch, Sarah, Adam, Ny, and Charlotte. Elicabeth’s worry of what Harry’s friends’ and crew would think of her started to disappear as they got to talking. 

An airport worker came to load the bags from Harry’s trunk to the airplane before taking his car away and within thirty minutes they were ready for takeoff. Airplane safety instructions were given and as soon as they were in the air Jeffrey gave everyone the rundown. It would be an eleven and a half hour flight. They would arrive in LA at nearly 3 PM their time. Immediately from landing they would head straight to hotel check-in where they got free reign for the rest of the night, though they were given ‘strong suggestions’ to make it an early night as they had to be up by 6 AM to head to their first performance at a news station. The performance wouldn’t be until 8 AM, but they needed to get their equipment set up and rehearse.

“So, wait, did they get me my own hotel room, or….?” Elizabeth whispered to Harry, not wanting the others to hear.

He whispered back, “No, I have a house in LA, so you’ll be coming with me there. Everyone else has a hotel room. Except Sarah and Mitch share a room. They’re dating.”

Elizabeth nodded, understandingly, before Adam spoke, smiling, “So, Harry didn’t tell us much. Just that you two were friends since you were fourteen? Is that right?”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth confirmed, “Knew him before all of this….” she looked around at the airplane.

“Wow,” Adam nodded, “And was he a little shit back then, too?”

“Excuse me,” Harry interrupted, “Little shit? Watch your tone, sir. I’m a big shit. A big, masculine shit, thank you very much.”

They all continued to banter for a bit, making Elizabeth relax. They were all given lunch, but it didn’t take long before everyone started doing their own thing. Sarah and Mitch cuddled up and watched a movie, Adam and Ny started scrolling through their phones, Harry was talking with Jeffrey, and Charlotte fell asleep. Elizabeth used the time to get even more work done so that she could be completely free tomorrow. By 7 hours into the flight everyone seemed to take Charlotte’s lead and went to bed. 

It felt like seconds before Elizabeth was being shaken awake. She fluttered her eyes open, immediately looking out the window to notice their descent before looking over at Harry who was grinning at her. His hair was disheveled and a red mark was bright on his cheek from where he fell asleep on his wrist, clearly haven been just woken up.

“We’re getting ready to land,” his groggy voice drawled.

Elizabeth looked around to see most everyone else stirring awake and Mitch glancing between Harry and outside. He didn’t speak much, but when he did he was really sweet and very funny. She looked around sheepishly, unsure of what to do when they exited the plane as everyone was kind of unloading their things and going over details on when and where they would be meeting in the morning. Eventually an SUV pulled up and a man got out, waiting patiently. Jeffrey directed him to Harry and Elizabeth’s luggage and he began loading up the car.

Harry broke away from the group who all shouted a “see you later” at him and Elizabeth before the two of them slid into the SUV.

“You alright?” Harry asked her.

Elizabeth smiled coyly, “Yeah they’re all nicer than I thought they’d be. Was just a bit overwhelmed. I think I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I even came. And it’s so hot here, what the hell? It’s October in a few days' time!”

The car started off and Harry laughed, “We’re not in England anymore, that’s for sure. You get used to it, though,” he reassured before asking, “So I was just talking with Mitch about him and Sarah coming over tonight to chill out with us if that’s okay?”

Elizabeth shrugged, “Yeah, sure, why not? It’s not my house.”

“What do you say we grab some dinner first? It’s only 3:30, but I was thinking once we get back to my place we could get our stuff settled and then go out and grab something to eat?”

“Will people not notice you eating out with a random girl?”

“I’m not too worried about it, honestly,” Harry smiled, “What, do you not want to be seen with me?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be seen with you. It’s just...we’re still trying to figure this whole thing out and I don’t want it to then be made into a big deal for you.”

Harry smiled, “I’ll be fine, love. It’s just dinner.”

Her heart fluttered a bit. When they got to Harry’s house, Elizabeth looked around in awe. It was, for all intents and purposes, a mansion. Sleek and modern, it had four bedrooms and six bathrooms. Who needs six bathrooms?! It even had a heated outdoor pool and hot tub. There wasn’t much in the way of decoration, but she figured it’s probably because he’s just a guy and he spends more time in England, anyway. 

She followed Harry with her luggage up to Harry’s room and dropped them in the corner. He decided to take a quick shower while she got situated, touching up her makeup and unloading some of her clothes. She had been in the middle of a text to Matt when Harry walked out of the bathroom. A towel was wrapped around his waist, his water glistened on his skin and his hair looked like a wet mop.

“You can’t just come in here lookin like that,” she motioned vaguely at him, sitting up on his bed.

“It’s my bedroom!” he retorted, ruffling his hair, “Am I making you nervous?”

Elizabeth groaned, “Don’t do this to me. I’m starving! I can’t think straight on an empty stomach.”

He laughed, dropping his towel, exposing himself, before pulling on a pair of briefs, “You know, I’m starting to think you’re just using me for my body.”

“I definitely am just using you for your body!” Elizabeth joked, “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

“None at all.”

It was 5:30 by the time they were ready to get dinner. There was a chinese food place not too far from his house that they decided they wanted to eat at. It wasn’t too fancy, so Elizabeth didn’t bother changing her clothes before heading over there. Parking was horrendous in LA, so they had to park a block away, but luckily the restaurant wasn’t too crazy for a Saturday night. He informed her that most people in LA either postmated their food, or ate later in the evening. 

The staff did recognize him, so they were able to get a seat at a booth towards the back. Dinner was fantastic. They were able to sneak a few quick hand-holds in before finishing up. On the way to the car they heard a few people shout Harry’s name at a distance, but he didn’t seem to pay any mind to it as he took her hand and led her to the car. While driving out of the lot, though, she noticed a man with a camera on the corner snapping a few pictures of his car.

“Harry?” she questioned, slightly concerned.

“Yeah, I see him,” he acknowledged, biting his cheek.

She decided to drop it and they continued back to Harry’s house. 

Mitch and Sarah had arrived a little after 8 PM after the sun had set. The four of them took some wine and a pack of oreos to Harry’s seating area beside the pool in the back, Mitch and Sarah on a couch across from Elizabeth and Harry, and got to know Elizabeth some more while music played softly over his house speakers. They had asked about the friendship with Harry when they were younger, told stories of their childhood, and talked about their current lives. Harry and Elizabeth shared a sleeve of oreos, again, joking about it with his bandmates before putting it away. She felt like they could really open up to them, like they were forming a real friendship.

“I can’t believe you almost got into a fight with her ex boyfriend!” Sarah put a hand on her cheek, “Good on you, though. He sounds like a creep, no offence.”

“None taken,” Elizabeth nodded, taking a sip from her glass of wine, “It was a long time coming.”

“It must be nice to still have close friends from when you were just children,” Mitch commented and turned to Harry, “Do you feel like you missed out? I mean, I know you said you had lost touch for a while, but….?”

Harry nodded, “Yeah. But I’m just glad to be back in it now. That’s why I practically forced her to come with me. I didn’t want to have a repeat of last time.”

Mitch and Sarah nodded in silence, but the stare Mitch gave seemed almost like he was peering into their soul. He finally spoke again, “Alright, so you two are dating then, or?”

Elizabeth glanced at Harry seeing a shocked smile form on his face, “Uhm...no. We’re not officially dating yet.”

“What does that even mean?” Sarah grinned, furrowing her eyebrows at the two of them.

Harry cleared his throat, “Jesus, with the interrogation tonight. It means that we’re enjoying each other’s company and elevating our friendship slowly.”

“You sure do have a way with words, don’t you?” Elizabeth laughed. “I’m just...not ready to have that official label yet, so for now I’m just a ‘friend’..”

Mitch nodded, “I understand. You just need to dip your toe into this world first.”

“Exactly!”

They spent a little more time talking until the song ‘Comethru’ by Jeremy Zuker started playing on the speakers.

“Oh, I love this song!” Elizabeth exclaimed, swaying in her seat. 

Harry looked over at her with a smile before standing up and offering his hand for a dance. Elizabeth looked at it hesitantly, and slightly embarrassed, taking a peak at Mitch and Sarah. They smiled kindly at her and Harry, so Elizabeth took this as a sign that it was okay and took his hand. He led her a few feet over towards the pool a bit more before turning to her, draping her free hand on his shoulder before wrapping an arm around her waist, still holding onto her other hand. She relaxed her head into Harry’s chest as the two swayed. In seconds Mitch and Sarah joined them, dancing under the stars.

The next, more upbeat song began to play and Mitch turned to them, “Oh, Harry, that reminds me. I had a few more ideas for those songs we were working on if I can show you real quick?”

Harry nervously switched footing, breaking apart from Elizabeth, “Uh, yeah. Let’s just go into the office,” he looked hesitantly at the girls, “Are you two okay for a bit?”

“I think we can manage,” Elizabeth snorted, making Sarah laugh.

KEEP READING

[sakuwriteshere]

The Apple Pie in My Life - Chapter 11: Uncertain Future

Summary: What happened between two best friends when someone messes with their lives? Can the past changes the future or can the future changes the past?

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Female!Reader, OC Abbigail, OC James, OC Alex, OC Purson

Words count: 3407 words

Warnings: Angst, character death, mention of blood, violence

A/N: That’s it! We’re reaching the end, there’s just one last chapter after this one. So enjoy while you can and...please don’t kill me? ^^” 

As per usual, this is unbetated and I’m sorry for any grammar mistakes or error spelling. Comments are loved! 

Chapter 11: Uncertain Future

The sudden arrival made you feel a bit embarrassed, you didn’t know if Sam or the kids had seen that you and Dean had been hugging and you didn’t know why it bothered you if they did. It was a friendly gesture, nothing to be ashamed of. You cleared your throat and sat a bit farther from Dean, avoiding any stare.

“What do you mean?” Dean asked. He had noticed your movement but didn’t mention it.

“While Uncle Sammy was waiting at the cashier, Abby saw Purson outside, so we followed him.” James explained.

You and Dean gave Sam a disapproving face, not liking the fact that he let the children wander while a demon was hunting their asses. Sam just shrugged, as if the simple movement was enough to justify his actions.

“He looks younger than what we’re used to but I swear it’s him!” Abby told you.

Sam, Dean and you shared a look, knowing perfectly that it wasn’t Purson but Alex, instead. A few days ago you told the boys what you could remember from the time when Purson held you captive and how you had recognized Alex. After a long conversation, you’ve deduced that Purson was possessing an older version of Alex and worked with the version of your timeline. The problem was you couldn’t understand their plan.

“What are we waiting for? Uncle Sam has the footage from the surveillance cameras.” Abbigail asked, visibly impatient. “Let’s go!”

“Wait a minute.” Dean stopped her as he stood up and held her by the shoulder.

“We’ve been looking for him for weeks and haven’t found anything and suddenly he just appears and waits for us to gank him? I don’t know kiddo, it seems too easy.” Dean told her and with a quick glance at Sam and you, he knew you were thinking the same.

The kids weren’t happy with that statement. By the way they were acting you knew they were eager to end this as soon as possible.

“Easy works for me.”

“The footage is way too good.” Sam started to explain as he walked towards the bed, stopping next to you and Dean, laptop in his hands as he clicked on the link to download the video from the store, new technologies were truly a blessing.  “The guy stopped just in front of the cameras, the licence plate is so obvious and it’s too easy to follow him once he left. I think it’s a trap.”

“Let’s just fall for that trap, then.” You said after a short moment of silence. Four pairs of eyes gluing to you.

“Yeah. Right.” Dean scoffed, shaking his head no as he walked towards the fridge and grabbed a beer bottle, he twisted the cap to open it and drank half of it in one go, then stared at you for what felt the longest minute in the world. “You can’t be serious?”

You shrugged. “Why not? We’re looking for them, they’re waiting for us. It’s the easiest way.”

“It’s the dumbest way.” Sam argued.

“As long as it works.” You argued back, walking towards Dean and grabbing his beer from his hands, drinking the rest of it. “You have a better plan?” you asked, your eyes jumping from one brother to another.

The heavy silence that fell was the proof they didn’t have a better idea. You watched the silent battle between the Winchesters and knew you had won the argument over when Dean closed his eyes and groaned from exasperation.

***

It only took half of the day for your little group to discover where Alex was hiding. Why did the bad guys always choose an abandoned barn in a secluded area as their lair? Was there some kind of a bad guys’ code? You thought as you stared at the old, rusty barn that stood in front of you.

“I don’t like it.” Dean said as he closed the trunk and let the duffel bag fall at his feet.

“Yeah. I think we got it when you said it for the fifth time one hour ago.” You sighed as you rolled your eyes. You forced a smile as you picked the gun he handed you and tried your best to ignore the bitchy face Dean was giving you.

“Mom! Dad!” The twins called you in sync, they stopped a few feet away from you and lifted their arms, visibly disapproving the handcuffs around their wrists that tied them together. Sam came just behind them, another pair of handcuffs in his hands.

“You can’t force us to stay on the bench.” Abby glared at you.

“This is for your safety. You’re not going with us.” Dean argued back.

“Yeah, because leaving us in the middle of nowhere, stuck in the car without any way to fight back if a demon attacks us is safer.” James grumbled.

Dean opened his mouth to argue back but he didn’t find the words, the kid having a point. He licked his bottom lip, his index finger still pointed at James before he turned around and faced you, giving you a disapproving glare.

“Why are they so smart?”

“Call me pretentious but I would think that’s because they’re our kids.” You smirked, a strange pride warming your heart for a second.

Dean was startled at first and you wondered if he was still feeling uneasy about the fact that you had- or will have, this notion was still difficult to wrap your mind around- kids together. However you relaxed when he smirked back at you. Sam tried his best to hide his amusement as he uncuffed the twins. Once they were free, they were both handed a bottle of Holy water while Sam ordered them to always stick behind him.

“If something goes wrong you and your brother run as fast as you can and you don’t look back. Am I clear?” Dean asked as he pressed the keys of Baby in Abby’s hands.

“Cristal.” Abby and James replied in sync, it was the first time you saw them so serious and you couldn’t help but feel bad for them. Despite what they had assured you, you still disliked the fact that they were in the middle of such a mess.

Silently your little group walked towards the barn and split in two groups once you’ve reached the main door. During the drive to get here, you suggested to use the effect of surprise as best as you can. You knew Purson was expecting you, so entering the barn from different entrances was your best shot. They were just two against five after all, luck was on your side, hopefully.

You headed for the back of the barn with Sam and the kids, while Dean stayed at the front. You took a deep breath to calm down your nerves and looked at Sam, waiting for his sign. Sam glanced at the kids, warning them silently to stay behind him, then looked at you, checking if you were ready. You both nodded and entered the barn as quietly as possible. With one hand safely curled around your gun’s handle, you entered first, Sam watching your back and keeping the children safe. The atmosphere was eerie and the deafening silence around you wasn’t reassuring. One thing was sure: Purson was waiting for you. As you kept walking you caught sight of Dean from the opposite side, the man hiding behind a rusty sheet metal next to the entrance. He motioned with a flick of his head to your right, informing you silently that he was going for that side. You nodded once and swallowed with difficulty as you went on the left side. There was no time to lose, the sunset gave you enough light to see where you were going but you knew that when night would come it would be pitch dark inside.

It felt like eternity, you knew you’d been inside for only a few minutes but seeing no signs of Purson or even Alex made you feel wary. Were they really here? Maybe you made a mistake and entered the wrong barn? If Purson was really in there he would have attacked you already. Dean joined you in the middle, his gun still in hand but letting his guard down slightly as he came to the same conclusion, Purson wasn’t here. The thought didn’t make you feel better, what was this demon trying to do? What was he waiting for?

“Mom. Dad.” If the fear in James’ voice wasn’t enough of a warning, the fact that Abby seemed like she was stuck in place was the last nail in the coffin. It took you only a few seconds to notice the kids were standing in the middle of a huge circle, covered with unknown symbols, the crimson red color wasn’t reassuring.

“Get out of it.” Dean hissed, checking his surroundings.

“We can’t.” Abby whimpered, she tried to move her feet but it didn’t bulge, like she was glued to the floor. James faced the same predicament.

Sam tried to break the circle with his feet but the red color moved on his own, reforming right away, the magic circle never breaking. Whatever this thing was, it only affected the twins. The next second, all Hell broke loose. Sam was pushed down against the floor at the twins’ feet, a strong invisible force restraining him while you and Dean were sent flying against opposite walls, all air leaving your lungs at the impact. The sounds of your guns falling on the dusty ground resonated before you heard the click of shoes coming in front of you. You struggled against the powerful force and ended face to face with Purson, two black orbs staring at you, a satisfied smile adorning his face. You tore your eyes from his as you heard the twins falling on the floor, gasping hard.

“I have to admit that I wasn’t sure it would work.” Purson said as one of his hands grabbed your chin painfully, forcing you to watch him, giving him your most heinous glare.

“Leave them alone!” Dean roared before he felt a cold silver blade pressed against his throat, that was when you noticed Alex was next to him.

“You have us where you wanted. Just kill us already and leave the kids alone.” You said between clenched teeth.

Purson let go of your chin and took a step back, watching you from head to toe.”You think it’s about you?” He laughed softly, then turned around and walked towards Sam and the kids.

“Don’t-” Dean threatened again before the blade cutting his skin reminded him to stay put.

“Dean!” You screamed as you noticed the tiny streak of blood leaving the new wound. Dean’s eyes fell on you, silently reassuring you that he was fine.

“It has always been about the kids.” Purson sighed in exasperation, stepping on Sam’s hand, making him groan in pain.

“I was respected by my peers. I was the most powerful, demons and princes of Hell came to get advice from me. As the guardian of the past, present and future, I knew everything, could see anything…” He trailed off before kneeling in front of James and Abby who started to suffocate.

“Until one day.” He whispered hatefully before standing on his feet once again.

“It took me a while to find them but of course I should have known that Winchesters’ offsprings were the cause of it. I thought killing one of you or both would do it but you can’t go against Destiny. Unfortunately for me, the three of you are important for my future, I need you alive.”

Purson kept on talking, revealing why he hasn’t killed you or the brothers. As he walked towards Dean. With a short movement of his head he ordered Alex to release Dean and go to you instead. Purson was still using his power against the Winchesters and you, preventing any movement.

“Not knowing what the future is made of is very troublesome. I don’t know how you’re doing it.” Purson joked while Dean’s eyes threw daggers at him.

“Are you always so chatty? It’s kind of boring.” Dean said and you couldn’t agree more with him.

“Don’t worry, the fun part is coming soon. Black magic takes time.” The demon threatened, an evil smile curling his lips as the red symbols surrounding the twins started to glow.

“Sam.” You pleaded with the younger brother to do something, he tried to move but he was still stuck on the floor, from your spot you could see he used all his willpower to move but it was in vain.

“I wasn’t expecting those rugrats to follow me here and ruin my plans. You see as long as they’re here, the past can’t change, they’re still existing in their timeline. I tried to kill them of course, but they’re like cockroaches, still breathing and coming back.”

You listened to Purson carefully, hoping that he would let slip a hint for you to get out of this nightmare. The only thing you were sure of was none of you, Purson included, knew what would come of this fight. You still had a chance, hope was your only ally.

“Alex, please.” You whispered as the young man stood in front of you, the hand holding the blade against your throat trembling. “I know this is not you. He’s not you, you’re still human, right?”

Alex averted your gaze, his hold around the handle straightening.

“You don’t want this. I don’t know what he promised you but I know you’re not a killer. You’re the one who brought me to the hospital, aren’t you?” You kept on talking gently, in hopes that he would come to his senses somehow.

Alex nodded, confirming what you suspected about your inexplicable rescue.

“He promised me immortality. After this mess is over, I’ll let him possess me and we’ll be together for eternity.”

“Alex…” You couldn’t believe your own ears. “He’s a demon, he’s lying. You really think that I’ll go with you after you’ve murdered my children? Just kill me right now if that’s the case because I swear I’ll-”

“Huh, huh, huh.” Purson cut you short, using his powers to mute your voice. You tried to speak but not a sound was coming. “Don’t bother my minion with your useless words.”

The cries of pain from the twins brought you back to the most important matter at the moment. Whatever Purson intended to do with the kids was happening, you needed to stop this before it was too late. The first change you noticed was Abbigail’s change of hair color. Her blonde hair slowly darkened, morphing into a long black hair. After a moment the twins stopped to groan in pain, their bodies relaxed as they laid on the floor, motionless.

“When I realized that I can’t kill them, I knew I had to use them. Those crossbreds could be handy.” Purson said as Abbigail stood up on her feet slowly. Your heart stopped beating when you noticed how pitch black her eyes were.

“All I needed was a few drops of demon’s blood and a lot from Mommy dearest.”

“You son of a bitch. I’ll kill you! I swear!” Dean yelled, struggling to get himself free from Purson’s invisible hold. Purson ignored Dean’s threats, his attention focused on the children standing in the middle of the circle.

Purson’s smile faded slowly once the circle stopped glowing. If Abbigail’s transformation was a success he couldn’t say the same about James’. The boy was still the same, no change could be noticed, except the fact that his body was strangely translucent.

“Dad…” James whimpered in fear, his eyes wide opened as he stared at his hands.

“What? No! I need both of them!” Purson roared, his attention now totally focused on the children, his powers having less effect on you and the brothers.

Sam grabbed Abbigail’s ankle as she stepped out from the circle.

“Abby you need to fight this.”

Abbigail cocked her head on the side, observing Sam for a moment before kicking him in the stomach. The youngest Winchester rolled on the side, clutching his stomach and groaning at the sudden blow.

“Abby stop!” James shouted, walking towards his sister, one hand lifted to grab her arm but his hand only went through the girl’s body. She turned around facing James and stared at him for a long moment.

“Abby…” James trailed off, fearing the worst when he saw zero emotion on his sister’s face.

“Get out of my way.” She said plainly, raising her hand, her palm opened towards James’ torso. She sent him flying against the wall behind him but instead of hitting the wall, James passed right through it, disappearing from everyone’s sight.

“No!” You screamed, Purson’s control over you disappearing as he was as shocked as you with what was going on. Visibly, his plans weren’t going as he wanted.

Dean didn’t waste his time, once he was in total control of his body again, he grabbed the demon knife tucked in his back pocket and charged towards Purson. The demon quickly reacted and blocked Dean’s arm, the knife dangerously close to his face. While both men fought, you pushed Alex, fighting with him over his weapon. The man wasn’t a hunter and you quickly had the upper hand on him, pushing him back, making him lose his balance and grabbing the knife from his hands before pressing him against the wall. Meanwhile, Sam struggled with Abbigail, he tried to tackle her but the girl with her new demonic powers wasn’t having it.

Everything happened in a blur. You fell on the dusty ground as Alex pushed you hard, you had to think fast before he did something deadly. You kicked his legs as hard as you could, the man waving his arms as he tried to keep his balance steady, giving you enough time to stand on your feet. You punched him in the face twice and spinned around before kicking him in the torso. Alex was thrown back with the forceful kick and landed on a rusty pipe that came out from the wall behind him, impaling himself. At the exact same time, an orange light glowed over Purson’s face as Dean jabbed his lower back with the demon knife.

“Told you I would kill you.” Dean seethed twisting the blade. “Stay away from my kids.” He said as he pushed the demon’s limp body, letting it fall heavily on the ground, dead.

Abbigail froze, her fist a few centimeters from Sam’s bloody face. Her green eyes rolling back in her head before she dropped unconscious over Sam’s torso. The man sighed heavily as he realized it was over. You didn’t give a second glance at Alex’s limp body, heading for Sam and Abby right away. Dean mirroring your movement.

“Abby.” You called her name gently, kneeling next to Sam and holding her in your arms.

A sob escaped your lips when you saw her eyes flutter. Her hair was back to its natural color and you’ve never been so happy to see the green color in her eyes. You rocked her back and forth gently as you stroked her hair lovingly.

“What happened?” Abbigail asked after a short moment, looking around her. “Where’s the demon?”

“Dead.” Dean stated sternly, kneeling next to the both of you.

Your lips pursed into a fine line when Abbigail asked you what you feared. “Where’s James?” She asked when she noticed her brother was nowhere in sight.

You glanced at Dean, not knowing what to tell her. Dean’s lack of answer wasn’t helping and your heart broke when you saw the sadness in his eyes. You couldn’t look at her when she asked you again where her little brother was.

“Mom? Where’s James? Dad?” Her voice wavered as she addressed Dean, pushing herself away from you so she could look at Dean. Dean’s face contorted in pain as the girl looked at him with teary eyes.

“No…” Abbigail whispered, shaking his head as she refused to believe her parents. She tried to free herself from your hold but you held her tight, pressing her face against your chest, Dean’s arms wrapping around yours to show you his support.

Tears started to fall freely as you heard the heartbreaking cries of Abbigail, calling her little brother’s name in vain.

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[reluctantly-plus-ultra]

Rei (PART TWO)

I literally finished my university paper a day early so I would have time to write this up and keep giving you guys the Good Content™. Thanks for the overwhelming amount of support on part one, everybody!

-When Rei first tells them her plan for taking down Endeavor, they don’t think there’s any way it’ll actually work.

-The LOV has always operated as a physical unit, out to kick ass and take names. They didn’t band together for subtle espionage and demolishing reputations through intellect.

-But Rei’s adamant that going into a brawl won’t accomplish anything. After all, even if they did manage to beat him in a fight, Endeavor be seen as a martyr to the public, still a symbol of hope, the number one hero that defended them to the end. That’s not what they’re going for. Beyond that, the only way to keep him from rising again, in that sense, is to kill him, and while Rei Todoroki wants some well-deserved justice, she doesn’t want his life on her hands.

-So, instead, she suggests ruining his image. They’ll air out all the sheets of the Todoroki household, let the world know once and for all the truth behind the man they’ve placed their faith in. Force him to step down, allow him to finally reach that number one spot that he’s ruined the lives of her family to achieve, and then strip it from him with the evidence of the horrendous acts he committed to get there.

-”He lit this fire,” Rei says coldly, and the chill in the room doesn’t come from her quirk, “Now he can burn in it.”

-Personally, Dabi still wants to torch Endeavor’s ass straight to hell, but even he has to acknowledge that Rei has a point. Their odds of success are a lot higher going into this from a tactical perspective. The rest of the league can at least somewhat come to that conclusion as well, but there’s one main problem barring the way.

-Kurogiri is the one to point it out, asking how they’re going to get evidence of events that happened so many years ago. At the best, they have two witness testimonies, and there’s not a single court around that would take the word of a hospitalized woman and a well-known villain over that of their number one hero.

-And it’s then that Rei’s face hardens into an expression that none of them have seen before, delicate hands balling into tight fists, jaw clenched.

- “I can get you that evidence,” She claims easily enough, as if it’s something that can be pulled from thin air, “But I’m going to need a laptop, or a computer-”

-The very nice thing about co-inhabiting with criminals that have loose morals is that they can get you things very quickly, and typically for free. Rei has a laptop sitting in front of her before the night is up, and is furiously typing as soon as they get her logged in.

-It’s common knowledge in the league that Rei has a habit of mumbling to herself when deep in thought; this has been particularly prominent while working on the Endeavor plan

-And this has actually been pretty unsettling for a lot of the members, because for someone so sweet, Rei has a novel of shit that Endeavor needs to atone for, and she hasn’t forgotten a single insulting incident in twenty-four years. 

-What this means is that sometimes, when she’s working deep on the planning, divulging information about the number one hero, she’ll give them a list of his weaknesses, things that will set him off, ways that they can target him that nobody else is aware of (potentially even Endeavor himself)

-But then after that, she’ll start listing incidents. Her eyes will gloss over, and the words will just start tumbling out of her mouth as she crosses situations out of that novel, offenses that are being reciprocated through her sabotaging the man

-Her last round of info had made up for six incidents, and while the league had gradually been getting used to these episodes, the last one had packed a punch.

- “The time you forced Touya to train so hard, he broke three fingers and you still made him keep going for an hour after.”

- Any time she mentions incidents with Touya, the tension in the room goes up four notches. Dabi can’t believe some of the details she remembers, can barely remember them himself sometimes, but his ring finger on his right hand has been crooked ever since that day, and it serves as a stark reminder of the past they’ve endured.

-While she works at the laptop, though, the things she mutters are not incidents, but random sequences of letters and numbers, her hands moving in sync with the mumbled symbols.

-And it takes them a while to pick up on it, but these memorized segments are the extremely distorted weblinks to clearly self-made web pages, at least six or seven in total.

- She doesn’t stumble once. Not on a single number, not in any of it, and every single one of those links are complete gibberish, entirely disconnected from one another.

-The web pages are filled with images, all of them old, all of them pre-dating Rei’s hospital admittance

-And it’s with this that Dabi has to leave, storming out of the warehouse, and Rei gets this carefully blank look on her face, because they’re both reliving nightmares, and they’ve barely started scrolling the pages.

-There are scanned copies of journal entries written in different coloured crayons and a wobbly hand, more entries on some of the other web pages done much steadier and in pencil, but with the same printing. There are photos of bruises, scars, burns, four different children, one woman’s gaunt face. Personal accounts, typed and handwritten, short and blurry-quality video clips of Endeavor’s “training”. It’s a montage of horror, carefully collected and dispersed across the web through links that meant nothing, that would never come up as a result from a search engine, spread across multiple pages so that even if one page were found and deleted, there were many more to replace it.

-But none of them have been found, none of them have been taken down because Endeavor, man that he was, had assumed that because his wife never raised her fists, she wasn’t fighting back.

-It’s in that moment that it clicks with everyone else, too: Rei Todoroki didn’t come up with this plan to take down Endeavor in the few months they’ve known her- she’s been planning this for years.

-The way that Rei takes all of this in, and then almost too-calmly asks Kurogiri if he can please make her a cup of tea is terrifying, even to a room full of criminals.

-They all fall asleep restlessly that night, reminded of their own pasts and the demons that have led them to where they are- and as for Rei? Well, she gets to cross another twenty-seven incidents off her list, and when she falls asleep as well, the weight on her chest feels much lighter.

-When Hawks shows up the next day, it’s still early in the morning- early enough for most of the league to still be in bed, and a few hours before his time to patrol. He comes bearing a tin of sweets for Rei, her bitter, dark-haired son (she’s so happy he’s found a friend), and a USB stick.

- “I hear we’re raising hell,” He says cheerily by way of greeting.

-They go through the evidence quietly the hero scrolling through the pages with an increasingly scary look on his face.

-He doesn’t tell Rei what he and Dabi have already hashed out between the night before and six o’clock in the morning- that A) Hawks is definitely a spy, and damn did it ever piss him off to have Dabi out him so easily, because he was sure he had him fooled, B) Dabi won’t out him to the rest of the league so long as Hawks agrees to help Rei, and C) None of this can go through the Commission. Absolutely none of it.

-They’re both very aware that if the Commission gets their hands on this kind of info, it will be swept under the rug faster than either man can blink, and the people instigating the problem will probably disappear. Hawks has heard them use the sentence “It’s for the greater good” far too many times to cover up too many things, and a sickened part of him doesn’t want to consider if maybe they’ve used those exact same words to cover up situations like this before.

-And damn it all, he agrees even though he knows it’ll probably come around and bite him in the ass- because at this rate, if the Commission catches wind of him being affiliated with this plot in any way after it all breaks loose, he’ll be on the rack. But he tries not to consider what he has to lose, and instead focuses on the fact that he can help these people, and maybe others as well. Who knows how many “heroes” have ruined lives just like Endeavor and walked free.

-And really, in the heart of it all, he wants to help the Todoroki family. Sure, he doesn’t know Natsuo and Fuyumi and Shouto very well, but Rei has slowly warmed over a portion of his heart that he didn’t realize was lacking a mother figure, and Dabi means more to him than he’d like to admit. Growing up, he was never given the liberty of being attached to people, tangible people who were his equals and not his icons. Now, having grown so fond of these two in particular, he’s beginning to understand why some people are willing to lay everything on the line for family.

-So he goes through the evidence and does his best to ignore how Rei strokes her hands through Dabi’s hair as the two of them watch as well, not entirely sure who the action is meant to comfort more. All the while, he’s trying to match up the man in these entries, the man in these clips and photos, to the man he’s risked his life for, fought beside, trusted wholeheartedly.

-Betrayal has a bitter taste, and it lingers in his mouth.

- He’s just finishing up downloading all the files onto the USB drive, when Rei finally speaks.

- “If this works, you’ll be the new Number One.”

-His hands stumble on the keys, and a sinking sense of melancholy sets in. Quite honestly, Hawks has never aimed for the Number One position in the way that others do. He’s never gone after it like he needed to have the top position or nothing- in fact, he would be happy to settle lower in the top ten then where he is now.

-But there’s really no avoiding it, and while he’s not sure what kind of complications it will have in his career, in his mission, in his growing relationships with both Rei and Dabi, he determines that’s a problem for another day.

-“I’ll be better than him.” Hawks says, the words coming out as more of a promise than the assurance he intended. Rei’s answering smile is caught somewhere between satisfied, bittersweet, and proud.

- “Good.”

-He takes the USB stick, gives Rei a quick hug and demands that she eat at least three of the chocolates herself before passing them around to everyone else (because he absolutely knows that she will) and leaves a shared parting look with Dabi that means everything and nothing all at once.

-Rei notices of course, but it’s really not her place to pry and she’s honestly not even sure that Touya himself has any idea what his current situation is with the winged hero, so she chooses to let the matter drop. The fact that the chocolates Hawks brought her happen to be her son’s favourite doesn’t entirely go over her head either, but she chooses to let that slide as well

- In the end, true to their collective nature, the LOV still agrees to also attempt a physical attack on the Number One hero, if only to bolster their media image. After all, they’ve been lying low long enough that the hero world needs a reminder that they’re still alive and kicking.

-And honestly, maybe just a little, they also want to give the world an image of Endeavor being taken down in more ways than one.

-Dabi volunteers immediately, that much kind of being a given, but everyone’s surprised when Rei offers to go as well. So far, everyone aside from the league and Hawks is still under the impression that Rei’s hospitalized- her image still isn’t tarnished, and if she wanted to, she could walk away from the league that minute and never suffer consequences for it. The instant her face is shown in correlation with them? There’s no going back from that.

-But she’s adamant, and it’s with some reluctance that they give in. In some ways, it’s only fair- this is personal for her after all, so it makes sense that she’d want to be involved. They settle on letting the mother and son handle the fire hero, and make plans to have everyone else ready to back them up if needs be.

-Besides, they’re out to absolutely destroy his image, and what better way to do that than have Endeavor’s own family do so? Bonus points for dramatic flair, nobody will be forgetting this for a while.

-Before long, it’s the night before the whole operation, and everyone’s restless as hell. Twice and Toga watch five consecutive episodes of some awful cake-decorating show that neither of them can stand before calling it a night, Spinner’s gone for most of the evening, and in a rare show of caring, Shigaraki puts down a steaming cup of soothing tea in front of Rei, the kind that she always steeps for him when he starts getting antsy and in his head. It’s a kind gesture from the young man, and she makes sure to smile warmly when she thanks him for it, pleased when he chooses to stay and sit at the table with her. They don’t make conversation, but just knowing that the other is around is comforting in itself.

-Rei ends up staying up later than he does, and it’s with a somewhat awkward and unpracticed motion that the man reaches out to pat her hand before heading to his own room, the action jerky like a rusty machine, but still appreciated. Rei smiles into her cup when she notices that the leader of their rag-tag little group has been gradually getting more tactile with those around him, wearing those gloves she made for him at almost all times. He still has a long way to go before he’ll be able to handle true contact, but she can see the effort he’s making, and every little bit of progress marks a new milestone.

-Dabi also spends the night away from the league, but Rei isn’t too worried about her eldest child. She knows exactly where he’ll end up, knows that he’s in good hands. After all, there’s probably nowhere safer for him to be than with the one other person in this world who cares for him just as much as she does.

-And on that note, Hawks spends most of the night discreetly flying all across Japan, dropping off printed files of incriminating evidence under an anonymous cover and using several fake emails to reach out to news agencies, freelance journalists, newspapers, magazine editors- anybody he can think of who would take this on as a scoop and spread the proof like wildfire. By the next morning, he knows that he’ll be seeing this stuff all over the media- he just hopes it’s been enough.

-When he returns home to find the door already unlocked, he doesn’t even bother turning on the lights. Instead, he locks the door behind him and makes his way over to the couch, not surprised at all to discover a familiar lanky figure passed out unawares.

-Normally he’d just leave him, maybe toss a blanket over the other man in passing, and continue on his way. But… After tonight, everything was going to change, and who knew what was going to happen to all of them, yes, but especially him and Dabi and this… Well, whatever it was that they were building.

-So he wakes the other man up instead, smiling as blue eyes catch on his own, and they talk. They talk about everything Hawks can think of to talk about, every little question he’s ever wanted to know about this mysterious person who’s taken up such a huge portion of his life recently. And for once, Dabi doesn’t meet him with resistance for his curiosity, seeming to have come to the same conclusion. 

-Eventually they end up in Hawks’ bed, still just talking, laying side by side. There’s a strange sense of rebellion in the intimacy of it all, and the part of Hawks that has always loved pushing boundaries, fighting his leash, is basking in this. The Commission had wanted him to get close to Dabi, but he doubts they’d intended for him to get close enough to press a brave kiss to the other man’s forehead as they both start drifting off, to be close enough to hear his breath stutter before he hesitantly drapes an arm over the hero’s waist. If they could see him now, they’d expect him to be luring Dabi into some kind of trap, stabbing him in the back after earning his trust.

-But for now, the greatest “fuck you” he can send their way is by choosing to be gentle over violent, by choosing this person over his mission, by going after what he wants for once, damn it-

- “You won’t be there tomorrow, will you?”

-No, no he won’t be. As a hero, if he were present, he’d be expected to step in, and that’s the last thing he wants to do here, especially if it means facing off against not only Dabi, but Rei as well. The thought of even acting threatening to the woman is enough to turn his stomach.

-And honestly, if anyone had ever told Hawks that at twenty three and well into his professional career, he would find himself cradling a villain in his bed and whispering promising words of encouragement about the upcoming takedown of his childhood idol, he would never have believed them.

-Eventually they fall asleep this way, and Dabi has never really known, in all his life, what safety feels like but he’s pretty sure this is it.

-Skipping ahead to the next morning, Endeavor is already out on patrol when the news bombs start dropping. And of course, the reaction from the public is… Explosive, to say the least.

-There’s a lot of shock and a lot of horror, and absolute outrage. The only thing to really do in a situation like this, as far as news is concerned, is to go for a follow-up, so there are people all over the city trying to track down their Number One to get some answers.

-Meanwhile, Endeavor has no clue this is happening. At this point, the worst part of his day is not yet the fact that his hero career will be over in the span of a week, but that he ran into a familiar crispy edgelord and just… Doesn’t have time for this shit again.

-He expects Dabi to start monologuing to some degree, so when the villain starts off with, “Do you remember me?” it’s not really any kind of surprise.

-But it’s when Dabi responds to his irritated retort with a more firm, “No- do you remember me?” that Endeavor halts in his tracks a little bit. He’s not entirely sure what this creepy asshole is going for, but it’s setting him on edge, like there’s something in this situation that he has missed observing.

-And, for starters, he’s missed seeing the film crew behind him, although he will notice them eventually. 

-But then this criminal starts talking about his children. Shouto, Natsuo, Fuyumi. He talks about how Shouto was kept separate from them, how he isolated the other two like they were never good enough, how he pushed his youngest so hard, the boy cried himself to sleep every night. Dabi starts listing events, scenarios, as if he gave a shit about them, as if he was there-

-And that’s when it clicks.

-When it does, he just outright cuts the other man off, a scowl working its way onto his face, disgust curdling in his gut. Part of him can’t believe it, that his long lost son has returned to him in the form of a ghoul, and the other part doesn’t accept it at all.

- “You’re not Touya.”

-At first, Dabi stares at him incredulously and starts to laugh, because how the hell could he not be, given the list of offences he just spouted off, but Endeavor corrects him, voice chillingly cold. “You might’ve been, but you’re not anymore. I gave you that name, and I can just as easily take it away. I set you up for greatness, and you chose this?!”

-The rage is bubbling over now, and the look on Dabi’s face has gone from one of irritated humour to a sheer blank slate. “You’re not my son. No family of mine would be so weak as to fall into villainy.”

-And, well, that line basically digs his grave for him, because from out of the shadows steps Rei Todoroki, and in the ways her eyes are blazing, one could’ve sworn she’d stolen Endeavour’s Hellfire right out of his hands.

-Instantaneously, half of Japan is losing their collective shit. In the span of six whole hours, Endeavor’s been exposed, Touya Todoroki is back from the dead (and is, as it turns out, one of the most prominent LOV members), and Endeavor’s wife has not only escaped the hospital she was admitted in, but has apparently sided with the villains as well? And this is all being filmed on live television?

-Every building with a functional TV is tuned in. Hawks is in line for coffee when he catches sight of the news channel and decides he’s going to slow down for once in his life, and not take it to go. Natsuo is watching the whole thing go down while munching on a bowl of cereal in his apartment, and as shocking as the whole situation is, it’s immensely satisfying as well.

-Shouto Todoroki watches from the dorm common room, and nobody knows what to say.

-And let’s just talk about Aizawa for a moment, shall we?

-Aizawa is a stoic man of few words, and even fewer needs in life. He’s simple, pragmatic, a slightly pessimistic rationalist through experience, and pretty laid back as far as most things go.

-But you don’t ever fuck around with his students.

-If anyone is going to react poorly about this, it is Shouta Aizawa, hands down. Unlike Hawks, Aizawa has never looked up to Endeavor as a hero. He’s never even liked the guy. And therefore, he has nothing to lose when his manageable contempt for the hero escalates to seering, undiluted hatred. Aizawa does not have a fuck to give; Endeavor just made it onto his shit-list.

-And the worst part of it is that he didn’t really suspect anything. He probably would’ve assumed that Endeavor was hard on his son, but he would never have guessed even remotely close to everything that’s been uncovered. And this is Shouto, Shouto who is always so polite and aloof, and so eerily unshakable for a boy his age.

-Hell, his classmates just got him to partake in his first Disney marathon four days ago, and he couldn’t stop grinning all the way through Frozen. The boy’s made so much progress in being here, has been finally opening up and making friends- but now he’s staring blankly at the TV screen while the news feeds roll, and Aizawa is literally quaking he is so pissed off. 

-So while the rest of his students gather somewhat uncomfortably in the common room, watching the television with wide eyes, all of them clearly trying to decide between going to comfort the youngest Todoroki and leaving him be, Aizawa walks in with an extra blanket and two mugs of tea and just… Chills with him? The rest of the class is shook.

-And Aizawa doesn’t say anything either. He just gestures towards the TV and asks if Todoroki would like it left on, and when the boy gives him a silent nod back, he’s content to leave it at that. 

-Gradually, the rest of class 1-A begins to gather as well, quietly collecting around their shaken classmate. The couch is not near big enough for all of them, but they make it work.

-Midoriya’s curled into Todoroki’s other side, Iida and Uraraka sitting by his feet on the floor. Surprisingly enough, Bakugou chooses to stand, but directly behind where Todoroki’s seated on the sofa, hovering at his back and looking silently livid, which is even worse than when he’s loud. There’s students gathered around on the floor, standing like the blond, sitting on the arm of the couch like Kaminari is perched. 

-And it’s bad enough going through the Endeavor twist, but when Dabi reveals himself as Touya, Todoroki just blanches. There’s a million things running across his face all at once, and half of them are crushed. 

-Even Aizawa doesn’t really know how to react to that, and the room falls into a hushed silence until Bakugou finally speaks up.

- “I can’t believe your fucking brother kidnapped me, Icy Hot.”

-And then suddenly, noise. Kirishima is squawking and smacking Bakugou’ arm and telling him not to be insensitive, and Midoriya is overanalyzing, and Aoyama’s saying something about the woods and the Summer Camp attack, but nobody can really hear him-

-And over it all, Todoroki is laughing. It’s not an entirely wholehearted laugh, but it’s a laugh nonetheless. 

-When Rei steps up, though, that laughter fades quickly. Suddenly, Shouto Todoroki is four years old again, watching his mother face his raging inferno of a father, and all the previous boisterous life in the room gets sucked out at the sight.

-Throughout all of this, Aizawa’s been trying to keep his distance somewhat. Shouto’s never been a very affectionate student or individual in general, and neither is the erasing-quirk hero. But seeing how tiny and frail his student appears, shrinking in on himself as the drama keeps unfolding- well, Shouta doesn’t hesitate to put a comforting arm over the boy’s shoulders, noting with approval that Midoriya has snagged one of Todoroki’s hands as well, and is trying to keep him grounded.

-He gets a few notifications that he’s being paged to head out onto the scene, but he ignores them. Aizawa’s priorities are and always have been his students. If some other hero cares enough about hauling Endeavor’s ass out of trouble, they can rush in and help him, but Aizawa’s never been shy about making his opinions clear. He’s right where he needs to be, and he’s not moving.

-Rei is not afraid.

-That’s the first thing she realizes when she makes a move to stand by Touya, and sees Enji’s eyes widen in disbelief. She has stood in this exact position so many times, has stood before this man on too many occasions to be afraid of the wrath in his eyes. She is not afraid, she has evened the playing field, and she will not let him break her again.

-The worst part of the whole thing isn’t even seeing him again, meeting like this with the remains of a shattered family falling down around them. The worst part is that he sees her, narrows his eyes, and tells her to get out of the way. The first words out of his mouth are an order, same as they’ve always been. And right now? She has no intention of complying. Never again.

-When she doesn’t move, he repeats himself, angrier this time. He’s pouring flames, a spectacle that would have instilled her with enough terror ten years ago to do whatever he said, and not speak a word. But as she sees Endeavor winding up to attack, eyes fixed on Touya, the young man, her boy, reaching out to pull her behind him-

-Endeavor lunges. Rei shoves. Dabi ends up on the ground well out of harm’s way, and for a moment, the world stops on its axis.

-Enji Todoroki did not bribe over an entire family to win a woman with a run-of-the-mill ice quirk. Were that the case, he never would have wasted his time. Rei was a meek woman with a powerful ability that she barely used, and never in extremes; a little bit of frost to cool a juicebox, a cool hand to soothe a scrape.

-So when an absolutely terrifying, guttural roar of a sentence reaches him, seconds before thousands of pounds worth of ice go shooting up in a very obviously threatening display of power, he’s inclined to stop dead. 

- “Don’t you dare touch my son.”

- Rei’s teeth are clenched, eyes hard, hands still braced to fight. The exertion of putting up so much ice hasn’t even seemed to affect her, a simple flick of the finger compared to the full-handed slap she could deliver.

-For once, Endeavor hesitates.

- “You won’t lay a damned hand on him,” She hisses, and a collection of icicles shoot forward at her words, though they stop a good four meters away from where he stands, “I’ll never let you do that again. Because you were right about one thing, Enji- he’s not your son. He’s mine. Natsuo, Shouto, Fuyumi, Touya; they are all my children. You haven’t done a single thing in this life to deserve them.”

-Endeavor sputters at this, but only for a second before Rei’s ice is growing again, eyes cold and dangerous.

-He manages some kind of threat about having her rehospitalized, still unsure how it happened that she was out in the first place. Rei’s smile is not a pleasant one.

- “I don’t recommend you try that.” She says quietly, and in seconds, there’s ice everywhere, Rei unleashing her powers for the first time in well over twenty-five years. It shoots up in an enormous plume, cutting itself short before reaching the reporting camera crew, but forcing Endeavor to leap out of the way and scramble to safety.

-Rei and Dabi slip away in the confusion, regrouping with the league who were hoping to see some more general ass-kicking, but greatly appreciated the display nonetheless.

-And across the rest of Japan, people notice. Hawks chokes on his coffee when the ice flares up, stunned to disbelief that sweet little Rei, who had been so careful preening out his bad feathers that time he got stuck in a storm, was effortlessly capable of this. Natsuo drops his bowl, Shouto sits agape. None of them have ever seen Rei use her powers to her full capability, and the effect is stunning. 

- “That explains… A great deal.” Aizawa mumbles eventually, voice barely audible over one Katsuki Bakugou shouting “Fuck yeah!” at the top of his lungs from behind the sofa, very nearly scaring Midoriya off the couch. The news roll continues, but there’s nothing more to see aside from Endeavor shouting at a group of heroes that have arrived suspiciously late.

- “I… Yeah, I guess so.” Todoroki manages. It’s overwhelming, all of it, and while he has a billion questions in his mind, there’s one that sticks out more than the others: what on earth does all of this mean for them now?

What this means is that I guess we’re doing a part three now too, because I don’t know how to cut things short. Sorry guys. Thanks for the support, if you’ve read this far, and hopefully I’ll have some new content up for you all soon!

[letsyesnomaybe]

Never Gonna Wanna Let Me Go | Part 6

Zayn Malik is one of the highest paid escorts in London. He’s good at his job, he knows this. But it’s not his chosen field, it’s easy money so he can have a chance to pursue his chosen field without becoming homeless. His employer Caroline has many rules to keep him safe but Zayn only has one ‘Don’t Get Attached’. Of course, there was always going to be one, the guy who would come in to the picture and make Zayn’s easy job almost impossible.

Liam Payne. Twenty Six. Made his money by inheriting his father’s music business after he passed away. Quite well known so expect publicity. Wants a pretty face on his arm to cover the events he has to attend while in town on business. Make sure he knows if he wants extra he has to pay. You’ve got your usual expenses on your card, don’t go overboard like last time. I mean it, Malik! Your share for the weekend will go in your account on Monday when you’ve done your job.

Love you babes, stay safe, C x

Part 1, 2 ,3, 4 & 5  (also on ao3)

“I can’t, I’m sorry.” 

Those were the last words Louis had breathed before he’d walked out of the hotel room and out of Zayn’s life. He was eighteen and heartbroken and he swore from that day, he’d never let another person break him the way Louis had. 

“It’s worse than it was then,” Harry whispers to Niall, when he thinks he’s out of Zayn’s hearing. “He was heartbroken over Louis but this, it feels like it’s so much more.” 

“He’s a smart lad,” Niall would always reply. “He knows what he’s doing.” 

Harry would always sigh, as if it wasn’t the answer he wanted to pacify his worry over his best friend. He’d always come to Zayn afterwards, curl up next to where he was binge watching the walking dead or spread out on the floor of the art room, to watch him paint. 

Zayn knows he’s trying to be a good friend but now he’s not working, there’s no escape. It’s twenty four seven Harry and as much as he loves the lad, it’s a little too much of him to handle. 

It’s been four days since he left Liam at the cabin (not that he’s counting) and quit his job with Caroline. It takes Niall and Harry’s usual morning activity to push him out of the house. 

He only goes twenty minutes down the road, to their local café and tucks himself at the back with his laptop, hoping to get some graphics done that he could sell to local business for a tiny bit of income. 

But he’s barely there ten minutes when intrusive thoughts lead him down a different path than intended. 

He’s a glutton for punishment, he thinks, as he googles Louis’ name and gets greeted with thousands of articles about him and Stella because they had recently announced they were expecting a baby boy. 

Zayn slams to laptop shut when he sees a cosy photo of them in Paris where they’d travelled to the night of his championship win for a little R&R. 

He decided to head back to the flat, hoping the hour he had been out of said flat would be enough time for his friends to get done with their activities. 

The moment he steps foot back in his apartment, all he can think about is Louis, he can’t get those stupid blue eyes and curled smile out of his mind. 

Which is probably why the moment he gets to his room, he absolutely rips it apart, trying to find one particular thing. 

He finds it tucked in the very back of the draws he keeps his hoodies and he has to give it a hard tug from where it had managed to jam itself in the corners of the drawer. 

When he finally gets the little brown envelope out from inside the drawer, a polaroid falls out on to the floor. When he picks it up he’s greeted by the image of two grinning boys. Two young lads who don’t know the world yet and had no idea of the pain they were about to cause one another.

The only other thing in the envelope is a key to an apartment that Zayn had never visited.

‘I want you to have a place where you’re safe,’ Louis had said. ‘It’s yours, for whenever you’re ready.’

“Zayn?!” Harry calls out suddenly. 

Zayn shoves the key and polaroid back in the envelope and tucks them it back where it was. 

“Z?!” Harry calls again, only this time closer. 

“I’m here.” Zayn calls back. 

Harry’s head pops around Zayn’s bedroom door and he gives him curious eyes. 

“What?” Zayn asks sharply, which he instantly regrets when Harry’s lips twitch in a way they only do when he’s upset. 

“Liam’s here,” Harry tells him softly. “I said he was only allowed to see you, if you wanted him to. If not, then me and Ni will throw him out.” 

“I’d quite like to see you try and throw him out.” Zayn teases. 

“I’m stronger than you think, Malik.” Harry retorts and a big smile graces his lips, the earlier hurt easily forgotten. “So, shall I send him down?” 

Zayn nods his head but before Harry can leave, he calls after him. 

“Yes, darling?” Harry asks, the grin still gracing his lips. 

“Don’t stick around to listen, okay?” Zayn pleads. “It’s probably not going to be nice but I’m good, yeah?” 

Harry looks curious but nods his agreement before continuing out of the room. 

Zayn doesn’t know what to do with himself and he’s spends so much time fretting over if he should sit or stand that he’s still stood dumbly in the middle of the room when Liam appears in it. 

“I thought you wouldn’t see me.” Liam admits as greeting. 

Zayn shrugs and tucks his shaking his hands in to his pockets because if he’s honest, he thought he wouldn’t see Liam again, not in person anyway. 

“I’ll get straight to the point then.” Liam decides and rustles around in the back pocket of his jeans for a few seconds. 

Zayn raises his eyebrows because his curiosity is slightly peaked and if it is something painful, at least he’ll be amused when he has to call Harry back for him and Niall to attempt to throw Liam out. 

“I was packing my things and this fell out of my bag,” Liam explains and holds out the drawing Zayn had done in the hotel room. “It’s me, isn’t it?”

Zayn stares down at the crumpled paper that contains a real life drawing of a heart that he’d converted in to a home.

“I thought it was about Penny,” Liam admits. “I thought it was your way of saying that the people we loose will always have a home in our hearts. But that’s not the meaning behind it, is it?”

Zayn looks to him and then back to the drawing.

“Is it?” Liam asks a little more desperate.

“It’s whatever you want it to be.” Zayn tells him and tries to hand the drawing back.

Liam snatches it from his hand. “That’s bullshit.”

“I can’t tell you what the drawing means to you, Liam.” Zayn says with a shrug.

“I don’t care what it means to me,” Liam argues. “I want to know what it means to you. Why did you draw it?”

“I draw a lot of things that have no meaning.” Zayn replies and folds his arms.

Harry snorts loudly from the other room.

“I told you to fuck off, Styles.” Zayn shouts at him.

There’s a scramble and then a loud crash before the door to Zayn’s room opens and Niall’s head pops in.

“We’re heading out,” He informs Zayn. “If you need us then give us a ring, yeah?”

Zayn drags his fingers through his hair and nods his head.

“If Liam was going to kill him I’m sure us being here wouldn’t stop him.” Niall shouts at Harry as he must lead him out of the flat.

Liam steps towards Zayn as the sound of the front door closing echoes through the flat.

“Did you draw this because you’re trying to tell me you’re letting me in to the only place that’s yours to protect?” He asks. “The last place you’re allowed to call the shots on who comes and goes.”

Zayn stares at the crumpled paper in Liam’s hand. “It’s just a drawing.”

“I know Louis was let in and he didn’t treat it well but we’re not the same people, Zayn.” Liam tries.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Zayn scoffs.

“What don’t I get?” Liam pleads.

“He trashed the place but you still broke the windows,” Zayn replies and moves away from Liam’s touch. “You both lost your right to the key, the way you went about it doesn’t matter.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Liam tells.

‘I’m not trying to hurt you,’ Louis echoes in his head. ‘I love you, Malik, maybe not in the same way but I still want to take care of you--’

“Shut up!” Zee cries.

Liam hushes him like he’s a small child throwing a tantrum. “It’s okay, Z, you’re okay.” 

The nickname cuts Zayn deep and he takes a step back, to put space between him and Liam. 

“What did Louis tell you?” He asks, thanking the heavens above that his voice holds out and doesn’t crack. 

“He told he that he was a dickhead who really hurt you,” Liam explains. “He shouldn’t have done what he did, you didn’t deserve to be treated like that.” 

“Did he tell you that I was barely an adult when we met,” Zee starts because the anger he’s been harbouring for the past six years is finally bubbling over. “I was a kid and his manager used to pay me to fuck him because he was terrified Louis would be one of the braves ones and would come out and then he wouldn’t see as well.” 

“That’s disgusting.” Liam decides. 

“Right?” Zee agrees and then laughs but it’s not joyful, it’s pained. “We used to talk about it, after the fucking was done. We’d talk for hours about how much of a dickhead his manager was and how homophobic his chosen career path was.” 

Liam looks sad like it was something he’d already been told but Zayn’s too far gone, he’s finally letting him relive the memories he’d buried deep for so many ears. 

“Falling in love with him was so easy,” Zayn decides. “Christ, he only had to suck my dick good once and make me laugh a few times and I was gone.” 

‘I’m not gay,’ Louis’ voice echoes in his head. ‘It was like shagging a mate, there weren’t any feelings involved, I’m sorry’. 

Zayn should have known really, they never really kissed and when the sex was done they wouldn’t touch. They would share a blunt and talk about fixing the world but the conversation never really went deeper than that, they never really got to know each other past the obvious. 

He knows now, what it’s like to shag a bi guy who leans more in favour of girls. Louis could get hard for a guy, he can find men attractive but for some reason when it comes to anything more than physical, his brain won’t let him get passed it. 

He remembers being so cruel when Louis had finally ended it, he’d told him he was as bad as the people who had forced them together in the first place and the hurt expression Louis had given him following that outburst still haunts him to this day. 

But he knows now, Louis was a kid himself, he was trying to figure out himself too. It was sad that he had to use Zayn to do it but Zayn doesn’t resent him, not for that anyway. 

“Zayn?” Liam asks softly, after a silence had fallen over them for quite a long time. 

“I need you to leave,” Zayn decides because he’s about to break apart all over again and he doesn’t want Liam here for that. “Can you leave, please?” 

“That’s what you want?” Liam checks. 

Zayn nods his head but can’t lift it to meet the younger lad’s eyes. 

“Alright,” Liam agrees  “I’ve got a plane to catch anyway.” 

“You’re going to LA?” Zayn asks, finally looking up. 

Liam nods, looking hopeful. “The offer is still there for you to come with me?” 

“What as this time?” Zayn replies spitefully. “Can’t be much left on the roaster, right?” 

Liam nods, taking the hit because he must know he deserves it. “Well, it’s there if you want it, I’m sure Caroline has Amara’s number, she can book you a flight, if you change your mind.” 

“I don’t work for Caroline anymore,” Zayn informs him, though he’s not sure why he has a need for Liam to know that information. “But I won’t be needing Amara’s number so I suppose it doesn’t matter.” 

“You don’t work for Caroline anymore?” Liam asks shocked. 

Zayn shrugs.

“Why?” Liam pushes. 

Zayn shrugs again and drops his gaze to Liam’s stupid air max trainers, they’re the most recently released ones and it’s just a reminder of how much money is in this guy’s bank account. 

“Why, Z?” Liam pleads this time. 

“Because I’m done,” Zayn answers finally and looks back up to meet Liam’s eyes. “It’s my turn to call the shots over my body and life.” 

Liam steps forward tentatively. “Come to LA with me?” 

“You can’t buy me anymore, Liam.” Zayn reminds him. 

“I don’t want to,” Liam promises. “I want you come willingly, I want you to come because you want to, I want you to come because...” 

“What?” Zayn demands when the sentence trails off. 

“I think I’m in love with you,” Liam concludes. “You’re so fucking much, Zayn. You’re too much and I probably don’t deserve you but if you were willing to give me a shot I’d really hope you could fall in love with me too.” 

“It’s been one week.” Zayn says a little breathless because he wasn’t expecting love. 

“My sister always said I went in to things heart first with my head taking a long time to follow,” Liam admits and reaches up to rub at the back of his neck. “She said it what made me such a good song writer but it has led to a lot of heartbreak in my lifetime, I’ll admit.” 

Zayn lets that information sink in to his brain and realise he’d spent a lot of their time together, putting a lot of his past traumas on to this boy, all because of who had made their interaction happen. He’d never thought there would be a chance that while he was so focused on his own haunting memories, the beautiful boy he’d been spending his time with might have been returning his feelings. 

“It was her on the phone.” Liam tells him. 

“What?” Zayn asks confused. 

“It was Roo, my sister, she was who I was talking to when you overheard the conversation.” Liam explains. “She worries a lot, if I told her I was with you at the cabin, I would have got a lecture.” 

“Because you were falling in love with a prostitute?” Zayn asks because hearing that conversation had still hurt him. 

“I rang her on my way back from Scotland,” Liam continues with a sad smile. “She called me an idiot, said I had my very own pretty woman moment and I’d been the idiot who had let it go.” 

“If you’d tried to climb up out fire escape you would have probably died.” Zayn admits. “It’s not safe, at all.” 

Liam looks very confused by that response. 

“You really need to watch the damn film if you’re going to reference it, Liam.” Zayn says frustrated. 

“We could watch it on the plane to LA?” Liam suggests. “I have a meeting with Simmons but I was thinking there might be a few studios we could check out.” 

“I don’t--” 

“Want my money,” Liam finishes for him. “I know, I thought about that--the hour long flight back from Scotland was a long one, okay? I had a lot of time to plan and think.” 

Zayn nods for him to explain his idea. 

“I’ll buy a studio,” Liam starts and when he’s sure Zayn isn’t going to interrupt. “Then when your art starts making money, you can pay me rent for that studio.” 

“It’ll be at a discounted price?” Zayn guesses. 

“I could think of another form of payment.” Liam jokes, it’s a bad one considering how they met. 

Zayn frowns. 

“It was a joke,” Liam assures him. “It’ll of course be at a discounted price but I don’t even know if it’ll have to be, I’ve seen your art, Z. The kids in LA, they’re going to lap that shit up, lots of rich trust fund kids have nothing better to do than pretend they understand your art.” 

Zayn snorts. “Great, I’ll be pouring my heart and sole in to pieces for them to be hung up in rooms of rich college kids so they can stare at them to stop themselves coming to quick.” 

“If you don’t like that idea,” Liam says quickly. “We have a design team at the label, they work with artists for like album covers and posters and shit. They could really do with an artist like you, someone to think outside the box.” 

“You really have thought this over.” Zayn observes. 

Liam nods his head several times. “The minute you left the cabin, I couldn’t think of anything but how to get you back.” 

“You love me?” Zayn checks again. 

Liam nods, the smile Zayn adores taking over his face completely. “I love you.” 

“Fuck,” Zayn replies and finally closes the gap between them. “I think I love you too.” 

“You do?” Liam asks, worrying his lip between his teeth. 

Zayn reaches his hand up to tug it out. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” Liam replies. 

Zayn’s the one who leans in and seals it with a kiss but Liam’s the one who slips a hand around his back to tug their bodies completely together, not an inch of them not touching. 

They stand like that for the longest time until Harry and Niall’s overpowering personas fill the apartment again. 

Zayn breaks the LA news to Harry softly but it’s Liam who makes the news easier for his best friend by promising to fly them both out whenever they want for however long they want. 

Harry still looks a bit reluctant but it’s one simple gesture that has an easy smile pulling at his lips and it’s Liam kissing Zayn on the cheek before he gets up to help Niall make a round of teas. The moment a happy smile pulls at Zayn’s lips, it mirrors on his best friends and like that he knows he’s got his blessing. 

[larougie]

caffeine stains and library books

genre: college/coffee shop au

pairing(s): bang chan

word count: 3.2k

description: With college kicking your ass, what exactly are you meant to do, when you spill that fifth cup of coffee over that very. Very. Expensive textbook. Apparently he didn’t have any good ideas either.

Finals were going to be the death of you.

You were seriously considering the option of dropping out and just working in a supermarket for the rest of your life, and it had gotten to the point where breaking into the office for the test answers wasn't seeming like such a bad idea. You'd been renting a tiny studio apartment for the last two years, but the limited floor space was currently overtaken by piles and piles of notebooks and loose sheets of paper with rushed notes scribbled over them. Your old textbooks with folder corners and bashed ends were all stacked against the wall in a corner beside your bed, and you only took one out from the pile at a time. Those books were worth more than your life at this point, and you swore to yourself that you’d never lose them. But currently, the one book you were poring over wasn’t even yours. 

Eventually, you knew that the rent payments and college fees would catch up with you - especially considering your current lack of employment - but you had hoped that your bank account would hold out until after the final exams and until you could go job hunting in the summer break. As fate would have it, it was a little bitch, and you had no such luck. You had a few options before you had to start selling kidneys, but none of them seemed appealing and you simply just did not possess enough hours in the day. Of course, there was always one major expense on your debit card every month, but you weren't sure if you were ready to give that one up.

Turns out, you were perfectly content to use textbooks borrowed from the library and return them after the exams, as long as it meant that you didn’t have to stop going to the little cute coffee shop a few minutes off campus. You spent most days frequenting that cafe, sitting in the corner with your old laptop and the borrowed books, sipping on a coffee way too hot for your taste buds. Now, when you had called your best friend, asking for advice on what to do because you were about to lose your apartment, he had, of course offered the logical solution of - Stop spending so much money on coffee. 

But you had a dilemma. 

See, you told Minho that you studied in the corner of the cafe because the atmosphere was calm, it helped you focus, and to not buy a coffee would be incredibly rude, but he knows you very well. Too well, actually, it's quite terrifying sometimes. You definitely weren't going to the coffee shop to stare at the cute barista who had been working there for the past few months, that was definitely not why you were spending extra, unnecessary money on coffee. Or, that's what you tried to convince Minho of at least.

It wasn't a one sided infatuation though, and that was your saving grace in this situation. You'd been dropping into this specific cafe for about a year now, after trying all around the campus to find a decent cup of coffee that wasn't overloaded with sugar. Even before the barista boy had added himself into the mix, you knew that this was going to become a regular addiction, and his addition to the staff only cemented that fact. You really wish you had the guts to ask his name, because he already knows yours. However the universe worked, he always seemed to be working when you came in at random hours of the day, and he always seemed happy to take your order at the register. Give it a few weeks, and as soon as you entered the cafe through the small door, he was ringing up your coffee on the machines behind him. You were his “regular”, as the other staff members liked to tease him. 

Sometimes, when the cafe quiets down in the later hours of the evening, he’ll still be working and you’ll still be typing up that essay that was due in a few hours. He’ll put on some music from his phone, and put it into a small glass to amplify the sound so you could hear it. The first time he’d done it, he’d been constantly checking back at you to see if the volume was annoying you or if you were looking at him. To be honest, at first the music did distract you a little bit, but you were too enamoured with the way the boy danced quietly to the music as he cleaned down the tables to ask him to turn it off. 

Soon enough, most of the songs he played you had made their way onto your study playlist. You put your earbuds in and listened to the music as you studied in the cafe, and when the barista turned on his own playlist - only then would you remove them. He’d always catch you staring at him as the cafe began to empty, the unspoken question of “are you going to put your music on soon?”

You’d always turn bright red when he caught you staring, and look away so fast it should have given you whiplash. You figured that he never approached you about it because it was too awkward of a topic and you had made him feel too uncomfortable. The truth was, he did want to talk to you, but he had neither a reason nor the confidence to stroll up and strike a conversation. He had noticed that one of the textbooks you often dragged with you to the corner looked oddly familiar, but he guessed it was because he had taken that class as a junior last year, and shoved the thought to the back of his mind.

You were five or six cups of pure caffeine into the study session, and before you looked up you already could tell it was getting too dark for three pm. As you lifted your eyes from the screen in front of you for the first time in a while, and rolled your head back onto your shoulders, your wandering eyes caught sight of the time displayed on your laptop. Oh. Oh. The cafe is closed now. Had been for about twenty minutes. You turned your head quickly around the shop, looking for people and found no one. You wondered why no member of staff had come up to you yet asking you to kindly leave the building, but they all seemed to be preoccupied behind the kitchen doors. Seeing an ideal time for an unnoticed escape, you packed up all your things in record time, shoving them haphazardly into your bag and bolted out that door. The chime might have alerted the staff to someone leaving, but by the time anyone had made it to the front counter to see the door - you were long gone.

Pulling an all nighter was never a fun proposition, but you undertook the task more often than you’d like to admit. See, your reasoning behind that was Procrastination was key to a passing grade, and, yes, so far that certain theory hasn't failed you, but it was definitely taking a toll on your mental health. But, you dug your own grave, time to lie in it.

You take it back, you hate this. It's four am. What's the treble clef. Tchaikovsky is that you. All the notes are one big long line. Minho send assistance. 

Its official, university is going to kill you and tonight is the night you finally keel over. Rubbing your eyes you roll back the chair you've been curled up in and lift your arms to stretch over your head- 

Your hand hit something. Probably a pencil. Or that water bottle. You lifted one eyelid slowly, peering at the offending object. Oh the coffee mug, yeah that makes sense you don't drink water. The coffee mug that was now slowly pouring the cold brown liquid over the textbook that was open at the top of your desk. The textbook that you couldn’t afford to buy yourself because you were a broke college student and rent and living expenses took priority. 

It took a moment to register.

Oh no. oh christ, you had to return this back to the library in a few days - you couldn’t pay another late fee! The lady at the library desk really didn't like you, and always seemed to go out of her way to make you pay the full fee, despite you showing her your student ID multiple times. It was probably because you never returned books on time, but that was beside the point, isn't she meant to be understanding? You were a uni student for crying out loud, the stress. 

The point was, you had now completely destroyed a very, very expensive textbook that you didn’t have the money to replace - the words were bleeding into each other and slowly becoming illegible right before your eyes. The librarian was going to hang your head from the archway. You re-iterate, college was going to kill you. Just maybe, not in the way you expected.

Picking up the phone, you frantically press on the first contact you see.

“Minho?”

“Sup dumbass.”

“I’d bitch at you, but it's fitting for the situation, help me. Please.”

“... Who’s dead.”

“NO ONE’S DEAD I JUST- murdered a very expensive textbook that I don’t have the money to replace, and the librarian is signing my death warrant.”

Minho sucked in a breath from the other end of the phone. “Eesh y/n, you sure it wasn’t one of those loan-on-loan books from the last shelf?”

You press the phone between your shoulder and your ear, snagging the paper between your fingers and pulling the hard-bound book towards yourself. You pushed the pens and pencils out of your way and sent them scattering onto the floor in your haste, and flipped to the back of the cover to see the words On Student Loan.

“About that,” you mumbled, crumpling your head into your hands as the phone clattered to the desk beside you. You could hear Minho laughing on the other end, and you huffed to yourself. “I called you to give me advice, you horrible person, not to lauGH at my misery.”

“Okay okay I,” Minho tried to catch his breath, coughing slightly, “It's not the end of the world, is it? It's a Library book. Explain it to the lady at the desk, I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“Sure, Min. Thanks.”

“No problem, babes.”

“Ew no.”

“Whatever babes.”

You hung up the phone with a sigh, and let your head hit the desk again, before yelping as the wood left a red mark on your skin. It couldn’t have been just a normal library book? The universe has to hate you right now? No, instead it had to be one of those stupid textbooks that seniors lent to the library from past courses for the younger years to borrow. It was someone else’s book. That they had bought and studied from, and were expecting to get back from the library once the year was over. In the top corner of the stamp, the senior’s name who gave it to the library was printed - Bang Chan.

That was familiar, wasn’t it? You had heard that name being called out around somewhere, by a group of boys. You rattled your brain around, trying to think where you had heard that name before - you knew it sounded like you’d heard it before. In your lectures, on the roll? No, he was a senior and he wouldn’t be in any of your classes. Around on campus wouldn’t make any sense, you walked around with music on all the time, you couldn’t hear when people called your own name out, let alone anyone else’s. 

In the? Cafe? Possible. Very possible. Well, it's worth a shot, he could be a friend of someone who works there. 

What you planned to do once you had found this Bang Chan is beyond you, but you had a general idea of apologizing profusely, attempting to stutter out an explanation between that and tossing in a promise to repay him for destroying it but just not right then because you didn’t have money, hence why you can’t just buy your own textbook and not borrow ones from the library. Hopefully, he’d be a nice enough guy and won’t take your destruction of his music book to heart. Hopefully. 

So, come the next morning, you took one last long look at the destroyed pile of papers held together on your table - still waiting to wake up from this nightmare - and left your apartment with your bag swung over your shoulder. You locked the door behind you, and began the short walk into your first hour of lectures. 

You knew you couldn’t get to the cafe before two pm, but that didn’t stop you from checking the clock every few minutes to see if there was a chance you could dag out of the hall. Five past one turned into ten past two, and by the time your lecturer was finishing up her last slide you were already turning off your laptop and putting it away into your bag. 

Your heart was in your mouth as you walked slowly up to the cafe. You didn’t even know why you were so nervous, but you guessed it was just because of a guilty conscience. Pushing open the door slowly, you looked up from your shoes and instantly made eye contact with the one, the only. Barista boy. 

Great, this is going to be embarrassing. 

Swallowing your pride, and your slight disappointment that your first real conversation with the guy is going to be about looking to find another boy, you began to move up towards the counter where he was standing.

“Your usual?” He asked, with a small smile.

“I, uh. No actually, I was wondering. Do you know if - of, sorry, of. Do you know of a Bang Chan, by any chance? I think he studies music in my university.” Your hands were fumbling with each other in front of your hoodie.

The boy in front of you furrowed his brow slightly and tilted his head, stating “Present?”

Oh cool, you destroyed a cute barista boy’s textbook who is actually Chan, the guy you’ve been looking for is the guy you’ve been thirsting over. Great stuff. That's the end of you. Rip in pieces.

After that, you started blabbering out everything. Word vomit, and no stomach medication was stopping this. 

“Christ okay, this is gonna sound absolutely horrible, but did you lend one of your music theory textbooks to the library by any chance? Well, heh, of course you did, I have it and I was using it for a while - like for study not for anything else that would be weird - I’m a music major you see, and I - the textbooks are really expensive this year? And I just couldn't afford them with my rent as well but you obviously don’t care about that bit-”

He put up a hand to stop you, and you took a deep breath. Softly, he said, “Yeah, I remember I left some of my older textbooks in the library because I didn’t need them for notes anymore. Is there a problem with one of them?”

You stop. 

“Well, yes? Technically? But it's totally my fault - you see, a few night ago i kinda, totally on accident destroyed the book when I spilt coffee over it, and I’m so sorry, i really am and I promise I’ll find the money to repay you for the book, I just don’t have that kind of cash on me right now, I’m so sorry.”

Chan pursed his lips, looking at you with his head lifted up slightly. He chuckled softly. Oh boy he’s so mad, there went your chance at dating the cute barista boy, because newsflash he’s going to hate you for the rest of your life and, you looked again at his face. He was smiling now. The small lips had broken into a beaming smile that spread across his face like sunshine on a stupidly adorable field of flowers. 

“You know i've been waiting for a reason to talk to you for the last few weeks.”

His voice broke the rushing of your thoughts around your head, and you flipped your eyes up to meet his in shock.

“So now it kinda seems like you owe me a favour right?”

Words. Come on words.

“Uh, yeah i guess? I'll have the money for you as soon as possible. I promise I'm so sorry-” you stammered out, clearly confused by the situation but still extremely grateful that he was taking the news of his mutilated music book so well.

“It's okay! Seriously, I never used that thing anyway. But instead of paying me back for the book, how about we say you just - owe me a favour?”

Your bank account screamed at you to say yes, so you did.

“Uh, sure?”

When you said you'd owe him a favor, this isn’t what you had meant. 

“CHAN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU.”

He only laughs at your threats, running around the back of the sofa and tossing a pillow at your face to block your view. You bat it away in frustration, rejoining the chase, and your socks skid on the wooden flooring as you slide around the furniture in pursuit of your assailant. Chan runs into the bedroom and closes the door, you hot on his heels and you reach the door seconds after it clicks shut. As you slam open the door, and skid into the room, you stop in your tracks. You survey your surroundings, looking for any indication of where the menace could be hiding. The curtains twitch from the wind coming through the open window, and you shift your stance to face the billowing fabric. When your guard is down, he takes his chance. 

With a strangled battle cry, Chan leaps out from behind the door and tackles you down in one swift movement. You fall with an ungraceful yelp onto your bedsheets, banging your knee on the foot of the bed as you tumble into a heap. You land on your back, the breath knocked out of you as Chan sits triumphantly atop your legs, pinning them down. He smiles down at you like the angel that he is. 

Staring amusedly back up at him, you jerk your uninjured knee, flipping the two of you over so you were on top and he was staring up at you. You tilt your head, and smile at him like he had smiled at you, and the two of you break out into laughter.

“You made me hurt my knee.”

“I didn't make you do anything.”

“Wow, such care. Such emotion. Much love. Not even an offer to kiss it better.”

“I think i have a better idea.”

 Yeah, maybe this wasn't exactly what you had in mind, but by god, was it a million times better.

You still had that library book by the way. It was sitting underneath your desk, caffeine stains and all.

[eternalstereksecretsanta]

love letters straight from your heart

For the lovely @poetry-protest-pornography, who listed one of their favorite tropes as “doing something nice for the other and getting caught.” although this didn’t quite turn out to be that, I hope you enjoy anyway ♥

It seemed like a good idea at the time. How much of Stiles’ life was shaped by those words? But this? This was probably one of the worst decisions he had ever made.

After two years of living in the dorms, Stiles was faced with a choice. Either find some people to get a shitty apartment with, or move back home. Between nightmares and training with Deaton, moving back to Beacon Hills made the most sense. The commute was only an hour and he had managed to schedule his on-campus classes to meet only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Everything else he could take online.

But he just had to go complaining about moving back in with his dad to Derek over the summer. In his defense, he never expected Derek to offer his spare room. Because Derek had a house now. A very nice house. And a job.

Honestly, the idea of living somewhere he could be independent, yet still see his dad whenever he wanted was too good to pass up. But now, standing in the fancy kitchen and staring at the yellow sticky note on the coffee maker, he couldn’t help but feel that he’d made a mistake.

DO YOUR OWN DISHES, spelled out in Derek’s blocky hand writing stared back at him. Stiles sighed, scrunching up the yellow square and setting it beside his mug. It was the fifth note he’d found in as many days. One in the bathroom (PICK UP YOUR TOWELS), one on the refrigerator (DON’T DRINK MY BEER), and several others scattered across the house.

It was infuriating. This was the reason Stiles had wanted to sit down and draw up a roommate contract, but Derek’s only stipulation was ‘pay the rent on time.’ Stiles rinsed his mug and dropped it into the dishwasher. It hadn’t even been a week and he was already worrying about making this work.

—

Stiles was stubborn. He told his dad this was for the best, so he was going to stick it out. And Derek wasn’t a bad roommate, really. He worked odd hours because he was the newest deputy on the force, but he was always quiet and neat. Sometimes Stiles didn’t even know he was home.

After the first month, Derek convinced him to take the Toyota to class. It had much better gas mileage, plus meant less wear and tear on the Jeep. So Stiles parked Roscoe in the garage with the Camaro and hung the new set of keys off of his keyring.

All in all, Stiles though they were doing well. Even if they rarely saw each other. (Which, considering the massive crush he had on Derek, was probably for the best. No need to make it weird.)

It had been two weeks without a damn sticky note, so Stiles figured he’d cleaned up his act enough to make Derek happy. Until one morning he came down to a note reading PICK UP YOUR SHIT. It was stuck to the wall above the pile of shoes and sweatshirts and textbooks that had accumulated in the living room.

Stiles sighed heavily before gathering up the mess to take to his room. “This is why we need the expectations outlined,” he grumbled, not even caring if he woke Derek up.

He dumped everything on the floor, grabbed his backpack, and shut the door a tad bit harder than necessary. KEEP YOUR DOOR CLOSED OR CLEAN YOUR ROOM had been the last message and Stiles tried hard to comply. But hell, it was exhausting trying to remember all of the rules. Maybe he should have kept the notes instead of crumpling each one and throwing it away.

—

For the first two months living together, Stiles could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually spoken to Derek. Part of it was his crazy schedule, with classes and training with Deaton and hanging out with his dad. And the rest was Derek’s apparent preference for night shifts. In fact, it wasn’t until mid-October that Derek finally confronted Stiles about his sleeping habits.

Stiles was neck deep in practice tests when the door to the garage swung open. Derek dropped his work bag on the kitchen floor and slipped into the chair across from him. There were notecards, loose leaf papers, and multiple notebooks spread across the table between them.

Derek took in the chaos and sighed. “Why are you still up?”

“Stupid exam tomorrow.” Stiles didn’t even look away from his screen. The words stopped making sense an hour ago, but there was no way he could remember this many conjugations.

“Go to bed.” Derek gently slid the laptop out of range. “You can’t learn anything when you’re this tired.”

“But…” Stiles’ protest died as Derek fixed him with a look. It clearly conveyed that he wasn’t listening to arguments. Defeated, Stiles leaned back in his chair and yawned widely. Ugh. It was almost four in the morning.

The next day was brutal. Stiles rolled out of bed at eight o’clock to an alarm that he didn’t remember setting. He stumbled down the stairs, trying not to wake Derek with his heavy footfalls. But when he went to pull the milk out of the refrigerator, the sight of a yellow sticky note on the door made him freeze.

In neat capital letters, it said: GOOD LUCK TODAY. There was even a smiley face. Was this the Twilight Zone?

Stiles stared, then blinked several times. But the words didn’t disappear.

He smiled the entire duration of his morning routine, stopping to stick the note to the inside cover of his Latin textbook before he left. Then he hopped into Derek’s Toyota and drove to school.

He aced the exam.

—

Several weeks passed and Derek was already out on his night shift when Stiles shuffled in from school. He’d had an incredibly long day, filled with lectures and labs and finishing a stupid group project. Finding a familiar yellow note hanging from the microwave didn’t fill him with dread anymore. Especially not when it said: DINNER’S IN THE FRIDGE.

Stiles heated up the leftovers, feeling exhausted and content. Derek had even made his absolute favorite because he knew today was going to suck.

It was difficult not to read into Derek’s little acts of kindness, and Stiles was crushing harder with every note. The newest one was going to hang alongside DON’T FORGET YOUR LUNCH, and SCOTT SAYS HELLO, and DON’T WORRY I’LL BUY MORE COFFEE TONIGHT, and HAVE A GOOD DAY. That last note had Stiles grinning like a lunatic, to the point where Deaton asked if everything was alright.

So all in all, life with Derek was good. Stiles just had to keep reminding himself that Derek was a friend and not his co-lead in some rom-com about a werewolf and a spark who live together and fight crime. Although that would probably be an awesome idea for a TV show.

Shaking his head at the thought, Stiles loaded his dishes into the dishwasher and headed up to bed.

—

Halfway through the semester, Stiles’ three accelerated online classes had finals. He was super excited because that meant he’d be down to only two classes. His work load was about to be so much easier, and he might even have time to catch up on Netflix

The only problem was that the exams had to be scheduled at the proctoring center on campus. And because he was an idiot, he scheduled them all back to back. How he was going to survive six hours of testing was a mystery.

But Derek stayed up with him every night for a week, flipping through notecards and quizzing him on what he knew. Plus, he promised to take the night off and have a movie marathon once Stiles got home. Because Derek’s house was ‘home’ now and Derek was one of his best friends.

Sure enough, a yellow square saying: YOU’VE GOT THIS was already in his spot on the kitchen table. Stiles grinned at the note, peeling it away so he could add it to his collection.

—

On a typical Thursday night, Derek tapped at the door and stepped into Stiles’ room. Which he had never actually been in before. It seemed kind of weird, now that Stiles thought about it. He glanced over at the mountain of three week old laundry in the corner that was offensive to even his human nose and, well maybe not.

Marking his page, he set the textbook on his desk. “Hey, what’s up?”

Derek didn’t respond. He was staring at the bed with a slightly dazed expression. Then Stiles remembered the little yellow squares affixed to the headboard in neat rows.

He flushed, not really sure what to say. “Was there something that you wanted?”

Derek tore his eyes away. “I just wanted to make sure you were ready.”

Right. This morning’s note read WE’RE HAVING DINNER WITH YOUR DAD. It was a nice reminder of the fact that Derek was taking fewer night shifts. Sometimes he was even around to hang out with.

“Give me a second.” Stiles glanced down at his ratty sweatpants and stained t-shirt. Man did he need to do laundry.

He emerged from his room in more appropriate clothes and followed Derek out to the Camaro.

They were halfway to his house when Derek broke the silence. “You kept the notes.”

“Yup.” Because, obviously.

—

Stiles rushed home from school. It was the last day of the semester and normally he’d be ecstatic to have his freedom back. But this time, he was too nervous. Honestly he had no idea what he was thinking that morning. Maybe he could still get back in time to take that idiotic note off of the counter.

He parked in the driveway and sprinted to the door, hands shaking as he unlocked it. When the door finally clicked open, he crashed into the kitchen. The shower upstairs was running. Fuck. Maybe he could call it a friend dinner? People probably made reservations at the fanciest restaurant in town for friend dinners all the time. Right?

Stiles’ panicked eyes landed on the note. His hurried scrawl: Dinner at Luka’s? 6pm was followed by Derek’s blocky print spelling out: IT’S A DATE and underlined three times.

Sagging against the counter, Stiles took a deep breath. He knew he hadn’t imagined the last few weeks. Derek was home all the time now, only taking shifts while Stiles was training or at school. Which meant they spent most of their day bickering over recipes and watching crappy television.

It was awesome and domestic and Stiles couldn’t wait to date the hell out of Derek Hale.

—

(And five years later, they visited Luca’s again. But this time, Stiles’ drink came with a sticky note asking WILL YOU MARRY ME?)

[pftones3482]

Platonic VLD Month: Day 1

Today’s prompt: Garrison Days. Cross-posted to my AO3

He/him for Pidge in the beginning, she/her for most of the fic. Under a read-more for length. 

Day Two 

“Okay no, I’m serious this time, you’re getting off of your stupid computer and coming with me and Hunk,” Lance ordered, snapping the top of Pidge’s laptop down and crossing his arms over his chest. An easy smirk rested on his face, confident that the cadet wouldn’t disobey him, but Pidge just scowled and flicked his screen back up.

“I don’t have time, Lance,” he snapped, his fingers tippity-tapping across the keyboard. “I have to write this stupid paper for Emmet before he fails me for talking.”

“Well maybe if you didn’t sass him in class-”

“He’s an asshole, he deserves it! Now could you leave?”

Lance all but wilted, his hands falling to stuff into his pockets and his toes scuffing the ground. “Okay. Sorry about that. Um…good luck on your paper, then.”

Pidge shot him a glance as he turned to the door and hesitated, fingers pausing in midair and eyes scanning Lance’s back. He was slumped, dejected, and Pidge gnawed on his lip for a long moment before speaking. “What’s the outing this weekend?”

Lance spun around, face brightening, and he shuffled from foot to foot. “Ice skating and pizza! C’mon, man, when was the last time you had pizza?”

A small smile quivered at the edge of Pidge’s lips. “I can’t skate,” he admitted, foot jiggling against his leg at a blinding pace.

Lance chuckled and leaned over, pushing down Pidge’s laptop once again and moving it from his lap. He proceeded to grab Pidge by the wrists, ignoring his yelps of protest, and tugged him off the bed. “Me neither,” he laughed, bending to chuck Pidge’s shoes at him. “Doesn’t mean we won’t have fun though. Plus, Hunk is a beast on ice skates. That man is like a figure skater I swear to God. He can lift me any-”

“Okay, okay,” Pidge managed, giggling softly as he hopped around the room to put his shoes on. “I get it. Hunk is the most graceful human on skates ever. I would actually love to see that.”

Lance whooped, grabbed Pidge up by the waist and hoisted him over his shoulder, and, stopping only long enough to grab the younger one’s keys and jacket, sprinted out of the room with a laughing, protesting Pidge dangling over his back. He ignored the stares from the other students, taking the corners a little slower to avoid killing Pidge on the walls, and practically threw him into Hunk’s car, climbing in the back after him. “Floor it before this dick decides to escape!” Lance ordered.

Hunk lifted a solitary eyebrow. “Seatbelts?”

Groans filled the car and Lance clicked Pidge’s seatbelt into place before he could protest, clambering into the front seat in an awkward tangle of limbs and several smacked body parts, buckling his belt the moment he was somewhat right side up and pointing triumphantly at the street. “Onwards!”

Pidge shot Hunk a sympathetic grin in the rearview mirror and Hunk just chuckled, putting the car in reverse and pulling from his spot. Lance pulled up directions to the rink on his phone and then promptly cranked the radio up on the Spanish station, singing along to a tangle of lyrics that, had Pidge not taken seven years of Spanish and actually learned something, would have been incomprehensible.

She leaned back against her seat and smiled to herself, crossing her arms over her chest and gazing out the window at the train tracks they were speeding by. Well, speeding was a strong word; Hunk was a careful driver, never went more than a mile or two above the speed limit. Still, it was faster than she had gone in a non-simulated vehicle in a long time.

She fingered her civilian clothing, glancing up and watching with amusement as Lance tried to walk Hunk through the chorus of Bailando, failing miserably, and then glanced down at her shoes.

Hunk and Lance were great people. Some of the best at the school she had met, to be perfectly honest. She had known them for almost four months now, and the thought had started crossing her mind to let them in on her little secret. Aside from Lance’s flirting and Hunk’s perpetual fear of getting caught breaking the rules, she liked everything about them. They were trustworthy; Lance had taken the hit for her more than once when she flubbed up in front of Iverson, Hunk never questioned her cranky days, just left her Tylenol or a cookie outside of her single.

She appreciated them beyond belief, and would have no hesitations of telling them, if only she knew that they could one hundred percent keep it from everyone else. That was her only qualm. Hunk sucked at keeping secrets, and Lance…well, Lance probably wouldn’t tell at all, but she couldn’t tell one and not the other. That wasn’t fair to her team.

“Yooooo, earth to Pidge! Come iiiinnnnn, Pidgeot!”

She swatted at Lance as he poked her shoulder, his smile bright but his eyes clouded with just a bit of concern. That was another thing; he treated her like a sibling, always seemed to know when she felt off, even if she didn’t outright look upset. “You went to like, Mars there for a while. Thinking about how much I’m going to kick your ass at skating?”

Pidge scoffed, rolling her eyes. “The only ass you’ll be kicking is your own, when you fall repeatedly. You said yourself that you sucked.”

Lance gasped in mock horror, putting a hand to his chest and staring at Hunk, aghast. “Hunk. Can you believe he would accuse me like this?”

A smirk flickered at the edge of Hunk’s lips. “I actually totally can. You suck at skating, buddy.”

“That’s it. Let me out. I’m going. I am tucking and rolling out of this car onto the highway.”

Hunk calmly locked the doors and kept driving, his thumb remaining on the door locks as Lance fruitlessly attempted to unlock his side. “Huuuunnnnkkkk,” he whined. “Let me perish!”

“Not today.”

Pidge chuckled, turning them out as Lance started pleading with Hunk to let him tuck out of the car like in an action movie. She turned back to the window, watching as the desert turned into trees and city skylines, and she ran her stubby nails over the grooves in her seatbelt thoughtfully.

She had only been skating one time, with Matt and her father for Matt’s birthday. She bit her lip and swallowed, fingers tightening on the belt and gaze firmly remaining on the growing number of trees. Matt was a great skater, had played hockey growing up and retained the skills. Her dad wasn’t half bad either. Her mother, because of a bum knee, couldn’t skate with them, but had sat on the sidelines with hot cocoa in thermoses and bandages, laughing each time Pidge fell on her butt and had to be helped up.

The day had ended when she had landed hard enough to set free a loose tooth that had been wobbling in her mouth for a week and had scarred a couple of children. Apparently they weren’t fans of bloody ice.

Pidge smiled to herself and leaned against the window, tuning back in as Lance whooped and turned up whatever song was now on the radio, something much faster than the last one that she genuinely couldn’t understand without the lyrics in front of her.

At some point she must have dozed off, because when she came to, Lance was leaning over the seats again and had a hand on her shoulder, smile soft and eyes gentle, an eyebrow cocked. “Sleepy?” he chuckled.

Pidge hummed and shook him off, stretching and unbuckling her belt. “We here?” she mumbled, voice breaking with sleep.

Lance nodded, tilting his head to the large brown building next to him. “Yeah. Hunk’s grabbing his skates from the trunk. We gotta check in inside.”

He hesitated, eyes scanning her thoughtfully, and his lips pursed. “You good to go?”

She knew what he was really asking, and nodded, shoving open the door. “Totally. Let’s go.”

Lance’s eyes brightened and he bounced out of the car while Pidge walked around to the trunk, taking her gloves from where she had tossed them on their last group outing. Hunk had his skates slung over one shoulder and a jacket dangled from his arm. He twirled the keys patiently, hitting the fob as Pidge shut the trunk, and then nudged her as they walked inside. “Wish I could have fallen asleep,” he snorted. “Lance’s singing is awful.”

Lance shrieked ahead of them in protest and Pidge and Hunk doubled in laughter, catching up to the offended looking teenager and shoving him playfully. They entered the rink a giggling trio, checked in with the professors in charge of the outing, and Hunk tied his skates while Pidge and Lance grabbed rentals from the counter.

“I’m gonna fucking die,” Lance muttered as he tightened the straps. “Holy shit, I’m going to fucking die.”

Pidge snickered and glanced at Hunk as he tightened her straps for her, seeing as she hadn’t worn skates since she was seven years old. “He good over there?”

A crooked grin slid across Hunk’s face. “He broke his nose last time we came here. In front of a pretty girl.”

“She was totally interested!” Lance snapped.

“She has a girlfriend now, Lance.”

Lance stuck his tongue out at Hunk, cheeks a little pink, though from cold or embarrassment, Pidge wasn’t sure. “Um, yeah, but she’s bi, Hunk! So she was totally interested!”

“Yeah, until you ruined your face.”

“I will personally hide your tinkering toys, Hunk.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

Pidge snorted and pushed herself to her feet, wobbling for a moment before gaining steady ground on the matted floor. “Well while you two have your intense staring contest, I’ll be on the ice falling like a newb.”

She set off cheerfully, ankles trembling at the awkward movement of walking in skates, and pretty soon Lance and Hunk, both a solid foot and a half taller than her, were striding past, grabbing her by the elbows and hoisting her into the air and onto the ice. She shrieked, ears burning at how girlish it had sounded, and slid without any kind of direction into the vague center of the rink. “Hunk!” she yelped. “Lance, you ass!”

Hunk laughed, swinging gracefully around her, and drew her back into a normal standing position by her hands. “See, you’re totally fine. Chill.”

“Hunk, was that a pun?” Lance gasped, gliding by. While clearly less steady than Hunk, he wasn’t nearly as bad as he had claimed, able to make a turn and stop with only a slight wobble. “I am so proud of you, my friend.”

Hunk smacked his shoulder with a fingerless-gloved hand, a twinkle in his eyes. “Not a chance, Sanchez. Fight me.”

“You know I would,” Lance said with a click of his tongue. “But Pidgeotto here needs training.”

“From you?” Pidge asked, her knees quivering a little and fingers tightening against Hunk’s. “No way. You’d let me drop in a heartbeat.”

“I am offended, I am revolted, I dedicate my whole li-”

Hunk shoved him and sent Lance spiraling away with a laugh, leaving him to flail about and struggle not to hit skating students. Lance flipped him off, swiveled around a couple a little too fast, and wound up on his back with both middle fingers in the air. Hunk and Pidge chuckled and turned to each other, Hunk skating backwards with annoying ease while pulling Pidge along. “It’s like…walking…but not.”

“Gee, thanks Hunk.”

Hunk huffed. “Okay, like….walk, but like you’re doing the moonwalk really wide? I don’t know, man, Lance doesn’t give a shit about formal lessons, he just goes for it and falls a lot!”

Lance skated by, snatching Hunk’s hat from his head with a triumphant, “You bet Mama Jenna’s oatmeal cookies I do!”

Hunk wrinkled his nose and took a hand from Pidge to flatten his hat hair before shaking his head. “That’s the last time he gets Mama’s cookies,” he grumbled, grabbing back onto Pidge.

Pidge chuckled and shifted her feet experimentally, getting a feel for the ice under her. “You could go after him, you know. If I fall, I fall.”

Hunk shot her a wary look but, at Pidge’s insistence, he shot off like a Garrison rocket, chasing Lance with a holler. The other skaters knew better than to get in his way, scattering as he dove through them. Pidge snickered and spread her arms out for balance, making her way tentatively to the wall a good ten feet away. She clung to it with all she had and twisted on the ice, watching her friends duck and weave.

Hunk was a graceful as Lance had said, never faltering, moving around people without hesitation if they were too slow or too new at skating to catch his friend. Lance, on the other hand, made up for his grace in pure speed and cunning, using the people to his advantage, not using sharp turns or fancy maneuvers that would get him caught. It was the complete opposite from their training simulations and for a moment, Pidge was floored.

These dorks.

She shook her head, recognizing that she was now a part of their weird and tiny family, and something pleasant spread in her chest at the thought of it. Watching as Hunk finally grabbed Lance by the back of his jacket and snatched the hat from his head, Pidge felt a kind of peace settle around her.

As unsteady as she felt, both on the skates and at the Garrison, as much as she hated hiding herself from them and wanted to tell them who she really was, why she was really there, she was content. Something about gaining two brothers while searching for her original was heartwarming.

Not that she’d ever tell them that, of course. Besides, odds were that after the end of this year, she’d never see them again.

Something about that didn’t sit well in her stomach, so she pushed off the wall and stumbled over to where Hunk was now sitting on Lance and refusing to let him up. “Hey idiots,” she chided, fumbling and catching herself on Hunk’s shoulder before she could totally fall. “Do you mind not being so gay in the middle of the ice rink where everyone is trying to skate?”

“Hunk started it!”

“You STOLE my HAT!”

“I hate both of you.” Lance shot her a grin, hair now sopping wet and clinging to the ice under him, and tossed out a middle finger. “Nah, you totally love us, man. Admit it.”

Pidge gave him a wry smile and a finger of her own. “Not a chance.”

[girl-next-door-writes]

Work For Free - Part 7

Characters: Reader, Fili, Bilbo, Bard, Faramir, Smaug, Eowyn, Tauriel, Eomer… anyone else I fancy just throwing in.

Summary: Here is the tale of a day, just one day, confined within the four walls of a small but perfectly formed Tea Room.  There is drama and romance and probably a bit of slapstick thrown in to break it up a bit but I’m not promising anything.    

Word Count: 1862 words

Prompt: Coffee Shop AU (I may have taken a little bit of a liberty with this.) and Neglected Characters from the Tolkeinverse.

A/N: There are some ideas that just take hold and won’t let you go until you have captured them on the page.  This is one of those ideas.  There is no way I will ever be 100% truly happy with this series because it is a sprawling epic in my head BUT what I have written, I hope, is entertaining and I would LOVE any feedback.  So, thank you @littlered83 for coming up with such an inspirational challenge for me.

Part 1 Part 2  Part 3  Part 4 Part 5  Part 6

Through a door in a wall there was a tea room.  Not a nasty, sticky, damp tea room filled with incontinent old ladies complaining and the faint smell of wee, nor yet a minimalist, ironic hipster take on a tea room with beanbags you can’t get out of and strange ergonomic chairs that dig into your spine: it was Bilbo Baggins tea room, and that means comfort.  

The power had gone out in his apartment yet again and Faramir was just wandering aimlessly with his laptop strapped into his bag.  Today was just going from bad to worse, first an argument with his brother and then his father had chewed him out about the situation only to be cut off when the power died and half of his work had disappeared.  Maybe his father was right, maybe he was just a waste of space.  The light tinkling of a bell caught his ear and, looking up, he saw a flurry of red hair entering a small tea room.  His curiosity peaked, he followed her and discovered the most adorable little place he had ever encountered.  Heading up to the counter his eyes ran over the vast array of options, eventually asking the brunette behind the counter what he would recommend.  The barista had been friendly and helpful even suggesting Faramir take a seat at a table near a socket and plug in his laptop. He had spent all day there just watching the comings and goings.  He hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time.  

That was four years ago and still he came back practically every day to write.  Wandering into the shop the little bell jingle, a sound that never failed to make him smile no matter how often he heard it.  “Morning Faramir, you want the usual?  Just set up at your table and I’ll bring it over to you.” The sweet barista called over and he smiled politely.

“Thank you.” He replied before scuttling off towards the back corner to his usual table.

“It’s not his table, it’s my table and my electricity he comes in here using every day.”  Faramir frowned at Bilbo’s daily grumble.  Feeling a little guilty he didn’t plug his laptop in, deciding to run off the battery for a while.  Fili was wiping down a table and when he noticed the plug socket empty he reached over and plugged in the laptop.  

“Don’t worry about him, I think he just likes to complain.” Fili confided with a warm smile before tensing slightly as the tea girl made her way over with a tray.  

“Give me a shout if you need anything okay?”  Faramir nodded without looking up, acknowledging he had heard as his fingers ran over the keys creating and deleting words on the document in front of him.

At 4pm on the dot the door opened and the tinkle of the bell had Faramir looking up, a soft smile graced his face when he saw the mysterious blonde he had been admiring for months now enter with the sullen gentleman. His fingers paused over his keyboard as he watched her march over to the counter, obviously in the middle of a heated discussion with her companion.  From where he sat Faramir couldn’t make out what was being said but the body language of the pair in addition to the lovely barista had him furrowing his brow with concern.  He was contemplating raising to his feet and providing some sort of assistance when Fili’s voice rang out through the room.  “Excuse me?  You come in here quite often and have you ever once even bothered to ask her name?  You say this job is hardly taxing and you may be right but it turns out she’s pretty damned good at it and there is far more to it than simply making rude customers tea and not spitting in it.  As for ‘knowing her place’ how do you know she’s not currently studying to be an engineer or a doctor or something and works here to help her pay for school?  Maybe she’s an incredible artist and works here just because she enjoys meeting people?  I think you owe her an apology and probably your sister too because ever since you came through that door today you’ve been rude and a poor example of a man.” Faramir bit back a smile as the silence in the room became almost palpable.  He had been watching the interactions between Fili and his work mate for some time now and a part of him was immensely proud of how he was handling this situation.  He only wished he could have been that brave, maybe then the beautiful, delicate woman with the enchanting smile would have looked at him the way the object of Fili’s affections was currently looking at him.  

Watching the embarrassed man head towards a table he couldn’t take his eyes off the girl who scurried after him and sat down, looking at her companion with such concern it made Faramirs heart ache.  They were too far away for him to hear the conversation and as the ambient noise of the tea room slowly filtered back in after Fili’s outburst he could only silently observe from behind his laptop screen. It was apparent that the girl was trying to appease her friend and even more apparent that it was not working.  “JUST DROP IT! YOU ARE NEVER RUNNING THE SITE!” The man’s hand slammed down on the table and once again Faramir was compelled to stand, wanting to rush to her aid but his courage failed him.  Perhaps his father was right, he was a loser.  As he looked up the man was leaving and as he was already on his feet Faramir took a deep breath and forced his feet to take him over to her table.

Her head was resting on the table and he stood awkwardly for a few seconds before finding his voice.  “Are…are you okay?” she looked up at him and he felt his entire being expand and contract at the same time as his heart began to pound.  She was even more beautiful up close with such sadness in her eyes.  When she smiled at him and nodded he shuffled nervously, fighting the urge to flee.  “He… he really shouldn’t talk to you like that.”  He offered.

“Oh, it’s fine.  He’s my brother and he’s not always like that, he’s under a lot of pressure right now.” She assured him but the oceans of emotions swirling in her eyes had him so captivated that he couldn’t stand the thought of anyone speaking to her harshly.

“That may be a reason but it’s not an excuse.  You spilled your drink, here, let me get you another.”  Faramir broke eye contact and looked over at Fili who was smiling supportively in his direction.  Indicating the drink Fili nodded his understanding and he turned back to the woman who had so easily captured his heart before she had ever spoken a single word to him. “I’m Faramir.”

“Eowyn.” She smiled that heart melting smile once again before continuing, “would you like to sit?”  

“That’s a pretty name.” the words were out of his mouth before he had chance to filter them and he cringed at the obviousness of such a comment.  “Sorry, that… that was…” he stumbled over his words, feeling the sense of hopelessness rolling over him.  This had been a stupid idea, he should have kept to watching her from afar instead of opening his mouth and proving he was an idiot.

“No, thank you.  It’s very sweet of you to say.”  His eyes flickered to hers momentarily and he rubbed the back of his neck.  Not only was she beautiful but she was kind and sweet and he knew for certain he had no chance with her.

“I have to admit I’ve seen you here a few times now.  Oh, that sounds kinda creepy and…” his face scrunched up as a sigh of defeat left his lips only for a look of confusion appearing as he heard her giggle.

“I come here a few times a week, how about you?” He was glad Fili drew her gaze as he placed the fresh drink on the table, it gave him a moment to look at her without her eyes on him, it also gave him chance to come up with a response that wasn’t going to cause him to die of embarrassment.

“I come here pretty much every day to write.  They are kind enough to tolerate me taking up a table.” Faramir nodded at Fili who just smiled broadly and moved off to continue his work.

“You write?  What are you working on?”  Her enthusiasm threw him, it was unusual for people to actually care what he was writing or for him to tell them he was a writer.

“Just… just a novel actually.” He could feel his face heating up as she looked at him over her drink.

“What’s it about?”  She asked and he wasn’t quite sure what to say.  Taking his time he frowned, not entirely sure where to start.  

“Well, it’s about two brothers and the eldest is the fathers favourite and the youngest can’t seem to do anything right and it explores their relationship with each other and the effect their fathers favoritism has on them.”  It was not so loosely based on his own relationships and he wondered if she could tell just by looking at him.  

“Wow, that sounds quite intense.”  Their eyes met and he smiled shyly, a smile that only grew when she looked away nervously with a soft smile of her own.

“Yeah.” He agreed softly only for the moment to be broken by a flurry of activity as a redhead came bounding into the shop and right over to the counter.  Faramir shook his head and chuckled, his eyes falling on Eowyn once more.  “All the comings and goings here can be quite inspirational actually, depending on who comes through the door.”  Her eyes flickered to his and his cheeks flushed, he got the feeling she knew exactly what he meant by that last comment.

“I really should be going.”  His heart sank as those words escaped her lips, this moment was far too brief.  “I think I’ve given him long enough to cool off but… will you be here tomorrow?  I would really like to repay you for the refill.”

“I’ll be here.”  The disappointment was drowned with the growing sense of hope, especially as she beamed at him.  Watching her through the window his heart leaped as she sent a small wave his way. Turning to see if Fili had witnessed all that he grinned as he saw the redhead harassing him.  Getting to his feet he retrieved his laptop and sent Fili a wave as he left, eager to return tomorrow to spend some more time with Eowyn.  This place was magical, he had felt it from the first moment he had stepped foot in the door, and there was no place in the world he would rather hang out that at Bagend Tea Emporium.

Tag: @deanxfuckingadorablexwinchester @nea90sweetie@knittingknerdy@feelmyroarrrr @vintagevalentinexx@cojootromuelle@sdavid09@luckynumber1213@zombi3gyrl07@neeadinghugs@hobbithorse19@fromthedeskoftheraven @everyjourneylove  @rosa-kirk @palaiasaurus64  @like-a-bag-of-potatoes@luckynumber1213 @littleblue5mcdork@littleblue5mcdork

[raving-writer-ramblings]

It Takes Some Time: Part 1?

Hey hey I’m back in action with a bit of writing. This was more or less improvised. I just sort of let it flow naturally and took it from there. I apologize if it is a little messy or boring. It is a bit long for some people but I hope you enjoy. ^_^

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“Hey! Connor! Did you go out to get food today!?” The question rang out from the kitchen, muffled partly from the barrier of the wall between there and the living room and partially because Connor was sure his roommate had his head buried in the fridge. Of course this meant that his roommate already knew the answer to that question.

“Sorry dude, had work all day I forgot.” Connor actually hadn’t forgotten, well not exactly but he wasn’t about to let it slip that he avoided the task on purpose. Quinn would be pissed if he learned he didn’t want to shop just avoid his Ex who had been working the register that day.

“You forgot? Dude you work right next to the grocery store, how the hell did you forget? You walk past it coming home.” The voice was closer now and Connor could see her standing in the doorway, hands on hips, over the edge of his laptop.

“Quinn I’m sorry it just slipped my mind, I had to do about fifty returns in like the last hour today. I swear forty something white moms are the god damned worst with this shit.” Connor rolled his eyes and finally looked up from the almost completely blank text file he had open. “If you want I can go out and get stuff now. The Pharmacy at the corner should still be open and they have groceries. I don’t know why we don’t shop there anyways it's closer.” Quinn just let out a long sigh and turned heel back into the kitchen where the unmistakable sound of a fridge being shut in a not so calm fashion could be heard.

“Fuck it, I’m going out. Please just get food so I don’t have to eat fast food tomorrow I’m trying to make weight.” After the, um ‘gentle’ closing of the front door of the apartment the harpy was gone. Of course that wasn’t really a fair description of her. While Quinn did have some issues keeping calm she was still one of Connor’s best friends and the only one who’d take him in after last summer. Plus it wasn’t the first time he had ‘accidentally forgotten’ to get the groceries. That added on top of the diet she was trying to maintain for boxing meant his blunder today resulted in a pretty fair amount of anger.

Letting out a resigned breath of his own Connor got up and grabbed his coat off the back of the couch. He briefly considered changing into something other than a T-shirt he’s had since high school that barely fit and shorts that should not be worn outside the house but he really wasn’t trying to impress anyone today. So slipping on the worn out windbreaker and jamming his feet into a pair of beat up sneakers was all he did before slipping out of the apartment, only to double back halfway down the hall of his apartment building because he had forgotten several key items. Namely keys, hat, wallet, and the all important cellular device.

With his assortment of essentials gathered and ready to go Connor once more slipped out of the two bedroom apartment. This time he made it to the street without any sudden realizations of miscellaneous objects he would need on his little adventure for foodstuffs and toilet paper.

The city was pretty bright considering it was well past sundown, a fact of both convenience and great annoyance to conner. He enjoyed being able to see where he is going and such but a walk in the dark was always something he enjoyed as a teenager. He and his friends always took long walks over the weekends, just smoking and enjoying the simple things in life. Of course now he didn’t smoke much and life’s simple things were a tad less enjoyable but the nostalgia of it seemed to cover for those things a fair bit. Of course this walk would only be for a couple blocks but again it didn’t really matter.

Connor’s mind drifted as he walked, his hands jammed in his pockets and only the sound of passing cars to remind him of reality. The deeper his mind drifted the more her face started to show up, Laurin. This happened so frequently now that it barely bothered him, at this point it was to be expected. Of course he wished this would end and that he could simply move on but something about her nagged at him whenever he got lost in thought. Maybe it was the loose curls in her blonde hair or the way she chewed her lip when she was lost in thought but he couldn’t get her out of his head.

It was pathetic. Really it was. Connor was the one who broke it off with her, she had hurt him and yet he still thought of her like this. She still haunted him like a delightfully soft nightmare but he knew he’d never let that happen again. There were times where he thought he was insane for still feeling this way about her after almost a year.

A loud and sudden honking from behind him cut those thoughts short, which was admittedly for the best and connor turned around. The car that had been honking was a stark white convertable of some kind. It looked european but Connor couldn’t really tell since he wasn’t much of a car guy. More importantly inside the car were four women, each squealing like children as the blonde in the front seat honks her horn repeatedly at the red light. When the light changes there is a remarkably loud tire squeal and a roar of an engine as the car bolts forwards through the crossing at a fairly unsafe speed. The laughter and shouting of the women fades off in the distance as the car passes and something about the whole scene caused Connor to bust out laughing.

Maybe it was the incredulity of the whole scene and maybe it was the juxtaposition of that against his silly worries and musings. Whatever it was he’d have to thank them for saving him from his own torrent of gloom. He might also have to tack on a thank you about reminding him that he was already where he needed to be he just had to cross the street to the pharmacy. He can’t count the number of times he had absentmindedly walked past whatever destination he was headed for because he was too wrapped up in his own stupid pity party to notice.

After a few scares where he was almost hit by cars, Connor successfully crossed the street and made his way into the small 24 hour convenience store slash pharmacy. After glancing at the signs hanging from the ceiling he made his way to the section labeled ‘groceries and canned goods’ which he noted was an odd description as he figured you could count canned goods as groceries. It only took a few moments to pull up the list Quinn had texted him earlier and gather the things she had wanted and to pick out a few things he wanted as well.

Once all the items were gathered he had a new dilemma. He had a shit ton of things he had to carry all the way home and unlike Quinn he wasn’t a boxer so his arms were going to fall off from the weight of it. Of course he was no going to complain to Quinn or wimp out now, that would be a one way ticket to getting his ass kicked and thrown out. Two things he did not want to happen.

So sucking it up he made his way to the counter and lined up all the stuff on the counter in front of a girl with obviously dyed black hair and really pale skin. Basically if anyone fit the bill as a vampire it would be her. Her smile was obviously enforced as some sort of company policy because it really didn’t fit on her face super well. She didn’t really say anything at first but after looking all of his stuff and bagging it for him she lost the smile and raised an eyebrow with a look that seemed more like her natural resting face.

“Dude didn’t you walk here? You know you can’t steal the shopping car right?” Her voice was pretty monotone but the corner of her mouth twitched and you could tell she found the idea a bit amusing.

“Shit, here i thought you’d be cool and let me take it.” Connor offered a grin, and picked up a couple of the bags in one hand as he prepared to leave. The bags were annoyingly heavy already and in five minutes when he starts walking his arms are going to hate him.

“Nah, i might get the axe for that. I tell you what though, You wait twenty minutes and I can give you a ride home.” This time her smile spread more naturally and she motioned over her shoulder in the general direction of the parking lot.

“Alright, but before you make any moves I’ll have you know I carry a wooden stake at all times.” Connor was thankful for the offer and hoped he could keep their bit of banter going.

“Uh… what? Wait…” Her face went from puzzled to suddenly getting it within seconds and she let out a soft laugh. “Sorry kid, you’ll actually need silver bullets for me. Nice guess though.”

“Shit and here i thought I was safe for once.” Connor took his turn to laugh. “Alright I’ll wait outside, twenty minutes right?”

“Nineteen now, but yeah. Get outta here so I can do my job.” She waved him off nonchalantly and Connor headed for the door only to be stopped short by a voice. “Hey! Wait! I didn’t catch your name stranger!” Her laugh followed the dumb cliched line.

“Oh, right I’m Connor.” He spoke loud enough back that she could catch it easily and he stepped outside. Of course he hadn’t bothered to ask her name because he was busy trying to act smooth but in the end just came off like a character he might write in a poor book idea.

Sitting himself down at the curb he let his eyes run over the four cars that were in the parking lot and tried to guess which one was hers. There was a black SUV in decent shape, a silver convertible that looked to be about twenty years old, a beat up bug painted some dark color like black or blue, and the last one was an orange mustang that had definitely seen better days. Judging by her black nails, dyed black hair, and snow white skin Connor guessed she probably owned either the SUV or the old Bug. Deciding between the two he went with the bug since she worked at a convenience store which he doubted could pay for the relatively nice SUV.

Having made his bets he still had a few minutes before she would follow him out and settle the debate once and for all. In those few minutes Connor did a number of things, all of which were totally interesting and worth noting.

A few flicked pebbles and 74 passing cars later a short petite girl wearing a beanie and boots that clashed with her uniform stepped out of the building. She looked the wrong way first and did a sort of pirouette before spotting Connor sitting in the shade.

“Jeez, and you made fun of me for being a vampire. You know the streetlights aren’t the sun right? You won’t burn.” She grinned and offered a hand to help him up which he accepted.

“True, but I was hoping that if I hid in the shadows you might let slip your true name so I could control you.” This line was a stretch and in hindsight was more than a little cringey, but it got a laugh anyways.

“What am I? A demon or rumpelstiltskin? Neither of those sounds like a compliment though.” She picked up a few of his bags and started towards the silver convertible, which meant he had guessed wrong.

“Well I was hoping to find out. I guess I can settle for the name you’d be wiling to offer me. I can’t just call you cashier girl can I?” Connor loaded his bags into the trunk of the car and slid into the passenger’s seat when prompted.

“I suppose not, but seeing how you missed your chance to ask earlier it might be funny if I withhold the information.” She offered him a grin as she turned the key in the ignition and the car practically wheezed to life.

“That didn’t sound to good. I think the hamsters running your engine are dying.” Again a pretty cringey line but she only shot him a glance before laughing softly. “Yeah ok that was definitely not the best joke. I assume it's not that unusual a sound though?”

“Yeah, the old thing has sounded the same for about three years. Honestly I’m only a few paychecks away from upgrading to something that runs a little better before this gives out on me.” She shrugged without looking over and kept her eyes steady. “ You didn’t tell me where we were going by the way. I have no clue where you live.”

With a chuckle Connor informed her that it was a straight shot to his apartment and should only take a few minutes. The two of them simply made smalltalk the rest of the way and when she pulled over Connor thanked her and got out.

“Hey, before you go. The Name’s Eve. Friday night I’ll be at the coffee house down the street” She offered him a wink and drove away before he could respond.

With a shrug of his shoulders Connor took his bags of foodstuffs up to their fourth floor apartment halfway up the building. Everything about the last forty minutes had been like something at the start of a goofy romance movie. Right down to the bad lines and how hot she was in comparison to him.

Once he got to the apartment he noticed the door was unlocked and the doorway smelled vaguely of meat and cheese. Burgers.

Inside the apartment the smell was stronger and on the couch was Quinn, sprawled out with a mountain of burgers on the coffee table. As far as Connor knew she was still on a diet so he took pause and opened his mouth to speak before being cut off immediately.

“I got a call while I was in the car.” Her voice sounded very agitated and Connor’s mind instantly cycled through everything he had done in the past week to make sure it wasn’t because of him.

“Um… about what?” Connor was genuinely confused and that carried in his voice.

“Apparently my opponent was caught juicing. So my bout it cancelled.” She paused for a moment. “Well sorta. Apparently I can get a fight scheduled for that same day but I will have to go up an entire weight class. The club needs the win to convince the board for funding so i don’t have alot of choice in this.”

“Ah…” There really wasn’t much else to say. Quinn was dedicated to boxing and as such she would make this work, but he wasn’t sure how. “Um So all of the food I bought?” He ventured the statement as a question.

“It’s fine. Most of that stuff would have lasted longer but I need to boost my calories.” Quinn gritted her teeth a bit before glancing back at Connor. For a moment her face was exactly what he had expected but then her eyebrow shot up. “You met a girl?”

“Wha.. how the hell did you do that?” He was dumbfounded. There was absolutely no way she could have found that out just by looking at him, it was impossible.

“I just havea sense for these things with you. We’ve been friends since High School.” She took a long drink from her giant cup. “So is she cute?”

“Yeah, I’d say she is.” Connor started to get things put away as he spoke, the wall separating the kitchen and the living area serving as a barrier from the embarrassing staring she’d no doubt be doing. “She isn’t actually my type, but we hit it off well enough that i could look past it.”

“My my how noble of you, letting the non-blondes bask in your favour for once.” The sarcasm was so thick that he could practically feel her rolling her eyes in the other room.

“Oh come on that isn’t fair! You do that shit too!” This time it was Connor’s turn to star disapprovingly from the kitchen doorway. “Name one time you dated or had sex with a guy that wasn’t shorter and thinner than you.”

“Puh-lease, that is not the same at all. I’m 6’1” most guys are shorter than me and just because I like skinny guys doesn’t mean i wouldn’t date another… wait shit. Fine you win.” She sighed and took a mouth full of a burger. “Hey by the way you haven’t eaten yet tonight right?” She punctuated the question by tossing Connor a burger. “Go nuts i think if i eat all of these i’ll puke.

Connor rolled his eyes at his overzealous friend and unwrapped the burger befor plopping himself down on her feet. “Thanks Q.”

“Yeah yeah.” She tugged her feet up and moved so that instead of laying on the couch she was sitting with her legs stretched out. They were still close to Connor but at least now he had proper eating room.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. Quinn passed out on the couch and Conner cleaned up the wrappers that were thrown around the room at random. After he got everything picked up he dragged a blanket over his friend and headed to his room. Life wasn’t always going to be so boring and simple, he’d learned that as a kid, but right now he wished that every day could end like this. Afterall he didn’t have all that much to worry about and things seemed optimistic for once.