#i just hope the lego people i ordered online will get here soon because the last dread session i hosted I borrowed my nephew's

[braindeadmaggot]

making clues for a murder mystey rpg and have spent 4 days on a photobooth photo that might not even be used (˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥)

frame 1 of 3 done... why do i do this to myself?

[verai-marcel]

Tech Support (RDR2 Fanfic, Arthur x F!Reader, Neighbor AU, Chapter 1 of 2, 18+)

Summary: With most people stuck at home by the government’s orders, Arthur and Eliza agree to keep Isaac at Eliza’s house for his safety, since Arthur still works outside and could contract the illness that is sweeping through the country. You offer to help Arthur set up a webcam for him to be able to speak to his son online, and he is ever so grateful for your help.

Author’s Notes: With the increase in the use of video conferencing lately, I had an idea of how Arthur & IT Tech!Reader could spend some more time together.

Tags: dual honor Arthur, smut, tech things; High Honor: fluff, romance, caring Arthur, supportive Arthur; Low Honor: stuck, pushy Arthur, horny Arthur, light role play

AO3 Link is here, angel.

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Side A - High Honor

Word Count: 1737

You were sitting on your bed, browsing the news when you heard a knock on the door. Cautiously approaching the door, you peeked out the peephole.

You saw Arthur, scratching the back of his head as he looked upwards.

You opened the door; if it had been anyone else, you would have grabbed a robe to throw over your lounge shorts and your tank top, but Arthur had seen so much more of you at this point.

“Hi Arthur!”

“Hey there, darlin’,” he greeted. “Um, could you help me with something? Uh, that is, if you got some time.”

“What do you need?”

“Can you help me set up a webcam? I don’t know where to start,” he said, shuffling a bit.

You smiled. “Of course, sweetie. Do you have one yet, or do you need to get one?”

“I need to get one. I don’t even know if my computer will handle one, anyway.”

You cocked your head at his statement. “Um, let me see your computer.”

***

You had no idea that there were still laptops out there without built in cameras or microphones, but apparently Arthur had one. It looked old too; he had pulled it out of his closet and dusted it off, literally. When you booted it up, you found that it was running Windows 8, which made you laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“This… this is like some kind of technological relic.”

“Will it still work?”

“Probably.”

You managed to get it working, but with his old battery, you had to crawl under Arthur’s desk and hook up the power cord, fish it up behind his desk, and set up his laptop with the old webcam that you had lying around your apartment. You rigged together a cord organizer with some of Isaac's Lego bricks.

"There you go. You need help with the software too?" 

Arthur nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

With only one chair in his room, Arthur patted his lap. You smiled and sat on his thigh while you went through the different settings and set everything up before helping him with the video software itself. 

By the end, Arthur was itching to try it. He texted Eliza, and within minutes, he set up his first video call. 

As you moved to let Arthur have his call, he wrapped his arm around you to hold you in place.

“Please, stay,” he said, looking up at you with those irresistible eyes of his.

You sighed. “Alright, but only because I miss Isaac too,” you said cheekily. You threw on one of his hoodies, since you weren’t wearing a bra and you wanted to be a least somewhat decent during the video call.

He hit the call button.

"Hi Daddy!"

Isaac's smiling face showed up on the screen, and you smiled back. You hadn't seen him in a while and you missed him. He paused for a moment, then called out your name happily. 

"Why are you sitting on Daddy's lap?" 

"Uh…"

Arthur wrapped an arm around your shoulders. "Because she's Daddy's girlfriend now."

Isaac's jaw dropped. There was a moment of silence, and you weren't sure how he was taking the news. 

You shouldn't have been worried. 

"Does that mean you'll be my second mommy some day?" 

"We'll see, pumpkin," you said hesitantly, but Isaac just smiled happily.

“I hope so, because I love you.”

“I love you too, kiddo,” you said as your heart melted and your eyes filled with tears. You had been babysitting Isaac for over a year now, and you felt incredibly blessed to have his trust.

***

You had excused yourself soon after, escaping to the living room to let them have dad and son time on their own. Sitting on the sofa, you couldn’t stop smiling, replaying Isaac’s reaction in your head while you scrolled through some news articles on your phone.

After some time, you heard Arthur come out of his room. He plopped down on the sofa next to you, his face lit up with a happy grin.

“Thank you,” he said as he kissed your cheek. “That made him real happy. And me too.”

You kissed him back. And kissed him again. And again. Soon you were straddling his lap, your arms wrapped around his neck, his hands roaming your back and your rear, his tongue practically down your throat as you rolled your hips against the bulge forming in his pants. 

Suddenly he picked you up in his muscular arms and carried you to the bedroom. Laying you down, he pulled his shirt off, just as you pulled his hoodie off and threw it aside.

“Yer wearin’ the same thing you were when we first…”

You looked down and laughed. Same lounge shorts, same tank top. “You like it though, right?” You winked at him.

He laughed as he dropped his pants and kicked off his boxers, climbing into bed with you. “I sure do,” he said as he kissed around the neckline of your tank top. Taking your breasts in his hands and squeezing them, he nuzzled the valley between them. “So soft.”

Arthur then traveled down your body, his hands snaking up the legs of your shorts to stroke you through your panties. “Gettin’ a little wet down here. Maybe we should take these off.”

You smirked as you took off your shorts & underwear off, but as you moved to take off your tank top, Arthur stopped you. When you looked at him, a little confused, he just gave you a guilty grin.

“I like seein’ that tank top on you,” he said, reaching out to squeeze your nipples. “I like seein’ these through the fabric.”

“You naughty boy,” you teased.

He just chuckled before scooting back and lowering himself between your legs, his mouth immediately going for your core. His tongue was hot against your nether lips as he sucked and licked around you, not quite giving you enough pressure where you wanted. You jerked your hips upwards, but he grabbed a hold of your hips and held you in place. He was ridiculously strong, his arms like lead weights against your pitiful attempts to get closer to his lips. Instead, he teased you with soft laps and gentle kisses against your folds.

“Fuck me, goddammit,” you cursed as he swirled his tongue around your nub for the fiftieth time without giving you enough of his touch.

“Bad girl,” he crooned, and suddenly you found yourself flipped onto your stomach. “Behave, or I won’t give you a reward.”

You whined, but stayed still as he spread your legs slightly and crawled up your body. His lips kissed a trail up your back to your neck, to your ear, to your temple. His hips rolled, his cock sliding between your cheeks tauntingly before he angled himself down to enter your wet pussy, slowly pushing forward until his cock filled you fully. He lay on top of you, his breaths in your ear growing heavy with need as he began to slide in and out.

“My sweet angel,” he whispered in your ear as he made love to you from behind. “You goin’ to be good for me?”

“Yes, yes, fuck yes,” you moaned.

He gently pulled out of you and turned you over. You wrapped your legs around him as he entered you once more, lovingly rolling his hips to a languid rhythm, looking you in the eyes as he made love to you.

“Yer so beautiful,” he murmured as he sped up, his thrusts became more erratic, his movements uncontrolled as he gave in to his desire and chased his pleasure.

“I want to watch you come,” he requested, and as he lifted himself up onto his knees so he could watch your whole body, you reached down to touch yourself, stroking your clit and grabbing your own breasts to heighten your pleasure.

“Arthur,” you breathed. “You’re so fucking hot, you’re gonna make me come so hard…”

“Goin’ to fill you up, angel,” he rasped as his hips thrust harder into you. “You feel so good…”

Your body tensed. Your breaths grew ragged. And like a firework bursting into the sky, you came apart, your cries mixed with curses as you felt the pure pleasure coursing through your veins. And all the while, Arthur watched you, his hands gripping your hips tightly as he controlled himself, pumping into you with long, strong strokes as you rode out your climax.

As you started to catch your breath, Arthur reached down to stroke your clit, and you nearly screamed. 

“Too much, too much!” you cried out.

He smiled as he pressed on your clit just a bit, making you writhe from the sensation.

“Damn,” he muttered before falling upon you, his face next to yours, his hips suddenly pistoning into you like a jackhammer. “Love seein’ you like this,” he huffed, short of breath as he picked up speed.

He moaned your name before he came, his cock filling you up, his come spilling out of you as he thrust once more, pushing as far inside of you as he possibly could before finally relaxing and rolling off of you.

You looked over at him; his face was relaxed, a smile on his lips, and his eyes, full of tenderness were directed at you. 

“I…” he started to say, then trailed off.

“What?”

He rolled over to face you fully. His hand went up to hold your cheek, his thumb caressing your skin.

Looking up at him, you noticed he was looking a little forlorn.

“You alright?”

He suddenly pulled you into his arms and held you tightly.

“Ar-Arthur?”

“I miss my boy, s’all.”

You hugged him back. “I know, me too. He’ll be back soon, don’t worry,” you said, trying to soothe him, rubbing his back.

“I know he can’t be here all the time, but I wish you were always here with me,” he said quietly. “Would you… would you consider movin’ in together with me?”

When you were too shocked to answer, Arthur pulled away. “Don’t have to answer me now,” he said quickly. “Jus’ puttin’ it out there. If we lived together…”

He didn’t have to say it.

Then I won’t have to be alone.

You pressed your forehead against his. “Give me some time, Arthur.”

He nodded. “Alright. I’ll wait.”

But you knew right away.

You knew in your heart, you had already said yes.

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Chapter 2 - Low Honor

[garrettsthings]

My Reaction to the 9-13-2018 Nintendo Direct

Like I did with the E3 presentation, I plan on going through each individual game showcased here and posting my thoughts on each. Then I’ll summarize with my thoughts about the entire thing. So without further ado:

Luigi’s Mansion 3: Back from the dead, Luigi has sworn to destroy the monsters that were briefly his brothers. In all seriousness though, this game was completely unexpected and I think it looks great. I like the fact that it seems to be hotel setting this time.

Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn: I did not own the original game, though I did play it and I loved how stress-free and charming it was. I might even get this one.

Mario and Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story: I’m a little salty they skipped Partners in Time. That one was one of my favorite Mario and Luigi games. This one looks good though, and I like the idea of a Bowser Jr. focused mode.

Luigi’s Mansion 3DS: I actually can’t wait for this one. I only very briefly played the original one, but I loved its creepy atmosphere and sometimes legitimately scary moments. I’m absolutely getting this version.

Yo-Kai Watch Blasters Moon Rabbit Crew: I actually got this game a little while ago on a whim, and while it hasn’t wowed me yet I also haven’t gotten super far. I’m still not 100% sure what Moon Rabbit Crew even IS yet, but if its a free update there’s no harm in getting it.

Splatoon 2 Ver. 4: I don’t play Splatoon anymore, so this trailer didn’t really mean anything to me, but I loved how they went full anime with it, and I absolutely adore the effort and creativity that Nintendo is putting into this franchise.

Mega Man 11: I’ll admit that I was never a fan of old-school Mega Man due to its difficulty (yes, I know. I’m the worst), but this was my first time seeing any footage of Mega Man 11 and I liked what I saw. I might need to try out the demo.

Mario Tennis Aces Ver. 2: I didn’t wind up getting this game, but I’m happy it’s getting tons of post-launch content. I just hope the Switch eventually gets a Mario Golf game with the same treatment.

Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle: This is probably one of the highlights of this Direct for me. I did not grow up near an Arcade so I never played any of these games, but I was aware of a few of them. So this bundle will be my first time playing any of them and for $20 that’s a steal. I just hope there’s a physical release.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: I might skip this one since I prefer modern Mario games to the classic side scrollers (I know. I’m the worst.).

Katamri Damacy Reroll: Oh boy! I have never played a Katamari game, though I have always been aware of how delightfully bizarre they are. And now you’re telling me I get to play the original? Oh you better believe I am getting this.

Nintendo Switch Online: I’ve seen a lot of people upset by this and I get why, but this isn’t something Nintendo just sprung on us. They’ve made it very clear before the Switch even launched that a paid online service was coming just like what Xbox and Playstation have. So while it does suck that we have to pay for something that has been free for over a year now, the jaw-droppingly low price of $20 a year (I’m an unemployed student and even I can afford that!) and bonus NES games are enough to make me be alright with it.

Pokemon Let’s Go: Already got my copy pre-ordered (Amazon had a price error so I got it for $20 less), so Nintendo doesn’t need to sell me on this game, but I’m still excited for it. I don’t care how kiddy or easy it looks, the game looks absolutely charming and I love it! I do hope those Pikachu and Eevee Joycons are sold separately though, because I want them.

Diablo III Eternal Edition: I’m not a huge Diablo fan, so I don’t know if I’ll get this game, but I just want to bring everyone’s attention to the upbeat Nintendo Announcer saying “The Burning Hells”.

Super Mario Party: I’m getting this. I am making my friends play it with me. We will never speak again. It will be glorious.

Town: To quote the best character in Monster Prom: YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!! I am a huge Pokemon fan, so Game Freak has my loyalty 100%. Especially after how addicting Pocket Card Jockey was. This trailer only showed us a little bit about the game, but I am already all in.

Cities Skylines: This game isn’t really the kind of game I usually go for but I’m happy for people who enjoy city simulators.

Daemon X Machina: This clip didn’t give us any info we didn’t already know from E3, but the game still looks great and I have every intention of getting it.

Yoshi’s Crafted World: I don’t know what Nintendo’s obsession with handicrafts is, but if it keeps resulting in charming, clever looking games like this, I hope it never stops.

Asmodee Digital Board Games: I’m all for digital board games, especially since they’ll likely be more affordable and less reliant on human deck-shuffling than regular board games. I would love to play Pandemic, but since that would probably work best online and since I refuse to use voice chat when playing online (see my above comments regarding my being the worst), I doubt that’ll work out well for me since Pandemic kind of requires a lot of coordination and strategy between players. That Munchkin Dungeon Crawler sounds great though!

Civilization VI: The only Civ game I played was Civ Revolution and I was absolutely enamored by it. I would love to play Civ VI on my Switch, since my PC is not even close to Civilization capable.

Starlink: I don’t know if I’ll get this game, but I do like the Star Fox content. I especially love Wolf’s voice in this trailer. It reminds me of Beast Wars’ Megatron.

The World Ends With You and Xenoblade DLC: My excitement for TWEWY dwindled considerably when I found out the game relies on touch and motion controls, but I still kind of want to get it. And the Xenoblade DLC looks great, but I need to get back in to Xenoblade.

Normies Showcase: Out of the third party games shown here, the only ones I feel like I NEED to get (and definitely on Switch) are Team Sonic Racing and LEGO DC Villains.

SO MANY FINAL FANTASIES: GOOD LORD. I’m not going to go through every single game shown here but... damn. Way to justify putting Cloud in Smash. And yes, I am very tempted to get all of them. Especially Crystal Chronicles.

Isabelle for Smash: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

New Animal Crossing: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

So in conclusion, I was very, very happy with today’s Direct. There were so many games that I wanted that I can hear my bank account actively weeping right now. If I have one complaint though, it would be the lack of information about Fire Emblem Three Houses. Nintendo has been so quiet about that game since announcing it that I’m beginning to think that all of us collectively imagined it at E3.

Jokes aside, I’m sure they’ll reveal more information soon, and we have plenty to tide us over until then! Now, to play Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon until the 3DS version of the original comes out.

[benevolenterrancy]

Dva/bridgette, "Built" (cuz my girl lindholm is built as fuck amiright)

last but not least of that inbox game, because I couldn’t just write a summary for this. I’ve never even considered this ship, but I am delighted.

-

“Built”Dva/Brigitte

Hana Song lay slumped across the hoodof her mech, defeated.  What was it that had finally felled thisintrepid hero, so much beloved by the South Korean people and theworld of online gaming?  A hoard of omnics, overwhelming in numbers? A final battle, glorious in its ultimate failure?  A moment ofreckless bravery that for once she wasn’t clever and lucky enough tosurvive?

That, at least, might have been moredignified.

Currently, Hana Song was laid low bya technical difficulties.

She had only been with Overwatch afew months so far, and it was both everything she could have dreamedand nothing she had expected.  They were doing so much work. Hana valued what she contributed to the front lines of the Crisis,of course, she was here first and foremost to defend her people,but… sometimes when you were getting up every morning and beingdeployed again and again before a persistent press of omnics, youbegan to feel like you weren’t making any headway.  A constant grindwith no objective in sight.  Overwatch was different.  Overwatchwasn’t just playing the game, it was rewriting the rules.  It wasexciting.  It wasfull-tilt, life-or-death, world-hanging-in-the-balance sort of work,and Hana was thriving.

Hermech, unfortunately, was not.

Because this wasn’t Overwatch of thegolden days, this wasn’t like the heroes her dad had told her storiesof as a girl.  They had no funds, no support, no legitimacy.  Winston(an actual, talking gorilla, how cool!)was sending out hooks all over the world and they were getting bites– people were slowly, covertly, trickling in, but it meant that thegreat workshops of the Gibraltar Watchpoint were almost entirelyempty.  One corner, near the massive bay doors, now housed her andher mech.  Over these months, she had been alone in her efforts torepair the damages as they appeared; she fixed what she could andignored the rest.  But now that one of the mech’s arms had gone dead(in the middle of a fight too, with everyone watching!  Uh, she musthave looked like such an amateur) she couldn’t really look the otherway anymore.  Something needed to be done, and she couldn’t figureout what it was.

In anothersection of the room, Lucio had a table that was covered in wires andtubes – for maintaining his skates and amp.  He smugly told her allabout how he’d pilfered and repurposed the tech from some companycalled Vishkar, and he at least seemed to know what he was doing. More so than her at any rate, though even he had been rather helplesswhen she’d brought her mech problems to him.  

Then there wasthat weaselly guy, Junkrat.  Hana wasn’t sure how she felt about him. He could be pretty funny, but she also couldn’t shake the feelingthat if push came to shove he wouldn’t hesitate to render her asmoldering crater.  He was given a space the furthest away fromeveryone else and very explicit orders from Winston about conduct. Because Junkrat?  He worked with explosives.  Hana didn’t know muchabout explosives beyond the “stick in mech, fire at omnic” sideof things, but she couldn’t help but feel that someone so… twitchyshouldn’t be messing with them.  She knew for a fact that he wassomeone who shouldn’t be messing with her mech.

And then therewas that short, grouchy guy, Torbjörn.  His portion of the workshopwith filled with a massive forge and huge work tables – he was theonly one who really seemed to know what he was doing in here, theonly one not self-taught or learning on the fly.  He had a tendencyto mutter when he caught anyone else trying to work in the shop, asif they were all just little kids trying to play with lego in hisworkspace.  Rude.  

Though, Hanathought, rather moodily as she kicked her feet accusingly against thehull of her mech, she did feel a bit like that right now, like a kidpretending to know what she was doing.  She was a soldier though, nota mechanic!

The fact of thematter was simple and unavoidable: the mechs weren’t made for thesort of sustained abuse.  Normally, with MEKA, they hadmicro-rotations.  They’d be deployed, hit hard, and as soon as thebattle was finished or relief was deployed, the previous pilotsreturned so that the mechs could be serviced, strengthened, andreadied for the next deployment.  After a certain number ofrotations, the entire mech would be replaced with a new one.  Themechs were made to take damage, but they were still complicated,delicate machines and for that sort of tank role to be maintained,the mech must be as well.

Sowhat options did that leave her?  She was, technically,on loan to Overwatch.  Sort of.  It was very hush hush, under thetable.  Overwatch wasn’t supposed to be operating at all, but someonein the South Korean government (or military, or something) must havedecided that if the omnic-crushing force of old was looking toreassert itself, it would help to have Overwatch as friends.  Hanawas very aware this was conditional though.  If it looked like thingswere going to go bad with Overwatch, or if it became too complicatedor too inconvenient, all association would be denied and she wouldget pulled… and that had quickly become an unacceptable outcome. She needed to be here. So she really didn’t want to ruffle feathers with HQ by requestingher mech be taken halfway across the world for servicing.  So thatleft figuring it out herself, or capitulating and asking Torbjörn. He got a funny look in his eye when he stared at her mech though, andso far she had avoided letting him feel it up.

It might be acase of the lesser of two evils though, she had to admit.

She was savedfrom needing to confront this sad reality by the sound of theworkshop doors sliding open.  Without looking up, she called out“That you, Lucio?  Please tell me you had an epiphany because Idon’t know what to do.”

“Uh, sorry todisappoint, but I’m not Lucio,” said a clearly strained voice, itsaccent one that sounded familiar but which Hana couldn’t quite place. Given that this was a secretive paramilitary base on a mountain thata bare handful of people had access to, this was alarming.

It was with thisshock that Hana jerked up and swung herself around, peering down fromher mech to stare at this strange newcomer.  It didn’t actually tellher much, because the person was almost completely hidden behind atowering stack of strangely shaped hunks of metal.

“Who are you?”demanded Hana, before she could think better of it.

“Brigitte,”said the person as she staggered across the room.  “BrigitteLindholm.”  It was strange, there was something asalmost-but-not-quite familiar about her name as about her accent.

Brigitte wasstill talking though, “Is Reinhardt in here?”

“Who?”

“Ofcourse he isn’t,” she grumbled.  “He saidhe’d bring the rest of the armour in here so I could get set up andstart repairs but no,of course not.  Uh, knowing him he’s found some old friend.  I washoping to avoid that until we got set up, or else I’m never going topry him away.  You have no idea how much that man can talk.”

Hana slipped downfrom the hull of her mech and landed heavily on the ground.  “Who’sReinhardt?  Are you new members?  Do you need any help with that?”

Brigitteseemed to take the barrage of questions in stride.  “Massivebonehead,” she said.  “Also just massive, trust me, you can’tmiss him.  And, uh, yeah, kind of new memebers, I guess?  Lena justdropped us off like twenty minutes ago.  I mean, technicallyReinhardt used to be a member before and he’s coming back – again,because he’s a bonehead – andso I guess I’m here too.  Dad’s going to throw a fitbut I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.  And oh god, yesplease.”

Hanawas already reaching for whatever was in this new woman’s arms and sodidn’t register the following warning: “Be careful, this stuff ispretty heavy–” until she’d tried to heft one of the pieces, wascompletely thrown off by exactly howheavy it was, and promptly dropped it on her toe.

It was a goodthing she was the only one who spoke Korean on the base; her tonguehadn’t exactly been squeaky clean as a professional gamer but joiningthe army had not helped matters and there was nothing like anunspeakably number of kilograms of metal falling on your foot toencourage one to show off that sort of vocabulary.

“Sorry,” saidBrigitte, “let me just…”

With a deafeningclattering, the rest of the woman’s load was dumped onto the nearestwork table, and Hana got her first real look at Brigitte Lindholm. She promptly forgot about the pain in her foot.

Ittook her a moment to remember to close her mouth because wow…which had pretty much been the first thought in her head.

Thesecond thought had been: arms. Because Brigitte definitely had those.  Two of them.  Two very,very, very musclyarms. Yes sir.

Hana doublechecked to make sure her mouth was closed.

Brigitte was alsogetting her first look at the room.

“Wow,I’ve heard stories of this place but it’s really nothing likeactually being in here, you know?  Seriously, there is so muchroom… nothing likethe Ironclad Guild, but considering I’ve been working out of a truckfor the past few years this is like – whoa!  Whoseis that?”

At first Hanaassumed she must have caught sight of Lucio’s gently thrumming amp,which was partially disemboweled and casting beats of yellow andgreen light across the ceiling, or the terrifying toxic waste dumpthat was Junkrat’s corner, so she felt herself swelling with pridewhen she realized Brigitte’s gaze was hard-locked on her mech.

“Mine,” shesaid, as if it was no big deal, what girl doesn’t have a spare,million dollar, top-of-the-line battle mech sitting around.  “I’mHana.  Hana Song?  Top pilot in MEKA?”

“Ohmy god, I’ve never seen one up close before,” said Brigitte, alittle breathlessly.  “These are amazing. Like a mix between power armour and proper battle ship – you’vegot the protective hull of an armoured assault vehicle, but way moremobile than anything imaginable in that class… it’s even got theCrusader beat on that front.  It’s almost as versatile as powerarmour, but it’s not going to crumple like paper towel if it getscaught in a firefight.  These are brilliant. And adapting them to be piloted by people – MEKA is seriouslyworking on a different level with these.”  She rounded on Hana, hereyes gleaming with fascination and admiration; Hana beamed rightback.  “And you actually pilot it?  It must be unbelievablydifficult… it was originally designed to be run as a drone afterall, the sheer number of functions for one human to keep on topof…”

Hanashrugged with as much modesty as she could muster.  “I was thenumber one StarCraft player for three years in a row.  That’s whythey went for gamers, you know?  Better response times, multitasking,on the fly strategizing, working in teams and solo…  It was apretty natural transition, when you’ve got a knack for it,” shesaid, leaning against one of the mech’s pink legs.  This would lookmuch more impressive if she was actually wearing her flightsuitrather than the grease-covered work jeans and a baggy old sweatshirtthat used to be her father’s, with a faded picture of a droolingmurloc printed on it.

Thenagain, Brigitte was wearing what looked like steel-toed boots and ashirt with the sleeves (gloriously, gloriously)torn off so maybe Hana could pass this off as an aesthetic and notjust grubby laziness.  She wouldn’t know unless she tried, right?  Sowith the same sort of confident bravado that Hana faced most of theproblems in her life, she jumped in feet first and hoped for a goodlanding.

“You,uh… you want me to show you around?”

“Absolutely!”

Hanacould have crowed with delight.  Nailed it. Of course, the next problem was that this was a compact,single-person mech and there was only so much “showing around”that you could do, but Hana would happily use it to stall for timeand she thought out her next smooth step.  Besides, she loved talkingabout her baby.  With practiced ease, Hana used one of the mech’sarms to swing underself up onto first it’s crouched leg, and then soshe was perched in the crook of its elbow.  Brigitte followed suit,and Hana tried to resist watching the swell of her biceps as her feetsearched for purchase on the mech so she could haul herself up.

Andso Hana talked Brigitte through the ins and outs of the battle mech. Brigitte peered in at the complex array of controls inside thecockpit, listened in rapt fascination as Hana described its featuresand the battles she’s seen with it.

Soonit became much less about impressing a really gorgeous woman, andmore just… talking.  Brigitte was really, really nice.  She laughedeasily, and had a sharp, snide sense of humour, and kept up with Hanaeffortlessly as she got into the more interesting minutia of themech’s features.  Oh, lots of people were interested in here theexploits of Hana Song, South Korean MEKA defender, and they would oohand aah at all theright parts when she told stories about being flung into the ocean bya towering, twenty foot brute of an omnic, or when she had had notchoice but to self-destruct her own mech, barely escaping that onewith her life, but she had never had someone stop her mid-tale to askabout the actual model variants of said omnic or what expulsionmechanism the mech used that managed to get her clear of such ablast.  It wasn’t even annoying to be interrupted – it wasexciting.  Likesomeone was taking the time not to speed run the conversation but topoke around and unlock all the secrets along the way.  Or something.

Completelyoblivious to the emotions banging around in Hana’s head, Brigittepeered at the newly upgraded missile system Hana had been pointingout and said, “I knew I was behind on the latest and greatest,since I was following the big guy around the boonies for the past fewyears boonies, but how did I miss this? MEKA must have gotten a new energy core if they managed to pullsomething like this off!  Keeping this thing mobile, flight-capable,and defensive was already pretty much clocking their core as much asyou could safely expect… how the heck they did keep all that up andadd a missile system?  I mean, you can’t just go make the core biggerwith a living pilot in there, that’d be getting way to chancy.”

Hana rolled hereyes.  She’d commented about the mech’s wimpy power core before, senther complaints as far up the chain as she could manage, only to get areply back telling her to stop being a fool-hardy daredevil thatwanted to throw her life away and to smarten up… or, well, theprofessional, military equivalent.  It seemed to her the only way abigger power core would really be that much of a compromise was ifyou were letting omnics blow you up, and Hana had not intention ofletting omnics blow her up, thanks, so really it was a non-issue. High risk, high reward.  But whatever.

“Nope, sameold, same old,” she told Brigitte.  “It was more of a remodeling. I’m the first to test it out.  We diverted some of the power thatwould have otherwise been used by the defense matrix and fed it tothe missile systems.”

Brigitte’seyebrows went up.  “What?  You’re compromising defense for this? But the defense matrix is one of the things that actually makes amech remotely viable against heavy projectile damage, otherwiseyou’re just a big,” she gestured vaguely to the mech, “pinktarget waiting to blow!”

“Pssh,no.  We’re supposedto be mobile, that’s the whole point!  We’re not there to shield,we’re there to hit hard and fast and get out before too much damageis laid down!  The defense matrix just makes us sitting ducks –with the missiles we can actually attack from a distance beforeneeding to get up close.  Waybetter strategy, trust me.”

Brigitte hummed,but seemed to be considering it.

“Any chance Icould see a test run?” asked Brigitte.  “I’ve only ever seenvideo.  I’d love to see it in person.”

“Absolutely!”said Hana, without hesitation.  How was she supposed to say no tohaving the admiring gaze of a cute girl on her while she did what shedid best?

And then came thecrushing recollection of why she was here in the shop in the firstplace.  The arms, while not as crucial for movement as the thrustersystem, still acted a little like rudders; they were directionconnected to the yokes which controlled all movement.

…Still, it didmean flying the mech would still be doable, even with one arm down. A little clunky, maybe, but she’d managed to get herself through thatlast battle with it down, right?  And it’s not like there would evenbe Talon agents trying to shoot her down this time.  It would befine.  Completely fine and totally work it.

She hesitatedagain.  Common sense was screaming at her to listen for five seconds.

Because on theother hand, she couldn’t help but suspect that an genuine, bona-fidemechanic might not think it was brave or daring or romantic to getinto a damaged craft and push it even harder rather than runningmaintenance.

Damn her and herbad luck.  She was going to have to say “no sorry, I broke thesuper cool mech and am grounded” and watch this amazing woman say“oh no problem” and then remember she had her own work and leaveand never get another chance to talk to her.

Better thannever getting another chance to talk to her because you fly yourselfoff the cliff face and burn to deaths on the rocks below, hermind rebuked, in a voice that sounded frustratingly like her father.

“Actually, Ican’t,” Hana admitted bitterly.  “I’m having some issues with oneof the arms.  Kinda goes past my expertise.  I’m probably going toneed to contact MEKA and see about getting it replaced or something.”

“Well you’realready doing better than Reinhardt on that front,” said Brigittedryly, with a nod towards the pile of metal she’d hauled in.  “Youhave no idea how long I’ve been hounding on him to take a break andget some actual replacement parts for that scrap metal he keepsinsisting on strapping himself into.  But it you like, I could take alook at the mech with you?  Maybe we can figure out what’s wrongtogether.  No idea when Reinhardt’s going to actually show up and Ican’t work until I’ve got the rest of the armour, so I’ve got time. We could make an afternoon of it, get to know each other a littlebetter.  And give me an excuse to dig into some really awesome tech,”she said cheerfully.

Hana couldn’tactually believe her luck.  This was too much.  “You know how oneof these is built?” she asked.

Brigitteshrugged.  “Not really, no.  Not besides for the basic schematicsthat anyone can access with a bit of digging.  But I didn’t know howthe Crusader worked either besides for some of Dad’s stories, and most  of those were just complaining about how Reinhardt treated itand which bits he’d needed to bang out today.  I’m pretty good withthis sort of stuff.  Let me poke around a bit, and I’ll bet I canfigure out what’s wrong and how we can get you mobile again.  …Um,you okay?”

Hana wasn’t eventrying to hide her staring.  What were the odds – she was lamentingabout needing to contact MEKA and risk losing everything over thisstupid mech, and here comes with woman with her pretty eyes andpretty hair and pretty arms and pretty impressive knowledge ofhigh-tech combat systems offering to fix all her problems.

“I couldkiss you,” said Hana, words shooting cheerfully past her mentalfilter and straight to her mouth.  

Brigitte laughed,but Hana still hadn’t decided if she was joking or not when theworkshop door opened and a voice boomed.

“Brigitte! There you are!”

Brigitte roundedon the speaker, hands on her hips.  “You mean right where I’msupposed to be?  Yeah!  Where were you?”

This had to beReinhardt.  When Brigitte had said massive, she’d been understatingit.  The man had to be nearly as tall as her mech, with a shaggywhite beard and huge, blinding grin.  Tucked under his arm like itwas a jacket on a warm day, was more of the insanely heavy armourBrigitte had been lugging when she first got here.

As Reinhardtmoved further into the room, Hana caught sight of who was with him –oh joy, Torbjörn.

“Brigitte!”he called.

Brigitte eyesimmediately locked on him, and the stern face she’d been directly atReinhardt immediately melted.  “Papa!” she called, and racedover.

Papa?

Hanawatched with a sort of mute horror as Brigitte wrapped her father –her father – up in ahug and pressed her face to his shoulder, clearly ecstatic to see herfamily – her family– again.  Torbjörn was patting her back warmly, and theconversation quickly switched to a low, warm Swedish.

That would explain why the accent had been so familiar, just said in a different voice. That would explain why the name was so familiar, though she’d only heard Torbjörn’s surname the one time, when they’d first been introduced.

Atsome point during this, Reinhardt had ended up closer to Hana, givingthe other two space.  He introduced himself, and offered Hana amassive hand to shake; his grip was bone-crushing, but Hana was stillto shocked by all the revelations she had been hit with in the pasthalf an hour to care.

“Theyhave a big family,” he told her companionably.  “They would neveradmit it, but I think both have been missing it.  Very protectiveover each other.”  He chuckled a deep, rumbling chuckle.  “It’s agood thing I brought her back in one piece, I’d hate to think whatTorby would do if I hadn’t.”

Hanamade a vague noise of acknowledgement.

Brigitteand Torbjörn were no longer hugging, and by the tone it sounded likethings had descended into some sort of disagreement over something. Hana choice to take that moment to make herself scarce.  If Brigittewas sticking around, she could always find her later for engineeringhelp.

-

Hana Song layslumped across the length of Lucio’s bed, defeated.

“Were you…flirting vicariously through your mech?” said Lucio from where hewas perched on the edge of his desk, amusedly watching the unexpectedguest who had thrown herself into his room half an hour ago.

“You’re reallynot focusing on the important part of this story,” Hana told thebedsheets.

“Right.  She’sapparently Torbjörn’s kid.  Which is… bad?”

“Yesit’s bad!  It’s sobad!  Can you imagine needing to go up to Torbjörnand saying ‘Hi, your daughter’s arms are builtand I would love for her to cradle me sensually in them’?  Huh?  No! I’m doomed!”

“Uh,yeah, no, I would really not recommend that being your opener forlike… anything, ever.  Especially if you want to actually get adate with her first.”

Hanagroaned pitifully into the mattress.

Hoppingdown from the table, Lucio gave Hana’s shoulders a sympathetic pat.

“Justdon’t think about how awkward breakfast is going to be tomorrow, whenyou’re sitting across from him and trying not to project how into hisdaughter you are,” he said cheerfully.

Agroan.  Hana Song was doomed.

[frenchiefie]

Hi, I saw your tlbm harley cosplay post (s) & it's seriously amazing!!?? It looks SO WELL DONE! I want to cosplay tlbm harley for a con next year, & I was wondering if you made the costume yourself, or if you got it commissioned (& if so, could you let me know where you got the different pieces? ). In hope you had TONS OF FUN cosplaying; it looks like a great experience!!! :-)

I’ve got quite a few questions like this, and I figured I could just compile a masterpost of all the stuff I gathered for this cosplay!!Wig:

This one I spent hours looking for the best option, cause Harley has had so many different kinds of hair throughout the years that finding the right look can be tough! And Lego Harley has lots of volume in her pigtails so I wanted something floofy like that! So I got this wig here and then just did some cutting and styling with it!! The wigs are clip on which is a hugeeeee lifesaver!

Makeup:

I’m a snazaroo user because I don’t sweat much and am good at resisting touching my skin for several hours ahaha! If you’re worried about your makeup coming off easily, I would suggest Ben Nye or something more professional grade as opposed to snazaroo! The other makeup (ie lipstick, eyeliner, etc..) are just general things that you can pick whatever brand you like!

Mask:

This was a simple task of measuring out a mask shape using some paper and putting it on my face, and then drawing a sketchy line of how big I wanted my mask (there are definitely more precise ways to do this but I am always excited and rushing to get things done lol), and then transfering that shape over to some faux leather, cutting it out, and tying a string to each side to wrap around my head! The wig hides the string so the color is no problem, but if you wanna be safe, you can use black string or ribbon! Also, I usually put on wig cap, then makeup, then mask, then wig!

Collar:

The one I’m wearing is actually my partner’s dhsakjdhas, i gotta get my own soon so i can give hers back but looking up spiked collar on amazon should get you what you need!

Jacket:

This was definitely the most work out of the whole cosplay! And the most expensive! I looked at some premade Harley jackets but a lot of them were in the $70-$80 range and also not a match to what she wears in the lego movie, so I decided to make my own with a few different parts! I got this jacket, one in red and one in black, and then basically just cut them in half and sewed the halves together! Tbh you could probably find cheaper jackets to use but I needed quick delivery with the con coming up and this was my best option! Lego Harley’s sleeves are half white and then half the color of the main part of the jacket, so I took fabric from the extra half of each side and carefully redid the sleeves where I cut off half of the white part and resewed it with the colored fabric! As for all the logos and symbols, I drew those on photoshop, printed them on iron on paper, and ironed ‘em right on!! Here are the pngs of everything I made! You’re welcome to use them!

Shirt:

I just found a plain red T at goodwill and ironed on the logo! Pretty easy!

Shorts:

Found a pair of stretchy red and black shorts at goodwill and sewed ‘em together!! And then, again, ironed on the diamond shapes!

Tights and gloves:

You can find cheap white opaque tights at wal-mart or a similar store, and white opaque gloves can be found online pretty easily! I’d suggest getting elbow gloves so you don’t have to worry about constantly pulling up wrist gloves to keep skin from showing! These are the gloves I got!

Shoes:

I just wore my heelies lolSocks:

I already had a pair of black kneehighs, and the red ones I just found the cheapest pair online!

Hammer:

This was a fun thing to make! You can really do it any way you like! I actually have two hammers for this cosplay, one that I keep at my home in California and one I keep here on the east coast at school with me! And I made them both pretty differently! The one that I prefer has a simple cardboard base to keep it light, that I scored so I could bend it into a hammer shape. I covered it all with foam paper cause I thought that made it look blocky and cartoony! Then I got a cheap wooden dowel from wal-mart, painted it, and cut a hole into the top of the hammer to stick it through and secured it in there with lots of tape and hot glue! I would suggest leaving one side of the hammer open till you get the dowel fastened inside, otherwise it’s a nightmare lol! But again, you can do this with any material or in any order or even buy a hammer!! Whatever feels best for you!

Aaaaand I think that’s about it!! Feel free to ask me any more questions! I’m so happy you and a lot of other people enjoy the cosplay! It’s so much fun to wear

[3one3]

The Sequel - 797

Will you be my valentine?

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

original epic tale

all chapters of The Sequel

The Valentine’s Day breakfast included mini heart-shaped red velvet pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries, poached eggs with a leftover-avocado-based faux hollandaise sauce over tomato and toast, and little parfaits with yogurt, oats, honey, chia, and blueberries. It was served to André and Lukas and Lukas’ Valentine’s teddy bear in bed, after the morning sex with the older one and the morning diaper change with the younger one. They all ate together under the covers and watched DVR’d episodes of Die Sendung mit der Maus, which André insisted was the little boy’s favorite TV program for obvious reasons.

He was in a fantastically good mood by noon, and it wasn’t because he was like Christina and got the same kind of antidepressant benefits from orgasms, or at least not just because of that. André was elated because a solution he came up with for a problem was actually working, they were able to build on that solution to make a change that could potentially fix another problem, and they were doing it together. That is how relationships are supposed to work, he thought. His wife finally did the best she could to honestly and completely explain to him how she was feeling, he listened intently, internalized it, came up with a solution, she tried it out, they gave it time, and it seemed to be working. It was working well enough at least to try the same strategy to fix the next problem, and that was a decision they made together really, since Christina consulted him in her evidence gathering and conclusion phases. The player was sure that the fundamental structure of their relationship couldn’t be cracked if it was functioning on such a high level. Even if his wife was right and he was wrong- that living together again and getting Dirk back to the top wouldn’t eliminate their habit of expecting their worst instincts about one another to be confirmed and letting that lead to damaging arguments, he refused to believe that they could be in any serious trouble if they were so good at working together to get to a good place.

“Should we think about getting up and doing something soon?” Christina yawned after finishing her second coffee. Nobody wanted to get out of bed. Even Lukas was content to stay there. He had toys to play with and parents to stop him from falling off the mattress.

“It’s raining and it looks cold out.” André believed his weather statement was a sufficient answer. His time with his family was limited. Soon he would have to venture out in the rain and the cold and go train with his teammates.

“You don’t want to go...somewhere?” His wife really didn’t have designs on getting up either, but she felt kind of bad about coming to visit and spending their whole day in bed, especially since she had nothing to do once he left anyway. There was no flight back to London until morning so she and the baby were staying at the apartment without him that night.

“I really just want Mausi to need to have a nap so that I can f-u-c-k you again now that I’m actually awake. I feel like the proper way to celebrate Valentine’s is to let your girl sit on your face for a while and then c-u-m on hers.” The footballer used his expansive reach to slap her butt as she leaned over to put her empty mug on the nightstand.

“Wow. Much romance.” She rolled her eyes at his crudeness, but wasn’t turned off by it.

“I did order flowers for you, Prinzessin. I don’t know why they’re not here yet.” Seriously, where are her flowers, he thought, checking the time on his phone. I picked morning delivery so she doesn’t feel left out when all her girlfriends are Instagramming theirs. And because she’s not going to be here for very long to enjoy looking at them.

“It’s kind of a busy day for flowery deliver guys.” Christina scooted down the bed to lie completely flat and relish what that did for her spine. She also wiggled her toes and moved her feet around to distract Lukas from the tower he was trying to build with snap blocks like giant LEGOs. He followed and tried to capture her feet under the comforter the way a cat might.

“Does he look sleepy to you?”

“No.”

“What if we gave him more food? Post-lunch nap?”

“That would require me getting up to make him something.”

“I could do it.”

“Whatever you want, babe.”  

André took Lukas and Dave to the kitchen to make a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Hot, heavy, cheesy food often brought on a nap for the little blonde whose hair was darkening seemingly by the day. Like his father, his locks changed in winter. While the boys cooked, Mom gave in and unplugged her phone to address whatever matters were waiting for her on it, and to send her other valentine a message.

“Hi hello buenos días will you be my valentine?” she wrote with the pink heart and lipstick stain emojis. She also sent him a kissy-face selfie while reclining in multiple pillows, and didn’t even care that her hair was a mess, she had no makeup on, and probably looked as if she just woke up. It was Juan and he was supposed to be her friendly valentine, so it didn’t matter. He immediately sent one back, but he was in the dressing room at Cobham and evidently just about to head out for training based on his cold weather protections. His tongue was sticking out and his eyes were blank, so the overall impression was funny and made her laugh.

“Many women have sent me roses and chocolate. I have not yet decided which one gets my heart. Send a gift and I will consider your application. Bye.”

He’s funny today, Christina snickered to herself. And he’s gotten a haircut. Thank god. He’s so much prettier when the sides are short. What gift shall I send him? She put the phone down for a second to fix her underwear. The seam around the side was stuck somewhere it didn’t belong, likely from her rolling about in bed for hours. Fixing her “front wedgie” inspired an idea for a gift for Juan in keeping with the theme of the day, if not with her designation of the Spaniard as her friendly valentine. There was her main valentine, André, her special valentine, Lukas, and then her many animal valentines too. Dirk was always one of her valentines, for example. Her friendly valentine was going to get a Valentine’s Day gift fitting with the nature of their friendship. She pushed her blanket down and snapped a photo of some of her fingers reaching into her little black underwear and pulling it down a bit, and sent it back with “bye” to match his message.

The photo itself sort of matched one he sent to her before Christmas, and which she saved. Neither photo included a face. For Christina that meant she didn’t have to worry about him showing anyone hers, and that André couldn’t have a cow about the one she saved. The photo album on his phone was dotted with anonymous sexy photos he kept from Instagram. They were both allowed to look at other people like that, and enjoy them. It only bothered the rider when the player did things like pause their foreplay to take a picture, like at Christmas. Then she thought he was getting too into the Instagram girls and wanted her to be like them. Otherwise, she didn’t care what he enjoyed looking at and the reverse was true too. Having the photo she’d just taken on her phone would be significantly harder to explain to him than the one of Juan’s anonymous crotch though. It had to be deleted right away. Christina thought of it like Juan’s hiding her toothbrush in his bathroom. He didn’t hide it because he was doing anything wrong, but because it was harder to explain it than not.

“Chriiiiiiiiis? Does the baby like mustard?” André asked loudly from the kitchen, highlighting a fundamental difference in the kind of Valentine’s Day she was having and the kind she could have been having.

“Not really,” Lukas’ mom shouted back. V-Day is breakfast in bed with a toddler, and the toys used are blocks and action figures rather than ones you order online and come in discreet packaging. It’s waiting for flowers to be delivered, and hoping the kid needs a nap so we can spend time alone. I bet V-Day with Juan would include some obscure kind of roses hand-delivered by him to the library he’d tell me to meet him at so he can show me some weirdly relevant and incredibly romantic or beautiful book, and then dinner somewhere dark and cozy, to be followed by the most intense hour of his face between my legs, and-

“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.” The BVB man appeared in the doorway to halt her mind’s wandering.

“He’ll eat it but he doesn’t really love it,” she told him about the mustard.

“Okay. Are you hungry again yet? Do you want a sandwich too?”

“No.”

“Are you starting without me?” her partner smiled. The blanket was still folded down away from her lap, and her left hand was back in her underwear. It wasn’t really doing anything significant in there, or even out of the ordinary. The girl who never wore pants in the house often touched herself idly and without purpose. She didn’t even realize she was doing it when André called her out. She had her email open and was thinking about the alternative Valentine’s Day celebration style.

“Yeah, hurry up,” she laughed nonetheless. Thinking about the dichotomy of her celebration and the one she could have had wasn’t about the differences between being with the German and being with the Spaniard. Her reflection was more about the fact that she had a son who would forever color things like holidays. They made the decision to make all their decisions include a third person, and that still felt oppressive to her at times. Her Valentine’s Day morning wasn’t bad, or unsatisfactory. Christina loved making heart-shaped pancakes for her boys, and she loved playing games with them. The loved-up-couple-with-no-kids-style way to enjoy the Hallmark holiday wasn’t any better, or more appealing. It was just another thing for her to think about- to fuel her borderline lamentation of the way things were when she wondered about how they might have been. That was one source of anxiety that André couldn’t do anything about. There was no way to remove a wall or remove a distraction and take that away the way he did for her with her feelings for Juan, or the way they arrived together at the decision to drop some of her sponsors.

Father and son returned a few minutes later with a warm sandwich and a sippy cup of warm milk. André was pulling out all the stops. A heavy meal could force a nap, and warm milk usually made Lukas think it was bedtime. That was a trick both parents employed when he woke up in the middle of the night. Both were aware that no scientific evidence supports the old wives’ tale that warm milk puts a baby to sleep. It was the habit that worked. Christina knew pumping the kid full of cheese and milk was going to make for a pretty gross diaper situation later on, but his dad was so keen to knock him out that she didn’t have the heart to complain about the method. She felt it would be silly and foolish to admonish him for trying everything he knew how so that they could be alone together again before he had to leave. His tactics worked. Lukas passed out and was delivered to his crib. Her flowers showed up too. Two-dozen baby pink roses in a white cardboard bucket arrived for her with a heart-shaped tin of dark chocolate covered pretzels, which she then wanted to eat more than she wanted to have more sex. The footballer had to take them away from her.

“You said you want me to sit on your face. I can sit on your face and eat pretzels at the same time,” she pouted as he walked away with her present. Not fair. You can’t give a girl chocolate on V-Day and then not even let her eat it! Especially when you have it delivered and it shows up late. He could have gotten me chocolate yesterday and had it here when I got up, and then I’d be full of chocolate by now and free for sex. That was just delinquent planning on his part. At least the flowers are pretty, she thought forlornly, glancing to her right at the pink blooms on the nightstand. André came back and went directly to the foot of the bed, from which he crawled between his girl’s legs. She bent her knees and captured his head with her thighs, and moved them back and forth just to be annoying. His beard brushed across her crotch but thankfully for her it was so soft at its longest by his chin that it didn’t poke through her underwear. Even her own hair poked through it from the other side when it was long-ish.

“You’re totally not in the mood for this, are you?” he questioned dejectedly while she laughed at him. His face stuck between her legs and being dragged right and left was unavoidably funny.

“What happened to deep conditioning your hair? Did I make your mom go buy coconut oil for nothing?” The amused rider released her partner’s head and reached forward to fluff his messy hair. It was too long for her taste. He spaced out his trims more in winter because he was always so cold. That affected shape. His head got kind of wide and square at the top, and the longest hair got longer and somehow exaggerated how far back his part started, giving the illusion of a hairline on the march.

“Did you just finish your period? Did you have it between last week and now? Or did you just fuck Juan like every day in between?” The poofy haired blonde sank down to rest his chin on her pubic bone and his cheek on her left thigh. His blue eyes looked mostly sad. I hope it’s one of those two things, he thought. Because if it’s not then it means she’s not into me right now, or not into sex in general, and I thought women are supposed to be approaching their sexual peak at her age. She can’t be going down the other side of that mountain already. That would ruin my life.

“No to both,” Christina frowned. “Why do you think that because I’m not foaming at the mouth to have sex the entire time I’m with you that it means I- I don’t even know. I don’t know what you think it means. I just see it upsetting you.”

“Because I miss being with you so much when you’re not here. We just got our sex life like back into shape over the holidays, right at the end, and I miss it. You come here to me with no appetite for it though, and-“

“That’s not true!” Her complaint was both sad and defensive because she felt unjustly persecuted. “You thought I was reluctant to have sex when I was here a week ago?”

“No, but-“

“Exactly. I wasn’t into it last night because we had a fight, and because I was processing that, and tired from that. We had sex this morning. It was really nice. I don’t understand why it’s a major problem for you that I asked about your hair just now instead of ripping my clothes off and opening my legs in response to you suggesting I’m not in the mood “for this”. Is it just Juan? You think he’s getting all the sex and you’re not?”

“It’s hard not to at least consider that.”

“I’ve been with him one time in a month and a half.”

“Okay.”

“Why did you tell me that arrangement wouldn’t be a problem if it’s clearly a problem?”

“It’s not a problem, Prinzessin.” André shook his head and freed himself from between the rather nice thighs in favor of lying next to their owner. “I’m sorry. It’s easier for me to think it’s his fault that you don’t jump me when you have the chance than it is to accept that it’s my own fault,” he sighed from the pillow next to her.

“It’s not your fault!” Christina groaned back at the ceiling. “There isn’t even an “it”. I wanted to play with your hair and it reminded me that we were going to condition it today with the coconut and the yogurt and honey. I wasn’t trying to get out of anything! Stop being such a baby,” she urged with a pat on his stomach, her tone softening. “I know it’s hard with the team when you don’t get to play much and prove yourself, but you don’t have that situation with me. Turn off the insecurity for a minute, okay? You know better. Relax. And then give me my pretzels back. The least you can do if you’re going to have a breakdown over nothing is give me a delicious snack to enjoy in the meantime, damn it.”

“You’re my favorite person,” the player declared as he clumsily engulfed her head in his arms for a hug. This is why I need her around. She stops me when I’m stupid instead of getting upset about it. It’s just so easy to feel like nobody wants anything to do with me right now though. It’s easy to assume it’s the same with her. It isn’t. Chris isn’t like the people who are only interested when you’re doing something good for them, or solving their problems. And it’s not even like she has to try. She doesn’t get bothered.

“I could be eating pretzels right now while you’re getting over yourself and suffocating me. It would be a challenge, but I’m up for it.”

“Will it be a good Valentine’s Day if I let you go get the pretzels and eat them while I eat you?” He released her head and grabbed a breast to jiggle under her shirt, his concern and anxiety both assuaged. That brief panic was gone, mostly because his wife’s sarcastic prodding and refusal to let him drag them into a serious conflict were stronger than his self-doubt.

“Yeah I guess but it would be a stellar V-Day if you got up and got the pretzels for me since you are the one who took them away in the first place, you mean lazy ogre.”

“Mean lazy ogre? Really? That’s what you’re going with?”  

“Go get my pretzels!” Christina kicked her feet and pounded the mattress with her fists- a proper tantrum that made her Valentine laugh at her first, and then sneak a quick kiss before getting out of bed to fetch the chocolate covered pretzels. In his opinion, she was allowed to do put-on tantrums if the primary reason for them was actually to end an awkward or unhappy situation, and that’s what she was up to. The pretzels weren’t that important. They were a convenient pivot, and when he returned them to her she took her underwear off and invited him to have a field day, no need to discuss who wanted who and how much, and no need to make an awkward transition from fighting to foreplay.

She literally ate pretzels while he licked, sucked, and fingered her to the point where she didn’t need the chocolate and salt anymore and abandoned the tin of treats in favor of making some of André’s favorite sounds, and pulling his dry hair. He thought about leaving her there, on the edge of satisfaction, so that he could enjoy the way she got when she was desperate. He could skip directly to the main event and make her wait until he caught up to her, which would mean begging, sexy pleading faces, taking matters into her own hands, whining, etc., all of which he loved to see, hear, and experience. He loved to be needed that badly. He loved when she just tried to use him to get herself off. But there was an upside to getting her off with just his mouth and fingers too, right away. Christina always felt a deep need to return the satisfaction after a particularly good orgasm. It would get her going again. She’d be diligent, creative, and sensitive to what worked. The BVB man decided he wanted that treatment. He wanted her to enjoy her orgasm and then switch places with him to show the same kind of love with her mouth and fingers. Then he could be lazy and calm too, with nothing to do but recline and be taken care of, or perhaps eat some pretzels.

A midday blowjob of the highest quality was another reminder for him why he desperately needed to get the whole family into one house. After having his fun, and after Christina washed her face, the couple had a serious talk about the move. They called Zoe to get some details, and consulted Tom, Isandro, and the kids. Isandro was tasked with organizing and packing equipment and supplies at home while the horses were in Sweden, though they would still be coming home after. Tom was in charge of getting bedding, hay, and grain delivered to the new place, and making a final decision on hiring another groom. Stefanie and Christina would go over on the first of March, a few days after Sweden, to take “delivery” of the kids’ new apartment and help Tom get stalls ready for the first horse delivery. They were going to ship 5 and 5, split over several days, and use the extra space in the hauler for cargo. That way they didn’t end up with 10 horses and massive amounts of stuff to put away at once. While that was going on, Zoe’s people would be unloading the entire contents of the London house, which they would pack while the rider was in Sweden first and then down in Spain at Juan’s house for the couple of days in between the show and Dortmund. Christina would have Thursday and Friday to calmly get things ready for horses, and then the weekend to alternate between getting her horses settled in and working with her decorator to get the stuff into the new house.

It would surely be total chaos, but André figured chaos might be the best strategy. If his wife got overwhelmed or frustrated with what was happening at the house, she could go boss people around at the barn instead, and vice versa, rather than be trapped doing one or the other and having to get it done so that she could move onto the next one. And it left plenty of time to get situated and formulate a routine before the circus would need to get its act together to go to Omaha for the World Cup Final, god willing. Once the animals and the stuff were in the proper places, they’d just have to worry about getting all the kids moved. Kyle didn’t have much to take with him since the furniture in the cottage belonged to Christina and André and wasn’t moving. André offered to pay for a pod-type moving service for Stefanie and Espen so that they could just load all their stuff into a big container and have it picked up and delivered to their new places, though the latter didn’t actually have a new place yet, so hers would go to the house. The nanny was going to be staying full time with the family for a bit anyway while everyone got settled. That eliminated a headache for his wife, so he was happy to do it.

All that was left to be sorted was the Hazard ponies. Christina needed to find a facility for them with a good trainer and plenty of kids so that Yannis and Leo would still love to go ride, and Wizzy and Cornflakes would be maintained for them in the right way. She was going to keep Isandro on to look after them until that happened. Having just two ponies to take care of would give him plenty of time to work on finding another gig. That situation was the hardest on Christina. She didn’t want to say goodbye to her guy. She knew his next job probably wouldn’t be the same. It really upset her to have to force him out of the family, so to speak. Her partner had a secret plan for that. He was going to try to lure their stable manager to Germany too, even though he didn’t want to be further from his daughter. Tom told him on the low that he would be fine working with the Argentine and splitting the roles at in the new barn. It would be significantly more expensive to have them both on, however, compared to just Tom and a less qualified groom/laborer. The cost only factored into the footballer’s thinking because his wife’s riding was about to become less lucrative. If she ended some sponsor relationships then she was giving up some of her regular income- the kind not dependent on her success in the show ring. It wasn’t going to be a struggle to afford that kind of situation. It just wasn’t going to look all that intelligent on paper, especially in light of how much they spent on the new property without selling the old one. André considered that his headache. That was his problem to bear. He had to figure out how to make the numbers work. He promised Christina that she could have everything she wanted and that it would all work out perfectly, so it was on him to make it tenable, with the help of his agent and financial planner, of course. The three of them still needed to figure out what to do with the London estate too. André didn’t want to sell it, nor see it rot away while out of service, or ruined by a temporary tenant.

“The next time I see you, you’re here for good,” he smiled at her while saying goodbye when it was time to go to training.

“Yeah.” She smiled back meekly, trying to look as enthusiastic and excited about that prospect as her husband. Having a plan was reassuring for her too, but she was still dreading the finality of it all. She was still dreading moving. She even wished she wasn’t spending the night in Dortmund, because she wanted to go “home” and be in London as much as possible before having to give up London life. After the player left, the rider watched Lukas play on the floor and thought about how the best parts of her life were in her London life. Her spell as a resident there encompassed most of the most important things she’d ever done or experienced. That period was coming to an end and it was hard not to worry that it would always be the best period- that the next one, her new Dortmund life, wouldn’t compare. And that had nothing to do with day-to-day living and everything to do with what would happen throughout her life while living there- her career, Lukas’ upbringing, her marriage. Christina wondered if the highlights during “the Dortmund period” would be as special as the ones from the last 6 years.