#i made a new friend and am stupidly in love with them

[hnlylikeme]

Lovesick ramblings in the tags.

[depresseddepot]

SO THERE'S THIS GREY WARDEN NAMED ALISTAIR...........

[theemporium]

click 'here' to unlock the other boyfriends!

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It was a well-known fact that Lando Norris was an affectionate guy. 

He couldn’t help himself, it was just something that came so naturally to him. From throwing himself onto his team after a podium finish to wrapping people in tight hugs, from tilting his head towards fans in photos to slumping against people in between long meetings when he needed a few moments to doze off. 

It was like his energy just thrived off of touch. He liked being around people, he liked being able to show them his appreciation and love because he was never really good with words. He liked being able to show the important people in his life what they meant to him—actions showing more than words and all that jazz. 

And he was pretty affectionate with his friends too, that was nothing new. 

But with you? Yeah, nobody was believing for a damn second that anything between you and Lando was just platonic.

You didn’t get it at first. You didn’t think he treated you any differently to how he did with his other friends. He hugged you the same way, threw his arm over you the same way, tugged you close the same way. He would lean his body against yours when he laughed a little too hard and his head would drop on your lap during movie nights, humming when you would scratch his scalp. 

But he did that with other people too. You weren’t anything special.

Except you were—it just took both you and Lando a stupidly long time to see what everyone else saw for months. And even once you spotted it, it wasn’t something you were rushing to tell the world. You wanted something to just be yours for a little bit—your little secret. 

You genuinely didn’t think people would even notice a shift in your relationship. You didn’t even think you acted all that differently from the months you and Lando were just friends, other than the bonus of making out with him at movie nights. 

“It’s been a while, chat. I’ve missed this.” 

Lando watched as the comments rolled in, filling up his screen so fast that he barely had time to catch more than a few words from each comment. And it was the truth. Streaming had become such a stress relief and easy pass-time in between race weekends. It was something simple and fun for him to do, to feel connected to the people who support him. In a weird way, it made him feel useful during his time off when there were no meetings to attend or data to review. 

It was something to do between training sessions.

“Hm, my plans? Mate, I just got off a triple header. My plans include moving as little as possible,” Lando said with an easy smile on his face, making no move to pick a game to play. There was no rush. “Although, I did invite—”

“Where’s my favourite P2 dickhead?!” 

His grin widened. “There she is.”

Lando turned in his chair, waiting a few moments as he listened to you drop your stuff by the door before you made your way into the room he was currently sitting in. You barrelled in, your smile almost as wide as his before you noticed the set up he had.

“You really invited me over while you were streaming?” You snorted, shaking your head but you didn’t have any complaints as you moved to sit on a couch near his desk. 

“No,” Lando whined as he reached out, his fingers wrapping around your wrist as he tugged you towards him. “I haven’t seen you in three weeks, it’s cruel to sit on the other side of the room.”

“Well, where else am I meant to sit?” You teased. “I keep telling you to get another chair in—-oh.”

You tried to hide your own surprise when Lando pulled you down onto his lap. It wasn’t the first time he had ever done it, and you highly doubted it would be the last, but he had never done it with so many people watching. 

He didn’t settle until his arms were wrapped around you, your body pressed against his before he practically nuzzled his face against your shoulder. “Better.”

Your face felt warm. “Someone’s clingy.” 

“I haven’t seen my best friend in three weeks,” Lando huffed, his brows furrowed together as though he was reliving the last three weeks. Between the races, training and media chaos, he barely had any time to himself—let alone time to talk to you. “Sue me.”

“Oh, he’s sassy and clingy,” you teased but didn’t say much else as you shifted until you were sideways on his lap, giving him a clear view of his screen. Your arm wound around his shoulder, your fingers twirling the curls at the nape of his neck. 

user: friends my ass, look at them!!

user: they are so cute!!

user: are they dating??

user: MY OTP!!!! 

user: clingy lando is the best lando

user: they are literal couple goals 

user: they are my fav ship 

Lando’s eyes scanned over the comments before he snorted, though there was something quite smug in his expression. “Ship? Like friendship? Aw, thanks.”

You rolled your eyes. “You’re a fucking menace, Norris.”

“Language,” he teasingly scolded, lightly pinching your hip just out of view of the camera but the squeal you let out in response told the viewers enough. “Gotta keep it kid-friendly in here. Max is probably watching from home. We can’t scar the poor kid.”

max fewtrell: too late for that, mate

You shook your head, lips pressed together to hold back your laughs. You shifted in the seat, like you were ready to stand up but his arms tightened around you.

Lando’s face softened. “Where are you going? Stay here.”

“I was gonna go make something,” you said with a soft laugh. “God knows you’ve probably not eaten a proper meal since you got back.”

“Eh,” he grumbled but he didn’t relent his grip on you. “It’s fine, we can order something. Just stay here.”

“I’ll only be in the other room,” you attempted but the boy wasn’t having it.

“No, I prefer you here,” Lando said, squeezing your body to punctuate his point. “And the chat missed you too. It would be rude if you left.”

“This can’t be comfy for you,” you murmured, your voice a little softer in hopes the microphone wouldn’t pick it up.

But Lando just grinned at you—that wide, huge grin that took over his face and made his eyes crinkle and sent a flurry of butterflies through your stomach. 

“You’re exactly where I want you, baby.” 

And you couldn’t help but smile back. 

user: BABY??????

user: OH MY GOD IT’S CONFIRMED 

user: THIS IS SO KEWBFJWEKFBWE

max fewtrell: you’re such a fucking idiot 

max fewtrell: but happy for you guys<3

.

[nathaslosthershit]

The Café Boy (LN4)

Summary: The move to Monaco for your new job wasn't going to be easy, even if you had your best friend by your side, but maybe the cute boy you met in a café can turn your luck around.

Moving to Monaco was certainly not on your bucket list. But getting hired as a Director of Brand Communications with an impressive salary, called for the move. Luckily, being best friends with an influencer with far too much money than she was able to spend meant that Annie was happy to move to another country to rent together. You were forever grateful for her, even though it wasn’t like you were forcibly dragging her to the tundra, instead you were offering to rent together in one of the most lustrous countries in the world, but you still felt like you had dragged her there. 

The move had been different for both of you. Annie, being the extrovert with a large following, made friends as easy as breathing, while you just focused your energy on your new job. You didn’t really feel the need to branch out when you had Annie. 

“This is ridiculous! You can’t keep spending your days working or moving furniture around for the 1,000th time.” Annie huffs when she enters the apartment and sees you on your computer working, just as you were when she left you 5 hours ago.

“It's hard trying to acclimate into this new job, plus I came at a busy time because they are trying to sponsor another company. I have been emailing back and forth with them to get a good idea if this is the right fit but the CEO has been so flaky that it's been hard to get through. Plus we have rearranged meeting dates like 6 times. It's ridiculous.” You rambled as you rubbed your eyes, realizing in that moment just how tired you are. 

“Nope, we aren’t doing this. I get that this is mostly remote so your hours work differently and you are trying to find your footing but I am not allowing you to work yourself to death. You are coming out with me and we are going to be social.”

“Annie, please-”

“No! I love you so much and think you are the most wonderful person in the world and that anyone would be lucky to be around so I won’t allow you to self sabotage because you don’t think the same about yourself. Come on, pack it up.” Annie commands.

Giving in, she forced you to shower and get dressed, two things you were certainly in need of doing. Not telling you where you two were going, she dragged you out of the house. Not that you would know anyway, in the time you had been here you hadn’t gone out much. 

Turns out, while she was forcing you out of the comfort of your own home, Annie knew and loved you enough to drag you to a sweet little café where the two of you could drink and chat instead of torturing you with activities that were more her speed. Seeing as the café was pretty full, you both had no choice but to snag the four person table that hadn’t even been cleared yet in order to get seating. Having two extra seats you didn’t need made you nervous, knowing that anyone could sit down next to you both at any time, but Annie paid no mind. You both had been there for 45 minutes, giggling and catching up, mostly talking about all the exciting things Annie has been doing while you have been working. But it didn’t make you feel bad to know she was meeting all these new people and going out to have fun because you knew the minute you asked her to hang out with you, or even invite you out, she would be happy to oblige. It wasn’t until you both were interrupted by a man clearing his throat that you stopped talking.

“Mind if we sit down? We won’t be here long, just wanted to grab a cup of coffee.” A man with curly brown hair said, gesturing to him and his friend. 

God, was he attractive, like stupidly attractive.

Which made it all the worse when you just starred, mouthing words but incapable of making sound come out.

Seeing you having a hard time, Annie came to your rescue, but not without shooting you a look that said ‘we are going to talk about this later’. 

“Of course! We are almost done anyway.”

“No need to rush out, we’d be happy to share in the meantime.” he replied to Annie, but he wasn’t looking at her, instead looking you up and down. Was he sizing you up or admiring?

The pair of boys made polite conversation with Annie, who was always happy and more than able to make friends with anyone. The man who sat down next to you tried to start conversations with you, god he really tried, but you were too nervous to say more than a few words, no matter how many times Annie kicked you under the table. 

After they grabbed their to-go cups, Annie, who had noticed the blush that had decorated your face since the moment they came up to you, invited them to sit with you guys for a while.

This time you kicked her under the table.

You loved her, you really did, but she loved to meddle. Even though it was never with malicious intent, she had explained that it just ‘pained her to see someone as wonderful and amazing as you remain a wallflower’. How could you get mad at her for that?

Right now, you were mad at her for that. 

“Well, you know my best friend over here is the whole reason we moved.” Annie said, in the middle of a conversation you hadn’t been listening to. “Got a fancy new job as a brand director or something… I always forget what it's called.” She says as she hits your arm. She knew what your job was, she loved to brag about how amazingly professional you were to her amazingly unprofessional influencer friends. She was trying to get you involved in the conversation. “Uh- director of brand communications.” You quickly said. All three people waited for you to say more, but you didn’t bite. 

“Ah, well maybe you should come work for my team, we could use uh… brand communicating.” The boy next to you said, his friend kicking him under the table. Even you could tell it was a poor excuse for flirting. 

“And what team do you work fo-” Annie began to ask, interrupted by a customer bumping into your table, knocking over the coffee the cute guy next to you had in front of him. 

It spilt all over his lap. 

You felt bad as you quickly moved away with a gasp, but it was really hot. You could tell it was worse than the few droplets you felt when the curly haired brunette let out a pained groan. 

“Fuck, mate. Let's get you to the bathroom,” His friend said as the two quickly excused themselves. 

Even though you hadn’t spoken much, you were bummed they had to leave, even more so when Annie said you two should head out, having stayed there way longer than planned. 

Not knowing what had come over you, you grabbed a pen from your bag and quickly scribbled your name onto the now empty cup. He probably wouldn’t see it before he threw it out, or maybe he would see and not want to call. But hey, you had come there to try new things, so you might as well try those new things.

Annie waited by the entrance with a knowing smile, excitedly babbling how she was so proud of you for doing such a thing. 

You remained pessimistic over your chances, but you wouldn’t dampen your friend’s mood. 

He didn’t call or text. 

Even your pessimism wasn’t enough to save you from embarrassment, or hurt. Maybe he wasn’t flirting? Maybe he was just being nice? Or maybe he was an asshole who got off on playing with girls’ feelings. Maybe he kept the cup as a trophy so he and his friends could laugh at it and talk about how much of an idiot you were-

“Hey, I can practically hear all the negative thoughts running through that mind of yours.” Annie said, poking your forehead. “Come on, this is a fun and exciting day and we aren’t going to let one idiot man ruin it.”

“Annie, this is for work. I am working. You are here as my plus one, so by proxy you are also working.” You said, trying to stop her skipping down the paddock. 

It technically was work but also wasn’t. Your company had been in the talks with Mclaren for a while now and the deal was practically complete. All that was needed today was for you to ‘supervise race day environment’ to make sure it was ‘up to company standards’, which was just a load of shit they used to give themselves more time to look at data. By data, you mean that if Mclaren does well today and looks promising to have a good season thus making your company a ton of money, then the deal is on. If not, it would be a cool experience to see how the teams work behind the scenes. 

Too bad the sting of rejection was ruining it for you. 

Being in the garage though, the excitement as the engineers, strategists, mechanics, all got ready for the main event of the weekend, got your mind off the boy in the café for a while, till he walked right past you.

Not really past you, more like into you. 

Neither of you recognized the other at first, too busy balancing yourselves and apologizing to the other. Once your eyes met the same ones that had you in a bad mood for the past week, you turned around and walked as far from him as possible, ignoring the weird stares as he yelled for you to come back. 

At least Annie was amused by it. She practically doubled over with laughter.

“This is such a rom-com moment! Gosh, I am honestly kind of jealous.”

“I am not! It's motifying, Ann.” You say, hitting her on the arm as she continues to giggle. “Would it be wrong if I told my team that the ‘vibes in the garage were bad and there was no way they were going to have a good season’ regardless of results today?”

“Uh yeah, that's psychotic and way too over the top.”

“...fine, I'll just pray that they have the worst race results possible.” 

They didn’t have the worst race results possible. Not even close.

The Australian driver, Oscar Piastri, had come in third. You thought that had been a good place, but were surprised when the team was slightly disappointed, thinking they'd do better. Maybe they really were in for a good year if they were aiming as high as possible. 

Café asshole, also known as Lando Norris, came in second. 

You were trying to get out as soon as you could, thinking luck would be on your side and he'd be too busy to run into you again, or reject you again.

You were wrong.

The moment Annie saw him, standing by himself as he drank from his water bottle, cleaning the champagne from his face, she grabbed you and marched right up to him. You didn’t speak as she congratulated him, trying to ignore the feeling of his eyes staring into you. 

“Fuck, its my sister. I have to take this, one second!” Annie said as she ran off.

You and Lando stood in silence watching her fake the phone call.

“Her phone didn’t ring,” He said.

“She doesn’t even have a sister,” you answered. This caused the two of you to laugh, luckily helping to ease the tension. 

“I um- I am actually glad you are here. I mean, what are the chances?” Lando said. 

He looked genuinely happy, like he hadn’t just rejected you.

As you remained silent, he began to get more nervous. 

“I just- I was upset to see the two of you gone after Max and I left the bathroom. I had been telling Max how I was going to get your number before the coffee spilt on me, but he said you didn’t seem interested. That became more clear when we saw you had left.”

Confused and a little scared of where he was going with this, you continued your silence. Was this some cruel joke?

“But you are here, and I was thinking that you know, this is my second chance. I know I rejected your best friend, and that is why you didn’t want to talk to me, but I started to really like you that day, and was hoping that I could get your number?” 

“What the fuck?” you said, not the best of responses, and certainly not a response Lando had ever gotten to asking a girl for her number. “What do you- what do you mean you rejected Annie?” 

“She… left her number on my cup. I am flattered, she seems like a great girl, but she isn’t really my type…” Realizing the entire miscommunication here, you shoved him, harder than you had intended. You would have felt bad if the ridiculousness of the situation hadn’t made you downright delirious, laughing hard as Lando stared at you in shock.

You tried to calm down, he must have thought you insane, but he started to laugh too even if he didn’t know what you were laughing at, your smile infectious to the Mclaren driver. 

“Lando, it was my number.” You said.

Now it was his turn to stare in confusion.

“What?” was all he replied.

“It was my number.” How much clearer could you get? 

“But- Max had said that you- but you didn't even- what?” He repeated. Then he rubbed his eyes in frustration, letting out a groan. “Max got in my fucking head about it and convinced me that you had no interest and I believed him against my better judgment. Fuck, I’m sorry. I wish I had just listened to myself instead of that idiot.” Even though he was mad, he too began to laugh at how ridiculous this whole thing was.

“Is it too late to get your number now?” He asked with more confidence than the first time.

“Fine, but you promise not to throw it out this time?” You teased.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, I’m not letting you go this time.” 

And you knew he meant it.  

[dolphincultleader]

Hi! Love your writing 😊 I wanted to request a vernon imagine with the jealousy prompt “You’re jealous” “Am not!” “You are jealous, and may I add, you’re a terrible liar”. Thank you 😊

Jealousy w/ Vernon

Word Count- 933

Tw- A few curses, Vernon is sort of insecure?, reader is very oblivious, suggestive towards the end, lmk if i missed anything

A/N- hello! Thanks for the ask, I really appreciate it. I tried my best and hope you like it!

---

Vernon considered himself a lucky man. He often thanked himself because what could he have possibly done in his past life to deserve someone like you?

Vernon also did not consider himself a jealous person. He trusted you. He wasn't insecure. He knew you would never cheat on him. But why the fuck does he feel a pang in his heart when you talk to a certain childhood friend for too long?

Was it because he was aware of the guy's romantic interest in you? Or was it because you were laughing loudly at the guy's words, blissfully unaware of his true intentions?

He didn't know what he should do. Was he just being overly jealous? Fuck, why is love so hard? Should he go join the conversation?

You were unaware of a panicked Vernon standing behind you, contemplating his life. You noticed him standing afar after what felt like an eternity to Vernon. You waved at him and gestured him to come over there while shooting him your stupidly cute smile.

As he stalled over to where you and your friend sat, he contemplated how to join the conversation. Suddenly, he felt underdressed. Why the fuck is the guy dressed so well? Even you wore a white pretty dress. His usual T-shirt and pants made him feel like a fish out of water.

You, being oblivious, introduced them to each other. As Vernon shook the guy's hand, his nervousness didn't go away, nor did it made things easier for him. Why the fuck were his hands sweaty?

As you buzzed and talked with your friend, he felt himself panicking internally. Was he even making a good impression? He chimed in the conversation every now and then to not be rude. You both included him in the conversation.

But Vernon couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at how loudly you laughed at the guy's jokes. Wasn't that laugh reserved for him? And the guy's innuendos didn't go unnoticed by him. The lingering touches on your wrist or staring at your eyes for a bit too long. You however, were completely unaware, thinking Vernon was being included.

After an eternity (Vernon's words), you bid goodbye to your friend. Vernon smiled in politeness. The smile was all he could manage was fighting off the urge to tell the guy to back off several times mid convo.

As you and Vernon walked out of the Cafe, his hand leisurely resting on your waist, you couldn't help but notice his unusual silence. Sure, Vernon usually played the role of a "listener" in your relationship, but he he wasn't this quiet.

He held the passenger seat's door open as you got in. Getting in the driver's seat, he started driving. You stared at him as he drove, eyes focused on the road. Your stares didn't go unnoticed by him. He broke the somewhat awkward silence of you staring at him.

"Love?"

"Just wanted to make sure you didn't go mute suddenly" you shoot.

He chuckled at that and hummed as acknowledgement. You narrowed your eyes at him.

"Spit it out." You ordered in a stern voice.

"Feeling bold, are we?" He asked jokingly. Hearing the tone he usually uses when you play brat from your own mouth was...new. It also made his dick twitch in his pants very quick.

"Hey, seriously. Whats up?" You asked, this time softer and more seriously.

"Your friend was nice..." he started. Not knowing how to navigate this conversation. After all, he has never considered himself a jealous person. Would you think he's insecure? Doubt crept up to his mind as he tried to push it back.

"Okay...?" You were confused by the change of topic.

"Maybe... a bit too nice..." he went on. You laughed suddenly making him give you a side eye.

"You're jealous!" You said mid laugh.

"Am not!" He felt heat creeping up to his cheeks at your words.

"You are jealous, and may I add, a terrible liar." You continued. He pursed his lips together, muttering a quiet shut up with no malice whatsoever.

"It's ridiculous! He was embarrassingly over you! As if he had a chance with you, even while I was literally sitting there!" He rambled on as you laughed. Apparently the situation was fucking hilarious to you. He felt so silly suddenly.

"What do you think? You countered, finally calming yourself down.

"What?"

"Do you think he has a chance with me?"

He stayed silent for way too long. It worried you. Did he really think he meant that low to you? After a few minutes of driving in silence, he replied.

"I... honestly don't know..." his voice was laced with hesitation. That needed to be changed.

"Do you want me to stay?" You asked as he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex.

"Yeah...?" He replied, clearly confused.

"Then you better make me stay." You said, a smirk plastered on your face. Clearly reading between the lines, he rolled his eyes.

"And what exactly can I do to make that happen?" Killing the engine, he turned his body towards you as he asked, clearly being sarcastic. You wrapped your arms around his neck, bringing him closer. Your eyes burned into each others'.

"Why don't you start by showing me how much you want me to stay?"

"So you want me to fuck the living daylight out of you and make you scream my name till thats the only thing you know?" He countered.

"Why don't you start with kissing me, pretty boy?" You teased.

"Patience sweetheart, you have a long night ahead of you"

---

Masterlist



[kyu-piddy]

Messy love triangles….

Leona x reader x riddle mayhaps⁉️

Ranking a singular twst love triangle on how messy it is

An: The more I write for Leona the more I find this man hilarious. Who knew petty men were this funny to write about?

Gn reader x Riddle, Leona

Trigger warnings: Swearing

900 words

Riddle vs Leona

There’s people that you wonder how they have beef. They’re not opposites, they’re not too similar, but there’s something that doesn’t quite click with them.

In the case of Riddle and Leona, their beef is over you.

Riddle is a fool I tell you. He might be a great student, he might be Mr perfect in anything and everything pertaining to stuff your parents would be proud of, but he is indeed a fool.

He will, very loudly and stupidly, call you his good friend to the Heartslabyul dorm while blushing up a storm as soon as you’re less than 10 feet away from him.

You were commenting in passing to Ace and Deuce how the history of magic assignment is really hard? There comes Riddle in the next morning carrying back breaking books on the topic, with sticky notes color coded to how important he thought that information was.

Did you complain about not being able to sleep properly? Riddle has brewed you a potion that is said to help sleep and prepared a brochure with every habit of yours that is making sleep evade you.

And yet he is not using the evidence to reach a sound verdict. He is instead looking pretty stupid and/or overbearing to everyone around him.

Trey and Cater are laughing their asses off at the interactions between you both.

If it was someone else it could be heavily considered that they were faking it, but it’s Riddle after all.

Mr. Lionman is, like always, emotionally constipated as hell.

Leona might be lazy as balls, but he is no idiot. He’s actually rather brilliant and also not blind, so the moment he sees Riddle interact with you, it’s on sight.

Verbally that is. Leona isn’t that trigger happy with people that he could snap like a twig.

He probably already suspected Riddle's crush on you just by hearing you talk, which he did in fact make an effort to stay awake for, but actually seeing the red short stack turn into a human prawn would piss him off sooooo bad.

This man is incredibly petty. He has never once actually tried in his classes, but seeing as that would make Riddle mad, he’s showing up at 8:00 am on the dot to every class and scoring 100 after 100 in every test he can.

Meanwhile Riddle’s jaw is glued to the floor.

He doesn’t really understand why Leona is rubbing his successes in his face, which does piss him off, but what pisses him off the most is how Leona is showing it off to you too??? How dare he!

Riddle should be the one that comes to you with his perfect tests, offering help all gentleman style.

Treys sweets are another weapon in Riddle's arsenal, but Leona is indeed a cheeky bastard that practices the age old “all is fair in love and war”.

Ruggie is going to be very busy making sure those sweets taste awful, and also trying to feed you with stuff “Leona” made.

Speaking of Trey, he’s going to have to make a decorated cake saying “You like ____” for his housewarden. Otherwise man will stay in the dark.

It is shocking news to Riddle once he figures it out, while everyone else sort of just… nods their heads and pretend it is such riveting new information.

“Trey, I have delved deep into my psyche and have reached the conclusion that my feelings for ___ aren’t exclusively platonic.”

“Oh, really now, Riddle?”

oH reALly NoW RiDdLe

Leona is also a contender for the most obvious crush on campus to those that know him.

Ruggie and Jack probably have a bet going on when Leona will confess. (Jack thinks it will be when the sun explodes. Ruggie is more akin to the hypothesis of the heat death of the universe coming first.)

Riddle is the one most likely to confess.

He believes in doing things the proper way so confessing is the way to go.

Man is redder than his hair and holding a script he wrote.

It’s really sweet actually. Riddle isn't some romantic bard of legend, but he writes down his feelings in the best way he can: with legal jargon.

Leona’s sixth sense is activating and he is running to match his rival.

Once again, metaphorically. He can’t be bothered to actually run.

He is putting his head on your shoulder, whispering into your ear…

“I know you like me, herbivore.”

Hell no! This man did not spend the time he did around you and planning how to get your attention to turn back around and say it’s you who is in love with him! Step on his tail or knee him on the groin cuz he deserves it.

For a Leona love triangle, this one isn’t that bad. I’d give it an A.

Any love triangle with two overblot boys tends to be really messed up, even after said overblot, but Leona and Riddle don’t have that much prior beef that turns the love triangle into a biohazard.

Leona will have his good ol inferiority complex to keep him company if rejected, but he doesn’t feel like he is in that much direct competition with Riddle, which spares him some of the heartache that a love triangle with Vil or Malleus would give.

Riddle will be haunted by his perfectionism and romantic stupidity if rejected, but he’s one of the more stable post overblot boys, so you don’t have much to fear. Probably.

[paceywittters]

ok so i know we probably don't need another ✨ chenford hot take ✨, but alas, i am going to share my thoughts because why not. i've seen a lot of people say that chenford feels weird post-breakup because they're so friendly with one another - and it's true, i agree, they're being incredibly relaxed with one another in a way that doesn't feel earned at all...but my issue for quite some time is that they didn't just not earn this phase of their relationship, this is a trend. chenford has consistently had drama/resolutions that feel unearned within the narrative since their relationship veered overtly romantic.

chenford went from the slow build of seasons 1-4 to the fast-paced version of the ship we met in season 5, which has always bothered me. i loved the slow burn of chenford, but something about the way they went from facing some genuinely difficult complications to their relationship in mid season 5 to just...skirting around them with ease (at least, for a while) was off-putting. lucy solving tim's work issue in one fell swoop with the 5 player trade was too simple (despite personal ramifications - i mean in a relationship/interpersonal sense). the fact that they were just...allowed to be together while working together was so easily resolved and deeply uncomplicated, despite us consistently being told how complicated it was going to be. from 5x01 to 5x09, it seemed like chenford were going to dive into something that wasn't easy, but was worth the risk.

...but then it was...stupidly easy.

the relationship moving so quickly and having a smattering of incredibly simple complications that were resolved almost immediately made the post 5x09 era of chenford feel so unearned to me - not to mention that, yes, they knew each other and they'd fallen for each other...but before they were dating, chenford weren't really friends. they went from tim being her TO to lucy being his aide to them being friendly at work...and sure, it built into personal moments here and there, but not enough for me to feel like they'd genuinely gotten to a point where they were ready to jump into a relationship. it didn't feel earned, to me - and i was okay with that as long as it was eventually addressed that they jumped in fast and didn't much care about the consequences.

regardless, i was hype to see chenford actually get together. i figured the way they rolled them out in the end of season 5 would surely lead to some addressing of their issues throughout season 6 - because, of course we could all see the glaring problems in their relationship, right? tim's penchant for closing off/shutting down in difficult moments mixed with lucy's lack of awareness of her overstepping tendencies and general over-inflated/displaced sense of ambition surely had to be addressed, right?

6x01 and 6x02 made it clear trouble was coming, and while i was excited to see them split up so they'd actually have to face their issues, the way the breakup was executed was...an unnecessary misstep. creating new drama with tim to make him seem like the only one who had any issues was weird. chenford already had some fairly major problems they could've mined for the breakup, but creating new drama made it much bigger, craggier, and entirely unmanageable. chenford, who had only dealt with minor issues that were resolved quickly and efficiently up to that point, didn't even have the capacity to address their initial issues, so they weren't at all equipped to deal with something so complicated.

now, we're at a point where chenford seems to have moved past their relationship-ending struggle without us seeing any real work from either of them (and, yes, i do think lucy has fault in their relationship breakdown - happy to talk about that elsewhere if you want). as viewers, we're expected to just follow along with the trajectory of their relationship and feel satisfied with the idea that lucy's taken tim's elevator declaration and moved into a place where she can make coded jokes about their sex life, or the notion that tim's "done work" on himself without knowing anything about it.

it's not earned. we haven't seen any of it - and the story just telling us these things have happened isn't enough...we need to see more of the build up, which the rookie has always been so good at. that's what i think is the most disappointing to me: that the first seasons of the rookie were so incredible for the ability to build, but they've dropped the ball now that an actual romantic relationship is playing out.

at this point, i would've preferred a near-miss in season 5 rather than them getting together at all. i would've preferred more build to a point where by the time chenford got together, their issues within themselves and each other had been resolved. i've been willing to follow along with what they're doing, but the way they've gone about it has me so much less invested than i've ever been in the rookie. it sucks, because i still enjoy the show - but i don't recognize this iteration of chenford at all.

anyway, tl;dr: that thing you feel like you're missing is the build up to this drama, to this resolution, to this odd version of friendship, to any reconciliation. the building blocks are not there, and that's why it feels empty and off-putting, at least in the way i see it.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 12/24/2024

pair of portentous tuesdayposts: this one is christmas eve and the next one is new year's eve

trying something new with the reading section, where i list off a bunch of books i bounced off and briefly explain why. let me know if this is interesting, or if it's more interesting when i finish a book i sort of enjoyed and really dissect what didn't work for me like with that annoying evil wizard book a couple weeks ago.

listening

the true champ of the past few weeks has been friends at the table's (an actual play podcast about critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends) horror/weird west season Sangfielle, and i know i have listened to about sixty hours of it bc i have played about sixty hours of stardew valley. i am currently on ep 49, one before the last finale episode, and it feels like it is wrapping up in a very rushed and weird way? maybe i will feel differently after listening to the six coda episodes wrapping up everyones' characters?

the song of the week is fleet foxes’ white winter hymnal, which is morbidly festive without being strictly christmas-y and is not salting the open emotional wound within my chest that is The Holiday Season. album released 2008. christ im old

-

reading

the concept of this gag award is EXTREMELY funny to me. i wish the EFF sent them a little physical trophy. perhaps a challenge coin.

bounced off a lot of stuff. the six larger books and the far top right are all from my absolute favorite thrift store with the worst vibes, who regularly has a 8/$1 media sale bc they actually want to be more of a kitchen goods and home decor thrift store and don't really want to constantly be overflowing with records no one buys. yet here they are.

i really do need to find a good indie used bookstore around here that will take books and give me back slightly more in store credit than in cash. bc i would like to fill some missing chunks of trilogies/fill out the star wars shelves a little more. but every time i have gone to half price books i have had an unpleasant time.

lumberjanes/bravest warrior/adventure time were not making me feel nostalgic and in fact made me quite sad instead (more in a memento mori way than in subject matter) so they're going to a friend's kid

glad i looked up Heartthrob (despite the really good premise of woman haunted by her heart donor) on my library's comic app bc the third one seems to mostly take place in a mental hospital which is really never a vibe i want

GRIFTER has art i don't love and a bland storyline about an ex-marine who is the saddest boy in the world and can also detect literal space aliens living among us. no thank you

tangle's game has a close-call near-sexual assault in the first chapter. no thank you! cool dystopic social credit score premise but no thanks!

gil's all fright diner is about the king of vampires and the duke of werewolves but they're hicks. the narrator hates that they're dumb hicks. did not jive with the authorial voice on this one

i bought Two Tickets to Tangiers in high school bc it looked cool and have only cracked it open now, almost fifteen years later. fifteen year old kay did not yet have the context clues from the cover that it would be a very racist travelogue

i need to stop trying agatha christie. i am never going to like agatha christie

-

watching

somehow i have seen the first tinker bell fairies movie three times this week bc that's all my bestie's toddlers want to watch. a really stupidly stacked cast??? how did all these people have free time in 2008???

-

playing

finished the community center in summer 2 of stardew valley (wildly popular and very intense farming sim) and would have finished it in winter 1 if not for the FUCKING pufferfish. i hate fishing minigames and i especially hate the fishing minigame in stardew so i am excited to leave it the fuck alone for a while.

my cauliflower got stupid mchugelarge?? i do not know why they did that. also a meteor fell on my farm and gave me a bunch of really valuable ore, just like real life meteors.

i do kind of regret picking the beach farm bc so much of my day is spent watering, but i am trying to lean harder into animal products and being more of a fun silly flower farm instead of the intense agriculture i find myself doing. i have the greenhouse, i have a small patch of sprinklerable land, i will simply make sure to buy some of every seed each season and if i really need something i will toss it in the greenhouse.

-

making

people are being very gracious about their mediocre colored pencil portraits. most of my gift budget this year was two flat rate boxes to my siblings. silly little pet portraits are very cost effective if you already have art supplies, nice paper, gumption, and very cheap small frames.

[sotwk]

Cinder Girl (Fíli x unnamed OC)

Summary: The Crown Prince of Erebor faces the dilemma of losing his heart to a lovely yet humble palace servant.

Word count: 2.4 k

Content: Fluffy, tropey romance and comfort, Durins Live AU, post-BotFA, class division, love confession, Pining Prince Fíli

Rating: General (no warnings apply)

To Read on AO3: Link

Dedication and Inspiration: Thank you to the Anon who inspired this concept long ago by sending me this message! <3

Also for my friend, @guardianofrivendell, a true Fíli aficionado with an incredible repertoire of fics of our beloved Dwarf Prince. You probably don't remember, but this fic fulfills the "Love Confessions" request you made from my Valentine Event in 2023! Better late than never? Welcome back! <3

Cinder Girl 

The Reclaimed Kingdom of Erebor

Third Age 2945

What to do, what to do? The proper thing, of course. The decision should be that simple, and it usually was so for Fíli.  

Except now. Except when it came to her. 

The young dwarf lord tugged on the beaded braid of his mustache and leaned forward in the cushioned bench on which he sat. He made a motion to stand, only to plop back down again with a frustrated grunt. He had been dithering that way for the last ten minutes, at least. 

And he had spent twice as long sitting there, only half ashamed of allowing himself to enjoy the sight that surprised him when he returned to his chambers following a day-long council meeting. 

I am just looking, is all, Fíli reminded himself, desperate to excuse his poor manners. He knew the right thing to do would be to gently wake her, assure her that she was in no trouble, and allow her to discreetly exit the room she should never have been caught in. 

Surely this was a sign. A gift from Mahal himself, to force his stubborn, weak arse into action. Yet there he was again, he who was hailed as the Lion of Erebor, one of the bravest warriors in the kingdom, just sitting there stupidly, staring as he always did, because he could never find neither strength nor courage to do anything else in the presence of this dwarrowdam that stole the very breath from his lungs. 

Even as she lay there on the lush fur rug by the fireplace, in a cozy warmth that likely had lulled her to sleep, her presence paralyzed him. She was that very rare gem, found only once in a generation, exquisite in itself without need for cutting or polishing, or settings of gold, or other fine stones to accompany it. 

"Beyond beautiful," Fíli thought, and his chest filled with both longing and wonderment of how utterly she had ensnared him with so little effort, with such little awareness of the effect she caused.

She had dazzled Fíli the moment she cast her first smile and first spoke his name, and from then on the prince was blind to all others. When she laughed, Fíli finally understood why his brother Kíli constantly acted the fool just to earn that sweet sound from his own lady’s lips.

And so Fíli neglected to mention the titles that accompanied his name, and as a result he was able to enjoy hours of conversations with the newcomer from the Blue Mountains, basking in her uninhibited laughter and open stories and playful touches.

But the ruse would not last even a month. When she finally discovered that the new “friend” who had welcomed her to Erebor was actually King Thorin’s heir, next-in-line to the throne of Durin, an invisible wall rose between them. She never laughed in the same way around him again. She remained friendly and kind, yes, but every action toward him was suddenly restrained by prim courtesy. Their once animated conversations were dampened by measured, cautious responses. Even her beautiful smile was dimmed by a strange sadness, as though the knowledge of his royal identity disappointed her. 

"Please, you don't have to…" he said, when he once tried to stop her from bowing to him as they passed each other in the hall. 

"It is only proper, my lord," she murmured, keeping her lovely eyes lowered to her feet, only doubling Fíli's frustrations. "I bid you a good day, Prince Fíli."

And she hurried away with her cleaning pail in tow, before Fíli could offer to help, before he could muster up the nerve to invite her to dinner, which was why he had come down to the servants’ hall in the first place. All he had succeeded in doing was send the tongues of the palace domestic staff wagging. 

Eventually Fíli's despair grew heavy enough that he sought Balin's counsel, daring not to broach the topic with the one person who could completely relieve him of his fear: that no future was possible between the Heir of Durin and a dwarf not only from a different clan, but without rank or advantages. 

Balin remained silent while Fíli laid out his entire predicament--during the prince’s impassioned speech, and a long while after. Too long, so much that the thoughtful calm Fíli usually admired in his sagacious old cousin only set his teeth on edge.

“I must say this is troubling news to hear indeed,” Balin finally spoke, tugging thoughtfully at his beard.

“Troubling?!” Fíli exclaimed. “How could you already deem it as such when you have not yet met her? What matters her lack of status when she is the sweetest and gentlest soul to ever bless me with her company?! That is, until she decided she could no longer tolerate my presence,” he amended glumly. 

“Calm yourself, boy.” Balin chuckled between sips of his ale. “You have only ever raved this passionately about very few things before, and never about a bonnie lass. For a moment I thought I might actually be speaking to Kíli.”

“That isn't close to either the comfort or counsel I was hoping for, Balin.”

“Harrumph. That is because I have neither of those things for you, lad! What you need is to be slapped back into your senses!” Balin shook a stout finger at the dwarf-prince. “Have you so little knowledge or faith in your Uncle that you could not bring this matter straight to him?”

Fíli drew back, eyebrows lifted in bewilderment. “I thought he would scoff at the frivolity of it, before declaring my desire for her as unsuitable.”

“Because the girl is common?” Balin snorted when Fíli nodded. “It would wound Thorin so deeply to hear this, that I shall not even bother repeating your words to him.” He reached across the dinner table to grip Fíli’s arm. “Your Uncle risked his life, risked everything to take back this Mountain for you, my boy. To give you the future that he felt you deserved. Do you think that future is all about gold?”

Balin smiled and slapped Fíli gently on his slack-jawed face. “It is about choice, and freedom. The freedom to chase whatever dreams you wish. Go and speak to Thorin. It appears there is much he needs to clarify about his expectations of you as the realm’s prince and his heir.” 

Fíli had genuinely intended to heed Balin’s advice to discuss things with his uncle. But after failing to quickly gain an audience with the chronically busy king, he let his nerves conquer him yet again, as he put off pursuing that conversation. And so day after day passed with him stuck in the plight of his own making… leading at last to that evening, when the source of his agony literally lay right before him inside his own chambers, demanding to be dealt with.

The more time passed with him just sitting and staring at the sleeping chambermaid, the longer each minute seemed to stretch, and the more ridiculous Fili felt in his inertness. 

Just when his frustration came to its peak, and he felt unable to tolerate himself any longer, the prince rose quietly and stepped towards the figure on the fur rug. 

A pounding knock barely gave him any warning before his chamber door swung wide open and Kili barreled inside. “Did you not say you were starving, brother? What is taking you so--??”

Kili stopped short, his wide-eyed stare darting between Fili and the lady that had stumbled to her feet, disheveled and disoriented. It was impossible to tell who looked more mortified by his arrival. 

“Have I… am I interrupting something?”

“I am so very sorry, milords!” the maiden blurted out. “I didn't mean to, I---I am so--!” Her ashen face suddenly colored by the violence of her embarrassment, she grabbed her cleaning pail from the hearth. The contents rattled inside the metal bucket, so badly did her hands shake as she gave a hasty curtsy to the royal princes.

“N-no, no wait, please… h-hold on for just a moment--” Fili began, when his tongue finally came unstuck from the roof of his mouth, but it was too late. She rushed across the room and straight out the open door without ever lifting her gaze off the ground. 

“Brother, I am sorry, I didn't know--”

Fili brushed aside the apology and scrambled past Kili to fly out into the hallway. Panic had broken through his earlier paralysis and suddenly he could not move fast enough, his body acting beyond the constraints of his judgment. 

He called after her; the sound of her name and his footsteps chased her down the empty corridor. But to Fili's dismay she did not stop or even slow down, and just as she was about to turn a corner and descend the stairs leading from the palace wing, a desperate shout escaped containment, partially strangled in the tightness of his throat, but still too loud to be ignored. 

“I love you, all right?! I love you!!”

The frantic clatter of the metal pail ceased, and all Fili could hear against the ensuing silence was the roar of his pulse beneath his ears. In several strides, he closed the distance to come before the maiden. She stayed rooted to the spot and motionless, apart from the heaving of her bosom as she chased her breath. 

“This was not how I wanted you to find out.” The calm in his own voice surprised Fili, as did the confidence that drove his words. “But I also do not wish to take it back. Hiding from the truth has gained me nothing but pain.”

“I appreciate your candor, milord, and I regret your pain.” She continued to address him, but her eyes remained firmly lowered towards her hands, white-knuckled in their grip around the pail handle. “But what am I to do with these fine words you offer? How can a peasant be worthy to receive the affections of a prince?”

“Worthy?” Fíli repeated in distaste. “What causes you to believe that you must be worthy to--?”

“You are the future King of Erebor.” She spoke loudly over him, as though she had not heard him at all, or was determined not to. “The blood of Durin the Deathless runs in you! I am just a nobody from a Broadbeam village in the Blue Mountains--” 

“I was born in such a village, same as my father!” Fíli cut her off with matching fervor. “And you are certainly not ‘just a nobody’ to me.”

Something in his words finally reached her, for at last she raised her bowed head ever so slightly, just enough for her gaze to meet his, and the tears that shimmered in her eyes wiped away the last of his hesitation.

“We are not different, ghivashel. Not in any way that matters.”

Her smile that bloomed at that word, one that proclaimed her more precious than any treasure in Erebor, revived a light in him that had gone out in the long weeks of her absence. 

When Fíli reached out to relieve her of the cleaning pail, she did not resist. Grasping her wrist, he rested her open hand upon his. He swept his thumb back and forth all across her palm, over the red scrapes and dirt-streaked calluses that made her all the more beautiful and admirable in his eyes.

“Not long ago, I spent each waking day with my face smeared in soot, my arms and hands burnt from the blaze of forge fires, aching to the bone after hours of back-breaking labor.”

He pushed up his tunic sleeve to show her: the patches of discolored skin from old burns, the countless scars that littered the entire length of his arm, almost to his elbow. 

“But I would always go to bed happy, and proud of my honest living, of the smith that I was.” He shook his head and corrected himself. “The smith that I am. Whatever titles and additional duties I may now carry as a consequence of my inheritance, I am still that same soot-covered dwarf.”

He sealed her hand between his two and lightly kissed the fingertips that peeked out from the cage of his palms.

“All I ask is for a chance to show you that,” he said softly. “With the hope that you might come to love what you see in me. For I have already, absolutely, fallen in love with everything I see in you.”

Her silence filled the entire length of the passageway, all the way up to the high ceilings. Under the crushing weight of its persistence, Fíli’s hope started to falter. But as the fear of his failure to convince her started to creep in, his grip all the more tightened around her hand. He couldn't let go. He did not know how he could ever let her go.

“From the first day we met,” she finally spoke. “I already loved everything I saw in you…Fíli of the Blue Mountains.” She tipped her chin up and squared her shoulders, face set with resolution alongside her gentle smile. “I think that love can bring me the courage I need to let the other side of you, Prince Fíli of Erebor, into my heart as well.” 

Fíli’s entire being swelled with such relief and unbridled joy he thought he might catch flame. His arms found themselves around her waist, drawing her close to his desire to demonstrate the feelings he had restrained for too long.

Alas, a sudden and deafening crash rang through the hall to cut off Fíli’s eager quest.  “Sorry, sorry!” yelped a guilty voice in the shadows.

Fíli groaned, then chuckled, and settled for another chase kiss upon his lady’s hand. 

“Would you care to have dinner with my brother and I?” he asked her, nodding in the direction of the ruckus as Kíli struggled to straighten up the decorative suit of armor he had knocked over. “An unrepentant snoop he may be, but I can assure you he is otherwise harmless and actually quite pleasant company.”

“It sounds like a wonderful start to getting to know the rest of you,” she said, eyes bright from their shared laughter, free of even a speck of her earlier doubts. “Because I very much would like to know everything, Fíli. To discover and delight in every wonderful bit of you.”

“And you shall have that,” Fíli vowed, brushing his thumb over the curve of her cheek, over an ashy mark of the fireplace cinders that had brought her back to him. “You already do have me, but I shall also endeavor to give the whole world to make you happy.”

“You are already the whole world,” she declared, and rose on her toes to do what he could not, sealing their confessions with a sound kiss.

For more SotWK Fanfiction: Fanfiction Masterlist

Other useful links:

Introduction to SotWK

Headcanon Masterlist

[wildstar25]

I.4: Did any of them try to resist their feelings?

and

II.1: Who initiated the relationship, and how did they go about it?

Future Lia here saying: Oh god I really didn't mean to write all this it just kinda happened I'm so sorry. I have no excuse other than I've obviously thought so much about all these individual instances so much that I couldn't get my brain to stop. I'm very unwell about the blorbos and completely lost the plot lol.

Did any of them try to resist their feelings?

Arsay & G'raha part 1:

Literally the entirety of Crystal Tower was these two losers (Arsay and G'raha) obviously catching feelings for each other and then getting in their own way about ( I have a bullet point run down of their events here). G'raha over thought himself out of ever saying anything to Arsay and then got blasted with the 'this is your destiny' beam. Meanwhile when Arsay was ready to make baby steps, the timing just didn't work out for her 🙃

Y'shtola:

I hc that Shtola started crushing on Arsay far before Arsay ever realized her feelings for her friend. Y'shtola wasnt really in the scions to make new friends yet Arsay, for many reasons, managed to worm her way into Shtola's heart. They were really close by the end of heavensward. The rode trip through to the Hinterlands gave them a lot of bonding time in particular and feelings began creeping in. At the end of 4.3 when Y'shtola heads off to Doma, I have this whole extra bit in the story about Arsay accompanying her to Kugane and them spending a day going around the town at Arsay's insistence. It was basically a date and by that point Y'shtola realized just how bad she had it for Arsay. Still she kept her feelings to herself. Her investigations, the safety of the star, things of this nature would always come first for Y'shtola. (Queue Y'shtola singing I wont say I'm in love) A part of her hoped she could will herself past this terrible crush, especially during those three years apart in the first. Unfortunately distance only made her heart grow fonder.

Arsay & Y'shtola:

It took Arsay a really long time to realized that her totally normal feelings to have for her friend Y'shtola were, in fact, not normal and she had been trying to convince herself of otherwise for quite some time. It took Arsay getting basically beaten over the head with her own overwhelming feelings to figure this out though: From being so excited to see Y'shtola again in SHB, being heartbroken to the point of snapping when Arsay thought Y'shtola didn't recognize her (beyond relieved when that wasn't the case), getting unbelievably shaken when she thought she lost her best friend again, feeling stupidly jealous seeing her in Runar's arms, making a fool of herself trying to then lift Y'shtola up as well.... Things clicked when Arsay overheard Y'shtola fret over her safety to Urianger. Arsay just took a moment to reflect on how kind Y'shtola really is and how much she loved her- loved that about her. love her? why would Arsay think that? Ah. Shit, it's because she loved Y'shtola. And she figured this out at maybe the worse time? As the crew journeyed back to the Crystarium from Rak'tika Arsay fails to be chill about her revelation. She goes off on her own for a bit to cool down and prepares to bottle up all these inconvenient feelings only find out that Urianger followed her. The two have a semi-honest heart to heart. Beyond Arsay's gut reaction of "Who am I to worry about my love life, now of all times, when we have worlds to save?", she expressed the one crippling fear now plaguing her mind: loss. So long as Arsay continued to walk the heroic adventurer's path, those who walked with her were sure to be at risk. She had the experience to back her fears up too. Those deaths still weighed heavy on her no matter how much she tried to push those memories back. Plus it's been now two close calls for Y'shtola; what if the third time they aren't so lucky? Arsay couldn't handle another friend dying in front of her let alone a lover. There too is the possibility of Arsay dying and leaving poor Y'shtola alone and heartbroken. Inflicting such pain on someone so dear to her would be unthinkable. So, Arsay argued, by keeping her romantic feelings to herself she'd save them both from future hurt. Urianger in his most poetic prose somehow convinced Arsay that the regret and leaving things left unsaid was a pain far worse and longer lasting than simple grief. Arsay knew this of course. He also adds that Y'shtola would likely reset Arsay for withholding such important information from her. Arsay agreed. Finally, the elezen puts forth a hypothesis of his: That Y'shtola could very well be thinking and feeling the same things as Arsay has. After all, the two of them were shockingly alike at times. The idea that Y'shtola liked her back made Arsay's heart skip a beat. Maybe Arsay could embrace these feelings of hers. Love is a good feeling. She can let herself feel that and be okay. The inevitable hurt that's sure to follow is not something Arsay has to consider right now so it's fine. Yeah. It'll be okay.

Arsay & G'raha Part 2:

When Arsay's suspicions where confirmed and it was clear to her exactly who the Crystal Exarch was a pit formed at the bottom of her stomach. She had Y'shtola now, so why did those feelings from moons ago still have a vice grip on her heart? Arsay felt terrible, both physically and mentally. Selfish and disgusted. Guilt plagued her as they ascended Mt. Gulg and even more so as they descended into the Tempest. Everyone could tell Arsay was not at her best. She had to dedicate all of her energy keeping herself together through the light poisoning so it was no wonder that Arsay was unable to maintain her usual mask. They had to search the ocean floor for something and everyone broke off into teams. Y'shtola paired off with Arsay. Y'shtola, with her kind heart and inquisitive nature, pressed the subject while they were secluded from the rest of the group. Why did Arsay know the Exarch's name? What history did him and her have together? Most importantly, why hasn't Arsay been able to look her girlfriend in the eyes for the past two days? Like most of her problems, Arsay wanted to hide her feelings for G'raha away and pretend like it never happened. She wanted to be happy with Y'shtola. She was happy with Y'shtola. Arsay loved and respected Y'shtola so much so that Arsay wouldn't dare lie to her. She couldn't bring herself to say in plain words that she held a flame for the currently endangered Exarch; but she didn't need to. Y'shtola was far too bright to not pick up on the subtext. What Arsay did choose to say clearly was that Y'shtola will forever be in her heart; and though she felt like she had no right to, she asked that Y'shtola forgive how large said heart ended up being.

The Crystal Exarch:

I've written about this before here -> but surmise to say, the Exarch felt so undeserving of his hero's affection and too self conscious of himself that he could not put his all into the relationship. He should count himself lucky that Arsay was so hopelessly in love with him tbh. And yes, even though he really really wanted to, not once would he let himself go any farther with her than making out. (much to Arsay's dismay)

Who initiated the relationship, and how did they go about it?

ArShtola

Arsay, bolstered by a pep talk from Urianger and ready to make that terrifying leap, opted to confess her feelings to Y'shtola the night they returned to the Crystarium after travelling from Rak'tika. Arsay had never confessed anything of this magnitude before but she had to get it out there as soon as she could lest she loose her confidence and the perils of their adventures tear them apart. I have a cringe but free fic with gposes here ->

--

GrahArsay/GrahArShtola

It took time for Y'shtola to respond to Arsay's story about her and the Exarch. Their was so much pain in the keeper's voice as she mentioned how things ended up. So much that it struck even Y'shtola's heart. Seeing the one she loved carry such hurt was saddening, yes, but the sting the seeker felt was for her own sake. A little over three years Y'shtola pined over her friend and now after less than two weeks together Arsay drops a bombshell like this on her. To a degree, Y'shtola felt as if she'd been betrayed. Having finally given in to opening up to someone only to feel like she's been toyed around with and been made a fool. She had wanted to lash out then and there but successfully locating the Ondo ruins thankfully stopped her. Y'shtola had taken the rest of their deep sea mission to step back and mull things over. Arsay was practically falling apart in front of her. If this was to be the end for her beloved the last thing Y'shtola should do is add another nail into her looming coffin. For as difficult as her Warrior of Light may be at times there is no denying how much happiness she's brought into Y'shtola's life. Y'shtola sought only to bring her the same happiness in turn. And for all that Arsay's done for the world she deserves the freedom to go after what she wants. Y'shtola would not be the one to bar her from that. However, she had no intention of letting what that she desired go so easily. Y'shtola would not allow herself to be made an embarrassment in this situation. A solution found its way to the forefront of her mind. A bit unconventional outside of tribal life mind you, perhaps a wholly unfamiliar concept for a stranger to their own culture like her dear was, but a non-monogamous partnership could just work. At the very least Y'shtola was willing to try. In her words, Arsay's heart might very well be larger than they both expected but it was still the same heart that Y'shtola fell for. The same heart she continues to love despite the hurt it caused her. The same heart she puts her unwavering trust in. So, just as what could be their final trial stood in front of them, Y'shtola pulled Arsay in close. Her aether was blinding, spilling out from all sides in a monstrous form. Still Y'shtola locked eyes with Arsay. She dare not look away. Y'shtola needed Arsay to see only her in this short moment. Should they make it through this they can talk about the logistics later. Y'shtola's trust in the Exarch was frail at best but if Arsay trusted him he surely wasn't all that malicious. For now Y'shtola wanted only to ease Arsay's soul and focus her mind. There was no anger or resentment between them. They will fight this battle and rescue this G'raha Tia together, side by side. Now and forever, Arsay is loved and is free to love.

... A celebration was held in the Crystarium upon their return with the Exarch. It was a joyous affair for all and lasted long into the night. Noticing G'raha had sneaked away from the crowd, Y'shtola once again expressed her blessings for Arsay to chase after him. That she did and can be read here ->

[mylittleredgirl]

it's a little odd this year to both not be celebrating any of the many holidays happening and also not feel too depressed about it. my family/friends/coworkers are all either sick or broke, so everyone i know has independently kind of decided to skip the holidays.

which is good for me! i felt terrible last year when people gave me things and i was too crazy to leave the house and return the favor. literally i bought and packaged chocolates for my neighbors and coworkers and hand-made lovely cards and then they just rotted on my counter until summer when i threw them out. a single wrapped (nonperishable) gift marked happy new year 2024 is still there 🥴

but it seems like my stupidly long depressive episode has finally snapped! december used to be a manic month for me, and it seems like there's a bit of that (sleeping before 4 am? never heard of her) but the mood stabilizers are keeping me from launching into space so it's really just a relief to feel alive again. wouldn't it be amazing if it lasted???

now that i can conceive of the future, i'm plotting out my new year's intentions! i'm always about adding things instead of avoiding them and like to aim high so i get something out of it even though i inevitably don't cross the finish line. fun things to consider...

[beauspot]

The Bear Season 2: And Why I’m Fucking Annoyed (Full Spoilers below)

*Long Post*

The Bear is something truly special. When it dropped in June of last year it wasn’t a major hit right away. It was a sleeper and it grew its fanbase over time. If you were here this time last year you remember how small the fandom was posts on every platform could barely reach 200 interactions, but with the Golden Globe wins and the word of mouth this fandom began to grow and expand, because season one of the show was just so good.

Season 2 however is an interesting piece of media. I am well aware that I have some bias in this department and I can’t view this season objectively, but neither can the rest of you so I’ll say what I want.

To start off I really enjoyed some of the episodes this season, the first two? Excellent. The Marcus Episode(with my husband Will Poulter at his side)? Fantastic. The Richie Episode? Perfection. And let’s not even talk about Fishes, which was beyond words. I genuinely went into this season wanting to like it and praise it the way I did the previous season because I thought it was good. The writing—which is spectacular in nearly every other place—takes a nosedive with this romance plot. I still do think it’s good, but I can’t act like this whole season hasn’t left a sour taste in my mouth, because it has. Because the show runners are lying racist misogynistic nasty assholes who bullshitted us for nothing.

Toward the end of last year/beginning of this year Chef’s Kiss fans words made their way to some journalist who then asked about the potential for it with the actors and the writer( in an article stupidly named “don’t worry the bear doesn’t want carmy and sydney to kiss, either” the writer of which goes on to ship carmy and marcus so clearly they have excellent taste 😒) who all shut it down. Fine. That’s fine. That’s their opinion and it doesn’t affect us. What bothers me is the words of the co-creator Chris Storer who said this 👇🏾

He went on to say the show was also just meant to be focused on these people doing their jobs. So fine. We said even if it won’t be canon there’s no way they would bring in a new love interest cause that’s not “the vision” they have for the show, right?(He also goes on in the pic above to act like we couldn’t separate our love of the plot of the show from the ship which is…infantilizing and annoying) continuing on though, he also said this

He thought it would be cool to see a show with no romantic plot. Mind you this statement was made in January and the show starting filming in February. So unless they want me to believe they added this romance plot as some last minute thing (which very well could be the case as Claire has quite literally no personality outside of being pushy and being Carmy’s girlfriend) they knew they were having a romance plot in the second season and chose to lie about it. So the actors, the creator, basically everyone who was apart of this project said that Syd and Carmy were a weird ship (a strange thing to say to your, at the time, small audience even if that’s how you felt) just for them to turn around and have Carmy with a new love interest from school and have Sydney and marcus develop feelings for one another in the second to last episode? can y’all be fucking forreal for one minute?

Suddenly all you “yesss let men and women be friends, not every show needs romance” ass bitches want to ship something. I can tell you know Syd and Carmy have chemistry otherwise you wouldn’t have been shaking in your boots hoping the writers wouldn’t get them together. There was some dumb post i saw rooting for Claire and Carm but then adding ‘no one was better than platonic Sydcarmy’…

I see you.

I spoke about this before, but this constant sidelining of black women in these types of shows irks me. Sydney is basically hunting Carmy down for 85% of the season because he can’t do his fucking job he’s so consumed with Claire. And I know people are gonna say i’m being overdramatic, but it’s so clear they just did not want their main white boy to be with a black girl. Something that happens over and over and over again so many fucking times you can just lose count. Carmy, who in season one was so in tune with Sydney’s emotions he quelled his own anger and anxiety to ask if she was ok now ditches her at their restaurant to go help some girl he hasn’t seen since high school. He ditches her to go to a party then has the nerve to bring up Claire’s helping to inspire him.

Like yeah no shit Sydney is sorry that she’s there, y’all are opening a restaurant together which could fuck both your lives if it fails and Carmy is off doing god knows what instead of his job!

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!? And yeah, Carmy fucks it up at the end with Claire but that doesn’t negate the rest of the season. Chef’s Kiss shippers are strange and delusional and the show doesn’t need romance and then Claire is half naked in Carmy’s apartment? Look Carmy deserves happiness, his life has been basically nonstop stress and trauma since he was a kid and him ending the season thinking he doesn’t deserve fun or love is heartbreaking because it isn’t true, he deserves all the love in the world especially since he is actively trying to break the cycle (along with his sister). That doesn’t negate the fact that he agreed to being partners with Syd and then left her to make decisions on her own about a business they agreed to start together. Which is why he apologized and rightfully so.

And I know for a fact annoying Sydney and Marcus shippers are going to be like “well ackshully they are clearly setting up Sydcus this season so how can they hate black women.” I love Marcus as much as the next person and honestly after I saw where the writing was going I was like fuck it why not at this point, but if Sydney and Carmy’s shippers were living off crumbs Sydney and Marcus shippers were living off the memory of food. But sure that ship had development.

also no i don’t fuck with that syd and marcus ship because why the fuck are you snapping at sydney cause she rejected you and it wasn’t even really a rejection that was very incel core and it’s not about being upset half the kitchen is always screaming about something, it’s why he snapped at her.

I’m just angry so yeah fuck this show.

I’m genuinely contemplating if I want to watch the next season at all. I said if they wanted to go no romance, fine go no romance, but to not only lie about that but bring in some whole new girl we don’t know and throw the black girl to the closest guy despite the fact Sydney and Carmy are more alike than anyone else? You clearly need to do some introspection and think about why you can view Sydney and Carmen as friends but get sick at the thought of them being more.

There is a possibility (a slight possibility) that they are playing the long game we wanted, but i am wary because they lied and put a manic pixie indie girl in as a love interest this time and it sucked. But then I remember the scene with Syd and Carmy under the table and how open and honest they were with each other and even though their relationship wasn’t the best this season I can see it’s potential, because that one scene had more chemistry than all of that other ships other scenes combined. I don’t know.

This got me thinking though Will Poulter romcom when? I will be seated. Also the consensus on twitter is that people really didn’t like Claire and thought the show should have ditched their plot all together so that’s nice. A lot of people seem to think this is a setup for sydcarmy and idk, maybe i’ll rewatch when i’m more calm.

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

Ahh it's the last day of 2023 already?

I am expecting a call from a friend although the possibility of this happening is very slim it always felt nice to hear the voice of an old friend ( I'm not a text person I've realised this over time but I am stuck to be a text person) .

I can't wait for spring to come in 2024 , spring provides an intense amount of healing to my soul.

The next four months are very crucial in my life if they go well I can survive the rest of the year, I have died a couple of times this year and I am amazed that I am alive i didn't honestly thought i would make it to the end of this year ( especially in the last 3 months , I badly needed help but i didn't wanted others to pity me so i spoke to none about it ) anyways I don't want to talk about it , i don't want to make it sound blue than it already is,a i am really sorry about the fact all my posts are blue I sincerely wish it wasn't that way( altho i haven't posted anything here with as much as devotion I use to do , partly cuz i created an Instagram acc but that's not all reason I ve been sad nonetheless) and sorry for all the "anon/asks" that i haven't answered

I have made no achievements this year and there is little to no progress towards my self love or self growth, but I think that's okay I can do it in the upcoming year, time flies so quick i can't believe Its been so many years since I was 16 I miss being 16 honestly I had more in me back then than i have now , i have lost of confidence my vision and my smile over the years it's as if I am very different person now , i certainly wish I wasn't this way i really thought i would be so much more and better in my early 20s but it is what it is , acceptance is haredest of all emotions in my opinion , you know things are harder to accept when you know you could have done better .

Just like in the last 2 years even this year I didn't make any real life friends with whom I can hang out with i think it's partly due to the fact some people are destined to be alone and I am afraid to admit I am one of them , I did make 2 online friends this year .

I don't want to share any life lessons i learnt this year but if there is something i would love to share is choose yourself one more time each time you feel it's the last time you are doing it , choose one more time to live,one more time to hope, one more time to have faith , one more time to start again [ the fact I am the one telling you this is rediciculosly funny ] .

Unlike most people i don't have a lot of goals for the new year I just got things i want to avoid ( idk if that's the same thing?) Avoid my leftover heart's heartbreak, avoiding what takes away my peace, avoiding what can cause me discomfort, avoiding things that make me question myself ( in any negative way) ,i think that's a little too much but that's it .

As I was writing this Google photos sent me a notification saying " 3 years back today with a photo of mine " and it broke my heart a little, now I am questioning myself how did i let so much happen to me , I wish I treated certain things as the last time instead of always stupidly believing in future ( my worse trait yes).

There is a lot to say as always, i wonder if I open my mouth i would never stop sharing things that go inside my mind , but i also know there is no use of it if i can't find people who can understand it , maybe that's how I end up ranting here .

Not to mention I love people who are patient, i believe in the near future i would only like to talk with people who could be patient with me and with my silence . I believe everyone deserves people who can be patient with them .

Nothing really matters in the end but at the same time everything you do matters ❤️‍🩹

[nathaslosthershit]

Stupidly Charming (CL16) [AoM Part 2]

Part 1: Audacity of Man Summary: Charles was never anything but a compassionate and wonderfully loving boyfriend. You always used to brag about how attentive he was... I guess this is karma?

You had tried to distract yourself, not get angry or upset over the fact that Charles had most likely forgotten your anniversary.

It was still early in the day, he could surprise you, or make up for the fact he forgot.

But hours went by of radio silence from the Ferrari driver. You couldn’t really blame him, even if he remembered your anniversary, you knew he wouldn’t be able to drop everything at work to text or call you.

Still you had hoped for something. 

“Fuck him! What an idiotic asshole, especially after you made him breakfast.” Your friend said as you caught her up on the situation. “Get upset! Get angry! If the second he gets home he isn’t on his hands and knees begging for forgiveness, be the biggest bitch to him you have ever been.”

“That seems extreme…”

“Fuck extreme, fuck him! Get angry, fight, and then have the best makeup sex of your life.”

That you could do.

“Honey! Oh how I missed you” Charles said as he opened the door and saw you on the couch, pretending to read a book you had given up on actually paying attention to a while ago. You were still too upset.

You didn’t answer him. You even scoffed as he didn’t seem to recognize your silent treatment, just planting a kiss on your cheek and going to change.

What an asshole.

“Did you think about what you wanted for dinner?” He asked as he returned.

Again, silence.

“I was hoping to try out that new place that opened up down the street, heard it has amazing desserts.” 

Still nothing. 

“Baby? Did you hear me?”

…

“Are you okay?” He sat down next to you. A look of realization appeared on his face as he saw your frown. Finally, he was remembering. 

“Oh honey, I am sorry I had to leave today when I knew you wanted to hang out. I wanted to as well, you know I did. Hours in the simulator and all I could think about was coming home to my beautiful girlfriend, the person I am most excited to spend the rest of my life with.” Nevermind, he still didn't remember. But dammit as he hugged your waist and pulled your face towards him to plant kisses everywhere, you couldn’t fight off the laugh that left your mouth. He was stupid but he was charming. Stupidly charming. 

“There she is,” he said looking at the smile now on your face, much to your dismay. “How about I order from that new place, I’ll get all the things on the menu I know we’ll like so we can try them all.”

“Charles, that's an expensive amount of food for no reason.”

“No it isn’t, not when it is for you. You better get used to it, you are being spoiled for the rest of your life.” he walked away to order and you tried hard to remember why you were mad in the first place.

Right, your anniversary. But was it even fair to blame him? He was busy with work and while you wished he would prioritize you a little more, he always made sure to make up for it, to make you feel as loved as possible. 

You were halfway to forgiving him when he came back into the living room, an apologetic look across his face. “I have to jump on a call, could you go pick up the food, my love?” Nevermind, even when making up for being busy because of work, he was too busy because of work to make up for it. 

“Fine.” Was all you said as you got up, the frown back on your face as you grabbed your stuff and left, ignoring his calls and apologies behind you. 

If that hadn’t put you in a bad mood, then the whole ordeal around picking up the food did.

“I am so sorry, ma’am. It will only be a little longer, we weren’t expecting this much business so fast!” The lady behind the hostess stand said.

It wasn’t her fault of course, but it didn’t help your mood. Still you tried to keep it together as you waited 45 minutes to pick up food that should have been ready the moment you got there.

You even kept it together as you realized you had forgotten your keys to the apartment inside, so you had to call Charles to let you in. But after a few insistent knocks on the door, and a few missed calls, you finally broke down. Maybe it was dramatic, leaning on the door as you sat on the ground, crying, but fuck that. You were upset, and upset you were going to remain. Still, it took a few minutes for Charles to come to the door.

“Ah, I am so sorry love I was on the phone and didn't see your-” He was rambling excuses the second he opened the door but stopped when he saw you on the ground, a mess of tears and snot. “Honey, what is wrong? Oh my love I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you out here so long, and I didn’t know that the restaurant would be such a mess.” He kneeled in front of you as he wiped away your tears.

“It's not that-or not just that. It's everything Charles, this wasn’t how today was supposed to go-”

“I know, my love, I’m sorry I was-”

“No, you don’t understand. Charles, it's our anniversary, and I spent so long thinking of things we could do today to make it special, but nothing happened and it just got worse and worse till I couldn't hold it in anymore. I just- you didn’t even remember and everytime I tried to tell myself it was okay to be upset or angry, you would be so sweet that I couldn’t justify it-” You couldn’t even finish as sobs racked your body. 

Though, you paused when you heard Charles let out a low laugh. You looked up at him, but he wasn’t smiling or laughing at you, tears streaming down his face confirming as much. It was more of a pitiful laugh. 

“I knew this was a stupid plan. There were too many ways it could backfire.”

Before you could question what he meant, he picked up the food in one hand and reached for you with the other. You hesitated.

“Do you trust me?” he asked. Even though you were upset, you took his hand and stood up. Of course you trusted him. 

Your eyes widened as you saw the state of your apartment. Candles lit and spread around, balloons and streamers nicely framing your table that had been set up with a white table cloth, your nicest plates and glasses atop it, and a beautiful, large bouquet of flowers.

“I wanted to make tonight special. I had planned on making the entire day special, but when I had to leave I came up with a plan to make up for me being gone.” He looked at you, waiting for your reaction, he looked… embarrassed? “It was stupid, to pretend I forgot about our anniversary, I wasn’t going to but when I realized I hadn’t said anything, too caught up in the fact I was being taken away from you, I thought I would pretend so I could surprise you. I didn’t have a call, I just needed time to get this ready but after you left upset and then had to deal with all the problems at the restaurant, I began to panic, so much so that I didn’t hear your knocks and didn’t see you had called.” 

You started crying again, alarming Charles. “I know it was stupid, I shouldn’t have done it, I didn’t think it through I’m-” you kissed him, hard.

He was an idiot, such a fucking idiot, but he was yours, and for all of his bad moments, you knew he loved you so much. 

You two finally pulled away, that's when you realized he was shaking, a lot. 

“Charlie?”

“I- I had a whole speech. I worked on it for months. In the shower, in the car, during free practice last weekend it's all I could think of actually, that's why I got yelled at by my engineer.” he laughed, turning red at the memory. “I wanted to talk about how much I love you, how much I don’t deserve you, that I know it's so hard to have my job continually come in the way, but you will always be first, my love, even if it doesn’t feel like it. And I want to spend the rest of my life working to deserve you and your love. I want to spend forever making you feel just as happy as you make me.” Had tears not been blocking your vision, you'd have seen him reach for the box in his pocket.

But it wasn’t until he got down on one knee that you realized what he was doing. And before he could ask the question, you tackled him to the ground. 

The soft carpet luckily kept Charles’ head from hitting the ground hard. You didn’t care, he didn’t care, too busy giggling in between kisses as you both rolled on the ground. Once you two had calmed down and sat up, he slipped the ring onto your finger. “The ring is beautiful, Charlie, but this isn’t how I expected getting proposed to.” you teased as the two of you wiped tears away and tried to fix your messy hair from rolling around.

“It wasn’t how I thought I would propose, but if it ends in getting to spend the rest of my life with you, then I don’t care too much.”

So stupidly charming.

[mooncello]

three songs that remind you of dev? :)

This is the first time someone has sent me an ask about a character. And it's about Dev?? My favorite child? My precious, messy guy? 🫶🥰

Okay, first, limiting to three songs was stupidly difficult. In fact, I cheated. (Dev would, too, so 🤷‍♂️.) Second, I'm answering this ask based off my version of Dev, and my hc. For those that might not know: my version of Dev is a punk and a playboy. He's quite brilliant but slacks off at school. Secretly in love w his best friend. He's loud and chaotic and charismatic. Nail polish, eyeliner, piercings and jewelry. His childhood was shit. He's got an extremely wealthy family obsessed with status and appearances.

I say all that because he's the best and I love him but also to help situate my music choices. To get into Dev headspace and write, I listen to a lot of early 00s alt + punk pop. So that's what shows up in most of these song choices. I also tried to not overthink this and it was hard and so many songs are left out!

Good news: I put together a Dev playlist last summer. If you wear Converse and hate the status quo, there's a good chance you'll like it. My Dev and Niall fic has its own playlist, too.

Okokok: 🖤 the songs that remind me of Dev 🖤

Best Friend, Conan Gray

This captures Dev and Niall's friendship. Perfectly. No notes. Made a promise that I'm gonna marry you If we're both still single by, like, thirty-two And that shit is gonna end up bein' true 'Cause I hate, like, everyone except for you Who else is gonna grocery shop with me at 2 AM? Who else will take that picture for you just to get revenge?

Tied: I'm Not Okay (I Promise), My Chemical Romance / Night Drive, All-American Rejects

My version of Dev carries trauma from his childhood. His family doesn't respect or accept or understand him. They don't love him, and he carries these wounds deep inside. His whole life he's been told to conform into a shape that doesn't fit him. Dev is told he's too loud, too lazy, too slutty, too much. There's this line from more than a footnote that sums it up: I learned very early on that the best way to survive my family is to not care. They can’t hurt you, if you don’t have any shame. Dev has depression, but is in that place where he doesn't quite realize how deep it goes. He doesn't allow himself to stop long enough to address just how thick and sharp his sadness is. It's there, but it's like that monster under your bed as a kid. Super terrifying but if you don't look, you won't see it. Can't confirm it. You can pretend nothing is there. You can try and sleep without nightmares. You can say you're okay. (You're not okay.) I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. I would die for him.

Heaven's Gate, Fall Out Boy

My version of Dev is a messy and mean boyslut (affectionate!) and he love love loves Niall. He's the one that fell first. He's sharp with everyone, except for Niall. (Baz gets some soft moments, too. Valen once called them loser besties and it's TRUE.) This song ... I dunno, there's a yearning quality to it while still revealing low self-esteem. Something about this picture of Dev not believing he's good enough for heaven, but could Niall give him a boost anyway? (Because of course Niall would get in, and Dev wants to be where Niall is, always.) And in the end if I don't make it on the list Would you sneak me a wristband?

✨ BONUS ✨

Always, Blink-182

This will forever be Dev and Niall's song. So here I am, I'm trying So here I am, are you ready? Come on let me hold you Touch you, feel you, always Kiss you, taste you, all night, always

Hozier, Towa Bird, Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, Renee Rapp, Troye Sivan, Paramore, Gang of Youths, Lauv. They've all got songs that remind me of Dev. He's the character I see and hear everywhere.

Thanks for this ask, @valeffelees !! 🩵🩵 I will happily yap about Dev (and Niall) anytime.

[gaysindistress]

Sad Girl - four

summary: James has an interesting new business’ proposal and one hell of a condition to deal with.

pairing: Mob!Bucky Barnes x Reader

warnings: cursing, guns, violence (it is a mob au after all), Bucky’s smartass

word count: 1.3K

part 3 | series masterlist

a/n: I know this chapter is a little shorter BUT it’s for good reason. The next part will be worth it. 

taglist: @missvelvetsstuff @angelsincident @spencerreidisagorgman​ 

disclaimer: credits to original creator/poster of image/gif. found on google/Pinterest

10:30 on the dot and Doll is lounging on the black coach in his office, computer balanced on her knees. Even if she had been whisked into some dystopian world, she still had work to do and emails from her father to ignore. James’ voice could be heard bouncing off the hallway walls as he made his way to his office, talking to someone on the phone. With one hand he opens the office door while the other hand holds the phone to his ear. Surprise is not the first emotion he feels when he notices Doll has made his office her own but it’s only emotion he lets make it to his face. She glances at the clock silently saying “of course I’m on time” and goes back to the files pulled up on her screen. 

“Okay well Steve is more than capable of handling any other issues if they come up so call him,” the frustration is evident in his voice and shoulders as he’s pulling out his own computer and getting it set up on his desk.

“What? No like I said call Steve. Don’t call me and if it’s something really fucked up, Steve will call me. I have a meeting that I am now late to thanks to you not being able to handle little shit,” with that, he ends the call and sits down in the chair that has been calling his name for the last few hours. 

Doll has moved to the chair across from him, eyes taking every detail and making mental notes of where his weak spots are for later use. 

Clearing his throat, he startles her and begins to speak “I’m surprised to see you here already.”

“You said 10:30 so I was here at 10:30.”

“Just surprised given how headstrong you are.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

A smile tugs at the corner of his plump pink lips, wait just lips, as he types something into his computer and turns the screen so they both can see it. He leans forward in effort to make sure she can see the document clearly but all she’s focused on is the chain disappearing under that stupidly well fit burnt orange shirt. 

“I assume you went over the contract already with your father,” he notices where her eyes are looking but doesn’t say anything. 

“Yep.”

“Good girl. Now we do have to officially announce our engagement but you can choose how we do that. You step mother wants us to have an engagement party at their estate but I got your father to agree that announcing it at the fundraiser Friday night would also work.”

‘Good girl’ was not lost on her and her slightly widened as her cheeks flushed which was also not lost on James. 

“I’m required to go anyways so might as well make it useful,” she forces out, nearly chocking on her words, “Pepper only wants to parade you around to all of her friends to show that she has more money and connections than them.” 

“Sounds good to me, Doll. Do you have something to wear?”

She only nods, not trusting the state of her voice. Her mind is too focused on why the hell he chose to say ‘good girl’ and why the hell she’s so flustered over it?

“Can I ask what?”

“A dress.”

“Well of course, Doll but what does it look like?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, “why do you want to know?”

“I want to match my lovely bride to be.”

“Oh well in that case it’s bright yellow with tons of tulle and bows,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes. 

Blue steel eyes and a slight smirk stare back at her, a look of ‘try again’ takes over his face. She wonders how many times he uses this same face on his business partners to get them to comply. Or maybe he reserves it for his girlfriends when they misbehave. 

“It’s a black sleeveless, fitted dress with a v neck.”

“How low?”

“Excuse me?”

“How low is the v neck?”

“My boobs will be covered if that’s what you’re concerned about. I wasn’t exactly planning on being engaged when I bought it.”

“I don’t care what you wear. I’m more concerned about whether or not I’m going to have to hold you back when someone looks at you the wrong way or says something stupid,” he chuckles still leaning over the desk, eyes flickering across her body. 

“I can handle my own,” her annoyance is far out grown whatever else she was feeling. 

“Oh I know you can but since I’m about to be your husband, I do have to play the part.”

“Whatever. What else do you need to go over?” she huffs, crossing her right leg over her left. 

Scrolling down a little more, he says “The wedding is scheduled a month from now. You can plan it or we can hire someone.”

“Hire someone. I don’t have the time to plan a wedding and I don’t want Pepper anywhere near it.”

“I figured as much. I’ll have Natasha get all of that sorted,” scrolling a little more, he stops and makes eye contact with her again, “Aside from those two events, there’s nothing else. We just have to play nice in public while having separate private lives if that’s what you’d like.”

Her fingers flex on her bicep, “If that’s what I’d like?”

“I’m known to have a certain affect on women.”

“Oh my god! You’re an absolutely douchebag. Yes I’d much rather have nothing to do with you outside of public events. Now if we’re done here, I’d like to get back to my very legitimate work,” she says, standing with James’ eyes following her every move. 

“The work you do for you father is not legal,” he remarks, eyes settling on the way she bites her lip in irritation. 

“It’s less illegal than whatever you do,” she shots back, waving a hand in the air. 

Sitting back in his chair,  James clasps his hands together in his lap, “what exactly do you think I do?”

“Illegal…things.”

“Very descriptive, Doll. I’ll tell you if you admit you’re also doing illegal things.”

“Providing therapy to people is not illegal.”

“It is if they’re criminals needing a clear record so they don’t go back to prison. Also what therapist carries a gun around?”

“That’s not what I do and I don’t carry when I’m working,” she affirms with great annoyance. 

“Sure, Doll, just when you’re interrupting important meetings,” it’s his turn to roll his eyes. 

“Maybe don’t involve me in stupid shit and I won’t pull a gun on you,” she pauses to stop herself from exploding on him, “I’m a therapist for reformed individuals.”

He reaches into his desk drawer and ignores her, knowing she won’t let it down if he corrects her. He pulls out a little black box with a box on top and sets it down on the desk in between them. 

“Here’s your ring.”

Going to grab the box, Doll is hesitant to believe what he says. 

“My ring?” she questions as she unties the bow and opens the box. 

Inside is a 3 carat radiant cut diamond ring sitting neatly in velvet. 

“Jesus Christ,” she whispers, “might as well have gotten a 5 carat one, holy shit.”

James smirks smugly at her reaction, standing and takes the box from her hands. He takes the ring out and puts the box down before taking her left hand in his much larger hands. She goes silent and still while he slips the ring onto her finger. Bending down he kisses the top of her hand and her breath hitches. 

“5 would be considered a weapon on your hand. 3 will leave a few cuts but nothing too major. Can’t have you doing any real damage to me,” he says through the smirk he is still wearing. 

“I do have to go. Steve has been blowing up my phone since I walked in. I will see you at dinner,” he says pointing a finger at Doll while he walks out of the room, leaving her flustered and alone in the office.