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bellamyblake · 2 years ago

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hii how are u??? do u have any ideas for a modern au where clarke and bellamy are exes and they slowly grow back together? i feel like it would be so much fun to navigate and very interesting to read :)

Hey, I can only really write haedcanons now because I have two big WIPs I'm currently working on but here's what comes to mind:

EDIT: It got a little cheesy but *shrugs* I’m sorry! (not sorry).

I’ll also use this as a post for #thebestofthe100 celebration cause I wanted to post a headcanon for it but never found the time to:

she thinks later on when they separate that maybe they were doomed from the start; they never really liked each other at first-he was suspicious of her rich status and her being Octavia's best friend while he was the older quiet brother who raised his sister and kept to himself and his two friends who were Murphy and Miller;

still, with time they got closer; whenever she hung out with Octavia at their place, they'd talk and soon enough their bittering turned into talking about favorite books they had in common or music they enjoyed;

he helped her out with her history homework, she gave him a hand with the Biology stuff even if he was older than them and soon to graduate;

when Octavia met Lincoln and Clarke got together with Finn, she lost track of him for a moment and but every day a thought passed through her head and that was: she missed her late night conversations with Bellamy on the old back porch of their old creaky house;

she was brought back to Earth when Aurora died all of a sudden, having a heart attack at work; the strain from trying to support her kids her entire life and taking endless shift after shift finally caught up with her;

her death broke Bellamy in two; he blamed himself for not pushing her to go to the doctor, for seeing she was bad and weak but not doing anything, for not insisting on taking her to a specialist when their GP told her a few months back he didn't like her blood pressure;

he got even quieter, started drinking more, going out with Murphy and Miller on Friday and sometimes not coing back till Sunday evening; Octavia was too broken herself to try and bring him back but Clarke wasn’t going to give up that easily;

when they brought him home beaten and bruised late one evening, she send Murphy away and picked up the pieces of his broken heart; she forced him in the shower, turned on the cold water and gave him a speech about getting it together and figuring this out because it's not what his mom would've wanted.

“I don't know what she would've wanted" he disagreed "She's not here to tell me."

"Yeah, well I am and I won't take this, so get up and sober up. You have school, work, your sister and your friends. You have me. And you need to start living for us." he had looked up at her, eyes filled with pain and tears, then he broke down and let her hold him in her arms while he poured his heart out;

it worked because he started getting better; he showed up for class, his grades picked up, he went back to work; they needed money now that they no longer had Aurora to help out, so he got a second job in construction on the weekends;

their late night conversations made a reappearance; with Octavia staying at Lincoln more, Clarke felt like she didn't want to leave him alone in the house; that led to a kiss one night when they were watching a movie and soon after to something more;

she had always known she's loved him, perhaps from the first moment she met him and he snorted some sarcastic remark in her direction with his eyes telling a different story than his attitude was, though; he had felt it too and now they were finally letting themselves live it;

Octavia didn't mind, in fact, she was happy, so were the rest of their friends; it was the happiest of times but she couldn't help but feel like there was a darkness pulling him down and away from her, like he was keeping some sort of secret;

on his Graduation day she finally found out what it was; it was Miller's fault really, he let it slip, asked him about when does he leave for bootcamp; Clarke's face paled,her mouth dropped and she let go of him;

"Please tell me you didn't" she begged in a whisper and he looked down at his feet "You did NOT!"

"I did." he said back and when he looked up at her again, she couldn't help herself-she was so angry, she slapped his cheek and run off;

the Army was something he talked about before when Aurora was still alive; he planned on signing up for a tour, getting enough money for college and coming back home; he hadn't talked about it after her death and whenever Clarke picked up the subject of his future, he simply shrugged and said he'll get a full time job at first and then figure it out;

he did talk about them though-being with her, living together if Octavia's plans to move out with Lincoln came through; she had just a year before she graduated and then she wanted to start nursing school in a nearby town despite her mom's disagreement on the subject;

he found her under a tree by the river close to their house, one of their spots and the first place they came in together in all the senses there were; she was crying and staring at the river;

he sat down and picked up her hand in his;

"Why?" she asked "I don't understand."

"I can't explain it either. I just know I have to do it." he said back "It's what my heart says. I think it always did, I just didn't listen. I don't want to go to college...and I don't want to work contruction all my life, breaking my back like my mom until I died."

"No, you'd rather die before you're even twenty." she snapped back.

"I won't die."

"You don't know that."

"You're right but nobody really does. Just look at my mom."

"You can't use her as an excuse for this. You can't tell me this is why you've enlisted. Aurora would never agree with you doing this long-term." he smilled and brought her knuckles to his lips, kissing them softly.

"I know you won't understand and that's okay. I just hope you'd give me a chance to explain, to show you what that when I said I want to be with you, I meant it." that made her furrow her eyebrows.

"How?" she said confused, brushing her tears away. He smilled again and picked up something from his jeans pocket before he took out a small finger that Clarke knew used to belong to Aurora.

"Marry me?" he asked simply and somehow the question made all the sense in her head despite everything else; they were young, she hadn't even graduated, he was going to war, she had no idea what their future would be like but she said "Yes";

they were married in the small church Bellamy and Octavia went to ever since they were children, two weeks before he was supposed to leave for boot camp; her mom didn't come, Octavia was the maid of honor, Murphy the best man; there were maybe fifteen people in total but Clarke had never been happier;

those two weeks they spent together sharing their home and going to the beach in the nearby town had her feel like she was flying;

but then reality settled in and he had to leave; she could say she understood his choices better now but there was still a part of her that kept asking why;

things were good during his first tour-they would talk at least twice a month and exchanged letters all the time; Clarke saw the way his eyes beamed when he talked about work, realized how much he actually loved being a soldier and her heart came in terms with the fact that this was what he was meant to do;

he came home just in time for her graduation; had a month off;

he reenlisted without consulting her and they had a small argument about it but he said that he hoped she understands;

then she started nursing school and that made things difficult; he was sent out on missions more; he got hurt once-a through and through in the shoulder that she found out about two weeks after it had actually happened because he didn’t want her to worry; their conversations lessened;

when he came home the second time, he was quieter, couldn’t sleep well, had picked up smoking-a habit Aurora had uprooted from him when he tried it at sixteen;

she knew he had been through some stuff-he lost two members of his team-a guy called Sterling and a woman named Monroe but even when she asked, he wouldn’t talk about it;

when he left this time, they didn’t talk about when he’d come back; she found out he was reenlisting yet again in the middle of his third tour; she was second year in nursing school and felt like things were changing; her life was different from his and his from hers; she wasn’t sure they had any common ground anymore; they had an argument about him going for another year and he said “I thought you understood that this is what I intend to do Clarke.”

“For the rest of your life?”

“For as long as I can.”

“You never told me this will be a career, Bellamy.”

“I thought you knew.” he said simply quietly, his voice did not belong to him, she thought;

“I did not.”

they had stopped with the letters at the beginning of his third tour, the calls got less and less frequent; she came to a point where she wasn’t sure she felt like she was married to someone at all;

it was Octavia who talked with her when she felt like she had to put an end to this; she understood and told her it was the right thing to do; Bellamy was not himself now and if it was meant to be it would but it wasn’t healthy for either one of them; “I feel like he’s on a suicide mission and has been ever since mom died. You have to think of yourself, Clarke.”;

so Clarke sent in one last letter, putting her ring in the envelope;

he didn’t call, didn’t try to talk her out of it; she had no idea what his reaction was and Octavia who still spoke to him, made sure not to share anything but Clarke could tell she was worried;

they finalized the papers in less than a month; his lawyer took care of everything here; Clarke was offered a chance for a one-year nursing course in LA and she decided to take it;

in the next couple of years she heard from Bellamy just a few times in the forms of cards he sent for her birthday or Christmas; they ended with “Always yours, Bellamy.” and she kept them tucked at the bottom of her messenger bag that she took everywhere;

it was almost six years after they split up that she finally saw him again; she had been through more love and breakup in that time but ultimately felt like her heart wasn’t where it was supposed to be, like it belonged some place else;

Octavia called her in three in the morning, crying, asking Clarke if she could come pick her up because Lincoln was out of town;

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Bellamy. He got really hurt. They’re bringing him back home.”

he doesn’t look like himself lying on that hospital bed all lifeless and beaten, his body wrapped up in more bandages she can count; he’s hurt his leg and would walk with a cane for the rest of his life, his heart had the same murmur his mom did that killed her but they only found out about it now, he’s deaf and blind on the left side, has multiple burns all over his body;

when he opens his eyes five days later the first thing he sees is her and he cries; she throws herself in his arms and holds him tight;

“You idiot. I would’ve killed you if you died.” he chuckles at that;

“Impossible, princess...even if you did, I’d still be yours.” he took her hand and moved it to his heart when he looked into her eyes “I’ve always been”

#bellarke fanfiction #thebestofthe100 #bellarkeedit #bellamyblakeedit #clarkegriffinedit #bellaarke #bellarke fanfic #exes #enemies to friends to lovers #kinda i guess?#my writing #hope you like it nonnie #maybe it's not what you pictured but...i hope it's okay

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adrena-dine · 3 years ago

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Australian GP 2022 : a summary

Daniel and Isaac were the cutest. So happy Daniel could finally race again at home 🥰

400,000 ppl attendance 🤯🤯🤯🤯

McLaren cropping only half of the Ferrari logo on Daniel baby pic

Theyre getting mad about jewellery and underwear too

So Pierre said that he is ready to show them everything even his pee pee 😬

Seb saying that Charles beat him « fair and square » 🥲

Idk what made Melbourne’s air so 💅🏼💅🏼but the atmosphere became SO GAY all in a sudden

Lewis and Max hate each other until they talk about showing each other nipple piercings. Never thought I’ll write that.

Lando and Daniel saying they’re touching each other asses when they cuddle. They cuddle ??? They touch their asses ??? Please what’s going on ???

Also a word about Yuki saying that Pierre feels like a boyfriend for him 😳

Shoutout to the « bush » incident 🥴

Checo said that he’s seen Max laying on the floor naked. I TOLD YOU IT WAS GAY

Charles said that he does not want to shower with Carlos…no one asked you to do that sir ? 🤨

George saying he’s a Daniel fan and asking who isn’t. He said no lie

Seb getting fined 5000€ for stealing a Marshall’s scooter and riding it on track. FIA is on crack.

Seb’s still iconic tho 💅🏼

The bounced are still there. Give those m boys some paracetamol for their headaches.

Lewis « it’s sir actually » Hamilton

I think Aston Martin’s mechanics and accountants are going to quit with all those crashes 💀

Mick checking on Seb after his crash

Oh yes he crashed but I’m not going to mention every AM’s crash of the weekend bc the summary won’t be one anymore 😐

Lance’s car didn’t even turn like it said « no. »

And then he yeeted Nicholas out of quali after one of the worst manoeuvre I’ve ever seen. We’re not in karting anymore boys 🙄

Fernando doing the lap of his life (no.) and then ending up on the wall. Too bad

Penalty party after quali 🥳🥳🥳🥳

Mclaren FINALLY had a good quali result

Carlos lost everything at the start 😢

And then definitely lost it in the gravels

Max and Charles battle, give me that every weekend please

Max’s car yeeted again. Oops.

Seb’s is going to pack his thing and leave it continues like that 🚶🏼

Why everyone is squeezing everyone ?

Alex not changing his tyres until almost the end of the race. What a lad 🥰

Lance going full Tokyo Drift mode during all weekend

SAFETY CAR SAFETY CAR

Mick almost wrecked himself after safety’s car end but manage to save it 👌🏼

Charles already had the fastest lap but decided that he wanted to do it AGAIN. With your results, do whatever you want hun ❤️

GEORGE SECOND PODIUM I WANT TO SCREAM IN POSH

Congrats to Checo also !!! Take what you can take bestie (do it. Steal it from the rich)

CHARLES GRANDE PILOTA ❤️❤️❤️

GOOD RESULTS FOR MCLAREN IMMA GONNA DIVE INTO A POOL (don’t have one. Need to find one. Will do.)

Lewis’ radio 🤠🤠🤠

Lando and Alex decided that f1 post race show was theirs and turned it into a late night show. It was amazing. @ f1 give them the show. Please.

Lando saying « good bye old man » to Fernando

Alpine were fast tho

#f1 #my summary #australian gp 2022 #lando norris #charles leclerc #daniel ricciardo #sebastian vettel #lewis hamilton #george russell #max verstappen #pierre gasly #sergio perez #alex albon #Yuki tsunoda

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theladyofdeath · 4 years ago

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The Ranch {10}

An A Court of Thorns and Roses, Nesta x Cassian, Modern AU, fanfiction.

Collaboration: @throne-of-ashes-and-beauty x @tacmc

Summary: Nesta had spent years in Paris, living her dream and drowning in riches as a gourmet chef, capturing the hearts of the city and its people. But, after her father passes away unexpectedly and leaves his cozy, countryside B&B to his oldest daughter, Nesta is moving back home to the tiny town of Velaris, where the ranch, her sisters, and her father’s unfulfilled dream, awaits.

Sidenote: Being posted between two blogs, it is too chaotic to keep up with a tags list, so all chapters will be tagged with “#TheRanchNessian” & “#SharaCollab”.

A/N: enjoy!

The Ranch Masterlist

Cassian threw open the closet in the bedroom of his cabin. Sure, he’d spent quite a bit of time on minuscule dates and hanging out at the bar through the years, but it had been a while since he’d taken a woman out on a proper date.

And here he was, about to take Nesta, a fucking gourmet chef, to dinner. With an hour before he was supposed to “pick her up”, he still had no idea where they were going. He’d run through the list of restaurants in their little town a hundred times through his head as he went through his work that day, but none of them seemed good enough.

What also didn’t seem good enough were the shirts he was staring at. Maybe he’d just stay in what he was already wearing - the towel around his waist. She seemed to prefer him in such, anyways, considering the night they had spent together the day before.

And what a damn fantastic night it had been.

No, Cassian wanted their date to be perfect.

Once again, he stared at the line of shirts hanging in his closet.

He groaned and dragged his hand down his face before he walked across the room and texted Elain.

You busy?

He waited a minute, no reply to his text, and he was both impatient and short on time.

So he called her.

“You couldn’t even wait for me to text you back and tell you that I’m not busy?” Her voice was full of laughter as she answered the phone.

“Sort of in a rush and also freaking out,” he said, beginning to pace.

She was instantly on red alert. “What? Why? Are you okay?”

He shook his head, realizing he’d worried her for no reason. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m taking your sister out on a date tonight and I have no idea what to wear.”

He was met with silence on the other line.

“Elain?”

“I’m here, I’m...trying to make sense of what you just said.” She stuttered a second. “You said you’re taking Nesta on a date tonight?”

“Yes.”

“My sister, Nesta?”

“Yes,” Cassian said, with no chill. “And I’m in a hurry.”

“Taking Nesta out makes you cranky,” Elain muttered. “Okay, I’m here, what is it you need?”

“I don’t know what to wear.”

Another stretch of silence.

Cassian sighed, impatiently. “Elain.”

“Sorry,” she said, tone laced with laughter. “I just...You’re worried about what you’re going to wear?”

“Everything I have looks the same,” he mumbled.

“Then wear one of your fifty plaid shirts,” she laughed. “And your one pair of nice jeans.”

“Really?” He asked, grabbing one of his more expensive shirts from the closet. “But I wear this every day-.”

“She’s seen you everyday and has she ever had a problem with it?” she interrupted.

“I- No,” he admitted. “What kind of food does she like? I asked her to dinner and then I realized that she’s a chef and that nothing around here would be up to her standards.”

Elain paused, but finally said, “Do you trust me?”

Cassian hesitated, unable to hide the question in his voice. “Usually?”

She chuckled. “I’m going to send you an address. Don’t look it up, just trust me, okay?”

He blinked. Well, it was a better idea than he had. “Okay, sure. Yeah, I won’t look it up.”

Elain squealed. “Yay! Alright, stand by. I’ll text it to you now.”

Cassian breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Lainy, you have no idea how grateful I am.”

He could tell she was being genuine when she said, “Anything I can do to help! You both deserve to be happy, to have someone to cherish you and treat you right.” She sighed. “How’d you convince her to finally go out with you?”

Cassian debated on beating around the bush, but knew their families would find out anyways. “We, uh, sort of hooked up last night.”

Not to his surprise, he was met with more silence.

This time, Cassian waited it out. He put his phone on speaker then dropped his towel.

“And by hooked up, you mean…”

“Sex?” Cassian supplied, pulling on his boxers. “Yeah, and it was-.”

“I don’t wanna know.” The words rushed out of Elain so quickly that Cassian knew her cheeks were turning pink.

Cassian chuckled. “Fine. But, it was nice.”

“Were you drunk?” Elain asked, hesitantly.

Cassian rolled his eyes. “No. And she was still there when I woke up this morning, so.”

“Wow, I-.” She paused and repeated, “Wow. You know you’re supposed to take her out before you sleep with her, right?”

“Oh, ha ha.” He said, stepping into his jeans and buttoning them up. His voice was wistful at first. “I can’t help it, I just had to have her. And she actually made the move this time, not me.”

“I still don’t want to know,” she said, laughing. “Have fun, make good choices.”

“I’ll try,” he promised before saying goodbye and tossing the phone onto his bed. A moment later, when he was buttoning up his shirt, her text came through with an address.

He had no idea where she was sending them, and he was almost too scared to look it up, even if he hadn’t promised. After brushing out his hair with his fingers, he tied it at the back of his head and pulled on some socks, then his boots, and sighed.

“Beau!”

Beau came hurrying into the bedroom and up onto the bed, wagging his tail.

“How do I look?” Cassian asked, brows raised.

Beau barked.

“I assume that means you approve. Alright,” he said, grabbing his wallet off his nightstand and shoving it into his pocket. “I’ll be back in a little while. Don’t chew up anything...that’s not already chewed up, okay?”

He gave Beau a quick belly rub before strutting toward the front door.

He grabbed his keys and drove over to Nesta’s, hopping out and knocking on her door.

It only took a second for the door to swing open and Cassian’s mouth began to water.

The blue dress she wore was nothing fancy. On the contrary, it was its simplicity that let Nesta’s beauty shine.

Her golden-brown hair was in a simple braid, her brown sandals showing off her painted toenails. A soft pink, the same shade she wore on her full, beautiful lips.

She raised her brows as she said, “You’re staring. You’ve seen me every day for a while now. You can’t stare.”

“I can and I will,” he protested, meeting her eyes. “And it’s not the first time I’ve been caught staring at you.”

Nesta rolled her eyes as she grabbed her bag off the hook by the door. “Where are you taking me?”

She stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind her as he hesitated. “Uh, it’s a surprise.” To us both.

She laughed quietly but said nothing more as they descended the stairs. Cassian opened the passenger side door and held out his hand to help her up, but she ignored it and hauled herself inside. With a chuckle, Cassian closed the door behind her and made his way behind the wheel before making his way down the long driveway.

Once they were out onto the main road, Cassian said, “You look beautiful.”

She didn’t look over at him as a small smile played on those pink lips. “Thanks. You don’t look too bad, either.”

Cassian grinned and turned on the radio, soft music filling the truck. He had already put the address into his GPS, but kept the volume down. He glanced at his phone every few seconds to make sure he was going the right way. The last thing he wanted was for Nesta to ask why he needed directions to know where they were going. What would his reply be? Oh, I called your sister because I was freaking the fuck out, thanks for asking, no big deal.

It was a conversation he wanted to avoid.

“What all did you do today?” he asked. “I didn’t see you around.”

“I was in the main house, prepping for painting,” she said, nodding. “That place needs to be updated before any guests start coming in. So, I taped, covered the carpets in plastic, and moved all furniture to the middle of the floors. Which, I should probably get a few new things there, too. I swear we grew up on shit made in the 1950s.”

Cassian snorted, then looked her direction. “You should’ve asked for help. I could’ve helped with the heavy lifting.”

She rolled her eyes. “I am perfectly capable of doing things on my own, thank you.”

Cassian shook his head as his eyes went back on the road ahead of him. “Trust me, I know.”

Her amused grin was radiant. “What about you? Any fun ranch stuff today?”

“Ranch stuff?” He chuckled. At her own laughter, he continued, “Nothing too crazy. Mostly made sure there was enough hay left for the horses over the weekend. And checked on Barb. She’ll be having her calf any day.”

“What? Really?” She turned to him. “It’s way too late in the year for calves.”

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I’m keeping such a close eye on her.”

His phone lit up, alerting him that they were approaching their destination. He looked around and chuckled, shaking his head. Leave it to Elain.

He pulled into the little parking lot of an old diner. The sign that read The Starlight Diner was lit up in neon lights. He parked in front of the little building before looking at Nesta to see her reaction.

She was staring at the diner before she turned to him. “You talked to my sister, didn’t you?”

Cassian hesitated, and she laughed. “We used to go here all the time,” she said, shaking her head. “I used to love this place. I can’t tell you how many milkshakes I’ve downed within these walls. And the chili cheese fries? I mean, there’s nothing like them.”

Cassian had been to the diner before, but not since high school. It used to be a popular hangout, one they went to after they won a big game or smoked too much pot under the bleachers.

“So you’re telling me,” Cassian began, turning off the engine. “That a woman who became a famous chef in Paris likes to go to ancient diners and drink milkshakes and eat chili-cheese fries?”

“Yes,” she said, simply. Then she smiled, softly. “Shall we?”

Cassian, completely speechless and a little bit turned on, opened his door and met her on her side of the truck as she got out. They went inside and sat at a table by the window. Old music was playing and waitresses were going about their business on roller skates.

“So, I assume you already know what you want,” Cassian began, flipping open his menu. “And I assume it’s more than a milkshake and chili-cheese fries.”

Nesta was glancing around the restaurant, looking for someone or something, but she didn’t miss a beat when she answered. “Bacon cheeseburger, with extra pickles, chili-cheese fries, vanilla milkshake, with no cherry, and a water.”

He raised an eyebrow, and let his menu fall shut. “I know what I’m ordering.” She laughed and he felt like his heart was going to burst. The sound of her laughter was quickly becoming one of his favorite things. “So why no cherry? Are allergic, or what?”

She scrunched her nose as she moved the silverware around in front of her. “I used to drink the Shirley Temples made with the cheap grenadine. You know the one that’s pretty much just cherry snow-cone syrup?”

Their server came to the table at that moment and took their drink order. They both know what they wanted, but neither was in a rush. She promised to return with their waters and to get their food order in just a moment and they fell right back into conversation.

“Long story short, one night we went to dinner and I had four or five of them.” She laughed and shook her head. “Neither mom or dad noticed how many I’d had, which was awesome to me. I was only allowed to have two before I had to switch to water. When we got home, I got so, so sick. They freaked out because it was dark red and they thought I was bleeding internally.” She began laughing even harder. “Neither of them told me that was what they were worried about, and I wasn’t about to tell on myself. They took me to the hospital and I finally told one of the nurses. Nineteen years and a sixteen hundred dollar hospital bill later, and I hate cherry and cherry flavoring now.”

Cassian just stared at her, barely registering when the waitress came back and gave them their waters. And then he began howling.

The waitress looked at him like he was crazy and mumbled that she’d be back in just a minute for their orders.

“So you were a rebellious child,” Cassian said, laughter dying down but his smile remaining.

“Considering that’s the most rebellious thing I’d ever done, I’d say not,” Nesta said, chuckling. “No, Feyre was the rebellious one, which I’m sure you already know. Elain was the perfect one. And I….I don’t know. I was just there.”

“That’s impossible,” Cassian said. “Give yourself a little more credit.”

She shrugged, and a shadowy look crossed her face that had Cassian clearing his throat. “Well, you didn’t miss out on rebellion. Coming from someone who landed himself in the local jail fifteen times his senior year in high school, alone.”

That look in Nesta’s eyes faded as she shook her head, humored. “Fifteen times? In under a year?”

“Yeah, I swear at some point the cops just started following me when they were bored until I did something they could call me out on,” he laughed. It was a little town. The crime rate was low. “Shoplifting a few times. Mostly underage drinking. One time they caught me peeing into the dumpster behind the corner market. Which, I was drunk then, too….Actually, that night was rough.”

Nesta laughed as she rolled her eyes. “Good thing to know such a classy man has taken me to dinner.”

Cassian’s grin widened. “You live, you learn.”

Nesta nodded her agreement. “What about your parents? Weren’t they furious?”

Cassian’s eyes softened as he said, “Don’t know my dad. My mom died while I was in middle school, lived with Rhys and his mom after that. And, yes, she gave me hell every damn time. But, she always came to pick me up and break me out.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, but he was already waving her off.

“Don’t be,” he shrugged. “From what my mom told me of my dad, he wasn’t the greatest guy. Found out she was pregnant from one of his friends and skipped town. He was a bull rider, and he jumped on the rodeo tour and she never saw him again. And my mom…” he blew out a deep breath. “We should probably save my mom for a less depressing conversation.”

Nesta nodded, completely understanding.

“But Rhys’ mom was great,” he went on, taking a sip from his water. “I love that woman.”

The waitress came back and Nesta ordered.

Cassian said he’d have the same, but with a chocolate shake, then she was off.

“So,” Cassian went on, leaning his elbows on the table. “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

Nesta took a moment to think. “After last night, I think you know everything there is to know.”

Cassian smirked. “About some things, maybe. But tell me something I don’t.”

Nesta chewed on her lip, mind going completely blank. Everything either seemed too personal or not personal enough.

“I can’t whistle,” She laughed, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t know, this is one of the things I hate about dating. This whole interview process.”

“How about this,” he smiled. “Tell me about your favorite thing in the world.”

He was expecting her to start telling him about cooking, about how she’d ended up in Paris, Rome, London, all the places he’d seen when he did a quick google of her name. But she surprised him.

“Riding horseback,” she said, eyes bright.

Cassian raised a brow. “Riding? That’s your favorite thing in the world?”

“Does that surprise you?” She asked, leaning back in the booth.

“Yeah, a little,” he confessed.

She stirred her water with her straw, watching the ice cubes spin around in her glass. “It was my one escape growing up. The one thing I could do that didn’t result in a sneer from my mother and a lecture about my future from my father.” She sighed. “I used to ride Phoenix for hours to just...get out of the house. Have you ever ridden back on the hills to the west of the property?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You mean the property that isn’t ours, that’s marked No Trespassing?”

Their waitress brought their milkshakes to the table. There was a bright red cherry on top of Nesta’s, but before she could say anything, Cassian snatched it up and popped it into his mouth. She rolled her eyes, thanked the waitress, and took a huge sip. Her eyes slipped closed instantly and she moaned quietly. “Oh my god, I can’t get a milkshake like this anywhere else.”

She opened her eyes to find him watching her, and when her tongue peeked out to get the little bit of melted ice cream left on her bottom lip, his eyes tracked the motion. They were dark, the shining hazel almost completely swallowed by his pupils.

Without a word, Cassian pulled something from between his teeth and dropped it on the table between them.

The stem from her stolen cherry was tied in a knot.

Nesta said, “That’s both hot and cheesy as hell.”

Cassian’s low laugh skittered across her skin. “You already know what my tongue can do, but I thought I’d give you a little reminder, just in case you somehow forgot already.”

Nesta swallowed. No, she definitely hadn’t forgotten what his perfect mouth could do, but she had forgotten how to speak, especially when he was looking at her the way he was.

He plucked the cherry from his own milkshake, eating the cherry - sans stem, this time - and motioned for Nesta to continue. “So, what about the land that we do not own, Miss I was never rebellious?”

His imitation of her was spot on.

Nesta pursed her lips and said, “Yeah, that land is ours.”

He dropped his spoon, splattering the table in chocolate ice cream droplets. “What?”

She took another drink of her milkshake, not moaning this time, thank the Cauldron, and nodded. “It’s only another few acres. I knew the previous owners. Armand and Colette Lavigne.” The way she said their names, with such familiarity and adoration, Cassian knew she must have spent a lot of time with them. “They were from the Bordeaux region of France. They moved here in their fifties to open a vineyard.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “They didn’t do any research and had no idea the soil here wasn’t good for wine. But they fell in love with the area. And they’re the ones who taught me to love cooking.” She smiled fondly, her eyes misting slightly. “I bought it when Colette passed a few years ago and Armand returned to Floirac. He didn’t want it to go to someone who would just sell it for profit and turn it into another apartment complex or a shopping mall. It's been my land for about four years, but I finally signed the deed to have it put in my name, rather than Armand’s, when I signed the ranch’s deeds.”

Cassian blinked, processing the information, slowly. Then he said, loudly enough to earn a scowl from the elderly couple two booths down, “What the fuck? I’ve been purposely avoiding that land, and now you’re telling me I should’ve been working it?”

Nesta rolled her eyes. “No. Not yet, anyway. I haven’t decided what I want to do with it yet.”

Cassian was slowly shaking his head. “I have a feeling you’re never going to stop surprising me.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” She asked.

He smiled at her. “No, it isn’t.”

They fell into a comfortable silence. Nesta finally asked, “Have you even tried your milkshake yet, or are you just going to keep stirring it?”

He pointed his sticky spoon at her and took a big sip through his straw. He pulled back, staring at the thick liquid. “That’s pretty damn good.”

“Pretty damn good?” She repeated, shaking her head. “It’s fucking delicious.”

“You’re fucking delicious,” he muttered, taking another drink from his straw.

Nesta’s cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, which only made Cassian's small smile turn into a wicked grin.

Before she could come up with a retort, a display of beautiful, greasy food was laid out before them. Burgers and chili-cheese fries.

As the waitress turned to leave, Nesta said, “Excuse me, but is Alis still here?”

“Oh, no, sweetie, I’m so sorry,” she said, and Nesta nodded. “She’ll be back in for the morning shift tomorrow, though.”

“Okay, perfect. Thank you.”

The woman smiled warmly and left them to enjoy their burgers.

“Alis?” Cassian asked, eyeing the massive plate of food in front of him and its twin in front of Nesta, then her tiny form. There was no way she’d be able to eat everything in front of her.

Nesta already had a forkful of hot, cheesy fries and was diving in. She closed her eyes and made a contented noise. She took a drink of her water, setting it down before answering. “She owns the Starlight. I came here so much that she and I became pretty close. When I…” Ran away. “Left town, I stopped in for a cup of coffee, trying to talk myself out of leaving. Alis is the one who pushed me to follow my dreams. She even paid for my bus ticket out of town.”

“Really?” Cassian asked, popping a fry into his mouth. “She sounds nice.”

“She is,” Nesta agreed. “One of the best this town has to offer. Now, look away because I’m about to bite into this burger and it’s not going to be attractive whatsoever.”

Cassian didn’t look away and Nesta, eyes on his, took a massive bite out of her bacon cheese burger.

He blinked, and she covered her mouth as her eyes lit up at his expression.

“I can honestly say I’ve never been so attracted to you,” he said, taking his burger into his hands. Before he took a bite, he asked, “So, Alis is the one that pushed you out of town, huh?”

Nesta nodded, taking another bite and swallowing before saying, “If it wasn’t for her that day, I probably would have stayed here, ended back up with Tomas, and lived to regret every fucking day that followed. So, I am very grateful to Alis.”

Cassian hadn’t pressed Nesta anymore on the subject of Tomas, and he knew now wasn’t the time, no matter how many questions he had.

“Well, then I’m grateful to her too,” Cassian said, taking a bite so massive nearly half of his burger disappeared. He chewed before saying, “Although I’m pretty grateful you came back, too.”

Nesta took another bite of her own burger. “You’re just saying that because I’ll have sex with you,” she laughed and dove back into her fries.

Cassian’s eyes lit up in amusement. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a perk. But I think you’re going to be good for the b-n-b, for the ranch as a whole.” Nesta’s eyes softened and she smiled. Until he added, “And ‘I’ll have sex’ implies that we’ll be doing that again, right? That wasn’t a one and done?”

Nesta rolled her eyes, mouth full of food. A second later, she said, “I’ll have to think about it.”

Cassian had the audacity to look offended. “Ouch. Was I so bad?”

Nesta just grinned as she took another bite of her fries.

Cassian’s laughter filled the air as they finished their food. He paid, and then they made their way back into the truck.

“Thanks for dinner,” she said, as they pulled out of the parking lot. To his surprise, she had finished every last bite of her food and downed her milkshake. Even Cassian had left a few fries, claiming he couldn’t eat another bite.

“Anytime,” he said, meaning it.

“Um, home is the other direction,” she said, when he turned left onto the main road instead of right.

“I know,” Cassian replied, shortly, and when it was obvious he wasn’t going to say anything more, Nesta shot him a look.

“Where are we going?” she asked, slowly.

Cassian just grinned, one hand on the wheel, the other sneaking over the middle console to hers.

The ride was comfortably quiet, the rumble of Cassian’s truck the only sound. Nesta didn’t mind though, not as he drove through the square, where people bustled about. Velaris was a city best enjoyed at night, and the people milling around every restaurant and park and store front proved it. She also didn’t mind the feel of his hand in hers, so the longer drive was fine by her.

Until they pulled into a parking lot.

“Why are we here?”

Cassian only grinned and hopped out of the truck, rounding the hood and helping Nesta down. “Don’t feel like a walk down memory lane?” They began to walk and, as casually as she could, she slipped her hand back into his. His fingers intertwined with hers and he glanced down at her. She was staring forward, refusing to look up at him, but he knew color was staining her cheeks. Could tell by the way the tips of her ears were a darker shade of pink than normal. “I thought, rather than talk about who we are, cause that always sucks and no one likes doing it-.” He was rambling and Nesta giggled. He laughed at himself and cleared his throat. “Right. What I was trying to say, is that talking about who you are sucks. But talking about who you used to be? I don’t know, for me, it’s always been easier.” Nesta looked up at him, but he shrugged and carried on. “Even if I wasn’t always proud of who I was, I can at least learn something from who I’ve been.”

“Fair enough,” she said, quietly, as he led the way.

They were at their old high school, but Cassian didn’t walk toward the building, which was undoubtedly locked. Instead, he took her to the football field, where Nesta could count on one hand how many times she had been there through the four years she had spent at Velaris High.

“You played football?” She asked, as they walked through the gates.

“I did,” Cassian confirmed, as they walked onto the green field. Velaris Knights was painted into the end zones. “Yeah, I tackled a lot of guys on these fields. And, over there,” he pointed to the bleachers, “is where I used to get high and drunk, referring back to the jail conversation we had earlier tonight.”

Nesta laughed as she looked around. She had never been on the field before. Everything looked different from standing between the bleachers.

“You came to games, right?” He asked, gazing around the field. The lights were on, thanks to the evening practice that had only ended an hour or two before. The lights ran on a timer, just like they had when he played on this field. They had until just before ten-thirty before the lights would go out.

Nesta shook her head. “I was never a big fan of school events. I always preferred to stay home and read or more often than not, I was with Tomas. Going to some roping.”

There he was again, taunting Cassian from the past. But again, he wouldn’t bring up Tomas tonight. “Wasn’t Elain a cheerleader? Didn’t you come to at least support her?”

She shrugged. “Come cheer on the cheerleader? No, and she knew I hated it. She would actually convince Feyre to go to the games so I could have an hour or two of silence.”

Cassian snorted. “Well, I lived on this field. And I kicked ass. While you were being a nerd, apparently.”

Nesta’s eyes narrowed. “I was not a nerd, asshole.”

Cassian held his hands up in surrender. “I never said it was a bad thing.”

Nesta couldn’t help but laugh as she shook her head. “Looking back, I would’ve done some things differently. Maybe not the staying home with a book, but with the whole Tomas business.”

Cassian stayed silent. He wanted so badly to ask, but knew he shouldn’t. They were having such a good time. He didn’t want to ruin it.

So, instead, Cassian said, “I wish I would’ve known you then.”

She chuckled but sat down when they reached the center of the field. “No, I don’t think you do.”

He followed suit, sitting down in the turf leaning back on his hands. “Why not?”

“It was true, what you said before. I constantly had a stick up my ass.” She laughed and continued. “And I was a bitch.”

Cassian laughed, but he didn’t correct her. “You were cute, though. I’m convinced I would have loosened you up.”

Nesta shook her head, unable to stop her smile from spreading. “I’ll let you think that.”

Cassian looked over at her, at the way her golden-brown hair shone in the lights. She was a beauty, and yes, she had been cute in high school, but now she was stunning, in her little blue dress and her simple braid.

“You’re staring again,” she mumbled.

“Let me stare,” he pleaded, eyes soft.

She blushed and he leaned over, tilting her chin up and softly brushing his lips against hers. When he pulled away, he whispered, “Please tell me I can do that whenever I want now.”

Nesta thoughtfully tapped her chin and said, “Whenever? I don’t know about that.”

“Damn you, woman,” he laughed and kissed her again, laying down on top of her.

She chuckled against his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck. “We’re not kids anymore, Cassian, we can’t fuck on the football field. Just because you like being tossed in jail doesn’t mean that I do.”

He grinned, resting his elbows in the grass on both sides of her face. “I’ll be nice, I promise.”

She kissed him then, tugging on his bottom lip with her teeth. “Good.”

“Until you did that…” he muttered, kissing her again, pressing his body down against hers as he did so.

She let his hands roam her body, let him grab and squeeze and pull. He tugged on her hair lightly, tilting her chin up and exposing her neck. He nuzzled his face into it, and lightly ran his tongue along the long column of her throat. He pressed soft kisses along her jaw until he returned once more to her lips.

Pulling back to look at her, her lips swollen from his bruising kisses and her hair a messy halo around her head on the grass, Cassian brushed a thumb along her cheekbone. He breathed, “You are so damn beautiful.” She blushed and tried to turn from his gaze. “No,” he whispered, gripping her chin so she couldn’t look away. “Why do you do that? Why won’t you let me tell you how beautiful you are?” He asked, quietly.

“Taking compliments isn’t one of my strengths,” she said, running her hands down his arms, feeling his muscles beneath the fabric.

“Well make it one,” he mumbled, “because I’m not going to stop. I’m going to tell you how beautiful you are, always, because it’s the truth.”

She shook her head, slowly, but didn’t say anything else. She simply grabbed him by the face and brought his lips to hers.

After a few minutes of languid kisses, and some strong, strong willpower, Cassian rolled over and laid on his back, staring up at the sky. He tucked a hand behind his head and the other found Nesta’s next to him. His thumb rubbed small circles on the back of her hand and he gazed up at the stars.

It was quiet for a few minutes, neither one of them wanting to disturb the stillness. But eventually, Nesta asked, “You about ready to head home?”

He turned his head and looked at her, those stormy eyes seeing every part of him. “Just a minute. It’s almost time.”

Her brow furrowed. “For what?”

He smiled, looking back to the sky. “You’ll see.”

They laid there in silence, Nesta loving the feeling of his hand in hers.

The lights shut off, plunging the field into darkness. Nesta started, looking around, wondering if they needed to go, to get back to the truck, before someone-.

“Look,” he breathed, still staring upwards.

Nesta gazed toward the sky. Her breath caught in her throat.

The lights above them, surrounding the field, had gone off, and the starlight above them burned brightly, lighting up the night sky.

There were no trees, no nothing to block the view of the series of shooting stars that shot across the speckled darkness.

Only in Velaris.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered. She had always known her hometown was famous for its starlight, had always snuck a glance or two up at the night sky throughout her childhood, but had never taken a moment to simply watch, to wait, to explore with her eyes the beauty of creation.

“It is,” Cassian agreed, softly. He wasn’t only talking about the night sky. “I used to lay out here all the time, in high school. Captivated by it.”

“Were you high?” Nesta asked, quietly, jabbing him in the ribs.

Cassian laughed, breathlessly. “Sometimes.”

She glanced over at him, but he didn’t notice. He was entranced by the wonder before him, by the sheer enormity of the sight above him.

“You love this town,” she said, and it wasn’t a question.

He nodded and looked over at her. “I do. It’s not much, but it’s...home. I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else.” He paused. “Well, except on the road, but that didn’t exactly pan out.”

“Why not?” She asked, before she could stop herself.

Cassian hesitated. “It’s a long story.”

“Is it?” She asked. “Or is this one of those times you say it’s a long story because you don’t want to tell the story.”

Cassian laughed, glancing sideways at her. “Maybe a little bit of both.”

“Well,” she said, smiling softly. “I have time.”

He tried not to let it sound harsh when he said, “Another time.” He turned and laid on his side, brushing the loose hair framing her face behind her ear.

He could see the stubbornness, could see that Nesta wanted to push. But she nodded and leaned forward to press her lips against his.

After a soft smile, he climbed to his feet and held out a hand. “Come on, beautiful. Let’s get home.”

She took his hand, happily, and let him walk her back to the truck. The ride back to the ranch was quiet, but not uncomfortable. He caught her looking at him from time to time, and every time he caught her, that look of annoyance from being caught captured her face.

When Cassian pulled up to her little house, he turned off the engine and got out, walking her up to the porch. They stood, hand in hand. He looked down at her and kissed her, softly. “Is this the part where you invite me inside?”

She made a show of acting like she was thinking, and took a step back. “I don’t know, this was only our first date…” She opened the door and took another step back until she was inside. “I’m not that type of girl.”

There was a playful glint in Cassian’s eye and he stepped forward, bracing an arm on the door frame. “I don’t know what type of girl you’re talking about.”

She chuckled and said, “Goodnight, Cassian.”

The smirk on his face faltered and she shut the door in his face.

He took a step back and blinked. “Wha- Are you kidding me?”

The door swung open just a few seconds later and Nesta stood inside, still laughing. She grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him over the threshold, her lips immediately meeting his.

#theranchnessian #sharacollab #nessian #theranch #au #modern au #fanfic #fanfiction

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themetaphorgirl · 4 years ago

Text

road trip!

inspired by this post

please enjoy seven unsupervised teenagers crammed into an SUV for a three hour trip

I might need to write a part 2 with the actual camping trip??

but right now I need a nap so badly. so, so badly. I hope you like this though!!!

----------

Hotch flipped on the lights and both boys immediately groaned, pulling their covers over their heads. “All right, everybody up, we gotta go,” he said.

Derek rubbed his eyes and held his up his phone. “It’s five in the morning, Hotch,” he complained. He dropped his phone on his face. “Dammit.”

“We want to be on the road before six, so let’s go,” he said.

Spencer sat up, his hair sticking up on the side of his head. “I just fell asleep an hour ago,” he complained. “Can I sleep a little longer?”

“You can sleep in the car,” Hotch said.

Spencer scowled. “I can’t sleep in the car.”

“You fall asleep in the car all the time. Get up.” Spencer dragged himself out of bed, rolling his eyes. “Are you guys packed? Do you need any help?”

Derek glanced around his chaotic side of the room. “Uh...I’ll get it done,” he said.

Hotch sighed. “Just hurry, okay?” he said. “We gotta go. I’m going to go check on the girls.”

He closed the door and headed for the stairs. Getting a four-day weekend for teacher in-service meant they had plenty of time on their hands, but they didn’t want to sit around on campus or go to Dave’s house again. Somehow they had decided on making the three hour drive to the Mammoth Cave national park to go camping, which had seemed like a great idea at the time, but now that he was in charge of getting the four youngest kids ready to go when the sun wasn’t even up, he was kind of regretting it.

He made it down to the third floor and knocked lightly. Penelope whipped the door open. “Good morning!” she said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

He blinked. “Okay, that sounds only mildly creepy,” he said. “How are you guys doing?”

“Pretty good,” JJ said. She gestured towards her backpack and Penelope’s duffel bag on the floor. “We’re just about ready, I think.”

“Thank god,” Hotch said. “You’re definitely ahead of the boys.”

“You didn’t see that coming?” JJ said, grinning. “Let me guess, Derek hasn’t packed anything and Spencer’s cranky.”

“Yeah, you got it,” he said. He looked from JJ in her ballet school tank top, Nike shorts, and sneakers to Penelope. “Hey, Pen...are you sure that’s what you want to wear?”

Penelope looked down at her floral print sundress and strappy sandals, then back up at him. “Yes, why?” she asked.

He gestured at her collection of impractical accessories- hair clips shaped like pandas, chunky bead bracelets, dangly earrings. “You do know it’s going to be a three hour long car ride and then three days of camping, right?” he said.

“Yes, why?”

JJ sighed. “Don’t worry, Hotch, I’m on it,” she said. “We’ll meet you downstairs in just a little bit.”

“What’s wrong with my outfit?” Penelope demanded.

Hotch backed away. “Yeah, I’ll let you handle it,” he said.

He jogged back up the stairs and knocked on the door. “Okay, you guys, how’s it going?” he asked, opening the door without waiting for them to answer.

Derek tossed a hoodie onto his pile in the middle of the floor; he was at least out of his pajamas and dressed in a St. Thaddeus football shirt and basketball shorts. “We’re getting there,” he said. “I’m almost packed.”

Hotch looked down at the pile. “Good luck getting all of that into your bag,” he said dryly. “Where’s Spencer?”

“Shower, I think,” Derek said. “He’s packed, though.”

Hotch picked up Spencer’s backpack easily, but the duffel bag offered more resistance. “Oh my god, what does he have in here, a dead body?”

“Probably books,” Derek said.

“Does he really need this many?” Hotch asked. Derek shrugged. “All right, fine. Hopefully we can get all of this to fit between the two cars. Just hurry up, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” Derek said, digging through his drawers.

Hotch stopped by his room to pick up his backpack, then carried everything down to the lobby. The girls were already there with their things; JJ had gotten Penelope to change into denim shortalls and a pink tee shirt, and her accessory collection had been reduced to a large ruffled scrunchie. “You guys ready?” Hotch asked.

JJ yawned. “Yeah,” she said. “Where’s the boys?”

“Derek’s still packing,” Hotch said. He pulled out his phone and checked the group chat. “James is in the parking lot, Dave’s almost here. Nothing from Alex or Emily, but I’m sure they’re up already.”

“Alex will be up, Emily probably snoozed her alarm six times,” Penelope said.

Something thumped down the stairs. “All right, we’re ready,” Derek called, dragging his bag down the steps. Spencer trailed behind him, his hair still damp and dripping on his NASA tee shirt.

“You’re sure?” Hotch said. “Everybody has everything? Clothes, toothbrushes, pillows, blankets? James is bringing sleeping bags and air mattresses, but everybody should have their own stuff.” He turned to Spencer. “You have your blanket?”

Spencer’s face turned as red as his shorts. “I don’t need it,” he said.

Hotch frowned. “You’re sure?” he said. “But you-”

“I don’t need it, I can sleep without it,” Spencer said, crossing his arms. “Can we go?”

“Yeah, yeah, we probably should,” Hotch said. “Let’s go, everybody grab your stuff.”

Derek sidled up to him. “I packed the kid’s blanket,” he whispered. “It’s in my bag.”

“Oh, thank god.”

The sun was just barely beginning to peek over the horizon as they made it out of Lincoln House. Hotch hoisted Spencer’s bag of books on his shoulder. It was a long walk out to the parking lot, but James and Dave were both there, their cars parked next to each other. “Hey, y’all,” James called. “Who’s ready for a three-hour drive?”

Dave groaned. “Not me,” he said.

“I have my license, you can let me drive,” Hotch said.

“You’ve only had your license for six months,” Dave said, patting the hood of his brand new Honda Pilot protectively. “She needs someone more experienced for a long haul. Maybe James will let you drive his shitbucket.”

“She’s not a shitbucket, she’s just...well loved,” James protested. “Besides, she’s got some...quirks. Really, nobody but me should be driving her.” He jiggled the latch of the hatchback and opened the trunk; his Nissan Versa was jam-packed with camping equipment and igloo coolers. “All right, toss your stuff in!”

“It’s nice of your parents to let us borrow all their camping stuff,” Penelope said.

James took her bag. “Yeah, we’ve gone camping every summer for as long as I can remember,” he said. “Hope you guys are ready for this. I’m not too sure how Dave is going handle it.”

“I’ll be fine!” Dave said. He jabbed his thumb towards Alex and Emily as they crossed the parking lot towards them. “I’d be more worried about ‘poor little rich girl Prentiss’ over there.”

“What about me?” Emily asked. She wasn’t wearing her usual eyeliner and she’d traded her Docs for more sensible sneakers, but she still wore artfully ripped jeans and a red plaid flannel tossed over her black tank top.

“Nothing,” Dave said quickly. “You guys ready?”

Alex handed over her bag; she’d swapped her usual librarian dresses for a sleeveless button up top tied at the waist, shorts, and hiking boots. “Definitely ready,” she said. “Have we decided who’s riding where?”

“Well, James and I are driving,” Dave said. “I claim Hotch as my copilot, you should be James’s.”

Alex shrugged. “Fine with me,” she said. “So everyone else is going with you?”

“I’m not sitting in the back middle!” JJ said, immediately tapping her finger to her nose.

“Nose goes!” Penelope said, and Emily and Derek copied her. “Ha! Spencer’s backseat middle.”

Spencer blinked. “Wait, I zoned out for a second,” he said. “What happened?”

“JJ and I went first, so we get the captain seats,” Penelope explained. “You’re sitting in the back with Derek and Emily, and you have to sit in the middle.”

“What? No!” he protested. “I want to ride with James and Alex.”

“No, there’s not enough room!” Emily said quickly. “And you’re the littlest and the youngest, anyway, you have to sit in the middle.”

Spencer scowled. “That’s not fair, we should do it again,” he said. “I don’t want to sit in the back middle.”

“Too late, caro, you lost,” Dave said. “Maybe you can ride somewhere else on the way home.”

Alex cupped his chin in her hand and kissed his cheek. “Three hours isn’t that bad,” she said. “Read your books and take a nap.” He scowled.

“All right, come on, everybody, let’s go, let’s go, it’s past six already,” Hotch said. “Get in the car, we gotta go.”

They piled into Dave’s car, squishing Spencer between Derek and Emily in the back. “I don’t understand why I can’t ride with James and Alex,” he said. “I could have fit.”

JJ twisted around in her seat. “We need them to spend some time alone,” she explained.

“Why?”

“Aren’t you tired of watching James pine after her?” Emily said.

“Pine?”

“He’s had a crush on her for three and a half years and he’s yet to make a move,” Penelope said. “I made him an extremely romantic Spotify playlist. I hope it works.”

“Wait, James has a crush on Alex?” Spencer said. Derek shook his head.

Dave backed out of his parking space. “All right, once we get to Auden’s Ridge we’ll stop and get gas,” he said.

“And snacks?” Penelope asked hopefully.

“And snacks,” Dave said. “But after that we’ll drive straight through to Mammoth Cave. I don’t believe in stops.”

“Oh, I seriously doubt that will happen,” Hotch said. “Have you met these kids?”

Dave tossed him his phone. “Just plug in the address to GPS and turn on the music, copilot,” he said.

The thirty-minute drive to town usually seemed long, but for once it went by quickly and Dave pulled up to a pump at the gas station. “Remember, we’re going to get actual food once we get the campsite set up and we can stop in town,” Hotch reminded them. “So don’t go too crazy.”

“Hotch, why are you even trying, you know they’re all going to buy their respective body weights in junk food,” Dave sighed.

Hotch sighed. “I know,” he said.

He tried to stay fairly sensible with his choices, but the other kids returned to the car laden down with snacks. “Oh my god,” Dave said. “Listen, if you guys spill anything, I will murder you. I will.”

“Relax, spaghetti grandpa, it’ll be fine,” Penelope said as she plunked down in her captain’s chair and cracked her drink open. “We’re all very well-behaved.”

Hotch raised an eyebrow. “Penelope,” he said. “Is that a Red Bull?”

She raised the can to her lips, regarding him over the rim. “Maybe,” she said, and she took a big swig.

“Oh, god, we’re all going to die,” Dave said. “Jennifer. If you get Cheeto dust anywhere, I will end you.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise!”

Spencer struggled with the cap of his chocolate milk. “Can somebody open this for me?” he said.

Derek opened it easily and handed it back. “There you go, noodle arms.”

“Hey!”

Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. “Guys, we haven’t even gotten back on the road yet,” he said.

“It’s gonna be a long trip,” Dave said. “All right, everybody, buckle up.”

The first hour passed by without incident, and Hotch was just starting to think that maybe this trip wouldn’t be so terrible when Emily leaned around JJ’s seat. “Hey, when are we stopping?” she asked.

“In an hour and forty-eight minutes, when we make it to the campsite,” Dave said, glancing at the GPS. “Why?”

“I have to pee,” she said.

“Ask Hotch.”

“Hotch, I have to pee, can we stop?” Emily asked.

“We just stopped, Prentiss,” he said.

“I didn’t have to pee then,” she protested.

Spencer nudged her shoulder. “I’m trying to read and you’re covering the pages,” he complained.

Emily leaned farther. “Please can we stop?” she pressed.

“Maybe in a little bit,” Hotch said. “Just stop bothering Spencer.” Emily sat back with a scowl.

Derek wadded up his wrappers. “I wouldn’t mind stopping,” he said. “I’m out of snacks.”

“Jesus, Morgan,” Hotch said. “You ate all of that?”

“Yeah, and I’m still hungry,” he said.

“His trash is everywhere,” Spencer announced.

Derek thwacked his arm. “Don’t tattle!”

“I’m not tattling! I’m stating facts!”

“Stating facts just to get me in trouble!”

JJ glanced back. “No, Spencer’s right, it’s like a dumpster back here,” she said.

“Clean it up!” Dave said.

Hotch twisted around in his seat. “Penelope, can you stop kicking the back of my seat?” he said.

“I can’t help it,” she said. “I have to move. My legs just keep shaking and I can’t stop it, I just have to move or I might possibly exploded.”

“This is why you can’t drink Red Bulls in the car,” Hotch said.

“Or ever,” JJ added. Emily stretched out and propped up her right foot on her armrest; JJ pushed it off. “Quit it, Emily.”

“I’m squished back here with Spencer and his entire library, let me stretch!”

“It’s my armrest!” Emily stomped on the base of JJ’s seatbelt; JJ let out a piercing pterodactyl screech. “Prentiss, what the fuck!” she screamed.

“Cut it out!” Hotch bellowed.

They fell silent. Penelope’s leg stilled. Spencer turned a page.

“Dave’s trying to drive, stop screaming,” Hotch said. “Emily, leave JJ alone. JJ, no more dinosaur noises. Derek, pick up your trash, Penelope, stop kicking me. Spencer...you’re fine, just read your book.”

He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. It was peaceful again, quiet except for Dave’s road trip playlist. Maybe now the kids would fall asleep until they made it to the campground.

“Hey, can we turn the air up?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, it’s a little warm in here,” Derek added.

Dave fiddled with the dials. “Yeah, we can turn it up a little,” he said. “That better?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Spencer frowned. “I’m cold,” he said.

“How can you be cold? You’re squished in between us?” Emily said.

“I’m always cold,” Spencer said. “And there’s a vent right above my head. Can we turn it down?”

“See, now you wish you had your blanket,” Derek grinned.

Spencer turned red. “I don’t need my blanket,” he grumbled.

“You can cuddle with me,” Emily said, throwing her arm around his shoulders.

He pushed her arm away. “I don’t want to cuddle!” he said. “I’ll just freeze to death and read my book, okay?”

“How does someone so little get so angry?” Emily said.

“I’m not angry! I am stressed!” Spencer said.

“Stressed about what?” Derek asked.

“I’m sitting in the middle of your dumpster pile, and Prentiss is trying to cuddle me, and I’m very tired and I just want to read my book in peace!” Spencer said. “And you guys are squishing me!”

“Prentiss, Morgan, stop pestering him,” Hotch said.

“If you guys don’t stop, I swear to god, I will turn this car around,” Dave said.

Penelope abruptly popped her seat back, leaning directly into Derek’s lap. “What are you doing?” he said.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just got really carsick all of a sudden…”

“Okay, nobody is getting carsick in the new car,” Dave said. “Emily has to pee, Derek’s hungry, Penelope’s going to puke...Hotchner, text Alex and see if we can stop at a McDonalds or something.”

“Yeah!” Derek cheered.

“All right, all right, I’ll text her,” Hotch said. He glanced in the rearview mirror; Penelope’s eyes were closed but the rest of the kids seemed happy, except-

“Hey, Spence, what’s with the face?”

Spencer scowled. “I ran out of books,” he said, rubbing his eyes.

“All of them?”

“Yeah, I miscalculated how long it would take to get through all of them,” he said.

“Well, maybe you can sleep the rest of the way,” Hotch said.

“Yeah, then maybe you won’t be so grumpy,” Emily said.

“I’m not grumpy!”

Hotch checked his phone. “Yeah, James and Alex said they’re good to stop,” he said. “There’s a McDonalds coming up at the next exit.”

“Thank god, I need to get out of this car,” Penelope said fervently. “I’d be fine if it just wasn’t moving.”

James and Alex were already parked and waiting beside the car when they caught up. “How’s it going?” James asked.

“You try shoving seven teenagers into an SUV,” Dave said. “Well, six teenagers and a baby.”

“I’m not a baby,” Spencer objected.

Alex laughed. “That bad, huh?” she said.

“Hotch used the dad voice on us,” JJ reported.

“Oh, so it’s really bad.”

“Okay, you guys, stop,” Hotch said. “Let’s just go eat so we can get back in the car, okay?”

He was being optimistic, but he should have bargained on them taking their time ordering, he knew what he was getting into. Penelope had to be talked into ordering a Sprite to settle her stomach, Derek had to be talked out of getting a third breakfast sandwich, JJ tried to order six hashbrowns and nothing else, and Alex stopped Spencer from buying coffee and got him a hot chocolate instead.

Hotch settled for a hot coffee and an egg McMuffin and ate mostly in tired silence. “We don’t have too much longer to go,” James said, gathering up wrappers and empty cups and piling them onto a tray. “Hour and a half, maybe?”

“Yeah, and then we get to set up a tent and stay outside for three days,” Dave said. “I may have overestimated this trip.”

“Oh, it’ll be fun,” Alex said. “You guys will like camping. And this isn’t even really roughing it, they have real bathrooms at the campground.”

“I draw the line at shitting in the woods,” Dave said dryly. He checked his watch. “All right, kids, we should get back on the road. Emily- you better pee again, because I’m not stopping anymore.”

“All right, all right, I heard you,” she said, getting up from the table. “Come on, Garcia, if you’re going to puke, now’s the time.”

“No, I’m okay,” Penelope said. “But I’m never drinking Red Bull in a car again. Ever.”

“Thank god,” Hotch said.

“Alex, do you have any books I could borrow?” Spencer asked. “I finished mine.”

“I’m afraid not, darling,” she said. “You really read all of yours already?” He nodded. “Ah, you miscalculated.”

James fished his phone out of his pocket. “Here, you can borrow this,” he said. “We’re using Alex’s phone for the GPS and music so I’m not using mine. Play games or something?”

“Games?” he repeated skeptically.

Penelope snatched it out of his hand. “Not to worry, I know just the one,” she said. “James, can I download him something? Don’t worry, it’s a free one.”

“Yeah, go for it,” he said.

Hotch picked Spencer up out of his chair and set him on his feet. “What was that for?” he complained.

“You weren’t moving, and we need to get back on the road,” he said. He brushed Spencer’s hair off his forehead. “How much sleep did you get last night?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “An hour and a half, two hours maybe?”

“Jesus, no wonder you’re in such a bad mood today,” Hotch said. He caught Derek’s eye; Derek shot him a thumbs up back. He propelled Spencer forward. “Come on, let’s go.”

They got back into the car slowly this time, everyone full and a little sleepy. Spencer climbed into his middle seat without an argument, James’s phone clutched in his hand. “You really need to try to take a nap,” Hotch told him. “You can’t function on two hours of sleep.” Spencer sighed and his lower lip dropped in a pout, but he didn’t say anything.

Derek tossed Spencer’s favorite blanket at him. “Since you said you were cold,” he said.

He brightened. “You packed it anyway?”

“Hell yeah I did,” Derek said. “I know you think it’s babyish, but seriously, kid, nobody cares. We care more about you being in a bad mood from not sleeping.”

Spencer hesitated, then accepted the soft ivory blanket, hugging it to his chest. Derek climbed up into the seat beside him and buckled his seatbelt.

Penelope leaned forward in her seat. “Dave, can we please play something a little more exciting?” she wheedled. “I made you a showtunes playlist.”

“Please, no,” Dave said as he navigated the car back onto the interstate.

“I worked so hard to make it!” she said.

“Let her listen to it at least for a while,” Hotch said. “I mean...she did work hard to make it.”

Dave sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But you’re not allowed to sing along.”

She sang along, loudly and with great passion.

Luckily, the chaos in the car had begun to settle. Spencer played games on James’s phone, frowning in concentration, while Derek put on his headphones and Emily leaned her head back to take a nap. JJ just stared sleepily out the window, watching the hills roll by.

It was just past eleven when they pulled into the campsite behind James’s hatchback; the backseat occupations had begun to perk up, although Penelope was still singing along to the Hamilton cast recording. “All right, everybody, we’re here,” Hotch said. “Who’s ready to put up tents?”

“Not Spencer,” Derek said. The youngest of their group was fast asleep, his head resting on Derek’s shoulder, his blanket clutched his his chest and James’s phone threatening to slip from his grip. Derek gave him a gentle nudge and pried the phone from his hand. “Hey, pretty boy, we made it.”

“Don’t wake him up,” Hotch warned.

“Okay, but I have to get out of the car too,” Emily said.

Hotch beckoned Alex over. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Can you get him?”

Alex peeked into the backseat. “Oh, no,” she smiled. “Okay, Derek, you get out first. Try not to- oh, never mind.”

Derek jostled him on his way out of the car and Spencer raised his head, blinking sleepily. “Sorry, pretty boy,” he said.

Alex leaned towards him. “Hi, we made it,” she said softly. “Do you want to get out of the car? You can go right back to sleep.”

He nodded, unclicking the seatbelt and climbing over to her with a barely concealed yawn. Hotch helped him out and he wrapped his arms around Alex’s neck, allowing her to pick him up. “Oh, baby, it’s okay,” she said, rubbing his back as he mumbled sleepily into her shoulder. “Go back to sleep.”

“I’m tired too, does this get me out of setting up the tent?” Emily asked.

“Absolutely not,” Hotch said. “Get out of the car.”

“I want someone to carry me and tell me I can take a nap.”

“Prentiss, I swear to god. Get out of the car.”

#criminal minds fanfiction #caitlin writes things #au: patron saint of lost causes #david rossi #aaron hotchner #james blake #alex blake #jj jareau #penelope garcia #derek morgan #emily prentiss #spencer reid #spencer is just a grumpy baby who needs a nap

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formula-what · 4 years ago

Text

Team Principal Crash Course

I know someone’s probably done one of these, and I’m sure they are much prettier than mine. I’m going through a divorce with PowerPoint rn

But I’ve always wanted to do one of these!!! Also I needed an excuse to not sleep / do any actual productive work

This is for @landobviously and any new people to f1, although I’m not sure this is actually very helpful

Mercedes: Toto Wolff

Team principal and CEO

low key hot, has the floofiest hair.

His name is actually Torger Christian Wolff which I love even more than Toto.

Austria business man who personally owns 30% of Mercedes stock?? He originally owned shares for Williams but has sold them all :(

I think he’s pretty much unproblematic? But I’m a Mercedes Hoe so probably biased.

He’s married to Susie Wolff who used to be a racing driver. She did DTM, Formula Renault + F3 and was also a development/test driver for Williams (becoming the second woman to ever take part in an f1 weekend, 22 years after the first) She is now the team principle of a Formula-E team, Venturi Racing which is co-founded by Leonardo DiCaprio??

RedBull : Christian Horner

This is the fucker they interview All. Of. The. Fricking. Time.

Someone will breathe and they be like “let’s go to the pit lane to get Christians thoughts on this”

But he’s pretty funny and all of the other guys tend to shy away from the cameras so I’m not that pissed about it but like, sky Sports love him.

Has donkeys named after Max and Daniel

He fell in love with Sebastian Vettel and is still low key pissed that he abandoned them. Also his daughters favourite driver is Seb

Has major beef with Cyril (Renault team principal)

Married a Spice Girl, some of the RedBull boys go with him sometimes to her concerts and they wear her merch

Okay usually I would go Ferrari next, but they’re a midfielder now so..

McLaren: Zak Brown

Gets treated like team principal but is actually CEO

American, says duuuude a lot

Used to be a professional driver and I think he was actually good?? But idk

I hated him at first but honestly he seems pretty chill?

Gives the biggest bear hugs

Andreas Seidl

Is actually Team Principal

Falls under the radar

Just kinda hangs around looking judgy all the time

When he does speak I can never understand a word he says

Renault: Cyril Abiteboul

The Frenchiest French guy to ever French

Sacked Hulk for Ocon (who’s French) although that’s completely unfair of me since Hulk has entered 179 gps and yet has never gotten a podium (which is a record by the way!!!)

Will find beef in anything, and then yell at you for it. Or give you evil eyes from across the room

Cyril fuckers do not deserve rights you know who you are

Got scammed by Daniel Ricciardo

Hates Christian Horner

Brought Alonso back??

Doesn’t deserve to have any junior drivers

Renault Lotus used to be a pretty popular engine supplier in f1 but aftee this year they will be the only ones on the grid using it. Yeah this isn’t about Cyril at all but it makes him yell which makes me laugh so

Racing Point: Lawrence Stroll

Part owner of Racing Point, and invested £182m in Aston Martin?? Hence the name change next year

Pretty sure he owns a private island, put I have zero proof

Bought the team when it’s owner went to jail for fraud and the team went into debt. But for whatever reason they couldn’t actually buy the shares so instead they just had to rename it and pretend they’re a new constructor. Midway through the season.

Daddy Stroll but NOT because of his looks. He’s just rich as fuck and promoted his kid Lance Stroll into one of the seats (who is actually a pretty good driver and doesn’t deserve any hate at all)

Otmar Szafnauer

Team Principal

Low key thought he was the one that went to jail so... yeah I know nothing about this guy

apparently he is litterally in the Hall Of Fame

Ferrari: Mattia Binotto

Fun fact, he actually used to run a circus I’m kidding.

he runs one now though

Looks like an older and more permanently confused Chal Lelerc

Last year was his first season as a team principal and boy can you tell

Is the parent that says he doesn’t have favourites but then always takes the youngest’s side and thinks that they’re an angel child that can never do anything wrong

Alpha Tauri: Franz Tost

Looks so soft

I know nothing about him, but I’m pretty sure he’s in love with Seb

Ummm I don’t think he’s problematic? But it’s red bull so who knows

Has the exact same vibes as beans and sausages on toast and I will not expand on that it’s probably because of the name tbh

Haas: Guenther Steiner

Is the 🤬 emoji personified, every second word that comes out of his mouth is a swear

“We look like a bunch of fucking wankers”

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m scared of him

Literally the most terrifying man alive

Will yell ALL THE TIME about literally ANYTHING

Keeps putting KMag and Romain together even though they spend more time crashing into each other than actually racing?? And yet is equally surprised everytime???

“We’ve got two fucking idiots driving for us” and have done for FOUR YEARS. Haas have only been a team for five years, and they’ve only ever had one other driver

But I love them both

Fell for whatever the fuck Rich Energy was

Alfa Romeo: Frédéric Vasseur

Team Principal and CEO

I’ve never seen this man in my life

Used to be team Principle of Renault???2016-2017??? Whaaaa????

Williams: Sir Frank Williams

Founder and team principal

Old as fuck

a big name in motor sport

Used to be a long distance runner, now has a wheel chair because he got into a car accident on the way to a fun run :(

Literally built Williams from the ground up (and they used to be very good I swear)

Claire Williams

Deputy team Principal (but actually does all of the stuff)

the only important woman

Doesn’t deserve any of the hate she gets (and she gets a lot)

She’s trying her best okay

The ‘this is fine’ meme personified

#f1 #im not going to tag this #i cannot be bothered #idk what this is #yes i lowkey turned this into a post about susie wolff #what about it

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superpaperclip · 4 years ago

Text

Fuck it here’s the start of a Javid fake dating AU.

Ch. 2 | Read on AO3

***

David had been sitting at the dining room table when it started. Sarah sat down across from him with a grin on her face, which David knew meant trouble. He tried unsuccessfully to ignore his sister and focus on his work for about five minutes, during which she didn’t move, before giving up.

“What do you want now and why can’t it wait until I’m done with this paper?” David asked with a huff, lowering the computer screen slightly so he could stare at his sister. Sarah just smiled wider.

“Well, it can’t wait because I know you, and you’ll just start another paper after you’re done with this one. Now as to what I want, I’m telling you you’re coming to a party this weekend. No arguments. The only things you do are go to class and do your work. College is supposed to be fun. You’re supposed to meet people. You haven’t gone on a single date since the semester began. You’re going to this party and I won’t take no for an answer. Besides, it’s hosted by one of Katherine’s friends, Bill. He’s rich, so all the important students will be there.”

Months, and even years, later, when David thought back on that moment, the two of them staring at each other across the dining room table, he had no clue why he said his next words. Maybe some spirit or supernatural entity possessed him, or he momentarily lost his mind. Indeed, he didn’t register what he had said until the words were out of his mouth.

“I already met someone.” Fuck, he’s in trouble. Now Sarah will never let this go. He’s too focused on trying to come up with a believable lie to register Sarah’s questions, which were undoubtedly along the lines of who the hell is he and why didn’t he tell her sooner and when does she get to meet him.

“Uhm, well, he… works at… that coffee shop right by campus. And his name is… uh…“ David desperately tries to think of a common name. “Jack! His name is Jack. And that’s all you’re getting from me. Now go away so I can finish this paper.” David resolutely stared at the computer, but Sarah unsurprisingly didn’t put up a fight, opting to leave the table instead. David’s gut told him this was going to backfire and blow up in his face, but he ignored it. Surely nothing too bad could happen, right?

Jack was fed up with his job at the coffee shop. More specifically, he was fed up with the customers. He was fed up with having to put on a fake smile every day and deal with rude, disrespectful, and downright mean customers, which seemed to be in abundance lately. Jack was counting down the minutes to the end of his shift when a girl burst through the doors, an annoyed look in her eyes. Jack internally sighed, then plastered his awkward-winning Customer Service Smile on his face, preparing to be berated again. Before he could launch into the standard greeting, the girl spoke.

“This is the fifth coffee shop I’ve been to today. Please tell me there’s someone named Jack working here, for my brother’s sake.” Jack’s mask slipped, his confusion evident on his face. He didn’t know who this girl was or why her brother’s… health?... rested on his existence.

“Uh, I’m Jack. Can I help you?” Belatedly, he wondered if he should’ve lied or used a fake name. At hearing his name, the girl’s eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands.

“Are you the guy who’s been dating Dave? God, I’m gonna kill him. He said your coffee shop was close to campus! I’ve been walking around all afternoon looking for you.” Jack was even more confused by the sudden shift in her mood, and her apparent belief that he was dating someone named Dave.

“Wait, what?” The girl gave him a puzzled look, as if he was an idiot and she hadn’t come barging into his shop claiming he was dating some guy with absolute certainty. When he didn’t show any sign of recognition as to what she was talking about, she huffed and launched into an explanation.

“I’m Sarah. Jacobs, I mean. Sister of David Jacobs. He told me you two were dating, and that you worked here, though he underestimated the distance from campus.” Ah. Her brother- David- must have told her to get her off his back. Jack had enough experience with pushy people to do what he would’ve wanted any of his fake boyfriends to do- lie. Jack just hoped he could be convincing enough.

“Oh, yeah, Davey! He’s told me about you, I just didn’t recognize you. Wait, he… he said we were dating? Really? I didn’t… well, it’s only been a few dates, and I didn’t want to put a label on it, but… he really said we were dating?” Jack hoped his performance was convincing enough, and would give him some leeway to not know anything much about David. He gave Sarah a half-smile and rubbed the back of his neck, pretending to be bashful. Sarah, on the other hand, seemed to buy it. She was almost giddy with joy, and something that seemed like pride.

“My brother has finally met someone! Oh, by the way, are you coming to Bill’s party this weekend?” Jack fought to keep his face neutral. Going to a party with someone he hadn’t known existed five minutes ago? No way. But still, he decided to let Sarah down easy. She seemed like a nice girl. Let this brother of hers deal with the blowback.

“Well, Davey didn’t say anything. And depending on when it is, I may not be able to go. I have some things to do this evening. But I’ll see if I can.” That seemed to satisfy her. She thanked Jack for his time, told him she hoped to see him at the party, and left. As Jack finally clocked out and walked home, he thought back on what was probably the weirdest interaction he’d had at his job, and hoped it wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

David was once again being stared at by his sister from across the dining room table while trying to do his work, and once again, ignoring her wasn't working. Sighing, he closed the textbook and stared back at his sister, who had a smug smile on her face.

“You never told me how cute he was. And you greatly underestimated the distance.” Now David was confused. HIs eyebrow furrowed as he tried to make sense of what she said, having already forgotten their earlier conversation. Sarah threw her hands up when it became evident he didn’t know what she was talking about and muttered something under her breath, probably about how clueless he could be.

“Your boyfriend, Jack! Average height, cute, works at Universal Grind Coffee Bar- which, by the way, is not ‘right by campus’. I stopped in to meet him. And I invited him to Bill’s party this weekend. Don’t think you’re getting out of that just because you have a date.” David went pale, his eyes wide. Sarah had actually tracked down some poor guy named Jack who worked at a coffee shop near campus? He needed to apologize, and apparently thank him for playing along.

“Uhm, I gotta… go… do… something.” He stuttered out an excuse as he shot up from his seat and out the door. Jumping in his car, he punched the name of the shop into his GPS, hoping there was only one. Luckily, there was. When he got there, he rushed inside, desperate to apologize. He went up to the nearest employee.

“Excuse me, is Jack here? I really need to talk to him. My name is David.” The employee looked him up and down, confused.

“I’m his coworker, Spot. His shift just ended. Why? Who are you? What do you need to say to him?” David ignored the questions.

“When’s his next shift? Please, it’s important.” Spot regarded him again.

“He’s working tomorrow. His shift starts at noon.” After thanking Spot, David left the coffee shop and got back in his car, opting to just sit in the parking lot. What had he gotten himself into?

Jack was feeling good when he walked into work the next day. That changed very quickly. As soon as he got in the door, he took stock of the customers already there. His gaze stopped on one particular guy sitting at the counter. His leg was bouncing and he kept fidgeting with a straw, twisting it around his fingers. He looked familiar, Jack thought. Maybe they had a class together.

Jack was trying to figure out why he recognized this guy as he put on his apron and planted himself by the register when the guy came over.

“I’m sorry, are you Jack?” Was he someone else who was sent by the David guy? Seriously, what were the odds of two attractive strangers asking for him by name two days in a row? He internally grimaced.

“Yeah, I’m Jack. Who’re you?” Jack immediately regretted how sharp his tone was when he saw the guy wince.

“Um, I’m David Jacobs. My sister, Sarah, told me she came to see you yesterday and I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I made up a fake boyfriend with a fake name. I never imagined she would actually go looking for you. Uh, him. But thank you for playing along. Oh, she also said she invited you to a party. Please don’t feel obligated to go. I really don’t want to inconvenience you any more than I already have. Again, I’m sorry.” Honestly, Jack was starting to feel bad for the guy. So he motioned for David to follow him to the back of the shop. Jack sat in a booth that was tucked into the corner, and gestured for David to sit across from him. When he did, Jack asked the question that had been bugging him.

“Why?” David looked to Jack in surprise, obviously not expecting the question.

“Why what?”

“Why did you make up a boyfriend?” At the look on David’s face, Jack worried he crossed a line, but David launched into an explanation.

“Sarah’s always been on my case to get out of the house more, even while we were in high school. One of the ways she tried to do that was by setting me up with different people, hoping I would date someone. After the hundredth girl, I told her I’m gay, but she just started setting me up with boys. The last straw was the party she told you about. I don’t know what came over me, I just blurted out that I was seeing someone. She pressed me for details, and I panicked and said he worked in a coffee shop by campus and his name was Jack. I never meant for you to get caught up in this. I’m so sorry.” Jack thought for a minute before responding.

“Maybe this unfortunate situation can be beneficial for both of us.” He had a mischievous glint in his eye.

“What do you mean?

“Well, my friends are always teasing me about my lack of a partner. So whaddya say we get back at everyone? Your sister and my friends. Here’s what we do: we go to this party, pretend to date for a few months, then have a horrible breakup. That’ll get them off our backs.”

David sat there, contemplating Jack's offer. Jack could almost see the gears turning in his head. Eventually, he stuck his hand out to shake.

“Deal.”

***

#meg writes #im in the middle of a second chapter but i have no motivation #maybe this will give me some #newsies #newsies fic #jack kelly #david jacobs #sarah jacobs #javid #jack x david #jack x davey #fake dating au #jack newsies #david newsies #davey jacobs #I Never Planned (on someone like you)

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knittingdreams · 4 years ago

Text

Fireheart - Chapter 25

Sorry it took me so long to upload! I might have kind of forgotten my password and not logged in for weeks, oops! But I’m back! :D

Materlist / Ao3

Tiny tag list: @tillyrubes10 :) [Drop a comment if you want to be added]

I don't think any TW apply for this one, no more than my usual foul language that you should know by now!

New characters showing up!! This one was an exciting one to write! :D

CHAPTER 25

Hacking triplets

“Sam, did you find what I asked for?”

“Well, hello, how are you doing? I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Sam’s witty reply came from the other side of the line.

“Cortland, come on, I have no time for your games, did you find me someone or not?”

Celaena typed on her laptop furiously while she listened to Sam on the cell, still trying to enter Dorian’s computer even if she knew all her attempts were futile.

“I did. I found a team. It’s all pretty secretive, I’m sending you a link, and you’ll just have to follow the instructions.”

“Thanks.”

Celaena hung up the phone and threw it onto the bed while she opened up her conversation with Sam on the computer screen. Right after returning from the masquerade with Dorian last weekend, she had tried to access his father’s computer to download the guest list, but to her surprise, she was out of the system.

She had gone into that computer so many times, that when she found herself out, she was confused at first. That confusion quickly turned into anger. Celaena attempted every trick she knew, and still, every time she tried to access the computer on the top floor, she was kicked out. It was as if someone was actively getting her out of it every single time. No matter how much Celaena knew about computers, she was no expert. She knew enough to get by, but there was nothing else she could do, and that infuriated her.

She hated to admit it, but she needed a real expert.

Not trusting Arobynn anymore after seeing him at the gala with whom she potentially thought could be her aunt, she was now on her own. She didn’t know any hackers in town that weren’t in some way tangled with Arobynn already, and that’s when she thought of asking Sam for help.

Adarlan Elite High was a big school, one full of rich people with lots of things to hide, lots of things to protect. She knew if Sam asked around, he’d be able to find someone. After all, Sam’s goal in the last two months had been getting to know everybody and making acquaintances. If he couldn’t be of help finding her a hacker, then what was the point of it all?

Finally opening up the link that Sam sent her, Celaena scratched her brow. The link seemed to download a ghost program onto her computer and then led her to a page with encrypted bank details. Sam had explained that the address of the place she had to go to wouldn’t be given to her until a deposit was made. Enough to cover a basic fee, and the rest of the payment would be done after the job was finished.

The prices were high, but Celaena couldn’t be worrying about money now, not if it meant she could get a real lead. For years, she had had the hunch that her aunt might have been involved with her parent’s accident somehow, but she had always tried to ignore those feelings, telling herself that Maeve had been the one to look after her every time her parents went over on business trips, the one to buy her presents for every birthday, and the one that had organized a beautiful ceremony after her parent’s death; one that she had only heard about from third parties and a lot of research.

She didn’t want to believe her own family would have betrayed her, but after looking into Dorian’s computer for weeks and weeks, she was almost certain his company had had nothing to do with the accident. And getting to know Dorian Jr. now, she had to admit he wasn’t half as bad as she had expected.

Celaena got up from the bed and headed to her dresser after making the transfer. She pulled out her leather jacket, changed her shoes to her laced-up boots, and grabbed the bike’s helmet from the top of the night table.

It was time to go for a ride and find herself some hackers.

Celaena rode the elevator to the basement and jumped on her bike, setting up the coordinates that were sent to her by transferring the link straight into her GPS system. The location seemed to be close to the docks, and not being overly surprised by it, she rode out. She left the crowded part of the city behind in no time, turning towards the cliffs on the outskirts. She was almost to the docks when the GPS made a beeping noise, and the coordinates changed all of a sudden, telling her to do a U-turn.

“Sweet trick,” she chuckled to herself.

She turned around at the end of the road, and followed back on her tracks, returning the way she came. Once she was almost into the city limits, she got this weird feeling in the back of her neck. Looking through the rearview mirror, she got a glimpse of a bike behind her, but when she looked back, it was gone. She drove fast for another five minutes, following the directions until she was about five blocks from her destination. She slowed down, and as soon she was two blocks away, the location changed again. She looked over her shoulder and got a glimpse of a shadow behind her.

It wasn’t too dark yet, the sun only just reaching the horizon, but the tall buildings on that side of the town made the roads dark enough for her to struggle to figure out if there was someone behind her, or if she was being overly paranoid.

The location changed place three more times before she finally got to the end of a quiet road, and the GPS signaled for her to go down an extremely narrow alley in between two buildings. She parked up on the street, jumped down, and put her helmet away in the compartment under the seat. Looking behind her once more, the road was deserted.

Maybe she was indeed paranoid, or maybe the hackers had someone trailing her to make sure she wasn’t being followed by anybody else. Every single hacker she knew was over-suspicious and certainly odd.

Celaena walked all the way to the end of the alley, and a message arrived on her phone, indicating to knock three times on the metal door with a triangle drawn on it. There were three doors at the end, all the same except for the faint triangle scraped into the metal of the middle one. It was rough, and it could have been mistaken for senseless scrapings if she hadn’t been looking for the triangular shape.

She knocked three times and waited.

The door creaked open an inch, and a pair of black eyes looked at her from the dim interior.

“Who’s this?”

“Deposit 45986, my reference is Fireheart,” Celaena replied, stating the number of her deposit and the name she chose to use as code.

“Coded word?” The voice coming from inside was definitely female and sounded fairly young.

“Dolphin,” she replied, repeating the word that was texted to her only a few seconds ago.

“Come in.”

The door opened another few inches, and Celaena walked in, the door slamming shut behind her. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior, and when they did, she found herself in a long and narrow corridor, the woman already walking away in front of her. Adjusting her leather jacket, Celaena followed.

They looked to be almost the same height, and the lady was wearing all black clothes, barely visible in the darkness. They reached an elevator at the end of the hall, and the doors opened automatically to show a small round lift with mirrors all around.

As they stepped in, Celaena got a better look at her escort and was surprised to find she only looked a few years older than herself. Her hair was as dark as her eyes, and it was long and straight, getting almost to her waist. She smelled faintly of tobacco, and her face was set on a hard unmovable expression. She almost looked bored.

A sepulchral silence surrounded them as they went down, and down, and down. It took longer than expected till the doors finally opened up again to reveal a small room, illuminated by a single yellow-ish light. There was another girl there, sitting at a small desk with a computer, and Celaena had to look back and forth to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. The girl at the desk looked exactly the same as the one by her side, the only difference being that her hair was light-blond instead of midnight black.

“This is how things work around here,” the blond said, pointing to a little scanner on the table. “We trade in secrets. Before you can step into the den, you need to scan your fingerprint here.” She pointed at the small scanner, a humorless smile on her lips. “We will share all our secrets with you, in exchange for all of yours.”

Celaena doubted for a minute, her fingers tapping the side of her thigh furiously as she thought about what to do. She needed to find out what was going on with her aunt, and maybe these girls checking up on her would be an effective test to see how good they were at their job. There was no registry of Aelin after she was about 8 years old, and all her records as Celaena were fake and not linked to her digits whatsoever. She was a ghost, a dead girl, there was nothing for her to fear.

She convinced herself that it was alright, that she could do this, and taking one step forward, she pressed her finger against the scanner.

A red light blinked under her finger, and then the blond indicated for her to do the index from her other hand too. The red light blinked again, and then Celaena looked into the blond girl’s eyes, her irises moving back and forth as she read information from the screen in front of her, her fingers flying over the keyboard at a speed Celaena had never seen before.

“Well, well,” the blond said after the longest minute in Celaena’s life. “Welcome to our den, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius,” she said, standing up and opening the metal door behind her.

Celaena’s shock from hearing someone other than Sam use her real name for so long was almost overrun by the sight of the room in front of her. She took a step in, following the blond, with the twin right behind her heels.

The room was huge, with high ceilings full of hanging light bulbs in all sizes and shapes. The walls had led lights on every side, making the room bright but pleasant to the eyes at the same time. Right in the middle, three huge desks were forming a triangle, one of the edges pointing to the door, so the desk on the back was mostly covered from sight from where Celaena was standing. The two desks she could see had the biggest screens Celaena had ever seen, and they were covered in all kinds of machines with lights blinking all over the place.

Against the wall on the right, there were several pinball machines, and to the left, there was a set of couches with three flat-screen TVs attached to the wall, and massive shelves full of movies and books to each side of them.

As Celaena took in the place with her jaw hanging a little open, a third figure stood up from the desk on the back, and the twins standing to each side of her smiled wickedly, nodding as a way of greeting.

“Sisters,” the new girl said, stepping from behind the desk and walking around until she was right in front of Celaena. “I see you’ve brought our newest client.”

Blinking again and feeling dumbfounded, Celaena extended a hand toward her. She had been mistaken to think the girls were twins; even if the one standing now in front of her had golden eyes instead of black, and her hair was of the most radiant silver, there was no doubt to her that these girls were triplets. They looked like printed copies in different colors.

“I’m Manon,” the silver-haired one said, taking the hand Celaena was offering. “My sister here is Asterin,” she pointed to the blond girl, “and this is Sorrel,” she added as she pointed to the dark-haired one. “And we welcome you to the Blackbeak den,” she gestured theatrically to the room and then headed towards the couches, the other two girls following behind her.

Feeling a little out of place, Celaena grabbed a seat.

“What can we do for you, Aelin?”

She swallowed hard, her neck feeling clammy with sweat, her heartbeat going wild inside her chest. Hearing her name again after so long, was a strange feeling. She tried to picture Sam by the coast, telling her she could be whoever she wanted to be, telling her she was indeed all three. Celaena, Aelin, and Fireheart. She looked at each of the triplets, holding their gaze, reading their eyes. They all seemed composed, wickedly serious, but trustworthy, even if Celaena wasn’t one to trust anybody. But maybe… Maybe Aelin could trust. No one had known who she was before, and if these girls had found out in a matter of minutes, then she had to believe they could help her with her parents’ case. And if that trust was broken, well… Then Fireheart could always take matters into her own hands: literally.

She took one last deep breath, cracked her knuckles, and then proceeded to explain what she needed.

“Should be easy enough,” Asterin said after she had finished talking.

“We don’t jump to conclusions, Asterin,” Manon corrected. “When do you need this information?”

“As soon as possible. Once you have the list, and if I find what I’m looking for in it, I’d like to do a full investigation on the person we find.”

“Good. Let us work, we’ll contact you as soon as we have anything,” Sorrel explained.

“No questions asked,” Asterin added as if finishing her sister’s sentence. “That’s our policy.”

“Your secret is safe with us,” Mannon filled in, a stoic look on her face, “as long as you don’t cross us. A single word about who we are, and we’ll know. One word out of your mouth about this place, and your life will be turned upside down, your every secret spilled like blood draining from a freshly open wound. Understood?”

Standing up and squaring her shoulders, Celeana nodded. “I understand. I don’t go around spilling secrets, only blood,” she winked at the silver-haired girl, who snarled back at her.

“Let’s hope neither is spilled in here,” Asterin added, a sweet smile on her lips that made her look somehow lethal.

By the time Celaena jumped back into her bike, her heart was still racing. Having someone know about her identity was not on her plans, and she hoped it better be worth it.

Here’s Manon for you <3

#fireheart #throne of glass fanfic #fanfiction #tog #tog fandom #tog fanfic #celaena #sam cortland #rowan #rowaelin #manon

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greekletters · 4 years ago

Text

I'm oddly productive this week..

Prompt: You Forgot to Say the Magic Word

--------------

“I don’t know why you insisted on coming with me if you are just going to complain the entire time.”

“Well, I thought this was going to be a lot more exciting than it appears to be. You’ve always seemed to enjoy it immensely, so I wanted to come with you.”

“Weiss, not once have you ever expressed any interest in doing the grocery shopping.”

“That is untrue. I have gotten things from the store for us many, many times.”

“You had your assistant deliver it to the house. I doubt you even know how to get here on your own without GPS.”

“Now that’s just rude, and I am not complaining.” Blake stops in her place and stares blankly at Weiss.

“You literally just went on a five minute rant in the car about how you couldn’t believe they expected you to use a communal cart to place your food in.”

“It is a valid concern for our safety.” Weiss sticks her nose up in the air while pulling her hand sanitizer from her bag.

Blake shakes her head, holding her hand out because she knows Weiss will make her take it regardless of whether or not she wanted any hand sanitizer.

“Wait! Don’t touch that.” Weiss says abruptly, causing Blake to jump.

“The handle of the cart? It doesn’t move on it’s own, you know.” Rolling her eyes. “And you need to chill out or I’m going to make you go sit in the car.”

This was going to be a test of will for Blake. She could already tell. Never again would she grocery shop on the weekend. For fear of Weiss wanting to come with.

“Fine.” Weiss begins to wander the immediate area, browsing with suspicion. “How do you know what we have to get?”

“I make a list of what I would like to cook every week, and the stuff we eat. That way I don’t have to wander around the store like a lost puppy looking for food.”

“Are you saying that I look like a lost animal?” She looks across a stack of fruit at Blake, eagerly awaiting her response.

“No, but you do look like a snooty rich lady that has never done her own grocery shopping before. And like all the food is covered in disease.” Grabbing some bags from the stand nearby, Blake begins placing some different items in bags and putting them in the cart. Marking them off the list on her phone as she goes.

“What is on our list?” Weiss leans over, curiously trying to eye the screen.

“You know,” putting the phone back in her pocket “I shared this note with you and it’s been on your phone since the first time I went shopping for us.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I would’ve noticed.”

“I’m dead serious. Check.” Motioning towards the phone in Weiss’ hand.

Quickly unlocking the phone screen, she navigates to the notes app. Sure enough, she finds it in the shared folder. ‘Blake and Weiss’ Grocery List’ last updated yesterday around eight.

“Ah. I see.” Clearing her throat. “Why do you share it with me, if I never come shopping?”

“So if there is anything you want that I didn’t put on the list, you can add it?” Blake says, like it’s totally obvious.

“Well, good to know.” Straightening her posture and walking a few steps away through an aisle with vegetables, Weiss reopens the list and reads down it.

It seems highly organized. Which she expected nothing less from Blake. It appeared to go in order of the sections of the store. And it contained almost every single thing they kept in the house.

Weiss had never really spent much time thinking about it before. She had always been privileged enough, too privileged, that she hadn’t ever had to do her own shopping. Or cooking for that matter. Blake did all of it. Mostly. They did go out on occasion.

Continuing to scroll, Weiss notices a lot of food on the list is required to make various different meals. But there are a few single items like snack foods or random out of place items. Taking her chances, she adds her favorite flavor ice cream to the list and closes the app.

Blake continues to shop, seemingly unaware of the addition.

“Hey Weiss, which one of these looks better?” Holding up two tomatoes for Weiss to compare.

“They’re both red.”

“I know that.” Shaking her head back and forth. “Which one looks better though?”

“In what way? They both look dirty.” Weiss grimaces when Blake attempts to hand them to her.

“I know. I wash them before we eat them. But if you are going to come grocery shopping, you have to participate in the shopping part. It’s a requirement.”

“The one on your right, I guess. The other one has a bruise on it. And I don’t want to eat it.” Her face scrunches.

“See? It’s not difficult at all.”

“You do this every week?”

“Every other week.”

“Too stressful.”

“Buying the food we eat?” The mild look of unamused disbelief on Blake’s face is very telling.

“Picking which ones to get, making the list, coming here and touching the dirty cart. I don’t know how you manage to do it.” Shaking her head disapprovingly.

“Because we need to eat, and if you were to die of starvation I would be sad. Because I like you a little bit. Now, push the cart.” Blake walks off down an aisle, leaving Weiss behind with the cart full of fruits and vegetables wrapped perfectly in individual plastic bags.

After a few seconds of flailing, trying to figure out how to push the cart without actually touching it, Weiss gives up and begins to make her way towards Blake down the aisle.

Blake is looking at the list on her phone as she absentmindedly places a few items in the cart and continues to move forward.

“Do you want me to make pasta this week?” She looks back over her shoulder at Weiss, who is overwhelmed by the number of various items on the shelves.

“What?”

“Pasta. Do you want any kind of pasta this week, or no?”

“That’s fine.” She grabs a blue box off the shelf, eyeing it oddly. “There’s macaroni and cheese inside this box?”

“Yes?” Not sure if Weiss is asking a trick question.

“How?”

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that.”

“How can there possibly be macaroni and cheese in here? The box would be soggy. Is it in a bag or something?” The look of pure concern on Weiss’ face is enough to break Blake’s stoic expression. And she begins laughing.

“Are you for real?”

“I don’t see what is so funny.” She stops pushing the cart and places her hands on her hips.

“You’re hilarious. That’s what’s funny.” Blake grabs the front end of the cart and pulls it along behind her.

“At least answer my question, since you feel like laughing at me.”

“There is macaroni and cheese in the box, Weiss. You have to cook the pasta and then mix the cheese into it. It doesn’t come already prepared.”

“Oh.” Feeling dumb for not thinking of that, she grabs the handle and continues her duty of pushing the cart.

Weiss continues following Blake with the cart as her eyes are trained on the list. They make their way down a few more aisles before coming closer to the frozen section. Blake looks down the aisle but continues right past it.

“We don’t need to go down this one?” Weiss asks, knowing that it’s where the ice cream is.

“Nope. Nothing from the list is down there.” Blake hears a small whine coming from Weiss’ end of the cart and smiles.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Now come on, we have to get some other things before we can go.”

Huffing, and annoyed about not getting the ice cream that she added to the list, Weiss follows Blake once again, this time towards the dairy and meat sections. After about five minutes of silence and cold shoulder, Blake turns back towards Weiss.

“Okay, what has you grouchy now?” Raising an eyebrow as she questions.

“Nothing.” Weiss crosses her arms over her chest.

“Uh huh. Sure. Is there anything we are missing from the list?” Testing Weiss to see how stubborn she was willing to be.

“Don’t you have the list?” Weiss asks, passive aggressively.

“I do. But I think I got everything. I was just asking you, just in case.” Leaving the option open for Weiss to say anything if she wanted to.

They pass by the end of the frozen food aisle once again. Weiss looks longingly down towards the ice cream.

“You’re absolutely sure?” Blake asks one more time, smile on her face.

“Fine!” Weiss stomps her foot and walks down the aisle by herself and slings the freezer door open and looks into the cold storage container in front of her.

After a few moments of searching, Weiss hears the wheels of the cart making their way down the aisle.

“You have no idea what kind of ice cream we eat, do you?”

“I put it on the list.” She says defiantly.

“I saw.”

“How?” She looks out of the corner of her eye at Blake.

“Any time you make a change to the note, I get notified.”

“Can you just grab the ice cream so we can go? I’m freezing.”

“You forgot to say the magic word.” Blake’s sheepish grin makes Weiss roll her eyes.

“Please?”

“Okay.” Weiss leans over and places a kiss to her cheek just before she reaches in the freezer and grabs the ice cream and tosses it in the cart. “Can you mark it off the list for me?”

“I have no idea how to do that.” Weiss shrugs her shoulders and takes her place to push the cart once again.

The only thing Blake can do is smile and shake her head as she taps the little circle next to ‘ice cream for Weiss’ on the list.

#rwby checkmate #rwby monochrome #rwby fanfiction #blake belladonna #weiss schnee

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unwiltingblossom · 4 years ago

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Queen’s Favor (Mysme Jumin/MC AU 9/?)

Summary: Being a maid would be much easier if the cat would just let her do her job.

AU - Instead of joining the RFA via random text, MC is hired on as one of the maids assigned to Jumin Han’s penthouse. Nothing else about the setting has changed, the messenger and the RFA still exist, only the MC’s position has been altered.

It'd gotten to the point where she'd opened the bag and just...looked directly inside it. Just one step shy of trying to stick her head and body in there, as if she could go on a purse-adventure to find her wallet.

The GPS worked.

See. She might have gotten hotheaded and chased after a stranger in the middle of the night all the way until she got the lost in some shady district, but nothing actually bad happened. Except she lost some time to have dinner and relax.

But that was fine, because it was her weekend anyway. She had all day to sleep in and do other things!

Like get that haircut. And maybe shop for mattresses. A little.

But not apartment shop. She wasn't making enough to have saved up for that yet. There wasn't that many places in her range to move into in the city, in the first place, which is part of the reason she ended up in the closet-apartment she now lived. Given the short time since moving there, she couldn't really expect that to change radically when her price range...really wasn't that different. Yet.

When she'd looked up the location that she'd ended up in last night, all she'd been able to find out about it was that it had been built ten years back and was residential. She hadn't found any advertisements renting the apartments in it, which was strange, given that it sure didn't look full.

Well. Maybe some business mogul bought the place thinking they could turn it into some kind of office-space, then went under because they had no idea what they were doing?

Regardless, aside from a few comments from others who had asked questions about the building and gotten nothing of substance in return, there wasn't much about the place on the internet. Maybe that jerk who'd run into her was actually the person who owned the place. It's that, or he really was a drug dealer.

Hey, maybe he split the difference. Gotta pay for an apartment complex you don't rent out somehow, right?

She frowned, rustling through her purse. She obviously traveled without it most of the time when she was working, as there really wasn't a reason to weigh herself down with something she might forget somewhere (or the cat would get into), but still...she was sure she'd put her wallet in the purse when she'd gotten home.

Where is it...?

She wasn't about to stand there rustling through the purse, digging through her stuff to find her money after she needed to pay something. She'd do it now. When no one was staring expectantly at her and she didn't feel judged. Obviously. Like any upstanding not-broke citizen who felt vaguely judged every time she went into work by the sheer gulf between herself and her employer's wealth levels.

Which was a good choice, because it'd gotten to the point where she'd opened the bag and just...looked directly inside it. Just one step shy of trying to stick her head and body in there, as if she could go on a purse-adventure to find her wallet. Her hand failed to find it, so maybe if she just looked...

"Hey, look out-!"

She did, but only in time to see a black-and-white blur slam into her.

Ah, so that's how it felt to be tackled to the ground. But worse, because she'd only tackled the intruder to wooden floors, not cement. That hardly seemed fair, considering she didn't do anything to deserve it, unlike the one who got slammed to the floor.

She didn't complain, though, as her attention was arrested pretty completely by the literal truck that zoomed right by where she'd been standing before something else - someone else - slammed into her and knocked her out of the way. Along with her purse, which was knocked completely off of her arm by the impact of the ground, and slid a foot or two away from her on the sidewalk.

Hey, was that her walle-nope, just her phone.

"Are you alright?"

The ground, the truck, and then her purse all took their turns with her attention, she supposed it was only reasonable the person who saved her life would eventually expect to it, too. Once the shock and potential trauma passed, anyway.

She blinked a few times, but the person above her neither disappeared, nor melted like a midday mirage caused by standing in the sun. The beautiful face just inches away from hers remained. And didn't get any less pretty even when she focused on it. Smooth, flawless skin she could scream in jealousy over, platinum hair that fell in an artful curtain around both of their faces despite being tied back, and surprisingly pretty red eyes.

Ah, yes.

She still hadn't spoken. Just gawked.

Nice.

"U-uh." Granted, she'd gotten used to seeing attractive men in person, compared to maybe a year before. But this was an exceptionally pretty man, exceptionally close to her face. That, and she'd just been slammed into the ground and narrowly avoided death.

Actually, that's what she's going with. Near death avoidance. Really robs someone of their speech.

He spoke again, and by some totally unfair twist, he sounded as attractive as he looked. "Are you okay? You didn't hit your head or anything?"

Despite herself, she lifted a hand from where it'd splayed out on the ground and waved it vaguely in the air. "Oh, no, no. I quit concussions cold turkey last month." Mmm, nope. She knew the reference and even for her...that just wasn't clever. She'd chalk that up to near death, too. She'd go down fighting and die with dignity before she admitted to social awkwardness just because someone pretty happened to be up in her face.

Unfortunately, she couldn't take back what was already said.

He squinted down at her a moment, one side of his mouth quirking up into a smile that was frankly more amused than her comment deserved. "...I feel even more concerned for you now than I did before."

"...You know what, I really can't blame you. It was pretty bad by my standards, and I fully blame the near-miss of that truck."

His expression remained amused - and seemed rather like he was holding back saying something else. Mercifully, probably. Eventually, he pushed himself up and away, shifting instead to kneel over her, rather than stay like some kind of cliche accidental romance moment. A hand reached out to help her up, and she really couldn't help but notice how the sun caught in his silver hair, how his features looked perfectly chiseled like from someone's personal design of perfection, and how ridiculous it was to have someone as pretty as him randomly wandering the street.

For one reason or another, it felt stranger just to see someone so attractive on the street around the peasants like her than to see them rubbing elbows with the ludicrously rich. Well, that and he had the feel of some kind of a star. Maybe that was pretty-bias, though.

After a moment or two of perfectly discreet gawking, she did ultimately take the offered hand, at least upgrading from 'sprawled on the sidewalk' to 'sitting on the sidewalk'.

"If I could offer a bit of advice, I'd quit standing in the middle of busy streets cold turkey, too." The man gave a wink, and for a moment she considered punching herself in the face just to give an excuse for the way her cheeks felt hot immediately after. At this point, she really doubted even that could make her look any worse to this random stranger anyway. "Even though I'm a hero, I can't promise I'll always be nearby to rescue you if you do."

"Are you sure? You've got the face to make a career out of it." ...Ah, yes. Well, eventually she just had to say something about his looks. They were just...there. Right up in her face and startlingly pretty.

He even wore a bashful smile in a way she could almost believe was sincere. "It's never sounded so appealing as when a natural born princess suggested it."

"Hm, I've never heard of a princess that has to hire her own hero. Can't say I can afford the paycheck, but I'll give you a five star review for my free trial."

He winked again, and she was pretty sure that someone ought to classify that as a deadly weapon. "For such a fair maiden, I'd do it for free."

...Honestly.

If she was going to flirt with a startlingly handsome stranger she met on the street, the least she could have done for herself was not make it so lame. This was what happened when the majority of her social interaction for an entire season was with a cat and its bizarre owner.

"I...uh. You think we can still chalk up my poor social skills to the near death experience?" She wrinkled her nose. "I don't want to think about the alternative."

His response was, apparently, to just flex on her by standing up and pulling her to her feet with one hand. Of course he was handsome, charismatic and fit. Why not go for the triple threat? The man apparently just waltzed right off of the nearest movie screen before rescuing her from the most embarrassing death she could have come up with outside of the penthouse. It'd be weirder at this point if he weren't also buff.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." He grinned. It sparkled, and she almost rolled her eyes. "I, for one, am thoroughly charmed."

Alright. He could keep being unreasonably good at everything as long as he also kept flattering her. Seemed reasonable to her.

"Smooth." A little scoff she liked to think wasn't vulgar compared to the person in front of her escaped her throat, and she turned to gather up her purse before anyone else could trample her things. Surprisingly, once she was done, the man still stood in place, watching her with that vaguely amused expression he'd had the whole time. She could almost buy he was actually charmed by her if he weren't a dolled up model on a movie poster jumped off the wall and come to life.

"If you're worried about me running back out into traffic again or something, you don't have to. There's a cat that would come and kill me if I got myself killed."'

For just a moment, he looked absolutely horrified. And then he went into a sneezing fit. Never before had she seen dignity and grace evaporate so quickly and thoroughly. The silver figure of a beautiful adonis quickly turned into a man nearly sneezing off of his feet, with tears and snot and...why?

"A-are you okay?!"

"No-I...I'm just...!" He sniffled, expression transformed to something petulant and miserable as he withdrew a handkerchief to clean up his face. "I'm very allergic! Just talking about cats makes me sneeze!"

"That's..."

That is not a thing.

"That is not how allergies work."

He huffed, pursing his lips, and pocketed his handkerchief. "It's true."

She was sure it wasn't.

Still, she couldn't help a small smile anyway, awkward as it may have been. "I guess it might be hard to be your princess then. It'd be embarrassing to have you keel over when you showed up to rescue me."

He dabbed at his eye with one knuckle, so delicate. "Every hero faces his own dangers."

"You're really dedicated to the hero and princess thing, huh? Even ca-..." The pitiful look on his face was enough to make her correct herself. "Even your mortal enemy can't stop you, huh?"

This time, his smile was self depreciating. "Beggars can't be choosers. A hero without a princess is just a lonely guy."

...She wouldn't lie, it was at least half as much because he was so handsome as because he was amusingly charming and saved her life, but...eh. She shrugged. "If you put it that way...I could go for the company of a hero prince for lunch."

He chuckled and brushed hair out of his face...that instantly fell artfully right back into his face. "Well, now I just feel like I'm committing extortion..."

"Consider it a princess' favo-"

Wait.

"Dammit, my wallet!"

#mysme #mystic messenger #mystic messenger fic #mysme fic #mysme zen #jumin x mc #fic #ooc

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calpalirwin · 5 years ago

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Heartbreak Girl

A/N: So originally this was inspired by the lyrics of Love Ain’t by the Eli Young Band. And it spiraled to include 3 more songs- Leave Her Wild by Tyler Rich, Singles You Up by Jordan Davis, and of course Heartbreak Girl by the lovely @5sos

Content: Cussing, some angsty fluff to get your weekend started right.

And away, and away we go!

~~~

"Fletch," her sad voice said over the line. "Can you come get me?"

Ashton was already halfway out the door. "Text me the address," he said. "I'm leaving now."

"Thanks, Fletch,"

"Of course, Y/N. Sit tight. I’ll be there soon.''

He was angry as he peeled out of his driveway, the address to the bar plugged into his GPS. He knew that piece of shit boyfriend of hers hadn't bothered to show up. Meaning Y/N was alone at some bar again, and he had to pick up the pieces. Again.

He was always picking up the pieces when it came to Y/N. They had been friends for as long as he could remember, and he had never not been in love with her. Which only made watching her with her boyfriend that much harder.

He had warned him, that asshole. He had warned Wyatt when Y/N introduced them that Y/N was a carefree and wild spirit and to not break that spirit. “She's my best friend," his exact words had been, "so if you break her heart or spirit, or do anything besides love her with everything you got, I will break your face."

Y/N had laughed it off, assuring both men that nothing like that would happen.

And yet...

Ashton's hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white.

And yet here he was on his way to rescue his best friend. Again.

It seemed like every week Y/N was calling him up, on the verge of tears because Wyatt had canceled on her last minute, or they had gotten into another fight, or he had failed to show up and she needed a ride home.

And every week, Ashton consoled her, dropping everything to either keep her company or take her home.

It was nothing new, but tonight he was especially pissed. Why? Well, it had seemed Wyatt was finally pulling it together. For the last month at least Ashton's phone had remained quiet. He thought he was finally done having to fix the other man's screw ups while Wyatt reaped all the benefits.

That wasn't to say Ashton was angry about rescuing Y/N week after week. It was quite the opposite in fact. Any time, no matter the reason, if Y/N called, Ashton would be there, no matter the cost to his own well-being. No, rescuing Y/N wasn't the problem. The problem was that he needed to; that Wyatt kept breaking his best friend's heart, and that she kept letting it happen.

~~~

"Fletch!" her voice called out happily when she saw Ashton walking towards her.

Her words were happy, but Ashton knew her well enough to know she'd been crying not even two seconds ago. "Hey, pretty girl," he smiled, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "So, what's the game plan?" he asked as he took a seat next to her and drummed his hands against the bar.

Her shoulders started to shrug but then he saw her eyes light up. "Wyatt, you're here!" she called out, bounding out of her seat and towards the man making his own way towards them.

Motherfucker, Ashton thought to himself as Y/N greeted Wyatt and they sat down next to him.

"Oh, sup Ash," Wyatt said, taking notice of the other man’s presence.

"Hey, man," Ashton responded, jerking his chin upwards in a nod.

Y/N briefly frowned at Ashton calling Wyatt "man" instead of "mate" because she knew the Aussie's preferred term of endearment for the male gender was "mate." She didn't expect Ashton to become best friends with her boyfriend, but he could at least be friendly. "Well, I'm gonna get a drink," she said brightly, all evidence of her meltdown long gone.

Ashton himself decided to order a drink too. His night was already in the shitter, so he might as well try to salvage it best he could. He held back a sigh as he ordered himself a whiskey and Y/N didn't, opting for a white wine. Of course she would get a wine in front of Wyatt instead of her usual choice of whiskey. God, when would she realize Wyatt wasn't worth impressing?

When Y/N eyed Ashton's drink, he pushed the glass towards her. She took a sip, her eyes closing as she smiled. "Mmm, that's good," she said, enjoying the burn and pushing the glass back to Ashton.

"How ladylike," Wyatt smirked into his own beer.

Ashton clenched his fists at how Wyatt's words made Y/N's face flush in embarrassment and draw her wine glass closer to her.

"Oh, this song's my favorite!" Y/N's eyes lit up as the song from the bar's speakers reached her ears. "Come dance," she urged both men, already out of her seat dancing and singing along.

Both men chuckled- a soft one from Ashton, a smug one from Wyatt- as Ashton got up to dance with his friend. Wyatt remained in his seat and Ashton wondered why he wouldn't dance with his girlfriend until he realized Wyatt probably didn't know a single damn lyric to the girl's current favorite song.

So Ashton gladly danced with her, both their moves carefree and ridiculous while they sang loudly along. Because unlike Wyatt, Ashton knew every word to all of Y/N's favorite songs.

~ ~ ~

"So, I gotta ask. Why are you with Wyatt? Like what do you see in him?" Ashton asked when Wyatt excused himself later on in the evening after ensuring Ashton would make sure Y/N got home safe.

Y/N sighed. "We've been over this, Fletch..."

"I know. And I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but really? That guy?"

"I love him, Fletch. And he loves me."

Ashton snorted. "That's not love, Y/N."

"You wouldn't know love if it smacked you in the face," she shot back. In all their years, Ashton had never dated a girl for Ionger than it took to sleep with her. What did this womanizer know about love?

"I may not know a lot about love," Ashton admitted, even though that was a lie. Of course he knew what love was. He had felt it every day of his life towards the girl sitting next to him, a scowl on her face. All those other girls were just distractions. And while that made him feel guilty, he had always been upfront with those women, never sleeping with them unless they fully understood that. "But, I sure as hell know what it's not. And I hate to break it to ya, but whatever you and Wyatt have... that's not love."

"How would you know?" she continued to challenge.

"Because you call me every time he fucks up! Every time he bails on you or fights with you, you call me. You could easily call anyone of your girlfriends, but you call me. Every fuckin time."

"Well, if it's such a problem, if I'm that much of an annoyance, why do you come, Fletch? Huh?!"

"For the same reason you only call me! Because we love each other! Not you and Wyatt? You and me! We love each other. And damn it, I'm so fuckin sick and tired of us acting like we don't!"

"I don't love you, Fletch..." Y/N lied. “I... I love Wyatt..."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Ashton said, his voice low now that his confession lay before them.

“No..." Y/N said, her voice shaking. "I love Wyatt. No... Stop it!" Her voice grew higher and more hysterical as she came to terms with the truth. "I'm with Wyatt... why can't he love me the way you do?" she asked, full on crying now.

"Because he doesn't know how to love a wild girl."

"And how do you love a wild girl?"

"You leave her wild and pray she loves you for not holding her back."

"So, all those love songs you helped write?"

"About girls the other boys have loved mixing with my feelings toward you, yeah," he confessed. “Although Heartbreak Girl is all you, start to finish."

"I love that one..."

"Good, cuz it's your song."

"God, Fletch, what am I gonna do?"

"I dunno. End things with Wyatt and let me finally love my heartbreak girl the way she deserves to be loved?"

She let out a tearful laugh. “God, Fletch, could you ever really love a girl like me?"

"Haven't you been listening? I already do."

#heartbreak girl #ashton irwin #ashton blurb #5sos #so ive come to the realization that middle names get no love #so my newest character quirk for my female leads is calling the boy by a variation of his middle name #don't tell me calling ash fletch doesn't turn you on in a weird way #galcal irwin

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insanityinherited · 5 years ago

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The Indigo Child of a Neglectful Mother

When I was six, my mother took me to a paediatric specialist [because the GP told her to]. I was diagnosed with ADHD [back then it was just ADD]. My mother, not wanting to believe the doctor, or not wanting a child with a ‘problem’ refused to follow up with a return visit, a second opinion, a conversation with the GP or a conversation with any of my teachers.

So, this part of my narrative has been changing for a little while. I score too high on the ACES survey. I’m realising that protective influences are amazingly fantastic things and I would wish them on every kid who needs them. I’m processing the feelings that come with discovering the giant, gaping holes in my childhood, both of needs unmet and memories covered up. Today, while flicking through the world and trying to find the reason my brain was buzzing, I floated across an article on ADHD and everything clicked again. Every single time I read an account or article of a woman with ADHD I can relate to so much of it and my world makes so much more sense. Of course, this throws my narrative out even more, because it’s so easy in hindsight to see the supports that could have helped me be a better human.

A little while ago I threw out the BPD diagnosis. It wasn’t helping me, it wasn’t fitting right and [as my psych pointed out] conditions defined by entitled, straight, rich, privileged white men are very rarely going to fit people like me. However, I’m now lacking the simple language to articulate what goes on in my head. For example, right now I’m having what I’d call a manic time. The past few weeks I’ve been up high, feeling confident and making good decisions. But I know that the high ends with me making bad decisions and taking risks and pushing my luck. Then I crash. I’m in the restless stage- I’m up high, confident, chirpy, a little unregulated and feeling like I can push my luck. I feel reckless and risky and it’s a great feeling except that I know what comes next. The down is shitty. Eventually, I will take a big enough risk that I frighten myself into a depressive space where I struggle to do everything, I’m not motivated, I feel suicidal and instead of making good choices, or even risky choices, I make no choices at all. After a while I’ll get it out of my system and I’ll get a high again. I’ll float above the neutral line, like a sine curve starting at +3. I love highs- I can learn anything, I can solve problems quickly, I can focus like a laser beam. But I usually fuck something up. Currently, I have many things I would like to not fuck up. I haven’t yelled at my mother in at least a few weeks, I have a fabulous girlfriend, I’m managing to be on time for work and I think I know what I want my future to look like. My interpersonal life is actually not shit.

Anyway, some of that is an aside. I have many things I want to research-

How ADHD affects the brain

What ADHD looks like in women

The comorbidity of ADHD and various mental illnesses

I know #3 is going to lead me into researching bipolar

How to control ADHD and how to manage whatever mental illness I *do* have, whatever it is.

How to maintain good interpersonal relationships with all of this, rather than just making it guesswork as I go along.

While I’m making a list, I want to know more about latex allergies.

Oh, and I need to rearrange my diary for next week.

If I manage all of that this weekend, I’ll be a happy little vegemite. Please send gifs and fudge.

#mentalillness #bipolar #adhd #adultadhd #making good choices #mentalhealth #indigo child #inherited insanity

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treadmilltreats · 4 years ago

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Our fight to vote

There are 26 days left until the election and I am going to be speaking on this alot until then.

If you follow me you know that I think it is an honor and privilege to vote. Not so many years ago our ancestors fought and many died for this right you and I now have.

Years ago they had all kinds of road blocks to stop people from voting such as literacy tests, because they knew many could not read. They had grandfather clauses, as in if your grandfather voted you could but many blacks were slaves, so this kept them out of the voting.

If you had a felony, you were disenfranchised. There were taxes placed on voting, and many poor people couldn't afford to pay these taxes and so they could not vote.There were understanding clauses, to see if you could understand the legal terms, many poor people could hardly read let alone understand legal terms and could not pass these tests as well. And women well, women had no rights at all, we were just properly of our husbands. All of this was so they could hold on to power, the power they felt was for rich white men.

Women didn't get the right to vote until 1920, Native Americans didn't get to vote in every state until 1962.

Imagine that, we steal their land and then make them wait until 1962 to vote on a land that was theirs, yeah, that is some kind of shit!

Blacks didn't get the right to vote until 1965! And that was after many years of fighting and being killed for that right. Yes, you read that right only 55 years ago!

They did all of this to target communities so they could hold on to the power. This was common all over the country but in the south it was the worst.

By 1940 only 3% of blacks in the south were registered to vote.

It wasn't until the sixties when the protests finally gave black people the right to vote.

And yet they are still trying to keep our voices from being heard. Did you know that in 2013 the Supreme Court knocked down one of the pillars of the Civil rights movement by saying the areas covered by the voting rights act changed but the law has not kept up.

Capital states and counties that the voting rights act had regulated, could now change their election laws without federal pre clearance. This meant that half of the United States enacted new restrictions on how people voted. This also meant it gave them free reign to make it harder for people to vote.

They had the power to close 1688 polling places and between 2012 and 2018 and lines grew longer. With Black and Latino voters waiting 45% longer than white voters, seriously does this even make any sense? Why? Because they don't want us to have a voice just like back before 1920. They want all of the power, they don't want to know what women, Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians or any other people of color or poor white people have to say because it doesn't benefit them and their causes.

Then they started talking about voter fraud in 2017, because they figured if you have no transportation to get to the polls on that one day when most of the world must work then they would start to take away your way to vote by mail.

When Trump was elected he got a commission together to look into all of this "voter fraud" but 8 months later he disbanded them because they couldn't find any fraud.

One analysis found that in 3 vote by mail states, they only found 372 suspicious cases out of 14,600.00 ballots. So that tells you they are only trying to do this to suppress votes, to not let our voices hear. The elderly who can't get out, the single moms who must work to feed their families and can't get off in time to vote. The poor who would have to find a way miles away from where they live to vote. Anything to make it harder for many to vote.

Here is a startling fact, did you know most countries besides us have elections on weekends and in a few, voting is more than a right, it is a duty, just like jury duty.

And another huge thing is that almost all of them make voter registration entirely automatic. Wow, what a concept! Imagine that, making voting easier?

And why can't we do this? We already know the answer to this question, because politicians who are getting pay offs, politicians who sit on high benches for life with big benefits don't want any of this to change, are you kidding? They like that the good ole boys are still running the show but one thing that they have forgotten is that we are the voice of this country. We have the power to change things, and so we need to vote, to run for office, to speak out for change because change starts with one person. One person like Rosa Parks that finally had the courage to say enough is enough. We need to be that one person, we need to change this broken system, we need more people that look like us to take charge and make changes.

So today my friends remember we only have 26 more days left and I am begging you to go out and vote… to make a change.

We need to change all of this, to find out more go to vox.com/vote.

"Be the change you want to see"

"And just when the caterpillar thought his life over...he turned into a beautiful butterfly"

**Now released my latest book**

The Blessing in Disguise.... revealed

https://www.amazon.com/Blessing-Disguise-Revealed-story-faith/dp/1074340493/ref=sr_1_19?keywords=the+blessing+in+disguise&qid=1561392004&s=books&sr=1-19

***Now available***

My 1st book The blessing in Disguise

Selling on my website

Http://www.treadmilltreats.com

And on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0692437398/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?qid=1462358109&sr=1-13&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=the+blessing+in+Disguise

http://www.am6azon.com/gp/aw/d/0692437398/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?qid=1434452632&sr=8-12&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&keywords=the+Blessing+in+Disguise

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engineerbabuinc · 5 years ago

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How to Build a Food Delivery App like Zomato?

Everything you should know for Developing a Mobile App like Zomato

Who are we? Foodies!

What do we want? Food!

How much do we love food? A lot!

A Food delivering app is today's Tinder! The only difference is that there’s no swipe but a scroll, tap, and checkout! That’s why social media platforms during weekends have more cheesy platters than cheesy smiles. That's how much of a Foodie we are! Talking about food, even the businesses cannot help but leverage the due advantage of this never-ending demand for food. Yes, we are talking about on-demand food ordering solution.

In recent times, EngineerBabu being a way-to-go for many of our clients across the world has witnessed a visible growth in the demand for developing food delivering mobile apps and that too similar to Zomato. However, not everybody can communicate his or her requirements because Zomato is a big stadium and all that we have seen so far is just from the bleachers.

So, for all my aspiring business buddies, Let me present you a complete guide for building such food ordering apps a.k.a Zomato clone.

What should be the business model for building an app similar to Zomato?

The key stakeholders for an app like Zomato or a Zomato clone are:

The Restaurant Owners

The Platform Owner

The Delivery Professionals

The platform owners charge a certain amount of fee from the restaurateurs to get their restaurants listed on the mobile app. When the user places an order, a notification is sent to the restaurateur, the nearest delivery person, and the platform owner. By collaborating at every stage with a powerful algorithm, all the three stakeholders maintain the smooth functioning of the platform for the users.

Zomato does not own any restaurant or chain of delivery services. It coordinates with the third party to plan a supply for the demand that arises.

In order words, it is an on-demand business model for food. So, if you want to build an app similar to Zomato, you don't need to have a chain of restaurants as you can create your own brand on such platform. That’s the business ease of building an app like Zomato.

Trustable Food Ordering & Delivery App Development Companies

What makes Zomato different from other Food Ordering Mobile Applications?

Most of the food ordering mobile app businesses that exist today are but the basic version of Zomato clone with a couple of nascent features. Here's how Zomato works. While others are confined till date with just the placing of an order and delivering food, apps like Zomato stand out with the following USP:

Food ordering: Allowing the users to order their food on-the-go.

Table Booking: Enabling the users to book a table at the restaurant of their choice with just a few taps and the wait time at the restaurant is eliminated!

Explore Places: Offering the discovery and guide to the user for exploring nearby restaurants with pictures and map locations.

Zomato Gold: The subscription model that offers an exclusive dine out and social drinking membership with special perks of its own.

What are the Important features to focus on for building a Mobile App similar to Zomato?

Zomato was once launched with the most simple functionality. It allowed the users to search for restaurants, look at the menu, and order their food. Later, it developed into a dedicated community for foodies that kept the users coming back to the app. This highly contributed to the engagement rate and ultimately, Zomato became the by-default food delivering and ordering app. Then it accelerated to expand with advanced features like booking tables. Apps like Zomato came about as the food-ordering app gained success.

All the stakeholders have their own application and the features of all these apps differ. If you want to plan the features for your Zomato- like mobile app, here is a list of features for the five categories of the app that's the perfect Zomato clone:

Features for Web Service-

The web service is under the accountability of the platform owner. This means that if you develop a Zomato-like mobile app, or Zomato clone you are in charge of handling the web service portal.

Admin Dashboard: To manage the overall functionality and different stakeholders, the admin dashboard has the capability to view the list of the restaurants, the number of users, and the delivery professionals. The admin can add and remove any stakeholder at any point of time using this control panel.

Analytics and Reporting: Data insights and metrics based on the bookings made is shown by generating reports from the app and analysis can be done about the usage times, total number of users on board, demographic data, total number of restaurant listed, number of delivery professionals, profit and loss calculation per week, month, and year, etc.

For Delivery Professionals-

This app is specifically used by the delivery men. They get a delivery request and as soon as they accept the request from the app, they are provided with the information of the order, restaurant details and the address of the customer.

Trip Information: The delivery man receives the restaurant’s pickup address and the drop details of the user.

Navigation: The app for the delivery men consists of GPS which is integrated into the app for easy navigation. It consists of the route and the total time estimated for the delivery.

Route Optimization: The map integrated with the app helps the delivery professionals with the best possible route where they can beat the traffic and make their deliveries as fast as possible.

Contact User/Restaurant: The app consists of a contact user/ restaurant feature that helps the driver call the concerned stakeholder without having to copy the number and dial it manually.

Start/End Trip: Once the delivery professional accepts the request and begins his trip towards the restaurant, his trip starts. Similarly, another trip begins on his way to make the delivery. This is the basis of the amount he earns per trip.

For User App-

It is the main source of revenue, it is important that the user app is rich in features. Some of the great features for a Zomato-like user app are listed below, in terms of how Zomato works for consumers: Social media account integration: For an easy signup process, the users should be able to sign up with their social media accounts.

Search Option: With the help of the search module, the user is able to search for food on the basis of restaurants, cuisines, outlets, dishes, etc.

Call Restaurant/ Driver: By using the call feature, the user will be able to make a call directly to the restaurant/Driver in case of any specific instructions to give against their order.

Multiple Payment Options: The users should be able to make their payments using multiple options like Debit Card, Credit Card, Cash on delivery, Mobile wallets, etc.

Notifications: The user gets a push notification about their order, trending search, favourite restaurant, etc.

Track Driver: With the help of 'track driver' feature, the user is able to access the map integrated into the app and track the status of their food.

Show Veg Option: The user app has the option which will filter out the veg and non-veg dishes for the users.

Real-time Availability: The online reservation system of the app allows the user to check the availability of the tables in real-time and make the booking.

Social Community: The app allows its users to integrate their social media handles for creating their profiles. The users can connect with each other, follow and make recommendations on cuisines, dishes, puns, restaurants, etc. Pertaining to the ease provided by these features, many startups are pacing towards building an ace of a Zomato-like mobile app.

How to Build an app like Zomato and beat the cutthroat competition?

Simply search for the term, “build a Zomato-like app” and you will find hundreds of blogs providing you the information. There's huge demand for a Zomato clone out there. An app like Zomato is drawing in millions for a reason.

What does this imply? There is a lot of competition out there with your Zomato similar mobile app development. It is important for you to make a move of innovation to step higher than your competitors, when it comes to building an app like Zomato.

But how to do that? It’s simple, please your customers with the quality of your service and remarkable features for them to have a lasting impression of your brand. This will keep them engaged to your platform and ultimately, you will swiftly be able to scale up your Zomato-like business.

For this, you need to carry out a thorough research on what your unique selling point is going to be. Keep a track of the launches and services that your competitors are planning to or have probably done and try to provide a better service. If there’s some process that you can ease out for your customers, make it a priority and do it.

Make your users feel that their problems are acknowledged by you and addressed well in the form of features. Give them a, “Why should I install your app?” reason that your competitors lack. This way your Zomato-like mobile app will be able to drive a large amount of traffic, engagement, and ultimately conversion.

What should be Considered While Building a Mobile App similar to Zomato?

From the point that you have this idea of turning a mere concept into a full-fledged Zomato-like mobile application to launching the first prototype of the app for testing, there are many vital steps to be followed to make your mobile app a big success.

The ground to building any food ordering mobile application is mostly flat. This means you do not have to brainstorm a lot on where to start developing your application. The only front of the mental focus for you as a business person should be to choose a brand name and identity that is relatable to the user. This way there are more instances of brand recognition and the marketing budget will reduce significantly, when you build a Zomato clone.

Here are some other important things to focus on:

Customer convenience with easy navigation for different pages.

Clean UI/UX designs with a call out as and when required.

A helpline for 24*7*365 for all the stakeholders.

Updated data about the restaurant for providing the right information to the customers.

The visual appeal of the mobile app as well as the assets used for displaying menu, dishes, ambience, etc.

Simplified Process for Developing a mobile app like Zomato

Here is the right approach to follow in your venture to develop a skyrocketing Zomato similar app:

Know what is your primary aim with the launch of your app before beginning with the development process. This will help you decide on the USP of your business and will set your business apart right from the start. Know how Zomato works and why this app is scoring well.

Understand your target audience well. In case of an app like Zomato, you will need to be thrice as careful with three different types of stakeholders to take care of - the restaurateur, the delivery personas, and the end users. Carry out a detailed market analysis and make a note of who your buyer persona is. Check for his demands from the platform and plan the supply that is in line with the demand for creating a long-term business relationship.

Research carefully on the existing applications that are similar to Zomato. List out their drawbacks and come up with some creative solution. If needed, tweak the business model a bit and see how effective it becomes.

Choosing the technology for your mobile app? Is it that tough for you? Always remember, you do not have to be technically sound to sound technical. All you need to know is the basics of what your app needs and leave the rest to the experts and skilled developers. Have a clear understanding of your business model and your revenue model. If you are planning to introduce the revenue model after the base has been set, then inform the developers accordingly.

Know what devices are preferred and are most popular amongst your targeted audience and go for developing an app with that platform. You can eventually introduce another platform for your business. Never let your focus go away from your brand recognition. With so many food ordering apps, it is common for your customers to switch to other app providing the same functionality. This is when a visually appealing UI and UX design play an important role in retaining the customers. Attract your customers on a psychological level and make your portal as relatable as possible for your customers.

Always plan the features well in advance by keeping your budget in mind. It is advisable to go easy with expansion. Not all applications have all the features and so you need not worry about the growth of your business when it is still in the incubator. Market enough to generate traffic. Get your customers engaged and try to convert them into loyal customers. Then plan for an expansion, as your Zomato clone provides plenty of features to ensure easy scalability.

Leverage the power of referrals, promotions, discounts, while launching your application and prepare grounds for on-boarding as many customers as possible. Give them the deal they cannot refuse to and provoke them to try out your app for at least once. Then let your features and quality service speak for your brand at the top of their voice!

It so happens with the aspiration that once the information from the article starts to convert into the research, most of the aspiration dies foreseeing the challenges and hardships of getting an app build in the right manner. However, when you consider on-boarding expert developers, you might feel your burden lessening and your 'idea' taking its real form. Need help with ideation or the app development? We are just a click away!

What is the Cost of Building a Mobile App similar to Zomato?

Without being diplomatic and making statements like, “Well, it depends”on the cost of developing an app like Zomato, let me walk you through the estimation on the basis of the features included. You have to consider all the three apps with both the platform - iOS and Android.

This again can be segregated on the basis of MVPs and advanced features. However, there is something that you should take into consideration while planning the features for your app. The admin panel cannot have basic features. You need to have a complete control over all the ongoing activities and transactions. So, it is recommended to not be a miser with the web service app.

Moving towards the driver and the user app, it is recommended to go basic first and make progressive moves with your features. This way you will be able to experiment with your customers and make implementations with your new features while keeping the engagement intact and increasing if you are lucky enough!

Hiring or outsourcing have their very own influence on the cost of building an app. You could end up hiring a cheaper resource team that eventually takes a while to develop your app or you might meet a team that promises to develop even before the timeline you have determined and ultimately none of them proves to be worthy of your time, energy, investment, or even to be a part of your business dream.

So, you need to be very careful while outsourcing the resources for building a Zomato clone. Coming back to the cost for building a mobile app similar to Zomato - If we consider the most basic version of the app with only the MVP features and simple UI/UX design, the projected price can go to $7,000 to $10,000 for development of all the three apps.

If we consider a fine tuning of both basic and advanced set of features, the estimated price can be somewhere in between $35,000 to $50,000. If we consider the full-fledged Zomato like app, the price rises up to $75,000 and above.

How to hire developers for developing an app similar to Zomato?

Make a list of your requirements on the basis of the research you carried out.

Search for the developers using the credible sources and websites.

Read resources and case studies on the websites.

Find out what their existing customers are saying about their work and make your decision.

When in doubt, talk to them and get your query resolved.

You can outsource and hire skilled developers by choosing different types of pricing models. Most of the web and app development companies have their own pricing models. So, choose whatever fits the best in your requirements and hire the number of professionals accordingly.

For developing a basic version of your Zomato like mobile app, you will require -

A UI and UX designer

2-4 Developers

Testing engineer

Backend Developer

Project Manager 

For developing an app with mixed features, you will need -

Project Manager

UI/UX designer

2-4 developers

Testing Engineer

2–3 backend developers

Admin panel developer 

For developing an advanced version of the app, you will need -

Team Manager/Project Manager

2 UI/UX designer

3-5 developers

Testing Engineer

3-4 backend developers

Admin panel developer 

Having built the roadmap to your Zomato-like digital business, are you ready to put your plan into execution and launch your mobile app for generating recurring revenue? Yes?

We would love to put in our expertise for building you a Zomato-like app just like we helped you find the path to discover your business idea. Having faced many challenges with the limitations of technology and the innovative demands of our customers, app development to our developing team has been a practice to perfect episode.

Have an idea that could transform the face of the Indian food industry? Drop us an email at [email protected]. We promise we'll keep it a secret and help you build it!

You can visit our website for more information, or directly talk to us.