#i should do it the day before nora drops that new book

[transgenderboobs]

clenches my fists so tight they draw blood

[softly-potter]

All Roads Lead to Home

Summary: After attempting to settle herself in her new life in Vacuo, Emerald receives an unexpected yet welcomed visitor.

Pairing: Emerald x Mercury

Warning: angst

Word count: 2,808

A/N: kinda went a little wild with this one and it's over 2k...oops

-

“I swear to fuck.” Emerald groans as the house key slips from her grasp and claters to the pavement. She swears again, bending to retrieve it. After a relentless day of helping Velvet and Nora transport food and other necessities around to the people of Vacuo, her patience had been spread thin. Trying, and failing, to unlock the door to her miniscule apartment is the last thing she needs.

Gripping the key again, she presses it to the lock, letting out a breath when it unlatches and she can shove the door open easily. The inside of her apartment is dark as she stumbles through, weighed down by the bags lacing up her arms, and she huffs as she sets them atop her dining room table. Wrapping her fingers around the handle of the fridge she takes a peek inside. She knows she should eat, that she can’t remember if she had lunch that day, but exhaustion pulls at her, and after surveying the minimal contents, she closes the door empty handed.

Slowly she begins to unpack her groceries, flicking on the kitchen light and moving slowly, wishing she hadn't brought so much home. It’s not like she needed it. She is alone after all, only one mouth to feed.

After the bags are unpacked she trudges up the stairs, her body heavy and thoughts heavier. The water of the shower is hot against her skin, digging into her tired muscles and soothing the ache across her shoulder blades.

When she dresses, Emerald slips maroon-colored socks onto her feet, reaching into her nightstand for her current book of choice. Her eyes roll when she realizes she must have left it downstairs, and she swears under her breath.

Looking in the kitchen, she swears again, brows furrowed as she makes her way into the living room, flicking on the side lamp, and stops dead in her tracks.

“I never took you for a romance-reader.” Mercury comments, her book open on his legs, ankles propped against her coffee table. A mug of whiskey is in his left hand and he tilts his head, silver hair falling against his forehead.

Emerald says nothing, too many questions threatening to fall from her mouth but none of them sounding quite right.

Where have you been? Are you okay? Did you miss me like I missed you?

Mercury raises a brow at her silence and flips the book shut, his legs dropping from the table and pressing into the floor as he leans his elbows on his knees. “I know I'm good looking but I didn't think I could render you speechless, Em.”

Emerald lets out a shaky breath, clenching her fists. “You asshole,” she spits, and Mercury grins. “What’re you doing here? How did you-”

“Find you?” he cuts off, that irritating grin still perched on his face. “As if I could ever lose you.”

“You did lose me!” she snaps, her bruised ego burning because how dare he. “You left!”

He frowns then, and lifts the mug to his lips before taking a sip. “I think you’re misremembering how things happened. I didn’t choose team Ruby and her band of saviors.”

Emerald grinds her jaw, crosses her arms defiantly over her chest. “I wasn't the one who decided to blindly follow orders.”

“No but you’d blindly follow Cinder, right?”

Emeralds fists loosen and she stares at the boy, now a man, who she had known so well, and had missed so much. Mercury glares back, his anger nearly palpable. She can’t necessarily blame him. She knows he had done what he thought was best, as did she. He is a survivalist, no matter what had transpired between them. He had gone, and she had stayed behind with the girl who didn’t care whether she lived or died, and then she had left too, had joined Ruby and the rest in the fight against Salem.

Emerald had looked for him. She had spent countless hours in the first days of Vacuo trying to pin his location, calling his scroll time and time again. He’d never answered.

“So what're you doing here then?” Emerald says quietly. For a moment, his face shifts, brows knitted and eyes shiny. The moment is gone a second later, and he takes another drink. She realizes as he stands that he’s tipsy, his mechanical legs keeping him from outwardly displaying it but his eyes had always been his tell, at least to her.

“We’re partners.” he says with a shrug, as if its that simple. Emerald rolls her eyes before putting her hands on her hips.

“Right,” she huffs. “We haven’t been partners for years.”

“So?”

“So,” she grimaces, narrowing her eyes “Why now? I’ve been here for-”

“Seven months, yeah I know.” Mercury says cooley, and Emerald feels her face drop.

“You’ve…been watching me?” she asks and feels the strain in her throat. “You’ve known where I've been for seven months, and you’ve said nothing?”

Mercury squints at her. “What was I supposed to do? Just come to your door knocking and say, ‘hey its the guy that left you with Cinder, remember me?’”

“Yes!” Emerald cries, and her blood thrums in her ears. Mercury presses his lips together in a hard line before throwing the rest of the whiskey back and setting the mug on her table.

“And how would you have reacted?” he asks, licking his lower lip. Emerald watches the action before tearing her eyes away from his mouth.

“I-i would’ve…” she tries, racking her brain for an answer. “I would have opened the door, punched you, and then asked you to stay.”

Mercury blinks, mouth twisting before letting out a bark of laughter. “YEah right.”

“I would have!” Emerald spits back, his demeanor angering her and she takes a step forward. “I looked for you, asshole! I tried to find you, I…” pausing, emerald looks down at her hands and finds them shaking. She’s suddenly so tired, the exhaustion melting into her bones and she slides onto the loveseat, puts her head in her hands.

“I looked and looked but I couldn't find you.” she whispers into her hands, not trusting herself to look at him. “After we lost Ruby and the rest, I knew I had to try. I couldn't…let you fall off and disappear like they did. I couldn't find you.”

Anger spikes in her chest and she snaps her head up at him, wet eyes staring. “But I also knew if you didn't want to be found, you wouldn't be.”

Mercury's expression softens, his eyes hazy and emerald drops her head once more. She sees his feet come into view, the leather worn in laces untied, and feels his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m sorry.” he says softly, and emerald sniffs, head bowed. Mercury crouches, his knees popping as he moves his face into her line of vision. She looks at him, sniffs again, her heart hammering at his proximity. It had been so long since she’d seen him, much less touched him, and she swears under her breath before she loops her arms around his neck and drags him to her, hugging him tightly.

Chin on his shoulder, Emerald squeezes her eyes shut, feels his hands creep around her waist and she absently remembers all she’s wearing is a long shirt, underwear and socks.

“You grew your hair out.” he says softly, one hand cupping the back of her head, fingers digging into the locks. Emerald gives a watery laugh.

“Cinder liked it short,” she whispers, pressing her mouth lightly against the fabric of his clothing. He smells of copper and her heart aches at the familiar scent. “Thought it was time for a change.”

“I agree.” Mercury hums, pulling back so he can look at her. He cups the left side of her face, thumb rubbing under her eyes and she sighs, shutting her lids. “I’m sorry.”

He presses his mouth to her cheek, his lips light as he murmurs. “I’m sorry.”

Moving his face, he kisses her closed eyes one at a time, her nose, mummering apologies against her skin as he goes.

“When did you become such a softy.” Emerald whispers as his lips ghost over the apple of her cheeks. Mercury chuckles, kisses the corner of her mouth.

“Just for you,” he replies, and chastly kisses her on the mouth before pulling back. “Always for you.”

Emerald swallows, tipping forward the smallest bit and Mercury closes the space, their lips meeting in the middle. She nearly sags against him, her fingers on holding to the seam of his shirt as her eyes close. He tastes of whiskey, his tongue warm as it prods her mouth and she hums, elated at the feel of him.

They kiss until their gasping, cheeks flush and chests heaving, and when he pulls her to the floor, her thighs bracketing his hips, she doesnt stop him. Her shirt rides up her legs as his hands glide over her skin, fingers digging into her flesh. She hopes he leaves bruises that she can admire in the morning.

Dipping her hips, she rubs her thinly covered core against him and he lets out the smallest of gasps, the sound sending shocks to her spine. Emerald puts her hands on his shoulders and repeats the action again and again until panties stick to her skin and Mercury loops an arm around her waist before flipping their position, her tail bone pressing into the plush of the carpet.

His face moves to the curve of her neck, licking and biting at the skin there and he presses against her, his want evident in the constricting fabric of his pants and Emerald yelps. Her shirt rides up, revealing the expanse of her stomach and Mercurys hand ghost over her skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. He sits up, her legs bracketing him as he tugs at his shirt, pulls it over his head. Emerald watches him silently, takes in his creamy skin, noting the new and old scars that litter his torso.

“You’re starring.” He says after a moment, his grin laced with a twinge of uncertainty. Emerald smiles, shrugs. “It’s not like you haven't seen it before.”

“It’s been a while since i’ve seen you.” she replies, her voice softer than she intended. Mercury pauses before he nods and pulls at the zipper of his jeans

“Speaking of…it’s um…” he swallows, rubs his neck. “Been a while for me too.” he stands up, tugging off his jeans, his eyes looking away from her.

Emerald shivers, remembering the last time he’d had her, and she smiles up at him. “There’s been no one else since you.”

Mercury’s eyes grow wide as he tosses his jeans aside and kneels back to where she lays before crawling over her frame, their noses brushing. “Really?”

His hands are cool as he grips her shirt, tugging it upwards. Lifting her arms, Emerald lets him pull it clean over her head, and her skin chills in the evening air. With nothing but the warm glow of the lamp, she finds his face and can’t help the grins that blooms.

“Mhm,” she says simply. She found it a bit embarrassing, her lack of experience. Mercury knew she had been a version when they’d had sex the first time, and had been so generous during her first time, that it felt wrong to try and find that with anyone else.

He dips his face to her breasts, kissing one while teasing the other with his hand. She arches slightly, breathing out hard. Moving his face up, he kisses her before tugging at her lower lip.

“Me too.” he says against her chin and she almost questions him, her mouth opening to ask but words fail her as his hand strokes her through her panties. He moves it to the side, a singular finger tracing up her slit at a dangerously slow pace and she wines.

He groans, drops his forehead to her collarbone. “Gods, I missed that.”

Emerald spreads her legs an inch further as he settles himself, rubs his length up and down her a few times. She lets out a frustrated sound and Mercury raises his head, lifting a brow with a boyish grin.

“You’ve always been patient with me,” he murmurs, positioning his length. “Where’s that patience now?”

Emerald narrows her eyes before moving her hand to his neck, tugging at the hair at the base. “Shut up before I forget how much I missed you.”

Mercury grins and then he’s pressing in and Emerald forgets to exhale.

His forearms quiver as he presses to the hilt, stilling his movements before his eyes raked over her face.

“Still with me?” he asks softly, kisses her jaw.

Emerald nods, feeling full in a way she hadn’t in so long. “Always.”

Mercury pulls back painfully slow, the burn a delicious ache as he gives a nearly experimental thrust. Emerald inhales sharply, grips his neck with one hand, and groans as he gives another shallow thrust, as if aiming through. His body shakes with restraint, his right hand coming to her left nipple to pluck at it before moving down and pressing to her stomach. Adjusting his angle, his next thrust hits something within her that liquifies her insides.

“Oh gods,” EMerald whimpers. He continues to press, his hand low enough that it grazes her clit and Emeral begins squirming, unsure whether to push his hand further or get away from the stimulation. “Oh gods oh gods.”

“This isn’t how I thought our reunion would go,” Mercury says gently, the softness of his voice catching her off guard. “But I can't say I'm disappointed.”

Another thrust, another swipe of his thumb and press of his hand and she feels her eyes roll back, gasping for air as a wave crashes over her. Stomach tightening, Emerald scrambles for anything to hold onto and drags his face to hers, kissing him hard.

As the fuzziness in her head dissipates, he’s fucking her hard and fast, kissing her mouth and jaw, the metal of his legs cool against her heated thighs. He’s muttering against her skin, saying things she hadn’t heard in so long and her orgasm made everything wetter, their bodies sounding utterly obscene.

“Need to,” Mercury pants. “I need to…”

Emerald nods quickly. “Yes. Give it to me. Please?”

His hand moves to her breast again, massaging and she whimpers. “Where?”

“Inside me.”

Mercury’s hips stutter, and he squeezes his eyes shut for a quick moment before they open again, molting silver staring into heated red.

“You sure?” he questions and Emerald nods, pulls his mouth towards hers to bite his lip again, pushing her hips to meet his thrusts and clenching around him until his fingers tighten into fists.

“Fuck, fuck,” Mercury mutters, his thrusts becoming more erratic. “Fucking perfect, Em.”

She can sense he’s close and right before he topples, Emerald props herself up and tugs at one of his arms, making him nearly collapse right on top of her, making his movements halt. She takes his chin in one hand, and with the smallest bit of tenderness, tugs his face towards hers.

“Never leave me again,” She says, and he swallows. “Say it. Never. Because I won't survive it. Not again.”

The corners of Mercury's mouth dip but his eyes are bright and he nods, his head bobbing in her grip. “Never.” He echoes. “I swear, Em. It's you and me. The way it’s supposed to be.”

He sounds young again, like the boy she had once known and Emerald inhales through her nose before releasing his chin. “Okay. Now fuck me.”

Mercury groans into her mouth, clutching her against him, pumping until he’s spent. She lies back and pulls him with her, teeth in his neck and traces patterns on his back as his shaky breath begins to return to normal.

Leaning up, he looks down at her, the worry evident on his face. “I…that was…”

“Don’t,” she murmurs, tugs him down beside her. Their skin is slicked with sweat but she doesn’t care and tangles herself into him. Mercury spreads his fingers along her shoulder blades, nails scratching lightly.

Emerald bumps her nose with his in quiet satisfaction and he swallows hard, his eyes fluttering shut.

“Can I stay?” He asks in a small voice. Emerald smiles, understanding his worry. She knows it’ll be a hard transition. He won’t be readily accepted, and he’ll have to prove his worth, like she did. Nora and Velvet and the rest would give him a hard time, deem him untrustworthy.

She could show them. She knew him better than anyone, and could show them the Mercury she knows, not the one they met before.

Pressing a kiss to his mouth, Emerald leans her forward against his. “Like you have to even ask.”

[chocolatechibi]

Nuts n Dolts week: Day 2

@nuts-and-dolts-week

Prompt: carrying each other

Top of the World

Ruby stares at me intently, and I stare right back, slowly lifting the spoon of gray-ish mush out of the bowl, bringing it towards my lips. Neither of us break eye contact, sitting across from each other at the table in our tiny kitchen. I’m about to take a bite when-

“Sooo, what’re you guys doing?” asks a voice, sounding a bit amused.

At first, I’m quite startled, nearly dropping the spoon out of my hand, but when I look up, I see that it’s just Yang. I stick the spoon in my mouth, shutting my eyes happily.

“Yummy!” I cry, and it is.

Never in all my days as an android did I ever think I’d be able to eat one day, and I never even could’ve guessed how wonderful it is.

“You like it?” Ruby asks from across the table.

“Yes, it’s delicious! I love oatmeal!” I say enthusiastically.

“We’re finding out what foods Penny likes! She has a lot to try, so we’re making a list,” Ruby says, jotting down a note to her Scroll.

Yang smiles, doing what Ruby describes as a ‘fond eye roll.’

“You guys are silly,” she says, “Oh, and I wanted to tell you something. Where’s Blake?”

“Dunno,” Ruby says, taking another bite of her own oatmeal.

I’ve already polished off almost all of mine.

The first night that we arrived here—the first night I was a real girl—I might’ve tried a tad bit too much food, so I experienced my first stomach ache. I didn’t like it one bit! I never knew something like that could be so crippling! I hear Nora often gets them really bad, so I feel bad for her.

“I think Blake is in her room,” I tell Yang, as the blonde haired girl is still questioning us as to where she is.

“Blake!” Yang hollers, instead of bothering to go look for the girl, “Babe, where are you?”

Blake wanders into the kitchen, her nose buried in a book. She turns one more page before looking up.

“What?”

“Okay, everyone’s here! You three, I want us to all go hiking!” Yang announces, clapping her hands.

Hiking she says?

“You want us to do what now? Go out and hike in the desert?” Blake questions, looking less than pleased with the idea.

“Yeah! It’ll get us out of this house.”

I will admit we have been a bit cooped up here, in the tiny house we’re staying in with the others now that we’ve arrived in Vacuo. Nothing’s really happening right now, so it’s as if we’re all in suspended animation, waiting for something, anything, to happen.

I have never hiked, though. And in the desert?

Perhaps it will be fun!

“Whadya guys say?” Yang asks us.

“Sure,” Ruby responds, “What do you think, Penny?”

I nod.

“I would like to go!”

“That’s three against one, Blake,” Yang says, nudging the Faunus girl, “You have to go now.”

“I didn’t realize we were putting it to a vote,” Blake says in a bored tone, “But if it means that much to you, I’ll go. But I call first shower when we get home.”

“Deal!”

We all smile at each other.

“We can go now,” Ruby says, “It’s still early.”

“Now?” Blake whines, “But it’s so hot!”

“Blake, it’s Vacuo. It’s always hot,” Yang replies.

“I know, I know.”

And with that, we’re all getting ready to hike. I change into my outside outfit and tennis shoes, while Ruby fills my water canteen for me. Water is another new experience. Who knew it could be so refreshing? Water was always a danger to me before, so needing it to live now is so new.

My outdoor outfit is thick and layered, even though it’s hot outside, so as to protect me from the sand. The sand gets everywhere here, it’s hard to get away from it. Yang has even been worrying that it’ll get into the cracks on her mechanical arm and cause damage. I’m very glad that I became a real girl before I came here, so that I don’t have to worry about sand causing malfunctions to me!

“Ruby, I’m ready!” I call, heading back into the kitchen once I’ve changed.

“Okay, we should let everyone know we’re going,” Ruby says, and we all agree.

I walk to the living room with Ruby, Blake, and Yang. This is the room where everyone hangs out most of the time. Here, or in our rooms. We cluster around the tiny air conditioning units, sitting around in our pajamas and trying to find spots where we can do our best to avoid the sand. It’s everywhere here, even in the house.

“Guys, the four of us are gonna go hiking for a bit!” Yang announces to the people sitting around in the living room.

They look up at us sleepily from their spots. Nora is holding her hands in front of the aircon unit.

“Be careful,” Ren advises, “The sand is killer. I let Nora outside for fifteen minutes and I had to climb in the tub with her to scrub it all out of her hair.”

“That’s normal!” Nora defends, “It’s Vacuo!”

“It is not normal!”

“It really was only fifteen minutes,” Emerald comments from where she’s sitting leaned up against the couch, “It was crazy.”

Oscar, who Emerald has been calling her ‘new brother’, sits on the couch behind her, brushing through her hair with a comb the two of them found under the couch. They’ve been taking turns with it for at least an hour.

“Oh hush up Emerald!” Nora whines, kicking half-heartedly at Emerald’s shoulder from her spot on the couch.

The green haired girl makes a face and leans out of the way of Nora’s foot.

I giggle along with Ruby. They’re all so silly. I truly adore having so many friends.

With a last couple words exchanged, our little hiking party heads out.

At least a bag’s worth of sand blows into our house as soon as Yang opens the door, and when we step out, we’re immediately assaulted by the pressing heat. Vacuo truly is something else.

“Where are you guys headed out to?” a voice calls to us as we make our way down the front path.

I turn to see who called, finding Coco sitting on the porch with Velvet. She appears to be attempting to brush the sand out of the bunny girl’s hair, but since they are outside, more only blows in to take its place.

“We’re gonna go hiking!” Yang calls.

Coco looks surprised.

“Okay, well, try not to die!”

“Safe travels-!” Velvet attempts to call, but the end is broken as she starts to cough, covering her mouth with her hands.

According to Coco, Velvet developed a dry cough four months after team CVFY arrived in Vacuo, and it hasn’t gone away since. It’s been almost two years! I really hope her lungs aren’t permanently damaged.

Coco says it’s just another part of living in Vacuo.

Now, Coco absentmindedly rubs Velvet’s shoulder, waving to us with the other hand. I wave back enthusiastically.

So many friends!

The four of us set out for the trails, my spirits raising even more as we go.

Being human is so wonderfully strange. I never knew things like walking or breathing would even feel this different. I can feel my heartbeat now, and the heat on my skin.

Blake is immediately complaining before we even reach the trails, moping about ‘why did she agree to this again?’, but I don’t even mind the harsh conditions. Sure, they’re a little uncomfortable, but the discomfort is worth it.

Ruby slips her hand into mine, and I feel like my heart is soaring. I do a little skip as we make it onto the first sandy desert trail. The path is bordered by an abundance of cactus and hardy desert shrubs, and the path itself is sandy and well worn, like many have walked here before us. It’s exciting.

It’s not too steep yet, so we take our time walking, checking out the plants as we go.

Ruby squeals as a bright blue dragonfly whizzes over her head.

Everything feels so vivid, I want to cry. I experience these emotions more and more now. The type that just pop up, seemingly without a reason, and all of a sudden I’m laughing, or crying, or anything in between.

“Yang Xiao Long, I’ll never forgive you for this!”

“C’mon babe, you’re doing great,” Yang encourages, pulling Blake along by the hand.

“Ugh, I hate you, I wanna go home!”

“Love you too!”

I will admit that walking is quite tiring, especially in this heat, but I don’t want to wear out now.

I hold tighter to Ruby’s hand as we go up another little hill, the paths getting steeper now.

Yang is forever positive, calling out encouragement to us as we make our way towards the top. Apparently, what she previously neglected to tell us is that we’re climbing a small mountain. That makes the trail harder, but at the end, we’ll be at the peak, and we should be able to see for miles! I’ve never climbed a mountain before, but it seems like an experience I should definitely have, so what better time than now?

“Look Ruby!” I cry as a large crested lizard scurries across our path.

Blake’s eyes immediately dart to it, a wild expression on her face. Ruby did say she could be quite like a cat sometimes. It makes me giggle.

I want to walk as fast as the others, but I haven’t really experienced exerting myself this heavily as a human yet, and I feel myself start to slip. I don’t want to give up, however, so I’ll just let Ruby know!

“Ruby,” I pant, “Could you walk a little slower?”

She turns, concern in her silver eyes.

“Yeah, I will. Are you okay Penny?”

“I’m fine!” I say, smiling at her, “I can keep going.”

I try to blink away the blur in the corner of my eyes, but it doesn’t want to leave. I try to keep going, watching Ruby’s happy expression as she takes in the sights.

I really do adore Ruby. Out of all my friends, Ruby is my best friend. It seems just her pretty smile can light up my day. Ruby has always been pretty, but her bright personality, the fact that it just feels so good to be around her, only makes her more beautiful to me.

I cling to her hand, my fingers sweaty, while trying to shade my eyes from the sun with the other hand so I can get a closer look at a plant. It’s then that my legs start to let go.

No, keep going!

I don’t seem to realize I’ve pushed myself too far until I’m already swaying on my feet, the blur in my eyes taking over.

I hear Ruby yell my name, feel her arms wrap around me, lowering me slowly to the ground. I hear Blake and Yang shouting, too, as they rush back to us, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. All I can really perceive is Ruby’s blurry face, telling me to breathe. Blake unclips my water canteen from my belt, unscrewing the top and trying not to let the sand in.

“It’s still full,” I hear her say, “She hasn’t drank any of it.”

Oh yes, I must’ve forgotten. I often forget…

Blake presses the bottle to my lips and I drink down the cold liquid, so very thankful for the refreshment I feel.

“Oh, Penny,” Ruby says mournfully, rubbing my back, “I should’ve been reminding you to drink.”

“No I…” I rub my blurry eyes. “It’s okay. I just forgot. I can keep going.”

“No, you can’t,” Blake says sternly, capping my water again, “Guys, we have to get her back to the house. She’s heat exhausted.”

“But she can’t walk all the way back down,” Yang says, “That’s even farther than going the rest of the way up.”

“I don’t wanna go back down!” I protest, coming a bit further back to my senses.

I feel hot tears prick my eyes. I’m not used to crying, but I still do. It turns out I’m really not used to any of this.

“Penny, don’t cry, it’s okay,” Ruby says softly, giving me a hug.

“I want to see the top of the mountain!” I insist, “I can go a little further!”

“No you can’t-“ Yang says, but Ruby cuts in.

“She can if I carry her.”

Both Yang and Blake look at Ruby like she’s crazy.

“Ruby, you can’t! She’s the same size as you are! You’ll wear yourself out, too,” Blake protests.

“No. Just a little more. I want to show Penny the top of the mountain,” Ruby says.

The other two try to protest, but Ruby’s made up her mind. In the end, all they can do is help lift me up onto her back. I put my arms around her neck, hugging her tightly.

“Thank you so much, Ruby,” I whisper into her ear, and I can feel her smile.

“Of course. I want us to see the top. Together.”

I feel bad that Ruby has to carry me, but at the same time, it’s kind of nice. In the old days, it always would have been me carrying Ruby in a pinch, but I guess I really am still figuring out the whole ‘real girl’ thing. It’s my turn for her to carry me for a little while.

I nuzzle into her shoulder, feeling her comforting scent calm me, even through the harsh smell of the sand around us. She makes me feel so warm inside.

It’s not much farther to the top now. Before I know it, we’re there. I felt so safe being carried by Ruby, it’s like the time just flew.

“Are you okay, Ruby?” I ask softly.

“I-“ Ruby pants, “I’m okay, Penny. Don’t worry.”

We’ve reached the peak of the mountain.

The view quite literally takes my breath away. It’s like the air has been swept from my lungs.

Ruby lowers me onto a flat rock, sitting beside me, but all I can do is sit and stare.

Yang meant what she said. We can see for miles. The endless, sprawling vista of the Vacuo desert pans out below us, and for a moment, it feels like we’ll stay here, frozen in time forever. Just us up here, us and the view.

It feels like we’re at the top of the world.

I lean my head on Ruby’s shoulder.

“Drink water, Penny,” Ruby reminds me gently.

I nod slowly and grab my canteen. We both drink water.

“Where are Yang and Blake?” I question, realizing we’re alone.

“Oh, they went over that ridge over there,” Ruby says, gesturing towards a little rockslide looking spot, “They’ll be back.”

“Yeah. Ruby?”

“Mm?”

“Thank you so much for bringing me here. I’m glad I could see the top of the mountain with you.”

I shut my eyes.

“Even if I’m not used to being a real girl, I’m going to try my best. I just want to be with you.”

Ruby turns to look at me.

“Hey. You know, you were always a real girl to me. It’s just that now, you’ll get to experience all the things you always wanted to before. It’ll take a little time for you to figure those things out, and that’s okay. You’ll be a perfect real girl no matter what.”

“I know I was still me before,” I say, “But I feel even more real now. I’m glad I became a real girl. And I’m ready to learn all those new things. Thank you for believing in me, Ruby.”

“Of course. I know you’ve got this.”

Ruby kisses my cheek softly, and I feel myself blush for the first time.

“Oh, and Penny?”

“Yes, Ruby?”

“I’ll always be here with you. Every step of the way.”

“Thank you. Dear friend Ruby.”

[willinglyghoulified]

Book 2: “For the People,” Ch. 19, an excerpt

This is one of my absolute favorite parts in my fanfiction series for Fallout 4 and I just had to share it with you guys. Books are currently being edited to fit my OC’s new name since I’ve developed her beyond “Nora,” but there are 3 books still fully readable if anyone’s interested here. Book 2 is ranked number 1 in “#johnhancock”

(Long excerpt.)

[Nora]

I smashed through the glass of the Prydwen’s window. The vertibird crashed against the metal frame, too big to fit inside the room, and came to a full stop, flinging me forward out of the pilot seat. My head hit the front windshield, the bulletproof glass sustaining the blow and only cracking. My body ragdolled to the floor of the vertibird and rolled out the side door.

I landed on the floor of the Prydwen and gasped for air. The blow had knocked the breath out of me and popped my neck so hard, I thought for a moment I had broken it. I was seeing double and laid there, dumbfounded, trying to regain my sense of urgency.

I slowly reached for the guns on my hips to make sure they were still there. My whole body ached. As my eyesight returned, I looked around to find all my extra ammo strewn around the wreckage; the strap of my bag snapped off during the wreck and its contents were flung about.

I took a deep breath and tried to stand up. Shards of broken glass crunched against my hands, feet, and knees as I moved my body across the floor. The metal frame of the window and pieces of the vertibird that had broken off tore at my pants legs and sliced through my skin like butter, prompting me to slow my pace to a crawl and be more careful. I couldn’t sustain many more wounds.

“You!” someone growled.

I dizzily looked up to see a soldier that I had met before. he was the blond soldier that accompanied Danse and Maxson that day at Goodneighbor. He didn’t have his power armor on this time, but that didn’t stop him from aiming his laser pistol at me in his shaky hands. His eyes were wide with fear, sweat rolling down his cheeks.

“Don’t you dare move,” he warned.

“Aren’t you going to shoot me?” I grunted past the pain.

“I fucking should... but Maxson would probably want you alive.”

“Who cares what he wants?” i muttered as I made an attempt to stand.

“I said don’t move! All I have to do is call in my soldier pals and they’ll take you hostage!”

“Do it yourself,” I pressed. I knew kids like him lacked nerve.

“I... I can’t. I’m not authorized to do that. I was demoted after leaving Goodneighbor for ‘threatening peaceful relations through verbal demoralization.’ What relations?!” He spat in my direction.

I got to my feet and drew my gun on him slowly. “You don’t have to do this. Give up.”

His trigger finger twitched, prompting me to pull my trigger. I shot him in the shoulder -- a non-lethal blow. He dropped his weapon and cried out in pain. I could hear the loud footsteps of more hostiles coming toward the room from behind him.

I straightened up to a threatening posture and drew my other pistol, both guns in hand. If this was my last stand, I would die knowing that I did my damnedest to protect the people of the Commonwealth. To protect my son. To protect Hancock. My friends and my loyal soldiers.

I could see power armor suits running down the hall.

“Don’t shoot!” said one.

I was conflicted by this. If I didn’t shoot first, they’d surely kill me.

“Don’t come any closer!” I threatened.

From behind them stepped out an old man in a long blue robe with a tall brown collar. “Don’t shoot. I’m Proctor Quinlan. We’re here to help.”

“Like hell,” I hissed. “What’s Maxson planning?”

He shook his head. “Maxson has locked himself inside the armory with the rest of our weapons and ammunition. I had no intentions of rising up against Maxson with the rest of these pacifists, but I can’t let all this technology and research and historical data go up in flames. I refuse. This is my life’s work we’re talking about!”

“... Are there any more hostile Brotherhood soldiers on the ship?”

“At the moment, no. We’ve subdued... or killed those that defended Maxson,” he said with disdain. He looked down at the injured blond boy on the floor. “Take him away,” he said to one of the soldiers. 

The soldier dragged the crying boy out of the room.

The fighting outside had died down as well. There weren’t many gunshots, but the sounds of vertibirds landing in the hangar could be heard.

“Where is the armory? Take me to him,” I demanded.

“I’m afraid I cannot do that. I have no intentions of taking you to our armory.”

“But, sir,” interjected one of the soldiers behind him.

“Maxson will have to come out sooner or later, and when he does, he will answer for this madness. Until then, an outsider has no business interfering with our storerooms, especially those of which contain our weaponry.”

“Nora?!” shouted Danse from down the hall behind Quinlan.

They made way for him to enter.

“Danse? You’re alive?” asked Quinlan.

“very much alive,” he confirmed. “There’s no time to explain anything right now. Where’s Maxson?”

“Locked inside the armory so no one can have access to more ammo or weapons. He’s waiting out the fighting. No doubt he expects that those who follow his recent ideals would remove those of us that have committed treason, but it seems quite the opposite if you’re here.”

Danse entered the room and looked between me and the wreckage. “Nora, you did this?”

I nodded weakly. “I don’t know how to fly a vertibird...”

“I can see that.”

“Out of the way,” demanded Hancock down the hall. He pushed his way into the room.

[Hancock]

“Nora?”

When I got inside, the whole room was in shambles. There she stood, bleeding down her forehead, blood staining her messy long, blonde hair. Her pants were ripped and covered in blood. She stood with two guns in hand and the expression of someone who had been backed into a corner. But, God, she was a beautiful mess.

“Everyone clear out,” I barekd. “If the fightin’s over, we need to get the wounded taken care of.”

“The fighting’s... over?” she asked.

“Yeah, Sunshine. For now.”

She slowly dropped to her knees onto the glassy floor. “Thank God... I don’t know how much more of a beating I can take...”

I walked over to her and rubbed her back. Then I looked at the vertibird behind her. “Heh heh. You always know how to make an entrance. You okay?”

She gave me a weak nod, but her breathing was labored. I knew she needed rest. She needed checked for major injuries, too, like a concussion or fractures from the looks of how she crashed that thing. I just hoped we had enough time for it. First, we had to find Maxson.

“Hancock...”

“Hm?”

“Help me up and we’ll go find Maxson.”

“You don’t need to be goin’ anywhere. We’ll find you a place to rest and a Stim’. I’ll handle Maxson.” I took her arm and put my other behind her back to help her stand.

“Out of the question,” she hissed. “He’s mine.” She reached down and picked her hat up off the floor as she regained her footing.

My mouth became a thin line as I took in her hateful expression. “I ain’t arguin’ with you. You’re covered in wounds. You need to rest. Adrenaline’ll only get ya so far, ya know.”

“Hancock’s right,” added Danse. “You should rest. Leave Maxson to me.”

I shot him a glare. “I said I’ll take care of it.”

“He’s my superior. It should be my job to end this.”

“He killed ghouls, he killed synths, and he killed Minutemen. Any one of us would have a stake in his death at this point.”

“In the end, this isn’t your fight.”

My blood was starting to boil. “You’re really gonna stand here and tell me it ain’t my fight, when you’re the one that had to be talked into coming out here in the first place instead of hiding in that bunker for all of fucking eternity? Look at the shape Nora’s in. This bastard is gonna pay, and it’s gonna be by my hand. This shit’s personal now.”

“Stay out of it, ghoul.”

“Not a chance in hell, synth.”

“Stop!” Nora demanded.

I had all but forgotten I was tryin’ to help her out the door; I came to a complete stop when Danse started his bullshit.

“I’ve already decided,” she said. “We’re not putting a bullet between his eyes unless he forces our hand. He needs to answer for what he’s done.”

“... You’re kiddin’,” was all I could muster.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Fully Completely 3

Warnings: non-consent sex and rape (series), violence, mutual irritation, harassment

This is dark!Loki x reader and explicit. 18+ only.  Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Series Synopsis: There’s a new face in Birch and he’s come to haunt your door.

Sister series to Smalltown Bringdown, When the Weight Comes Down, and Little Bones

Note: On to part three. Sorry for being a human disaster.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 Let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

Chapter 3: Or it will move right through me

💀💀💀

Jerome annoyed you as he picked through your tool box and clicked the ratchet noisily. He was excited but impatient and complained that you were taking so long. You told him if he wanted to pay out of pocket for labour, you could finish faster. 

You sat by his bike, parts strewn at your feet, and bent your head to look under the tank. You still had a lot to go and hadn’t yet added anymore of the gross chrome to the frame.

“Do you realise how filthy this is gonna get?” you huffed as you sat up and leaned your elbows on your legs, “not to mention how ridiculous it looks.”

“I like it. It’s just my style,” your brother grinned, “I don’t remember you spending this much time on Bucky’s ride and you and him--”

“He had me replace the tailpipe, you want nothing short of a rebuild,” you scoffed, “and you’re not the boss.”

“Don’t remind me,” he rolled his eyes, “guess it could be worse though. It could be Steve.”

“Thank god it’s not,” you chuckled, “I don’t know how many women had to toss beer in his face before he latched onto that mousy one at the bakery.”

“She’s nice,” Jerome shrugged, “far as I know. She doesn’t talk to anyone but Steve.”

“I wonder why,” you tisked, “he has insecurity written across his forehead.”

The tinny bell rang and the door whooshed open as the wind caught it. Jerome glanced over and dropped the ratchet noisily into the drawer of the tool box. You growled in warning as you spent much of your spare cash on those. He apologised quietly as he squared his shoulders at the man who appeared.

“Hey,” Bucky wiped the flakes from his hair and blew out a shiver.

“Bucky,” Jerome said rigidly.

The other man nodded and stepped further inside the garage. He shoved his hands in his pockets and paced aimlessly around the concrete floor. You watched him as you fiddled with the bolt in your hand.

“You wanna head down to the bar?” It wasn’t a question as Bucky came to face you, “I gotta talk to your sister.”

“Sure,” Jerome replied sharply, “you got it, boss.”

Bucky grumbled and waited for him to leave. He sniffed and kicked his toe into the floor.

“So… what’re you doing here? Been a while so must be urgent,” you sat up on the rolling stool and stretched your back.

“The whole town’s talking about it. You fighting him,” his brows drew together, “I told you I’d take care of him.”

“You didn’t,” you said evenly, “so I did.”

“I talked to him--”

“And said what?” you snorted.

“Look, you don’t understand. You said it yourself, you don’t care about my business. You don’t get what’s going on but what I need from him is bigger than your temper.”

“Excuse me? This is my fault? He broke into my shop, he followed me from that diner and he put his hands on me,” you stood and tossed the bolt away, “what do you want me to do, Buck?”

“First, I want you to remind yourself who I am. We’re not fucking anymore so that mouth isn’t as cute,” he warned, “and I want you to play nice.”

“All you have to do is keep him away from me. How hard is that for a man like you, huh? You’re the big dog.”

“Watch it,” he pointed at you, “I won’t tell you again.”

“He’s here to deal with you, not me,” you insisted, “he grabbed me, I defended myself, and I’ll do it again.”

“This isn’t grade school anymore, you can’t fight the boys,” he sighed.

“What are you saying?”

He was silent as his jaw ticked and his blue eyes strayed to the ceiling. You stepped closer and gripped your hips as you stared him down.

“There’s nothing else I can do for you. Nothing else I will do. He’s your problem.”

He met your glare and you scoffed in disgust, “you’re fucking serious? What do these idiots have on you?”

“It’s not what they have on me, it’s what I want from them. I’m planning for something bigger than Birch, that means there’s gonna be some sacrifices,” he shrugged.

“Sacrifices? Is that what you call it? Well, here’s one for you, the next time you get a little scuff on your tank or your headlight starts to flicker, you can head down to Carl’s,” you scowled.

“Don’t do this,” he gritted through his teeth.

“I can get business without you. I do better work than Carl, you know that. So go, I’ll deal with that asshole on my own, how I see fit.”

He inhaled and lifted his chin. He closed his eyes and thought. 

“Damn it,” he swore, “you can’t make anything fucking easy. What is it with you women and your god damn--” he lifted his hand and stopped himself, “you get in the way of my business, and you won’t be so worried about Loki.”

“Oh yeah? That’s what he said about you,” you mocked, “what’s with you men and your egos?”

His lip curled and he breathed through his teeth. His eyes lit up and he punched his palm as he turned away quickly.

“I hope he has his fun with you. Maybe he can fuck some sense into you,” Bucky growled, “God knows I tried.”

“You weren’t that good,” you snipped.

He kicked the shelf of wipers hung near the front of the shop and grunted. He stormed to the doorway and stopped to look back at you.

“You’ll be wishing it was me…” he hissed.

He waved you off and continued through the front door, slamming it behind him loudly. You stared at the scattered packages of wipers and bit down on your tongue. You wanted to run out and strangle that idiot but you knew how he could be. It was the reason you broke off your little fling; he was too much like you. Hard-headed and volatile.

💀

You weren’t going to change just because the town was overrun by asshole men. You were standing your ground and that meant you were going to finish your club sandwich and enjoy one lunch without interruption. 

The café was busier that day as the snowfall dwindled and the streets were mostly cleared as the plows made their regular rounds. You looked through the window as the school kids stopped by the bakery for hot drinks on their lunch and circled the rim of your mug with your fingertip. You sensed it was only the lull before the storm.

Further down you could see the corner of The Asp and heard a rumbling engine. Your shop remained empty except for Jerome’s bike. Since Bucky’s visit, you were too worked up to concentrate anyway. You wanted to take your wrench and knock every man in town in the head with it.

Nora brought your sandwich as Kimmie didn’t work on the weekends and your side of soup. You would eat both and leave satisfied. You wouldn’t let anyone ruin your day off. Well, not that you had very much to do aside from that.

You dipped your crusts in the tomato soup and stared at the seat across from you. Empty. Perfect.

You scooped the last of the bowl into your mouth and wiped your lips with the napkin. You stood and gulped up your coffee. You left money on the table and headed out. A peaceful, solitary lunch all to yourself.

You skipped the shop and continued down the street. You pushed into the hobby shop you rarely ventured into, more a bookshop if you were honest. You greeted the man at the counter with a smile. When you were a girl, you remembered he ordered you a special set of paints as the ones in his store were all dried up. Lu, you recalled his name.

You went to the shelves of models and looked over the new arrivals. You took the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am off the shelf and smirked. Your father had one just like it when you were a kid. It wasn’t exactly new. You grabbed a bottle of black paint with it, always running low on the stuff, and headed for the counter.

Lu punched the buttons on his till and you heard a creak. Light footsteps emerged from the basement of used books as you opened your wallet.

“I didn’t take you as bookish,” Loki’s voice made you cringe.

You didn’t answer and counted out the bills for your purchase, “actually, you got any glue? I didn’t see any on the shelf.”

“Hmm, oh,” Lu turned and bent to reach into a box, “haven’t stocked up but these came in just before the storm.”

He added the orange and white tube to your bag and you added another bill. He counted out your change and handed it to you.

“Quite interesting what small towns can hide,” Loki didn’t wait to step up to counter and stood close, his sleeve against yours, “An antique edition of Whitman. One of the only Americans I read.”

You looked down at the worn tome, the edges fraying and the letters faded. It was marked up to a couple hundred. You could appreciate a love for reading but you weren’t entirely sure some old paper was worth all that.

“I’ll need the reading material as my visit has been prolonged,” he mused as you grabbed your bag and headed for the door, “my brother is due to return so I will stay in his place… get to know the town of Birch more intimately.”

You hid your disgust at his words and continued out the door. His exaggerated tones stuck in your head as you passed the window and absently swung your bag. You hated him. You really did. You should have bashed him over the head with that dumb book. 

You thought of that day in the snow and smiled. You knew that shame lingered in him. You would have no problem repeating that scene.

You came up to your shop and stopped short. The burly redhead who arrived with the pestilent man stood at your door, peering in through the window, angling his head as he tried to see around the blinds. You cleared your throat as you neared.

“Something I can help you with?” you asked dully.

“Oh, ah,” he turned and laughed at himself, “I thought… Loki, I thought he’d be here.”

“No. He wouldn’t be,” you said, “he’s down at the book shop.”

“Thanks. He apologise?” He prodded.

“You seem to know him well. You think he did?” you challenged.

“Ah, nah,” he smiled awkwardly, “s’pose he didn’t.”

“S’pose he didn’t,” you echoed, “it would be smart if you kept him away from here.”

“Yeah, uh, should do,” he sidled past you and you listened to his heavy boots clump along the beaten snow.

You took out your key and unlocked the door. You closed it quickly behind you, that man’s presence set you on edge. He hadn’t shown any of the venom of his associate but he was loyal to him. You double checked the locks on all the doors and made certain all windows were closed. 

You went up stairs into your apartment and stripped off your coat and boots. You sat at the small table where you ate those dinners you didn’t forget and unpacked your new model. You sorted the pieces and spread out the instructions. The image of the car on the box brought back nostalgic memories. You wouldn’t know all you did about bikes if it wasn’t for your dad. You missed him every day for the last… too many years.

You lost yourself in the tiny parts. You hunched over the table and carefully dabbed glue onto the plastic. Your eyes began to itch as the windows dimmed and you got up to turn on the lamp. You kept building well after dark and finally left the half-finished car on the table.

You stretched out your limbs as you stripped down to only your loose tee and yawned. You fell into bed and turned on the old tube television. You hit play on the VCR and the loud previews blared from the boxy speakers. You rolled yourself in your comforter and sat through the same movie trailers you’d watched a dozen times.

You were never a romantic but you the movie was another shadow of your childhood. Your grandma used to watch Kathleen Turner whenever you went to her place. She would serve you yogurt and berries and turn on the cheesy action flick and if you slept over, she would put in the sequel right after.

Your rituals kept you sane. You found it was easier to know what to expect and given your temper, it was better not to be surprised. You were always the trouble child and you regretted all those times your dad had to come talk to the principal or walk you home from school. You promised him you would be better.

Still you didn’t regret what you did. He always told you to stand up for yourself. Hell, he taught you how to throw a punch and all your best insults were inherited from him. You smiled as you thought of him and hugged your pillow as the intro played and the credits flicked up one name at a time.

You drifted off in the glow of the television and the sound effects sank into your dreams. You were still in Birch but thick vines had grown around all the buildings and billowing leaves shrouded the skies. The town had turned to jungle and you could hear the growls and grunts of beasts unseen.

You spun as a twig snapped and a snake uncoiled from a branch and fell into the brush at your feet. You stepped back and it slithered towards you. You stumbled and ran away as you could hear its skin smoothly glide through the grass at your feet. You tripped as its long body wrapped around your ankles and you crashed to the ground.

You struggled as the snake constricted your body and wound its neck around to face you. Its green eyes shone as its black scales gleamed. Its tongue flicked against your cheek and you felt its hot breath as it opened its mouth and revealed long, frightening fangs. You screamed as its bite loomed and you woke with a start.

The visions of the wild jungle faded but the heat did not. You blinked as an amber haze took over the room and you fought through your messy blankets and tumbled onto the floor. Your curtains were alight along with much of the wall. You bachelor was blazing with orange flames and you could barely see the door through the smoke.

You coughed and scrambled to your feet. Your eyes streamed and you blindly ran for the door and flew down the stairs. The shop was almost entirely engulfed as you reached the lower landing and you fumbled with the front door as flames licked closer and closer.

You burst out into the frozen night and your feet were numbed by the ice and snow. You retreated from the burning building, your life set aflame, and turned back as you reached the sidewalk. Sirens screamed and made you wince as you crossed your arms and chattered against the cold.

“Pity,” the slither made your skin crawl, “though I suppose it is a blessing you at least saved yourself.”

You glanced at Loki as your vision blurred with the tears of realisation. Everything you had was turning to ash before you. You blinked away the droplet and sneered at him. He smirked and you knew. He smirked and he knew. It wasn’t an accident.

[idkthisisjustforfanfic]

that makes four.

story page | talk to me + join the tag list

PART 4

Tristan had slapped his menu shut before you could even sit down. He’d been begging you to try a new place in Encino with him, you figured it was a good excuse to get Zoey out of the house and to let Maeve and CeCe duke it out in Shelli and Irv’s backyard instead of yours.

It was all work talk at first, he offered an update on a meeting you missed to drop off Maeve at a friend’s and Zoey sucked down a glass of wine promising to pump and dump before the night ended.

But now your plates were in front of you and you twirled spaghetti around your fork when she asked: “How’s your pool boy?” You stared up at her, unimpressed.

“He’s not my pool boy, and he’s fine.”

Tristan raised his eyebrows across the table. “Would you let Harry Styles be your pool boy?”

“Can we not talk about him like this, please?”

“Oh come on,” Tristan pulled a face. “If you’re not going to sleep with him at least let us fantasize.”

You must have twitched, a quick glance in Zoey’s direction or a quiver of your lip. Zoey leaned in and her voice was serious. “What was that?”

“What? Nothing.”

“What do you mean what was that?” Tristan asked.

“She made a weird face when you said that.”

“No I didn’t,” you defended. “I just don’t like talking about him in public, especially like this.”

“Bullshit,” Zoey laughed, leaned back in her chair. “What are you not telling us? Did you see him shirtless again?”

You let out a breath, wiped at your mouth and wondered if telling them would be the biggest mistake of your life. You couldn’t even get the words out before Zoey leaned in.

“You had sex with him?!” her eyes nearly bugged out of her head, Tristan’s fork clanked against his plate when his jaw dropped open.

You’d made it a whole week, almost. You pushed the thoughts down and brushed them under the metaphorical work rug. The body wash prototypes were in, you were booking models to do a photoshoot, video shoot, everything was getting lined up for the rollout in another few weeks. You didn’t have time to tell them about something silly and stupid and maybe a part of you didn’t want to fill them in because you were afraid they’d burst your bubble. It’ll never work out, what happens when his house is ready, he has a tour to go on.

“Be quiet,” you looked around and worried if anyone had overheard Tristan’s not-so-subtle name drop. “It’s not a big deal, okay? It’s not like it’s gonna be a regular thing.”

Tristan pulled his head back, offended by your words. “You had sex with him and you’re not going to make that a regular thing? Have you seen him?”

“Yes,” you made a face at Tristan. “I have seen him.”

“You are going to hit and quit Harry Styles?” Zoey leaned in and said his name much more quietly now.

“Well,” you dropped their gaze for a second, reluctant to be honest with them in fear of their reaction. “It’s happened once, and then we kissed once but CeCe came down, but she didn’t see anything. I’m just too old to be hooking up with a twenty-four year old.”

“Wait, okay, slow down. When did this happen?” Zoey asked.

“After my birthday dinner,” you shrugged. “We came home, had wine, the girls were out.”

“And when did you make out with him aside from that night?”

“The next night. And we didn’t make out, it was barely even open-mouthed.”

“Ew,” Tristan grimaced.

Zoey snapped to get your attention. “So twenty-four hours after you had sex, you kissed him?”

You made a face at her, unsure where she was going with it. You hadn’t been clocking or documenting your sexual encounters. “I don’t know, probably.”

“This is straight out of a trashy romance book written for middle aged women,” Tristan leaned back in his seat and took a pull from his glass of rosé. “I mean that in, like, a nice way.”

“Okay,” Zoey leaned forward. “So, nothing has happened since a week ago, then?”

“No,” you shook your head quickly. “Just those times. And I don’t think anything should happen again.”

They both groaned at the same time, Zoey’s shoulders sunk and she rolled her eyes. “You deserve to have sex with a hot guy.”

“I never said I didn’t.”

“Even if he’s younger than you.”

“I don’t want to traumatize my children.”

“Well you don’t have to have sex in front of them,” Tristan made a goofy face and you waved him off.

Zoey snorted out a laugh but you ignored their immaturity.

“I mean that having Harry here is already probably confusing for them, right? Their dad leaves, their grandpa dies, now we have some stranger in our house and he’s playing with them in the backyard and--”

“Being more of a dad to them than Luke ever was?”

Zoey’s words brought a sigh out from between your lips. “Exactly.”

“Having a positive male role model is good for them,” Tristan said.

“Sure,” you nodded. “But what about when Harry moves out? He’ll just be another man that will leave them. They’ll be super fucked up.”

Tristan reached forward and took your hand in his. “Hey--it’s more about the fact that they have you and they have other people who love them. Who cares if their idea of a family isn’t the stereotypic, heterosexual norm?”

“I know,” you relented. “I just don’t want them to be poorly adjusted.”

“Okay, that sounds like something an obnoxious prep school guidance counselor would say to you,” Zoey eyed you with skepticism.

You shrugged your shoulders. “It was Maeve’s teacher.”

“Okay, fuck that teacher!” Tristan nodded. “Your kids are adjusting, and that’s because of how good of a mom you are to them. And mommy deserves a pool boy.”

You couldn’t help but laugh, even if his words were worthy of an eye-roll. Zoey tried not to let wine drip from her nose after a snort escaped between sips.

“Not my pool boy!” You giggled.

“Which is good,” Tristan nodded, his tone completely serious. “That would be so cliché even Nora Roberts wouldn’t write it.”

**

Slumber parties always made you anxious. They were one of those things that made you question how on earth people trusted you to watch a group of children when sometimes, you still felt like one yourself.

Maeve’s 11th birthday party was no exception. Five other girls danced around your living room and CeCe sat at the counter while you iced cupcakes. Her little face was scrunched into a pout so intensely that it almost made you giggle.

“You alright?” You asked her, dish towel over your shoulder when she let out another sigh.

“Just wish I could play with them,” she held her palms towards the sky in exasperation, reaching for a container of sprinkles when you let out a laugh.

“You get to go for ice cream with Uncle Jeff, remember? You’re gonna go to the beach, too, I think.”

You’d been trying to bribe her all week: a new tutu, a new doll, anything she wanted just to make her give up and accept the fact that her older sister didn’t want her at her slumber party.

And you couldn’t blame either of them. Of course Maeve didn’t want her younger (and very loud, dramatic, and demanding) younger sister trailing behind all night. But, on the other hand, of course CeCe felt left out when she saw all of the older girls arrive with their sleeping bags and birthday gifts.

She sighed again, your conversation interrupted by a ringing from your cell phone on the counter beside her.

“Uncle Jeff?”

She was right, you reached for the phone and held it up with your shoulder, hoping the laughter from the living room wouldn’t travel it’s way into the speaker.

“Hi--are you here?”

“Y/N, I am so sorry to do this--”

“Oh god, Jeff, no!”

“I just got called into the office because one of my artists apparently just posted some stupid shit on the internet--isn’t there someone else who can hang out with CeCe? Where’s Tristan?”

“I don’t know where he is, but I doubt he’d be thrilled to play dress up or skip through a park.”

“Zoey?”

You could hear traffic through his line, his karma for backing out at the last minute was having to sit on the 405. “She has a ten-week-old infant, Jeffrey.”

“Well where’s Harry? Can’t he pitch in?”

You let out a groan, CeCe had taken to pouring sprinkles into her hand and lapping them up with her tongue.

Harry was upstairs, hiding away from the girl gang currently singing karaoke and sipping on juice boxes. He had the day off and had dipped out in the afternoon to meet a friend for lunch. You tried to mind your own business--he could come and go as he pleased and just because you had slept with him once didn’t give you the right to suddenly start asking questions about his plans.

But the universe pitied you, apparently, because right when you told Jeff you’d figure it out and hung up on him aggressively, Harry pranced down the stairs and headed for the fridge.

“How’s it going down here?” He reached for a juice box, crisp apple, and fumbled with the straw when he turned to face you.

“Everyone is alive and nothing is broken,” you scanned the counter, another batch of cupcakes still in the oven with 10 minutes to go.

With the straw now between his lips, he raised his eyebrows. “Bar’s that low, huh?”

“Well, your friend Jeffrey just bailed on watching CeCe and going for ice cream.”

She was blissfully unaware of the change of plans, still licking sprinkles out of her palm, but now swiveled around on the stool to watch the girls jump around in the other room.

“I can take her,” he shrugged nonchalantly, ran a hand through his hair when you stared at him for a second.

If traffic was Jeff’s karma, Harry must have been yours.

“Are you serious? You wouldn’t mind?”

“Not at all,” he smiled. “CeCe? What do you say we do ice cream and pizza?”

She turned around at the sound of her name, her eyes lit up. “Pepperoni?” She asked.

“Of course,” Harry replied to her like it was a crazy question.

“Is Uncle Jeff coming?”

“He’s not,” You informed her, arms crossed over your chest. “You’re alright to go with Harry?”

You didn’t mean to make it awkward, but mom mode kicked in and you realized CeCe had never spent time alone with Harry except maybe in the backyard.

“Yeah!” She hopped down from the stool and grinned up at him. “Can I get a milkshake?”

Harry looked over to you and when you nodded, he held out his hand. “As many as you want.”

“That’s not what I said,” you called after him, watching as he led her over to the back door. He plucked his keys off the hook on the wall and smiled at you over his shoulder. “Please don’t be out late, text me when you get where you’re going!”

CeCe shouted a bye mommy!!!! before they disappeared into the driveway. A sudden raise in your pulse had you questioning what type of mother lets their 6-year-old get in the car with a pop star who’s probably hounded by paparazzi and maybe even doing cocaine on the weekends.

You picked up your phone and it rang four times before Zoey answered. “I need you to talk me off the ledge.”

“What ledge?”

The timer beeped and you gloved up to retrieve the rest of the cupcakes. “I’m apparently a psychopath because I just let Harry take CeCe for pizza and ice cream.”

You could tell she held back a laugh. “Why does that make you a psychopath?”

“Because he’s a stranger! What if he never comes back with her? What if he gets chased by paparazzi and CeCe is the next Princess Diana?!” The thought shuttered through your bones, a shiver down your spine when Zoey cleared her throat.

“Okay, so, as a mom, I totally get that. But I also think you’re freaking out too much.”

The cupcake tin rattled onto the granite. “How?!”

“He’s not a stranger, he’s been living with you guys for like, over a month now.”

You thought about it for a second. Two weeks turned into a few more, four weeks slipped by easily. What felt like it was going to be a blip on the radar now felt like a totally normal thing: dinners with him as the fourth seat and texts to him in the middle of the day asking if there was anything he was in the mood for.

“I just can’t believe I trust him enough to do that, I guess.”

“Y/N, he’s a good guy,” she laughed. “He likes your kids and he definitely likes you.”

“We’re not going there,” you said. “I have a house full of ten-year-olds and cupcakes to frost.”

“Okay, well, you’re not a psychopath. And there’s nothing wrong with having feelings for him.”

“Zoey! You are starting to sound like the psychopath!”

“I’m alright with that,” laughter through the phone when you told her you had to go. Love you, see you later, pinch Benny’s cheeks for me.

You were swept up in the excitement of the night. Your own pizza was delivered before 8pm, a movie turned on by 9pm. They decorated cupcakes at the dining room table and proceeded to eat more than they could fit in their tummies.

Maeve was in heaven, opened presents when you snapped pictures on your phone. Harry had texted to let you know they’d stop at Shelli and Irv’s before heading home. If CeCe came home in the middle of presents, she’d probably break down right there.

So when you heard the alarm signal a new entry, you hoped CeCe was too tired to argue with you about sleeping in her own room and not in Maeve’s with the rest of them. Your legs were folded beneath you on the couch, noise in the kitchen when Harry rounded the corner with CeCe asleep on his shoulder.

You stood up, eyebrows high when he smirked in your direction. “She’s out cold,” he laughed. “Fell right asleep on the way home.”

“It’s like a ten minute drive from their house,” you said, opening your arms to take her. “Sorry, here.”

“I can bring her up...just lead the way,” he motioned with his head for you to go first up the stairs. He followed you down the hall and to CeCe’s room, pink walls and a plush carpet underneath her twin-sized bed that still seemed too big for her.

He put her down when you flipped on a nightlight, watched when you tugged the duvet over her and kissed her on the forehead. You sighed when you stood up straight beside him, voice quiet. “I’m not waking her up to brush her teeth cause she’ll freak out and want to be included in the party. Am I a bad mom?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, smirked down at you quickly before looking back to her. “You’re a great mom.”

You elbowed him in the ribs playfully. “You have to say that.”

“I do?”

“I’m your landlord,” you laughed, leading him back into the hallway.

“I thought you were my friend?”

A sigh, the darkness a cover for your confusion and your fluttering heart beat. “Yeah, that too.”

He was quiet for a second, if it weren’t for the bedroom of kids down the hall you’d pull him into you despite better judgment. He stared down at you with a dimpled smile, but you took a step back.

“Thanks for taking her, and hanging out with her. You really didn’t have to.”

“I had fun,” he reassured you. “We got a pizza and ate in a park near Westwood Hills, then got ice cream, visited with Shelli and Irv,” he listed it off like it brought him as much joy as it did her.

“Hey, not to be weird or anything, but--how’s your house coming?”

He sensed the shift in the air too, but he didn’t know that it came from a place of fear. A question you had to ask: this was temporary, this wasn’t real, this was just a convenient set up and you couldn’t lose sight of that.

“Oh, yeah--I’m going over on Sunday to see it. Apparently there are still issues with the plumbing that have to be updated. They said it might be a few more weeks.”

“Okay, I just didn’t know.”

“Yeah, is that okay? I can try to find somewhere to stay if you need me out?”

“No,” you said it quickly. “I don’t need you to leave.”

“Okay,” he said, his eyes still on yours. He reached forward to brush a piece of hair behind your ear. “I like staying here with you guys.”

“...I like it too.”

“Mom?” Maeve’s head poked out of her bedroom. “Hayley spilled soda on the carpet!”

He stepped back from you quickly, like his reflexes were getting better each time. You laughed at his sudden movement, “coming!”

He smiled down at you and let out an exaggerated sigh once Maeve’s door was slammed shut and the music was back on, a magnetic pull between your chests that maybe he felt too. “Hayley, Hayley, Hayley.”

But again, a rush of uncertainty and self-doubt made you grateful for the interruption, your stomach weaving itself in knots when you stared at your ceiling fan and hoped that sleep would come.

Work picked up in the next week, Tristan was in your office most days with spreadsheets and graphs and to-do lists that made you feel like you needed a margarita at 2pm. On Wednesday Harry made dinner and CeCe had a meltdown when you forced her to take a bath.

Friday night entailed dinner at Shelli and Irv’s, the girls and Harry and Jeff too. You stood in the kitchen with a glass of wine in hand, Shelli watched as their chef sautéed something through steam. When Jeff pulled Harry away to show him a new guitar Irv had been gifted, you ignored the smile on Shelli’s face.

“How are things going?”

“Fine,” you said, casually and calm and cool. “How are you?”

“Y/N,” she smiled. “Does Jeffrey know?”

“Know what?”

“About you and Harry?”

“No,” you told her quickly. “There’s nothing to know, alright? We were drunk, it was not a big deal.”

“Alright,” she held up a hand, effectively resigning when she sipped her Pinot Grigio, a disappointed sigh before she asked: “How are the girls holding up?”

You sighed, unsure if she’d really drop it. You told her about Maeve’s birthday party and caught her up on the body wash debut. Deadlines were quickly approaching, the launch party was being scheduled and production was full steam ahead.

You almost thought you’d make it through the rest of the night without any drama--no more mention of Harry or the happenings between you. But eventually he and Jeff found their way back to the kitchen and you hoped that no one noticed how close Harry stood to you.

Jeff was in the middle of filling you and Shelli in on Harry’s album plans: they were wrapping up production and soon they’d announce the release date, his excitement cut off by a shout from the backyard.

“Mommy!” CeCe’s voice was shrill and desperate as it rang through the house. She let out a loud sob and when you looked up, you saw her clutching her elbow with a new grass stain on her shirt. She was fine, it was one of those moments where she thought the world was ending but everyone else knew getting knocked over by her sister wouldn’t kill her.

“She’s fine,” Maeve rolled her eyes, a quick look down to CeCe who’s eyes were already filled with tears.

“No I’m not!” she screamed back at her sister.

You looked to Shelli with an exasperated look, set your glass of wine down on the counter. Before you could make any movement, though, Harry’s hand hovered on the small of your back. “I’ll go, enjoy the wine. She’s fine.”

He was right, there was no question that CeCe would survive her scraped elbow and bruised ego. He moved towards the backyard and you were frozen in place when Jeff’s forehead wrinkled.

“What was that?” he asked, eyebrows strung together like tea lights once Harry was out of earshot.

“I don’t know--what do you mean?”

You looked over at Harry, now on the ground in front of CeCe who’s wails were much quieter. She wiped at her wet eyes, a little laugh escaped her lips when Harry brushed the grass off of her elbow and cracked a joke.

“Well, he seems pretty good with them,” Jeff leaned against the counter, the sliding door providing a perfect view as CeCe stood up and raced back towards Maeve.

“Yeah, I mean, he is.”

“He also touched your back in a funny way.”

Shelli raised her eyebrows and sipped at her wine again.

“And now my mom is making a weird face,” Jeff’s eyes narrowed when he looked at you. “Are you--is there, like, something going--”

“No,” you said quickly, a finger pointed at Shelli and another pointed at Jeff. “Do not say anything in front of the girls.”

Shelli stifled a laugh but managed to look incredibly innocent at the same time.

“Oh my god!” Jeff said this with a noise of shock, eyes wide when he looked between you and Shelli, then back out to the yard where Harry laughed with Irv. “Oh my god, and you knew?”

Shelli shrugged her shoulders, a don’t blame me look crossed her face when you took a swig of wine to calm the pounding of your heart.

Jeff had always been protective and caring and like a brother. Not in a weird way, not in the you can’t date my friends way. Just in the sense that he wanted to know who you were hooking up with and he’d been encouraging you relentlessly to stop picking assholes ever since you filed for divorce.

But this was different, this was a friend of his and a client of his. It was someone that his entire family knew and this was probably the worst choice of rebound.

“Please relax,” you said this with a look of warning in his direction. “I will explain to you what your lunatic mother is smirking about but you have about fifteen seconds to wipe the look of shock off your face before he comes back in here.”

“She’s fine,” Harry waved a hand once he was back in the kitchen. “And what look of shock are we wiping off of our faces?” The dimple was there again, the corner of his mouth pulled up and he scanned all three of you for any sort of information.

“Just that you are so good with the girls,” Jeff covered for you, a confident nod when he hoped Harry would believe him.

“That’s surprising to you?” Harry pulled his head back, an obvious look of mock offense. “I’m great with children. They love me.”

Maeve came in from the fading light, out of breath from running around with whatever ball they’d gotten their hands on. “Who loves you?”

“Kids,” Jeff replied for him.

“Oh,” Maeve said. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” You looked down at her, unsure if she was agreeing or just voicing that she understood.

She shrugged, plucked a chicken skewer from a dish in front of Shelli. “I mean, I like having him around.”

Harry was practically tickled pink. “Thank you, Maeve.” He turned to rub this in Jeff’s face. “See?”

“He cooks well, plays outside with us, definitely funnier than mom,” Maeve kept listing things off, pulling laughter from the rest of the crew.

“Maeve!” You whined. “I’m funny!”

“You’re like, sometimes funny.”

“Sometimes funny is better than never funny,” Harry nodded in your direction, an attempt to soften the blow.

CeCe had wandered in behind her sister, she picked at the scrape on her elbow until you called her attention. “CeCe--do you think mommy’s funny?”

“Mmmm,” the thought on it for a second, put her finger to her chin and scrunched up her nose. “Sort of.”

Jeff let out a big laugh at that, Harry tried to stifle one and you dismissed the jabs. “Okay, well, it’s not like anyone here is a comedian.”

“Harry’s funny,” CeCe said with a smile. “He reads books in silly voices.”

Jeff’s eyebrows shot up at that again, amused and surprised by the fact that Harry was in on the bedtime routine. But it was infrequent, sometimes CeCe would beg for more time outside or another thirty minutes of TV.

If the tears got aggressive or the tantrum became too much, she perked up pretty quickly if Harry offered to read with her. It was way more exciting than reading with you, Maeve had explained.

After showering Harry with compliments, the girls were excited to sit on Shelli and Irv’s patio. Pink lemonade and a delicious dinner, though neither of them would even so much as take a bit of your salad.

They ran around some more while you sipped wine, Jeff and Harry had been talked into a two versus two soccer match and Irv laughed his head off when Maeve actually scored on Jeff. Darkness came and CeCe crawled into your lap, eyelids getting heavy until you buckled her into the backseat.

You’d taken one car, CeCe’s booster seat was too clunky to move over to Harry’s so you drove and felt slightly embarrassed about the crayons and coloring books scattered on the floor of the backseat.

“Mom, can I have another sleepover this weekend?”

“With who?”

“All of the girls from last weekend.”

“Honey, no, that was a big party for your birthday.”

“I’m aware,” she shot back quickly. “But we all had so much fun and we wouldn’t be as loud as we were last time.”

“I said no, Maeve. You can do something with your friends if you want but we’re not doing another sleepover right now.”

You’d been hesitant about it in the first place. A group of ten and eleven-year-olds? With Harry in the house? It felt like a recipe for disaster and aside from a few excited stares when they were first dropped off, you all escaped relatively unscathed.

You worried at first about the whispers from other moms--she’s letting a twenty-four year-old live with her children?--but you soon realized that they were almost more excited about sneaking a glimpse of Harry than their daughters were.

“You’re so annoying,” she quipped from the back. “You never let me do anything fun.”

Harry’s lips twitched up in a tiny smirk, a sideways glance in your direction. You’d already told him how awkward it felt to discipline them with him right there, a glass of wine in the kitchen one night and he teased you about your frustrated mom voice.

“Maeve--don’t be rude. You just had a birthday party and now you want another, basically.”

“No, I want to have the same girls over. It’s not my birthday so it’s not a birthday party.”

A left turn into the driveway. “But you want me to order pizza and make cupcakes and you want to drink a bunch of soda again?”

“Yes.”

You pulled into the garage and cut the engine, turning to look at her. “Maeve, sweetie, I love you. But no.”

She let out a huff and shoved the door open, she typed in the entry code and slammed the door to the house before the rest of you could even climb out.

“The drama,” CeCe shook her head, tired steps towards the house.

“The drama is right,” you told her with a laugh. “Go wash up and I’ll come up in a few, okay?”

She scampered up the steps, you dropped your keys on the counter inside and then turned to look at him. “Do you have a second?”

He nodded, leaned on the counter. “What’s up?”

You didn't know if it was a good idea, but you'd spent enough morning drives to school lecturing about how honest is the best policy, so you figured you'd give it a shot.

“Uh, well--Jeff may or may not be suspicious about you and...me.”

Using the phrase made you nervous, like he’d laugh and think it was stupid. You and me.

“Oh,” he said, eyebrows arched. “Did you--why did that come up?”

“Well you went to handle my crying child, which is--you know--”

He laughed a little, “too boyfriendy of me?”

Your heartbeat picked up in pace, your face felt hot and it suddenly felt like he was watching you too closely.

“No--I don’t know--you touched my back and he just asked what was happening.”

He deflated at that, hung his head low for a second and then looked up. “Oh, I--uh--I’m really sorry, I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“No!” You felt bad, that wasn’t the message you were trying to convey. If anything, you wanted to give him the out and the okay that he didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to step into your family like some hero for you or your daughters. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable, I just--I don’t know where you are at, I guess.”

“And now Jeff is asking questions,” he laughed, a nod like he knew where you were going with it.

There was no label necessary. It wasn’t that type of thing, you knew that. “That’s what you walked in on after CeCe got hurt.”

Another nod, like the puzzle pieces were fitting into place. “Right. Got it. Was he--how did he seem? Did you tell him that we--”

“He put it together,” you cut him off, again careful of the words used around the girls even though they were upstairs and--by the sound of it--bickering in the bathroom. “But he was fine with it. I just think we need to be careful, you know. The girls...and this is temporary, and--”

“Absolutely.”

“So, you know, just--”

“Yeah.”

An awkward silence. “I should go tuck them in.” You turned on your feet and headed for the stairs before he could reply, desperate to get out of the situation out of fear of having to find more words to string together in a messy jumble of emotions.

Another slammed door from Maeve when you reached the top of the stairs. You knocked twice. “Can I come in, please?”

“No!”

“Maeve,” you leaned against the doorframe. Harry came up and offered an awkward smile. “Please let me talk to you.”

“I’m not talking to you!” She shouted.

Harry came over and knocked. “Maeve? It’s Harry--can I come in?”

Silence for a second, her footsteps were audible on the wood floor. The door opened a crack, she peered out with narrowed eyes. “Fine--but not her.”

You looked over at Harry, unsure of his game plan but also fed up with the theatrics and the overreaction. He shrugged his shoulders half-apologetically, a smirk in your direction before he slipped into the room.

Did you stay and listen? Was it weird? What would he even say to her?

You decided against it, headed for your own bedroom and tugged on pajamas after you flicked on CeCe’s night light and kissed her goodnight. At least only one of them was being dramatic today.

Five minutes passed, then ten. You tried not to look at the clock and focused instead on a book Zoey had told you was a must read.

Eventually there was a knock on your door, Harry pushed it open and smiled. “Do you want some intel?”

“Duh,” you said. “Come in.”

He walked forward and sat on your bed, a sigh when he brought his eyes to yours again. “Well, she said you’re annoying again.”

“Of course.”

“She’s just grumpy. Said Hayley wanted to have a sleepover this weekend because it would be better at her house.”

“Ah,” you nodded. “Some 5th grade rivalry.”

“Classic, really.”

You laughed. “Was she okay talking to you?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, eyebrows low on his forehead. “Opened right up.”

“Well, we do know she likes you more.”

He rolled his eyes. “She just likes that I’m not you.”

“Feels like that’s the same thing.”

Quiet for a moment when he angled towards you, scanned your face with his eyes.

“I guess I’ll go say goodnight.”

“Oh, I tucked her in.”

Your mouth tugged into a smirk. “You what?”

“She said she didn’t want you to come in.”

“So you tucked her in?”

He let out a laugh, explained the process like it should have been obvious. “Yeah--pulled up the blanket. Patted her on the head. She said she brushed her teeth.”

You leaned back against the headboard, the same buzzing feeling in your chest took flight when he asked: “why is it so shocking to everyone that I’m good with them?”

It slipped out before you could think of the possible consequences. “Because you’re young.”

“I’m not that young.”

“And Luke was just--not like that. He was pretty disinterested after CeCe was born.” You hoped this was enough of a redirection.

“You’re really caught up on my age, aren’t you?”

“No.”

He raised his eyebrows and offered a look that said: bullshit. When he didn’t speak, you cracked a joke.

“Or...you are not hung up enough on how old I am.”

“Why should I care how old you are?”

“Cause you’ve had sex with me and you’re living in my house.”

“Both of those things I am aware of. And feel really good about both of them.”

You let out a laugh at his nonchalance, folded your arms over your chest when he stood up. “You’re something else.”

“I’m not,” you disagreed.

“I think you are,” he nodded, leaned closer to you and offered a challenging glare. His hair was messy, he’d been running around in the backyard with them at Shelli and Irv’s, a few glasses of wine in him seemed to loosen him right up to the point that he was ready to slide tackle your six-year-old.

He watched you for a second, almost like he was waiting for you to stop him. You didn’t, though, you wanted him to kiss you just as much as it looked like he wanted to close to the distance between your chests.

Instead of telling him you shouldn’t, instead of telling him that the girls were down the hall and this was risky, you pulled him on top of you, tugged him by the t-shirt until he flopped down on your bed with a laugh against your lips.

He lifted himself up after a clumsy moment, looked down at you and smirked.

“What?” You asked playfully.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been so turned on by someone in my whole life.”

His words circled around you, pulled your body up to melt into his when his hand cupped your face. He laced his fingers through the hair along your neck, the warmth from his body made your pulse rise with each second.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this when they’re home?”

If the dimples on his cheeks weren’t enough, if the way his tattoos littered his skin wasn’t enough, if the look in his eyes right now on top of you was not enough to create a full-on mom fantasy in your head, the way he talked about your daughters was.

“Yeah,” you tugged him back against your mouth, felt the way your hips tilted against his without any thought. His hands moved to your wrists, holding them in place when he trailed his lips down your jaw, down your neck, pressing kisses in a line along your collarbone.

His hands were warm when they grazed your hips, connecting with skin beneath the fabric of your shirt. You grasped for the hem of his and tugged it over his head in a quick motion, eager to reconnect and feel his skin against yours.

He tasted like wine and smelled like summer, yanked your panties down to your ankles and used his fingers to pull quiet gasps from you like no one had ever before. He held onto your headboard and thrusted into you after you begged: please, please fuck me.

S’probably my favorite thing to do, he said.

The lights were long off and when your heart beats settled and you wiped sweat from your forehead, he laced his fingers between yours.

“Does Jeff want to kill me?”

“No,” you giggled, turned on your side to get a better look at him. The moon through the window illuminated his nose, his eyebrows, the specks of light green in his eyes as they devoured you. “But I’m sure you’ll get a talking to.”

“Should I not talk to him about it?”

You knew what he was asking, you knew he really meant what am I supposed to tell him? What does this mean?

You didn’t have an answer. You didn’t know what he should say or how you should address any of this, because at the end of the day you were a mom and a business owner and he was eight years your junior. He had an album to finish and tour and you knew how that worked.

You watched your dad’s busy lifestyle pull his marriage apart at the seams. Late nights, dinner parties, too much coke in the 80s before you were born and all of those signs pointed in one direction: this would never last.

It couldn’t last, nothing about the equation made sense. Harry + you = fling, rebound, a hook up or friends with benefits type situation that would eventually fade into a memory when he went on tour or when he got the call: your house is finished!

You didn’t have to answer him, though, the pattering of feet in the hallway as a little voice shouted mommy! had you shoving Harry out of bed and onto the floor with a thud before CeCe could push the double doors open.

“Mommy! I had a bad dream!”

“Hi, honey, oh, it’s okay,” you were upright in bed and welcoming her into your arms when Harry grimaced in the dark.

He mouthed a few swear words as you held CeCe, squishing her face into your shoulder to keep her eyes from landing on Harry. You gestured at him wildly with your free hand, ordering him to duck down and remain unseen.

“It was just a dream,” you told her, “you’re okay. Do you want me to walk you back to bed?”

“No,” she cried out quickly. “Can I sleep here?”

You hesitated, then nodded and looked at Harry in the dark. “Of course, yes, you can fall asleep here and then I’ll bring you back to your room.”

“Okay,” she said, the steadiness of her voice returning when she crawled out of your lap and to the spot where Harry had just been. She tugged at the comforters, pushed the pillow in different directions before she let her head rest atop it.

She let out a sigh, her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks and soon enough Harry poked his head up to look at you with wide eyes as you rubbed CeCe’s back.

You held up a finger to your mouth, gave him a threatening glare when he bit back a laugh. You rolled your eyes--it wasn’t funny. She almost walked in on the two of you and while she’d already endured some traumatic things this year, seeing her mom hooking up with the pop star from down the hall would be sure to take the cake.

When Harry caught your gaze again, you smirked, he giggled, clamped a hand over his mouth and watched you for a second.

“Be quiet!”

“You’re the one talking,” he laughed.

“Well she’s asleep now, but we can’t bring her back yet or she’ll wake up.”

“How long do we have to sit like this?”

“A while,” you told him with certainty. “This is called parenting.”

But he did, he sat on the floor on the side of the bed, watched you watch her and eventually, he picked her up from the mattress and followed you down the hall to her room. She softened into him, head on his shoulder and arms around his neck. The sight of it made you want to replay the earlier scene in your head over and over.

She didn’t stir, a few heavy sighs when you pulled the comforter back up to her shoulders, and once the door was shut behind you both, you smirked up at him.

“I think you should go back to your room.”

“Really? After all of that?”

“After almost getting caught by my six-year-old? Yes.”

He laughed and rolled his eyes playfully, crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine, but maybe we can do that again at some point and have it end differently.”

You nodded. “I think that sounds doable.”

He leaned forward, kissed you quickly, and then turned to head for his own room. “Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Goodnight, Harry.”

**

Harry came home from his house tour with good and bad news. The plumbing was fixed, which sped up their timeline, and yet the painters and interior decorator had gotten behind because of it, pushing the timeline out a few weeks.

You weren’t sure which part was good and which part was bad, because by now you were having trouble imagining what your house would feel like without him in it.

You got the news when he strolled in, athletic shorts and a baseball hat on his head when Jeff clapped him on the back. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Harry eyed him suspiciously, reached into the fridge for a juice box. “I live here…”

“Oh, I know you live here.”

“Hello, hi,” you waved at Jeff. “Please do not be weird.”

“That’s all he knows how to be,” Harry offered you a fake-apologetic look.

“That’s all he knows how to be,” Jeff mocked him. “Actually, I know how to be cool and not weird about the fact that my childhood best friend and my adult best friend-slash-artist are now, you know, involved.”

Your stomach did a somersault at his wording, a quick look in Harry’s direction, sure that he would deny the accusation or play it all down.

You found it hard to believe that Harry would be in support of labeling this as anything. Why on earth would a guy like him want to be tied to you with any sort of label or phrasing or word?

“Moving on,” Harry said with a nod. “Are we down to meet up with Tom and Sam tomorrow?”

“Yeah, and we have to do that phone call on Tuesday to go over tour dates.”

Maeve ran in then, a smile on her face when she looked up at Harry. “I have something to tell you.”

“Yeah?”

“I learned a new chord on the guitar. By myself.”

“You did?” He acted way more excited about it than he likely was.

Jeff smiled and then told Maeve: “If you learn enough chords maybe you can be his guitarist.”

“Really?!” She beamed.

“No,” you shook your head.

“Of course you would say that.”

“Maeve--you’re a kid, you can’t go on tour.”

“She’s right,” Harry said with a sweet smile, “You’re a bit too young for life on the road.”

“I’m eleven now, though!”

“I know! And very mature for eleven,” he complimented. “I’ll tell you what. You can for sure come visit and come back stage and maybe even bring a friend if your mother lets you.”

She looked to you quickly, excitement in her eyes when they all waited for your response. “Yeah--we can go at some point...see a show or something.”

“Hayley is going to die, oh my god!” She squealed with delight and then moved to sit at a stool beside Jeff.

He had half a sandwich on a plate, one he picked up on his way over for a boring Sunday afternoon of lounging by the pool. Maeve reached for a chip from the bag in front of him.

“By the way, mom, she invited me over Wednesday after school to work on a project, so can you bring me?”

“I have to bring CeCe to dance, sweetie.”

“Well I need you to bring me to the store to get supplies for this stupid poster-board thing we have to make! And Hayley’s mom said she had a question about Luna--something about a moisturizer or something.”

“I can take CeCe to dance,” Harry shrugged, almost like an onlooker in the room. “S’not a big a deal.”

“Are you sure?”

Jeff and Maeve crunched on chips between you, watching the exchange.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll just need to put her booster seat in my car.”

“And bring her a snack for after--she’s always cranky and hungry.”

He laughed, “I can manage that.”

“What would we do without you, Harry?” Maeve asked, a smile on her face.

Jeff put his chin in his hands, teasing. “Yeah, what would we do without you?”

“No one would get anywhere, people would seriously be missing out on my chicken tacos, and this house would be a lot less fun to live in.”

Maeve nodded in agreement, another chip stolen from Jeff. “True, true, and true.”

A few nights later it dawned on you that Maeve and Harry were as close as ever, spending evenings in your dad’s old office while Maeve tried to wrap her arms around a guitar long enough to strum a few chords.

CeCe didn’t seem to feel too left out, she was more than happy to be an audience for Maeve when she’d come running into the living room: Harry taught me a G chord!

On Tuesday night after school it was CeCe’s idea to go for pizza, she chirped about it in the backseat the entire way home, and after learning that the body wash production was behind schedule, you weren’t in the mood to cook.

You took Harry’s car--showed him how to strap the booster seat in and make sure it wouldn’t budge. He wore a hat and sunglasses which both girls found hilarious, but to you it was almost disheartening. What did it mean for him to be seen out with your family?

He sat beside CeCe and cut her pizza into tiny bites so it would cool off, Maeve sipped Mountain Dew from a straw and filled you in on the latest with Hayley. This week was going well, though Hayley said something annoying in the cafeteria.

It felt normal, not weird for him to be sitting across from you, his feet against yours beneath the table and a smirk in your direction every once in a while.

Both Tristan and Zoey had been dying to hear more details. It slipped out one day in the office that okay...maybe it wasn’t just a one time thing, and now the group chat you had with them was blowing up every day.

They were excited for you, rooting for your comeback and rebound and eager for you to just admit that there was something there. But you weren’t able to do that, especially not when everything in your heart wanted to.

By the time you’d all finished eating, he dipped out the back to pull the car around front. You pointed at Maeve and told her to watch CeCe while you went up to the counter to pay for the pizza.

The woman behind the register smiled when you approached. Long acrylic nails, wrinkles at the corner of her eyes made it obvious that she could have been your mother.

“We had one large plain and one small with pepperoni,” you told her.

“Oh, you’re all set, sweetie, your boyfriend paid on his way out.”

Your head pulled back in surprise. “Oh--he’s--we’re not,”

She let out a laugh at your hesitance. “He was just as taken back when I told him he had a beautiful family--said they're not his, though."

You forced a laugh, if only to match the humor in her voice when you turned on your heels to head back to your booth. The thoughts started spinning when Maeve and CeCe climbed into the back of Harry’s car.

He smiled at you when you slid in, patted you on the thigh before he turned around to make sure both girls were settled--Maeve clicked CeCe’s buckle into place and then he put the car into gear.

Sleeping with Harry was mostly meaningless, right? He was attractive and living in your house and clearly you both got something out of it. Convenient, easy, fun. Most of your brain had you convinced that there’d never be any more to it. There was no way that Harry would be interested in sticking around: two kids, a business to run. You didn’t exactly come with no strings attached.

And he corrected the woman too--not my kids, not my family, not my wife, not my anything. Had she settled on the next step down when she called him your boyfriend, or had he offered the label to avoid an awkward encounter?

It felt immature, your heart beating with urgency as you thought about it the whole way home, beads of sweat along your hairline and not from the warm weather. He sensed it, eyed you from behind his sunglasses when he parked in the driveway. Maeve and CeCe raced to the backyard, leaving the two of you alone.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, all good,” you offered a small smile, the same response you gave to one of the girls if they caught you on a bad day.

He followed you inside, kept his eyes trained on you when you dropped your purse on the counter. “What?”

“You seem off.”

“I’m fine,” you lied again. What were you supposed to say? The woman behind the register at the pizza place is making me question the relationship we have and what it means?

You weren’t 17. You were 32. He was 24. All of these numbers swirled in your head when he took a few steps closer to you, eyes out the window quickly to make sure neither of the girls were watching you through the sliding doors.

He pushed a piece of hair behind your ear, lips turned down when he looked over your face. “You can talk to me, you know.”

“I know,” you caught his wrist and held on for a second, like if you let go he’d disappear and take everything between the two of you with him. You closed your eyes, knew better but still said: “the woman behind the counter called you my boyfriend.”

He let out a laugh, unaware that your words were actually a confession. “She called you my wife, said the girls were cute. I told her I couldn’t take credit.”

“Yeah,” you forced another smile.

“Is that--are you, did that bother you?”

“No,” you shook your head. “I just didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m not,” he said, eyes still on you like he wasn’t quite sure where your head was at. He pressed a confusing kiss to your forehead but then said something about calling his sister. You checked work emails and night faded into morning like it always did, no matter how uncertain life was, you always had that.

The next afternoon you brought Maeve to Hayley’s, dropped her off with glue sticks and markers and a plethora of project supplies. A yoga class after that, had her home and with dinner on the stove by 6pm.

Eventually, CeCe burst through the door with a smile on her face. Her pink tutu was around her waist, her legs clad in light pink tights and her hair in a messy ponytail on top of her head. “I had the greatest time at ballet!”

You turned around in the kitchen, eager to hear about her day. “You did?”

“I did,” she nodded confidently. Harry came in the front door behind her, sunglasses on his face and CeCe’s unicorn backpack in hand. Maeve was sat at the counter with a pencil, growing angrier with fractions by the minute.

“Why’s that?”

“We danced to a fun song, and we played a fun game, and everyone loved Harry!”

Your eyebrows rose at that, eyes caught his when he lifted the sunglasses. “They did?”

“Moms, not the six-year-olds.”

This caught Maeve’s attention--she sounded almost disgusted. “Moms?”

“I guess ballet pick-up is typically a mom thing?”

You shrugged. “I mean--I don’t see a lot of dads there, so yeah.”

CeCe shimmied out of her tutu and then climbed up to a stool beside Maeve. Harry walked to hang her backpack on a hook by the backdoor, you questioned if it was even worth asking.

“Were they, like, hitting on you?”

“I mean, not really.”

“Not really?”

He walked over to the island and leaned on it, the dimple in his left cheek let you know he liked the hint of jealousy in your voice. “Maybe a little.”

Dinner simmered on the stove, evening sun brought a glow to the kitchen that made his eyes even more green than usual. When you didn’t reply he broke your gaze, let out a sigh and said: “I’m going to shower before dinner, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” you nodded quickly, embarrassed by the silliness of your question. Of course the moms were hitting on him, of course they were intrigued by his presence and of course they couldn’t help but say hi or even ask for a photo. It shouldn’t have surprised you in the slightest.

He was up the stairs and out of sight quickly, CeCe picked up an extra pencil of Maeve’s and started doodling on her agenda book. You pushed sautéed veggies around in a frying pan and pretended that all of this was normal.

“Hey mom?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you like Harry?”

You turned around quickly, Maeve’s eyes were inquisitive but not judgmental.

“Do I like Harry? Of course--he’s nice.”

“No, I mean do you like like Harry?”

CeCe didn’t seem too interested in your answer, she hummed to herself and kicked her feet back and forth. Maeve, though, waited patiently while you tried to piece together words that wouldn’t make the roof blow off of your house.

“Harry and I are friends, sweetie.”

“You’re not answering my question.”

You let out a forced laugh. “What is making you ask this?”

“You seemed jealous about the other moms.”

“I wasn’t jealous,” you defended. Were you really about to get into it with your eleven-year-old? Would you really defend yourself and make this the hill on which you'd die?

She watched you for a second, looked back down at the worksheet in front of her. “You seemed jealous.”

You were thankful for the fact that she wasn’t making any eye contact now. You let out a sigh and decided that not responding was your best option. Adrenaline coursed through your veins, had it been that obvious? Was she old enough to pick up on the undertones of your relationship?

You turned back to the stove, watched the vegetables sizzle in the pan as your mind started to cave in on itself. All of this was getting out of control, right? First the woman yesterday and the dizziness that overtook you when she said the word boyfriend. Now Maeve sitting at the counter with a curiosity in her that you couldn’t really blame her for.

The doorbell rang, CeCe’s head popped up in excitement. “Who is that?!”

“I don’t know,” you said. She hopped off her stool and took off the door as you followed behind her. You hadn’t planned on a visit from Jeff, maybe Tristan needed last minute approval on a product.

But when CeCe yanked the door open with both hands and an excited smile on her face, you didn’t expect to see Luke, hands in his pockets and eyebrows raised high.

“Daddy!”

“Hi sweetie,” he knelt down on one knee, wrapped his arms around her when Maeve made a noise of excitement before rushing over. She crashed into him, pushing her way into their hug.

“What are you doing here?” she asked excitedly.

“I wanted to visit, I was in the neighborhood,” he said with a shrug, eyes glancing up to you.

It was bullshit, he’d always been good at talking his way out of things or coming up with an explanation, smile sweet and words even sweeter. He backed away from them when they let go, stood back up and smiled at you, a quick nod in greeting.

“How’ve you been?”

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[libraryofnesta]

Tied to Ruin

ao3 link

Summary:

Cassian and Nesta were lovers, partners in crime. They did everything together. That is until tragedy strikes, causing Nesta to run away, far from everything she once knew.

Over five years later, Nesta is living life to as full as it can get. It’s not until an incident occurs that drags her into far more than she bargained for.

Notes:

thanks so much for reading. i'm a huge hoe for exes to lovers, so i have like 20 ideas in my head, and this is one of them. It's multichapter. i'm not sure how long this is gonna be, but definitely over ten chapter. this fic has two timelines. One will show them from when they're kids to teens, and one while they're adults. Both will occur at the same time, so things will start to unravel as you read.btw! velaris is gonna be like a super small town in new york. like no one knows about it.

TW: implied domestic violence, nothing graphic.

Chapter 1: lonely beds, different cities

Words, how little they mean

When you're a little too late

I stood right by the tracks

Your face in a locket

Good girls, hopeful they'll be and long they will wait

-

Sad Beautiful Tragic

Taylor Swift

2016, Small Town Velaris

“Please,” she whispers, voice hoarse. Nesta is practically begging at this point, but she has nothing else to relent to. “We can get out of here.” She swallows hard when he doesn’t reply. “We’re still young Cassian, we can still-”

“Nesta.” He says. It's one word, but it makes her pause. He rarely calls her Nesta. It’s always ‘Nes’ or ‘Sweetheart.’

“I can’t.”

Their lives have changed so drastically over the past few weeks. Nesta’s whole childhood is here. Everything she’s ever known. She’s not sure how much more of it she can handle now.

She’s well aware of the tears streaming down her face. Nesta doesn’t know what she can say to convince him, so she says the one thing that she’s been repeating over and over.

“You can…”

Cassian’s face seems to harden. The look he gives her makes her take a step back. He hasn’t looked at her like that in years. “Go ahead and leave Nesta.”, he says, voice rising. “Go live that picture perfect you always wanted. I won’t stop you.”

“Not everyone wants what you do.”

2021 New York, Manhattan

Something about leaving Valkyrians still makes her feel at odds. She’s not as resistant to the sight of blood anymore, and she’s not sure if she can ride a motorcycle as well as she used to. There are still parts that linger though. She still remembers how to throw a punch. A damn good one too. She still feels uneasy when someone walks in the same direction for too long though. It might be the worst part of it all.

Nesta doesn’t do much for fun.  She doesn’t dance as much as she likes. The amount of books she reads has decreased. Her days consist of work and eating, even though she skips more meals than she should. But she’s free. That’s what really matters, doesn’t it?

The muscles in Nesta’s body ache. She just finished a seven hour shift, and got a promotion that pays much better. Nesta wants to celebrate. She wants to talk to someone. It’s been so long since she’s talked to anyone. The fear of someone finding out about her past is lodged so deep in her head it caused her to isolate. The simple way of putting it is she has no friends.

Coworkers are the only source of non-work related conversation she engages in. It’s always small talk too. Just as Nesta is about to fall asleep, she rubs her eyes and forces herself to stay awake. Getting up from the lumpy couch, Nesta walks to her cabinet, grabbing a random mug and pouring wine into it. Once she gets a better look at the mug, she can’t help but scoff.

It’s ironic. Complaining about being lonely. It’s almost like she chose loneliness. She loves the quiet. When she was younger, all she wanted was alone time. She dreads it now. Nesta gets up after finishing her glass.  She’s a bit drowsy, and is way too tired to walk all the way to her room. Instead Nesta walks back over to her couch. She lies horizontally, staring into the abyss until she eventually falls asleep.

She dreams of seeing him that night. It’s a regular occurrence. It’s lessened over the years, but never fully disappeared. The image of him is blurry. It’s not as precise as it used to be. She hates still thinking of him. It doesn’t stop her from reminiscing a little though.

Her being upset makes sense of course. They’d known each other for over ten years, hating one another at first. Eventually, he began to grow on her. Their bickering had become playful, before they once again became estranged.

“Cassian?”

The figure turns around, and he knocks the wind out of her. His hair is out of it’s usual bun.  He gives her that familiar boyish smile, walking towards her and putting an arm on her.

“Missed me Sweetheart?”, he says, ruffling her hair a bit. Nesta scrunches her nose in response.

“You wish.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah yeah whatever.” He talks for a while. Nesta’s barely paying attention. It’s just nice to hear his voice again. He asks her what she’s reading, and she replies the same every time. It’s silent after a while. They’ve talked themselves out. It’s a nice silence though. Her favorite silence.

Cassian stares at her for a few seconds, giving her a soft smile and pushing a loose hair behind her ear.

“Come back,” he whispers.

Her breath stutters. “It’s been five years, Cass,” she mutters, breaking eye contact. Her eyes flicker between the ground and his face, gauging his reaction.

He doesn’t stop looking at her.

“I didn’t want to leave,” said Nesta. There’s a lump in her throat.

He scrubs a hand over his face. “Yet here we are.”

“You know why I left.”

Her eyes feel like they’re beginning to water. “I asked you to come with me. You’re the one who didn’t.”

Cassian looks to the side. He looks impassive, yet also emotionless. “You’re the one who ran away, Nesta.”

“I didn’t run away.”

He scoffs in response. “Keep telling yourself that.” Cassian starts walking away. It’s cloudy and has no solid ground or sky. At that moment she remembers where she really is. Nesta stands there, waiting until he fully fades away. It always feels too real.

The dreams always end like that.

Nesta can barely pry her eyes open when she wakes up. She has the next two weeks off. Her boss, Helion, had insisted she take a week or two off, since the bar was under a small renovation. She checks her phone and it reads 12:03. Jesus, she really had overslept.

In all honesty Nesta had no idea what to do with her free time. Maybe she’ll finally finish that book she started months ago. But in reality Nesta knows all she’ll do is go to a bar and let a stranger fuck her into oblivion until she kicks them out or leaves.

By the time Nesta leaves her house it’s around 3:00.  She goes to the coffee shop next door. She orders a coffee and sits in the corner of the room. Nesta somehow feels like the center of attention. It’s an empty shop, but it feels like all eyes on her. The room feels too cold.

The feeling follows her when she goes to the local bookstore. It’s crowded, but the area is quiet. Nesta browses through the shelves, sticking to the romance section. She holds a few books. It’s not until Nesta drops one, people begin to look at her. It makes a loud thump hitting the floor. Several pairs of eyes turn to her. The cover is of a shirtless man too.

Fuck , she thinks, This is embarrassing. Nesta purses her lips, hand curling into a fist as she puts the book back on it’s shelf.

It’s around 5:00 when she takes the train home. Nesta spent the rest of her day at the park, not wanting to stay at home. It doesn’t feel like home as much as she’d like it to though. Finally, Nesta makes it home.

She’s in an empty parking lot. The area she lives in is pretty small.  Nesta knows basically everyone in her apartment complex. It’s a tiny place. She never talks to anyone, but they do acknowledge each other. Barely anyone has a car either, herself included. So it is a bit weird to see an unrecognizable car. It’s odd, but Nesta thinks nothing of it. It’s probably just someone visiting.

Nesta goes into her apartment, before leaving once more to go to the bar that’s the second closest to her apartment. She’s usually working at this time, flirting with customers and taking them home when her shift ends.

The bar is crowded and loud. Lights are flashing, voices yelling, bodies moving. It’s out of her comfort zone. She’s been doing this for years and is still isn’t used to it. She sits on one of the stools where the drinks are served. A girl approaches her. Nesta never approaches anyone. She can’t see clearly in the light. The girl’s hair is brunette, though her roots are dark. Her brown skin illuminates in the flickering light.

“Hey”, she says “I’m Nora” Nora extends her hand to her. Nesta smirks in response, resting her elbow on the counter grasping her hand with the other.

“I’m Mila,” she says. No matter what she does, Nesta will never use her real name. Nora’s eyebrows raise. Nesta can see her lick tongue move as it pushes on her skin.

“Pretty name.”

They talk for around five minutes. It’s all small talk. They drink while they talk. Most of the things she responds with are lies anyways. Nora grasp’s her arm with her hand. “Wanna get out of here?” she asks. Her words are slurred, and Nesta has to restrain herself from flinching.

Something in her head tells her not to let anyone in her house though. Something is wrong, but she can’t put her mind on it. The idea of letting a stranger in her house sends goosebumps across her arms. Before, she’d never question it twice. Now that she thinks of it, doing this practically screams stranger danger. Especially with her past, this person could be anyone. Nesta slowly probes herself from the girl.

“I’ve gotta go”, she says. “Sorry, but there's something I need to do.” The girl doesn't seem to mind, either too drunk to care, or only looking for a one night stand. She nods, before introducing herself to someone else. Nesta feels her chest lighten, exiting the crowded bar to call an uber.

Whenever it’s quiet, she always reminisces.

2006, Small Town Velaris

Nesta wakes up and finds herself stranded. She has no idea where she is. She’s lying in a bed inside a mostly empty room. There’s only a few pieces of furniture, a stool and a drawer. It’s relatively small.  The last thing she remembers is being in a car with her sisters and parents. She hears voices outside of the room yelling.

“You expect me to leave-”

“Her father is-”

“She’s nine what would she-”

“So what if she’s young!”

“-s innocent so what if-”

She hears a loud smack. The silence after is deafening. The voices are quiet after, whispers. Afterwards, Nesta hears footsteps approaching. She scrunches her eyes shut, trying to pretend to be asleep. Nesta hears the door open and close. A hand lays on her forehead. As the person removes it, a calming voice talks. “Are you awake?” Nesta slowly looks at the person, opening only one eye, then another. She sees a woman with black hair and tan skin. Her cheeks are flushed and she has a small smile on her face.

The woman squats down so she’s the same height as the bed Nesta is laying on. “Hi,” the woman whispers, voice solemn and comforting. “My names Aurora,” she says. Nesta squishes her lips together. She’s confused and feels like crying. Nesta doesn’t cry though. She’s pretty sure her eyes water though, because Aurora strokes her hair and whispers, “It’s okay to cry.”

Nesta gasps and shakes her head. “Mommy says I’m not supposed to cry.” Aurora seems to be shocked silent. The silence makes Nesta become aware of everything that is happening. She slowly sits up. Once her feet are off the bed, Nesta quickly sprints to the door, opening it and running out. She has no idea where she’s going.

Suddenly, Nesta is hit with a hard impact, and falls down on her butt. She looks up and sees two boys. They’re both around the same height. They have the same dark hair too, except one is longer than the other. Nesta gets up and brushes off the dust on her leggings.

She notices it then. The leggings. She’s never worn pants before.

It’s also when she notices the juice smeared across one of the boy's shirts. It’s the long haired one’s. He drops the red cup to the ground and makes an angry noise. “That was my favorite shirt.”

Nesta feels sheepish as she whispers a quiet, “Sorry.”

The one with longer hair whispers to the other boy, obviously meaning for her to hear too. “She’s probably not even double digits.” The other boy is quiet, looking at the ground. He seems nervous and shy.

Nesta feels a sense of outrage course through her. She pouts, crossing her arms. “I’m almost ten. I’m nine and a half” The boy crosses his arms too.

“Well I’m ten and a half,” he says.

“Cassian,” Aurora scolds. “Play nice.” She puts a hand on Nesta’s shoulder and bends down. “I need to talk to…” She doesn’t continue.

Nesta turns towards her, and realizes she needs her name. “Nesta,” she says.

Aurora smiles, “That’s a wonderful name.”

Cassian still seems angry. “I think it’s stupid.” Aurora sighs and gets up. “Azriel”, she says to the other boy. He hadn’t talked the whole time, Nesta almost forgot he was there. “Make sure he stays out of trouble. And Cassian, please change your shirt.” The two (stupid) boys walk away. Once they’re from a far enough distance, Aurora looks back down at her. “I have to talk to you about something.”

2021 New York, Manhattan

Nesta walks into her apartment tired and half asleep. Once inside her apartment, she changes into more comfortable clothes, sweatpants and a grey t-shirt.

Nesta’s about to go to bed, until she hears the sound of glass shattering and liquid spilling. She freezes, thinking about the mug of wine she left out.  

No.

Nesta scrambles towards the kitchen and grabs a flashlight from a cabinet, flashing the light to the ground. The mug is shattered to pieces, and she can still see little droplets of wine. The words aren’t visible anymore, letters broken and unreadable.

There’s no way it could’ve fallen on its own. It was in the middle of her counter. Unless...

Suddenly it all makes sense. The unrecognizable car in the parking lot. The uneasy feeling in her stomach. The constant nagging in her head, telling her that something is wrong.

She thinks about calling the police but goes against it. Years in a fucking biker gang taught her better then to trust those scumbags.

She always kept a gun in her house. Just in case. She really hates how no matter what she does. she’ll always be connected to this.

The person inside her apartment most definitely knows where she is. Nesta grabs a broom, sweeping the glass shards into an empty bag. She can fix it later. Tying it up, Nesta leaves it on her counter.

There's a wall blocking the entrance to her bathroom. She walks towards it, opening and closing the door so it seems she went inside. Grabbing her gun from the small drawer, Nesta lays her back against the wall, barely peeking out the wall, but just enough so she can see them as they crawl out from behind her couch.

The figure moves stealthily, back turned towards her. If she weren’t directly staring at it, there would be no way of knowing it was there. The moves look familiar, but she can’t put her mind on it. The moonlight shines on them so she can see the most obvious features. It’s not until the floor creaks the figure turns towards her direction. Nesta turns back to face her bathroom door, hands drawn to tight fists. There’s no way they hadn’t seen her. She moved too slow. Nesta peeks her head out to look again.

It’s not until she sees a familiar pair of scarred hands in the moonlight, it all comes together.

“Azriel Night?”

In dreams

I meet you in warm conversation

We both wake

In lonely beds

In different cities

And time

Is taking its sweet time erasing you

And you've got your demons

And darlin' they all look like me

PSA!! go to ask’s to be added to tag list

[caitlesshea]

in love with how your soul's a mix of chaos and art

Michael communicates telepathically until he meets his soulmate Alex and hears his voice.

Michael knows the humans find the way his people communicate telepathically weird. He knows they hate having an Antarian mind walk them when they want answers. 

He also knows that an Antarian will finally hear a human's voice when they find their soulmate. The sounds the humans make will become loud for the first time. 

They won’t hear every human after that, but they’ll hear theirs. 

The one that two universes have deemed their soulmate. 

The connection will work both ways after that. The human will be able to initiate the telepathic communications that Antarians usually do, and the Antarian will eventually be able to use their voice to speak to the humans. 

Michael wants to use his voice, but something stops him every time he tries.

His cousin, Isobel, says waiting around for his soulmate is a ridiculous notion, where his other cousin Max, thinks it’s romantic. 

Either way, Michael is determined to meet his soulmate. He just knows they’re out there somewhere. 

It’s almost like he can tell they’re getting closer.

“How long until the delegation gets here?” Isobel huffs and Michael shrugs. 

For a princess she sure is moody. 

“An hour, maybe?” Michael really has no idea, he can’t remember what his dad said the other night. 

“You don’t know?” Isobel asks, exasperated. 

“Why would I know Iz?”

“Oh I don’t know, your dad’s the General?”

“Yeah, don’t remind me,” Michael grumbles. 

“Oh, it’s here!” Isobel points to the tower that has lit up at the Port. 

Max is reading a book behind them, as Guards descend upon them and they start to make their way to the docking stations.

He sees his father with some of his high ranking officers standing near the entrance, with Isobel and Max’s parents, their King and Queen, off to the side. 

The humans eventually make their way off of the ship, shaking hands, and waiting for an Antarian to speak to them before moving on to greet the King and Queen. 

Michael can see the humans mouths moving as they communicate amongst themselves. 

He would give anything to hear one of them. 

He loses track of how many hands he shakes, how many humans he initiates contact with. Until one, who reaches out his hand to shake, and then before Michael can initiate a conversation he hears it. 

“Hi.” 

Michael looks up, in absolute shock, at the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. 

It takes the stranger a moment to realize why Michael is looking at him like that but then his mouth drops open.

“Oh shit,” the stranger says and Michael laughs. 

For the first time in his life Michael can hear his own laugh. 

“Hi,” Michael says quietly, his own voice gravelly in its cadence. It’s the first time he’s been able to use his voice to speak instead of his mind. 

He shakes the strangers hand, feels the sparks of their bond flare up between them and then is immediately bombarded with memories from Alex. 

A look into his past so they can have a future. 

It’s what the handprints they can leave on each other create, but this takes no effort at all. 

He knows Alex is seeing similar things about himself, learning his name, his likes, and dislikes. Learning what makes him tick, what makes him quiet. Learning what chaos he controls. 

Alex is beautiful. 

“I’m Michael.”

“I’m Alex.”

Michael smiles and before he can say anything else he hears Isobel and Max.

“Michael!”

“Michael!” 

He turns to look at them and gestures to Alex who smiles shyly at them both. 

Michael doesn’t get a chance to say anything as his dad is there ushering both Alex and Michael into one of their vehicles.

“You can speak at the palace. I’ll deal with this.” His dad, Rath, gestures between them and Michael nods. 

“Where are we going?” Alex asks.

“The palace,” Michael says, still not used to his voice. 

He opens up the connection between them, still more comfortable speaking this way.

“My father is the General of Antar.”

Alex jumps in the seat next to him as their vehicle speeds away from the docks.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Alex murmurs quietly back and his voice is just as beautiful in his head as it is when he speaks.

“Can I speak to you like this? At least until I learn to use my voice?”

Alex nods and Michael smiles. 

“We were making too much of a scene at the docks. My guess is my father will handle the rest of the delegation and then he will meet us back at the palace.”

“I’m second in command on the delegation.”

“You are?” Michael asks, pleased. 

“Captain Alex Manes.” Alex puts his hand out again and Michael shakes it, again. 

“Michael Guerin, son of General Rath, Engineer to Antar.”

“You’re not in the military?”

“No, wasn’t in the cards for me.”

“Hmm.” 

Michael perks up at the sound, always wondering what it would sound like when people rub their lips together.

Alex looks over at him and raises an eyebrow and Michael can tell he’s blushing. 

“Sorry. I just, I've never heard that sound before.”

“You’ve never heard any sound, right?” Alex questions, looking curious. 

“Right. We don’t until we meet our soulmate.” Michael blushes an even deeper shade of red than he already is and notices Alex swallowing. 

“Do you? Umm. Not want a soulmate?” Michael asks, a little scared of the answer. 

“I do, I’ve just never thought about it.” 

Michael can tell Alex is lying but he decides to let it lie for now. 

They pull up outside the palace and his mother, Nora, is waiting for them outside.

“Mom.” Michael hugs her and she puts a hand behind his neck. 

“Michael. Who is this?” She gestures to Alex who straightens and holds out his hand. 

Michael can see that his mother has opened a connection between them and he would give anything to know what they’re saying. 

“I like him,” She says and Michael smiles.

“Me, too.” 

“Everything okay?” Alex asks and Michael nods. 

They follow his mother into the palace, towards their residences.

“You live in the palace?”

Michael nods. “My mother is the King’s sister. Even if she wasn’t the General of Antar and their family also have a residence in the palace.”

“Huh.”

“I know our royal system must be strange to you.”

“This is all a little strange.”

Michael chuckles and Alex smiles at him. Michael wants to hear Alex laugh, wants to know what Alex sounds like when he’s happy and not just on duty or meeting his soulmate for the first time. 

“Come, sit. We’ll wait for your father and everyone else. I’ll grab tea.” Nora speaks to both of them and Alex startles again. 

“You okay?” Michael asks. 

“Yeah. I just didn't know you could speak to more than one person.”

“We can. We just have to project. I can teach you?”

“Okay.” Alex still seems skeptical but Michael decides to let it go for now. 

“I’m sorry this is all happening so fast. I’m just the first member of the Royal Family to meet their soulmate.”

“Your parents?”

“No. They love each other, but humans didn’t start coming to Antar until twenty three years ago.”

“Right, yeah. I was seven when my dad came.”

“Your dad's military?”

Alex nods and Michael feels a familiar anger settle in him at the memories Alex tried to hide of his horrible father. 

“I’m sorry.”

Alex looks up at him with wide eyes and then he swallows heavily like he just realized what their connection means. 

“It’s not your fault.”

“Still,” Michael says as he reaches out slowly with his hand and grabs Alex’s. 

“Your voice,” Alex clears his throat. “I like it.” 

Michael smiles at the blush that covers Alex’s cheeks. 

“Me too.” Michael’s surprised that he means it. He always thought he’d hate his voice. A new way of communicating, rusty from disuse.

“You’ve never heard it before?”

“No.”

“How?” Alex wonders. 

“I’m not sure exactly. I know whenever I tried to talk before it felt like there was something caught in my throat and I couldn’t.”

“I’m glad I can share this with you, then.”

“Me, too.” Michael smiles and they both look at each other. 

Alex giggles and Michael’s in love.

Michael gasps and Alex looks at him. He tilts his head to the side and Michael wants to mirror him but he holds still.

“You’ve never heard laughter before?” Alex asks quietly. 

“Not in the way you think.” Michael’s proud of himself for that sentence. The longest yet. His throat is getting a little sore from the speaking and just as he thinks he’s should drink something his mother floats tea over to them.

“Your father will be here soon, it seems Max and Isobel have news, too.” 

“Thank you,” Michael responds as he sips the tea, savoring the warmth against his throat.

Michael watches as she walks away and then turns back to Alex, who’s still staring after Nora.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sorry, the whole…” Alex moves his hands in a circular motion, pointing to the coffee mugs.

“Ahh. It’s a family power.” Michael moves his tea cup closer to Alex and Alex smiles. 

“Family power?”

“Yeah. There are powers that every Antarian has and then some that are specific to families.” 

“Makes sense.”

“Mmm.” Michael savors the tea, his favorite, letting it soothe his throat.

“Does your throat hurt?”

“A little.”

“You can keep speaking to me telepathically. I don’t mind.”

“Really?”

“Really. That is if you don’t mind that I use my voice?”

“Not at all.” Michael smiles, pleased they’ve come to a compromise until they’re both more comfortable. 

Plus Michael could listen to Alex’s voice all day. There’s a soothing quality to it when he speaks out loud rather than telepathically. 

Michael always wondered if they’d be different and now he knows. 

He’s about to ask Alex if he wants to take a walk around the palace gardens, his favorite place, when the doors open and Isobel and Max barge in, with his father, and what looks like the high ranking officers of this round of Earth’s delegation. 

“Sir.” Michael can hear Alex say as he stands and salutes who has to be the one in charge. 

He can hear Alex’s side of the conversation but since he can’t hear the Major’s, he learns, he tunes them out in favor of his father, Isobel, and Max. 

“Seems all three of you found your soulmates,” Rath sighs begrudgingly and Michael turns his head to look at Isobel and Max, who are both smiling. 

“Liz! Kyle!” Alex shouts and then the two newcomers, Max and Isobel’s soulmates respectively, Michael learns they are childhood friends of Alex’s. 

An engineer and a doctor. Huh. 

“You two did good.”

“Michael.” His father chastises.

“What? They did.” Michael shrugs.

“So did you.” Isobel gestures toward Alex and Michael smiles.

Alex must realize he’s being talked about because he leaves Liz and Kyle and comes over to Michael.

“Yeah I did.” 

Michael grabs Alex’s hand, pleased at the warmth he feels. He looks at Alex when he says it again. 

“I did.”

[julemmaes]

One of the kids and their first crush.

First Crush

A/N: Set in the same universe as this and this (I’m gonna make a masterlist soon I swear), Cal (18) finds himself in a weird situation and doesn’t know how to handle things. I introduced Elucien babies in this one, everyone else will come by later on and very slowly I’m gonna introduce every other child.

If you’re new, this is a next gen collection of one shots, for now only about Nessian kids specifically. In this one, Ezra is 22, Cal is 18 and even tho they don’t appear, Nora is 13, Celia is 12 and Andra is 10. Nate and Theo are 17.

Send prompts about whoever you’d like to read more about and also very slowly I’m gonna give yall every single one of those:)

Enjoy!

Word count: 3,432

Cal brought his hands to his hair, "Oh my god, what's wrong with me?"

Theo, leaning against the car next to him, chuckled, "In my opinion the correct question would be what isn't wrong with me- Ouch." the boy turned to his twin, "Why did you hit me?"

"Because you're being a dick," Nate replied, glaring at him, "Stop talking shit."

"Why did I agree to this?" asked Cal shocked, looking up from the road and shifting his gaze from one cousin to the other. Two pairs of brown eyes locked onto him and then, in a synchronized motion that never failed to make Cal cringe, the twins shrugged.

Theodore and Nathaniel Vanserra were two of the most handsome boys in all of VHS. They both had the natural grace of the Archeron sisters that all cousins in the family shared, but their father's beauty that they had acquired over the years was one that made it easy to hate them with just one look. It was humanly impossible that such beautiful people could exist.

"Because you like her and want to date her, maybe?" asked Nate sarcastically.

Theo threw him a look, "Who's being an asshole now?"

Nate huffed then turned back to Cal, "Listen to me," he took him by the shoulders, getting so close to his face that for a second he was afraid he was going to kiss him, "You've been drooling over Rania for months. Months, Cal. And she finally made the first move because you were too chicken to step up."

"Chicken?" laughed Theo beside them.

Nate closed his eyes taking a deep breath, deciding to ignore his brother, "She asked you out. You accepted. You're going on a date." he shook his head confused, leaning even more towards him, "What's wrong with that?"

Cal looked at him wide-eyed, imagining Rania's crystal eyes sparkling with excitement at the prospect of going to dinner with him, so different from the rust brown, almost red ones that were staring back at him. "Nothing, it all adds up," then he cleared his throat, "Shouldn't you be home by now?"

"What time is it?" asked Nate taking two steps back. Cal felt the air return to his lungs and he sagged against the door of his car. Well, his and Ezra's car.

Theo cursed checking the time on his phone, "Shit it's almost three."

Nate nearly broke his neck as he lunged to grab his backpack on the ground and then started running in the direction of their house, yelling a simple hello to Cal and for his brother to hurry up. Theo's eyes went wide, snorting with an amused grimace on his face.

Cal huffed out a laugh, "It's not three o'clock is it?"

Theo shook his head, with a lopsided smile too similar to his father's, "Not even close." then turned to his cousin and threw him a flying kiss, starting to walk after Nate. "Call me if you need any advice on what to wear."

Cal gave a thumbs up and then slipped into the car.

It didn't take him more than ten minutes before he arrived home, but once he parked his car next to his mom's, he sighed.

He needed to talk to his dad.

Cassian would certainly know how to handle this situation better than he was doing.

The front door burst open and a distraught Ezra, visibly in a hurry, opened the driver's door, grabbing his brother by the shoulder and pulling him out of the car.

"Ezra!" shrieked Cal with wide eyes, "What the fuck!"

"You're late." the eldest pointed out to him, then tossed him his backpack with a stern look, "Here."

"Sorry." Cal murmured, then pushed his hair out of his face, "I got stuck with Theo and Nate, I didn't notice the time."

Ezra stopped the frantic movements, looking at him worriedly all of a sudden, "Are you okay?"

Cal nodded, licking his lower lip, "Just Raina."

"Oh." murmured Ezra, "We can talk about her tonight when I get back if you want." he smiled at him, then seemed to remember that he was running late and Cal didn't have time to correct him and tell him that the problem was the exact opposite of what he thought that Ezra was already backing up.

The silence that greeted him in the house was unsettling.

"Hello?" he asked loudly enough for anyone to hear.

"In the kitchen!"

Cal smiled and kicked off his shoes before following the smell of lunch.

"Hi Mom."

Nesta was perched on one of the island stools as she munched on a cereal bar. "Hi dear." she looked up from her book to smile at her son, but turned serious, "What happened?"

Cal dropped his head back, huffing, "Am I a fucking open book?"

Nesta frowned, "No swearing."

"I don't see Andra here." he glanced around him opening his arms.

"I don't care, I don't want you to say them." and before he could retort, "And in this case you could have just as easily said I'm an open book without the need to shove fucking in it." she pointed out to him.

Cal nodded, knowing full well how pointless it was to engage in this conversation again. He pointed to the table set just for him, "You're not eating?" then arched an eyebrow, "Where is everyone?"

"I ate with Nora and Celia and then took them to practice. Andra is at school like she is every Wednesday." she got up too and sat down across from him at the table, closing her book and resting her chin on one hand, she asked, "So, what do you have?"

Cal took a bite, "Dad?" he asked with a full mouth, avoiding his mom's gaze.

"At work." then she huffed, "You failed a test?" guessed the woman.

Cal laughed, "Like that's even possible."

"Did you get in a fight with Theo and Nate?"

"I don't think that's possible either," he replied in a small voice.

"Cal," his mother's hand rested on his. He was forced to look at her and sighed, seeing the concern in Nesta's eyes, "Are you okay?"

He nodded. Evidently with not enough conviction because the woman in front of him bit her lip down thoughtfully.

"If you want I can call Dad and ask him to come home early," she offered, "If you want to talk to him, I mean," then continued, "You know he'd be here in three seconds."

Cal nodded again, knowing full well that his father would rush home even risking an accident if he knew one of his children was feeling down. Setting his fork down next to his plate he brought his hands to his face. He hated his mother when she did that.

He looked her straight in the eye as he told her so.

Nesta looked even more concerned, "I'm sorry," she told him, probably feeling guilty for pushing him too hard to talk, "if you want I'll leave."

"Nono," the boy replied promptly, then grimaced, closing his eyes. He grunted before muttering, "Raina asked me out."

He doubted his mother knew who he was talking about, but it didn't take a genius to figure out it was the girl he liked.

The room filled with an awkward silence.

"Ah." was Nesta's only response.

Cal resumed eating, his head down, "And I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"

"I've never really liked anyone before," he said, "and Raina is...she's special."

He smiled, thinking of the billions of braids she so proudly wore every day in a different hairstyle.

"Did you say no?" asked Nesta. Cal felt her curiosity even without the need to look at her.

He shook his head, "I said yes," he confessed, "but I need dad to tell me how to act. I don't have a clue what to do. Where to take her, how to dress, whether I should text her first. All that shit there- sorry." he smiled mischievously when Nesta bounced him again and hoped he'd taken her mind off the real problem.

"And how come," she began, "I can't be the one helping you?"

Cal looked at her at that point, "Because you're not a people person." he pointed out, "Dad managed to win your heart, it won't be that hard for him to give me advice on how to win Raina's." he took a sip of water, "When I think about it, dad and Raina have a very similar personality. " he shrugged, "So he can tell me what he likes and I can do it for her." he nodded as if he had discovered the Holy Grail, but that sly grimace disappeared from his face when he saw his mother's expression.

She sighed, her eyebrows so high they almost touched her hairline, "Dear, that's the dumbest thing you've ever said in your entire life." she told him in amazement.

Cal opened his mouth wide, offended, "Mom-"

Nesta raised a hand to stop him, "Let me talk."

He nodded once.

"First, answer these simple questions," she began, "What were you going to do about it this afternoon?"

"Ask her if she was okay with Friday night to go out." he said without hesitation.

"Good." she smiled at him for half a second, quickly becoming serious again, "And where would you like to take her?"

Cal tilted his head to the side, not understanding where this was going, "Why are you-"

"Just answer."

"I was thinking of taking her to the diner, to Ben's," he replied, unsure of his choice, as a faint blush made its way across his cheeks.

"Perfect." she gave him the thumbs up, "And since it's a diner, you'll just need to wear simple jeans and a t-shirt, or am I wrong? Nothing too fancy or flamboyant."

The boy huffed, irritated that his mother was giving him all logical answers to his senseless and fake concerns. "Okay, and your point?" he asked, scratching his forehead.

Nesta smiled at that, "My point is that these aren't your real problems and you're scared of all kinds of other stuff."

"I really don't like talking to you about this stuff." he muttered, folding his arms across his chest. They both knew that wasn't entirely true. They both knew that if either of them were really uncomfortable, they wouldn't be able to get a word in edgewise.

"Yeah I didn't either." scoffed his mother, "But I would have liked someone to tell me that it was normal for me to feel all those emotions the first time I met your father."

Cal frowned.

"You don't have a problem with setting up a fancy date," she told him, "I raised you teaching you what respect and kindness is and if I failed, then dad took care of it.  Because both you and your brother are golden boys and you'll never have to worry about not being offering enough." Nesta looked away, "But while your brother can... handle?" she asked no one in particular, searching for the right term, "His emotions relatively well, you're like me." then she giggled and Cal knew they were navigating waters his mother didn't particularly like to touch, "And I'm a mess when figuring out how I feel."

Cal knew what she meant, so he nodded.

She was right.

Talking to the twins about what was really bothering him had never even been an option. The idea of having to tell them how much he actually liked Raina had been more terrifying than the emotions themselves. He knew they wouldn't understand and would wait until it was socially acceptable for him to tell Raina directly how he felt without scaring her off.

"How about you finish eating and then we'll go for a walk along the river?" his mom suggested, "Or do you have to study?"

Cal shook his head, smiling shyly at her, "I'll finish eating and we'll go." then he took to gorging himself.

Nesta chuckled as she went to get ready to go out.

***

"When Dad asked me out the second time, right after our first date, I said no," Nesta said, looking across the river to the other side, where a couple of older poeple were walking slowly arm in arm.

They had paced for a half hour, in which Cal had told her about how they had met in the coffee shop in front of the school almost four months earlier and how she had offered him hot chocolate. How they had spent a whole day talking about everything and nothing, and how they now had an ongoing obligation to meet at least once a week in the same cafeteria, even though they ate at the same table every day with all their other friends.

Nesta had asked to see a picture of her, and Cal had been surprised to find out that he wanted his mother to like Raina more than anything else at that moment. Luckily, Nesta had been speechless and commented on the girl's silvery eyes, blinking a couple of times before giving him the phone back and commenting with a simple, "She's beautiful."

Now, sitting on a bench along the bank of the Sidra, Nesta was telling him about the days when Cassian had had to struggle to make her his.

"How come?" he asked genuinely curious.

Nesta smiled, lowering her gaze to the wedding band around her ring finger, "Because I liked the first date too much."

Cal furrowed his brow, "Were you afraid the second one wouldn't measure up?"

"No," she murmured, casting him a glance, "I knew perfectly well it would be better than the first."

"So why did you say no?" the boy asked impatiently.

"I knew that the second one would be better than the first one and that the third one would be better than the second one and so on and I was already so overwhelmed with my feelings that I was afraid it might become too much." she explained, "Your father was the first one to get close after so many years of me having my bad friendships and relationships." she frowned.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to," he made a point of reminding her. He wanted to be helped and would have liked to know more about his parents' lives before them, but he didn't want his mother to feel compelled to share things with him that still bothered her.

Nesta squeezed his hand lovingly, "Don't worry, those things are in the past and I have nothing to be ashamed of." she smiled at him, "I was with someone else before your dad and that man kinda ruined my life. I thought I would never be able to trust anyone in the future again. That I would never again feel the love and affection I had felt for him." she huffed out a laugh. She brought both hands to her lap and Cal shoved them into his pocket. "Then your father came along and it was all so sudden and I fell in love right away, hard. Completely lost for a boy I barely knew. And it scared the hell out of me."

"Why?" Cal already knew the answer, it was what he felt every time he saw Raina walking down the halls of the school. Every time she bit into a piece of bread in the lunch room and then made a disgusted face at how awful the food tasted.

"Because I could only imagine how much it would hurt if it ended suddenly. If I felt everything so strong in the good, it would be just as strong in the bad, you know?" she turned to him, more serious than ever.

Cal just nodded.

"Your father was hurt by it," she confessed. She began to play with her wedding ring, "He was so hurt, god." she giggled, probably thinking about the night she had rejected him, "He stood in silence for minutes on the front porch of my house gasping, thinking about all the possible things he had done wrong during dinner and the aftermath and we looked at each other and looked at each other until he asked me why and I couldn't tell him. He wouldn't have understood. Or he would have thought I was crazy."

The boy chuckled as he stared out at the glistening water under Velaris' winter sun, imagining his parents as kids, dressed up for a date. "How come you finally agreed to it?" he asked, later specifying, "To go on a second date I mean."

Nesta seemed to ponder how to phrase it, "Because I loved him."

Cal gave her time to process the words. If it was even half as difficult for her as it was for him, he needed to let her speak for herself.

"Because I realized that such a strong emotion, even if it was sudden and all at once, could only be a good thing. That even if it ended badly, I would have the memory of those happy, carefree moments." she nodded thoughtlessly. "I realized that something like that had to be reciprocal. A connection with a person like I had never felt before, not even with Tomas - who I believed to be the love of my life for years."

"I'm glad he wasn't," Cal murmured, chuckling.

Nesta gave him a light shrug, "Me too." then continued. "I knew your father wouldn't give up on me as easily as I was giving up on him. So after the thousandth time he asked me why I couldn't go out with him, I agreed and every time, every damn time, my heart gave out a little more.

"And I got to a point where I had nothing left to give, because he had everything about me. And I was okay with that. I was risking losing myself in what could easily have been a summer fling, but I knew it was worth it.

"Thankfully, it wasn't. Thankfully I trusted my feelings and kept fighting for what I wanted and even though sometimes your dad and I hit bumps along the way, it's still worth it. Every day."

Cal was watching her carefully.

Nesta often told her children that she loved them. He had heard her say I love you to their father many times, but never, never had he heard her speak in that open way, that vulnerable. She must have realized it too, because she took a deep breath, as if she had forgotten to breathe until that moment. Then she turned to him and put a hand on his face. Cal leaned into that touch.

"I just want you to know that you're not alone. That I feel that way too, right away. And I can assure you that if Raina is the right person for you, then she'll understand that too. Maybe it won't be the same for her, maybe it will take her longer to get to where you think you are now, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love you the same way." her eyes grew watery. "And never, ever be afraid that you're giving too much. There's no such thing as too much when it comes to love. Not in these cases."

Cal nodded, not sure he would be able to speak if he tried, but he knew his mother could see the gratitude in his eyes.

He couldn't imagine how his father must have felt when Nesta had confessed his true feelings to him. Cal was sure that the love she reserved for her children was different from the love she reserved for her husband, but certainly not weaker, not in smaller amounts. Just different.

"I know it's scary dear, but trust me when I tell you that feeling emotions so hard will bring you the best memories you'll ever make," she finally whispered.

Cal cleared his throat, not quite sure whether to be calmer or more agitated than before, but he said anyway, "Thanks mom."

Nesta turned to the snow-capped mountains that were visible above the town, "No problem."

They stood watching the river sparkle for too many minutes, but when they got up, Cal hugged his mother so tightly that Nesta was stunned.

They were used to exchanging kisses and hugs in their family, but she felt this was different.

She wrapped her arms around her son, despite the fact that he was much taller than her, and they rocked each other as the boy tried to bring order to the mess that was his head.

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[heliosthegriffin]

Jaune “Mean Bastard” Arc AU.

The Arc family is a family stapled into history with their deeds of heroism, their immense physical strength, willingness to accept others into their clan at the drop of a hat, fighting against insurmountable odds for no apparent reason other than it being the right thing to do.

...That was only half the story however.

Ozpin thought to himself as he watched a tall, very lean blonde strut off the airship.

“Please, please don’t make scene today, Mr. Arc.” Ozpin said to himself, but the tone lacked hope, and most of all was riddled with fear. “Your not even a student here! You didn’t even send in transcript! How’d you even get onto the airship!”

But, deep down Ozpin knew, he always knew, he was an Arc, and Arc’s found a way, one that most people wouldn’t call ethical, sane or even reasonable.

Ozpin shivered, the Arc clan had been much too quiet in recent years. Was he the reason?

What terrible reason could this new Arc have to come to his school.

“Gods help us all, gods help every one of us.”

-

“So, much for a warm welcome to Beacon.” Ruby muttered to herself in her crater.

“Need a hand?” A warm voice asked her.

Ruby looked up into the two bluest eyes she’d ever seen, and blushed deeply.

“You ok? Looking a little hot under the collar.” The man before her asked with concern.

Ruby could hardly speak, he looked like a modern day fairly tail knight. WIth long blonde bangs, sapphire eyes, handsome face, dressed in all white, blue, and gold.

“I..I”..I”m fine!” Ruby squeaked out.

The blonde boy reached out to grab a flailing hand and pull her to her feet. Ruby wasn’t ready for that however and ended up face to abs with him.

‘So warm, so firm, I could stay here forever.’ Ruby thought to herself. Before going atomic on her blushing, and Rose Warping ten feet behind herself.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, just thought you could use a hand getting up.” The man said with remourse. “I’ll let you go about your buisness now.

“RUBY ROSE!”

“Hmm?” “MY NAME IS RUBY ROSE! THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR HELPING ME!”

The blonde man reeled back from her sudden outburst of thanks.

A smile graced his face.

“Jaune Arc.”

-

“So I got this.”

*Unfurls Crescent Rose*

“Neat.”

“So, you got anything?”

“Hmm. not here.” “Oh, did you send it ahead?” “Nope just didn’t feel like bringing it from home. Didn’t think I need a weapon for this.”

“What! How are you going to fight any Grimm if you don’t have a weapon!? Even my sister needs Ember Celica before she goes punching Grimm out!” Ruby said doing so painfully bad shadow boxing.

“Oh, I didn’t come here to fight Grimm.” “What? Why are you here then, if you’re going to be a hunts-man in training you need to fight Grimm.” “Bold assumption, I’m not already a huntsman.” “Oh, yeah right, you look pretty strong and stuff...” “But, a correct one.” Ruby could only pout at being played like she had. Eye little eyes then spyed two blocky pouchs on his waist.

“What are those?”

“Oh those, one is my journal that take notes in, and the other, well, hehehe, I guess you could say it’s ledger.” “A ledger for what?” “Oh, for keeping track of debts and stuff.”

SIlence filled the space between the two.

“Are you a kneecapper?”

“Of sorts.” “I don’t think we can be friends.” “That is fair.”

“Do you work for the mob, or like, Torchwick.” “Nope, I work for me.”

“Freelance?” “All of my debts relates not to money, but personal experiences.”

“Oh, kinda like when you help some move, and they drive you across town?”

“Close enough, and looks like we’re at the auditorium, I’d say see you around, but since we can’t be friends, bye forever.”

“Wait, wait, I take it back!” But Jaune was gone into the crowd.

“Ahh, fiddle sticks.”

-

Ozpin looked calm and composed on the outside, but he was freaking the hell out on the inside. He lost track of the Arc, he fucking lost him! He could be anywhere doing anything!

He hasn’t even told Glynda, or anybody else, oh, gods this is going to be a blood bath.

He gave a inperceptible sigh, and decided to give his speech. “Hello, children-”

Warm breath behind him caused him to freeze.

‘When did he get behind me!?’

He could see the children murmuring at the unexpected guest.

“Hi, you must be Ozpin!” The warm voice said behind him. “I’m Jaune Arc lord patriarch of the Arc Clan, and you have been at the top of our shit list for five decades, you have a one day to prepare your last will and rights. Tah-Tah see you in twenty four hours.”

“What are you doing here young man! Get off the stage!” He heard Glynda yell at the Arc behind him.

He would stop her, but he needed to right his will again tonight.

Jaune Arc seemingly did nothing to react to Goodwitch but stare at her.

“Are you obstructing me?”

“Why yes I am, you are interrupting the initiation!”

“I see then.” Jaune brought out his note book.

“What are you doing!?” “Adding you to my shit-list ma’am, and if you don’t stop talking I’m going to just put you further up there.” Jaune said as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

“What I, I never, you, you miscreant!”

“Just keeping talking sugar tits, just keep going up my to-do list.” He shot a Glynda a smirk. “I changed my mind I want to break you into the Arc clan, we like ‘em feisty.”

She went Nuclear with rage and leveled her wand at him and fired a telekinetic wave at him.

“Oops,” Jaune said as the wave hit him, sending him out of the room and into the courtyard.

“That’ll teach him, the arrogant miscreant, should have been smarter to pick a fight here.” Glynda said proudly, “Someone get him off this campus and into a hospital.” “Ah, so kind. You do care, too bad you hit like a child.” Jaune said from behind Glynda picking her up in his arms like a princess “Well, fix that later.” Shooting her a wink in his arms.

‘So strong, and comfy.’ Glynda thought gobsmacked in his arms.

He then looked at Ozpin. “Remember old man, a day and no more.”

It was then that Jaune remembered a legion of students looking at him. “The fuck you all looking at, never seen a man take care of business before?”

The student shuffled around awkwardly.

“Yeah, I damn well thought so. Why are you all dressed so damn weird? Am I at a Anime con or a huntsman academy, Ozpin your standards suck.”

‘I like him more already.” Glynda thought. ‘Standards have been dropping for years.’

“Alright, I know whats happening next.” Jaune said proudly. “I am going to walk my happy ass out of here, and if anyone of you can so much as inconvience me, I will personally train or find someone to train you at the Arc compound.”

The student started looking very nervous, the man took down Glynda Goodwitch with no effort. What chance did they have?

Yang thought differently and launched a flying punch at him, Jaune bent his waist and launched a brutal kick straight into Yang's midsection and sending her through the ceiling.

Ruby came next like a rose petal reaper for his bent over next. Jaune grabbed it with his teeth and threw her aside like a puppy with just neck power.

Weiss not to miss a opportunity, speeds forward on glyphs to skewer him also while shoot a wave of ice at his feet, and a stream of fire at his face.

Casually he flexed his legs and shattered the ice, and kicked his leg out hard enough to send a shock-wave that knocked over idle students and killed Weiss flames.

Weiss however sped through the shock wave, and went to stab Jaune. The blade mere inches from his heart, Jaune leaned down to head butt Weiss while dodging the blade. Weiss went down like a sack of potatos.

Nora went down with hammer at Jaune, but he moved and let her fall on his knee, then grab her by the neck with his teeth throwing her through a wall. Jauen followed up with a kick behind him hitting Ren rag dolling him.

Pyrrha appeared last, an launched a series of precise shots and then strikes at Jaune, only for him to dodge each one, and knee her when she over extended by the millimeter.

WIth that the last of the challengers fell unconscious. All within twenty second, All with Goodwitch in his arms.

“Nice try, I’ll come collect the one’s who tried tomorrow, but first.” Jaune grabbed a handful of Goodwitch’s ass, causing her to gasp out. “I got break in the new Arc.”

“It’s Goodwitch..” She muttered weakly.

“Not anymore.” “...Ok.”

“Ozpin, anyone else that wants to try can do so tomorrow when I merc’ you ass.”

And with that the Arc left, taking Ozpins secretary with him.

-

That was the other side of the Arc clan, one of maruding madmen who recorded their grudges and never let them go, holding onto any slight for centuries, training their young to perfecting and taking fresh blood to increase their grudge spilling power.

Destroying Grimm Hordes because they killed a family pet.

Killing Tyrants for increasing taxes.

Cucking buisness men, because they heard they them demean their name.

The list goes on. But the fact is the Arc Clan is petty beyond reason, and always looking for more members... If you meet their interest that is.

AN: Added a drop of smut in there, don’t know how I feel about it. Hope it turned out ok. Then again it’s crack.

[cygnetofthesea]

Happy Mother’s Day, Iris

In honor of Mother’s Day, here’s a little bit of Iris celebrating with her family. Happy Mother’s Day to all the loving, doting mothers and mother figures!

On AO3

It was the smell of fresh coffee and the touch of soft lips pressing against her cheek and lips that woke her up. She kept her eyes closed as a smile broke across her face and the kisses traveled up to her lids.

She sighed in complete and utter contentment, reaching up to thread her fingers through her husband's hair. She stroked the thick locks, feeling his hum against her skin.

"Happy Mother's Day," he greeted her softly

"Thank you. How are the babies?" she murmured, her voice raspy from lack of use.

"Perfect as always."

Iris burst out laughing, finally opening her eyes to see Barry sprawled horizontally on his side of the bed, fully dressed and his legs dangling off the side. She leaned over and kissed the space between his brows, endeared by his goofy smile.

"Perfect, huh? I mean, they are perfectly beautiful but well-behaved? I don't know about that."

"They sure take the 'terrible twos' to the next level," he agreed. "The parenting books definitely were not written with them in mind. Want to sleep in a little more? You might need it."

He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead as she shook her head. "Uh-uh, I want to see the tornado twins."

They shared a smile, remembering how Cisco gave Nora and Bart the nickname after they had started vibrating slightly in place. They found that when the brother and sister were together and playing with McSnurtle, their excitement went up a level that caused them to vibrate in place. Barry and Iris had lunged to grab them before anything else could happen but it was safe to say, they kept the babies' interaction with McSnurtle to a minimum until Cisco finished his dampening bracelets for them.

Barry's smile dropped slightly, looking off to the side. She knew that look: his speed force senses were tingling, which meant the babies were acting up again.

Barry sped away and in a flash brought back little Bart and Nora in his arms as Iris sat up in bed. Her face lit up, any traces of grogginess washing away at the sight of her gorgeous babies. Her heart felt like they had doubled in size as she reached over to grab the nearest baby, Bart.

He made grabby hands at her, settling them on her hair and locket when she kissed his chubby cheeks. She leaned over to smooch Nora's too as Barry settled in next to her.

"It’s like      your    speed force senses were tingling," he said with a chuckle. "They spotted McSnurtle."

"Mama, Snurtle play!" Nora squealed before leaning over Barry's arm and turning to her mom as though she had the turtle she so coveted.

"Sn-snurtle play, Mama," Bart repeated looking at his mom inquisitively.

Iris smooched both her babies again after brushing their wispy curls. "Not today, babes. We're going to try to make it without incident today. Ok?" she asked, nodding with a smile.

The twins were only two-years old but it didn't stop Iris from talking to them like they understood complex language. She just loved the wide-eyed looks they gave her in return. Plus, Barry more than made up for it in the baby-talk department.

Case in point, he was leaning over Nora just then, adopting a goofy voice. "You wanna pway with McSnurtle the turtle? You want to pway wid him? Yes you dooo."

Nora just gave him the same wide-eyed look Bart had just given her. "Snurtle!" she repeated as though attempting to conjure him up.

Barry turned Nora to face Bart more fully and Iris did the same with Bart. They found when they didn't get their way, the best thing to do was let them play with each other and they'd forget all about their baby plights.

Barry grinned at Iris crookedly as the babies fought against their holds to play with each other. They released them, keeping a careful eye on their crawling bodies.

"I wanted you to have breakfast in bed without interruptions," Barry said, taking hold of her hand.

It was only then Iris noticed the familiar rolling breakfast tray covered with an assortment of her favorite foods and a single frangipani that could only be found in Bali. She spotted some familiar foods that definitely were not from Central City.

"Oh my god!" she squealed, drawing the attention of her babies before they turned back to their light wrestling. "Is that pan au chocolate from Gérard Mulot?" she asked in a perfect French accent.

It was her favorite bakery in Paris that she took Barry to on their third anniversary. She had fallen in love with the place that Barry made sure to get it for every special occasion or really, whenever Iris was in the mood for it.

Barry rolled the tray over her and let her dig in. "Yup and the one from Marais, too. Nothing but the best for my beautiful baby mama," he said pressing a kiss to her cheekbone.

She groaned in pleasure as the smooth, dark chocolate blended perfectly with the warm, flaky croissant in her mouth. "Holy sh-crap. If the kids weren't here, I'd pounce on you."

"Oh that can most definitely be arranged," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her. He took the piece of pastry she offered, licking the chocolate from her finger. "Tonight, after the portraits and dinner, it's just you and me. I have a whole day planned with us and the kids, it'll be enough to tucker them out for the night."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, sliding a grape in her mouth as she looked at from underneath her lashes. "And what exactly is going to happen once the twins are asleep?"

He peeked at said twins—they were happily occupied with a Flash plush toy, squealing "Dada!"—before leaning over to lick at her lips, taking any of the residual pastry with him. He kissed her, letting his tongue slide into her mouth to taste her.

"Oh I don't know, maybe we could watch Inception and light up that oyster candle thing," he said in a deep and husky voice.

She knew he was using his bedroom voice and normally it would make her body tingle enough to tackle him, but his words made her giggle against his lips. She leaned into the kiss some more, tilting her head to take in his lips because yes, despite the humor his words evoked, she would always want him.

She pulled away slowly, watching as he took his time opening his eyes, the flutter of his lashes making her heart clench.

"You still really think it was that combo that knocked me up?"

He looked at her, his cheeks flushed with desire, but he looked sheepish. "Hey, the guy said oysters were an aphrodisiac." The guy being a young waiter at the Japanese restaurant where Barry had gone to pick up their takeout.

"Please babe, as if we ever needed any aphrodisiac. Your libido is plenty." She pulled at her lower lip. "So is mine, come to think of it. Who knew nerds were my weakness. Or maybe it's just you."

"It better just be me," Barry growled, pretending to bite her. She pushed at his shoulder with a laugh.

"Besides, it's the act of      eating oyster     that's supposed to be the aphrodisiac, not sniffing an oyster-scented candle. Which I still can't believe you tracked down."

"Ok, we can skip the oyster candle," he amended.

"Please."

"And how about I give you a nice massage instead."

"Yes, please."  

 "With Inception on or off?"

Iris snorted. "Definitely off. I don't need Hans Zimmer making our lovemaking feel dramatic and scary. But we are watching it first."

"You got it." He kissed again and then grabbed a familiar looking album. It melted her heart every time she saw it and remembered the first time Barry presented it to her.

Iris has been four months pregnant with the twins and hadn't even thought of Mother's Day other than to buy flowers for Nora and Francine's graves. Despite her mother being absent in her life, she was grateful that she had at least given her Wally and been a mother to him. She had brought the flowers home only to be greeted with a huge arrangement sitting on their dinner table next to a brand new photo album.

She looked at the arrangement curiously before turning to Barry who was bringing over a matcha mille crepe cake from her favorite place in New York City. She had been craving matcha anything as of late and Barry never hesitated to speed over to Prince Tea House over in East End to get them for her.

"Hey babe, I already got the flowers," she said, gesturing at the bouquets in her arm.

He beamed at her, his eyes soft. It was that look he always gave her, that was reserved just for her: as though she was a marvel he couldn't believe existed. As though she was the impossible and not him and his speedster abilities.

"They're for you. Happy Mother's Day, Iris."

 Maybe it was her hormones—most definitely—or maybe it was that look he was giving her, but Iris could feel her eyes welling up. Barry immediately set the mille crepe down and gathered her in his arms, the flowers crushing in between them.

"You're a mom, Iris. A beautiful, wonderful one at that. You have been since the moment Nora walked into our lives that day and you deserve to be celebrated."

 She sniffled and gave him a watery smile. "And you're a dad."

Barry shook his head. "It's not the same. I…I wasn't there for Nora like I should have been, the way you were," he said with regret and residual grief. "But I'm going to do better this time around. I will be anything you and our babies need."

Iris cupped his cheek, stroking the five o'clock shadow there. "I know you will."

She knew it in her heart that he would do anything and everything for them. She kissed him softly, savoring the moment with his scent mixing with the flowers around them.

She pulled away and looked at the album. "But what's that?"

He grabbed the album and presented it to her. On the front cover, he had placed a candid picture of her, smiling brightly with a frangipani tucked behind her ear and a bundle of them in her hands. Barry had made it a habit to collect a bundle of flowers that surrounded the resort where they stayed. It was a large and private area that made it feel like they were in their own little world.

"I want to commemorate every moment of this," he said. "Just like I want to honor every single moment of our lives together. You're the most incredible woman, Iris West-Allen, and I know you're going to be the most incredible mother. I want our children to be able to see their mother every step of the way. How she carried them with love and nurtured them with the utmost care and compassion. Even while they were wreaking havoc on her hormones."

He had looked like he was going to say more, but Iris couldn't wait any longer. She took the album from him and set them on the table with the flowers and kissed him with everything in her.

When she eventually pulled away, she pressed their foreheads together, their heavy breaths mingling together.

"I love you Barry Allen."

"I love you, Iris West-Allen."

And so began tradition. Barry had taken a portrait of Iris with their camera, her wedding ring sparkling brightly as she rested her hand on her belly, curving around it as though protecting their babies. And she was protecting them, just as Barry would protect her.

This Mother's Day, they would be adding a third picture to the album, with the twins slightly bigger than the last photo.

Barry hugged her to him, the album against his chest with her image on the outside. "Ready to add to this?"

Iris glanced over at her babies fooling around on their bed and then turned to her husband, her heart full. She felt like the luckiest woman in the world.

"Always."

[bmblboop]

Struck Like Lightning

    (Contains spoilers for RWBY Volume 4)

Absorb Electricity. He felt something, not an emotion, just a gut-instinct. With everything that had happened; every coincidence that led Nora, that Grimm, and his family to Kuroyuri that night, he knew, somehow, that this phrase on his arm was connected to… something. It must be important.

The following is the introductory chapter to a Semblance-Soulmate AU in which a name or description of someone’s semblance will appear on their soulmate’s skin. The concept of a ‘soulmate’ is discussed in-universe and is treated as less of a one-and-done deal (nothing is 100% predetermined in RWBY). I plan to elaborate more on the Semblance mechanics if I end up finishing more chapters.

I am posting this in commemoration of Renora Week 2021 because this chapter features Ren and Nora! Let me know if you enjoyed it!

The days and weeks after the fall of Kuroyuri allowed Nora and Ren time to readjust and explore new parts of themselves. Ren’s sudden companionship had brought out a new side of Nora; she had someone to talk to, someone to bounce ideas off of. Someone who didn’t judge her or pretend she didn’t exist. Nora often took the lead when following the trails and roads, in hopes of finding them someplace else to stay. That town had never felt like a home to her, but to Ren, it was everything he’d ever known. He was quiet, but observant, and getting better at his newfound abilities, which gave them both a sense of comfort. They didn’t have to fear the dark so long as they had each other.

One restless morning, the two were walking east, caught up in conversation.

“…so that’s why I think I like my hair short. Not that long hair is bad – it just gets tangled up in everything. You’re smart Ren, keeping it tied up like that.”

“-huh?” The sudden praise had caught him off guard.

“You pull hair up to keep it out of your face! I have no patience for that, so that’s why mine is short!”

“Oh, yeah. Do you think we could take a break soon?”

“Sure!” She scanned the treeline for a spot. “Ummm, let’s sit there.”

They made their way to a small boulder under the shade of the trees. Nora climbed up and sprawled on top of it to stare at the sky. Ren sat at the rock’s base and scratched his sleeve. His arm wasn’t itchy, but there was something-

It must have been the light of the fire playing tricks on my eyes he thought. He gripped his wrist tighter.

But something was nagging at him, something deep in his soul. To look again, to make sure it was just nothing. In broad daylight, surely if there was anything there-

Pulling his right sleeve back, Ren balked. On the inside of his arm were two words.

Absorb Electricity

“What-“

“What? What is it?” Nora pondered, sitting up and leaning over.

“Absorb-? What do those words mean?”

“What words?”

Ren turned around. Nora was looking at his arm too, with a quizzical expression on her face.

“Those words!” he pointed to inky writing on his arm.

“I don’t see anything?”

Ren did a double take; looking at Nora, then back to his arm.

“If you’re making a joke, I don’t get it.” Nora deadpanned, head propped up in her hands.

You don’t-? But it-? I’m not-? Ren dropped his arm and pushed the sleeve down. “It’s fine, I must be seeing things.”

Nora shrugged and turned back over, watching the clouds gather above.

--

They found a rocky overhang to camp under for the night. Nora passed out pretty fast; she had gotten a lot more comfortable sleeping through the demon-filled nights with someone by her side. Ren just stared at the embers of the fire and let his thoughts wander.

I know they weren’t there before I met her. Before… that night. So where did it come from?

A distant shriek echoed over the valley, and Ren could feel his heart beating in his ears. Immediately, he was awash with the calming greytones of his semblance. The scream turned to baying. A Beowulf then, probably alone and several miles away.

Exhaling slowly, he returned to color, the gears in his head returning to the question of the mysterious words. He looked at Nora, her deep sleep undisturbed by the distant Grimm calls.

I also never had this power, this courage, before that night. I feel like there is something…

He gripped his arm. Absorb Electricity. He felt something, not an emotion, just a gut-instinct. With everything that had happened; every coincidence that led Nora, that Grimm, and his family to Kuroyuri that night, he knew, somehow, that this phrase on his arm was connected to… something. It must be important.

And what does electricity have to do with anything?

--

Climbing over a mountain in a thunderstorm was never their intended route, even less so when a stray bolt pierced the heavens and struck true.

Nora collapsed, and so could have Ren from the shock. Without thinking, he ran toward her - her body lying still and crackling with electricity. To both of their surprise, Nora was alive. She sat up, singed but supercharged, and no worse for wear other than some temporary hearing loss. (Which she demonstrated when she inadvertently screamed in his face: “Wow Ren, I lived!”)

Together, they settled into a rocky alcove further down the mountain to wait for the storm to pass. Once out of the rain, the pair took the time to laugh away the adrenaline. Safely out of the storm, Nora shouted to the sky, taunting the Gods that had tried to kill her and failed. The thunder only grumbled in response. She traced the thunderbolt-shaped markings the impact left on her with her fingers, and watched them fade away over the next few days.

It felt dream-like, the week following the storm. Perhaps it was just the stress of surviving something so scary, but Ren felt stronger and closer to her than before. One night, curling next to the fire, he began to lay his head on his arm to go to sleep. Out of curiosity, he pushed back his sleeve and stared at his arm.

By the light of the campfire, his skin was blank - the words were gone.

Perhaps, he pondered, that was just a warning. It told him that lightning was going to strike, but she would be okay. Perhaps the words disappeared because they were fulfilled, like a destiny that had come to pass? He was too tired for this, his eyelids were growing heavy. He pushed the thoughts away and drifted to sleep.

-

Years later, when the two survivors worked their way into Beacon Academy, did all the stars align. It was at lunch, with their team and their friends of team RWBY.  Pyrrha had brought up the importance of balanced meals when Yang interjected that Jaune had taken all the chicken nuggets.

“I did NOT!”

“Then why is it the only thing on your plate?”

“BECAUSE, um…”

Ren looked back at the textbook, tuning out the argument and glancing over the chapter’s topic for next class. His preemptive studying was interrupted with an elbow jab to his ribcage.

“What?” he said.

“We should be social, you know.” Nora scolded under her breath before turning to the group and gesturing with a boisterous “HEY!”

A sinking feeling in his gut began to form. If there was one thing Ren could never figure out about Nora, it was her immunity to social anxiety.

“Not that taking down a monstrous Nevermore and giant Deathstalker isn’t bonding enough, but I think we should get to know each other better!” she exclaimed. “Anyone know a good ice-breaker?”

Their leader Jaune perked up, “Ooh, how about everyone’s favorite movie or franchise?”

“Too broad.” Weiss replied.

“How about our weapons? I bet everyone has a cool story about theirs!” Ruby added with a glint in her eyes.

“We could talk about our favorite books.” Blake offered.

“Ha, everyone knows the best ice-breaker is sharing semblances,” Yang smirked, “and your semblance-soulmate.”

Pyrrha choked on her salad. Ruby groaned and leaned back in her seat. Blake visibly stiffened.

Breaking the silence, Jaune scoffed. “C’mon, not everyone knows that.” He then rushed to clarify - “It’s not like it tells you their name. You could walk right past them and never know!”

“Yeah,” Ruby pouted, “and maybe some of us don’t want to deal with that extra layer of existential dread.”

“Aw, but that’s what makes it exciting!” Yang teased.

“That’s what makes it agonizing!” Ruby retorted, “Knowing you have a compatible life-partner somewhere in the world and your only hint will disappear when you meet them?!”

“Hang on a second.” Ren interjected, “I thought we were talking about semblances?”

“We are, but y’know…” Weiss was tapping the inside of her arm. “…the Semblance mark.  It can only be read by the person whose skin it appears on, so sharing that knowledge would be another way of bearing your soul to the world.”

“It’s highly personal.” Pyrrha nodded in agreement.

Yang put her hands up in defense. “We don’t have to share them. I just suggested it because it’s so personal. It’s like the fastest ice-breaker in the world.”

Yang’s awkward laughing aside, Ren was still lost. Luckily, Blake picked up on his uncertainty and continued the conversation fluidly.

“It describes the semblance of a person you are destined to come across. According to popular belief, that person is your equal – your other half so to speak.” Blake’s voice then dropped into a hushed monotone, gripping her wrist. “Of course, some people believe strongly in it, while others prefer to forge their own path.”

“Right,” Jaune jumped in, “there’s no rule about marrying them or anything.”

“So it’s more of a suggestion, then?” Nora asked in confusion.

“I find it all very poetic.” Pyrrha said. “I’ve heard that your soulmate mark will disappear after you meet them. After that, it is up to you to forge that bond in person. Nothing is set in stone; it’s a path you can choose to take.”

“Whoaaa.” Nora mused. “Wait, how come I never got one!?” Nora was on her feet in surprise. “Is it possible I didn’t notice?”

Ren was only half listening to the conversation now as the puzzle pieces aligned and clicked together. Words. Semblances. Partners. Those letters he nearly blocked from memory, blocked with the rest of Kuroyuri... didn’t they mention something about electricity?

Two semblances tied together. Two souls cross paths and find each other’s company.

It is pretty poetic, isn’t it?

--

[just-my-fandom]

Chapter 2: Trick or Treat, Freak

Summary: After Will sees something terrible on trick-or-treat night, Mike wonders whether Eleven’s still out there. Nancy wrestles the truth about Barb. Dustins sister finally talks to Mad Max, but doesn’t get the response she wanted.

Tag list; @folly-olly @chinchillagirl18

Story list; Chapter 1

Note; Damn I suck at keeping up with series’, I’m sorry it took me five months to get the second chapter in, school and work is keeping me (too) occupied! I also started improvising in the end because my Netflix has been cutting out, and I don’t know the episode word-for-word by heart!

“Oh! I want to see those pearly whites!”

You and Dustin are dressed all out. Gray suits and large backpacks, each holding your own proton blaster. Side by side, you aim your blasters at one another, smiling at the camera your mother held up,

“Who you gonna call?” Claudia hums the Ghostbusters theme song, and laughs when you purposefully hit Dustin in the shoulder with your blaster. 

You skid your bike to a stop just outside the school, laughing when Will runs up, yelling, “Ghostbusters!”

“Hey, Spengler!”

“Egon!”

“Venkman!”

“Whoa whoa.” Mike pulls you away from Lucas, pointing to Lucas’ name tag on his suit, “Why are you Venkman?”

“Because I’m Venkman.” Lucas states, Mike shaking his head. “No, I’m Venkman.”

“Why can’t there just be two Venkmans?” Will asks, innocently, Mike scoffing and glaring at Lucas. “Because there’s only one Venkman in real life. We planned this months ago.” 

Mike presses a hand to his chest. “I’m Venkman. Y/N’s Barrett, Dustin’s Stantz, Will’s Egon, and you’re Winston.”

“I specifically didn’t agree to Winston.” Lucas crosses his arms, Mikes eyes widening in an ‘are you serious’ expression. “Yes, you did!”

“I don’t think he did.” You look at Will, who shakes his head. “No one wants to be Winston.”

“What’s wrong with Winston?” Mike looks at you, and you press your lips together, tightly. “Winston joined the team super late, he’s not really funny, or a scientist.”

“Yeah but he’s still cool.”

“If hes so cool.” Lucas snips, “Then you be Winston.”

“I cant.” Mike sighs, and your eyes scan the school yard as they continue to argue, furrowed brows relaxing with realization. “Shit.” You face the group, “Guys?”

The four boys look at you, and you point past them, to the kids getting off the bus. “Why is no one else wearing costumes?”

Standing at your lockers side by side, Will watches you unzip your suit and step out of it. “You wore clothes underneath?”

“You didnt?” You pick up the suit and bag and shove them into your locker, slamming it shut before picking up your bookbag, turning and jerking to a stop to stare at Max, who rolled down the hall towards you on her skateboard.Your eyes watch as she skids to a stop in front of her locker, putting her board inside and grabbing her books for the next class.

“You really like her, huh?” You blink and look at Will, shaking your head as you sigh, deeply. “No. It’ll go away.” Your eyes shift back to the red head. “I hope.”

“Why dont you just talk to her?” Will asks, and you frown, finally turning your full attention to him. “She called us stalkers and creeps. I dont think she’d want to be friends with a creepy stalker.” Without realizing, your eyes are on her again, “Besides, she probably doesnt even like girls.”

“You never know until you talk to her.” Will raises an eyebrow, and you squint your eyes. “Since when did you get so good at this kinda stuff?”

“My mom has a boyfriend.” Will shrugs, and you snort, nodding towards the classroom you both shared down the hall. “C’mon.”

.           .               .

Max opens her locker and shoves her first and second period books inside, heaving a deep sigh of exhaustion.

A small clearing of a throat causes her to glance over, finding you, shifting your bookbag on your shoulder, and a nervous smile on your lips. Cute.

“Uh, hey.” You wave, and instantly drop your hand to your side, “I’m Y/N.”

“I know.” She nods, once, shifting onto one foot, “You’re a stalker like your four buddies.”

You laugh, nervously, shaking your hand as you pull at the sleeves of your shirt. “No. No, we weren’t stalking you. I-I mean my brother and my friend, Lucas, were, but I was just curious. You’re new here in Hawkins and I saw that you really like Dig Dug at the arcade.”

“So your brother is Dustin?” Max raises an eyebrow, and you nod, “Great. So you’re related to a stalker.”

“My twin, actually.” You flinch, “That’s not what I came to you about. Halloweens tonight, and since you’re new to town, I was wondering if you wanted to go trick or treating with us.”

“No thanks.” Max slams her locker shut, stepping back, “I dont hang out with stalkers.” You press your lips together when she turns around, walking down the hall to the classroom you also had to walk to.

“Great talk.” You exhale, shakily, glancing around before following her. You drop down into your desk and heave a deep sigh, Will glancing over at you then to Max settled in the back, “So?”

“So what, Will?” You mutter, dropping your notebook on your desk before crossing your arms, leaning into your seat. “Did you talk to her?”

“Did I talk to her?” You repeat, and Dustin looks over his shoulder at your harsh tone, “Yeah I talked to her. She called me a stalker and a creep. Us stalkers and creeps. So she wants nothing to do with me.”

Will frowns and glances at Dustin, before he watches you prop your chin on your hand, and write the notes on the board.

. . .

“You’re late.” Billy is propped up against his car, cigar in hand as he watched Max round to the passenger side,

“I had to pick up make up homework.”

“Jesus, I don’t care.” Billy tosses his cigar down, stomping on it before tossing open his door, “Late again and you’re skating home.”

Max waits until he’s in the car before rolling her eyes, settling in next to him and curling up against the window. Halfway down the road is when Billy decides to speak up again. “God, this place is a shithole.”

“It’s not that bad.” Max protests, quietly, mind taking her back to you. She had seen how quiet you were in class today. She caused that by being cold to you in the hallway.

“You liking it here?” Billy snips, eyes glancing at her then back to stare at the road, “It smells like literal cow shit.”

“No.”

“Then why are you defending it?” Billy narrows his eyes to Max, but misses her rolling her eyes a second time that day. “I’m not.”

“Sure seems like it.”

“It’s just.” Max sucks in a deep breath, trying to make sure she didn’t have an attitude. “We’re stuck here, and.”

“Yeah. Whose fault is that?”

“Yours.” Max mutters, so Billy raised his eyebrows and glanced her. “What was that?”

“Nothing.” Billy raises his hand to his ear, “Whose fault is it Max? Say it.”

“No.”

Billy clenches his jaw, hand jerking to shift the gear of his car, which lurches when it suddenly picks up speed. Max’s eyes snap to the road, where up ahead, four figures pedal on their bikes. You and the party.

“Billy, slow down.” Max demands, Billy chuckling and looking at her. “What? Those your buddies?”

“No! I don’t know them.”

“Well I guess you won’t care if I hit em, huh?” Billy drums his hand on the steering wheel, eyes settled on you reaching over to shove Dustin, “Bonus points if I hit all of them in one? Or maybe just the girl.”

“Stop, that’s not funny.” Max turns in her seat, mind racing. She just met you. Is she really going to lose you before she has a chance to be friends?

You look over your shoulder at the loud roar of Billy’s car, your eyes widening when the car jerks to speed up, your gasp inaudible from how hard you suck in, “Guys. Guys, we gotta move!”

“Billy, stop!” Max orders, hand reaching out to jerk the steering wheel away from the group, to the opposite side of the road.

Your bike wobbles so you fell sideways, jaw hitting the rough road so your head jerked back up, groan loud as Dustin fell into the grass, Mike and Lucas dropping their bikes to scram back into the road, both grabbing your arms but their eyes remain on the car now speeding away.

“What the fuck?!” You jerk your arms away and rub your jaw, hissing before pulling your hand back, staring at the blood on your fingers and palm,

“Was that...?” Dustin points to the car, before looking at you, catching the blood on your face and hand, “Ah, shit.”

. . .

“I swear to God, if I get another 3-Musketeers I’m going to kill myself.”

You snort and toss your hair up into a lose ponytail, taking your candy bag back from Mike as you glance at Lucas, who holds up said candy and grimaces.

“What’s wrong with 3-Musketeers?” Dustin asks, foreign high offense to the dark skinned males statement,

“What’s wrong with 3-Musketeers?” Luke repeats, chucking the candy so Dustin barely caught it, grinning at it before shoving it into his bag, “No one likes 3-Musketeers,”

“Yeah, it’s just nougat.” Will agrees, shrugging at your scrunched nose face,

“Just nougat?” Dustin protests, Will nodding, “Just nougat. It is top three for me.”

“Eh, top five.” You squint, ignoring Dustins glare,

“Top three?” Mike breathes, Dustin repeating in agreement, “Oh, God, give me a break!”

“Seriously, I could eat a whole bowl of nougat, straight up!”

Suddenly, a figure wearing a white mask jumps out in front of you, your brows furrowing when the four boys at your sides all screech, your eyebrow raising as you glance at them, then to the figure, “That’s it?”

“Seriously?” The figure pulls off the mask to reveal Max’s face, her mouth gaped as she stared at you. “Out of all of you I’d expect you to scream.”

“I’m not a pussy.” You snip, Dustin hitting your shoulder with this back of his hand. You roll your shoulder away from him, narrowing your eyes to your twin.

Max nods her head and turns, only getting five steps before she glances over her shoulder, noticing that you nor the four boys had moved to follow her, “You guys coming or what? I heard we should hit up Loch Nora, that’s where the rich people live, right?”

“Seriously?” You mock, Max’s face slightly falling at the irritation in your voice, “I thought you didn’t want to hang out with us because we’re ‘stalkers’?”

“Look, I didn’t mean that,” Max sighs, and you hum, tilting your head,

“Was that before or after you had your brother almost kill us?”

“Wait. What?” Will looks at you, confused, Max shaking her head and narrowing her eyes.

“You think I did that on purpose? He’s an asshole either way, and, he’s not my brother.”

“Whatever.” You look down at your bag, “Let’s just go to Loch Nora.”

. . .

“Another full size. Like, seriously, rich people are such suckers.” Dustin shoves another snickers bar into his bag, handing you a full (favorite/candy) bar so you smiled, elbowing his arm, “Wait.” Dustin looks at Max, “You’re not rich, right?”

“No.” Max laughs, “I live up Old Cherry Road.”

“That’s totally tubular.” Dustin speaks, looking at you to see you shaking your head, nose scrunched up, “What? Did I say it wrong?”

“Just don’t say it at all.” You demand, and Dustin rolls his eyes, glancing over when Lucas chucks another 3-Musketeers at him.

“Hey.” Max speaks up, your eyes shifting to her. “Look. I’m sorry I called you guys stalkers.” She shrugs. “But I mean. You guys were spying on me a lot.”

“Yeah, I’ll admit to that.” You breathe out a laugh, pulling out a sucker to unwrap. “But like I said earlier today, we don’t get a lot of new people here in Fucktown, so we get every chance we can to see a new face. Especially a cute one.”

You stop mid way of putting the sucker in your mouth, eyes widening in realization to what you had said. “Shit. Shit, I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Max shrugs, eyeing you. “I never said I didn’t think you were cute.”

“So you think I’m cute?” You grin, Max rolling her eyes.

“I’m not admitting it.”

“I’ll take it.” You click your tongue, looking over at Mikes shout for you. You see him knelt beside Will, whose hands are over his head in an attempt to curl himself into a ball.

“Will?” You drop your bag to move forward, kneeling down in front of your best friend so you could grab his wrists, noticing how he flinched roughly, “Will, it’s just me.”

“I saw it again.” Will breathes, his eyes snapping up to you. “The thing I saw at the arcade.”

Your brows furrow as you glance over to Mike, who shakes his head, informing you he didn’t know what Will was talking about. “Okay.” You murmur, pulling Wills hands so he began to stand up with you. “Let’s get you home.”

“Wait, you’re just going to stop trick or treating?” Max asks, and you glance at her, eyes slightly narrowed.

“Yes. I am. Dustin, take my bag. Eat my candy and I’ll pop your bike wheels.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Dustin clutches your bag and his to his chest, gasp loud. He watches as you link your arm through Wills, leading him down the street back towards Mikes house to call not only your mother, but Joyce.

“Are they, like, a thing?” Max asks, crossing her arms as she turns to the three boys left with her.

“Ew, gross.” Dustin scowls, nose scrunched. “They’ve been best friends since like, first grade.”

“Besides.” Lucas shifts his bag to hang over his shoulder. “Y/N likes girls.”

Max nods, slowly, glancing in the direction to where she could see your back, her feet bringing herself to follow after your brother.

[mysterioh]

hello neighbor [ 1 / 10 ]

Pairing: Writer!Bucky Barnes x Single Mom!Reader

Summary: Brooklyn Heights’ residential playboy has got his eye set out on the new girl across the hall. She’s got it all. The looks. A killer smile. A pretty laugh. Two cute kids……………..wait a second.

Taglist Open! 

Masterlist

Bucky wakes slowly, blinkingly. 

He slept a sleep that boasts of the bottled ruby red Burgundy sun, the whispered tune of slow jazz wafting in a dimly lit room, and her eager fingers running across his tailored suit. 

There’s a smear of red hot lipstick on his pillow with traces of it marking his cheek. Sunshine pours into the room through the window. The curtains add an orange glow to the morning sun. Warm in its color; cool in its embrace. The songbird beckons with a lively song but the air in the dull-colored room is thick with sleep, emptiness, and her. 

The slow rise and fall of her chest, naked against the white sheets. Bucky can hear her breaths, heavy and slow. He doesn’t need to turn over to picture her golden waves against sand-colored skin. The bed is enveloping, tempting, and teasing, but he slips out anyway. 

He rubs the side of his cheek, smearing the red onto his fingers as he exits his room and goes straight to the Keurig. After making a cup for himself, he slides open the door to the tiny balcony of his apartment and steps out. 

In an instant, the gentle summer sun warms his skin — like kisses from the divine. 

Kisses from the divine. 

That’s a good line, he thinks to himself and files it away for when he sits to write. 

A chorus of birds dancing in the breeze drone out the dull sound of ongoing traffic while the strong aroma of breakfast reaches his nostrils all the way from the cafe across the street. Leaving his mouth watering at the smell of warm bread, scrambled eggs, and sizzling bacon. 

Bucky leans against the railing, coffee mug in hand as he observes the start of the day for his neighbors. The owner of the corner store lifts the steel rolling door with ease while another shop owner pulls out a rack of clothes and tables of trinkets with eye-popping signs that denote some sort of sale when the prices weren’t really worth it. Children run by, hollering and teasing, heading towards the park and it’s like torture to his ears. Shrill and coarse. It ruins the delicate mood. He huffs while taking another sip of his coffee, hoping it’d help alleviate the pain. 

Sadly enough, it’s run cold and to make it even worse Charlotte from the night before finds him in the solace of his balcony. 

“Hey there,” she murmurs sleepily as she rests her chin on his shoulder. She’s wearing his shirt and he's trying to figure out who gave her the right to. “You left me all alone there,” she pouted. 

Oh God, she’s a clingy one. 

Bucky groans quietly, but she doesn’t notice. 

“I had fun last night,” she whispered into his ear, seductively like she’s begging him for more

Bucky chuckled at her. Maybe five years ago it would’ve been a huge boost in his ego but now it’s just another lackluster compliment. 

She slides her hand against his bare chest. “Come back to bed,” she cooed. 

Bucky turns towards her with a sardonic smile. 

“Listen, Amy,” he starts and her hopeful smile falls. 

“It’s Nora,” she replied as if he cared.

“Whatever,” he lifted his shoulder in a half shrug, shaking his coffee cup. She stands straight, sleepiness gone in an instant. “I had fun last night, but that’s it. We’re done here,” he said flatly.

She’s left in shock, mouth ajar and eyes wide. He was blunt and straight to the point, and it threw her off. 

“So, enjoy this cup of coffee,” he hands it to her, “while I go take a shower. And by the time I’m done, I better not see that pretty face of yours around here,” he ordered with a sweet smile. “You got that?” 

She nodded dumbfounded and slightly ashamed. 

“Good,” he walked inside, the sound of a moving truck rumbling down the street. “It was fun while it lasted. See ya.” 

Bucky locks the door to his apartment before walking down the hall. He scrolls through his phone, searching for Sam’s number. 

The elevator bell rings signaling the doors to open. He hears footsteps exiting the elevator and quickens his speed to make it in before it closes. Eyes glued to his phone, Bucky doesn’t notice a small pair of brown eyes watching him from the corner of the hall. 

His little fingers were wrapped around the handles of the nerf gun. He aims his gun at Bucky walking down the hall, following his every step through the sight of the toy. Like a sniper ready to fire, he waits for the perfect moment to strike. Bucky pauses in the middle of the hallway to read something on his phone, giving the boy a perfect moment to take his shot. 

He pumps his rocket blaster back and aims straight for the head. He shoots at Bucky and it hits him smack dab in the middle of his face.

“Haha!” the boy jumps out from the bend at the end of the hallway with the gun in his hand. 

Bucky mutters a curse underneath his breath while rubbing his nose.

Oh, how he hated kids. 

“What’s the matter with you?” he questions the boy. “Watch where you’re shooting that thing!” 

The boy laughs with a smug grin. “Maybe you should watch where you’re going, grandpa!” 

Grandpa? Who the hell is he calling grandpa? 

“Don’t call me that,” Bucky snaps at the boy. 

“Oh yeah and what are you gonna do about it?” he boldly asked. 

“Ezra!” you shouted, stomping down the hall. 

The color fades from the child’s face and his confidence begins to diminish quickly. 

Bucky turns around to see who was calling and freezes the minute his eyes fell on you.

His world seems to slow down just a little as you walk towards them. Your sun-kissed skin shines under the dull lights of the hallway, rather distractingly. He’s caught in the wonder of your gentle features, the loose strands of hair that swept past your face, the crease in your lovely brows, and the down curve of your full lips.

Bucky remains still as you scold the boy. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” you ask him with your hands on your hips. 

“Nothing,” Ezra shrugs innocently. You press your lips together and just stare at him. He doesn’t falter but instead flashes the sweetest face he could muster up. 

You sigh, letting your hands drop, heart softening every time he blinks. You try your best to remain firm, but he knows he’s won. 

You point down the hallway. “Inside now,” you order. “I’ll talk to you later.” 

He nods and dashes down the hall. 

You turn to look at Bucky and there’s a shine in your eyes that has him falling closer. One full of mystery and the expanse of the galaxy hidden within.

“I’m really sorry,” you apologize, taking a step closer. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t do it again.” 

“Oh no, it’s okay,” Bucky smiles. “Kids will be kids, y’know? Just moved in?”

A smile stretches across your face. “Yeah,” you chuckled and it’s like a pretty melody to his ears. “Just down the hall. Apartment 216.” 

“No way,” he exclaims. “That’s right across from mine.” 

“Really?” you asked with twinkling eyes. Damn, she’s pretty. “Nice to meet you, neighbor,” you extended your hand. 

His hand slips into yours immediately and shakes it. “Nice to meet you, too,” he replied calmly, despite his insides twisting by the touch of your hand. “My name’s Bucky.” 

“Bucky?” you say with a bit of a chuckle. Your hand falls back to your side. 

His cheeks blush a soft pink as his hand goes to scratch the back of his neck. He lets out an embarrassed, breathy laugh. “It’s just a nickname from when I was a kid. My name is James, but everyone calls me Bucky,” he explains. 

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend—” 

“No, it’s totally fine, um?” 

“Y/N,” you replied, “I have no nickname, so just Y/N.” 

Bucky nods with a laugh. 

“Sorry about Ezra again” you repeated, still feeling guilty, “he’s a bit of a troublemaker.”

Bucky shakes his head with a wave of the hand. “He’s a kid. What would you expect?” he says, although inwardly he wanted to repay the action. “I’m guessing he’s your brother?” 

Your cheeks burn a bright red and bite the side of your lip. “Ah no,” you reply, “he’s my son.” 

“What? He’s your son?” Bucky blurted. It only made the red hue of your cheeks darken. 

“Is it really that hard to believe?” you questioned, with a slightly defensive tone and a scowl forming on your face. 

“No, no!” he puts his hands up in front of his chest. “I was just—I mean you’re so young.” 

The scowl on your face fades and an embarrassed smile appears in its place. Your blush is still a bright red. You shake your head with a chuckle. 

“I’m not as young as I look,” you state. 

“But you look great,” he exclaims.

Bucky screams inwardly. “Why did I just say that? Now she thinks I’m a creep!” 

Bucky didn’t like to brag, but he was a bit of a Casanova of modern times. A “gentleman in the streets and a freak in the sheets” sort of man. Although the past ten minutes could have proven otherwise.

“Um, thank you,” you reply sheepishly.

“Hey Y/N!” a voice calls from behind Bucky. 

Bucky turns his head to see a woman with brilliant red hair sticking her head out the door of your apartment. She has a box of books in her hand. 

“Where do I put these?” she asks.

“Oh, just put them anywhere for now,” you chuckled with a shrug. 

“I should let you unpack,” Bucky says, wanting to escape. “I think I’ve taken up enough of your time.” 

“Oh no,” you assured. “It’s fine!” You take a step past him as if you were running from him. 

Not like he wasn’t expecting that. 

“It was nice meeting you again,” you wave, “hope you have a nice day!” 

Bucky nods with a sheepish smile. “Yeah, you too.” 

He turns on his heel and walks towards the elevator. He pressed the button and waited silently for the doors to open. The metal doors slid open and he entered the elevator.

“If she has a son, that means she’s probably married.” he thought. He presses the main floor button and sighs. 

“What a tragedy.” 

The doors close as he leans against the wall. He can’t seem to get that pretty smile out of his mind. 

“But I don’t see why that should stop me.” He ruminates on that thought for a while and wonders where that will take him. He shakes his head in refusal.

“What the hell, dude, you’re disgusting,” he mutters.

Permanent Taglist: @chuckennuggets1213 @murdermornings @marshyrebelcloud @miraclesoflove​  @fckdeusername​ @undiadeestos​ @hailmary-yramliah​ @andiebell2023​ @anjali750​

 Hello Neighbor Taglist: @disaffectedbarnes​ @rootcrop​ @nerdgirljen​ @simmisblog​ @supernatural-bangtanboys​ @marvelismysafezone�� @littlemissporter​ @dark-night-sky-99​ @justlovelifeblog​ 

Only Bucky Barnes: @infinity-saga​ @sebastian-stan-is-my-love  

[yixxes]

Brown Eyes | p.p.

Summary: After a fight with Peter, you decide to get away to your parents’ house and reflect on your relationship.

Warnings: a bit of angst?

Word count: 1519

.

.

“Honey, whatever it is, whatever he said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it, why don’t you give him a chance to explain-”

“No,” you grumbled. “he doesn’t get to explain anything, I don’t wanna hear from him, I don’t care if I ever see his face again!” 

You both knew that wasn’t true and if you were skilled at nothing else, you were an expert at saying things that you definitely did not mean in the heat of the moment, but you couldn’t help it. You were so damn angry and your mom, the one you inherited the short fuse from, knew better than to continue preaching to deaf ears. You would calm down, you would get your thoughts sorted, you just needed time to catch your breath and your bearings. 

“Okay.” She said, looking to the door. She was more than ready to give you the space that you needed. “I just want you to know that everything you’re feeling right now is okay. You have a right to feel all that you’re feeling, but just... try to give it a little more thought. I don’t know what all happened, but I do know that he’s a sweet kid. ‘N he loves you, probably more than you think.” 

You were laid up in the guest bed at your parents’ house for hours after your mom left the room. Not a single minute spent sleeping. As much as you didn’t want to think of him and his stupid face, it was all that you could think about.

 ‘He loves you, probably more than you know.’ At the time, you thought you were only half listening to what your mother was saying, but her last words of the night were really sticking with you. You really planned on sleeping, but instead, you found yourself laying in the dark thinking of Peter. He did love you, just like she said. You weren’t angry enough to write that fact off as false and there was nobody else in the room or in your head that would hear you losing your ‘I can’t stand Peter Parker’ resolve.

Private and undisturbed, you allowed your mind to wander. 

Remember the first day when I saw your face

Remember the first day when you smiled at me

You stood on your tiptoes reaching for that last can of Arizona tea on the shelf. It was pushed back way too far, but you were determined. You weren’t leaving without that tea. 

So, so close... just reach a little further aaaaand...

An arm shot out passed you to your left. They secured their hand around the can and brought it down. 

So far.

Except, that can better have been retrieved for you, or you’d have serious words for that person. You got off the tips of your toes and turned to face the stranger. A brunette, a brown eyed boy stood there, holding the last can out to you with a kind smile on his face. 

“Oh. Thank you!” Good thing for him, he did the right thing and didn’t have to get got in his throat. And good thing for you, you wouldn’t have to hurt this gentleman who was definitely taller than you. 

“Yeah, no problem. I hate when they push it all the way back.”

He didn’t tell you right then and there (it might’ve been a little creepy) but you were easily the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. 

“Me too. I climb shelves, but my mom’s here and she says I should stop embarrassing her like that in public.” It was a definite overshare of info and while you were regretting it, Peter seemed to get a kick out of it. When he finished laughing, there was a big smile left on his face that you knew you’d be stuck thinking about for days on end. “I’m Y/n.” You said with a shy smile. 

“Peter.”

Remember the first day when you took me out

We had butterflies, although we tried to hide it

And we both had a beautiful night

“Hey! - No, that’s too loud.” he cleared his throat and tried again. “Hey, Y/n, how’s it goin’?” His voice dropped a few octaves and he figured that he would sound cooler that way, but it still wasn’t right. “No, you gotta compliment her, what are you-”

“Peter?”

He froze up and turned to look at you, closely resembling a timid puppy. His face paled and his eyes were wide. “Y/n! What are you doing out here?”

“What are you doing out here, why didn’t you tell me you were here?”

After weeks of talking, he finally asked you on a date, but when he got off the car to knock on your door, he realized he had no clue what to say when he saw you, so naturally he hung back by his car to practice. It was coming along nicely... and then you caught him.

Peter gave a nervous laugh. “Oh. I was just making a phone call - hey, do you wanna go? We should get going.”

He was a perfect gentleman. He opened your door for you, waited for you to get in and said, “You look beautiful tonight. You always do.” 

“Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself.” Your plan was to play it cool but his compliment was so sweet and sounded so genuine, your heart was doing cartwheels. In the car, you went from smitten to snickers with the cheesy jokes he kept cracking to avoid awkward silence. 

“What did the nut say when it was chasing the other nut? Imma cashew!” “Ducks have feathers to cover their butt quacks!” The dad jokes knew no bounds inside of that car and thankfully you learned before the jokes came to an end that he did a pretty inventive Darth Vader impression: “What did the cow say to the gallon of milk? I am your father.”

I know that he loves me cause he told me so

I know that he loves me cause his feelings show

One of the things that you loved about being with Peter was that you never had cause to question whether he loved you or not. He was constantly reminding you of it no matter what the situation was and no matter what terms the two of you were on. Your loving boyfriend adored you so much, he had to make sure you knew. 

“...so Patch becomes Marcie’s new guardian which is so problematic because Marcie hates Nora and tries to make it seem like-”

“I love you so much.” He told you almost dreamily. 

You stopped short and an instant smile melted your serious expression. “Wh... I love you too.”

“I’m sorry, babe, you’re so cute I couldn’t just not tell you, but finish, I won’t interrupt again.” Peter loved when you told him all about the books that you were reading. You spoke with such passion and excitement and (at times) such seriousness. You could go on forever about the things you’ve read and he loved that you thought to share it with him. He always made it clear that the things that you were interested in were equally as interesting to him and you always loved that about him.

Three firm raps at the door at the guest bedroom door brought your montage of memories to an abrupt halt. The clock on the bedside table read 11:44 and you figured it was your mom again offering dinner - your father tended to avoid emotional situations because he wasn’t the best at handling them and usually ended up saying the wrong thing. He let you know that he loved you and and that he’d be around if you needed him and that was the extent of his communication about the issue at hand. 

You stayed laying down and kept an arm over your eyes. “Come in, mom.” She had a habit of turning on lights when she walked into a room. Something about the importance of being able to see the person that you were speaking with. You listened to the sound of the door opening and saw the lights turn on around the shade of your arm. 

“Sweetheart,”

Her voice was cautious. Careful. It got your attention straight away and you sat up to try to catch onto the bad thing that may have been occurring but all that you saw was your dear mother standing in front of Peter. 

Peter looked rough, to say the least. Wrecked was more like it, actually. He had puffy cry eyes that looked like they were starting to tear up again. His lips were in a pouty grimace and his brows were pulled in like he was physically hurting. As mad as you were, seeing him that way made you wanna reach out and hold him but you stayed right where you were. He had some serious talking and apologizing to do before you gave him any kind of mushy treatment.

“There’s somebody that wants to speak with you.”

He looks at me and his brown eyes tell his soul.

.

.

A/n: thank you sm for reading! Just wanted to put out there that the book mentioned in this imagine is Crescendo, it’s the second book of the Hush Hush series and it’s such a good series, if any of you were looking for something good to read! Also the song that inspired the imagine is Brown Eyes by Destiny’s Child (: Much love.

[avasharpe]

Oh Baby, Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

Chapter: One/one

Summary: It's Sara’s first Christmas since she became blind and she enjoys the Christmas festivities and her birthday in a new way with Ava by her side. 

Fandom: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Relationship: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe.

Characters: Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe, Minor appearances by Charlie, Zari Tarazi, John Constantine, Nate Heywood, Behrad Tarazi, Astra Logue, Ray Palmer, and Nora Darhk.

Chapter Rating: Teen Audience.

Additional Tags: Blind!Sara, Sara being a brat, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Trees, Kittens, Sara’s Birthday.

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

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Sara leaned against the counter of the island on the Waverider as she listened to Ava go on and on about her latest stab cast subject. They were making cookies for the Legends cookie exchange later that day and it was their turn in the kitchen. Ava was doing most of the work as she was the baker of the two and Sara was providing moral support and operating as a test taster regardless of whether Ava asked her to or not. 

“Can you hand me the flour babe?” Ava asked, pausing her rant mid-sentence. 

Sara nodded and reached out to feel the jars in front of her. Feeling down to the second jar on the left, she ran her fingers across the Braille label to read flour. Sara opened the jar and handed it to Ava.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you,” Ava said as Sara heard her measure and poured some into her batter. “Hey so I know you gave me your list for Christmas and your birthday, but is there anything you want for your birthday and not for Christmas? It’s just I know we're celebrating Christmas first this year so is there anything you want first and something you're okay with waiting to get or anything that is more of a birthday gift?”

Sara thought about it for a moment there were several things on her list that she was eager to receive, but it's not like she would have to wait additional days to receive them 

“I don't know? Whenever I get the gifts it doesn't really matter the long as I get that number one gift on my list.” Sara said as she bumped Ava with her hips as she came around to grab the food coloring. She had asked for Ava in black lingerie on her bed when she woke up.

Ava hummed and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Only if you're a good girl, Sara.”

She forgot how to breathe as Ava pressed a kiss to her neck and a shiver ran down her back. Ava moved back and walked over to the other side of the island and added a drop of food coloring to the bowls of frosting.

Sara looked down at the cookie and tried to ignore how wet her panties were. “So what do you want for Christmas, you haven’t given me your list.”

“I want a pegasus,” Ava said with a laugh. “Well, that and the serial killer’s coloring book.”

Sara hummed as Ava put the spatula down. She heard Ava move the bowl and the sound of the plastic wrap as Ava prepped the mix to chill in the fridge. Sara got a vision of Ava putting the dishes in the sink. There was still a good amount of cookie dough mix left on the spatula and Sara just couldn't let it go to waste. As her vision ended Sara reached forward to where she knew the spatula was and picked it up out of the bowl, before bringing it to her lips. 

“Hey!” Ava said, having caught her, but Sara just smiled and continued to lick off the rest of the cookie dough. “You're going to get salmonella!”

“Totally worth it,” Sara mumbled her mouth full of cookie dough.

She heard Ava click her tongue before her footsteps came around to her. Ava spanked her ass before she wrapped her arms around Sara's waist and kissed her cheek. 

“You're such a little shit,” Ava said, squeezing her waist. “What am I going to do with you?”

Sara smirked and put the cookie dough free spatula down on a counter before she turned around. She trailed her fingers up Ava’s arms to wrap around her neck before Sara leaned in. 

“No I'm not kissing your salmonella mouth,” Ava lamented, as she pulled back her head.

“Ava,” Sara whined, tilting her head and pouting. 

She tried to be adorably irresistible, but Ava untangled her arms from Sara's waist. Ava moved to push her out of the kitchen despite Sara digging her heels in. She turned around and held on to Ava’s neck hearing her giggle as she stopped.

“If you are going to continue to steal my cookie dough then you can wait outside with the other Legends and help them decorate the Parlor,” Ava said, as she trailed her fingers along Sara’s jaw to tip up her chin.

“I promise I'll be good. I'll even go brush my teeth,” Sara said, letting go of Ava and stepping away and taking a step backward.

Ava paused and Sara knew she had won her over, but resisted the urge to smirk and continued to pout. “You have to help me do the dishes and no more cookie dough eating, oh and you can't steal more than two cookies.”

“But we're making three different kinds?” Sara whined, she could smell the gingerbread cookies that were in the oven and her mouth watered. 

“You already had some of the sugar cookie batter which means that you can have one gingerbread cookie when they come out of the oven and one of the peppermint swirls once they're finished.”

“Can’t I have one of each?” 

“Fine, but any more, and I will revoke your cookie privileges and send you to your room.”

“What am my five-year-old?” Sara said, crossing her arms as Ava's bopped her nose before she heard Ava’s footsteps walked back over to the countertop.

“Yeah sometimes,” Ava said plainly without missing a beat.

Sara scowled but followed her back to the kitchen and helped her with the dishes. The rest of their cooking making was uneventful. As promised Ava let her have one of each cookie. Sara hated waiting for them to cool down so she pulled it apart and blew on it, taking small bites of the warm gingerbread as it melted in her mouth. Ava cuckold as she mixed the peppermint cookies and before she mixed in the eggs fished out a spoonful putting it in Sara’s hand. Sara smiled and hummed as she tasted the batter. Even at her brattiest Ava still loved her.

……………………………………………………………………

Sara's boots sank into the mud of the Christmas tree farm. She tapped her cane to either side in front of her despite how Ava held onto her arm and followed the rest of the Legends as they perused the trees. Sara pulled her coat hood up over her head more as she walked. It fell over her eyes, not that Sara cared as she couldn't see, but Ava pulled it back a tad so she could at least see Sara’s sunglasses. 

All of the Legends chatted and their voices bounced around her as they all passed the smaller 5 and 6-foot trees in search of a gigantic 9-foot tree to put in the Parlor. Only a handful of them with the exception of Ray, Mick, Charlie, Zari, and Behrad celebrated Christmas. Nate was always the one who wrangled them all for the seasonal holidays but was deviously good at getting them to participate in the Christmas fun. Besides, it was Astra’s first Christmas back on Earth and there was a sense of enjoyment in getting to see her smile and admit that she was having fun. Even if her Christmas list of knives rivaled Sara's. 

“What about this one?” Nate asked as they all stopped to look at it and Sara closed her eyes to breathe in the sweet smell of pine.

“It's awfully bristly,” Astra complained.

“It's not so bad,” Ava said as she put her arm around Sara's waist.

“It smells nice,” Sara said, closing her unseeing eyes to breathe in the scent again. 

Without her sight this year Sara was worried that Christmas would be different and that it wouldn't feel the same as it usually did without all of the lights and the decorations. She still found that she still enjoyed the smell of pine and cranberries and whatever other Christmas scents that Zari and Nate chose for the candle of that day. She loved to feel the warm fire that Jax and Mick had installed in the Parlor. So Mick could have a proper place to burn things, despite Gideon’s insistent protest and she loved the taste of all of the Christmas goodies Ava baked. It was still Christmas, it was just a different kind of Christmas.

“Eh, moving on,” Nate commanded. 

They walked around the entire farm nitpicking all of the trees and Sara let her boots squish into the mud, making a squeaking sound. Despite Ava’s protest, she giggled every time Sara did it. Eventually, everyone stopped somewhere towards the edge of the tree farm staring at Ava told her was a tall and bushy tree that overwhelmed Sara's nose with the smell of pine.

“This is the one,” Ava said, leaving in and wrapping her arms around Sara to rest her chin on Sara’s shoulder. 

“Let’s cut!” Mick shouted, making the final decision and Sara heard the wrestling of the tree branches.

It was quite a fiasco to cut down the tree as all of the Legends had an opinion about how it should be done. Mick just gruffed and kept going despite Ray and Nate’s insistence that they should do it a certain way. Eventually, the tree came down and everyone took a portion of it to carry back to the Jump Ship after they paid the tree farmer. 

Once on the ship, everyone went in different directions. Zari and Charlie went to grab the decorations, Nate and Mick put the tree in the Parlor, Ray and Mora went to get the lights and Mona and Behrad went to get the hot chocolate and cookies, leaving Ava and Sara to clean up the mud in the Cargo Bay after Ava made everyone change shoes. After Ava finished mopping while Sara stood there and held her supplies, Sara dragged her over to the fabricator room to get the ugly sweaters.

“Why are we doing this? You can't even see it!” Ava protested as Sara smoothed the ugly sweater over her chest. Taking the chance to feel her up, Ava grabbed her hands and forced them away. “Seriously Sara?”

“It's tradition besides they're not that bad,” Sara said giving a little wiggle and hearing the Bells on her sweater jingle. 

“They're completely ridiculous,” Ava said, her tone final.

“They're fun!” Sara insisted, grabbing Ava's hand and pulling her towards the Parlor where the rest of the Legends were waiting for them. “Everyone else is going to be wearing them. It's not like you have anything to be embarrassed about.”

“Sara,” Ava whined as she reluctantly let Sara pull her along. 

“Please Ava?” Sara said turning around and reaching up to cup her cheeks. “For me?”

“You're lucky you're irresistible,” Ava said, bopping her nose before she put her arm around Sara's waist and they walked arm-in-arm into the Parlor.

Everyone else was there waiting for them, all dressed in different versions of an ugly sweater, not necessarily Christmas related, but fun nonetheless. Charlie and Mick had the tree on the side as the branches brushed against her ankles. Nate and Behrad started hanging garland on the wall and Ava moved her away from the ladder. Ray and Nora came in with the boxes handing Sara one and Zari directed everyone's movements, telling Sara to place it over by the globe. 

Once they got it settled in the Parlor, Zari saw it to it that they quickly got the tree up. MIck, Charlie, and Nate started on the lights, while Zari started to music which left everyone else to go through the boxes and pull things out while Sara just stood there. Usually, she'd help with the tree, but not this year.

“Hey, babe,” Ava called her over and Sara reached out and Ava grasped her hand before pulling her down to sit next to her. “Here which one do you like, Twisted Peppermint, Vanilla Bean Noel, or Winter Candy Apple?”

Ava handed her several candles and Sara held them up to her nose. She closed her eyes and breathed in each scent, trying to match one with the pine smell from the tree. 

“This one,” Sara said handing Ava the Winter Candy Apple candle. 

“Great, here, can you help me unwrap these?” Ava asked, putting a packaged ornament in her hand. “Hey, Mick light this one.”

Sara nodded, unwrapping the ornament before she got a vision of the tree falling over. “Hey Nate, tighten that bolt on the left.”

“Got it, Captain,” Nate said as Sara’s vision changed, to all of them all standing in front of the tree and admiring instead.

“Hot chocolate is here!” Mona announced as Sara heard her giddy footsteps on the stairs. “Sugar-free for you, Zari, extra marshmallows for you, Sara, and none for you, Ava.”

“Thank you, Mona," Sara said, bringing the warm mug up to her lips. It was just the right temperature and she took a sip of the sweet chocolate as the soft mini-marshmallows brushed against her lips.

Mona handed out mugs to everyone else and Sara scooted over to a spot next to the tree after they got all of the lights, ribbon, and bells that made it hard to hear anything else. From her spot, Ava would hand her ornaments and Sara would put them on the tree next to her. The Christmas cheer and alcohol flowed along with the music Zari had picked out, as everyone either hummed or sang along or pretended they didn't like it.

“Sara you can't just clump them all together like that. You have to spread them out over the tree,” Zari said coming over and taking a few of the ornaments from her collection.

“I like it,” Sara said, running her fingers along the ornaments and hearing them clang together.

“Let her be,” Ava said, shooing Zari away. “It looks great babe.”

“Just because you're blind doesn't mean you can get away with atrocities like that,” Zari said as if Sara's decorating skills were a personal offense.

“Why do you care,” Behrad said, shoving a cookie into his mouth, making his voice muffled. “We don't even celebrate Christmas.”

“It's the principle of good decorum and decorating,” Zari said sitting down beside her and bumping her shoulder lightly as she teased Sara.

 Sara giggled and relented, scooting over to Ava, who pulled her in to sit on her lap. She and Ava unwrapped the ornaments and gave them to everyone else instead. Sara pulled out a loop of old popcorn and wrinkled her nose at the smell quickly tossing them away.

It didn't take long for them to complete the tree decorating and everyone stepped back to watch the tree lighting. They clumped together in a line at the steps of the Parlor and Sara heard Gideon turned off the lights. She put her arms around Ava and hid her nose in Ava’s sweater, hiding the disappointment that she couldn't enjoy the tree lighting. Sara remembered how beautiful it looked in her vision and it hurt that it was just a memory. 

“Ready?” Charlie asked and was quickly met with yeses and eager tones from everyone else. She flipped the switch and Sara heard everyone oh and awe, but the lights didn't make a difference to her. 

“Okay now the bells,” Ray said, his usual excitement filling his voice. 

“What bells?” Sara asked, but before anyone could respond, the sound of bells playing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ rang through the Parlor. It reminded Sara of the chocolate kisses commercial and she peeked out of Ava’s shoulder with a smile. The music continued before someone lowered the volume to a gentle jingle.

“We got it for you, so you can hear the tree,” Mona said wiggling in to wrap her arms around Sara's waist and giving her a side hug, soon everyone joined in for a Legend's family hug.

“Thank you, guys,” Sara said, her voice soft as she listened to the bells. It was sweet of them to think of that for her and Ava leaned in to kiss her forehead. It was the little things that they did every day for her, like the bells on the tree and making sure that Sara could enjoy things with her other senses. 

Everyone stood with their arms intertwined as they watched and listened to the tree. They all settled into the Christmas spirit. With the fire burning, it was warm like Christmas, it smelled like Christmas and now it sounded like Christmas. As an adult Christmas didn't always seem like Christmas did when you were a kid, but somehow the Legends always found a way to make every holiday they celebrated special.

……………………………………………………………………

Regardless of her birthday Christmas morning had always been special to Sara especially when she was with Ava. Ava would always wake her up with breakfast in bed and kisses on her forehead. Sara enjoyed the quiet time alone with her before they joined the rest of the Legends for the Christmas presents and brunch.

This morning Sara woke up to Ava's lips on her lips. Sara instantly smiled into the kiss as Ava hummed against her lips. Ava pulled back and brought Sara's hands up to feel the lace babydoll that she was wearing. Sara trailed her fingers over Ava’s lace covered skin before she picked up the flowing tool. Although she couldn't see it the feeling of it between her fingertips was enough for Sara to thoroughly enjoy it.

It wasn't something that Ava was usually comfortable wearing. She preferred to stick to boxer shorts and tank tops, but after they had both surprised each other with lace lingerie and Ava had grown more comfortable wearing it. Since then she had occasionally worn it, but the lace lingerie was for Sara's eyes only.

“Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Captain Lance,” Ava's husky voice rang in her ear as Ava kissed her neck. 

Sara pulled Ava over on top of her. Feeling her girlfriend's weight on top of her as Ava’s taller form settled above her. 

“Is this one of my presents?” Sara asked as she smiled and played with the lace tool

“It is,” Ava said, guiding Sara's hands up to feel every inch of what she was wearing. “Do you like it?”

“Yes,” Sara eagerly said, before she pulled Ava in for a kiss and stripped off her sleep shirt.

After Sara had thoroughly enjoyed Ava in her lace babydoll outfit. They put on the matching pair of pajamas, which Ava told her were red and white striped, with green trim. Sara didn't mind them as they were soft and warm flannel, that smelled like cinnamon and frankincense, no doubt at Zari's hand. They walked hand in hand into the Parlor and Sara smiled as she heard the bells get louder the closer they got. 

Everyone was there already, talking among themselves as Ray passed around cups of coffee. Rey spotted them as they came up the stairs and put the warm mug in Sara's hand. She could smell the dash of nutmeg and cream he had on top and it made her smile. 

“Stop shaking your presents,” Ava said as she heard Nate try to shake one of the boxes. 

“Yes Ma'am,” Nate said, hurrying to put it back under the tree. 

Ava went over to help Nora and Mick move the furniture around so they could all sit in a circle. Sara stood off to the side and Charlie came over and put a hand on Sara’s shoulder, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

“She did great last night and she’s so cuddly Ava will love her. I’ll bring her out when you're ready!” Charlie said, slipping the box into her pocket.

“Thank you, Charlie.”

Charlie gave a little squeal which was unusual for them, but Sara found herself squealing as well. The surprise Sara had for Ava was definitely squealing worthy. Charlie squeezed Sara’s shoulder and walked back over to Zari. Sara moved to sit on the couch and wait for everyone to get set up, as Nate and Behrad started sorting through the presents.

In the past Christmas, it was usually a chaos of gifts and Legends each opening everything in a disarray of wrapping paper and string strung around the Parlor. Recently they had adopted a new and more organized tradition from Ava. Once everyone had their piles of presents in front of them and they all settled in their chairs with mugs of coffee. Ava sat down and snuggled up next to her, kissing her cheek.

“Okay, who's first?” Sara said as she wrapped her arms around Ava’s waist, leaning into her.

“Astra should go first, it is her first Christmas after all,” Constantine piped up and most of the legends' verbally agreed.

“For the record, this is super weird,” Astra said as Sara heard her pick up one of the gifts from her pile. There was a rustling of wrapping paper and tearing as she opened it and everyone waited to see her response. Astra let out a small gasp that Sara barely heard as she opened the box. 

“It's that dragon shaped knife she wanted,” Ava whispered to her as Sara nodded. 

“It's beautiful,” Astra whispered, and as Sara heard her pick up the knife and unsheath the blade. “Thank you, John.”

“Oh yeah well it's nothing,” John said, trying to brush it off as Sara heard Zari lean in and kiss his cheek and whisper to him.

“Me next,” Nate said, tearing off the paper and opening his gift from Ray.

They continued like that, going around in a circle until everyone had opened all their gifts. Ava had described to her what they all got but Sara was surprised how many times she could guess what it was, with a little help from her vision. 

Finally, Ava got to the gift Sara had gotten her and Sara smiled as she tore off the wrapping paper. Ava smiled and thanked her for the serial killer's coloring book. However, she paused as she picked up the Pegasus stuffed animal that Sara had got her.

“Babe, what is this?” Ava asked, leaning in and whispering to her. 

“It's a Pegasus. You said you wanted one, remember?” Sara said, raising an eyebrow at her.

It took Ava a moment, but then she laughed and put her arm around Sara leaning in to kiss her forehead. “This isn't exactly what I meant when I said that I wanted a Pegasus.”

“Yeah well apparently the real things are just as bad as Unicorns so I figured this would be better,” Sara said running her fingers over the soft fabric of the stuffed animal.

“Well thank you,” Ava said, squeezing Sara's waist.

“You're welcome,” Sara said with a smirk that Ava quickly wiped off her lips with a kiss.

“Okay now open mine,” Ava said easily eagerly, wiggling as she placed a small, but heavy and long box and Sara's lap. 

The room grew quiet as the Legend stopped chatting and Sara wondered what it could be as she tore off the paper. She lifted the lid off of the box and ran her fingers along the edge before she pulled out a single pole the length of her forearm. She ran her fingers over it, taking it in before she found a small metal button on one end. Ava pushed her to stand and Sara moved a few feet away and held it out in front of her as she pressed the button. 

The pole expanded and Sara realized that it wasn't just a pole, it was both a bo staff and a cane. She could use it to see her surroundings and defend herself. Sara smiled as she swung it around, trying it out. It easily glided through the air and she tapped it on the ground with one end hitting the floor. The vibrations went up the pole and into Sara's hands. Instantly she knew that she had hit both the parlors wooden floor and a bit of wrapping paper that had been strewn there. She wasn't sure how she knew what the staff had hit, she just knew. 

“Do you like it?” Ava asked eagerly awaiting Sara’s response. “It's a fully compressible bo staff and cane and the vibration you're feeling will tell you what you're hitting on the ground. All of us have been working on making it for you.”

“Ahem,” Behrad coughed.

“Okay, well mostly Behrad has been working on it, but everyone had a hand in it. Behrad, Ray, and I designed it, Mick, Mona, and Charlie helped us make it, Nora used her magic to help make it work and Zari wrapped it.”

“Thank you guys,” Sara said as she pressed the button on the end again and it easily compacted back into a simple pole. She turned around and reached out for Ava who grabbed her hand and pulled her in to sit on her lap.

“You really like it?” Ava asked, leaning her forehead against Sara’s.

“I love it,” Sara said, putting her hands on Ava’s cheeks and feeling her eyelashes flutter on her fingers.

“Good,” Ava said, leaning in and giving her a quick kiss before they turned around and watched everyone else open the rest of their presents. 

There was a pile of wrapping paper in the middle of the Parlor as everyone kicked it away to play with their gifts. Sara leaned into Ava's arms and listened to the Jingle Bells on the tree and felt Ava's warm lips against her forehead.

Sara rubbed her hand up Ava’s leg and patted it three times. Then waited to hear Charlie get up and walk over to them. 

“Hey, Captain do you want any hot chocolate?” Charlie asked as they came around and put a hand on her shoulder.

“That would be great, thank you, Charlie,” Sara said, sending them a wink that she hoped Ava wouldn't see as she heard Charlie scurry away.

Ava was completely unaware of the surprise there was for her and Sara smiled as she leaned against her, biting her lip knowing that her smile would give it away in a minute. It didn't take long for Sara to hear Charlie come back as they came up behind them and placed the box in Ava's lap. 

“What's this?” Ava asked as Sara sat back and put a hand on her shoulder. 

“It's your last Christmas gift,” Sara said, trying to keep her excitement under wraps as and she could hear how the room went quiet around her. Of course, all the Legends were in on it. 

Nonetheless, Ava took the lid off of the box and Sara heard her gasp as the tiny cat meowed. The kitten that is mostly gray with patches of white and meowed before she heard Ava pick her up and hold her close. All of the Legends cooed and came closer Sara had caught them playing with the kitten last night and they were all very much smitten with her.

“Oh my goodness Sara,” Ava said, breathed out as the cat meowed again. “But you hate cats.”

“I don't hate cats,” Sara said, leaning in and holding Ava’s hand against your cheek. “I just don't prefer them but I know that you love them and we all agreed that she would be the perfect pet on the Waverider.”

“Oh my goodness,” Ava said again, as Sara could hear the kitten begin to purr in her arms as Ava laughed.

Sara ran her fingers along the cat's back as the cat arched its back up to meet her fingers. Sara then pulled the collar from her pocket and handed it to Ava.

“What do you want to name her?” Sara said already knowing the answer as Ava had a list of names she loved.

“Nicole Haught,” Ava sheepishly whispered. 

“Everyone, met Nicole,” Sara said as she clipped the collar with Nicole’s name around their neck and the little bell rang as the cat scratched at it. 

“Thank you,” Ava said, reaching out to cup Sara’s face.

Sara smiled and moved away as Ava’s hand slipped off her face as she got down on one knee.

“Oh my God,” Ava said, getting up and standing in front of her as Sara quickly took her hand.

“Ava Sharpe,” Sara said, taking a deep breath. It was hard for her not to get choked up. 

Ava meant so much to her and she wanted this to be perfect. There were a hundred things that Sara could say about how Ava always tried to be there for her, to listen to her, and Sara wanted her to know how much it meant to her to have Ava’s help as she Sara adjusted to being blind over the past year, but Ava already knew all this. She didn't need some big speech, all she needed was for Sara to ask. 

“Will please marry me?”

“Yes,” Ava said, choking on her tears as she held her hand out for Sara. She slipped the ring on Ava’s fingers. It was a simple gold band that was engraved with intricate Nordic runes that reminded Sara of their first date.

All of the Legends cheered and clapped as Sara stood up and pulled Ava in for a kiss. Although it wasn't New Year's, Sara felt an explosion as they kissed. It was electric and exciting. They let their lips linger against each other until Nicole meowed in between them and Ava pulled back to pet her head.

“What does my ring say?”

“Co-Captains for life.” 

“Thank you,” Ava whispered against Sara’s lips kissing her again and Sara let her lips smile against her as Ava moaned into her lips, to the hoots and whistles of the Legends.

……………………………………………………………………

“Okay, ready?” Ava asked as she guided Sara down to sit in her seat at the table in the kitchen of the Waverider.

“Yes,” Sara said, wiggling excitedly as she felt the heat from the birthday candles rise up and touch her cheeks. 

“Okay everyone, happy birthday to you,” Ava started singing and the rest of the Legend quickly joined in as Sara smiled. 

She could smell the pink sugar frosting and had to resist the urge to dip her fingers in the cake in front of her knowing that Ava would slap her and away.

“Happy birthday dear Sara, happy birthday to you,” everybody finished singing and clapped as Sara leaned down to blow out her candles. 

“Happy birthday baby,” Ava said, leaning down to wrap her arms around her shoulders to hug Sara from behind. 

Sara leaned in to reach for a frosting flower but was surprised when she fell Ava’s finger smear frosting all over her nose. Sara laughed and turned her head to spread the frosting from her nose on to Ava’s cheeks. 

“Sara!” Ava shrieked and laughed as Sara kissed her cheek and licked the frosting off. 

“Umm Happy birthday to me,” Sara said, licking her lips. 

Ava trailed her hands down Sara's chest teasing her while the rest of the legends cut the cake and slipping her hands around Sara’s inner thighs. Sara's breath hitched as Ava's fingers brushed against her center.

“Save that attitude for later Miss Lance,” Ava whispered in her ear. Happy birthday indeed.

……………………………………………………………………

(I just want them to get married already!)