#i should wear it when i have invited all my friends to go grab icecream friday

[adetheenby]

there is something so fuckin not okay about sometimes someone being KIND and RESPECTFULL makes you realize how fucked up youve gotten like

[vivid4am]

Life Goes On (Chapter 6)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Y/N makes a serious confession

Warnings: Angst, semi-fluff, confession time, mutual pining, drinking, rushed ending

A/N: thank you guys so freaking much for 700 followers! here's my present to you!!

Chapter 5

It had been a few weeks since the diner incident. Bucky assumed that Y/N had forgotten about it, so he decided to too.

It was Y/N’s day off from work, so Bucky was over at her apartment, sitting with her at the dining room table. Y/N had her legs resting on his lap. She took a drink of her beer- it was sort of a ritual for them to drink and listen to music at this point. Bucky noticed that she was rather quiet than usual. “Something on your mind?” Bucky asked, tilting his head to the side.

Y/N took a deep breath and gave him a hesitant nod. “What’s up then?” Y/N took a longer drink of her Stella Artois. She removed her legs from Bucky’s lap before getting up from her seat. She walked to her room, leaving the door open a smidge. Bucky sat patiently and waited for her return. It took about three minutes. Two of them were dedicated to Y/N’s pacing back and forth to her room.

She came back out of her room with a file in her hand. She lingered by her door, wiping sweat from her forehead. She was nervous. Y/n huffed out another breath before walking back to the dining room table.

“I don’t think we’ve been very truthful with each other lately, Buck.” Y/N stated, her eyes pointed towards the floor. Bucky felt his stomach drop.

Shit.

“I know who you are. I’ve known who you were. I just kept it from you because I know you don’t want to bring up your past. I get it. But I thought I should tell you.” She handed him the vanilla filing folder. He opened it, seeing a full report on himself. He raised his eyebrows. It had everything. His birthdate, time in the military, time as the Winter Soldier, even to his therapist.

Bucky looked up at her. “Where’d you find this?” Y/N chewed her lip. “Well, I wrote the report myself. Did some heavy research though. Took me a couple nights. But I just did it to make sure of my observations.”

“Observations?”

“Yeah,” Y/N said, chuckling slightly. “Like how you examine every possible exit everytime you enter a room, or when we go out and you stand behind me. Like a protector,” She explained. Y/n shuffled slightly on her feet. “Also, your gloves. No one wears gloves like that. And you’re not a germaphobe.”

Bucky’s eyebrows furrowed. “How do you notice all of this stuff?”

“I notice everything about you. Down to the little freckle on your earlobe.” Y/N said, pointing to his left earlobe. His gloved hand reached up to his earlobe. She was right. Even he didn’t notice. And it was his earlobe.

Bucky smiled. “But it wasn’t the only reason why I looked you up.” Y/N interrupted. His smile disappeared immediately. Y/N sighed, leaning her back on the kitchen table. “I needed to know if you were connected to my uncle.” Bucky chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I'm sorry for ever doubting you. He disappeared during the time you were on the run from Hydra with Captain America. So, you can breathe.”

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t think I can.” Y/N crossed her arms, feeling a little vulnerable. “I’m sorry. I feel bad now. I should’ve waited for you to tell me.” She shook her head, voice cracking a little. She started to walk away from him. Bucky’s hands grabbed her waist and pulled her back to him. He spun the girl around.

“I’m not mad.” He said, an earnest look in his eyes. “In fact, I’m impressed. You’re pretty observant.” Bucky gave her a smile. “What gave me away the most?”

Y/N wrung her hands around. “The diner was a big clue. Especially with how worked up you got over the news. I understand though. He was your best friend.” Y/N confessed.

Bucky’s smile disappeared from his face once again. His hands left her hips and Y/N suddenly felt cold. “You probably think I’m a monster,” Bucky mumbled, putting his hands on the table.

“I don’t.” Y/N said firmly. “I don’t at all. I promise you. I did my research, Bucky. You were fucking brainwashed.” Y/N raised her voice slightly. Bucky’s eyes still averted hers. She sandwiched her hands on his face, forcing him to look up at you. “You’re not a monster.” Her tone was sincere. Believable.

“And if you were, I wouldn’t still keep inviting you over for beers and music.” She added, causing Bucky to smirk at her words. “Any other complaints for the head of department?” Y/N asked jokingly. Bucky shook his head, grabbing her hands and removing them from his face.

“Other than the fact that it’s always hot as shit in your apartment.” Bucky sassed. Y/N laughed, clapping her hands in glee. “There’s the Bucky I know and admire!” She suddenly paused. “If it’s that hot, then why don’t you take off your jacket? And gloves?” Y/N’s bottom lip puffed out a bit as she batted her lashes at him.

Bucky hesitated. And if he was being honest, he was terrified of her reaction to his arm. But he knew she already did so much research on him and that they were being honest with each other. He shrugged off his jacket and peeled his gloves off.

At least he didn’t have to worry about wearing them to Y/N’s apartment anymore.

Y/N’s eyes didn’t pop out of her, nor did she gasp at his metallic arm. In fact, she didn’t even look at his arm. Her eyes remained on Bucky’s face. He cleared his throat, snapping her from her small little trance. Y/N shook her head and laughed. “Sorry about that. Just making more observations.”

“Of what?”

“How handsome you are.”

Bucky blushed. To be honest, he has not felt this comfortable with another human being in a long time. It’s always taken him a while to adjust and trust people. But with Y/N it was easy. He hoped to keep her around more, longer even. Maybe even be more than friends.

Again, he hasn’t felt like this in a while. Plus, the dating scene in Brooklyn was tough as shit. He has struggled with online dating apps for months. And his only friend was an old guy who was on his list. He won’t forget about the time that Mr. Nakajima accused him of being gay. Although he was only half right, but, that's a secret Bucky won’t ever tell anyone.

-

| Next Chapter |

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[revasserium]

運命なんて

commission for @mika-ze; thank you so much for commissioning darling, i hope you like it u__u 

things like ‘fate’  hirugami sachirou; 3,016 words of fluffy fluff fluff

one. he remembers it like recalling a dream just dreamt, the image so clear a moment ago and yet fading by the second -- he watches as if through a running stream, the water crystalline in the way it distorts the memory. he doesn’t think so much as he knows that the two of you will be friends, or perhaps more, for a very long time. 

he’s all of six years old. 

“what’s your cat’s name?” 

you look up with eyes the color of molten chocolate, the spark in them just as sweet, just as shy and curious and perhaps, a little apprehensive. your glasses are a bit too big for your face, but you push them up with a finger as you frown up at him, the sketchpad splayed in your lap, charcoal dust smeared across your hands. 

“tiger.” 

“huh?” 

“her name is tiger.” 

he blinks. 

“why?” he asks. 

you shrug, glancing over at the large tabby cat in a walking vest, tethered to a long leash, currently pawing her slow way around the base of a rather ginormous tree. at least, compared to the both of you -- most things are ginormous compared to the both of you. 

you frown even harder, and he plops down on the bench next to you; the dog park is filled with, well, dogs -- and one leashed cat. yours. 

“because that’s what she’ll grow up to be.” 

hirugami squints at you, unsure if he should be the one to break it to you that your cat, large and orange though she is, will not grow up to be a tiger. 

he decides that he’ll leave that daunting task to someone else, so he just shrugs and looks back at his own puppy, yipping as he chases a stray tennis ball down the length of the park. neither of you mentions the large sign by the door that says only dogs allowed. 

two. middle school is a mess, as middle school is wont to be. but hirugami thinks that if he does what he’s supposed to, practices all the right things, studies hard enough, that everything will be fine. everything should go just the way it was meant to go all along. 

he’s almost right. almost. 

“everyone say hi to mika, she’s transferring in as of today.” 

hirugami blinks, because he needs to (basic bodily function -- he learned that in science the other day, something called biology; he’ll have to ask his parents about it when he gets home), but also because he’s surprised. 

it’s you. 

“mika,” he says to himself, frowning slightly to himself as he familiarizes himself with the shape of your name in his mouth -- he thinks it’s a nice name. cute. sweet. with a little kick. 

he spares a moment wondering why he’d never asked for your name all those times he saw you at the dog park with your cat, tiger. then he spares moment musing upon the fact that he knew your cat’s name before yours but you hadn’t seemed to mind. 

“hirugami-kun? do you mind showing mika-chan around school during break today?” 

he gets to his feet, his back straight as straight can be, shoulders back, chin up -- posture perfect. he bows and says yes, sensei, of course. when he gets back up, it’s the find you standing by his desk, staring at him with your eyes (your glasses are still a bit big for your face; he spares a moment to wonder if they can grow with you before ridding himself of so ridiculous a sentiment). 

“didn’t know your name was... that,” you say, sitting down in the desk next to his. 

he looks over, slightly distracted by the charms on your backpack (are those even allowed in school?). 

“didn’t know your name was that either,” he says back, because he’s feeling a little childish today. one of the very few days in a week, if he may say so himself (he says so). 

break comes as it always comes, and he pushes out of his seat, waiting for you to follow. instead, you give him a brief bow before scurrying off out the door, faster than he can stop you. 

“hey -- !” he chases after you, because the teacher had put you under his care, at least for the duration of break, and he’s not about to slack on such a show of trust. you’re surprisingly fast, he thinks as he follows you up four flights of stairs, at the end of which he finds a door clearly labeled do not enter, swinging. he pants as he pushes through it with cautious hands. 

“hello? are you up here?” 

you turn on him with a scowl on your face. 

“shh!” 

he’s about to frown at you, about to tell you that it’s not okay to just race off like that and it’s also not okay to go through doors labeled do not enter but he’s halted in his tracks. 

hirugami blinks. 

clutched in your arms is a very, very large tiger. 

no, not an actual tiger -- your cat tiger. but he does have to admit that tiger is starting to look very much like an actual tiger. a small one perhaps, but for a cat, she is very large indeed. her vest looks just as fitted as it did before, and he wonders if things really can grow with the people (or cats) who wear them. 

“wh -- you --” for the first time in a very long while, he finds himself at a loss for words. 

nothing he’s ever read or practiced or learned or studied or accidentally overheard his parents talking about has prepared him for this. 

after a moment, you grin, swinging tiger slightly in your arms. she meows, licking lazily at her own mouth, seemingly unfazed by the way you’re holding her, her legs hanging straight down, almost skimming the ground of the rooftop the both of you are currently on. 

the wind picks up and you walk towards him. 

“wanna pet her?” 

“uh...” hirugami stares as you bring your cat towards him, holding her out with both arms. tiger regards him with an languid sort of look before yawning. 

he doesn’t have time to answer before you’re dumping tiger into his arms, almost knocking him off balance because wow he didn’t know a cat could be quite so heavy. 

“she’s cute, right?” you grin as you pat tiger’s head now that she’s firmly curled against hirugami’s chest, purring loudly. he gulps, looking down at the large cat. and he can admit that with her round face and her orange fur and her big, green eyes, she could indeed be considered cute. so, he nods. 

you laugh, a delighted sort of noise, which startles him, because he’d never really heard you laugh before either. 

(at the dog park, he mostly sits next to you while u scribble or sketch, him occasionally peering over and pointing at a random blob with a that’s nice and you answering with a grunt of something that sounds vaguely like thanks.) 

“i think she likes you,” you say, scritching tiger behind an ear. tiger mewls, apparently pleased and closes her eyes, folding herself into hirugami’s arms. 

he thinks it’s weird, the feeling of feeling a cat’s purr rumble through him. like a tiny little furry motor running, running, running. it makes him shiver and he finds himself smiling. 

he forgets to tell you that it’s against the rules to bring pets to school. 

three. you go to a game of his, and you don’t really cheer, because you don’t really like places with a lot of people, but you go. and he thinks that it means a lot that you did. you find him after with your smile (that he’s now familiar with) and your glasses (which are still a bit too big) and a milk flavored popsicle (which he’s actually never had before but always wanted to try). 

“here,” you say. 

“thanks,” he says. 

he takes it, studies it for a second before taking a bite. it’s cold against his teeth, but it feels good sliding down his throat; he’s still sweating from the match after all, but they won, so it’s all good. 

“my mom’s making okonomiyaki for dinner tonight, wanna come?” you ask. 

he takes another bite of icecream. 

“didn’t she make that last week?” he asks, frowning when he realizes that it’s a terrible question because he was there last week, and he remembers. and it was delicious. 

you nod anyway, because you don’t seem to mind stupid questions. 

“yep! and you had a lot, so she’s asking if you wanna eat some more.” 

he looks down at the now half-finished popsicle. 

“sure, if your family doesn’t mind.” 

you laugh, a sound he’s also now familiar with. a sound that he thinks he likes. 

“of course not -- we wouldn’t invite you if they did.” 

he nods. right. stupid question. he seems to do that a lot with you -- he wonders why. but he finds that he doesn’t mind. because after all, you don’t mind. 

and he likes -- 

“sachirou!” 

he turns to find his sister smirking at him. he tries not to scowl, not because he doesn’t like her, but he really doesn’t like her boyfriend -- and she’s always got a boyfriend. 

“oh, is this the famous mika-chan? hi there, i’m shokou, sacchi’s older sister,” she grins, offering you a hand. 

hirugami feels a wave of heat wash into his cheeks and he’s not entirely sure why. probably because she’d just called him sacchi, a nickname that he really doesn’t like because one of shokou’s boyfriends gave it to him and it stuck. shokou thinks its funny. hirugami, decidedly, does not. 

“hi. yes, i’m mika. nice to meet you. are you the one with the boyfriends?” you ask. 

hirugami’s eyes go wide as he whirls back around to look at you. 

you’re blinking up at his sister like it’s a perfectly normal question to ask someone upon first meeting them (it’s not, but he probably won’t tell you that later either). 

shokou laughs, ruffling hirugami’s hair. he shakes it out after, huffing slightly. 

“yep, that’s me. so he’s told you about me, hm?” 

you shrug, apparently losing interest in her, “just in passing. anyway, i was inviting him over for dinner. mom’s making okonomiyaki and he had a lot last time, so she’s inviting him over for more.” 

“yeah, i’ll come,” he says, blurts out, more like, his cheeks feeling hotter than ever. he refuses to look at his sister as he grabs his sports bag and heaves it over his torso. 

“i won’t be home too late,” he says, waving over his shoulder as he brushes by shokou, his eyes trained somewhere on the floor in front of him. to your credit, you fling yourself into a hurried bow before dashing off to catch up to hirugami. he’s a fast walker when he wants to be, and right now, apparently, he wants to be. 

four. high school is an even more of a mess, as it is wont to be. but he finds that it’s not so bad with you. 

he still goes to the dog park with you, and tiger. although tiger seems to be getting on in years. she doesn’t move so nearly as much as she used to, and the hairs around her face are turning a distinctly whitish-grayish color. 

“that’s nice,” he says, pointing at your sketchbook. your drawing has gotten much better, and you’re thinking of going to design school. he thinks you should; he doesn’t tell you that it makes him feel a little queasy to know you won’t be in the same school as him anymore. 

you smile up at him (some time ago, that smile had started to look like home). 

“thanks.” you reach up to tuck a hair behind your ear, your glasses no longer too big for your face because he’d insisted on getting you a new pair last year for your birthday. 

you go back to your sketch of a boy -- they never have faces, the people you draw. and when once, he’d asked who they are, you’d gone a strange shade of red and shook your head -- 

“no one -- th-they’re no one! just... just random people.” 

he’d wanted to ask why they looked like him sometimes, but he figures that artists, you know? (he doesn’t know, really. but he pretends he does because it makes you happy.) 

he doesn’t know how it became like this, with you -- comfortable, he thinks. and in all honesty, it’d never been uncomfortable, so he supposes that by that logic, it’s always been comfortable. but still, it’s a thing more than mere comfort -- a thing that’s like... settling into a warm bath, or taking the tape from his fingers after a whole day’s practice (sometimes, you come to his practices, and you still don’t cheer, but he thinks that it means a lot you’re there). 

“i think tiger’s gonna die soon.” 

he blinks, because he needs to. 

he blinks again, because he’s surprised you’d said it so plainly, without even looking up from your sketch. 

he doesn’t know what to say (and that’s okay, he’s learned), so he keeps quiet instead. 

your fingers pause; you turn to look at him, there’s something in your expression he doesn’t quite recognize. maybe... fear, or perhaps sadness of a kind that he’s never come into contact with. a kind of sadness that sinks its claws into your very soul and squeezes till every drop of blood is gone -- you purse your lips and swallow. 

you look back down at your sketchbook, but you make no move to start sketching again. 

hirugami hesitates for a moment before putting his arm around you. it’s the first time he’s done anything like this, but it feels like the right time to do it, his body tells him, before his mind can quite catch up -- 

you lean into him, and you sniffle. he pats your arm before sliding his large palm along your back. 

“i’m just... scared,” you say, still not looking up. 

“what’s there to be scared of? death isn’t that scary, y’know -- its supposed to be just like falling asleep,” he says, looking down at the top of your head. he can smell your shampoo -- sweet, vanilla. you used to use green apple, and then you used lemon-orange for a while. but he likes the vanilla too. he likes it because it’s you. 

“no -- it’s not that...” you shake your head. 

he waits. 

“i -- i’m scared cause... tiger’s always loved me, y’know? we grew up together... and she’s always been there for me. when i was happy, when i was sad... and...” you hiccup and he pats you on the back, “and if she dies then... who’s gonna love me that much?” 

hirugami lets out a small laugh, and finally, finally, you look up at him. 

he meets your watery eyes with a steady gaze of his own. 

he smiles. 

“i will.” 

you blink up at him. probably because you need to. but also probably (he’s a actually very, very sure) because you’re surprised. 

he cocks his head, “objections?” 

you blink again. 

he hums happily as he tucks you into his side again, a large, floaty feeling filling his chest (he thinks he knows what it is, but he’s in no hurry to give it a name). 

“good. now let’s go get some dim-sum. the place you like is doing a promotion.” 

he gets up, reaching down to take your hand. you let him. and he thinks that that must mean something. 

(it does.)

five. “i’m going out!” 

shokou peers at him from over her sunday morning coffee. 

“going to see your girlfriend again?” she teases. 

hirugami hasn’t told her yet, because there isn’t much to tell, really. 

so he smiles, and instead of his usual answer of not answering at all, he gives his head a firm nod. 

“yep.” 

he steps into his shoes as his sister nearly chokes in the kitchen, the sounds of her coughing echoing down the hall. 

“wait -- what? you actually asked her out?” 

he turns and fixes shokou with a smug look, “what do you mean? i hang out with her every sunday.” 

shokou sputters, and the sight of it brings him more joy than it rightly should. 

“y-yeah, but you never admitted that she was your girlfriend before!” 

he cocks his head at her. 

“what difference does it make? not everyone feels the need to announce their relationships like you do.” 

shokou scowls even as he sends her a cheery wave over his shoulder, opening the door and stepping out into the mid-september chill. 

you’re waiting for him outside the gate, like you always are. you open your hand and he takes it, the pair of you setting off down the street. 

you peer up at him and grin.

“did you tell shokou?” 

“not in so many words.” 

you laugh, nudging him slightly. 

he laughs too, swinging your hands between you. 

the pair of you pause outside the gates to the dog park, looking over at the ginormous tree under which the pair of you first met, under which tiger is now buried, safe and sound, with her favorite vest and leash and your solemn promise to love her forever. 

and hirugami’s equally solemn promise to love you forever (for her, but for himself too. mostly, he thinks, for himself). 

after a moment, you set off towards the dim-sum place. 

“i think i’m gonna become a vet,” he says. 

you nod, “good. just make sure to pick a school close to mine, okay?” 

hirugami laughs again, letting the sound breeze through him like the autumn wind (the best wind, you say). 

“i don’t like the thought of not going to school close to you,” you say. 

he nods, firmly. certainly. 

“yep. me too.” 

[mymelodyheart]

Forget Me Not Chapter 1 ~Prologue~

Brian and Ellen Fraser had been long-time friends with Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, an accomplished archaeologist and historian. They met in the mid-80s in Hurghada, Egypt, while the Frasers were on honeymoon and Quentin on a break from a field survey in Mt Sinai. It all had started in a quaint traditional Egyptian coffee shop in the old town of El Dahar when Quentin offered the couple seats at his table as the locale had been bursting at the seams. What was supposed to be only a brief encounter, had turned into a very close friendship after Brian and Quentin discovered that they shared the same passion for history, Egyptology and scuba diving.

Over the next few years, the friends religiously kept in touch. As Quentin never married, the Frasers embraced him as part of the family and was often invited to their home in Lallybroch whenever he took a break from fieldworks or was in the UK. When Quentin's brother and sister-in-law, Henry and Julia died in a horrific car accident, Brian and Ellen immediately went to Oxford to be with their friend and to offer their support in any way they could. It was there the Frasers learned that the tragic couple left behind a five-year-old daughter, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp, leaving Quentin as the child's sole living relative.

Ellen instantly fell in love with young Claire and was captivated with the child's unusual, amber eyes which were almost too big for her cherubic face, framed with short chocolate brown curls. Devastated already for Quentin's lose, her heart broke furthermore when the child pointed at her parents' coffins. "Mummy an' Daddy are in there," she had said, as she tugged at Ellen's coat. 

The Frasers knew there was no way that Quentin could single-handedly raise Claire and still do the job he passionately loved. After the funeral, Brian and Ellen sat Quentin down and offered to take care of the child while he was away at work, or until Claire was old enough to attend a boarding school. Ellen thought it was the most sensible plan for a young child to grow up in a loving family and she couldn't bear the thought of Claire, young as she was, not having a mother figure so early in her life. The Frasers already having three children of their own, supposed another one in their big household in Lallybroch shouldn't be an issue.

At first, Quentin was speechless as he could never take advantage of such generosity, let alone their friendship. It never even crossed his mind to leave his niece in the care of anyone. But the Frasers weren't just anyone. To him, they were family, but still, he knew he couldn't impose. He was already of the mindset of changing his job, maybe taking a post offered to him a few months back before the tragedy struck. Quentin had always taken comfort in knowing he would always have a place at Oxford University - it was his fallback plan. Selfish as it was even to contemplate the Frasers'offer, he knew working as a professor wouldn't be as thrilling as visiting ancient sites and being hands-on with surveying and excavating. On the other hand, he knew he was clueless when it comes to raising a child, and he couldn't deny Claire a normal childhood the Frasers were offering.

And so it was decided after a lot of discussions and deliberations that Claire would stay with the Frasers while Quentin was away at work. And in summer, Claire would go with his uncle to visit sites he was working on or go on holidays with him to faraway exotic places. The Fraser children, William, Jenny and Jamie, embraced Claire as part of the family and loved her as any brother or sister could love a sibling. There was enough money in the trust fund left behind for Claire that would ensure a secure future, but the Frasers never concerned having an extra mouth to feed as they ran a successful family-owned hotel business. It wasn't until Quentin died in a crossfire in a war in Congo, the Frasers became Claire's official foster family at the tender age of ten.

..........

2007 

17-year-old James Fraser had debated all day whether he ought to go to the school dance or not. Having no interest in dancing whatsoever, it should have been a straightforward choice. Not even the bonniest of girls from school who asked him out made the decision any easier. After a lot of weighing, Jamie decided to go in the end, convincing himself it would be something to do on a Friday night and all his mates would be in attendance. And so that night, he went alone, arriving two hours late to the dance.

Inconspicuously, he had entered the dance hall and leaned against the wall, watching his 15-year-old foster sister, Claire from the shadows. She stood with four other girls eagerly anticipating to be asked for a dance, as she tucked a non-existent stray curl behind an ear and straightened her eyeglasses for the hundredth time. His best friend, Frank Randall, had promised Claire to take her to the school dance in return for writing his essay on Egypt for a school project. But like a cad that he was, Frank bailed out the last minute and decided not to hold his side of the bargain. Despite the humiliation, Claire held her head up high and insisted on attending on her own, with hopes Frank would at least ask her once for a dance. 

Looking at the time, Jamie knew it was nearly coming to an end. There were only two dances left, and soon it would be over. He could see Claire was starting to fret by the way she fidgeted nervously with her hands.  Damn ye, Frank, damn ye to hell!  But why should he even care when he had warned her so many times about his friend that behind the charming facade was a very selfish, insensitive person. She was an intelligent enough lass, and Claire had her outstanding grades to prove that, but when it came to Frank, her better judgement seemed to dissipate.

As the last dance for the evening was announced, he noticed the other four girls that stood next to her were already on the dance floor with their respective partners, leaving Claire on her own. Jamie knew any minute now she will grab her coat and run out upset. He had hoped it wouldn't come to this and that some lad would come and ask her to dance. But nobody came.  Oh to hell with it!  Before he could change his mind, Jamie quickly walked over to her.

"Sassenach, ye fancy a dance with me?"

"Oh, it's you! Hi Jamie!" Claire smiled feebly. He knew she had been silently praying for a miracle that Frank would appear.

"No' the greeting I was hoping for," Jamie teased softly, offering his hand for a dance.

Claire took his hand, and this time, she smiled warmly. "You're always coming to my rescue, and you know fine, I'll be alright."

"Aye, ah ken." He guided her to the dancefloor and twirled her awkwardly before taking her into his arms. Jamie was glad it was a slow dance as he would have felt dumb swaying to fast music on his own. Claire giggled as they nearly bumped into another couple, her forehead colliding against his chin.

"You know what Jamie, other girls are dying to dance with you. And besides, what are you doing here? You don't like to dance at all."

Jamie looked down at her, and he could see himself in her eyeglasses. And when she smiled, the disco light above them reflected on her braces. He tried not to chuckle. "No, I dinna care really for dancing that's why I came late. After the dance, I'll be going out with the lads."

"Oh! Is one of the lads, Frank?" Claire asked earnestly, her face flushing.

Jamie had always known about Claire's infatuation with his friend. It had all began in school when Frank picked up the books she dropped. As he handed them back, he had winked at her. For young Claire, she thought that was the most romantic gesture, and ever since then, Frank became an obsession. 

"Aye, Frank is one of the lads," Jamie admitted, his jaw tightening. "Will ye be alright later, Sassenach? I can take ye home after the dance if ye wish." He tried to ascertain what she was thinking, but her glasses were obscuring her eyes and noted they needed polishing.

Claire's chin wobbled a bit as she smiled, and Jamie knew she was trying her best not to cry. "I'll be alright, Jamie. You go and have fun with your friends. Willie will be picking me up anytime soon."

Friend or not, Jamie wanted to throttle Frank for using Claire, enticing her with a promise of taking her to the dance and then backing out last minute. "I tell ye what Sassenach, how 'bout I take ye fishing tomorrow? Just the two us. Will that cheer ye up?"

"Jamie, you don't need to do that! Honestly! I'm fine! You're always so sweet to me, and I know you'd rather be hanging out with Laoghaire," Claire pressed gently, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Laoghaire? What makes ye think that?" Jamie was surprised at Claire's response. Laoghaire MacKenzie was a popular girl in school who liked to make an impression on everyone that she was his girl after he took her out once at an icecream bar. It had only been one time as he found her crying one afternoon after breaking up with a boyfriend. Feeling sorry for the lass, he thought icecream would cheer her up.

"Well, I've seen you talk to her, and you look at her as if she's the most gorgeous girl in the world. Sometimes I wonder how it would be like to be chased by the boys. I feel invisible at times, and it doesn't matter what I wear, do or say, I'll always be a Sassenach. It's not fair...Frank is English like me and yet he's so well-liked at school." 

Jamie's arms froze around her. "Claire...I'm so sorry...does it offend ye that I..." 

"No, not you, Jamie. You don't say Sassenach in a mean way like the others. Like what I said earlier, you're always so sweet. I couldn't have asked for a better brother." Claire stood on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "Right... dance is over... you go and have fun with your friends. Willie is probably waiting outside already. And I promise I feel loads better already because of you."

Funny that Jamie didn't realise the music had stopped when he usually would have counted the seconds until the dance was over. But before Claire could turn around and go, he grabbed her arm. "I'm taking ye fishin' tomorrow and make sure ye pack some crisps and sandwiches...alright?"

This time, Claire's smile reached her eyes, her braces twinkling under the disco light. "Okie-Dokie! I'm looking forward to it. And now go! Have fun with the lads and see you in the morning."

Jamie watched her walk away as Frank, and the rest of his mates approached him. "Little sister sorted then?" Frank asked mockingly as he put a hand on his shoulder.

She's not my sister!  Jamie wanted to punch his friend on the face for hurting Claire's feelings, but instead, he mentally counted to three and breathed deeply. "Aye, my brother has come to pick her up."

What can he say? They didn't know her as he did and what she had been through. In the eyes of those who knew Jamie in school, he was just like Frank; a popular guy, great in sports and hanged out with the right people and went out with pretty girls. And as for Claire, she was just a Sassenach; unconventional, highly intelligent, nerd and the ugly orphaned child taken in by the Frasers. Jamie thought of what Claire had said of him looking at Laoghaire like she was the most gorgeous girl in the world. What she didn't realise was, it was Claire he was looking at. She had taken off her glasses that day and was cleaning it with a piece of cloth, and her poor eyesight must have made her believed that Laoghaire was the subject of his admiration. Oh, how his friends would jibe and taunt if they knew, him, James Fraser, one of the popular guys in school was madly in love with his foster sister, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp, braces, eyeglasses, wild hair and all.

[salvejoon]

Other Members Finding Out You’re Dating

Kim Namjoon

Namjoon would want to take things slow in the beginning, not wanting to tell anyone just yet but after the two of you had been dating for two months, he would feel it was time.

"So... You two are a thing?" Yoongi asked, munching on an apple.

You nodded and smiled at Namjoon, "Yeah."

"I'm happy for you." Yoongi said, "But..." He trailed off.

"But what?" Namjoon asked with a raised brow.

"I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to tap that." Yoongi gestured to you and your eyes widened.

"Yoongi." Namjoon growled, narrowing his eyes dangerously as the other rapper just winked at you and left the kitchen.

Kim Seokjin

Jin would definitely tell the other's as soon as possible but you wanted to wait just a little. After having dated for a few months, the two of you decided it was time.

"So that's why Jin Hyung kept sneaking off from practice." Jimin nodded as all his questions were answered as you and Jin stood in front of him, holding hands, "I'm glad that you are happy." He then smiled.

You returned his smile with one of your own, "Thank you, Jiminie."

"It also explains why the water bill has been high recently because Hyung has been taking a lot of cold showers lately, I think."

You looked up at Jin whom just glanced at you and Jimin, "Uh... That is..." He stumbled over the words and you began to laugh as his cheeks flushed.

Min Yoongi

Yoongi didn't really care much if the others knew and would not be hesitant to be affectionate with them around.

"Yoongi!" You yelped as he came up behind you, circling his arms around you, kissing the junction between your shoulder and neck.

"Hm. Why don't you come back to bed?"

"I just woke up." You stated as you closed the fridge.

"I wasn't planning on sleeping." He breathed against your skin as he nibbled lightly on it.

You heard a small 'Oh' and turned around, Yoongi following your movement and you saw Taehyung stand in the doorway, his face slightly flushed.

"I - Uh - Should get back to - Uh - My uhm... Game." Taehyung stuttered.

"Indeed you should, Tae. Wear headphones." Yoongi suggested, planting his head on your shoulder as he looked at his friend, "She's quite loud."

"Yoongi!" You exclaimed, mortified.

"What? It's not like I'm lying."

Jung Hoseok

Hoseok couldn't wait to tell the others that the two of you were an item after having dated a month.

"Quick announcement: Me and Y/N are dating." Hoseok stated suddenly during dinner, frowning slightly when no one so much as raised a brow at the news.

You slurped on your soup quietly, sitting next to him and kept quiet.

"Really? No one has anything to say?" Hoseok piped up.

Namjoon was the first one to answer and he shrugged, "We already know."

"Yeah, Noona told us." Jungkook added, face burried into the bowl of soup.

Hoseok slowly turned to look at you, a mix between shock and annoyance.

You met his eyes, looking innocent, "Sorry?"

Kim Taehyung

Taehyung would be the quickest to announce that you two were dating, partly because he was so happy and wanted to share the news but also to make it clear that you were taken.

"Yah! Get your hands off my girlfriend!" Taehyung said loudly as he saw Jungkook's hands on your waist.

"H-hyung, I was just teaching her our newest choreography." Jungkook removed his hands as if he'd been burned.

You rolled your eyes and turned off the music, "Really Tae? You gotta work on your jealousy." You groaned.

"I'm not jealous." He pouted, folding his arms, "I just want to make it clear to Kookie that it's not happening. You're my girlfriend now."

Jungkook looked uncomfortable between the two of you, "I didn't know, Hyung. I swear I didn't mean anything by it."

"What won't be happening?" You asked, confused.

"You and him." Taehyung explained, looking at the youngest member, "He's been having a crush on you."

"Hyung!" Jungkook exclaimed loudly, his cheeks red.

Your eyes widened slightly but then narrowed dangerously as you grew angry at Tae, "That was a dick move, Tae." Then you turned around and looked at Jungkook who looked like a sad puppy, "Why don't we go grab something to eat, huh?" You asked him gently as you ruffled his hair.

He nodded slowly and smiled. You grabbed his hand and pulled him with you towards the door, leaving a surprised Taehyung behind.

"O-Oi! What about me?" You heard him call out and instead of answering, you just flicked him the finger.

"D-Don't you want Hyung to come with us?" Jungkook asked as you left the dorm.

"I'll deal with him later." You smiled at the maknae as you took him out for icecream.

Park Jimin

Jimin and you were so caught up with each other that you'd simply forgotten to tell the others. You hadn't seen Jimin in a week so when he'd texted you to come over, you'd dropped everything and rushed to the dorms.

Hoseok arrived earlier than expected, heading straight to his shared room with Jimin when he found a bra amongst other clothing laying in the middle of the hallway and he paused, staring it at it.

"What the heck." He questioned as he bend down, picking it up.

You and Jimin were in the middle of a heavy make out session, you laying half naked underneath him as he lazily kissed you.

The door suddenly opened and the both of you froze, staring at each other.

"I thought no one else was home." You whispered to him.

"There isn't..." He trailed off.

"Jiminie, do you know whose this - OH MY GOD! Hoseok screamed as he saw the two of you and the state of your undress. He quickly covered his eyes, bra still in his hand and your cheeks reddened.

"Ah!" You exclaimed and quickly pulled the cover over your exposed chest.

"You're back early, Hyung." Jimin said as he moved off you, cheeks flushed but smirking, standing up from the bed, walking over to Hoseok, snatching your bra from his fingers, "Thanks."

"I'll... Just.. Leave." Hoseok ran out the room, leaving you and Jimin alone and when the silence got too much, you broke into a fit of laughter.

Jeon Jungkook

You didn't really care if the other members found out but Jungkook wanted to wait because he was sure they would tease him. This forced you to sneak around the members each time you were together and you were getting tired of it.

Jungkook had invited you over to watch a movie, wanting to spend a little time alone with you before the others got home but knowing him, he wouldn't keep his hands to himself for very long.

And you were right because barely 30 minutes into the film, he had pulled you onto his lap, kissing you deeply, his hands roaming across your body.

"W-We have to stop, Kookie." You sighed heavily, leaning against his shoulder as he nibbled on yours.

"Don't want to." He murmured against your skin, grabbing your hips.

"But..." You trailed off as he ground you against his crotch, causing your eyes to widen and your mouth to open in a silent moan.

"Please Noona. I've waited long enough." He continued.

You were about to give in but then a heavy bag hit the floor, causing the both of you to jump and for you to yelp loudly, "What the fuck!"

Jin stood in the hallway, eyes slightly wide as he stared at the pair of you, "Really? That's why you didn't come with us to the mall." He finally asked.

Removing yourself from his lap, you sat down next to Jungkook, cheeks flushed as you looked at the TV. You saw Jin walk over to the couch from the corner of your eye, frowning as he plopped down between the two of you, forcing you to scoot over.

"I think we need to have a talk about the birds and the bees." Jin then announced, looking at Jungkook and then you.

"You can't be serious." You groaned and hid your face in your hands.

The next twenty minutes went by with you keeping your head in your hands and Jungkook pouting as Jin, very seriously, told the story about the birds and the bees.

[smokedstorybara]

The Completely Unrelated Adventures Of Four People Who Had Nothing To Do With Each Other Beforehand

Book One, Chapter One

First Draft

———————————————————————

Everyone in Whiteshoal knows Mia Thomson. Or at least, everyone knows about Mia Thomson.

Her ma and pa separated when I was real young cause he had to travel for his job and then several years back Mia’s ma had an accident at the mine and Mia had to go live with her pa. Nobody’s seen her since till the two moved back into town earlier this year.

Everyone says something’s a little off about Mia Thomson and her pa but whatever it is I ain’t seen it yet.

So when Mia Thomson came to class one monday with a big stack of birthday party invitations I made sure to express how thoughtful she was to invite everyone and assure her that I would most definitely be going. Several of our classmates seemed to change their minds about saying anything, which was a right shame.

~~

“Cupcakes?”

I turned from my mixing bowl to see my baby sister Lucy standing in the doorway, her eyes huge and staring at the baking sheet I had out and ready for the batter.

“Yep! A friend’s birthday is tomorrow so I’m baking cupcakes for the party!” I turned back to mixing.

There was a long pause before I heard a quiet “Ok.”

I glanced back at Lucy to see her stare had turned to her feet.

As I poured the batter onto the pan I said “I’ll make some extra just for you, how’s that?” I put the first pan into the oven. “We can have them with our Sunday Evening Icecreams!”

When I looked back again Lucy was grinning brightly.

~~

It was a long walk to the Thomson house, especially carrying tupperware full with cupcakes, but it was mighty pleasant. Mia and her pa lived in a pretty Victorian house towards the edge of town, right across the creek that runs around the town and past my house. I coulda just followed the creek right to it if I weren’t concerned about messing up me and Lucy’s gorgeous frosting work.

When I rang the doorbell there was a shout from inside and the sound of someone running to the door. It swung open wildly to a beaming Mia wearing a bright yellow sundress.

“I brought cupcakes!” I lifted the tupperware higher with a big smile.

“Yesss!!!!” Mia grabbed the cupcakes and stepped aside so I could enter. “So far only Viv, Annie, Mackensie, Jorges, and Andres are here but I’m sure more people will come later!”

“More cupcakes for the rest of us.” I heard Vivian say from the other room.

After closing the door behind me, Mia crossed the foyer to the doorway Vivian’s voice had come from. “Do you wanna have the cupcakes now or wait for more people to arrive?” She turned back to look at me.

I shrugged, “Now’s good.”

As we entered what appeared to be a sitting room, though it was filled with enough books for me to question that, our classmate Jorges called out. “Yes! The later you come the less cupcakes you get!”

Mackensie and Annie giggled.

Andres gave me a sharp and desperate look and I went right over and sat next to him. He sighed, sitting back in the plush old sofa.

“I’m glad you agreed to come!” I whispered to him. He looked down at his hands, even though there wasn’t anything interesting there. “I never see you at any kind of social event.”

His gaze snapped back to me, his brow furrowed in the cute way it always did when I’ve missed something he considers obvious.

“Ever considered you don’t see me cause I don’t go? Because I don’t enjoy them?”

I pouted playfully until he sighed again and looked away to grab us cupcakes.

Over on the other couch the girls were pausing from asking Mia about her travels with her pa to take their first bites of the cupcakes. Jorges was already reaching for seconds, his first shoved firmly in his mouth.

Annie came over and sat on the arm of me and Andres’s sofa while Mackensie called Jorges gross over his eating habits.

“Did your ma bake these? They’re really good!” Annie smiled brightly, holding up the half cupcake she had left.

Andres snorted. “Zack’s ma doesn’t bake.” He stated.

“Oh, Ma bakes sometimes,” I corrected him. “Just not cupcakes!”

“Or cake-cakes, or cookies, or anything worth eating really.” Vivian chimed in from the other couch. “Zack does most the cooking and baking in his family.”

The others all turned to me.

“Really?” Mia asked. “Did you make these? You must be a very good baker.”

I smiled and shrugged. “I mostly just bake pizza.”

“You know how to bake pizza?” Jorges gasped, hand coming up to rest flat against his chest. He then turned to Mia. “Whatever the plan was for dinner can we deviate and ask Zack to make pizza?”

Mia’s grin grew. “I’ve got a better idea! Zack, would you be willing to teach us how to make pizza?” she leaned forward with her hands clasped beneath her chin. “It would be the best birthday present ever! Even better than the time Dad took me to the Parthenon.”

I felt Andres slump further back on the sofa beside me and my smile spread to match Mia’s. “Of course. Anythin’ for the Birthday Girl.”

~~

A couple hours, a complete mess of a kitchen, three pizzas, and a number of conversations later Mackensie had to leave, and then Annie and Jorges.

I was getting ready to offer to stay to help clean up since the party seemed to be over when Vivian beat me to it. Of course that didn’t stop me from offering anyway.

In the end even Andres stayed to help. With the four of us it went much faster than it would’ve with just me and Mia.

I was putting the last stack of cleaned dishes away in the bottom cabinet when I noticed something odd.

Now I spend a fair amount of time in kitchens. I really like kitchens. So I know it ain’t exactly normal for a cabinet’s back to not be the kitchen wall.

There was at least half a foot of difference between the back of the cabinet and where the counter met the wall.

Wondering if there was anything there, I placed the dishes on the floor beside me and knocked gently on the back of the cabinet.

It sounded hollow.

“What are you doing?” Vivian leaned against the counter above me.

“I think there might be somethin’ back here.”

Vivian scoffed. “Yeah, it’s called a wall.” she rolled her eyes with a half smile. “Idiot.”

“No, I mean between the back of the cabinet and the kitchen wall. Come down here and listen.” I waited for everyone to gather around me before knocking again. “That sounds hollow doesn’t it?”

Andres stared, his head tilted slightly. “Yeah… it does.” he said slowly. He reached forward and pressed against the back of the cabinet.

“Maybe it’s some kind of secret door!” Mia looked around at all of us “we should get the dishes out so we can check!”

Me and Andres carefully removed all the dishes and put them up on the counter while Mia started investigating the back of the cabinet.

Eventually we heard a small “fwop” and Mia pulled a section of the cabinet wall out into the kitchen.

We all crowded back around the cabinet to see what was hidden behind the false wall, hearts pounding and eyes wide.

It was a small compartment, not much bigger than a shoebox, covered in dust and cobwebs and empty but for one thing leaning upright against the wall.

We stared in total silence at the large old leatherbound book we’d uncovered.

[chim-chimchii]

Time Will Tell ~Jinho

A/n: This is dedicated to the anon that requested this!! Sorry if it felt rushed and if it felt like I rambled on but it was my very first Pentagon imagine that I’ve written! Requests are still open for anyone who wants to request anything. 

Credit to the owner of the gif!! 

Length: 1,421 words 

Genre: Fluff 

It wasn’t as if you meant to confuse this random stranger with your friend Hyunmin, but he just looked so similar to him. “I’m so sorry! I thought you were my friend.” You apologized frantically to the guy, who was actually quite cute which made this whole entire incident more embarrassing. “It’s okay. It was a simple mistake.” After reassuring you with a quick smile he walked away leaving you still stunned at how calm he was.

“Hey! There you are!” The sound of your friend’s voice snapped you out of your thoughts and back into reality. “What’re you staring at?” You looked at Hyunmin and shook your head. “Nothing. Let’s go!” You turned on your heel and began to walk towards the restaurant without another thought of the cute guy.

Hyunmin caught up with you. “I hope you don’t mind but I invited my other friend Jinho to join us.” You glanced at him and playfully pouted. “You said it was going to be just us! What kind of best friend are you?” He nudged you with a chuckle before opening the door. “He should be here already saving us a table.” You bashfully followed behind his tall figure until he came to a stop.

“Jinho!” He exclaimed and pulled him into a quick hug. You peeked out from behind Hyunmin but quickly hid again. What were the odds of Hyunmin’s friend being the guy you mistaked him for? 1 out of 7 billion. . . and well, this was this rare 0.001%. Hyunmin stepped to the side to reveal you to Jinho.

“This is Y/n. My friend I was telling you about.” Jinho’s eyes widened at the sight of you and a small grin appeared on his lips. He chuckled and you hid your face with a small groan. Hyunmin glanced at the two of you with a confused expression.

“Do you two know each other?” He questioned. Jinho laughed once again but shook his head.

“No, No. She actually mistook me for you just a couple minutes ago.” Hyunmin burst out into a laughing fit along with Jinho.

“Shut up. It’s embarrassing.” You whined before sitting down at the table with a pout. You grabbed the menu and opened it in order to hide your face. After they both composed themselves and sat down, your menu was slowly pulled down by Jinho.

“Hey, Y/n. It’s okay, you don’t have to feel embarrassed.” He smiled sweetly before opening his own menu in search of something to eat. Throughout the meal, Jinho would occasionally glance up at you with a small smile playing on his lips and everytime you two would lock eyes you could feel your cheeks warm up.

////

“It was really nice catching up with you Hyunmin-” The two boys gave each other a handshake. “-And it was nice meeting you too Y/n.” You nodded and told him the same thing before all going separate ways.

On your way home you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself because of the events that happened. Sure, mistaking Jinho for Hyunmin was very embarrassing but after talking to him about it, everything seemed like a funny story to reminisce on later in life. Your mind wandered to the sweet smiles he kept giving you throughout the meal and how your cheeks burned red hot. Did he notice how blushy you were getting? Probably not. . . you frowned and sighed. Why did you feel like a little girl with a school girl crush when you barely met him an hour ago?  He was probably being polite since you were Hyunmin’s friend. . . you sighed and shook your head trying to get his cute smile out of your head.

////

Jinho  plopped face first onto his bed and groaned, why did he feel like someone was squeezing his heart with no intentions of letting go? He only began to feel this way after saying goodbye to Hyunmin and after you waved him off with the sheepish smile that played on your lips ever since the incident. JUst thinking about the encounter had him chuckling to himself like a small child. He rolled over on his back and stared at his ceiling trying to figure out what it was that he was feeling.

It wouldn’t be until the next time that you two would hang out that he would understand his feelings.

////

You sat on the park bench swinging your legs back and forth waiting for Jinho and Hyunmin to come. You stared at your shoes and questioned if what you were wearing was pretty enough. . . but why were you even worried about what you looked like? Was it because Jinho was coming along? You couldn’t get him out of your mind all week. You sighed and threw your head back attempting to clear your head of the thoughts. A body sat next to you making you glance over and to your surprise it was Jinho.

“Sorry if I disturbed your thoughts.” He apologized. You waved him off. “No. It’s okay. I wasn’t thinking about much.” He nodded and stood up.

“Hyunmin said he would meet up with is when he’s done with whatever he’s doing.” You gazed up at him. Why didn’t Hyunmin tell you of these plans? “Oh. Okay.” Jinho held out his hand for you.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t go on a stroll while we wait for him.” Shyly you took his hand and allowed him to help you up and lead you into the park. Both of you walked in a comfortable silence completely forgetting about your interlocked fingers. But it felt natural to both of you. It was you who pulled away first when you finally realized it had been a good 20 minutes of hand holding.

“I’m sorry. I forgot I was holding your hand.” He nervously chuckled. Did he freak you out? Were you weirded out? “Its okay!” You beamed at him before noticing a small ice cream cart and dashing off to it. Jinho watched you for a few moments then gazed down at his hand which now felt empty.

“Jinho!” You called out to him. He looked up and jogged over to you. The butterflies were back and the pressure he felt in his chest was very prominent when he was around you. “Did you want some icecream?” You asked with a sparkle in your eyes. “Sure!” He picked his flavor and paid for the two cones after having a small argument with you over who was paying.

Sitting under a tree and enjoying the cold treat, it was clear to the both of you that Hyunmin wasn’t showing up anytime soon but that was okay. Jinho had finished his ice cream ages ago and was now watching you attempt to finish yours but you kept getting distracted by the story were were telling. To be honest Jinho was barely listening to your story because all his attention was on your features. The way your lips pouted ever so slightly when you spoke or the way you scrunched your nose when you spoke about something you didn’t like or the way your eyes closed when you laughed. Everything about you was making his heart race and what he did next made his heart almost stop. He reached over to you and wiped some icecream away from the corner of your mouth with the pad of his thumb. You looked down at your lap timidly hoping he wouldn’t notice how hard you were blushing. Realization of what he did hit him and he mentally smacked himself for doing this out of nowhere.

“I’m sorry. . .” He apologized. You glanced up with your twinkling eyes making him feel like he was falling. “It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize.” You smiled at him and it calmed his nerves. It was also in that moment of losing himself in your eyes that he knew he had never seen anyone’s eyes as pretty as yours and nor did he want to look into anyone else’s eyes. Jinho had come to terms with his feelings. He was falling in love. Only after seeing you three times before, you had made an impact on him so hard that he knew it was love. If only he knew what you were thinking and what you were feeling.

Little did he know you were thinking the same thing. It could possibly be love but only time would tell if it was or not but then again, time was all the both of you had.

[themillsdaughter]

we saved a few things that were spared

you can also read this in AO3

Contrary to public believe, Kat does know how to focus on the present. She just doesn’t do it with people around.

The soft hum of the shower is what grounds her, what lets her feel the world around her. The strength of the ceramic beneath her feet, the honks of New York’s traffic coming from the window, the soap slipping through her skin, creating bubbles and sterility.

Kat likes becoming a physical being while she’s safe, while she has a plastic curtain surrounding her and warm, pressurised water pouring down. Adena had made her real with a simple smile and some well delivered words.

It’d been refreshing and terrifying.

“How many pairs of underwear do you think I should take?”

“How many times do you plan on having sex?” Sutton retorts, lying in the middle of Kat’s bed, surrounded by clothes.

“I might not have enough pairs.” She frowns and the double uhh makes her smirk.

“Standard plan, babe. One panty a day and a bra each two days.” Jane suggests. It’s a valid input, so she counts fourteen panties and throws them in her bag, grabbing a few extras for emergencies. “I still can’t believe you’re doing this.”

“Trust me, neither do I.” Kat mumbles.

She doesn’t believe it until a flight attendant is instructing people to buckle their seatbelts.

This is why a couple running towards each other became such a cliché in romances. This feeling right here, the weight and warmth and familiarity is why two people rush to clutch their significant others tightly.

Adena keeps going off in Farsi, eyes sparkling with confusion and happiness and endearment and that is the reason why she came. Why she dragged her ass bright and early and convinced her boss that she could maintain her most important duties halfway across the continent.

People are starting to stare at them, now. Curious, more than anything.

Kat is very good at Spanish, but she cannot speak Persian for shit, so she kisses the woman holding her face and stops the unknown words.

It’s fulfilling, having Adena against her.

(“How does it feel?”

“Uh empty?”)

“How long?” Adena asks in between kisses, a hand making its way up and up and up Kat’s leg.

“Fly back on,” A sigh, a soft bite on a lower lip, a moan as swift fingers hit her inner thigh. “the seventeenth.”

She’d bought the return ticket before anything else. She knew she’d consider staying forever, otherwise. She knew that with big smiles and huge eyes and that sharp tongue being near her and all around her, she knew she would not go back to the US if she wasn’t forced to.

“A vacation?”

Kat knows what Adena is referring to, knows she’s being asked how she approached Jacqueline on taking time off.

“An adventure.”

(I know that you said that you’re tired of adventure and everything, but I’ve never had one.)

A dream has her tossing and thrashing and choking on her own saliva. Kat wakes up to soothing words and soft touches.

“Breathe, my love.” Adena whispers, an arm around Kat’s shoulders as she coughs. “Breathe.”

It takes her lungs a minute to settle down, not to gulp for air desperately, ineffectively.

Her heart slams against her ribs, a car speeds by outside, reminding her that this is reality.

Jane and Sutton smiling and smiling and being ripped away suddenly. Crying for Kat, begging her for help and she not moving, she not running to them and she just wanting to help, to make it alright again. And Adena, looking at her from afar, tears streaming down her cheeks, ‘home’ echoing around and Kat not fucking moving. That had all been a nightmare. Of course it had.

“It’s gone, it’s gone.”

Real Adena caresses the back of her neck, leans a chin against her shoulder when she stays seated.

Just a nightmare. Nothing more.

She doesn’t mention it when Adena convinces her to lie back down, but Kat hasn’t had a nightmare since she was twelve.

“Not even over my dead, cold-ass body.”

“ Why?”  Jane and Sutton groan together. She rolls her eyes, hears Adena chuckling a few steps away.

(it is tucked somewhere around her stomach, the fear the dream seems to have left behind.)

“I am not going anywhere near a llama.”

“But it’s a classic!” Jane whines. A child, honestly.

“Can you really experience Peru if you don’t see a llama up close?” Sutton quirks an eyebrow.

“Yes, yes you can. There’s the Larco Museum here in Lima, Machu Picchu and Moray and Sak- Saks-”

“Saksaywaman.” Adena supplies, sitting on the couch, molding herself to Kat’s side.

“Yeah, and all of those in Cusco.”

“Whatever, have fun being like every other tourist.” Sutton moves out of frame, exasperated.

Correction: children.

“At least I get to be one.”

“Hey,” Sutton reappears, mouth dropped in pretend shock. “mean. Bye.”

The call ends and she shares a look with the woman leaning into her.

Her friends are fine. Assholes as usual, but fine. Adena is not crying and this hug they have going on feels like home.

It’s fascinating, watching as slick, brown hair slowly disappears in a wrap of silk and colors. She has the details down in four days. Adena likes to wear the knot on top of her head, instead of closer to her neck and favors bold, statement patterns.

The first step is pinning the hair in place. Kat likes to fumble with the little strands left behind, too short to pull up. She only does it when they are alone, but seeing shivers running down the woman’s spine makes her happier than she can explain.

“Oh, Steve and Rachel invited us to go hiking with them.” Adena says, voice stranded due to two pins she holds with the corner of her mouth.

“The couple from down the hall?”

“Yes.” A nod, a few silent moments of concentration as the last section of hair is secured into place. In comes the underscarf and Adena turns her attention back to Kat. “Do you want to go?”

“I’m not really into cardio.”

“I’m coming to believe you’re not very much into anything .”

“Except you.” She gets a smirk for that one. “But sure, new country, new me. Sort of.”

Kat pays attention as a yellow scarf is folded and wrapped around Adena’s head. Some twists here and pulls there and they are ready to leave the Airbnb apartment.

(five thousand percent less expensive than daily fees in a hotel)

She is pretty proud of how much she endures before the breaking point.

Bugs everywhere, slippery ground and an unforgiving sun.

Kat is not a nature person. It is just not in her. She’s never had a pet, missed it only for the lack of the distraction one would have given her.

She is not a nature person, nor a cardio person.

The view is beautiful and calming and it is not the same quiet as growing up. It is peaceful and filled with white noises. So she marches on.

Nine miles. Kat hikes Peruvian lands for nine (out of fifteen) miles. When she sees the snake, however, she’s fucking done.

Granted, she was the idiot who didn’t pay attention to her surroundings properly. But a snake ? No ma’am, thank you. In no shape or form will she put on a poker face with that on the equation.

She’d sat down for a moment to drink some water and catch her breath and the only reason she’d even noticed the snake when she did had been Adena’s nervous, paralyzed form looking somewhere over her shoulder.

When Kat followed the gaze and saw the reptile, her heart had exploded inside her. It’d taken every ounce of her being not to sprint out and away on that very second. The longass animal had already been tense and somewhere, some useful part of her brain had screamed SLOW MOVEMENTS YOU DUMB FUCK and she had listened because it sounded right.

“You know, Boa Constrictors are not really venomous to humans.” Steve comments, the road wide enough for the four of them to walk side by side.

“Still scary.” She sighs, flinches when Adena lays an unannounced hand on the small of her back.

Rachel carries on talking about animals and the beauty in their complexity.

Kat has no shits to give. She is adept to fluffy, domesticable beings. Dogs, if she were to be picky.

“The magazine ran an article on NYC rescue centers a few months back. Got a huge online flux.” It’s the best she can do at small talk. “We even set up a few online crash courses for young rescues.”

“I think I saw something about it,” Steve admits. He’s an easy dude. She has no idea how Adena finds these people. “A great initiative. If more people knew about how to properly care for them, maybe there wouldn’t be so many extreme rescue cases.”

The image of a cute, furry puppy gives her enough strength to finish their journey back.

Machu Picchu is interesting. Intricate and old and vibrating with energy.

“Can you imagine? Building something so complex all those years ago?”

The abandoned city itself is enchanting. Adena’s delighted smile is even more so.

A thousand pictures are taken. She serves as a model for most of them. The tour guide takes a few portraits of Adena and her and those are her favorites.

She buys a few souvenirs. Jane and Sutton would kill her at the spot otherwise. She sits in a low, living-being free (she checks) step, taking in the antique stores as she waits for Adena to come back with their icecreams.

She tips her head back, absorbs the warmth of the sunshine. There are kids laughing and speaking a few yards away. Kat focuses on the consistent hum of the fountain to her left, feeling the stone under her butt, under her palms. The straps of her backpack at her shoulders, the foreign scents and tongue, the stiff poke and drag under her leg, the-

Wait. What the-

Her eyelids snap open.

Not another snake.

Not another snake.

For fuck’s sake, not another sn-

A cat.

A kitten, actually.

A dirty, shaking and tiny kitten hiding under her legs.

A cat under Kat.

This trip was supposed to be fun and sexy and relaxing. Why does it have to be weird, too?

The kids from down the street are coming at full speed towards her. She sees the front runner’s look and it takes her an instant to make the decision.

Kat reaches down, wraps her fingers around the ridiculously small body. The animal meows and twists and tries with all its might to run from her. As she leans it in her lap, the children surround her.

A couple of shouts in Spanish. She makes out a few keywords before a beat cop comes closer and snaps something, making the kids shut up.

“ Estamos jugando con eso. ” A boy, no taller than her waist, points at the cat in her hands.

No wonder the kitten is shaking so bad. Half a dozen humans passing it around as a toy cannot be easy.

“ El gatito no es una cosa.”  The officer doesn’t take his eyes off the kids. “ ¿De quien es?”

“ Yo lo encontré.” The front runner speaks.

“ Y la mamá?”

“ No se. No creo que tengas una.”

She sighs, takes a glance at the cat and then at the woman coming in her direction, frown in place.

Crap.

“Did we really smuggle a cat into the city?” Adena’s voice is warm and amused.

“It was either bringing it with us or giving it back to the children.”

Kat pulls her hoodie open and takes out the kitten. It starts meowing louder as soon as she touches it. She thinks it’s a girl. They are calling it Pecky, for now, because it almost sounds like pequeña and the kitty is so fucking small.

“Yes, I know.” Adena continues, sitting on their bed as Kat kneels on the ground and tries to check if their guest has any injuries. “However, it still sounds crazy.”

“I’m pretty sure this is the most wild thing I’ve ever done.”

“Well, your friends will be dying to hear of your adventures when you get home.”

She furrows her brows. Her chest gets too tight when she thinks about leaving. About only one more morning waking up to soft skin and long lashes. Kat focuses back on Pecky.

“God, she’s full of fleas. Look.” She distances some fur for a clear view at the skin and sure enough four or five little black spots rush by in a few seconds.

The crash course flashes through her mind. Access health, keep hydrated, give wet food if big enough to fill your hand.

There were no pet shops open, so the canned tuna pasta from the convenience store will have to do.

Adena runs a tentative finger under Pecky’s chin. The cat meows, but allows the touch.

“Dish soap kills fleas.” The woman mumbles, starting to pull her hijab apart.

“How do you know that?”

“I got curious about Scarlet’s article.”

Kat smiles. Pecky meows and skips away on top of their comforter.

“Wanna give her a bath, then?”

“Nice try.” Adena flops down on her belly, watching as the kitten looks intrigued at her discarded scarf.

just let me go just let me go, I just want to help them

“kat!”

it’s sutton, desperate, in the dark, needing her. she just wants to help, just wants to make things better.

“home”

adena, beautiful, alone, an unwilling nomad.

“please!”

jane, tiny, amazing, loyal, unsure, scared.

she just wants to help she just wants to take them in she just-

Kat wakes up to a skinny tail resting on top of her nose. Pecky is half asleep, still, but when Kat looks down, the pet gazes back.

“Are you okay?”

She allows the voice to wash over her, inching closer to the body behind her.

“Yeah.”

She tells herself it is not a lie.

Saving a kitty is a welcome distraction to the heartache leaving Adena gives her. The initial plan had been to get to a vet first thing in the morning, find a no-kill shelter and try to make the most of the rest of the day.

A vet is found with no problem at all, the shelter, though, is a bit trickier.

“She won’t survive.” The secretary for the place says, an indifference Kat suspects is more for his own protection than lack of empathy.

“Wanna look at her and say that again, pal?”

The guy sighs and keeps his eyes on his notepad, ringing their expenses in.

“We get over doscientos a year. Not enough money.” He extends the receipt, waits for her to sign. “Maybe you take care of it?”

“We have a flight to take.” She scribbles her name on the thin paper, slides it back to the man over the counter and he finally takes a peek at the white ball of fluff inside the carrier she’d just bought.

“There are certificates.” He gives her a kind smile. Yeap, not that indifferent after all. Realistic, perhaps.

Kat crosses gazes with Adena. She is answered with a nod.

“Do you have international ones?” She gives in, reaching her finger to tease Pecky through the plastic screen.

“Maybe I can find someone to take her.” Kat tries.

She has her folded legs leaning over Adena’s as they wait in the lobby to be called for the flight.

Cusco to Lima, Lima to the USA. She’ll only have a human companion through half the trip.

“That’s possible.”

“And, you know, she’s pretty cute without those dirt-dreadlocks.”

“She’ll get adopted in no time.” Adena runs a thumb across Kat’s knee. She tries to memorize the feeling, the exact amount of heat and the mixture of scents coming off in waves from the woman’s perfume.

Pecky lies on the triangle between their mingled bodies and the back of the airport seat, playing with a balled up piece of paper. Kat gets pinned in place by a pair of blue feline eyes. She steals the makeshift ball and holds it slightly out of reach for the kitten. It stands on its back paws in a glance, using a firm clutch on the stollen toy as support.

Feisty little thing.

“I’m really going to miss you, Adena.”

She doesn’t have the slightest idea of where that comes from. All she knows, all she feels, is a squeeze in her calf where Adena’s hand now rests and her smell and her heat and her gorgeous, expressive eyes caressing her.

Pecky starts nibbling at the handle of her purse.

Kat learns to fully appreciate classical music in under an hour and a half.

She’d never been averse to it, simply more interested in other styles, but Adena loves it and insists on not only listening to it during their flight, but in having Kat pay attention too.

The multiple instruments give off an unique sound and they get even better, if she were to be honest, since they give her the opportunity to have a lovely head tucked in her neck.

One of her hands is clasped permanently inside the woman’s both and she uses her free palm to cradle a sleeping Pecky. The cat doesn’t like to be picked up, but she sure as hell enjoys going under leaning against someone.

One melody after the other, she lets her mind waver and travel. Her passport is still empty. Her thoughts go around the world.

Kat imagines Adena’s visa magically coming through before she leaves for the US. She imagines Central Park walks and Scarlet’s gala with a plus one invite which actually gets used.

Kat imagines movie nights with the girls, her and Adena sharing the floor and a throw blanket.

She imagines domesticity and happiness and continuity.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra stops playing through her headphones and the airplane starts to descent.

“You’re going to be safe, right? You’re going to look before you take a seat and you’re not going to get too close to wild animals and you’re going to be alright, right?”

“I’m going to be fine.�� Not a promise. Not what she’d asked.

Adena frames her face (exactly, fucking exactly like she’d done when Kat had arrived ) and kisses her.

They do not cry.

“Until next time, love.”

Oh, Adena. Kind and thoughtful and holding Kat’s heart just as she holds her luggage.

( attention, this is the last call for flight number 34952 leaving for New York City,United States)

Maybe she leaves a piece of herself in Peru, just as she takes a bit of it in a paw-printed carrier.

“Any puns will be paid for.”

Jane and Sutton seem confused, welcoming her into a group hug all the same.

She’s tired and sore. Pecky can’t actually pee on her own yet, which meant Kat had to make her way into the bathroom every couple of hours and use a tissue to stimulate the kitten into relieving herself.

She’s tired and she misses Adena worse than she did when she’d been too foolish and afraid and the woman had moved to Paris.

“How was the trip?”

“Did you take pictures?”

Honestly, as much as she misses Adena, she’s missed these two.

“No turbulences and, uhm, Adena is still uploading stuff to the cloud.”

“And how are you?”

Something gives her away. Maybe the girls just know her too much. Maybe her metaphorical bucket is too full and it spills and leaks everywhere. Maybe her aura is black or some other color that means rotten.

Either way, Kat receives one more embrace.

“We have cheap wine and two new TV Shows in our queue.” Tiny Jane offers.

That’s good. That’s very good. She can’t have movie nights with her best friends and the woman who holds her heart. She can, however, get blissfully drunk and indulge herself in bad rom-com plots.

“You better take me home, then.” She forces a steady smile to counteract the bitterness in her stomach. “We just need to stock up on wet cat food, first.”

“Ah, what?”

“Why?”

No one said she couldn’t get a little amusement out of this. One hand brings up the pet-holder she holds and the other points at it.

“Surprise.”

“Kat, is that a….” Sutton frowns, matching Jane.

“Cat.” She nods, glares pointedly and the pun comment downs on them.

“How was the trip?” Jacqueline doesn’t stop the treadmill, but her smile seems genuine.

“It was good. Peru is gorgeous.”

“It is. We had a photoshoot there for,” Her boss looks away, thinking, and snaps her eyes back a second later. “Fall, two-thousand four. Absolutely spectacular.”

“The culture is very interesting. The ruins live up to their fame.” Kat nods politely. She has to be very careful with her request. Not everyone gets to take a two-week long leave with no forewarning.

“Well, it’s great to have you back. In time for the children’s day picnic, no less.”

Another nod. She’ll have to double check the celebs attending and confirm their snapchat-filter order.

“Jacqueline?”

The woman starts to gradually slow her steps, gives Kat a go ahead smirk.

“Do you mind making the pet-friendly office policy count?”

“How do you mean?” Her boss stops completely.

“We were always allowed to bring our pets with us, right? But since I got here it seemed a silent rule that no one actually brought them.”

“And you want to break that rule?” Jacqueline turns to her desk, flips through a couple of concepts a fashion assistant delivers.

Dennise, Kat thinks, not surprised by the lack of knocking nor the lack of any words from the short redhead.

“With your permission.”

She only gets a hum for a moment, Jacqueline scribing a few things over a sticky note before gluing it on the glossy photographs and handing it to Dennise.

The girl (younger than Kat herself) takes the pages and scurries out.

“What is it you have?”

“A cat.”

An amused look crosses the blonde’s face. She’s thankful no comment follows.

“She’s just a baby and it’d be just until I get her adopted.” Kat continues, tries to explain because she really can’t leave Pecky alone the whole day everyday. The kitten would be terrified, not to mention destroy the apartment.

“Fine.” Jacqueline shrugs. Kat smiles. “But make sure she’s trained. God help you if she uses any of Oliver’s things as a scratching post.”

When she leaves the glass office, she and Sutton exchange a discrete air-fistbump.

To be completely straight, Kat fully intends on giving Pecky away. It is a goal of hers. It is.

It doesn’t happen on the first month because her days can be summarized into waking up, working, facetiming Adena and having a drink with the girls. She’s simply too busy to go looking for a shelter to find willing adopters.

It has nothing to do with the cat being adorable and fitting into her hand and sleeping on her chest.

The adoption also doesn’t happen on the second month because that’s when Sidney comes to work with them and develops a crush on her. She’s flattered, really, but seriously she has a picture of Adena and her in Machu Picchu as her lockscreen and she lets him see it as much as possible. He cannot take a hint and she cannot simply drop my girlfriend in their conversation, since she isn’t sure she has one.

“Have you heard anything?” Kat should know better than to ask. She doesn’t and the need for expressive eyes and soft skin is too glaring inside of her.

“Not yet.” Adena sighs, pulls the sheets up, tighter around her chest. Lying like this, in the dark and both ready to sleep, they can almost fool themselves into believing they are in the same space.

“It’s going to be alright, right?” She feels pathetic, asking for reassurance when it isn’t about her.

“Yes, Kat. It’s going to be alright.”

Pecky stops fitting inside her hand and Jane stops sending her adoption web pages by month three.

By month four, she doesn’t quite remember the smell of Adena’s perfume.

“It’s going to be alright, right?” That’s always how it goes. Every week when they hear nothing about the visa. “It’s going to be alright.”

“Yes, Kat. It’s going to be alright.”

The perfume had been rich and citric. Kat can’t place how, exactly.

Sutton gets pregnant and Sidney kisses Kat by month five. She does not kiss him back and Sutton has a miscarriage three days later, after talking to Richard and deciding to have the baby.

“What are we, Adena?”

“How do you mean?”

She knows. By the slight waver of the voice coming through her phone that Adena understood what she meant fully well.

“Are we dating? Are we waiting on each other? Are we settling?”

“I’m four thousand miles away.”

It’s not an answer, so she doesn’t accept it. She cries into her pillow and Pecky sits on the armchair at the corner of the room, staring at her.

Adena, 7:33 AM:

I’m sorry about last night, call me when you have time .

Kat washes the sleep away and then, she calls.

“It’s going to be alright, right?”

“I don’t know, Kat. I don’t know, anymore.”

Jane and Pinstripe Guy break up and Jacqueline is getting a divorce, apparently. It feels weird, to drink alongside her boss in a poorly-lit, over-crowded bar down the street from where she works. Pecky is spending the night at the vet, though, getting spayed and Jane talks and Sutton drinks and Jacqueline stays for only half an hour.

Kat wants to call Adena as soon as she gets home. She’s drunk and confused and Adena does not have a home of her own to stumble into. She doesn’t call.

“I miss you.” It is whispered through the line as if they are conspiring. Kat smiles, feels her heart squeezing and jumping and melting away.

“I miss you too.”

“Will I still have you, if I come back?”

“Yeah, Adena. I’m gonna be here.”

Everything is messy and complicated and everyone around her seems somehow unhappy.

(except for Pecky, who plays in the corner with her rolling toy-mouse. Small blessings, she supposes)

Her Thanksgiving is long and lonely, but filled with wine.

Jane had gone to see her brothers, Sutton to see her mom and Kat had insisted she’d be fine. Her friends deserved a break, deserved some moments to heal.

She calls Adena by the end of the day, perhaps a glass away from way too many.

“I really really really like you, Adena.”

“I like you too, Kat.”

“I hate having to wait to be with you.”

“I’m sorry.”

The eyes looking at her through the screen move away, to somewhere she can’t see and can’t understand and is that sadness? Are those tears? Shit. Fuck. Goddamit.

“I’m going to, though.” She tries to make it reassuring. Tries to take it back to when Adena wasn’t so clearly torn, to when it was just unneasiness.

“I know.” Adena sighs, seems guilty now and Kat watches as a hand brushes the tears away. “I just don’t know if there’s any hope in that.”

“There is. Adena,” Her voice is firmer, now. She’s still pretty drunk, but this is important. “There is hope in it. You’re going to get your visa. Or you won’t. But either way, we’re going to work through it. The magazine is always planning events in other countries and I can start going with, instead of sending others and you can flight there and we can have a thousand and four new adventures, together.”

“A thousand and four? That’s an specific number.”

“Multiply it by five hundred and twenty seven.”

“You’re learning your numbers.”

That gorgeous, warm smile comes back. Her chest squeezes and her body grows hotter.

“Yes, thank you for noticing.”

Adena nods, cleans a few tears away.

Correction: Her Thanksgiving is lonely and long, but filled with wine and drunken conclusions.

The weirdness starts about a week after the 25th. Jane and Sutton start always being too tired for movie nights or shopping sprees or drinking games.

After, Adena breaks her iphone and decides to change brands, meaning their facetime calls are off. Skype is the next best thing, but the apartment the woman is now renting doesn’t have wifi, which automatically leads to them only having calls when Adena is in a café or some other public establishment.

A few days later, the girls start talking about spending New Year’s together in a little cottage in Jersey. She is down for whatever they plan on, but a cottage ? That is too out of the blue and too damn cold for this time of the year, even for Tiny Jane and her love for the wilderness.

Christmas comes and with it her parents traveling to visit. They’d always do the opposite, she’d catch a plane or a bus home and spend a couple of days there and Pecky and the cottage are the only reasons she doesn’t do exactly that. It’d be too much stress for the cat, to go through a five hour drive, get used to a new, foreign place just to come back a few days later and having to move yet again once she and the girls went to New Jersey.

So her parents come to her. They are sweet and her dad lets the pet sleep on his lap. Everything is a touch quieter. It twists her stomach, but it is good to have mom and pop with a New York drop scene.

They ask her about Adena, about Peru and if it was worth it.

“You know how I always wanted change in my life?”

Her parents nod, the nagging feeling she’s one of their patients can’t quite take away from the moment.

“I have that, with her. An exciting and really healing sort of change, you know?”

They smile. Her mom reminds her that the honeymoon phase eventually goes away and she should be sure they have a good foundation for when it does.

Kat doesn’t snap back. Maybe her mother is right. She just doesn’t want to live her life like a lab experiment or a sociology paper.

They go to the infamous cottage on December 28.  It’s a decent thing.

She’s got dibs on the bedroom with the view, since the ledge is perfectly sized for Pecky to watch the birds outside and has a little nook for the cat to sleep in as well.

The girls insisted on sharing the other bedroom, which leaves her feeling slightly left out.

“How long ‘til you start plotting to kill me, hm?” Kat runs her fingers behind the Pecky’s ear.

Blue eyes focus on a mosquito, flying around the room, and in a blink, her pet also abandons her.

She has no idea how they get service in the middle of the woods, but Sutton keeps checking her phone so much that she , Kat Edison, Social Media Director, has to threaten taking it away from her.

Jane backs Sutton up, tells Kat that there’s this important fashion thingy happening in Marrocos. She shrugs and goes back to brushing her hair. This place does have a very cozy tub, she’ll give them that much.

Kat really loses it, however, when Sutton claims to have forgotten the ingredients for the s'mores and rushes out in the middle of the day to get it. She really loses it when it is dinnertime and the blonde is still not back and Jane acts as if there’s nothing wrong.

“What the hell is going on with you two? Did I do something? Because there’s been this thing between us for a while and I somehow can’t be a part of it and it is freaking me out.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“For real? You don’t think I notice when you two stop talking as soon as I walk in? Or how you both are always too tired to hang out, but you both are also always online at two PM on that same day?”

“Kat, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Jane doesn’t deny it, then.

It hurts and it stings and she hasn’t talked to Adena since the day they came to this place and it is already the 30th.

She sits on the couch, back to the door, and she sulks. She’s allowed to. She will not cry out of frustration, but the trip is pretty much ruined for her and Sutton has disappeared with the only car they have.

Jane tries to make small talk, as if everything is perfect. Kat sends her glares and makes some supper.

(enough for the three of them, which makes her madder because she should let them fend for themselves if the two are such exclusive best friends now)

She is working, actually working on her holiday when she hears the cabin door opening. Her anger climbs back up and

“Oh, did you go make the chocolate from scratch or-”

Adena is standing there when she turns around. Adena with a bright blue hijab and soft grey sweater and old jeans and boots and Adena Adena Adena . Beaming at Kat. Being beautiful and glorious and present.

(she is totally not exaggerating when she thinks her heart actually stops)

“Adena.”

She lets it past her lips and it wakes her up. The most gorgeous human being she’s ever known is finally breathing the same air as her and she’s frozen five feet away.

Saying the name gets her into motion, gets her into the warm and strong and secure arms in a second, wrapped in the smell of citrus fruits and airplane.

“Your visa?” Kat whispers it against soft skin.

“It came through.”

“And- When-” She pulls away, meets those wonderful brown eyes.

“The girls helped speed things up with the legal department.”

“Incite has a lot of experience with it, surprisingly.”

Jane. Jane is speaking somewhere to their right. Kat had been stupid and mistrustful.

She looks at her friends, at their smiles. Looks at Tiny Jane, with a little smirk and Sutton, leaning against the now closed cabin door. She looks at Adena, an inch away from her.

“I love you guys.” She makes sure Sutton and Jane understand. They nod, love you too

Kat feels a warm body brushing against her leg.

“Pecky, were you in this too?”

The feline meows back at her, continuing to rub against them.

“I knew you were up to something.”

Another meow. She laughs. And buries her face against Adena’s neck.

(“But, you know, for me, I could just never get past this .”

“Well, for me, it’s never just been about this. It’s, uh, it’s more about this .” )

Adena lies her head against Kat’s shoulder, a hand on her ribs and hair muffling her nose.

It is bliss. The afterglow isn’t too bad, either, but the stillness of everything, the notion that they are not on borrowed time, is heavenly.

“I can’t believe it’s over.” Adena sighs and Kat hums in agreement. The body she holds against her own starts shaking. Her eyes pinch and she smiles. Smiles wide and big and pulls Adena closer, because she can . Because Adena is there and now they have thousands and thousands of possibilities.

“It’s over.” She smiles and she cries, but for the first time since Sutton miscarried, she lets out happy tears.

“I have something for you.” Adena leans over her, over the end of the bed and into the suit bag she’d brought with her. “Even though Islam doesn’t have a holy day similar to Christmas, I know it is a big part of your culture. So I got you this.”

Kat takes the wrapped box, doesn’t know if she should tear it open or kiss the woman first. She decides on the kiss.

“You didn’t have to.”

“I know. But I thought of you when I saw it.”

She smirks, her insides turning. This is happiness, this is a little taste of bliss in the middle of disaster.

Kat pulls away the bow tightened around the box, pulls up the lid and lets her mouth hang open for a moment.

A stuffed llama. A stuffed llama glares at her with black-bead eyes.

Adena starts chuckling, a hand covering her lips.

“At least this one doesn’t spit.” She shrugs. Adena laughs harder.

It’s a cute toy and it has a meaning behind it and is this their first inside joke?

“There’s something else.” Adena manages, calming down, smile in place.

She shuffles the flow of white tissue paper around and something black catches her attention. Another box, she notes, as she pulls it out. A jewelry box, at that.

Kat opens it slowly, runs a fingertip over the details of the piece.

“I thought you would wear it a bit more than a necklace.”

“Adena, this is beautiful.”

A wide oval shape. The stone in the background is of a stained and cracked red. A man’s face, in true Peruvian style, embossed front and center in the same silver which makes the structure of the rest of the ring.

A few outfits it’d go great with pop in her mind, get filed away into a corner.

“Thank you.” She sighs, frames Adena’s jaw with one of her hands. Kat leans in, drops a kiss on the corner of the woman’s mouth.

“I’m happy you like it.”

“I love it. I love both of them.”

She makes a point of bringing the stuffed animal further into her lap. It’ll be a full day, once Jane sees it, but it is from Adena . Thoughtful and sweet and teasing Adena, so Kat loves it, no doubt about it.

“How are we messing this up?” Sutton steps away from the stove, frustrated and glaring at the steaming and way too liquid mixture on the pan.

“Told you we should had just ordered it along with the turkey.”

“Kat, we’re not kids, we should be able to handle a simple dressing.”

Uh-uh, irritated Sutton is bad and can very quickly turn into Lash-out Sutton. Kat backs away into the other corner of the (small) kitchen.

“I can make a run to the store if you want.” Jane pops her head in.

“Didn’t you have an article to finish?” Sutton sighs, turning off the stove and throwing the napkin on the sink.

“Just finished it.” Jane steps into the room completely. “So I can go, if you want me to.”

“Nah, the stores are probably closed already, anyway.” Sutton scratches her neck, moves to start washing the cutlery she used on the recipe.

Kat exchanges a look with the other brunette, agreeing on leaving the situation be. It’s not about the dressing as it is about Richard’s call earlier in the day. Their friend will let it out when she feels ready, they just have to wait and tread carefully.

They take to the living room, checking if the few decorations they brought along are sticking.

“Pecky!” Kat stomps her foot and her pet runs a few feet away, tail straight up. “What were you doing?”

She inspects the ripped pieces of paper on the floor, getting on to collecting them.

“I swear to God, everything was in place a second ago.” Jane tries hanging the New Year’s sign back on the wall.

“Yeah, she’s fast. Knows when she’s doing something she isn’t supposed to.” She sighs, standing up with the torn cardboard flag in hand. “Yes, we’re talking about you.” Kat snaps when she notices Pecky lurking closer.

The feline takes the words as forgiveness, however, and trots over to her, rubbing against her calf as usual.

There’s something unique, about keeping a pet. Something inevitable on falling to their charms now and again.

She’d taken this cat, tiny and sick and scared senseless and now she is healthy and the right amount of fluffy, secure enough to run around and play and think everything is okay despite it all.

Kat is aware it is her logic that has her adoration for the animal swimming up, letting her scratch Pecky’s back. She knows, and she doesn’t care. Peru gave her beautiful sights, a face-to-face she hopes never to have again and it also gave her the little purring hurricane she pulls closer.

Kat looks up to see Adena, newly showered, stepping out of their bedroom at the same time a crash comes from the kitchen, followed by a few curse words.

“Ah, did I miss something?” Adena lifts an eyebrow.

A bliss in the midst of chaos, alright.

“Happy new year!” Jane pulls at the party popper’s string, smile wide and eyes glossy from the booze they’d been sipping away at for the past four hours.

She laughs and sees as a ball of moving fur ends up behind the bookcase.

“Good luck getting her from back there.” Kat gives her friend a thumbs up, not really worried about Pecky. The fireworks they hear in the distance would be worse, had they stayed in the city.

Jane groans.

“Happy new year.” Kat sighs, feeling Adena’s arm squeeze tighter around her waist.

“Happy new year.” Adena mumbles, lips against Kat’s hair. “May many more come our way.”

“I’m so glad you are celebrating it with us.”

“The rebirth of a year is worth celebrating, no matter in which calendar.”

She smirks, turns her head enough to peck the woman’s lips. As she turns back, she sees Jane coercing Pecky out of her hiding with the mouse toy the cat loves. By the brunette’s side is Sutton, her beautiful and healing friend, in desperate need of a new beginning.

Kat moves out of Adena’s hold, pulls Sutton into a hug. Strong and firm. “I love you, babe.”

“Love you too.”

“I can’t say this year will be better, but at least the last one is officially over.”

Sutton nods, wipes away a tear from her cheek.

“Thank God.”

“And tequila!” Jane squeals, sitting on the ground, waving the mouse around for Pecky.

“And tequila.” She and Sutton resonate. A weird analogy, but a true one, nonetheless.

However Adena manages to go through the emotional rollercoaster from hell they experienced without getting hammered here and now is an honest mystery to Kat.

It also makes her admire the woman a tad more.

(if that’s even possible)

She kinda hates her mom, a little bit, for being right. The honeymoon phase does pass. It passes quite quickly, to be honest.

Adena does not condone pets sleeping in the same bed as their owners. Kat loves lazy weekends and Adena seems to think New York has new mysteries to be uncovered every day, specially when it is extra early.

Adena gets moody when she thinks she hasn’t captured a good piece during a photoshoot and Kat does not always have the time nor the patience to explain why, when the girls text ‘ alcohol emergency’ , she has to scurry away, no matter what.

It is hard and they fight. It is hard and it is real and she can’t recall the last relationship she had where she didn’t feel the need to break things off at least twice a week.

But it is real and her heart skips a beat every time she sees Adena chewing on her bottom lip, trying to pass a hard phase on Candy Crush (in Kat’s phone because Adena doesn’t need shallow distractions) .

It is the most real she’s ever felt and it honestly amazes her, how fucking safe it is.

Oh, and having a beautiful woman playing and running around her apartment with her cat is not bad, either.

It is one of the hardest things she faces, being real and letting someone watch it happen , but it is one of her biggest accomplishments.

[phantomrose96]

A Breach of Trust Chapter 15.5: A Beach of Trust

(Act 1: Chapter 1-9 )

(Act 2: Chapter 10 || Chapter 11 || Chapter 12 || Chapter 13 || Chapter 14 || Chapter 15 || Chapter 15.5 || Chapter 16 || Chapter 17 || Chapter 18)

(Act 3 Chapter 19+)

There is one universal law of anime, and it is that there is always a beach episode. There is always a beach episode

Mob had fallen asleep beneath the couch blankets again, curled into the cocoon so that the blankets served double as his pillow. He was woken up sometime later by the sound and brightness that came with Reigen swishing back the curtains.

“Wake up, Mob. We’ve got plans.”

Mob opened his eyes. Reigen stood over him, wearing swim trunks, a white tank top, and enormous sunglasses with the price tag still dangling off the right ear hook. He had globbed suntan lotion on his nose and shoulders, and he thrust a mesh bag to Mob containing roughly the same outfit but in a smaller size—sunglasses and all.

“I’m overworked and you’re traumatized. I don’t know anything about mental health but there’s no way a day at the beach can be bad. So get changed it’s beach time.”

Reigen sat down on the couch beside Mob, one foot pulled up and resting on the other knee, and he pulled out an assortment of deflated floaties from his own bag. He uncapped the mouthpiece of one—a duck by the looks of it—and started to inflate it.

Mob stared, baffled. “…Beach time?”

…

“Look, I’m just saying that if you’re gonna be using up your vacation days sitting home, we may as well use the vacation days.”

Jun tossed Tetsuo’s swim trunks onto his head. He put his controller down and grabbed it off his face, looking first in confusion at the swimsuit, then at Jun, who stood in front of the couch in a red bikini. She supported a beachbag by its strap, with a sunhat beneath her arm and sunglasses tucked into the string of her bikini top.

“Are we going—you mean the beach…?”

“I already invited Isa. She’s probably there already. Get moving, Tetsuo.”

“…The beach though?” He held the trunks out, baffled. “It’s October!”

“Alright fine. You can stay here. Isa and I will go and just gossip about you.”

Jun turned on her heel, flipflops slapping as she headed to the door.

Tetsuo bounced from the couch. “Wait! No wait, I wanna gossip too!”

…

“This is…what, exactly?”

“Intermission.” Teruki did not look at Ritsu. He faced the icecream vender. “Two please.”

Ritsu watched him take the two cones in his hand, coated in rainbow sprinkles, but somehow the bright mess of every color decorating the icecream cones still paled in comparison to Teruki. His swim trunks were neon green, dashed with oranges, purples, and reds. His unbuttoned shirt was a piercing salmon color, his two bright flipflops did not match, and his pink sunglasses glittered.

He still wore his tie, which he had not been able to get off.

“And when does intermission end?” Ritsu asked.

“When we’re rested up and ready to fight again. You can’t have me ruining my good looks with no rest. It’s bad for my skin.”

“So the fight’s still going?”

“Yes.”

“And we’re just…at the beach…in the meantime.”

“What? Would you rather go grocery shopping? Most people say thank you when they’re brought on vacation.”

Ritsu said nothing. He only walked behind Teruki, dumb-founded, as they headed for the waterfront. Ritsu’s own beach wear was tattered black trunks, an unbuttoned black t-shirt that seemed less “unbuttoned” and more “had the entire front of it violently torn off”—it was his school uniform, actually. It had just been properly shredded enough to double as beach wear.

Teruki stopped suddenly. He thrust his arm out, and the items in his bag spun out onto the sand. Two full-sized beach chairs unfolded and set themselves up, two immaculate pink towels, two umbrellas perhaps more garish than Teruki’s outfit, a cooler with soda, a platter of small sandwiches, a bottle of suntan lotion, a reflective tanning fan.

Teruki flopped onto one of the chairs, floated his icecream cones (both of which appeared to be for him) into the air, and grabbed the tanning board which he fanned around his face. Ritsu stared in utter discomfort at the tie still on his neck. He wasn’t sure how Teruki was breathing.

“Move, you’re blocking my sun.”

…

Tetsuo laid on his stomach, eyes shut, fingers swishing through the hot sand. Jun and Isa chatted quietly in the background. The steady roll and ebb of the waves rocked him to sleep—maybe he could sleep, maybe it was fine.

“Hey bro, can I borrow your sunscreen?”

Tetsuo’s eyes snapped open. A shadow bent down above him, blackened eyes, a noose around its neck, tattered green clothes that had seemingly rotted with the years. Tetsuo shrieked and shot back.

“Yeesh, you coulda just said no bro,” Mogami said. He stood up taller, looking left and right. “Now I’m gonna burn.”

Tetsuo only watched in abject horror as Mogami walked away, pulled a chair and an umbrella out of nothing, and set it up roughly five feet from Tetsuo’s own spot. Mogami waved at him, summoning a pair of sunglasses to his face and unbuttoning his shirt. Tetsuo stared back unblinkingly.

“Tetsuo, what?” Jun asked. She tapped him on the shoulder. Isa stood only a step behind her.

Tetsuo pointed, voice shaking. “Mogami.”

Jun followed the line of his finger, staring at the set-up beside them. She squinted. “…What, off in the distance?”

“Right—right there!”

Jun said nothing for a moment. “…Tetsuo, there’s nothing there.” She turned to Isa. “Right?”

Isa nodded. “Nothing’s there, Tetsuo.”

Tetsuo stared. Mogami blew him a kiss.

Tetsuo’s voice pitched into falsetto as he answered, “Yeah, alright, sure, okay.”

…

Reigen stood beside Mob in line for the beach rentals. He shielded his eyes with his hand despite wearing sunglasses on his head.

“Whatdya wanna get, Mob? Kickboard? Volleyball? Ooh, wonder if they rent sailboats. My dad taught me once how to control one.”

Mob threaded his fingers together, hair in a ponytail on his head that Reigen had sloppily tied up with a rubber band. He looked around at all the people he was distinctly not shredding.

“Um…” Mob answered.

“Yeesh, hey Mob look at that kid. That’s a fashion disaster.” Reigen pointed ahead of them. A boy in neon green shorts and a salmon shirt with mismatched flipflops and pink sunglasses stood in line ahead of them. “At least his emo friend has some fashion sense.”

Mob watched. The two boys rented a surfboard. The dark-haired boy grabbed it, and held it up in front of his face as he walked right past Mob. Mob watched him go.

Mob opened his mouth “He…he seems—“

“Surfboard! That’s the way to go.” Reigen slapped Mob on the back. “God I don’t know how to surf but I bet that’d be fun.”

…

“New plan.”

Teruki stood on the other side of the beach volleyball net. A swarm of mangled, howling spirits swept up behind him. Ritsu’s own decimated horde circled behind him.

Teruki grinned. “We decide this match with spirit horde beach volleyball, my horde versus yours.” Teruki held up Gimcrack. “This thing’s the ball.”

“Um…” Ritsu answered. He watched Teruki pull uncomfortably on his tie. “…Do the spirits know how to play volleyball?”

“Mine do.”

“Do mine?”

“I don’t know. I’m not responsible for your horde.”

“Why is Gimp the ball??”

Teruki tossed Gimcrack into the air. “First point! Let’s go!”

…

Reigen sprawled out on the one beach chair he’d brought, half-dozing in the sun. The parts of him not globbed with sunscreen had turned beet-red. He adjusted his tanning board a little more.

Mob sat down in the sand. He pointed. “Reigen, whose ball is that?”

Reigen lifted his sunglasses and squinted. He saw nothing on the ground where Mob pointed. He lowered the sunglasses. “I dunno.”

“I think it belongs to those volleyball players. I’m… I’m gonna go return it.”

“Have fun, Mob.” Reigen answered, eyes shut. He dozed off lightly for 30 seconds until the pattering of feet caught his attention.

Reigen opened his eyes again, disturbed, and squinted past the sun. The boy dressed all in black stood over him, panting.

“Did our ball roll over here?”

“Oh, yeah, the kid’s returning it.”

The boy, who in fact looked quite beat up, quirked an eyebrow. “…What kid?”

“The um…the kid I found, or something. He’s mine now I guess.” Reigen squinted harder at this boy. He looked familiar.

“Oh…um, alright,” the boy answered. He turned, headed back to the volleyball court. Some kinda faint magenta trail seeped out of him, staining the air he passed through. Reigen grunted, and shrugged, and shut his eyes again.

“…Who was that, Reigen?” Mob asked, 30 seconds later, once he returned.

“I dunno.”

…

“Bruh you know what’s so sissy? When people buy ‘light’ beers and try and bring them to a party. Is that your girlfriend’s beer, bro? That’s weak shit. I make my own microbrews. You can’t go back once you know good beers, bro,” Mogami said.

Tetsuo stared forward, rigidly, his every muscle tense. Quietly he mouthed to himself It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real.

Mogami reached over and took one of the beers from Tetsuo’s cooler. “I mean I don’t trust industry, you know? All that government-regulated crap? You should look into libertarianism, by the way, bro.” Mogami took a swig of the beer. “Yeah, that’s why I’m self-sufficient in these things, bro. I make my own food, I seek out my own flesh vessels to possess. None of that government-issued stuff. Free healthcare is hurting the economy, bro.”

Tetsuo was rocking back and forth now. Jun and Isa had gone back to chatting. The sun was starting to set. Mogami stole a sandwich from the cooler too.

“What’s your stance on religion, bro?”

…

Reigen folded up his chair and squeezed the air out of the floaties one by one. He shot a few sidelong glances to Mob, who stared transfixed at the two volleyball playing boys off in the distance—or, at least the boys standing on the volleyball court. Neither of them had a ball, or seemed to be playing. They just shouted a lot at the empty air around the court.

“I think one of them just won,” Mob remarked.

“Uh-huh,” Reigen answered absently. He stared at the elaborate beach chair set-up the two boys had put up. More specifically, he stared at the untouched platter of sandwiches in the center. “And they didn’t eat any of the food they brought.”

“Um.”

“Do you think they’ll notice if we snag a sandwich? Nah, right? There’s like 20 of them they won’t notice.”

Reigen put his stuff down and marched over to the sandwich platter. He grabbed the top one and inspected it.

“What are you doing, old man?”

The voice was behind Reigen instantly. He startled, and turned to see bad-fashion boy standing there with his hands on his cocked hips. Reigen looked back and forth between the boy and the volleyball field, mentally attempting to calculate how he had moved so quickly.

“Um.”

“Don’t fight with him!” Mob shouted, to the bad-fashion boy it seemed. “Reigen is a very powerful esper, and he didn’t mean it. We’re leaving.”

Bad-fashion boy quirked his eyebrow. “Oh, and I’m not?”

Mob stopped, blinked. “Oh… Oh, you are. I feel it now.”

Bad-fashion boy appraised Mob. “…Seems you are as well, but you can’t be stronger than me.” He stuck a hand out. “Teruki Hanazawa.”

“Oh, nice to meet you,” Mob answered, taking his hand.

“Now fight me,” Teruki said. He summoned a ball of yellow flame to his fist. “Hopefully you won’t be as disappointing as the other one.”

“Welp—none of that,” Reigen said, hoisting up Teruki by the scruff of his shirt. The yellow fire extinguished in Teruki’s palm. He kicked and flailed around, but he was shorter than Reigen, who easily held him off the ground like an angry kitten.

“Let me go!” Teruki insisted.

“No fighting with Mob. Where are your parents, kid?”

Teruki looked him dead in the eye. “I have no parents.”

Reigen stared back, then sighed, then tucked Teruki under his arm. “Well, I already adopted one kid. May as well make it two.”

“What?!”

“Come on Teruki, you’re heading back home with me and Mob. I’ll set you straight or…something. Mob, say hi to your new brother.”

Mob stared at Teruki, who was now snarling and attempting to snap at Reigen’s fingers. “But he’s—that’s not my brother. I want my little brother back, not this guy.”

“Mob, listen.” Reigen hoisted the beach bag over his free shoulder. “Who the heck knows where your little brother is? I mean you probably do but you won’t tell me. You have to settle for this kid.”

…

Ritsu looked up, and from a distance he saw some old man walking off with Teruki under his arm. Some kid in a ponytail walked beside him, his face covered by Teruki’s flailing body.

Ritsu stood there, Gimcrack in his arms, watching.

“Teruki?”