#i started writing this thinking it was summer then oops i remembered it was winter

[seirette]

Scenario Descriptions, Rambling & Art Notes

Read more about what's happening in the photos, and some technical notes, under the cut!

Links

Original Artwork this is talking about is here.

Winter Notes - You are here. For individual cropped photos, see Ko-Fi Post

Spring - TBA (Maybe if Kofi goal is reached, or if I get bored)

Summer - TBA (Kofi or if I get bored)

I'll update the links once everything is up!

Notes from Twitter

(Selected notes from my Twitter.)

This takes place after the events of the game. Susie, Noelle, Kris and Berdly have all started to change, either an obvious way or not. Change takes time. Sometimes you regress. Or sometimes you remain at a certain stage and that's fine for you. Whatever, that's life.

Not pictured: whenever they all had a fight

I started drawing the image set (4 images) 2 weeks before it was finished, so I didn't get to add the other HomeTown kids as cameos (Jock in Summer, Catti & Tem in Spring, MK and Snowy in Winter). I wanted more scenarios but I just blew up what I had to fill up the canvas more. But the hands in the original image block out so much anyway.

Scenario Descriptions

As some people have noticed, each Lightner has a season assigned to them.

Winter - Noelle

Spring - Susie

Summer - Berdly

Autumn - Kris

I chose Winter for Noelle. I like to imagine she can handle the cold. In the game it says she stands in front of the fridge in Sans' shop often, and she probably likes cool air. I took that at face value. But, in the game, it's Autumn and she wears a sweater-vest like thing. And some people said she might be staring at the fridge in Sans' shop because they print Missing Children on milk cartons (Dess).

At the very least Noelle seems to like the pretty snow things in the Cyber World. It's fun to imagine things about characters, isn't it? It also makes writing very tough.

Anyway, Noelle decided for her part of the trip, she wanted to see a snow festival somewhere outside of HomeTown. Kris and Berdly suggested snowboarding or skiing. Susie agreed to snowboarding (because it's close to Skateboarding...?). I didn't really get to draw a snow festival in the end... oops.

Extra scenarios I wanted to draw:

Ice Sculpture festival. Noelle sees some creatures and thinks about how some of the more artsy sculptures remind her of Cat Petterz 2. There is a Drinks Bar made of ice.

Snowball fight. Susie is defeated immediately purely due to having a larger hitbox. Kris is the smallest and good at dodging (or are they just good at deflecting?). Berdly comes up a bunch of mid-tier tactics, all of them fail but the last one works so he considers himself a winner anyway. Also Snowy and Monster Kid are here too. Snowy's head is a snowflake shape, each 'leaf' is loaded with a snowball each, and they are used like a chain gun/snowball machine gun like RATATATATATA...

Ice skating. Noelle is tries to teach Susie. Kris watches from afar while talking with Monster Kid and Snowy.

Quiet moments in the snow with friends watching the sunset. Just as a reminder I don't ship anything (I only explore friendships). So all the relationships/crushes that are in the game as of Chapter 2 are still intact, I haven't changed that part.

Photo 1

Do you think Susie and Berdly will become better 'friends' after Deltarune? At least in the timeline where you don't Kill Berdly, anyway. I think they could have some good slapstick moments. Honestly anything involving Berdly is great, unless you hate Berdly.

Anyway in the first photo, Kris, Susie and Berdly have decided to snowboard/ski down from the top of the mountain. Noelle is on a break. Susie is impressed by the scenery. She's with her friends, she's getting better at snow boarding. She's happy. They take a break together to stare at the mountains as the snow falls and melts on their noses. They don't mind the cold.

Kris takes the photo to preserve the moment for Susie. Also because if Berdly and Susie ever have a fight they can all stare at this photo together and remember the good times.

Photo 2

The gang reunite with Noelle at the bottom of the mountain. It was Noelle's idea to take the photo. Noelle also says she 'wants more photos with "everyone else"'. That doesn't happen, because if you look at the background, Berdly has fallen on his arse. They wait for him to travel down the mountainside, just to tell him they caught his epic fall on film.

The stickers on the snowboards don't mean anything - it is rental gear, the rental shop has a lot of duplicates of the same design. The stickers are just for the customers to tell them apart from other customers with the same design... I wanted to put funny numbers like 420...

Photo 3

On another trip down the mountain. It's just a cool shot of Kris. Berdly's about to stack it again. I'm sure Berdly isn't that bad at sports, but he's just not going well today. Despite the protective gear and snow goggles, you'll notice something about his glasses later.

Do you think Susie and Noelle also stacked it on this hill? Do you think Susie kept asking everyone to go up the mountain "one more time" so she could ace this hill? How do you think Berdly felt about having a bad day with Sports?

Clothes Part 1

For the clothes, Kris and Susie are wearing rentals. Originally they were both going to be wearing red. But I thought Kris wearing blue like their Dark World outfit was nice. I was thinking of giving Kris a custom outfit but I thought "Kris has some money after Deltarune but not THAT much money, so I'll give them a rental outfit". Actually none of these kids should have the money for 4 trips in a single year, OR a sabbatical, but I decided to stop thinking about that because I just want to see blorbos enjoying themselves.

Also I had to give SOMEONE overalls, so Berdly gets his custom bought overalls with a green neck warmer. Even though snowboarding looks cooler, he chooses to ski this trip. Noelle is also skiing. They're the

Super-Elegant Skiing Duo of HomeTown High

Photo 4 & Photo 5

Berdly's glasses are botched. I wonder what happened? Don't you think it's a good metaphor for something? You should think about what it means to you, because I can't do that for you.

Anyway, what's Kris doing? Sometimes you banter with Berdly, sometimes you help him build his dream body in a snowman. Originally the beak was going to be broken, and the whole statue was botched, with Kris snickering at Berdly.

But I decided Kris is so tired from snowboarding the previous day that they've decided to just chill out the day this photo was taken.

Susie snuck away past the trees. She misses Lancer. Kris and Noelle find her and insist on take a photo next to her masterpiece.

Photo 6

Noelle - food pic! It's not a very interesting food item, though. Some gimmicky food cart selling shaved ice with dark colored sprinkles that look like the hairy mountain behind them.

It's actually seaweed sprinkles. Kris eats moss in the Dark World, but they're not sure how they feel about seaweed on shaved ice. There's other syrup flavors in the cup too. It just tastes like an average savory-flavored sweet.

Susie was starting to feel cold, so Noelle and Kris gave her a beanie. But Susie loses the beanie somehow, shortly afterward. Susie, running low on cash, asks if she can share with Berdly. Once purchased, Noelle sees them sharing the shaved ice and wishes she offered to share first.Kris regrets buying a whole serving at all.

Clothes Part 2

Berdly: He gets surprisingly neutral clothes. Also I thought earmuffs would match the ear things he has in the Dark World. Also a bird needing earmuffs but the human not wearing them is hilarious to me.

Kris: I like it when people paint Kris' Dark World scarf as a pink scarf with purple shading, or vice-versa. But it wasn't obvious enough so I just went for the other fandom interpretation of "stripy scarf". By the way, I think it would be REALLY COOL if the scarf was actually a sweater. Like, when you take off the sweater but you didn't actually take it off completely, so it's just stuck around your neck. Anyway that's why Kris has a Stripy scarf and grey mitts. I also took some time to think about what would look 'gender'. But I'm no good at fashion. I'm going f*cking insane over Kris Dreemurr.

Susie is wearing the same pants here, but she has thermal wear underneath. She just gets the cheapest warmest jacket possible (the type that old people all seem to wear).

Noelle (see below): I'll talk about it more in the Spring Anniversary image, but I have a hard time thinking about what kind of clothes Noelle would pick. Like, in the game, is she wearing clothes that her mom picked for her? Anyway she's wearing a skirt and turtleneck here. She wears the same skirt in Spring.

Overall I wanted to give them all neutral/normal looking clothing.

Photo 7 & Photo 8

Last part of the trip. They have dinner at some place that gets lots of pictures and reviews on social media. Also, I was going to draw them drinking mulled wine. I have always heard of stories of people going on ski trips and drinking mulled wine at a random house. I've never drunken mulled wine. But the imagery of being red faced and merry in the snow seems very warm to me.

I decided not to draw them drinking alcohol because if it turns out any of these Lightners have bad experiences/memories of it, I'd be pretty sad... By the way, in Australia you can legally start to drink alcohol at 18. Please consume alcohol safely. Anyway, now the Lightners are just waiting for food in this picture

The cat and rabbit in the background are dating.

Photo 9 (not pictured in above image, scroll to top)

The main picture is the last photo of the trip. Noelle's expression seems flustered, doesn't it? Originally Noelle was going to be tipsy and "OH SUSIE YOU CAN'T LET MY MOM SEE THIS PHOTO" but I changed my mind with the alcohol. Now she's happy Susie's taking a photo, but also been caught off-guard. Okay but she's holding a cup, she could totally be having a sippy. The reality is that I drew this picture but I still don't know. I'll let you decide.

By the way, just to let you know, Berdly is doing most of the driving in these trips. Kris can drive a little but isn't able to drive internationally yet. I don't know about Susie and Noelle (I don't think Susie could have afforded the lessons, but I do like the idea of Susie driving Kris around in college due to REASONS). If it turns out I'm totally wrong... whatever, I don't care, it's not shown in these images anyway so you can assume they took public transport.

I think the most "drama" is in the Spring set of images.

Art Notes

First off let's look at the thumbnails.

My handwriting is passable here. Usually it looks like squiggles. The main ideas are pretty much the same, but you can see that I changed Susie's hairstyle back to her default hair style. Also Kris was originally laughing at Berdly's broken snowman.

Most of these thumbnails (background photos) were drawn in Cartoon/comic style - to save time... more on that later.

Row 1 (see below): For the main image, I drew 2-3 passes (Thumbnail, rough sketch, maybe extra for clothes, then line art). Berdly looked awful at first so I redrew him a few times. Actually I'm not so happy with Susie's snoot but since this was the first canvas, I was worried about time and didn't want to deal with her snoot blocking out Noelle, and I wanted Susie's face to still be in frame... so I left it.

Row 2: Left - without color filters, Right - with filters. (It might not look that different... oops)

Since I use grisaille, it's kind of like shading with black... nothing wrong with that if you want that look, but if I want the colors to pop more, I add a gradient map...

Row 3: Nothing special. Just two layers of gradient maps... I literally just downloaded whatever the popular gradient map packs were, flicked through a bunch and picked what I liked. The first one is set to overlay, the second one the instructions in Japanese roughly says "Set this gradient map to ~20% Color" so that's why I've set the layer to those settings.

Row 4: Left most Susie - this is the original painted image with the color gradient maps, before Tone Curve and Level Correction.

I wanted to imitate the coloring in photos. The polaroid photos I've seen, the first thing I think of is "Flash was used so all the highlights are blown out", and that the black shadow areas are never #FFFFFF amount of dark... so that's why, in the Tone Curve, I lifted the leftmost (axis at 0) up a notch. Anyway you can see the effect is lower contrast by a bit. Instead of using a Tone Curve you can also just use some layer effects (e.g., Exclusion layer blend mode or whatever). It doesn't really matter just do whatever you feel like doing, I can't stop you.

The next step I added Level correction (just to play around, honestly). Actually this added back some contrast. Whatever, I just did what looked nice...

Row 5: This is the layer composition.

Characters (By the way Berdly looks great without glasses).

Lights (1 layer of boxes of random colors, then I duplicated, blurred, and set to glow/light blend modes)

Trees with snow clumps

Smog (used some smoke/cloud brush set for this)

Main background flats

When I do paintings like this, the characters are always painted in grisaille. I have a few posts with WIPs on this blog showing grisaille stuff, but anyway I'll talk about it in the Spring Anniversary image details. If you want to see that, and also what the hell is going on in the Spring photos, you can donate to my Kofi to reach the goal.......

A nice thing to note about the Anniversary artwork as a whole is that the characters are mostly close to the camera, so I can just wing the background (i.e., I don't have to draw buildings or architecture TOO detailed). This is great because I was in a rush!

For the remaining images, I knew they were going to be blurred. So I just drew the characters in cartoon comic style that I use. This means for the characters I can just grab the palette I already have (don't have to spend any time picking colors).

The backgrounds were still (roughly) painted.

Row 6: Some images without the filters and layer effects. You can see the characters don't fit well into the background without them...!

Row 7 (Left): Polaroid layers

Polaroid Frame

Multiply - shadow layer of the Polaroid frame

Background - I just winged this

Set - Lineart and flats.

Multiply layer - shadows for the Set above. I have 2 shadow colors which are just light and dark purple (you can see my palette in Row 6).

Row 7 (Right): Photo layers - not much to say here, same as previous, just a more background oriented photo...

Details I really wanted to add but skipped them due to time shortage:

Extra lighting (highlights)

Blurring items (e.g., far away background images, whatever is 'not in focus, and so on...)

Drawing other Lightner characters into the scenarios!

MORE FOOD PICTURES!

Fixing wonky anatomy (even the 'chibi' anatomy)

I think I wrote too much. If you got this far, thanks for reading so much :)

Also if anything I make (comics, etc) makes you happy feel free to tip me/buy me a coffee 😊

[zipegs]

15 People, 15 Questions

starting to answer this immediately in hopes i don't forget about it in my drafts lol!! thank you so much for the tag @det395 i LOVED reading your answers!

1. Are you named after anyone?

i got my middle name from my grandmother!

2. When was the last time you cried?

ngl i can't remember specifically but i think it was while watching a movie recently with my mom. i unfortunately cry ALL the time so it's not exactly a memorable moment when it does happen lmfao

3. Do you have kids?

no i do not! don't expect to any time soon (or ever tbh)

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

my family is SUPER athletic so i was raised playing sports year-round—soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, softball in the summer. i dropped basketball during middle school, soccer when i started high school, and softball after i graduated high school. i also did dance as a kid and picked it back up again a little bit in high school and college.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

honestly way too often oops

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

their intimidation factor LOL i'm sooo socially awkward and anxious and shy so whether someone's outgoing or closed off or whatever is probably the first thing i make a snap perception/judgment of

7. What’s your eye color?

hazel/brown! mostly looks brown from far away but it's like... the outer half is brownish hazel and the inner half is hazel leaning green. i'm aware i sound like i'm writing my first ever fanfiction saying that fjdhgsd

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

i'm such a scary movie girlie!!! i do love a good happy ending though

9. Any talents?

uhhh i can play piano half-decently and sing (choral style, not big strong belting lol). i'm pretty good at stitching on a machine. i like to think i'm decent at graphic design and candlemaking too!

10. Where were you born?

pennsylvania

11. What are your hobbies?

writing, reading, candlemaking... i like baking and cooking on occasion and i also love thrifting and museum trips. i'm also a big video lecture fan

12. Do you have any pets?

breaks my heart to say no but no! my family dog passed away in august unfortunately. my sister has a dog that she sometimes gives us to watch for a month or so at a time though

13. How tall are you?

5'5"

14. Favorite subject in school?

latin, spanish, ancient history, and english

15. Dream job?

nooo idea lol. i USED to really want to act but idk what the fuck i was thinking lmao. i work in the film industry now mostly on documentaries, so if i end up staying in the industry, maybe something related to horror? idk remains to be seen

i'm gonna tag @luvbef @shachaai @wastrelwoods @17redeye @dragomircho @stab-of-hunger @thedarkmongoose @chaotic-plotter @catboycunt but no pressure!!

[quaranmine]

The Incandescence of a Dying Light (Chapter Three)

In which Grian is not immune to the good times, and both fire and watching happen. 

Chapter Three: 8,718 words

<< Chapter Two | Masterpost | Chapter Four >>

hiiiiiii! welcome to chapter three! this is the other half that i had to split off of chapter two and as you can see by its wordcount, i probably could've split it again if there was a place to do so. lots of firewatching related things in this one, so it was fun to write!

CW: mild conversational talk of past injury, conversation/story involving alcohol/drunkeness. Continuation of the themes of loss/grief. This chapter may contain spoilers for Top Gun (1986)

May 1989

It’s a sunny day, like the day before it and the day before it. Summer is creeping into the mountains, slowly taking the frigid edge from the wind that whips around Grian’s lookout tower. And although temperatures often still dip below freezing at night, the stream in Thunder Canyon is fuller and fuller with each passing day as the snow melts off the southern slopes of the peaks. 

There’s wildflowers on the alpine meadows in the distance, dotted between fresh green grass. There’s birds in the trees. When Grian steps outside, he hears the sounds of running water wherever he goes–little trickles of ephemeral streams borne from the snows of the winter. 

Grian is cleaning his tower today. It’s a day he’s working, so his process goes a little like this:

Sweep part of the floor. After a minute, look up and scan the horizon. Go back to sweeping, sweep the dust out the door, start to scrub on the dirtiest parts of the floor, and realize you’ve got no water.

Go fetch water for cleaning, and haul the heavy bucket up the four story tower from the spigot on the ground. Do an in-depth scan around the tower since it’s been a while since the last time you looked. Work on the floor some more, get bored, set the bucket aside and begin organizing shelves and supplies. Stand up every so often to look again.

You get it. Grian’s not fully sure yet what the best rhythm for looking is–he doesn’t want to miss anything, but surely there isn’t much opportunity for changes if he does it every few minutes. It’s a little jarring to have your attention so split between tasks, but that’s the job. You can do whatever you want in the tower as long as you remember to look. The looking is the reason he’s paid, and as distracted Grian may be, he still intends to do this job with a determination to make Mumbo proud. 

Grian is just about to set out to clean the windows when his radio goes off again. It’s Scar. He sets down his supplies to go pick up the radio. 

“Good morning, Two Forks,” Scar greets breezily. “What are you up to this fine morning?”

“Are you feeling separation anxiety already?” Grian snipes back. “We only spoke an hour ago when we did morning weather reports with the rest of the Forest Service.”

“No! Can’t a man be curious?”

Grian rolls his eyes. “I’m just cleaning. It’s amazing the amount of dust that gets blown in here.” Or tracked in here from his boots every time he ventures into the forest, oops. 

“Hm. At least that’s something to do,” Scar says, before complaining: “I’m bored.”

“I don’t think this is the job for you if you’re bored,” Grian says. 

“Hey!” Scar cries. “I’ve done this job a lot longer than you have. I’m allowed to be bored. Rookies aren’t allowed to be bored.”

Grian’s been here for three weeks, but he’s already accepted his fate that he’s now Scar’s go-to person to talk to when he’s bored. He wants to ask if Scar has ever tried to strike up friendships with the other lookouts in the area, or if he always talks this much to the lookouts he’s supervising, but he feels like that question will only put Scar on the defensive. And really, he doesn’t mind the guy–it’s just this is nothing like what he anticipated when he took the job. 

For some people, the isolation of it all is precisely the draw. 

Grian starts to clean the windows, sticking the radio in his pocket for easy access since Scar’s in a clearly talkative mood again. The windows must always be clean, lest some spot or smudge on the glass make it difficult for smoke to be spotted in the distance. 

After a minute or two of silence, Scar speaks again. “Do you like movies, G? What’s your favorite movie?”

“I don’t know,” Grian says. “I don’t have one.”

Movies were always Mumbo’s thing, not Grian’s. He hasn’t paid attention to anything that came out in the past year or so. It just wasn’t important anymore. 

He smiles a bit though, remembering how Mumbo was always dragging him to the theater near their university back in England. They’d try to sneak into movies without paying sometimes, and had gotten kicked out on three separate occasions. But the owner of the theater had liked Mumbo, with his endearing smile and nervous habits,  and had never tried to ban him from the theater. When Grian thinks back on it, he wonders if sometimes they had just been allowed to stay. 

“I can’t believe you don’t have a favorite movie,” Scar says. “My favorite movie is Top Gun! Did you ever see it?”

“Um, no,” Grian says, although he remembers the name. It was everywhere, for a while. Entertainment about the American military didn’t exactly spark any patriotism in him though, dual citizenship or not.  

“Oh my goodness,” Scar says. “Not only do you not have a favorite movie but you’ve never seen Top Gun! You’re in worse shape than I thought, G-man.”

“How will I ever survive,” Grian says. 

“It’s only the greatest movie of all time,” Scar says. 

“Uh-huh,” Grian says. If he plays this right, he’ll be able to finish cleaning the windows without having to reply at all. “What’s it about?”

“Wait, you’ve never even heard of it? You don’t even know what it’s about? Top Gun? It was like the biggest movie of the year?”

“I guess you’ll just have to tell me about it,” Grian says, and ah–that’s done it. He’s bought time.

“Oh my goodness,” Scar says, and Grian can’t help but smile ever so slightly at how excited he seems. “So it opens with this amazing synth score, and like–the score on the whole movie is incredible, really. And it opens with the great music, and the whole intro is just the jets flying around–it’s about Navy pilots–and they’re real planes! They actually filmed in F-14 fighter jets–”

Grian sets the radio on the deck and carefully steps around it, cleaning the outside windows, sun warm on his back. When it’s time to step inside to look again, he picks the radio up and takes it with him, carrying Scar’s voice along. 

He’s talking about some volleyball scene that’s apparently iconic, although Grian had been under the impression this was a plane movie, not a sports movie. He also talks about which actors were his favorites in the film–some Grian has heard of, others not so much. Mumbo’s probably heard of them all, though. 

Grian frowns at the streaks on the window. He thinks that next time he’s asked to report any feedback, he’ll ask if they can supply his tower with a new squeegee, since the rubber on this one is very worn. He’d been a little surprised that such a specific tool had been in his tower at all given the distinct lack of other amenities–like running water, for one–but it made sense for a room surrounded on all sides by windows. 

The next time he tunes in, Scar is giving him a demonstration of that highway to the danger zone song he’s heard all over the radio. Grian stops what he’s doing and puts a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter, as if there’s anyone around at all to hear him laugh. The thing is, Scar wouldn’t be half bad at it if he was taking it seriously but this rendition of the song is…distinctly not. It has no right being as charming as it is. 

Grian lets him ramble for a long time. The exact length of time doesn’t matter, because a location like this lays the very nature of time at your feet, rippling out infinitely along with the hills. There’s just the warm spring sun and cool spring breeze and the clouds in the bright blue sky and the cry of birds and the whisper of wind in the trees and the sound of Scar’s voice. They’ve got forever and a day out here, where Grian measures the passage of time by the length of the shadows on the deck.

“You have to watch the movie,” Scar concludes his spiel with. 

“I feel like I’ve seen it already,” Grian says, and he isn’t exaggerating.  

“No no no,” Scar says. “Something like this has to be seen with your own eyes! Experienced! Felt! It’s about the atmosphere, the music, the feelings! You gotta go rent it whenever you go home.”

“And if I don’t?” Grian says. He’s walked back inside temporarily to scan the horizon once again. There’s no little wisps of smoke to be found. “You’ve done such a good job explaining the plot to me already.”

“Then you aren’t allowed to come back as a lookout next summer,” Scar says petulantly. “I will remember, you know. I’ll ask you every time until you see it. Eventually it’ll get so annoying you’ll have to watch it. ”

And it’s–it’s at this moment where the reality of this hits Grian once again. The wind feels colder than it did a moment ago. Scar thinks Grian might come back next year. And maybe that’s some of Grian’s fault, because he’d played up how much he wanted this job when he was interviewed for it. When he answered the newspaper ad with his resume and application, he’d asked for placement in Shoshone National Forest as his first and only preference. He’d emphasized this location specifically. They must all think of him as particularly enthusiastic for fire-watching. 

But the only thing that mattered about this location, this national forest, this tower, this job, was Mumbo. He just has to get close. He was sent home empty-handed last time, the search parties had eventually turned from “rescue” to “recovery,” searches were altered and stopped due to fires and eventually stalled altogether when the weather finally turned in the fall. So he just…he has to get close, because Denver is too far away, but as long as Grian is right here it’ll all be fine and he can fix it. 

Grian has plans to skip town the moment he finds Mumbo. 

“Do you think I’m coming back?” he asks quietly. 

Scar seems to interpret the question a little differently than Grian meant it. “I think you’re doing great G-man,” he says. “You’ve learned everything so quickly. I don’t see why they wouldn’t hire you for next summer. You’re so thorough and determined to get things right that the Forest Service would be dumb if they weren’t glad to have you.”

“Uh,” Grian says, a little unclear on how to accept a compliment. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Scar continues, “as your supervisor, I can report any issues I see with you, so you’d maybe wanna think about seeing Top Gun. Wouldn’t want me to mark you as deficient, of course.”

“This is manipulation,” Grian says. “I’m telling everyone that this is an unsafe workplace. I’m being coerced! Coerced into seeing a plane movie!”

“Grian,” Scar cries, scandalized. “How could you possibly call it a ‘plane movie’ after everything I’ve just told you! Were you even listening?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Grian says. “Synth, danger zone, F-14s, motorcycles, need for speed, volleyball. Is that all?”

“There’s so much more than that! But, well, maybe that too. It’s a lot of fun.” Scar pauses for a moment, and Grian uses the space to try and think of something else to banter back with, but before he gets a chance Scar speaks again, softer this time. 

“I liked Goose’s death,” he says, before quickly walking that statement back into something a little less shocking. “Or–I didn’t like it, it made me sad but…things happen, I guess. It was an accident. It was preventable. It wasn’t Mav’s fault. But he was still…guilty, when he grieved. And we watched him grieve.”

“Oh,” Grian says, and he doesn’t really know what else to add to that. “That sounds nice.”

“It is. I told you it’s my favorite movie.”

“Maybe I should watch it.”

»»———-　　———-««

June 1989

Some hikers stop by in the early morning, just after Grian makes his weather report of the day. They are the first people he’s actually seen since he started not quite a full month ago, although Scar told him there’d likely be more as they got deeper into the summer. Particularly, he said, there might be more tourists this year since people want to check the extent of the damages from the severe fires last year. A lot of people had been concerned that the whole Yellowstone area burned to the ground after the media firestorm, you see, and wanted to see it for themselves.

The hikers are keenly interested in the tower and happy to ask Grian questions about it, which he answers to the best of his ability. He lets them briefly tour the lookout tower–it’s a small room so there’s not much to see and it’s cramped with three additional people in it. They look out the windows at all of the country they’ve been hiking through and trace their paths along the mountains. Grian points out Jonesy Lake, the place they’d been camping, to the west. 

It feels like being put on the spot though, to answer all these questions with so little experience in the job, so he’s happy when they decide to get going a few minutes later. 

“I saw some hikers,” Grian says into his radio, watching them hike away until they disappear into the forest again. 

“Are they on their way out?” Scar asks.

“Yeah,” Grian says. “I told them about the storm this afternoon and they said they knew about it and were heading back.”

“Hm, that’s good at least,” Scar says. He sighs. “They were leaving on your trail?”

“Yeah.”

“That trail is difficult,” Scar says, and Grian agrees–it’s one of the reasons he’s opted to not go back into town on his days off. It’s just too much trouble. The other reason is that his days off are already preoccupied with a more important activity. “Maybe you should contact the rangers and give them a heads up that these people are on the trail.”

“Like what?” Grian asks. “You don’t think they’re going to make it?”

“They might,” Scar says. He sounds tired. “They might not. Last thing we need is a couple of drenched wet freezing hikers on that trail. If you give the rangers a heads up, they might be able to check the trailhead to make sure they got back to their car on-time.”

 “Copy that,” Grian says. “I’ll be back.”

He flips the radio back to the official frequency, the one that broadcasts forest-wide, and calls in. He always feels a little self-conscious on this line, never quite sure of who can hear him. It goes out to dispatch, fire crews, other lookouts, rangers, and any hobbyist who might know the frequencies to listen in on. There’s dozens of unknown ears listening to his every word.

He waits a moment, making sure he isn’t interrupting any priority call taking place, and proceeds when the channel is silent. 

“Dispatch, this is Two Forks.”

“Two Forks, proceed,” comes the response. 

“Reporting three hikers that stopped at the tower this morning around 9:30 am,” he says. “They were traveling from Jonesy Lake onto the Thorofare trail back to the trailhead. It’s a long hike and I’m concerned they might get caught in the storm this afternoon before they make it back so I’m giving a heads up.”

“Copy that,” Dispatch says. “We’ll check the trailhead after the storm to make sure they made it back. We’ll be able to find their permit too. Pay attention this afternoon, Two Forks, it’s officially fire season now.”

“Affirmative,” Grian says.

He flips his radio’s frequency to the now-familiar channel he and Scar use exclusively.

“I reported the hikers to the Service,” he says. “They said they’ll check the trailhead later to see if they made it back. I didn’t know their vehicle, of course, but I doubt there’s any others there right now besides mine.”

“Oh, good,” Scar says. 

There’s something brushing the back of Grian’s mind today. Scar just sounds different. “How are you this morning, Thorofare?” Grian asks. “It’s been so long since we did the weather report an hour ago.”

“I’m fine,” Scar says with another sigh, which really isn’t like him at all. 

“You sound bad.”

“Thanks, G-man,” Scar says sarcastically before admitting: “It’s the storm. The weather changes always make everything hurt more.”

“Hurt more?” Grian asks. It’s something he’s heard people complain about, but nothing he’s ever experienced. 

“It makes my joints hurt,” Scar says. “More than usual, I guess.”

“Do you have any pain medicine in your lookout?”

“It doesn’t really help,” Scar says. “Not anymore.”

“Oh,” Grian says. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I’m used to it,” he says, but the slight edge in his voice is telling Grian that used to it doesn’t mean can’t feel it.

“Why does it hurt?” Grian asks. 

“What do you mean why?” Scar replies. “Like, in general? No clue. Weather changes seem to make it worse. It’s also worse in the winter but I’m not in this tower in the winter so I’ve got a little more control over how I deal with it then. But as for why me, it’s because of old injuries.”

“That sounds awful,” Grian says. “Can I help? I mean, I don’t know how since I’m all the way over here but…if you think of anything.”

“You could talk to me,” Scar says. “It’ll either distract me or overwhelm me but we could try.”

“Okay. Um, what do you want to talk about?”

“Tell me a funny story from England,” he says. 

Grian stops for a moment to think. What’s a good funny story? He probably has many of them, but it’s hard to pick one specific scenario out, so he narrows it down to his university years and immediately remembers a good one. 

“Right,” he says. “I had a lot of friends in university.”

“Showing off?” Scar says. “Mr. Popular?”

“Shush,” Grian says. “I’m telling you a story. A lot of people I knew in college, and even a few from secondary school went to the same university as me so I basically already knew them.”

Grian slowly spins around in his tower, giving the hills near and far a glance over. There’s no smoke to be seen, but he can already tell that big clouds have built on the horizon. They won’t all be storm clouds, but the weather is clearly right for it. He goes back to his story. 

“I had this one group of friends: Timmy, Martyn, and Joel. Most of us were studying different things but we had some overlapping time and liked to hang out after class. Joel had made really close friends with a girl named Lizzie, and we’d ended up spending a lot of time with her too. Anyway, in this story though, we’d gone to the pub without her.”

“I don’t think anything has ever gone wrong at a pub,” Scar says solemnly. 

Grian laughs. “Yeah, alright, we all got super drunk at the pub. It’s 11 pm, we’re all drunk, and Joel announces he wants to confess his love for Lizzie. And this is like, the best idea we’ve ever heard, because Lizzie is super cool, maybe even cooler than Joel is. So we’re like, let’s go now.”

“Oh no…”

“Have no fear, Scar,” Grian says. “I told you it was a fun story.” 

Grian continues. “We leave the pub and decide to go find her flat near campus. We got turned around once or twice because Timmy’s awful at navigation and the one person who actually knew where she lived, Joel, was too busy trying to come up with poetry or something. I don’t know. It was nearly midnight when we finally found her flat, but her light was on so we knew she was home.”

“Did you guys throw rocks at her window?” Scar asks. “Like a modern Romeo and Juliet?”

“I thought about that actually,” Grian says. “But she had a ground floor entrance so Martyn just said we should knock on the door instead. Which was probably a smarter option, honestly.”

“Did she answer?”

“Her roommate did, actually, but she just rolled her eyes and went to go fetch Lizzie. The rest of us stood back while Joel presented her with a gift, which was actually just some small yard ornament he stole off of someone’s front garden a little down the street. I didn’t actually remember that part, Lizzie told it to me. She made him go put it back the next morning.” 

Grian sighs and shakes his head a little, a smile on his face at the memory. They’d been so dumb, but he’d give anything to be back there right now. Back then, he had all his friends–now, they were all either across oceans or in different countries, or both. Or…or they were missing. 

He shakes his head again, this time not at the thought of his previous shenanigans, but to dispel the darker thoughts from his mind before the cloud out the funny memory.

He continues, “When she answered the door, Joel had some great speech planned. Well, I don’t know if it was actually great. I did mention we were all pretty drunk. It sounded good to me, though. He said he was in love with her and she was so smart and so pretty and he wanted to go on a date with her. And then she started laughing, so hard she almost started crying.”

“What?”

“We were all confused too. But then she wiped her tears and said, and I remember these words as clearly as if it was yesterday. She said, ‘Joel, we’ve been dating for three months now.’”

“Wait, really?” Scar says. “They were already dating? Did you just not know or forget?”

“Dude, I don’t think I could have defined what was going on with the two of them if I tried. I'm not convinced Joel knew how to define it either until then.”

“That was a good story,” Scar says. “I gotta know, though! Did it work out?”

Grian grins. “Well, they got married a few years later, so I think it did.”

"Aww! I love a fairytale ending," Scar says. 

"Did you go to university?" Grian asks. "We were all so stupid then. I’m not convinced we’re any less stupid now, we just know how to act like we aren’t."

"Uh, no," Scar says. "I did some work in landscaping though. Before all this."

"I was an architect."

Grian wonders if that career is all but shot. It’s an unexpectedly painful thought to have, but it had been his dream job for so long. He'd only been just done with certification and doing his own clients during the time they'd been in Colorado. He wasn't exceptionally experienced or anything. 

He hadn't left the job on good terms either, with a string of no-shows, subsequent disciplinary actions, and a final letter of resignation wherein he specifically wrote he planned to take this lookout job because "nobody believed in Mumbo but him."

He winces. All his past coworkers probably thought he was insane. Maybe he was.

"Ooh, now that's a fancy job," Scar says.

Grian wants to move on from this discussion, before Scar has a chance to ask why he's here instead of at that fancy job, so he quickly says: "It's your turn for a question now. Ask me anything."

It occurs to Grian after he saysvthis that maybe telling Scar to ask him anything didn't exactly save him from the potential of awkward questions and just opened him up to a wider world of awkward questions. He's already tossed the ball back to Scar though, so now he just has to wait.

Scar is silent on the other end of the line for a while, and when he speaks again there's a more somber quality in his voice.

"What's the worst pain you've ever felt?" he asks.

Yeah, he should have just asked Scar to trade another funny story instead. Because he just…can’t answer this. He sucks in a breath, trying to steady the way his heart rate spiked with just that one question. 

It’s a question that pulls him back into that black hole that threatens to break open his chest everyday. He's circling the event horizon. They should've stuck to funny stories. 

Grian scrambles for a safe answer, one that doesn't involve the marked up topo maps in between the books on his desk–hastily slotted out of view from the earlier hikers–or missing posters. An answer that keeps his head above water for this conversation. 

There’s just, there’s just a certain kind of whiplash from talking about funny experiences with his friends in university –friends who weren’t even Mumbo–and then being reminded of the elephant in the room once again. He carries that pain with him wherever he goes now. 

He isn’t the person he used to be in university in England, or when he was an architect in Denver.

He looks down at the radio in his hand that demands his immediate reply, and his attention flicks to his forearm. 

“I broke my wrist two years ago,” he blurts out. “It’s a funnier story than it sounds, I promise.”

This is a safe memory. It’s even a safe memory of Mumbo, because even though the edges of it are vignetted with pain, the memory still sticks out brightly as something that makes Grian smile. It still hurt, of course. Grian didn’t enjoy breaking his wrist. That wasn’t why it made him smile. 

It’s just that the memory of Mumbo following him around their flat like a puppy for a week apologizing to him sticks out more than the white-hot shock of pain when it happened. It’s Grian calmly navigating them to the ER because Mumbo was the one who was almost too freaked out to drive, something Grian teased him about endlessly. 

“Ouch,” Scar says. “I sure know that feeling.”

“I fell off a bike,” Grian says. “Well, that makes it sound too simple. It was more like I lost control on a steep hill, drove it off trail, crashed, and my poor wrist took the worst of it when I tried to catch my fall.”

“Oh no! Did they do surgery?” Scar asks. 

“No, it healed by itself, fortunately,” Grian says, and decides to tell the rest of the story anyway since it makes him smile. “I’d gotten my roommate a mountain bike as a gift, since he was really interested in that stuff. He loved it–although we actually had to take it back and get another one ‘cause he was too tall for the one I bought, but he said it was the thought that counted. He was so excited to try it that he made me come with him and rent my own bike.”

“Which you then immediately crashed?”

Grian sighs. “Pretty much. You should’ve seen his face, though. I think he was panicking more about it than me. I was like, okay, we’ll just walk back to the car and go to the ER, you can help me walk the bike up this hill. But I thought he was going to pass out!” Grian smiles. “I got a lot of leverage out of that, though, since he’s the one who talked me into it.”

“Oh, I have no trouble believing that,” Scar says. “So no biking for you?”

“No,” Grian says. “I’ll just walk, thank you. Besides, I had to pay for repairing that rental!”

“Mm, more options for hiking trails that way anyway.”

Grian scans the horizon again, eyes lingering on Scar’s lookout just a little longer than necessary. “What’s yours?” he asks. “The worst pain, I mean.”

Scar doesn’t answer for a moment. It’s not a long enough moment to assume he didn’t plan on answering at all, but right after Grian speaks it hits him. He wants to slap himself. “Oh. It’s the old injuries you mentioned earlier. The ones that still hurt right now.”

“Something like that,” Scar replies. 

“What was it?” Grian says. “Can I ask?”

“I was in a really bad car accident a few years ago,” Scar says. He’s miles away but sounds more distant than usual. “It nearly killed me, actually. I broke a lot of bones, spent a lot of time in the hospital, recovered for a long time, you get it.” 

“That’s awful,” Grian says. “I’m really sorry.”

“Well,” Scar says. “It happened, I guess. Nothing you can do about that.”

“For what it’s worth,” Grian says, “I’m glad it didn’t kill you.”

When Scar speaks again, it’s quieter than before. “I don’t know if I always felt the same,” he says. “But I think I do now, these days.” 

Oh. Grian doesn’t even have words to say to that, but he doesn’t need to, because Scar is still holding his radio’s button down. Still on the line, preventing Grian from responding. 

Scar sighs. “Listen, it’s been nice chatting with you G, but I have to go feed Jellie and do a few things before this storm hits, so I gotta let you go.” His voice is brisk now. 

“Um, okay,” Grian responds. “Do you feel any better? Did it distract you?”

“It gave me something else to focus on,” Scar says firmly. “But now I need to go. Talk to you when the storm hits, okay?”

“Okay.”

»»———-　　———-««

The National Weather Service in Riverton has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Park County in Northwestern Wyoming, Teton County in Northwestern Wyoming, Fremont County in Northwestern Wyoming, Hot Springs County in Northwestern Wyoming until 6:00 PM. 

At 4:26 PM, a severe thunderstorm was located over Yellowstone National Park moving west at 40 miles per hour. Hazard…60 miles per hour wind gusts and quarter sized hail. Impact…Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, trees, and/or power lines.

Locations impacted include Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Village, Shoshone National Forest, Wapiti, Cody, Powell, Teton Village, Jackson, Meeteetse, Dubois. For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building or get inside a sturdy structure and stay away from windows.

Along with large hail and damaging winds, continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm. Move indoors immediately. Lightning is one of nature’s leading killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning…

The message ends with a harsh beeping tone, and Grian turns the volume down before it can repeat itself. The message had cut in and out with static the entire time, probably due to the distance and the mountains, even though it was being transmitted from Cody. A moment later, Grian flips the channel from the National Weather Service frequency back to the one he and Scar use, which is surprisingly stable.

Grian steps out onto the deck surrounding his tower. The sky is dark blue to the west, and the tops of the trees are already being picked up by the wind. It’s a little disconcerting, actually, to be way up in the top of the tower. The thick wooden support beams still allow a little bit of sway when the winds are strong enough. 

There’s suddenly a CRASH from rolling thunder, and Grian flinches involuntarily. Right. The radio had just said that if he was close enough to hear thunder, he was close enough to be struck by lightning. Grian decides that he should step inside, instead of standing around outside. 

Although, if he’s being honest with himself, inside doesn’t seem much better either. All this talk about moving to the lowest floor of a building and staying away from windows doesn’t mean much when your only shelter is a four story wooden tower on the highest mountain top around, encased on all sides by windows. 

But that’s the job, isn’t it?

He doesn’t get to take shelter–if there were a place for him to take shelter in the first place–because his job is to watch from this perch. He’s supposed to be noting and locating every lightning strike he possibly can and looking carefully to see if any of them start fires. Lightning causes even more fires than humans, typically. 

He’s been provided a wooden stool with glass feet to use during the storm since both of the materials are not very conductive, but that isn’t really sparking a lot of confidence in him. And there are some lightning rods and other protective grounding measures, but it’s still a little…disconcerting.

Grian’s glad he turned his radio back to its normal frequency, because Scar calls in a moment later. “Here she comes!” he cries. “I know you heard that thunder too.”

“It’s getting so dark,” Grian says. 

The lights aren't on right now–although he doesn't normally need them midday anyway–so the rapidly approaching weather fills the tower with almost palpable shifting gloom. Earlier Grian had switched off the generator at the bottom of the tower and covered it with a tarp in preparation for the storm. 

“This might be an interesting one,” Scar says. “We might see some of the first fires of the season in this area today.”

“That’s what they said this morning when they reported the fire risk. And what the ranger told me after I reported those hikers.”

“Lightning starts most of our fires out here,” Scar says. “They might let it burn if it’s a lightning based fire, but I’m not sure after how bad it was last year. They might want to suppress it to keep the public happy. Generally though, human-caused fires get suppressed but natural ones might be allowed to burn.”

“Yeah, you told me a few weeks ago that the ecosystem needs fire or something.”

“It gets along pretty well by itself without our help,” Scar says. “We just…like to keep the pretty parts to ourselves. Don’t wanna see ‘em get destroyed.”

“I get that,” Grian says. He sighs. “Do you feel any better?”

“Um,” Scar replies. “Not particularly.”

“Oh. I thought you sounded better.”

“Thanks, I’m good at that.”

"You shouldn't have to be good at that."

"I'd never get anything done otherwise," Scar says.

Grian turns to watching the leading edge of the storm roll in. It’s really beautiful up here, on his little perch. The sky is a dark blue-black to the west and clear to the east. The thunderhead is high and lofty. Grian can see the slopes in the distance disappearing in a curtain of rain, the same blue-gray color as the clouds. 

“Keep an eye on that cloud and right around it,” Scar says a few minutes later. “We might lose visibility when it passes over us but it’s close enough now for us to count the lightning strikes.”

Just as Scar speaks, Grian spots the first one in the distance, darting down quickly to the ground and branching as it goes. It’s beautiful too. Grian quickly lines it up in the sight of his firefinder, spinning the circle around until it’s pointing directly at the strike area. He marks down the general area with a pencil on the map in the center of the disc. 

Just after he finishes doing that, thunder claps and it feels like it rattles the whole cabin. Grian decides maybe it’s time for him to stand on the stool, just in case. 

When the storm draws closer, the lightning will probably be too fast to keep up with. Grian’s already having issues finding them in the firefinder before another strikes. For this reason, he has a profile map of the area around his tower too, with the peaks drawn exactly in the way he can see them from the center of his tower. He marks little X’s in pencil on the areas of the slopes the lightning strikes. 

“This storm has a lot of lightning,” Grian says into his radio. “How do you keep up?”

“Just try your best,” Scar says. “The profile map helps. We’re mostly trying to just remember the areas where it struck, so that later we can keep an eye on them for fire.”

“Do you think it’ll cause a fire?” 

As soon as he lets go of the call button, he spies another strike, way off near Scar’s tower to the North. He dutifully marks it down. It dances down from the sky, landing somewhere in the mountains between them.

“We might not be able to tell until after the storm,” Scar says. “And sometimes it’s hard to tell right after because of fog and stuff. You’ll figure out what real smoke looks like soon enough.”

“Doesn’t the rain put these fires out?” Grian asks. 

“Sometimes,” Scar says. “Sometimes they smolder for a while. We might need to keep an extra eye on these lightning strike locations for a few days in the future, which is why we're marking it down."

The thunder continues to rumble all around him, and soon rain starts to fall. They're big fat drops too, and it takes no time at all for the deck outside to be completely covered. They start to hit the windows too, so Grian squints around them as best he can. Sometimes the lightning just flashes all around him, no discernable ground contact in sight. 

"I'm losing visibility," Grian says into the radio.

Scar replies, but the words are lost in the background noise of the rain and the wind and the thunder. 

It's pouring buckets now, and Grian sets down his pencil. He can't see anything but rain now, and maybe the softest outline of the next closest hill, so there’s nothing to report. Experiencing the storm in this little glass cage is unique. It’s chilly, with the wetness and the clouds bringing the chill back into the normally sun-warmed cabin. It’s also very loud–the rain hitting the glass and the wood and the thunder rattling the window frames nearly drown out Grian’s own thoughts. 

Grian shuts his eyes against the sway of the tower in the wind, as if he can keep it grounded by willpower alone. 

The air feels charged and buzzing. Grian’s fingers feel a little tingly, and the hair on his arm starts to stand up with the static. He’s got enough presence of mind to think huh, that’s weird, before–

CRASH!

There’s a horribly loud noise all of a sudden, and Grian flinches so hard he nearly falls off the stool he’s standing on. It’s accompanied by a flash of bright light that he instinctively closes his eyes against. It’s blinding even against his eyelids. When Grian blinks them open and steadies himself, heart beating wildly out of control, everything just looks…normal. The tower is fine, and so are the misty treetops he can see closest to the tower.

It must have been lightning, it had to have been. Maybe not on the tower or in his obscured sightline, but close enough to nearly send Grian to an early grave from a heart attack. He feels horribly shaky now, and it takes him a few tries to firmly depress the button on the side of his radio. 

“S-Scar,” he says. “I think there was just–there was lightning.”

He can barely hear Scar, but he thinks he says, “Did it hit the tower?”

“No–no I don’t think so,” Grian says. “But it had to be close.”

“As long as you’re okay,” comes the muffled reply. 

It isn’t long before the rain begins to taper off. It isn’t long at all, actually–it’s sort of surprising how quickly the worst of it passes, but the storm had been moving quickly according to the weather service. Through the mist of rain, he can once again see the Thorofare Lookout through his northern window. With the visibility restored, he goes back to marking down lightning strikes. His map is full of them now. 

“It seems like it passed,” Grian says, once the rain is just a sprinkle. “What do we do now?”

“For the rest of the day? Probably not much–the ground is really damp. But we’ll keep an eye out on the lightning strike areas for the next few days for smoke. They might send planes to inspect the forest after the storm.”

“Planes…” Grian says. “You know, it’s a wonder they still hire these jobs with all that technology available now. Why don’t they just use planes, helicopters, radars, and satellites?”

“Well, they do,” Scar says. “This is kind of a dying job? But–the difference with us is that we’re here all the time. You and me, we can get more familiar with this area by looking at it everyday than a pilot could from a couple of flybys. They’ll still need us, for a while at least.”

“For a while,” Grian repeats. “Until they replace the jobs with something cheaper.”

Scar laughs. “I’d be shocked if they can find a piece of technology cheaper than my salary,” he says. 

“God, if that isn’t true,” Grian says. “I don’t know how people afford anything. My roommate wants a computer so bad but they’re, like, all a million dollars so we couldn’t get one. He’d be good at it though, he was learning computer-aided design at work. Best in the office!”

“Maybe you’ll get one eventually,” Scar says. “Not on this salary though.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Grian says. “I didn’t choose this job for the money, that’s for sure.”

The sun is breaking out behind the clouds now. Everything looks fresh and shiny and bright, glittering with illuminated raindrops. There’s a steady drip-drip from the lookout tower’s roof. With the strength of the sun, it’ll be no time at all before it’s all dry. The sky is still a deep blue to the west behind the storm, and the golden sunlit trees against the dark sky make a pleasing contrast. 

Everything feels just a little new, a little fresh. He basks in the feeling. 

»»———-　　———-««

It’s 11 AM. The sun is bright and the sky is blue. 

"I see smoke," Grian says. "I know I was wrong last time but I'm not this time."

The smoke is rising, thin and wispy, from a forested section on the southwestern flank of Trout Peak. 

"Confidence, I like that," Scar says. "Go on and give me the reading, then."

The motions are getting familiar now. The firefinder is a disc that sits in the middle of the tower on a small table. The edge of the circle, its arc, is covered in little degree markings. The firefinder is a type of alidade, which is a turning board that allows someone to determine line of sight for triangulating locations. They date back to ancient times–astronomers used a version called an astrolabe for navigation, telling time, and to locate the position of celestial bodies. 

It's fascinating how, when surrounded by emerging technologies, we can turn to the very tools humanity has been using for millennia. 

The disc has two sights opposite to each other: an upper sight with a peep hole and a lower sight with two crosshairs. Grian spins them around the arc until he is in the vicinity of the smoke, and then looks through the upper sight. He marks the degree that the opposite crosshair has landed on around the arc. That’s the azimuth of the fire. The azimuth is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction–this fire sits northwest of Grian’s tower, and its azimuth is 321°. For a more precise measurement he takes the minutes off of the vernier, another set of markings that rotates around the base of the firefinder. His final reading is 321° 45’.

Then he looks at the map that is permanently fixed to the center of the disc. His lookout tower is situated in the middle. Grian can estimate the distance on the map from a metal tape that stretches across. Given the scale of the map, two miles is represented by an inch–Trout Peak is 5 inches on the map, so it is 10 miles away. 

The upper peep hole has markings that are used to determine the vertical height of the fire, but which ones to use are dependent on if the fire is above or below the lookout. This fire is below Grian’s perch on the mountaintop, so when he looks through the sight to the crosshair on the opposite side of the firefinder, he uses the bottom crosshair. 

It’s measuring -8°, so Grian does a little math. He knows the height of his lookout, he knows the distance of the fire, and now that he knows the vertical angle he can determine how much lower the fire is than him. Once he gets the number he subtracts it from his own elevation. Now he knows the fire is at an elevation of 7,150 feet. 

So to recap: he’s got a fire northwest at 321° 45’, 10 miles away, at 7,150 feet above sea level. 

He relays this information to Scar on the radio. 

“Excellent!” Scar cries. “Here, I can see the fire so I’ll give you my measurements too. Where our azimuths cross will be the exact location. With all of this information, they’ll definitely be able to find the fire.”

Scar already has the numbers ready, indicating he did his own measurements while waiting for Grian to complete his. Scar probably made them faster, too, but Grian’s choosing to be proud of himself instead. This work is a lot more complicated than he expected it to be in the beginning. He writes down Scar’s information on a stray piece of paper nearby. 

“Do you want to make the report?” Scar says. “I mean, you sighted it so it’s yours. It’ll look good for you.”

“Alright,” Grian says, “talk to you in a bit.”

He goes back onto the official channel and reports the fire to the Forest Service. He gives both his and Scar’s measurements, along with a general description of the area and nearby landmarks. He includes information on the probable cause of the fire–lightning from the storm two days ago–and the sort of landscape it is burning in. He gives an approximation of the size of the fire too. It’s a small one. 

They thank him for his report and promise to give updates through the official channel. Scar’s got a second radio tuned to that all the time, so Grian flips his channel back to the one he and Scar use exclusively. 

“I did it,” he says. 

“Good job!” Scar says. “And good eye to notice that smoke.”

“I don’t know if I have good eyes,” Grian chuckles. “I wear glasses, you know. The Forest Service wasn’t very happy with that but I passed the eye test as long as I could wear them so they just made me bring two pairs in case one gets broken.”

“Aw, you have glasses? Are they those big silly ones? I hope they’re those big silly ones, you’d look good in them. So fashionable."

“Scar, you have no idea what I look like.”

“I’m correct though, aren’t I?”

Grian rolls his eyes. “No comment.”

“By the way,” Scar says. “You did good reporting those hikers earlier in the week.”

This snags Grian’s attention immediately. “Did they get lost?” he asks. 

“I don’t think they were lost, but they were definitely unable to get back to their car before the storm hit. A ranger went up the trail after the storm passed and found them part of the way down, soaking wet. He helped them warm up and get back.”

“They must have been cold,” Grian says. “It’s warm out but not warm enough to be caught in a thunderstorm.”

“Oh for sure,” Scar says. “It’s possible they would have made it back fine but it’s also possible that being wet and cold could have slowed them down enough to be in big trouble. It just got colder over the evening and they might not have been able to start a fire with all of the tinder being wet.”

“It’s weird how badly everything can go wrong,” Grian muses. “And how quickly.”

“You did a good thing, though,” Scar says. “You helped someone. That’s what we’re here for.”

“I’m glad they’re safe,” Grian says, and for some reason he has a lump in his throat again. It’s like he can’t get away from it, this pain that rubs against his every movement. He can’t even be happy with a compliment to his work, or proud of himself for spotting a fire, because it always boomerangs right back into despair and self-pitying.

It’s a hole he can’t escape. He helped someone, but he can’t help himself, can’t help Mumbo.

He hopes Mumbo is somewhere warm, right now. 

»»———-　　———-««

There’s nothing but the soft wind in the trees and the crunch of Grian’s boots in the gravel as he steadily climbs the hill to his lookout. The late afternoon light slants on the ground, throwing shadows across his path. But it’s well into summer now, and the sun doesn’t set until 9 PM, so there’s hours of warm light left. 

It’s a little strange that the small cabin feels like home now, but after sleeping in a tent for three nights that’s exactly what it feels like. Grian’s work schedule grants him days off just like any job–sometimes he works 10 days on for 4 days off, like he did this week. Further into fire season, his hours will probably lengthen. 

Most lookouts go into town on their days off for a taste of civilization, but Grian doesn’t. His reasons are twofold. First, he’d rather not sacrifice two days of his break just to hike that difficult trail in and out. 

Second, he’s still not lost sight of his original goal: finding Mumbo. 

He spent most of the last few days searching an area on the edge of his lookout territory called Deer Creek. On paper, it’s a perfect spot–there’s a year-round water supply close by, some sheltered areas between rocky outcroppings and forest, and perhaps even some very old structures from historic homesteads or ranches. 

Of course, he’s coming home once again empty-handed. He saw several hawks, an elk, a fox, and some deer, and no Mumbo. 

As he approaches the tower, the generator is turned off, so Grian goes to turn it on again. The Forest Service had assigned a temporary volunteer lookout to cover his shift while he was gone, but that person had left early this morning in order to get back to the trailhead. They must have turned off the generator before they left to save propane. 

Grian will have to ask Scar if the volunteer was as interesting to talk to as he is. He hasn’t spoken to Scar in several days, in order to save the battery on his radio. His radio’s charger is plugged in at the tower, although he has extra batteries for emergencies. 

The first thing Grian notices when he walks up to the base of the tower is that there’s an object leaned against the stairs. It’s a bicycle of some sort. He first wonders if it’s something the volunteer lookout left behind, but that doesn’t make any sense. It’s too perfectly placed for him to find it. 

It’s too…familiar?

It’s a bicycle of some sort, except that when Grian really looks at it for the first time he freezes, because it’s the sort of bicycle that Grian recognizes instantly.  Grian stops in his tracks, and suddenly his heartbeat is loud in his ears. His eyes dart all over the bike, taking in every tiny detail. 

It’s painted in what was once bright green and yellow, but the color is faded from the sun and rusty from exposure. There’s scratches on it, and the chain looks clearly messed up. 

It’s a lot worse for wear than the day Grian bought it, but he’d never forget what it looked like. He’s been looking for it for a year now. 

Why is Mumbo’s mountain bike leaned against the Two Forks tower staircase?

<< Chapter Two | Masterpost | Chapter Four >>

[likeshipsonthesea]

dex, team bicycle

the following bullet fic has been in my drafts for over a year now and tonight i remembered it existed, read it, and decided to post it. why? who knows. don’t ask questions. just ~enjoy~

so i got an ask about how anon trusts me implicitly when it comes to writing bc they believe that dex is the team bicycle and eventually ends up with nursey and thinks i’m down with that too and tbh they ain’t wrong so like

here’s a bullet fic instead of me doing any of the work i SHOULD REALLY FUCKING BE DOING okie

first things first here’s the dealio this is crack-ish but also not so crackish that my dumbass couldn’t see it happening so let’s just suspend some disbelief and have a good time

first time dex hooks up with a teammate it’s not at a kegster

maybe a little later he’s a little too tipsy at a kegster not really knowing his own tolerance for tub juice yet and he’s dancing, a little more white boy than maybe one would like but he’s having fun with it and that’s half the game, and he’s sweaty and maybe some glitter from other dancers has rubbed off on him and he’s glittery and shining and he catches someone’s eye across the room (holster, i’m thinking holster) and holster sees him and thinks fuck and dex is maybe really into how big holster is and just like follows him up to the attic when holster grabs his wrist and pulls because why not--

but this is not about that (at least not yet) this is about how dex, new to samwell and ncaa hockey and everything, wants to be the best he can be in everything so naturally he goes to the best person to help him with every thing (for school he gets tutors and goes to tutorials and goes to all the profs’ office hours, for social stuff maybe he trails ransom around idk (that’s for later)) but for hockey he obviously goes to the person you go to when you need help with hockey

jack

LOOK OKAY I GET IT ZIMBITS FOR LIFE BUT HEAR ME OUT

jack likes hockey. jack likes people who like hockey. jack likes when people are really into hockey

so when the little angery frog that seemed real appreciative of his butt on hazeapalooza comes to him with this frowny face determination asking how he can be the best player he can be, a part of jack’s brain that’s very quiet and seldom acknowledged goes “huh.”

and maybe they start meeting up for their own practices, practicing drills and plays so dex can get his speed up and reaction time down and just get better and jack’s benefiting from it too in a way, like trying to help a defensive player makes him have to switch up his thinking about things a bit and it’s helping his defensive play on the ice

and so this goes on for a bit and maybe they build up some inside jokes in between all the intensity and maybe there’s some playful moments in the locker room when they bump arms or throw a few chirps around and it’s cute okay and not too serious, jack isn’t in love with the kid (he’s a kid, lord, okay a lil problematic but if y’all know anything about my oc luke dex has Problems with Authority figures so whatever)

but the truth is jack doesn’t really have many people he’d be comfortable “relieving some stress” with, like there’s shitty but he’s ridiculously straight, and Camila went and got herself a girlfriend so that’s no longer a thing, and dex is there and eager and fun and

and long story short they end up fucking in the locker room oops

it doesn’t happen too many times after that, maybe once on a roadie, a few times at the haus. it’s fun, not in a laughing way or whatever, but it’s casual and it’s nice to get off and it doesn’t make jack any more anxious and dex is probably working through some issues he has with tall dark haired captains and they both get something good out of it, which is the point, anyway

and it ends maybe before winter break, either jack decides to focus on the nhl and his thesis and dex totally understands or dex realizes that maybe his thing with dark haired captains isn’t completely healthy and ends things but either way it’s nbd and no one on the team ever really knows, though it’s not like they lie about it either but who’s gonna ask, right?

and so dex and jack were fuckbuddies. for a time. noice.

now let’s return to that kegster scene, hmm?

so the way i picture it is dex hooks up with holster at a kegster, realizes it probably wasn’t the smartest idea he’s ever had but doesn’t completely freak out because holster’s a relaxed kind of guy, dex is sure it won’t get nuts

meanwhile holster wakes up freaking out because he just fucked ransom’s frog and that is so not cool so then he panics and avoids ransom and dex for like a week and then decides okay okay it’s not a big deal he just won’t tell anyone, it won;t happen again, it’s fine

and then he walks in on dex hooking up with ransom and he’s like Wow Okay So the Fine Thing Didn’t Work Out Huh

turns out while holster was freaking out ransom was really mopey about it and dex, not really knowing how to fix it, tried to comfort him and ended up... in bed

look this version of dex is a little thotty and knows like two ways of comforting people and he didn’t think getting drunk in the middle of the day was a good idea

and so long story short after some brief HUHs going around dex ends up hooking up with both ransom and holster for a bit (sometimes both at once!) and eventually the both-at-once-stuff makes ransom and holster actually acknowledge the feelings they’ve mostly been ignoring since their frog year and they explain this to dex who’s like okie bc he’s really only there bc they’re both hot and so ransom and holster get together and dex sometimes helps them out on date nights and that’s about it

lbr tho they never tell anyone how they actually got together bc they would never live it down so they say nothing and dex doesn’t either bc it’s not his relationship and the world goes on never knowing

so now we’re getting into the middle of spring term dex’s frog year and he’s kind of maybe sort of acknowledged that he has some kind of emotions about nursey that aren’t helpful so he’s attempting to repress real hard, but he’s also learning to repress less about other things, specifically his enjoyment of baking.

yup. you guessed it.

Bitty.

so he starts helping bitty in the kitchen A Lot, and sometimes they talk and sometimes they don’t and sometimes they talk about important things but most of the time they don’t, but at this stage in bitty’s life he is crushing very hard on a certain dark haired captain and that’s kind of really apparent in, like, everything he does so it takes dex maybe two weeks to realize what’s going on

and okay so it’s a little awkward bc 1-the fuckbuddies thing but also bc 2-dex knows how it feels to have feelings for a friend and it kind of sucks like a lot and he wants to make bitty feel better and yeah maybe this is another case of dex being bad at comforting people with his clothes on

but maybe also one day they’re talking about relationships/being gay idk something and bitty maybe casually (southern euphemistically) mentions that he’s never, erm, never quite, uh, never  done the dirty with a boy and maybe he sounds a lil embarassed about it idk and dex’s I Can Fix That brain switches on and he says, “I can help.”

and bitty’s like. what.

dex blushes and clears his throat and says it again. “i can help. i’ve, uh, done it before, and i can, like. show you.” then he pauses and, very uncasually, says, “casually.”

bitty, also pink at his point because he’s a sweet southern boy who doesn’t speak of such things, asks, “you’d be willing to do that?”

dex nods. he does not say that he’s done something like that before. he very pointedly does not say that.

and bitty, well, he’s pining and he’s been at college for a year and a half and the most action he’s ever gotten was with that boy who puked on his shoes and, you know, he came to samwell so that he could be who he is and maybe this is a way he can prove to himself that he is being true to himself.

it also doesn’t hurt that dex is v pretty, okay, bitty loves a boy with big shoulders and freckles.

and so dex and bitty start hooking up.

it’s somewhat like my The Arrangement fic where dex is sort of “showing bitty the ropes” but bitty, lbr, he’s a quick learner and he did his research so it very quickly just becomes hooking up for the sake of it

and it’s good. like. really good and both of them are benefiting from having someone to escape from their ~feelings~ in and bitty’s more comfortable in sexuality (like, his sexuality not his gayness ya feel me?) and everyone’s having a great time

then they lose the playoffs and emotions run high and bitty realizes how decimated he’s going to be by jack leaving and they don’t really have a conversation about it (let’s be real, neither of these boys talk about their feelings, at least not at this point) but dex goes home that summer with the understanding that he and bitty are no longer doing the thing, and that’s okay with him, really, because maybe now his feelings for nursey are becoming More of A Thing Than He Was Hoping They Would

of course bitty gets with jack at this time, so he’s kind of through the roof, and if, maybe, they have a conversation about their ex’s/past lovers and find they have.. more things in common than expected, well, at the least it’s a bit of a laugh and at the most well. let’s just say sometimes a ginger is mentioned in their bed WHATEVER OKAY MOVING ON

dex comes back in the fall ready to suppress the fuck out of his emotions and play some damn good hockey and who appears but this super eager tadpole

this now plays out as the first two chapters of my The Arrangement fic, though i guess now for canonical reasons whiskey ends up with lax bro and not tango, but that’s alright, we’re good at working on our feet here

for those who haven’t read the fic, dex shows whiskey how to gay sex while simultaneously gaining his trust and encouraging him to bond with the team and for personal reasons whiskey is a little shit but not as much of an asshole as he was in canon (look i love the guy but he’s a dick) and anyway go read my fic it’s good i promise #selfspon moving on

the latter half of dex’s sophomore year is spent mostly Not Pining for nursey and getting closer to him, friend wise, until the whole dib-flip, living together situation occurs, dex has a Freak Out, and ruins things a little

..this is getting off track, but long story short, his captains kiss each other on live tv and dex’s family starts to suspect that all those rumors that drifted around him in high school may have more truth to them than they’d been hoping and dex has a less than great summer break, coming back to school in the opposite of a good mindset

nursey also has a not great break (his parents are fighting, then he comes to school and breaks his wrist and can’t play hockey) and well we all know where this ends up

this leaves dex in a very mopey gross state and who to help someone feel better in their time of need than the sweetest little waffle you’ve ever seen in your life?

yes, it’s time for Hops.

now, this is a rather short lived affair, but over thanksgiving break, the entirety of the haus goes home to their families except for dex (who says he can’t deal with bus fare, and begs off any offers of help) and hops, who technically isn’t in the Haus, but stays there for the break while his parents are on a work trip during the holiday

dex ends up finding out just exactly how College Hockey Boy hops is when he almost burns the kitchen down trying to make a grilled cheese and dex decides then that he has to help this boy learn how to human, so they spend the first two days together with dex teaching hops all the basic skills dex thinks someone should know

this is included but not limited to: how to cook without making fire, how to change the oil in your car, how to hotwire a car, how to fix various different appliances, how to take the optimal notes, how to basic code, and how to sort and do your laundry

hops is enjoying the crash course (kid is just grateful to finally know where the detergent goes in a washer) but also, like, lbr. watching someone be competent in a thing--esp a thing you are yourself not good at--is a giant turn on, and so after two days of watching dex be really good at adulting, they settle onto the couch after doing the dishes and hops just gets on his knees and--

we aren’t smutting here on good christian tumblr but boy. hops is an eager kid.

anyway they spend a week fucking and then stop because hops falls in love with a girl in his intro class and then spends the next two months asking dex for advice on how to woo her, even though obviously chowder would be a better bet.

then comes the playoffs and everything is heating up and they’re on roadies nearly every weekend, still keeping up with their coursework, and it’s A Lot, and dex is really feeling it this year, especially with all the shit bitty’s been getting, and one night, on a roadie, he and bully get back to their room and dex collapses with a groan on the bed and bully, chill as anything, is like. “you seem pretty stressed. wanna fuck?”

and, you know what? dex is still his thotty (though more mature) self and he’s like, life sucks a little right now, why not get off

and so he does.

he and bully hook up through the playoffs and into the post-season (that post-final game sex is A Lot my dudes lemme tell you) but then dex gets elected captain and something twisty in his chest tells him that he should not be fucking someone on the team, especially not an underclassman, when he’s got that authority over him, and so he breaks it off with bully

who is pretty chill about it, since he’s bully, though he does miss the sex. the sex was p good.

and, to be quite honest, that’s it. dex wouldn’t fuck any of the baby frogs for the same reason he broke it off with bully (also ngl the senior-freshman thing doesn’t do it for him anymore) and so dex goes through his senior year of college without having any fuckbuddies--his first year of college so far, actually, where he doesn;t

the end

.

.

.

lol jk he and nursey start hooking up and it’s a Whole Bundle of emotions

in keeping with the rest of the fuck buddies, dex thinks that this is just like all the other times and nursey has no reason to think dex wants anything more and like. the sex is good, like very good, and neither of them are complaining per se but they’re also in love and haven’t said anything, and i imagine there are some ill-timed confessions prior to the final game of the playoffs and then they win another ncaa championship title and have sex in a janitor’s closet (but like,, emotional sex) and they live happily (thottily) ever after

i also like to imagine that there’s a point somewhere down the line when they all meet up for a reunion and something happens-- probably ransom and holster get a lil tipsy and finally tell the truth of how they got together-- and everyone basically does the spider-man meme but with “wait-you had sex with dex? i had sex with dex” and nursey--who knows bc dex told him when they finally got together-- is just sitting there all smug with his arm around a steadily reddening dex bc he’s fucking proud of the fact that everyone knows exactly how good his boyfriend is in bed

[skullstarz]

the princess of the sea

-> royalty!au iida tenya x fem!reader

this is the literal bane of my existence. here you go, part 1 of my iida royalty au fic. very loosely inspired by raya and the last dragon and genshin impact, but you can barely tell.

IF THE KEEP READING THINGIE DOESNT WORK PLS TELL ME!! ++ there is a paragraph that gets repeated. im sorry, but every time i fix it, it happens somewhere else. idk what to do at this point. sobbing.

warnings: language. also its long and ends on a cliff hanger oops

word count: 4.8k words

check out my masterlist for more of my works!!

the sound of your heels hitting the shiny floors bounced off of the walls nonstop as you ran. you were a princess, one that was late to the ball being held to celebrate the alliance of four nations that had fought against one another for over a century. as you round the corner towards the banquet hall’s doors, you make eye contact with a tall, blue haired, handsome man- and then fall flat on your face.

it wasn’t often countries came together to make amends after hundreds of years of wars, attacks, and disagreements- yet here you are, making a fool of yourself in front of the prince of lupusvine, the northernmost nation. you rush to pick yourself up, muttering a quick “damn it, y/n,” whilst fluffing your dress back up to its once cloud-like form.

“are you alright? it’s y/n, no?” the man you had seen before now much closer, offering his hand out to greet you.

“are you alright? it’s y/n, no?” the man you had seen before now much closer, offering his hand out to greet you.

quick history lesson- the planet was named xenos centuries ago, by four gods. what their names were is hard to decipher; by the time humans were capable of writing and recording history, the gods had many names. there were more countries on the planet, but the most important (to you) were the four nations that were named and ruled by the four main gods, all sharing borders. ruritania, ruled by the goddess of nature, has the perfect climate for farming, raising livestock, and taking trips from the other nations. it was considered a utopia for those who liked peaceful, cottage living.

lupusvine, ruled by the god of wind, was cold. the citizens tend to be either extremely wealthy, or dead, really, as being homeless in the brutal cold would be a slow and painful death. they tend to be strict and uptight, and worship their god’s every word. ambrosia, ruled by the god of fire, on the other hand, was scorching hot most of the time. it was mostly desert, and ambrosians tend to be strong, rough, aggressive towards outsiders, yet loving towards their families.

lastly, oceania, ruled by the goddess of water. oceania, being the nation you were soon to rule, was perfect, like ruritania, hot in the summers and cold in the winters, but not unbearably so. it was the wealthiest nation, not because the rich keep getting richer, but because the nation helps and nurtures those who are struggling. it was seen as a sort of idyllic place, and because of that, the other countries often envied oceania.

one last, probably important bit, before you remember the prince of lupusvine is waiting for you to give him your hand- hybrids are common in xenos. which is why, as you stare at the prince, flustered, you barely notice the wolf ears on his head.

“it…it is y/n, correct?” he hesitates.

“oh, yes! i'm very sorry!” you put your hand in his, greeting him. “you must be tenya, prince of lupusvine!” you attempt to compose yourself while the wolf man before you reaches up to adjust your small crown as he breathes out a soft “yes.”

you blush due to how close he is and he apologizes. “sorry, but i'm sure that with the rush you were in, you wouldn’t have had the time to notice your crown was barely hanging onto your head for dear life.” he chuckles and as your eyes meet once again you freeze- you never knew why people were so wrapped up in rumors and gossip, but you had heard one a while back… that the prince of lupisvine’s eyes were as cold as ice, like the land he came from.

while whispers of his frightening gaze and sharp features may be based in truth, his eyes soaking in yours made you feel as if you were melting- the warm, relaxing smile he had contrasting his straight posture and tense shoulders.

“if you’d like, we could enter the ball together” his voice pulled you out of your trance, and as he awaited your answer you thought of all of the consequences entering together would have. your mother and sister’s worry turning into squealing, eager to have you marry the poor man was one. your father upset that you had never mentioned someone was courting you (which the prince was not doing) while he was searching for suitors was another consequence.

oh, and most importantly of all- what you two walking in together, arms linked, would do to the political state of the four nations. you were the precious princess of the sea! you were oceania’s lovely, pure heir to the throne; if anyone were to lay a hand on you they’d be dead before they could take another breath! little did they know that you had a tendency to be anything but elegant, with a foul mouth and two left feet.

and prince of lupusvine- well he… he was perfect. a respectable gentleman who gives his all to his nation, who works to make their nation a better place. the other three countries may whisper and mock; thinking him a serious, scary soon-to-be king with a devotion to law and order, but he was a far more gentle and loving prince than that. everyone in lupusvine was aware of the truth, and you, placing your hand on his arm, now also knew the truth.

“yes, i would, in fact, like that very much.” you flash him your charming smile that everyone in oceania was in love with and enter the hall together.

the consequences you had thought up in your mind paled in comparison to the reactions of everyone as you two enter. shocked expressions, gasps, and even what sounded like a glass shattering filled the room as you make your entrance and walk down the stairs. hushed tones greet you at the bottom, and as you and tenya part ways, you are greeted by the royal family of oceania- your mother, father, and sister.

“you do realize what that looks like, right?” your sister, isla, barked at you. she had a knack for showing her care and love in the worst ways possible, but you knew her words weren’t meant to instigate some sort of argument.

“no, i don't, actually.” you shrug, before your father gently grabs you by the arms

“the prince of lupusvine is no husband for my daughter, i will not allow it until i know more about that boy and what he might be scheming”

“scheming? oh for the love of our goddess, dad, i'm not going to marry him! we simply entered together” you shake his hands off of you.

your mother cut in with a huff, worsening your family’s freak out. “with how late the both of you were it looked like some sort of… surprise marriage announcement!” often, when your mother becomes flustered, or worried, her extensive, fancy vocabulary is thrown out the window.

“its like you were telling all of xenos ‘hey, look at me put my hand on this big strong rich prince oh also remember how we’re both looking for other royal families to marry into, mostly for political reasons?’” your sister rambles on, mocking your manner of speaking.

“oh, whatever, it’s not really like it matters. the four nations are allies now anyways, what’s the issue, even if i were to be seeing him?” all three of your overprotective family members scoff and walk away, clearly getting the message that their worries wont get through to you. spotting the prince again, you make your way over to him before frantically attempting to walk away as the crowd parts for you only to reveal his very serious and scary family having a discussion with him. instead of walking away towards your sister, you turn and smash face first into- actually, you don’t even realize you just walked into the prince of ambrosia, todoroki shoto, until you look up at him.

“oh my goddess, i'm so sorry” you bow at him deeply, and his father tells you not to worry about it as they continue walking towards the royal family of lupusvine. while the four nations all had their issues with each other, lupusvine and ambrosia have made deals with one another before, and oceania and ruritania were on decent terms. as king enji spoke with the king of lupusvine, shoto gave you a quick wave, before standing next to tenya rather than his father.

you’ve already just about had enough with the party when you decide it’s better for everyone if you were to just leave. you leave the ball and head to lucerne’s garden, a small garden and pond built right into the center of the castle, named after a dragon (which have all since vanished from xenos) the goddess kept as a companion. sitting at the edge of the pond, you’re lost in thought as a hand touches your shoulder.

“it’s nice to see you again, princess.” tenya’s voice just barely over a whisper as he sits next to you.

“no, you’ll get your suit dirty-” you start, before he shakes his head.

“perhaps, but the servants in your castle seem to be extraordinary at their job- i don't think i saw even a drop of water on the ground as i sat down.” he laughs, continuing to look around at the spotless scenery, none of the plants having even a speck of brown, and not one part of the ground dusty or dirty.

“well well well, and here i thought mr. prince of lupusvine was supposed to be a stickler for rules! i’d expect a ‘no sitting on the ground with your gown on!’ from you.” you smirk, messing with decorations sewn onto your dress.

“I may be a little uptight, but i don’t quite think there's a rule for sitting on the ground with a dress on..” you laugh as he trails off in thought. “is that lucerne? companion of kirai?” he asks, pointing at the statue of a dragon looming over the pond.

citizens of lupusvine tend to refer to the goddess of water as “kirai”, due to their god calling her that every time he mentioned her, as recorded on slabs from ancient times. that, along with other reasons, is why many researchers and history professors believe that the goddess of water and the god of wind were in a romantic relationship, whether permanently or just for a certain period of time. you nod and face him as he continues “i wish dragons still existed. i learned, when i was younger, that dragons went extinct due to humans.”

your eyes widen, flickering towards the statue of lucerne. “because of us?”

“yes.” he whispers, before the two of you fall into comfortable silence. soon, footsteps can be heard behind the two of you. turning around to see who is coming, you see todoroki shoto, prince of ambrosia, as well as the princess of ruritania, uraraka ochako.

“thank goodness we saw you out here! our parents are so professional and uptight at these things, it's almost suffocating.” ochako gasps the fresh air in, sitting next to you as shoto sits at a nearby bench.

“i dont get why they hate each other so much.” shoto muttered under his breath and everyone let out sighs and nods. while all of you knew the history behind the nations’ feuds and didn’t quite know each other, you four could easily bond over your general disdain for the grudges your families had towards each other.

suddenly, you picked yourself up from the ground and stared at the other three determinedly. “we should find out what happened to lucerne and the dragons! it would be so fu-”

“we already know what happened to the dragons.” shoto cuts you off

“well then what is it?” you huff, annoyed that you were cut off.

as shoto shrugged, tenya started telling the story. “the four gods gave a box each to the inhabitants of xenos and told them to not open them, even if they’re curious about what’s inside.”

“oh no, they opened the boxes” you gasp, shaking your head.

“yes, they opened the boxes. the first three boxes they opened had beautiful things we couldn't even begin to imagine the world without, so, without thinking, they opened the last box. a puff of smoke came out the box upon opening it, and then every dragon on xenos turned to stone. there’s no cure, no answers, no reason as to why the gods would do that, especially when the dragons were so loved by the humans and gods alike.”

“how cliche” shoto sighs.

“do you think the dragons can hear us?” ochako gets up, trying to get closer to touch lucerne. “lucerne, do you think i should marry izuku midoriya, from ylvern, or bakugo katsuki from angria?”

todoroki scoffs, and you note the jealous glint in his eyes. “lucerne’s not gonna come back to life to answer which royal family you should marry into” he gets up, ready to head back inside.

“speaking of marriage…. tenya, y/n, what was that entrance~?” ochako skips back to your side, crouching down.

“nothing, we just met before walking inside and decided to enter together; it's simply none of your concern” you ramble on, refusing to face either tenya or ochako, opting to stare at a lily pad floating on the water.

“oh really?” ochako squints, before getting up. “if you say so, y/n”

“yes i do say so” you nod violently, ochako humming as she walks towards shoto to walk back inside together. exchanging quiet ‘see you later’s, they leave you and tenya alone again.

“would it really be a bad idea for us to get married?” his words making you choke on air. “not like that! it was just a question!!” he flails his arms around, the two of you so very flustered.

you both collect yourself and you think for a bit before answering “i think our parents are probably just suspicious of each other, still. i mean if you think about it, you could say we’re already fated to be” you half joke, expecting more arm flailing, only to receive a hum.

“ah, you mean the theory that kirai and the god of wind were lovers?” he tilts his head.

“some even say they were married, not just lovers, tenya. what, are you suggesting we be lovers?” you joke.

another round of arm flailing passes as you laugh, before he clarifies “you know what i meant, don't act a fool. i personally believe it too, there’s plenty of evidence for it.”

you nod, agreeing with him “that, and because citizens of oceania often think i look like our goddess, and your citizens say your personality matches your god. wouldn’t you say we’re- a- match?” with each pause in between your last words you get just a bit closer before pulling away, laughing once more at his flailing arms and beet red cheeks, finding your new favorite hobby.

one last moment of silence passes as you both stare at the clock in the garden, waiting until it hit 10 to join the others back inside for a speech from the nations’ kings and queens. you stole peeks at his face, your eyes quick to flicker elsewhere when they make contact with his. a minute before it was time for the speeches you two got up and walked together, checking each other for any specks of dirt (there weren’t any, head maid marina would never allow such a thing).

you stop right before the doors, facing him with a smile on your face. “after you, mr. prince, we can't go in together after the entrance we made before.” you motion towards the door and he steps closer to you, waiting. “wha- oh” you realize what he was waiting for and nod, expecting a kiss on the cheek. what he really did, was give you a light peck on the lips, before turning away and returning to the ball.

“your majesty, if i may, i don't believe that’s an appropriate way to say goodbye to someone.” head maid marina places a hand on her hip, a clipboard tucked in between her arm and the side of her waist. she tapped her foot expectantly, brows raised as you stutter, attempting to find the right words.

“please dont tell my mom!!” you blurt, and run into the banquet hall.

“you kissed prince tenya!?” the servants in the dining room all come to a halt, turning to your family, that was supposed to be having dinner.

“ugh maid marina told you!” you put your face into your hands as your sister stifles a laugh and shrinks in her chair.

your father looks like he might explode as he yells “you WHAT?”

“to be fair!! he kissed meee~” you gushed at the thought.

“how is that supposed to make me feel at ease?!” your father stands up.

“dad sit down and eat your unseasoned roasted potatoes-” you pause to raise your voice loud enough for those in the kitchen to hear, “if head maid marina wasn’t busy gossiping about my love life maybe the potatoes would’ve come out properly seasoned!” your words earned you a light whack with a handful of napkins from said maid. “and what if i choose to marry tenya? i assure you he is up to nothing but good.”

your father shook his head. “how can i be sure of that, darling?”

“cause i really like him!! pleaaaaaaase?” you beg, putting your hands together as you give him your best puppy dog eyes. your father was visibly crushed by your strategy before he straightened up and cleared his throat.

“well, if you insist, i suppose i could send the iida family an invitation to a dinner, where we can discuss this matter more in detail.”

“this is becoming more and more like an arranged marriage by the second-” you whine.

the following days were rather uneventful; helping out maid marina as an apology for offending her potatoes, polishing the statue of lucerne (which you’ve found out is essentially lucerne’s corpse) for maid veronica since you let ochako get close to it, and reading up more on xenos’ history. eventually, the day to have dinner with the iida family came and you dreaded it, as your mother told maid marina to find and dress you in a ‘lovely, light blue dress with intricate detailing’ days beforehand.

“and just why do you like prince tenya, of all princes? why not prince shoto?” with every ‘why’ that left marina’s mouth, she pulled on your corset, tightening it.

“for the love of our holy goddess please maid marina please show me mercy” you plead.

“i did show you mercy, when i made extra of your favorite side dish because the main dish of this evening is the royal jade carp, which i know you hate with every fiber of your being” you whine at her rebuttal (and another tug at the corset) before she finally ties it off at the end.

“done. let maid veronica finish getting you ready while i finish the preparations. your future husband should be here soon.” she smooths out her uniform before leaving the room.

“this feels like an arranged marriage, y/n.” veronica sighs, readjusting your hair.

“it wasn’t supposed to be” you groan and attempt to slouch, the corset compressing your insides not allowing you to.

“well, you both seem to like each other, so at least you’ll be marrying someone you might actually grow to love” veronica shrugged, tying a bow on your dress.

“you know, you’re right, vero! it isn’t all that bad, considering some people don't have that luxury.” you smile at your new found confidence.

“oh goddess, like that poor queen of ambrosia. i heard her marriage to king enji turned sour such a long time ago yet they stayed together for political reasons, you know?”

you gasped at veronica’s words “is veronica gossiping on the job?”

veronica smacks her lips annoyed. “its small talk, young lady, not gossiping.”

you quickly made your way down the stairs and towards the dining hall before tenya and his family arrived. your sister, isla, stood at the doors, surprised to see you so dressed up. “this is a dinner to possibly discuss a marriage, not the wedding day itself” she chuckles, leading you to your seat and sitting down in front of you. “i, myself have found someone to talk to as well.”

“oh really?” you raise your eyebrows, amused.

she nods, smiling “a prince named mirio to-” the doors open and the two of you stand up to greet the iida family, led to the dining room by your parents.

“its nice to see you again” tenya greeted you with a kiss to your hand as the rest of your families mingled. you all ate, discussed feelings over the nations becoming allies and you and tenya’s plans for the future.

“wanna see something?” you grab tenya’s hand after the dinner ended, the rest of your family deciding to continue to chat away as you showed tenya around the castle.

you lead him to your room, and as he starts to stutter, telling you “perhaps this step can wait? a bit?” you shake your head.

“that’s not why i’m bringing you in here, but i like the way you’re thinkin” you tease, before stopping in front of a tank.

“is that an axolotl?” tenya gasps, his free hand gently pressing against the glass.

“yes, that’s pudding.” you nod, before leading him over to another tank. “and this is noodle, she’s an oceanian black kingsnake.”

“you like snakes?” he questioned you.

“not really, but when i found her in lucerne’s garden she was in pretty bad condition. she took a liking to me so i just toughed it out and took her in.” you shrug, before leading him to your bed.

once again objecting to any dirty things you’d try to do to him, you stop him. “first of all, i wouldn't do anything you aren't comfortable with, and second, that's not why i brought you here, okay? now this little man right here is nugget!” you lift one of the many blankets on your bed to reveal a tiny, black poodle with long legs. “and thiiiiis,” you move to another side of your bed “is pepper!” a white cat’s face peeks out of the blankets it's piled under, reaching a paw out to greet the prince before returning to its sleep hole.

“i didn't expect you to be such an animal lover.” he says on your walk back to the dining hall.

“it isn’t really that i'm an animal lover, the axolotl was a gift from an organization that keeps endangered animals safe after i made a large donation. the other three were strays that the maids found in lucerne’s garden. something about the lucerne draws animals to her.” you shrug, pondering what might be the reason animals were often found in the garden. Something that you had noticed before but never fully paid attention to was the way tenya’s tail wagged when you two were alone. during both the ball and dinner his tail was stiff and straight, as if he was making an active effort to not draw attention to it. it was nice to know that he didn’t care much about little things like that alone with you.

it was still a bit frustrating how quickly your families wanted you two to get to know each other and get married. while dating for civilians can last many years before even mentioning marriage, sometimes royals have all their wedding preparations read before their first meeting.

“at least we enjoy each others’ presence.” tenya’s words cut through your cluttered mind.

“what?” you blurt, and he laughs softly.

“at least we like each other, you know? we could’ve been forced to marry snooty, arrogant people. instead we get to be somewhat forcefully married to each other.”

“it’s almost like you can read my mind” you suggest jokingly, before leading him to sit down for more quiet time together. “it sucks that we’re being rushed into things, but we can go at our own pace, even if we may be wife and husband while we’re still just going on our first few dates.” he nods at your words with a smile, sighing before getting up, with his hand in yours, to head back inside the dining room.

“you’re getting married to the prince of angria? oh poor thing” various princesses reacted to ochako’s words, wishing her luck on her marriage to bakugo katsuki, another prince.

“it's not all that bad!” she reasoned with them, only for them to disagree.

“not all that bad? the boy’s got anger issues and will probably be a terrible ruler! oh sweet girl he’s going to ruin you, and not in the good way.” some random princess teases. you were currently at a tea party being held in ruritania, by the princess, ochako. you noticed the way her shoulders lowered at their words, each time they insulted him only making her more upset.

“you never know, perhaps he’s actually nice if you get to know him. besides, it isn't our place to judge, seeing as most of us have rather terrible fiancées as well.” you comment, drinking your tea. you notice the smile growing on ochako’s face, a small, silent thank you for sticking up for her.

“of course you’d know about terrible fiancées, soon-to-be mrs. tenya iida” the fiancée of prince sero (oh, poor poor sero) laughs out.

“and i'm sure prince sero knows a lot about terrible fiancées as well.” you insult back.

“did you see the face she made after you said that?!” ochako giggled as you two were walking to her room. the tea party finished rather quickly after your response to princess ophelia’s insult had her running out in rage.

“that’s what she gets. i mean come on, she’s one to talk about me having a terrible fiancée when she is a terrible fiancée” you shrug, the grin on your face slowly forming as you hold in a laugh. “i can’t believe you and bakugo are getting married though! i thought that your parents would surely choose midoriya of ylvern!”

“well, ylvern’s nice n all, and i'm sure midoriya’s absolutely wonderful-” there was the tiniest bit of yearning in her voice when speaking of the prince. “-but angria has more resources. its a better choice in almost every aspect except for the fact that it’s bakugo katsuki that i'm marrying.” she realized what she said and shook her head quickly “no, i'm going to be optimistic! i know everything will turn out fine, and my marriage to him will end up being a better idea.”

“you sound like you’re trying to convince yourself, ‘chako.” you sit on her bed and watch as her cheeks grow redder and redder

“no! i’m! not! don’t do that y/n!” she pouts “i was one hundred percent supportive when you announced you’d marry tenya!”

“and i'm thankful for that-” you raise your hands up in your defense.

“so don't tease me about my marriage!” you laugh, patting her shoulder

“okay, okay, relax!” huffing, you and ochako continue to talk the night away; about marriage, wedding preparations, and anything else you two could think of.

as the days go by, you see more of tenya, each time falling in love with him more and more. you also see ochako more, meeting her fiancée bakugo, and more of todoroki, who’s been spending much of his time rejecting princesses and enjoying the presence of the prince of ylvern, midoriya. one of the worst days was the day your mothers dress was modified to your size and changed to be more modern, head maid marina threatening to poke you as she sewed if you didn't stop slouching. the worst day, however, was the day maid veronica, maid marina, and maid yalani sat with you and talked about what would happen on your wedding night (goddess have mercy on your soul, they thought you didn’t know a thing about sex).

but, as preparations went on, and as you spent time with tenya, you couldn’t be happier. he caught you whenever you fell, which happened many times while learning dances, and he laughed with you whenever everyone else found you unladylike, like when you spit out food while trying to figure out what would be served to the guests, not realizing what you had tasted was made with your least favorite food, royal jade carp. he was traditional, strict, yet had a soft side to him that took you step by step through everything, never failing to whisper compliments in your ear or reassure you that you’re doing great.

everything was perfect, every effort made filled with love and pure intentions, every moment nothing less than a beautiful experience, until the night before the wedding, when everything took a sharp turn for the worst.

[meggie-stardust]

GUNDAM WING - REWATCH - 48 - 49

We’ve reached the end...

48. Take Off Into Confusion

Throwing us right in with “Gotta do better. I’m over here.” Totally Classic Treize.

Let’s wax philosophical Treize, right in the middle of a battle field. 

Wufei is a monogamous fighter

This is some sexy foreplay

The scientists have a plan, but we need to somehow going to sneak 5 of us into Peacemillion...? It’s not a very good plan is it? 

There’s a big chance Libra will crash into Canada… sorry Canada 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

Zechs: if they both crash, they’ll have an eternal winter; IDK Zechs, in Eva they get an eternal summer after the Second Impact, so which is right?

“Like me, Zechs Marquise.” What a line Zechs.

I don’t like the helmet touch between Heero and Relena.. and this isn’t because I’m not a 1xR shipper. It’s just weird, and feels out of character for Heero, and kind of tacked on? 

Also, since when did Heero promise to protect Relena? I remember threatening to kill her a few times... I don’t think those words mean the same thing?

Relena gets an NCIS freeze frame there

Dorothy: Let’s have a sexy foreplay sword fight. I’ve learned everything I know from my cousin Treize. 

Dorothy is nut bar, and it’s so wonderful. My dad died and I hate it, so I’m gonna die too. 

Aww Dorothy is gonna make Quatre cry

“But Heero is on a suicide mission.” And that’s different from normal, how? 

Heavyarms using his arms like they’re, you know, heavy

Trowa and Duo meeting in battle: We’re dudes and can’t tell each other that we care, but take care and, you know, don’t die

The scientists get to ride in the bat wings?! I bet that’s like when you’re a kid and get to ride in the back-back seat of a station wagon (am I dating myself here?)

Rashad: “Fellow Comrades: no one is allowed to die until we see master Quatre.”

Dorothy read Watchmen and was like, if we create one huge war, then they’ll all come together in peace

Quatre: Trowa taught me to not shy away from my kindness…. DID HE THO? WHEN????

Treize and Wufei: I want to fight you fair and square: why don’t you have sword fight on this spaceship

Treize: I couldn’t kill someone who understood me. I’m not gonna cry.

Treize is so amazing. All the people who died for him. You’re crying.

He has such presence. 

Wufei sobbing. I didn’t think I’d win. OK, I AM CRYING

Treize WAS splendid

Earth declared defeat but White Fang will still crash the ship into earth…

Relena looking for Heero: I’ll just jump out into space and float around until I find him. 

49. The Final Victor

No narrator. Just jumping right into the episode since we are still in the middle of a battle, people.

This is a long con Zechs: to create such a horrible disaster that people want pacifism. No way should that have worked.

Noin is just going to sit there and watch and do nothing. You started off so strong, Noin and then.... nothing.

Noin should probably just put that western shirt on and mosey out into the sunset

Zechs: I’ve got 99k problems and they are all dead people who fought for total pacifism for me

How funny would it be Duo drops the scientists off and like 2 are dead and one has an arm hanging off. Oops. 

Everyone’s long con came is intense. Une was also here for total pacifism, too? Feels weird that she had to murder Relena’s dad for that...

Howard will just lay some science on everyone so that we know why we can’t drop a battleship on earth

Trowa is just gonna lecture Dorothy. He’s not mad, he’s just disappointed. Dorothy can’t take such stoic disappointment. 

Quatre is such a spoil sport. Non-alochollic champaign. Lame. No wonder I don’t like you.

Let’s televise this fight to earth and space, so just random people understand what’s happening in space

CANS was part of operation mentor?? 

The Scientists: We’re gonna interfere once more. KABOOM We blew everything up, including ourselves. YOLO

Heero and Zechs using the ZERO system are like two drunk people having a debate over something dumb while all their friends look on annoyed

The colonies are just covering all their bases, by choosing sides again this late in the game.

Zechs doubling down just because he doesn’t want to admit he’s wrong is fantastic

Obligatory it’s just a flesh wound reference 

SO let me get this straight. Knoweldge goes from Heavyarms to Trowa to Quatre? 

The Maganacs riding into the battle at the last moment like a calvary movie

Heero learned from Trowa, too. Learned how to run out of bullets. Hey-o.

No you blow up, no you blow up. 

Sally: I believe in him, he can defy physics and science 

Heero: I will survive Hey hey. But like, the Cake version

Wow bringing Just Communication back. Amazing. OK, It’s better than Rhythm Emotion. There I said it. 

Look at those mentors, from project mentor

Who’s grave was she putting flowers on if not Zechs??

Relena: Next time hand it to me in person; Heero: Ok bye forever

Thoughts:

There are so many moments were characters are like THIS person did this, or THIS person said that. AND WHEN? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN??? Off screen, because that ain’t in the series, guys. 

I could write a whole essay one the last battle between Treize and Wufei and boy does it stand up to everything I remembered. A+ Great work, Lads. 

But the rest of these last two episodes... visually they look amazing and we get some great fights. But the plot? Really? Everyone was in for this long con of having such a big fight that everyone would want pacifism? Like, what if Treize and Zechs just talked to the Gundam Pilots? 

The whole first 1/2 to 3/4 of the show is set up so well, and everything is so slowburn, that I had to make a chart for when characters learn each other’s names. But suddenly Heero comes in and FINALLY does something right, and saves the day.... and the show is over??? 

We get no aftermath? Suddenly Relena WHO IS FIFTEEN is a Vice Foreign Minister? And Heero probably left her some important info and she just tears it up. UGH I HATE IT

What I think I remember for the next episode(s):

So, before @mpanighetti​and I watch Endless Waltz, we have decided to watch the Operation Meteor OVA, which neither of us have seen before, and has this description: Set immediately after the ending of the Gundam Wing series (and thus before Endless Waltz), this OVA features a series of 7 clips, one from each pilot's point of view as well as a beginning and ending. The clips give a glimpse into what happened to all five characters in the direct aftermath of the final battle against White Fang. After we watch this, we will head into Endless Waltz, and I am excited to revisit that, as I think I only watched it like twice, but I remember the ending because I thought it was the ending to the series. So don’t worry, you haven’t seen the last of my shitty recaps and shitposts. 

[five-hxrgreeves]

I Won’t Back Down - Five Hargreeves x OC

Word Count: 3,244

You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won't back down I'm gonna stand my ground Won't be turned around And I'll keep this world from dragging me down

 1  | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 

Pt. 4- Waking up to Ash and Dust

Lola didn’t know what woke her but she groaned and opened her eyes, lifting her head from where her cheek stuck to the page she’d been writing on before she’d fallen asleep. The basement was pitch-black, her candles having been burned out while she’d been resting. Unbothered, the brunette stood, stretched, and made her way to the wall where she knew the light switch was. After patting the guessed area, her hand hit on the dimmer and flicked it up. Nothing happened.

She moved it up and down several more times and the room remained completely dark. Frowning in confusion, Lola guessed that they’d lost power during the night for some reason. With no windows in the basement, it was impossible to tell what time it was or if a weather event had happened. Shrugging, she stepped twice to the right and placed her hand on the banister to guide her steps up the stairs. Only- she hit her head even halfway up.

”Ouch!” the girl yelped, rubbing the sore spot on her head. What the hell? The ceiling was never this low before! There were fifteen steps from the door to the bottom of the basement. Lola had only gone up ten.

She pushed on the supposed ceiling tentatively. No movement, “hey, guys? Mom? Dad?” she called, hoping someone would hear.

There was no way the ceiling was caved in, right? How would that even be possible? Maybe her uncle was pulling a prank on her and had stuffed obstacles down the stairs so she couldn’t come up.

“Uncle Ed? You’re really very funny! Haha!” she tried, hoping it would convince him to help move the stuff.

Then, something shifted and movement by her feet made her jump, causing her to yelp. There’s no mice down here, idiot. Her mother would never allow that, so what had fallen by her foot?

Still in pitch-blackness, Lola made her way back down the stairs until the was on the last one. Gripping the banister carefully, she moved her foot into the empty space below the final step until she hit what had fallen. Bending over, she was surprised by the weight of the item.

Lola moved the object between her hands, feeling the roughness and shape of it. It wasn’t any sort of object used for a prank, she determined. It felt like a part of her house. But how could that be right?

Stay calm, Lola, she told herself, there’s a reasonable explanation for this. Maybe mom decided to renovate the upstairs, started this morning, and forgot you were down here? That seemed a little far-fetched. What about school? Her mother always checked the basement if Lola wasn’t in her room and it had to be around the time she had to get ready.

Dropping the loose object, the girl made her way back up until her head brushed the blockage again, “MOM? DAD?” she yelled again, straining her ears for an answer.

What the hell happened last night? Or early this morning, she supposed. She called for her parents several more times, all of which went without response. Turning, she sat down on the seventh step and buried her face in her hands, the sudden coverage of her eyes making no difference with the black of the room.

Okay, she thought, you know the basement. What could you use to help you?

There were drills and electrical cords so she could drill herself out but she’d never used the tools before, her mom would go nuts and there seemed to be no power. She had candles, so she could burn her way through but if it was mostly cement on top of her that wouldn’t help. Paint was useless and so were light bulbs. She doubted there was something useful in the holiday section. Did they have a pick axe? Those couldn’t be so hard to use. Or maybe an anvil and a hammer.

That would take longer but didn’t require electricity and her mom might be more okay with that.

What if it caves in on you, though? she considered, biting her lip as she tried to puzzle around it, what did people use to prevent cave-ins? Some type of support, she supposed. Did they store plywood in the basement? Was that even strong enough?

Stay calm, Lola, you can do this. And besides, she was jumping ahead of herself. Surely her parents would notice and dig her out? Maybe there wasn’t even that much blockage and it just seemed like a lot. It probably just was a rotten prank her Uncle Ed had cooked up but she couldn’t see her mother being okay with her being late for school because of it. Still, she didn’t want to jump to conclusions so she stood and made her way back up the stairs, calling as loudly as she could, “MOM? DAD? UNCLE ED?”

--

There was no telling how much time had passed but no answer came as Lola’s voice tired out. After her 839th call, she gave a final cough, turned, and sat down, bending her head slightly to accommodate the small space. What now?

Surely it was past school’s starting time. Her uncle and father would be at the store and her mother would be at the library starting her shift. Lola sighed and strained her eyes into the blackness, hoping it would reveal an answer of what happened. It didn’t, of course, but she wasn’t sure what else to do. Maybe her voice wasn’t loud enough? The thought suddenly occurred to her and part of her favorite, well-memorized story came back to her: Liesel hit the lid of a paint can. Maybe her paint cans weren’t as useless as she thought.

After sliding down the stairs feet first and lowering herself carefully by her hands, she stood and made her first step to the left. Suddenly, she was very glad she was a counter. There were exactly twenty-seven and a half steps to the paint section of the shelves from the bottom of the stairs. Carefully counting them out, she arrived in the correct place and took the top paint can after feeling around for the handle. Then, with another fifteen steps, she made her way to the hand-held tools and felt along the second shelf for a hammer, pleased when her hand grasped the worn, wooden handle.

Turning, Lola counted the total forty-two and a half steps back to the stairs and went up again to the blockage. Placing the paint can on the last available step, she swung the hammer down, hard, on the lid. It let out a resounding clang which was loud in the dark stillness and made her flinch in surprise. Shaking off her prickle of fear, she repeated the action several more times.

--

The girl jumped when something slightly wet splashed on her and she gingerly felt the spot where it landed on her shirt. Oops.

The lid had dented after so many hits and now it had finally given, the most recent contact had splashed the sent the wet paint flying. She swallowed nervously. How many paint cans did they have? How long would she be stuck here? Clearly, no one was coming to help. Lola supposed she should have waited until her parents would actually be home but the thought hadn’t occurred to her until now. Besides, who knew how long it had been?

The thought made her shudder slightly, the idea of days passing without being released not sitting well with her. She loved the basement but even she didn’t want to live out the rest of her days here. I need light, Lola thought, slightly frantically.

She shook herself and took a deep breath. As well as she knew the space, losing count of the steps wouldn’t help her. She descended the stairs again and stepped left, this time counting out eleven steps. Her hands found the candles and matches blindly, relieved when she felt that there were twenty-five in all. She would still conserve the light, though. Just in case.

Lola repeated her path in reverse and sat on the third step, carefully holding one slim, long candle between her legs as she prepared the lighter. There was a spark and the match caught, causing her to quickly set it to the wick and shake it out, relieved to keep some of the darkness at bay. Holding the light aloft, the brunette stood from the stairs and in twenty-one steps she reached the far wall where a wine cellar of sorts stood embedded into the cement. The space was tiny and hand-dug, extremely cold in the winter and less so in the summer but was an additional food storage area for long-term items. They didn’t usually keep it very full but there were several packages of canned drinks, two tubs of ice cream, some frozen dinners and a case of water.

The girl now took stock of the items, checking that each one she thought was in there actually was and was reassured that she would be able to survive down here for some time, if it came to that. She hoped not. Lola had zero practiced survival skills and what she knew only came from books like Hatchet which wouldn’t truly help her here.

She wasn’t an idiot; rationing her food should start immediately and she needed to go as long as possible without eating or drinking to make it last longer. Going to the bathroom would be a challenge, but she’d dedicate a spot and hope for the best.

Stop it, idiot, Lola thought suddenly, you’re acting like you’re stuck down here. You probably aren’t.

Still, she couldn’t help but think what if she was? At least the couch could act as her bed and the rest of the time would be spent trying to free herself.

She sighed and exited the food storeroom, at least you don’t have to worry about homework right now. Your teachers will understand if you miss because you’re trapped in a basement. Hopefully.

Okay, she thought, if worst comes to worst, you’re pretty well off. There’s definitely no need to panic. Nope, none at all. Think: what would Liesel do? WWLD? She wouldn’t panic- well, she did at the sight of her dead-

STOP. Don’t think like that. The point is, she didn’t panic when she was trapped in her basement. People came to help. The same will happen for you. You’ve always wanted to be like her, remember? Now’s your chance.

“At least this will make for an interesting section in my autobiography,” Lola commented aloud and instantly shook her head, stop it, talking to yourself is a sure sign of insanity. It had only been a few hours at most, probably eight.

The uncertainty of exactly how many made her shudder slightly.

--

The next day- or what she assumed was the next day- she tried the same routine, calling her parents’ and uncle’s names for as long as she could before her voice gave and then resorting to banging on a paint can until it, too, gave. Lola used some of her light to count exactly how many paint cans she had, which were fifteen. A little over two weeks and she’d used two already.

They could help her keep track of the estimated days. To keep herself busy, she also partitioned out her food into servings so she wouldn’t eat a lot at once, even if she was really hungry. Her stomach was already starting to growl but she pushed through knowing it could get worse.

Another obstacle she realized she had was that there was no running water, not that the basement had a sink. There was no way to keep her hands clean or wash herself and she cringed at the thought of becoming disgustingly dirty.

--

The next guessed day came and Lola was entertaining the idea that something had gone very, very wrong outside. She’d sat for several hours next to the cave-in and heard nothing. She allowed that the pile on top of her was too thick to let sound through but it seemed that she’d hear police sirens or something as they swarmed over the collapsed house.

The thought made her heart twist in her chest. What about her parents? Were they hurt? The only explanation that there could be was the house collapsed, but surely they hadn’t been inside when it happened? They were probably worried out of their minds right now about her. Lola wished she could send them a message that she was okay.

An idea had crossed her mind that she could tap out an SOS out on her paint can lid but she didn’t know Morse code and had tossed the idea aside. The brunette was glad that she had rather weak olfactory senses and couldn’t easily smell herself but she was sure that after three days of not showering, she must stink.

You stink to high heaven! her mother would say. Lola had never missed her as much as she did right now and she wished she could have been more understanding about her mother’s reasoning for things. The next time she gives me chores or scolds me, I won’t ever complain again.

--

Two more days passed without much change. Lola still lived in darkness most of the time, worried about running out of light. It was surprisingly easy to stick to food rations. She’d never been a big eater but she wasn’t a small eater either. She chalked it up to the fact that she could count each serving.

Her first time going to the bathroom without a toilet had been awkward and messy but luckily they did store toilet paper and trash bags on the lower part of one of the shelves so at least she could clean up. The couch was a fine sleeping place and only creaked a little when she shifted around.

After spending her obligatory hours trying to get help, Lola would then shuffle, shuffle, shuffle her cards, over and over again to keep the panic at bay, the action familiar and comforting. In the dark, she would try magic tricks which proved to be difficult as she couldn’t see the result. Then, she returned to counting all fifty-two of the cards, reassuring herself that they were all there. Her writing fell by the wayside as she focused on keeping herself calm and definitely not panicking.

--

After approximately one week, Lola was starting to feel the affects of being stuck in the dark for so long. Sleep had become more difficult and she instead lay awake for hours, staring into nothing as she lay on her side on the couch, the cushions pressed against her back. It was easier to operate without light now, too. She still counted her steps whenever she moved around but her ears seemed sharper- the ringing of the paint can lid proved that- her touch seemed more sensitive and it seemed like her smell had improved, too, because she was definitely stinking.

Lola wished she had a change of clothes at least, but she was out of luck. The only possibility of new cloth was Christmas tree skirts and that wouldn’t help her since she didn’t have needle and thread- not that she was even a fashion designer, but she could have figured something out.

Sometimes, when she stared at nothing for long periods of time, bright spots would enter her vision or strange, geometric shapes would pop up. Then, she would blink and they would disappear. The thought of seeing things terrified her and Lola made an effort to keep her eyes physically closed instead of just peering into the darkness.

--

By the beginning of the second week, sleep had suddenly come back. Lola thought she was just closing her eyes in short spurts but in reality, they were closed for many hours. The paint cans helped keep her from misjudging how many days she’d spent in isolation and the food rations did too, slightly.

The panic that had threatened to overwhelm her had ebbed, only poking at the back of her mind every so often. Lola could feel that her body had become weaker, too, even though she spent many hours pacing the edge of the space, counting out all 900 steps. It was clear that no one was coming to help her but she couldn’t bring herself to stop hoping. Even as she lost everything else, something told her to press forward and keep believing someone would come.

She’d been speaking to herself more and more too, to cover up the awful silence that persisted in the darkness. She’d often just recite parts of her autobiography, sang song lyrics she'd memorized or she’d spend several hours reciting The Book Thief as a way to help calm her as her panic increased. One time, in her rotations, she’d turned on the third corner and had stopped for a moment, eyes wide, as what looked like a monkey on a unicycle juggled in front of her, complete with flashing circus lights and music.

Lola’s mouth had dropped open and she’d let out a crazy, slightly maniacal laugh before she rubbed at her eyes furiously in disbelief. The darkness had promptly returned, leaving her to shiver fearfully on the spot.

--

On the twelfth day, according to her paint cans- not that she actually knew for sure anymore- something changed. Lola hadn’t been expecting it, of course, and had gone on with her usual routine. Then, in one of her circuits of the basement, she heard something, out of the ordinary from the sounds she was used to- not that there were many. Her pulse picked up. Was someone trying to kill her?

“No, stupid,” she said aloud, her voice raw and hoarse from the hours she spent yelling, “you’re dumb. There’s no one alive. I think we’re alone now.”

The words didn’t make sense but then nothing much did these days. When had she started speaking in plural? Still, the shifting continued.

Creeping slowly up the staircase, the brunette paused next to her already set-up paint can. It certainly sounded like someone was out there. The girl looked down the dark staircase, thinking about her remaining food and liquid supply which was now rapidly dwindling, her shrinking amount of candles, paint cans and matches, her wrinkled, used deck of cards and came to a decision.

At first, her banging went unnoticed on the surface until the shifting stilled above her.

“Hello?” the sound was faint and muffled, clearly she was hearing things.

Lola continued her banging, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t.

The shifting resumed but it seemed more purposeful now. The sound came again, “hello? Is anyone there?”

Bang, bang, bang came the answer, the brunette continuously hitting the lid. A chink of brilliant light appeared above her head, making her shut her eyes in pain.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” it was definitely a voice, a young one, too.

Then, the hole opened wider, wider, and wider until bright light came pouring into the dark space. Turning up her face but closing her eyes, Lola tried to look up at who had come for her. Maybe she was dead and the light was from heaven.

The answer was the exact opposite as the voice spoke again, this time disbelief clear in the tone, “what the hell?”  

[greycappedjester]

Your writing is too amazing !! Your hq at hogwarts series is my favorite fanfic. I wish i had more people to recommend it to😭 oikawa seems to really have it bad this time around (poor oikawa, he can never catch a break) and hinata’s kind of scaring me in this fic, he really seems like he’s about to snap😂 The crows are ofc acting crazy as usual, and I love how they can’t seem to find out that the other is lying. I wonder why Oikawa was chosen for the tournament🤔

Were there were any major things you changed in the plot and changed your mind about after you began writing, or was everything set before you began?

Thank you! Ahhhhh, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the series. And, lol, you’re right. Oikawa will never get a break and Hinata is rightfully terrifying, the little monster. I can guarantee the Crows will always be a little bit paranoid about their friends, it’s in their nature....and about to get worse for them/ probably better for those reading.

For major things changed, there is what I think of as my like four big regrets that if I was going back to write this again, I’d definitely change. (Regrets in a minor sense, they don’t bother me that much but I will reserve my right to complain about them).

So, as a small explanation before I get to them, I’ll say that I don’t really change anything in this series once it’s published (other than spelling and grammar mistakes I find later). This is mainly because I know some people go back and look for clues in the past book and, well, there ARE clues so it feels like a cop out to change things later. So, I can promise (with one exception I’ll mention at the end) all clues/ details are exactly the same as the time they were published. Also with that....the regrets, lol....

1.) I often bemoan the fact that I chose to use Western name order (Given Name, Family Name) instead of Japanese name order in the series. It was a minor decision in like chapter one of the first story; but, it’s such a pain to remember that this story has the name order reversed unlike my other Haikyuu fics.

2.) For the minor OCs I chose to add, all of them have Japanesse style names....except for one (Ms. Snuck the orphanage caretaker). It was chapter one and, after that chapter, I decided that English style names looked too jarring compared to the others and made them look like obvious OCs so I started doing Japanese but I still shudder whenever I have to mention Ms. Snuck’s name so I try to avoid it.

3.) Dueling Club was meant to be a much bigger part of the plot when I started writing this and is supposed to have minor tournament competitions every year. But, then, I kinda didn’t have time for it with everything else going on and I really didn’t want to spend time on a plot thread that didn’t have anything to do with the main plot so Dueling Club always got kicked to the side. They technically do still have tournaments and everything (except this year with extracurricular cancelled) but it’s just not in the chapters. When I first planned this there were going to be a lot more dueling tournament scenes and things about main characters becoming captains and vice captains. Oh well, I’m mainly getting to get my dueling theory ideas out for the Triwizard Tournament.

4.) So, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this one; but, I did make a minor mistake in Chapter 2 of the first story. I don’t think I’m saying anything that’s a spoiler because these details have been strongly hinted at; but, everyone found out about the Giant’s “death” one of two ways: (1) Headmaster Ukai (who was the Light’s top general) informed the Ministry that the Giant had died or (2) one of the Ghosts informed the rest of the Ghosts that the Giant had died. After both sides heard the news, it led to the Battle of Spinners End which was the last battle of the war. .....Anyway, the small mistake I made is that Takeda actually mentions to Hinata the Ghost’s side of things rather than the Headmaster-Ministry side. Oops. My explanation for that is Takeda (who would have been a young, new Hogwart’s grad at the time) has family that were Giants. Takeda rebelled away from his family (because I can promise of all people, Takeda is DEFINITELY not a dark wizard); but, he still heard it mainly from the Ghost’s side first.

5.) Here’s also a few minor things that were cut: The IC was originally supposed to start learning Legilimency/Occulemency from Kuroo in the third story but I figured they had too much to do already. Bokuto was originally supposed to start his crush on Akaashi in the third story instead of fourth but I moved it back. Iwaizumi originally played Quidditch in my planning doc (he had too much already so I cut it). Speaking of, there used to be a plotline with Oikawa and the Slytherin Quidditch team to explain why Oikawa didn’t play Quidditch but I cut it because, really, Oikawa gets enough angst already and I figured it was fine if he just didn’t care about Quidditch much for non-angst related reasons. Suga’s anxieties in the second story were originally darker. Actually, there’s been a few plotlines I intentionally made lighter.There were originally coins or something that Daichi and Suga gave each other for Christmas that functioned like the IC coins. 

BONUS: The one thing I actually did go back and edit is fairly minor. Originally, in the first story, Iwaizumi references Oikawa and Kageyama’s fight happening in the summer after first year. I went back and edited it to happen in winter break of first year so that I could cover it in the flashbacks during the fourth story.

Thanks for the ask!

[currahee-gal]

Omg can you give us some slowburn Liebgott? Or any Liebgott? Also your Toye fic was excellent!!!

WOW THIS ONE IS SUPER OLD! And wait…did somebody say slowburn??? Because do I HaVe A tReAt FoR yOu!! I really hope you like this Liebgott slowburn. I put my blood, sweat and tears into it. And thank you so much!!

The Five Times Joe Liebgott Almost Kissed Her (and the One Time She Did It for Him)

Pairing: Joe Liebgott x Reader

Warnings: Frustration, angst, minor character death, Liebgott being a dorky jerk, reader being a dorky jerk back, lots and lots of cursing, fluffy, honestly it has a little bit of everything except smut so. Please also watch out for misspellings, grammatical errors, as well as overall awkward sentence phrasing. This took a very long time to write and I am very tired. Mostly edited, but I’m not perfect.

Word count: 7,220 (oops my finger slipped)

A/N: Did somebody say slowburn?!?! You request, I deliver. This monster is finally finished and all I can say is thank goodness it is. I really hope you guys enjoy this. I did. I love Liebgott. Send me more Liebgott because I love him. These stories are solely based on the actors from the Band of Brothers series, not on the actual heroes

The hunting party watched the deer flee into the forest in annoyance. Joe slumps his shoulders and groans.

“Oh damn it Shifty, you let ‘em get away! Army oughtta be glad to be rid of you.”

Shifty nods a little before lowering his M-1. “I wish, you know? It seems they want me to stay around a while.”

“Are you serious?” Liebgott’s eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.

“How many points you need?” Malarkey asks on the other side of the line.

“15.” Shifty sighs, turning his head to Malark.

“15? Jesus Christ, I thought I had it bad.” Malarkey sighed in disbelief. Shifty shrugged and readjusted the firearm in his grip.

“No purple hearts, never was injured.” With his statement, Shifty took a step forward, the rest of the party following.

There was a long moment of silence that followed. The only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of birds chirping and the crunching of twigs and dry leaves under their army issued boots. It was broken by Malarkey with a statement that made everyone perk up.

“God, if Shifty ain’t goin’ home…”

Liebgott immediately thought of you. He flashed on the conversation he had with you at breakfast this morning.

-

“Can I have your toast?” You asked, your voice still filled with sleep and your eyes cloudy. Joe shrugged.

“I don’t know Y/N, can you?” Joe sneered, glancing up at you from his eggs and potatoes.

“Joseph David Liebgott, may I please have your toast, for Pete’s sake?” You groaned, reaching for your coffee and taking a sip. He smiled and shrugged.

“Yes you may.” Joe handed you the warm, buttered slice of bread.

You mumbled a “thanks” as you took a bite of the slice.

Joe poked at his potatoes with his fork for a moment before peeking up at you. You were staring out the window, the sun was hitting your face and making your gorgeous eyes sparkle in the morning light. He also noticed the dark circles under your eyes.

“Y/N?”

“Hmm?” You whipped her head to face him, looking startled. He could see your thought shrinking smaller in your eyes. He felt his chest tighten with a pang of guilt.

“You okay?” Joe put down his fork and furrowed his brows at you worriedly.

The look that came over your features made his stomach churn with worry. Your skin turned pale and your eyes darted down to stare at the contents of your coffee mug. He saw your hands tighten around the cup, your knuckles starting to turn white. He could tell you were debating something in your head. He noticed your jaw clench and unclench as you took a glance out the window again. After a moment, brought the mug to your lips and closed your eyes, taking an inhale before heaving a deep sigh.

“Winters pulled me aside last night. I’m five points shy of going home. I’m being shipped back out.”

-

“Y/N isn’t going home either.” Joe muttered.

“What do ya mean?” Malarkey almost hollered.

“What do ya think I mean?!” Joe yelled back, spit flying from his mouth as he spoke. “She’s five points short.”

“You’re kidding.” Perconte sputtered, shocked. “Christ, it don’t matter if she’s got the points or not, send the poor girl home. She’s been through enough…”

Bull started laughing a little, making the group of men turn their heads to the gentle giant.

“You’d think that after everything, she and Liebgott would’ve gotten married by now.”

This made everyone chuckle, except Joe.

“What the hell are you guys talkin’ about?! I-”

“Oh come on Liebgott,” Ramirez shook his head at his friend. “Don’t play dumb.”

“The two of you have been dancing around your feelings for each other since we were running up Currahee. Don’t try to deny it!” Malarkey grinned. Joe shook his head, a fuzzy feeling bubbling in his chest.

“You guys are nuts. I haven’t even kissed her.”

“You’ve known her for three fuckin’ years now and you haven’t even kissed her yet?! You’re the one that’s nuts, pal.” Perconte chuckled.

“But they have come pretty close a couple of times, if I do remember correctly.” Bull snickered.

Joe blinked a couple times, the memory floodgates bursting open.

1. Lunchtime

The stale summer air lingered in the dining hall at Camp Toccoa. Joe sat in front of his lunch, which looked meatloaf, but he honestly couldn’t tell. All of Easy was exhausted from running Currahee so there wasn’t much talking going on at the table. That was until Webster slapped Joe’s shoulder a couple times.

“What do you want, Web?” Joe drawled.

“Look, it’s her.” Web pointed to the girl in line to get food. Everyone in Easy had heard about the female NCO in their company, but few had been brave enough to try and talk to her. People say she’s fairly quiet and keeps to herself, but she’s impressive. Joe had seen your while running, you were quite the athlete.

“So? She’s just gettin’ her lunch. Big fuckin’ deal.” Joe glances up at you as you start walking towards the tables and soon passes by the two of them.

“Have you talked to her?” Webster glances over his shoulder to see you sit down with Luz and Toye a few tables down. Joe shakes his head, running a hand through his sweaty hair.

“No, don’t even know her name.” Joe gets up from the table, grabbing his tray.

“Where are you going?” Web asked.

“Jesus, Web, quit grilling me! ‘M not hungry, this food is fuckin’ disgusting. I’ll be right back. Try not to miss me too much.” Joe gets up and starts making his way towards the kitchen window. He places his tray on the counter and gives the chef a tight smile. Just as he turns to leave, he runs straight into somebody.

“Jesus, watch where you’re going!” Joe looks down to see the girl standing right in front of him. Now that he’s up close, he can see when people have been ogling at you since you’ve stepped foot on camp. You’re fucking gorgeous.

“Sorry, I just-”

“No, I’m sorry. The heat’s getting to me, my patience is weathering away.” Joe muttered an apology, scratching the back of his neck.

“It’s fine, that run has me exhausted too.” You smiled a little, making his heart skip a beat. Joe clears his throat once or twice before attempting to casually lean up against the counter.

“So, you’re the new chick, right?” Joe asked, just realizing how stupid that sounded when it left his mouth.

You nod, sighing as you extend your hand. “Haven’t seen any other girls wandering around, so yeah, sure. I’m Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Liebgott, Joe.” He shakes your hand. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. “Cigarette?”

“I don’t smoke, thanks though.” You kindly declined. Joe shrugs and lights his smoke.

“So, what brings you here?”

“What brings me to war? I want to fight for my country and show that a woman can do it just as good as any man.” You take a step closer as you speak. “But if you’re asking me why I came here to the-”

Joe mirrors your action, taking a step forward. You look a little taken aback when he does. You clear your throat as you look up at him, your faces inches away from each other. “Sorry, but can I please squeeze by you? I need to get to the salt.” You cough, looking down at your boots.

“Hm?” Joe cocks an eyebrow, turning around to see about a dozen salt and pepper shakers behind where he was just standing.

“That’s why I came to the counter… I needed some salt…” You meekly point to the shakers. “Whoever set the tables didn’t give us one.” You say with a simple tone, glancing up into his deep brown eyes. You feel your stomach fill with butterflies when you do, so you look at your fidgeting hands. He’s still so close.

Joe blinks, confused for a moment before he steps out of your way. You take the salt shaker and start making your way back to the tables. “It was nice talking with you, Liebgott.” And with a wave, you leave Joe standing there looking like a blushy fool.

“She was tryin’ to get fuckin’ salt?” Joe was kicking mentally himself. What the fuck was he thinking? That you were trying to make a move on him, so he meets you halfway? When all you really wanted was fucking salt?! Good one, Liebgott. Real fuckin’ smooth. Great first impression.

Joe looks to see you already back at your table, laughing at something George had said. Joe crosses his arms as he starts walking back to his seat with David.

“Hey Lieb-”

“Shut the fuck up for once, will ya Webster?”

2. The Party

The celebration was in full swing and the music could barely be heard above the cheering. Liebgott was chatting with Popeye and Talbert, drinking beers and laughing.

“So, Liebgott,” Tab slurred with a wolfish grin. “People have seen you gettin’ closer with Y/L/N.”

“Yeah,” Popeye smirked. “What’s all that about?”

You and Joe had gotten closer since you had met at that one lunchtime. He had learned that you were just a little shy, but once he started talking to you, you were a real hoot. The rest of the company learned that too over time. He had earned the title “Pretty Boy” (a pet name bestowed upon him by you, of course). That was another thing that the company had learned quickly. For some reason you, seemingly, favored Joseph David Liebgott.

Joe grins and shakes his head. “So I talk to her, what a scandal! C’mon, guys, so I hang out with the girl. What’s the matter with that?”

“Nothin’ it’s just- ” Tab trailed off and stared at something behind Joe. When Joe turned around, he saw you and Donald Malarkey go to the small open space at the front of the room and start to swing dance. He’s spinning you around and lifting you and your smiling and laughing. Joe feels his heart stutter at the sight, but something in his chest swells. He wanted to make you feel like that. Was he jealous? He would never admit it, but yeah, probably.  

“Tab?” Joe turns to his friend. “Hold my beer.”

“Lieb-” Tab tries to say something but Joe is already on the move. By the time he reaches the pair, the song is coming to an end.

“Can I cut in?” Joe holds his hand out for you to take. You glance over at a now pouting Don, and him a sympathetic smile as you leave his arms and take Joe’s hand.

“I don’t know, can you?” You pull Joe out onto the floor.

“Smartass.” Joe tsks.

“You know, it’s not very polite to address a woman like that. You’re being a bit of an ass.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry ma’am.”    

Just then, a slower paced song begins to play. Joe glances up to see Luz and Tab standing by the record player, Tab raising his beer in the air, mouthing “cheers” and Luz grinning the biggest grin Joe has ever seen. Joe rolls his eyes at the pair before places his right hand on your waist and takes your right hand in his left. You begin to sway to the music flowing from into the room.

“You’re hair looks good, Lieb.”

“Gee, thanks! I washed it.” Joe grins and he spins you and pulls you back to him.

“I didn’t take you for much of a dancer.” You observed with a smirk. “I saw you more as a ‘stand-in-the-corner-and-brood-with-a-beer’ kind of guy.”

“There’s still a lot you don’t know about me yet, sweets.” Joe shrugged.

“Joe Liebgott, full of surprises.”

“Tell me about it.” Joe nodded with a chuckle. “How’s your night so far?”

“I missed dancing. My older brother Stanley and I used to go dancing every Saturday.” Your face lit up at the mention of your brother. Joe smiles and nods.

“You gotta brother?”

“Two. I got my older brother Stanley and my younger brother Brian. Stan enlisted in the Navy and Brian’s only fourteen so he’s stuck at home with Mom. He’s probably bored out of his mind.”

“Navy, that’s impressive.” Joe remarked with a smirk. You nodded.

“He’s an impressive guy. Bull reminds me of Stan. Big guy. Looks like he could snap you in half but he’s a real sweetheart, ya know?” You laugh and Joe laughs along with you. Watching you laugh made Joe’s chest prickle with some kind of feeling. It made him pause, but he put it out of mind.

“Bet he scared off all your boyfriend’s that came knocking on your door, huh?” Liebgott gushed, not being able to stop himself. He felt his cheeks warm out of embarrassment for asking such a forward question so boldly, but you just seemed to laugh it off.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

You two danced for a few moments, swaying to the music in each others arms. You lean your cheek on his chest and Joe tenses for a moment.

“What about you?” You wonder out loud, your voice almost in a whisper.

“What about me?” Joe questions, glancing down at you. He noticed your head fit perfectly right under his chin. The thought made his lips twitch into a smile.

“You got a broad back home waiting for you to come home after all of this is over?” You bring your head up from his shoulder to look back at him, noses practically touching. You could feel Joe’s heart beating in his chest and he could feel yours. Joe shakes his head.

“Nope, just me.” Suddenly his confidence slowly leaves his body, his voice low and almost wavering. He was looking right back into your eyes, and he felt himself drowning. You were so close to him, he could smell your perfume. It was intoxicating.

His eyes slowly drifted down to your lips, which were painted a bright cherry red. You bit your bottom lip, your hand slowly snaking its way behind his neck.

“Lucky me…” You sigh as your eyes flutter closed.

Joe closes his eyes, he starts to lean in and-

scrEEEE

“TEN-HUT!”

The two of you leap apart from each other and stand at attention. Colonel Sink struts into the room with Major Strayer and Winters and Nixon off to the side. Joe sighs with a defeated look evident on his face. He glances over at you to catch you already looking at him. You quickly flick your gaze back to the Colonel.

Colonel Sink gives a short speech detailing how proud he was of the company.

“I want you to know that I’m damned proud of each and every one of you. However, I would like to take a moment to recognize Corporeal Y/N Y/L/N. You’ve shown just what it means to be a fine soldier and paratrooper, and you, m’dear, set the bar high for these men and for everyone that follows. You’re making history here. Congratulations, Corporeal.” The Colonel smiles down at you.

You feel yourself flush red as the who company starts to cheer your name and you salute Sink. “Thank you, Sir.”

He gives you a nod and turns his attention back to the crowd. “Now you deserve this party.”

Chuck comes up with a pint of beer for the Colonel, to which Sink thanks him.

“Now I want you to have fun, and remember our motto. Currahee!”

“Currahee!” The entire company shouts. And with that, the celebration resumes. Chuck and Popeye approach you with a pat on the back and a hugs.

“Congrats, Corporeal.” Popeye mimics Sink with a smirk. You laugh and give him a slap on the shoulder.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up now. I’ll be outranking you suckers by Christmas, just wait and see.” The group that had formed around you laughed. You glanced around the group and your eyes locked with Liebgott. He smiled as he gave you a quick once over before taking a sip of his beer. You smiled, your cheeks flushed a pink tint.

This was going to be a long war.

3. Normandy

To say that Joe was stressed about the jumps into Normandy would be an accurate assumption. To say that Joe was stressed about not being with you on the jump into Normandy would be an extreme understatement. He knew you would be fine (only because you reassured him before going your separate ways) but he couldn’t help it.

Neither of you have spoken about that night since it happened. If someone else tried to bring it up around you two, they would get shot down immediately and were told to drop the topic. He couldn’t tell if you never brought it up because you were embarrassed it happened and just wanted to forget about it, or for whatever reason. He tried not to think about it. Despite that, he could safely say that, by this point, you were one of his closest friends he had made on this journey thus far. And maybe he had deeper feelings than just friendship, but he didn’t have to tell anybody that. Ever.

When Liebgott got to the assembly area, you were nowhere to be found. A couple people from your plane had arrived, so all he could do is wait and he hope for the best. He sat on a dirt mound with Joe Toye and a couple others as they waited for instructions.

“Relax, Lieb. She’ll get here.” Toye tried to help his friend relax.

“What? Nah, I’m fine. I’m worried about the other guys too. They’ll get here, I know.” He muttered, trying to keep a cool composure. Toye scoffed.

“Whatever you say.”

His hopes only got higher as he saw a group of Easy men walk in.

“Ah, Easy Company.” He greeted, getting to his feet. After greeting his fellow E company men, as well as this Hall character from A company, we turned to sit back down. Then, his ears perked up.

“Pretty boy!” Joe heard you cheer from down the road. To your left was Bill Guenere, grinning like a cat as he watched you practically skipped to Liebgott.

“Glad you could finally make an appearance.” Joe teased as he engulfed you in a sweaty hug.  

“You know me, always making an entrance and showing up fashionably late.” You giggled.

“Fashionably?” Joe reaches out and smudges the tar still on your face. You flinch and smack his hand away.

“Like you look so dapper yourself. What happened to your hair?” You reach out and ruffle his brown locks. He scrunches his nose and grabs your wrist and puts it back at your side.

“It’s called jumping out of plane, try it some time, sweetheart.” He sneered.

“Actually I just did, and I think I still look pretty good if I do say so myself. And I do say so.” You rebbuttled with a smirk.

“Y/N Y/L/N, cocky as ever.” He teased.

“Me? Cocky? Take a look in the mirror, you scruffy little-”

“Scruffy?! Fuck off!”

“You fuck off!”

“Love birds, please! Can we keep it moving? We have a war to fight and Nazis to kill. You’re bickering is disgustingly adorable, just get hitched already.” Bill announced, a grin plastered on his face as the fellow E company men started chuckling at the scene. He sauntered off, but not before shaking his head and muttering a “Jesus Christ”.

The two of you watched him go and take a glance at each other before you fall into a fit of giggles. He hooks his arm around her shoulders and guides her down the path.

“Got me worried there for a second. Thought a Kraut ate ya or somethin’.” Joe snickered as you gasped at him.

“A Kraut? Eat me?! Please, I’d shoot ‘em if they got within a hundred feet of me.” You groaned, a smile blooming onto your face.

Joe opened his mouth to respond when a boom echoed in the distance. Joe held you closer as he looked up to the sky. When he looked down, you were scanning the area with wide eyes. He squeezed your shoulder.

“You scared?” He asked in a lower tone, half joking, half serious. You flinched for a second, flicking your gaze to meet his. You nodded, not seeming confident.

“Liebgott, I just jumped out of an airplane and trekked eight kilometers through a warzone in the pitch dark. I fear nothing.” You stepped out of his grasp and turned to look at him. “You?”

“Never.” He replied, not really convinced by his own words. You nodded and let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

“Good.”

And with that, you turned and walked off to join Toye and Buck.

Joe watched you go, the sound of gunshots firing off in the distance. Suddenly, it was all very real to him. The honeymoon phase was over and it was time to get down to business. There was a good chance that they weren’t going to make it out of this alive, and that scared the shit out of him. But he couldn’t focus on that. Not now. So, he pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and put his fears in the back of his mind.

-

Joe couldn’t stand it in the back of the truck anymore. The stench made him wanna hurl. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“Jesus! Get me outta here.” Joe hopped out from the back of the truck, hearing Sergeant Lipton yell something about “light discipline”, but Joe couldn’t get out of there faster.

He started walking down the street, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he passed dozens of soldiers. As he walked, he saw a silhouette leaning against a stone wall standing on the side of the road ahead. Without much thought, he knew it was you. As he approached you, he saw you picking at her nails, probably trying to get the dirt out from under them. Your helmet was by your feet, giving Joe a rare look at your hair shining in the moonlight.

“Evening, Miss.” Joe greeted, making your head turn to see him. Even in the dark, he saw the small smile appear on your face.

“Evening to you too, Mister.” You greeted as you adjusted your stance so you were standing a little taller, but still leaning against the wall.

“Want some company? You looked a little lonesome.” Joe stood in front of you now. You shrugged, glancing down at your shoes.

“Just in my thoughts is all.” That was the only thing you could muster. After all, it had been a long ass day.

“Penny for ‘em?” Joe moved to lean against the wall with you. You didn’t really say anything at first, you just kinda stared into space, but Joe nudged you with his elbow. “Oh c’mon, don’t go all shy on me now. It’s just me, you can talk to me. I’m your Pretty Boy, remember?” Joe teased, making you smile. God, he loved that smile.

“Joe Liebgott, what would I do without you?” You sighed.

“Enlighten me. What would you do? My curiosity is piqued.” Joe smirked, quirking an eyebrow at you.

“I’d probably be bored out of my mind.” You confessed, turning to look up at him. “You’ve kept me smiling through the whole time I’ve known you. Don’t get me wrong, I love Luz, he’s a crack up, but you’ve kept me on my toes.”

He creased his eyebrows.

“Corporeal, have you been drinking?” Joe asked, not really expecting such a genuine answer. You shook your head and rolled your eyes.

“Just take the compliment, Liebgott.” You groaned. He chuckled and nodded.

Just then, a car rumbled by, its headlights shining towards them as it drove by. With the passing flash of light, Joe noticed a cut on your right cheek.

“Woah, what happened?” Joe cupped your cheek and ran his thumb lightly over the wound.

“What? The scratch? It’s nothing.” You reached up to grab his wrist and pull it away, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Has Gene looked at it yet?”

“Lieb-”

“How’d you get that?”

“Lieb, really I’m fine-”

“It looks like it’s deep, you might need stitches. Here, I’ll take you to go see Doc-”

“Joe!” You grabbed his face, forcing him to look you in the eyes. “I’m fine. I already went to go see Doc, he said I was fine. It was just a graze from some shrapnel earlier today-”

“When the hell did you get hit with fucking shrapnel, Y/N?!” Joe shouted, the vain starting to pop out on his temple.

“I don’t fucking know, Lieb! I was trying to survive while I was being shot at by a bunch of Krauts! Shit happens.��� Y/N snarled back. “And to be completely honest, it coulda been a whole lot fucking worse. This litte papercut compared to what happend to some of the guys today, so if you could stop yelling that would be fan-fucking-tastic.”

The two of you just sized each other up for a moment before Joe slouched against the wall and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Sorry…you’re right.” He muttered, sounding exhausted.

“It’s alright,” You nod, looking straight ahead at the passing soldiers. “Never thought you cared so much…”

Joe scoffed at your words, shaking his head.

“‘Course I fuckin’ care.” Joe pulled you into him, wrapping his long arms around you, resting his chin on your head and engulfing you in a hug. You wrapped your arms around his waist and rested your left cheek against his chest. He slowly started to pet your hair as you tighten your grip around his middle. “Maybe I care a little too much sometimes.” He muttered, not really meaning for you to hear. But of course you did.

You look up at him, a smile playing on your lips. “I care about you too, Joe.”

God dammit he couldn’t take it.

“Y/N, I gotta ask ya somethin’-”

“Easy Company! Get your gear, we’re moving out!” He heard an officer call out over the crowd. You groaned, burying your face in Joe’s chest.

“I gotta go grab my stuff, I’ll catch up with you?” You smiled sympathetically at Joe, who nodded.

“Yeah, sure. See ya.” Joe waved and watched you jog off to God knows where. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to scream. Instead, he banged his fist against the stone wall a little too hard.

“Fuck!” He cringed, shaking the pain out of his hand.

He was in deep shit.

4. Bastogne

It’s cold. So fucking cold that Joe thought his balls would freeze and fall off. Everyone in Easy was miserable, but after Colonel Sink’s visit, everyone seemed to be in semi lighter spirits. Joe surveyed the crowd, looking for his best friend, but he couldn’t see her.

“Hey Shift?” Joe turned to Shifty.

“Yeah, Joe?” Shifty looked over at Joe, tightly bundled from head to toe.

“You’ve seen Y/N?” Joe asked, taking another glance around. “Haven’t seen her since this morning.”

“Have you checked her foxhole?” Shifty queried.

“Of course I have.” Joe groaned, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It was the first place I looked.”

“Mess hall tent?” Shifty tried again.

“Tried there.”

“Is she on patrol?”

“No, checked with Lip about that a bit ago.”

After a pause, Shifty pointed through the trees with a gloved hand.

“Is she sitting on that log down that way?”

Joe turned around to see your from sitting on a log with your back to them. Joe nodded.

“Thanks Shift.” And without waiting for a response, Joe started trudging through the snow.

A lot has happened since Normandy. With time, you both got closer, if that was even possible. With that, you both bickered a lot. Replacements would come in and assume the two of you were a married couple that enlisted together. The funny thing was when they asked, the NCOs didn’t tell them otherwise.

You had opened up to him about life back home, too. You told him everything from you first pet’s name to your first heartbreak. You recounted painfully awkward Thanksgiving dinners the one time your brothers put Brian’s pet frog in your bed as a prank and how you jumped so high, you could have hit the ceiling. He enjoyed hearing about your life back home, but he thinks you’re doing it more for yourself rather than just for the sake of telling stories. It was one of the only ways it could keep you from flying off the rails.

Joe finally made his way over to you and plopped himself down on the log next to you.

“Y/N, where were ya? Sink just dropped by for a lovely visit, did ya hear him? Nuts!” Joe laughed, and bumped your shoulder.

When he looked over at you, you weren’t laughing. You weren’t even looking at him. Your gaze was fixed straight ahead, unblinking and blank. Your knees were brought up to your chin as you shivered in the cold.

“Sweetheart, you good?” Joe softened his tone, feeling the heavy silence in the air. It was almost suffocating when her expression remained the same. He moved to kneel in front of you and put his hands on top of your knees. “Y/N? What’s the matter, talk to me.”

You finally looked at him, eyes turning glassy. You swallowed thickly as you grabbed the opened envelope sitting by you on the log. You held it up and took a shaky breath.

“Letter from my mom.” Your voice cracked as you spoke and looked at the neat cursive handwriting on the front. Joe saw your lip began to quaver as you took a quick inhale. “My brother’s dead.” You handed Joe the envelope with a shaky hand.

“Jesus…” Joe took the envelope from you and examined it with darting eyes.

“He was in Micronesia somewhere. Peleliu or some shit like that…” You wiped a stray tear from your cheek and looked at your hands in your lap. “Killed in action.”

“Y/N I- fuck…I’m so sorry-”

“Merry fucking Chrismas, right?” You whispered. Then, you broke down. You head fell into your hands as you started to sob. Joe jumped up and held you.

“Shhh…hey you’re okay…” Joe muttered into your hair, rocking you back and forth as you cried into his coat. He felt your hands grip at his jacket in tight fists, clinging to him. He didn’t really know what to do, he’s never seen you cry before. Not even when you rolled your ankle while running Currahee in Toccoa and you still made it back down the hill. You never cried.

After a couple of minutes, you calmed down and you were reduced to whimpers. Joe pulled away and wiped his thumbs across your wet cheeks. Your scratch from Normandy and had scarred over now.

You leaned forward and pressed your forehead to his, you eyes screwed shut.

“I’m sorry-”

“Don’t apologize. Never fuckin’ say sorry for something like that.” Joe snapped back sternly. You nodded.

“Okay.”

You opened your eyes to look at Joe staring back at you with a gentle intensity. His hands still cupped your cheeks and held you close. Joe glanced at your lips before licking his dry ones. Despite being chapped and swollen from crying, you still looked just as beautiful that night you were all dressed up for the party. And he wanted to kiss you even more now than he did then.

“Y/L/N, you okay?” Malarkey had just happen to walk by the scene in front of him, his can of food in hand. You pulled your head from Lieb’s hands, sighing. Joe’s hands drop to his lap with a loud smack.

“Yeah, fine.” You smiled tightly, turning to Malarky.

“You sure? You don’t look too good. Maybe go and grab some hot chow?-”

“On it, Malark.” You cut him off, followed by a curt nod. Malarkey turned his hands up in surrender and walked off to join Muck and Penkala.

You grab the letter off the snowy ground and stuff it in your pocket.

“I’m goin’ for a walk, I’ll catch ya later, Lieb.” You muttered quickly before standing.

“I’ll go with you-”

“No that’s fine, Joe. Go grab some lunch, I’ll be back.” Just like that, you zipped off into the fog without another word or a glance back.

Later that night, he walked past your foxhole on the way back from taking a piss. And there you were, wrapped up in a blanket, shivering, with a cigarette hanging from your mouth.

“Thought you didn’t smoke.” He whispered, not wishing to startle you or disturb other foxholes. You look up at him from your hole and shrugged as you took the cigarette from your lips and blew out a stream of smoke.

“I don’t.” You said simply. Joe nodded.

“You gonna be okay?”

“…I will be.” You assured him.

Suddenly BOOM! German artillery started bursting in the sky. Joe jumped into your foxhole with you as you both tried to shield yourself from any shrapnel. The blasts were short lived and soon they were given the all clear. Joe looks over at you as he moves to get to his feet.

“Thanks for your hospitality.” He said with a little laugh. “I guess I’ll see you-”

“Joe?”

“Yeah?”

“Stay with me. Please.” Your voice was so soft and meek, it surprised Joe. Your eyes were pleading. “Just for the night.”

“Yeah, of course.” Joe nodded, laying back down on the dirt.

“Thank you.” You whispered before you cuddled into Joe’s chest.

Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around you, holding you tightly to him. He fell asleep almost instantaneously.

However, when he woke up in the morning, you were gone.

5. The Truck Ride

You didn’t talk to Joe a lot after that. You really didn’t talk to anybody after that. After you got news of your brother, you really didn’t want to talk to anybody. With Joe, you wanted to talk to him, but you were afraid to because after that night, you were so afraid because you might have been falling for the guy. So, you kept your distance the rest of your time in Bastogne, and barely spared him a glance while Easy was up in Haguenau. He really could have used your company then, Webster was being a real pain in the ass. You finally started talking to him again in the back of the trucks on your way to Bavaria.

“Can I have one of those?” You croaked as Lieb lit a cigarette.

“So she speaks? You finally talkin’ to me now?” Joe sneered with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, smoke billowing from his lips.

“Joe-”

“You barely spoken a word to me since Christmas and, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, it’s April now and the first thing you say to me is you ask me for a cigarette?”

“It’s a start, isn’t it?” You mutter, not breaking eye contact with the seething eyes piercing back at you. “Look I’m sorry, I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

“The nerve on you-”

“Quit soundin’ like my mother, Joe. My brother died and suddenly you get all butt hurt when I needed some goddamn space for two fucking seconds. I apologized, now can I or can I not have a cigarette?”

Joe looked at you for a moment. Your eyes had lost some luster he remembers you having a long time ago. Your eyes are sunken like you haven’t slept since Normandy. Even your hair had lost the brightness in color. He sighed as he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a cigarette.

“I don’t know, can you?” He says with the slightest hint of a smile creeping onto his face. He hands you the cigarette. You take it and put it in your mouth and lean forward, looking expectantly at Joe. “Oh, you want me to light it for you too, your majesty?”

“Mhmm.” You hum with a nod of your head and a roll of Joe’s eyes as he pulls out his Zippo.

“I have to do everything in this fucking relationship-”

“Shut up.”  You laugh as you pull the lit cigarette from your mouth and blow smoke in his face. He smirked at you, waving a hand in front of his face.

“You know, it’s not very polite to blow smoke in someone’s face. You’re being a bit of an ass.”

You smiled and shook your head in disbelief. “Deja vu.”

“Tell me about it.” Joe smiled back.

After a moment of silence, David decided to pipe up.

“What about you, Y/N?” Webster asked.

“What about me?”

“What are you gonna do when you get home?” Webster took a bite his food as he awaited for your answer. You ran a hand through your hair as it flowed in the breeze.

“Home? Jeez, I don’t know. Hug my family?” You laughed.

“We’re all gonna do that. I mean life stuff. Got any plans?”

“Well,” you paused, thinking about it for a second. You haven’t given it much thought lately. “I’d start off by getting a job. Maybe waitressing or something like that, that’s what I did before the war. Then,” you paused, glancing up at Joe, who was already staring at you with some kind of look in his eyes. You couldn’t look away.

“Then I’d probably find someone to settle down with. Have a kid or two, and try to have a normal fucking life that is far away from this shithole. Try and be happy.” You finished but taking a drag.

“That’s a good goal.”

“Gee, thanks Web.” You muttered sarcastically.

“That sounds real nice.” Joe said, a soft smile appearing on his lips. You nodded.

“Sure does.”

-

After making a stop, the seating got switched up. Now you were sitting next to Joe, his arm around you as you fell asleep on his shoulder. Joe looked down at you, warmth spreading in his chest for the first time in a long time. You were back, and you looked so peaceful.

“Jesus, Lieb, just kiss her already.” Web laughed across from Joe.

“You’re lookin’ at her with the biggest heart eyes I’ve ever seen.” Luz chuckled. “Are you ever gonna tell her how you feel?”

“Will you both shut up?!” Joe spoke between his teeth. “She could wake up and hear you knuckleheads.”

“Lieb, she’s knocked out cold.” Perconte observed from down the row.

“Can you blame her??” Joe asked, his voice suddenly sorrowful. The boys glanced at you. They had to admit, they haven’t seen you actually sleep since you found out about Stan.

The car goes over a rather large bump in the road, waking you up with a start.

“Morning, Sunshine! How was your nap?” Luz drawled throwing his baseball in the air. You yawned and lay back against Joe.

“Fine. I had a dream about you, Pretty Boy.” You muttered, closing your eyes again.

“Oh did you now?!” Luz exclaimed, throwing Joe a knowing look and smirk.

“Pray tell.” Web piped in.

“Well,” You put your chin on Joe’s shoulder and turned to face him. “You, sir,” you poked his cheek. “Were going on and on and on about something beyond boring when I up and punched you square in the jaw. And even in my dreams, you don’t change a bit, because even after I hit you, you would not shut the hell up!”

This made the entire car laugh, even Joe. When he turned his head to you, he bumped his nose with yours.

“Sorry.” He murmured, pulling his head back a little. You shrugged.

“It’s okay.” and in a brave moment, you leaned forward and rubbed the tip of your nose to his in an eskimo kiss. “G’night.” and with that, you fell against his shoulder and started to snore. Everyone in the car was staring at him with wide eyes and hanging mouths. Joe could only shrug.

-

Easy Company had decided to play a company baseball game. It was a warm day, partially cloudy. It was perfect.

“I wanna play!” You squealed. Buck arched a brow at you.

“You know how?”

You scoffed and grabbed a glove out of the box next to the batting cage. “Buck, I grew up the middle child of two boys. Yes, I know how to play.”

“Alright, play ball then, I guess.” He laughed, his chest rumbling.

After playing for a few hours, hitting a line drive and throwing a couple guys out, they jokingly declared you Easy Company’s Rookie of the Year. The peace was disturbed by Speirs.

“Easy Company! School circle!”

As the company gathered around Major Winters, Liebgott pulled you under his arm and you wrapped an arm around his middle.

“You never told me you played ball so well.” He said barely above a whisper. You snickered and leaned up to whisper in his ear.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Liebgott.”

“Touché.”  

“Listen up!” Winters announced, glancing at the two of you with a small smile. “We’ve got some news. This morning, President Truman received the unconditional surrender from the Japanese. The war is over.”

You felt like the air had been punched out of your lungs. For a couple moments no one moved, probably afraid that if they did, they would wake up from this crazy dream we all must be having. You laughed a little and looked up at Joe. He smiled and nodded.

“We did it.” He grinned.

“Yeah we did!” You responded. Soon, the men started to disperse. You however, jumped into Joe’s arms and wrapped your legs around his torso as he held you up.

“We made it!” You squealed. Joe laughed and put you down.

“I knew we would.”

Before he could say anything else, you grabbed his face and smashed your lips onto his. He responded immediately by cradling the back of your head and holding you as close as possible. You could hear cheering from the men around you.

“Fuckin’ finally!”

“It’s about time.”

“We’ve only waited three damn’ years for that to happen.”

“I don’t know if I’m more relieved that the war is over or that their finally sucking faces.”

“Yes! Hey Bull, you owe me thirty bucks!”

When you broke apart, Joe was panting with the biggest smile you have ever seen on his face.

“Come back home to San Francisco with me? We could make that dream of yours happen.”

“The one where I punch you in the face?” Your face scrunched up in confusion.

“No, dufus,” he laughed as he cupped your cheeks. “Settle down, fall in love, get hitched.” He kissed the tip of your nose.

“Well I’m already in love with you, so you can check that off your list.” You grinned.

“God, I love you Y/N. Never leave my side.”

“I don’t plan on it. C’mon, let’s get home.”

Taglist: 

@gottapenny

[bluejaybabbles-archive]

please. please may i hear more about throcky and/or midwest monsters wip 🥺🥺🥺🥺

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE (sometimes. My ADHD is wild and rules over what I remember to address ajfnznfjk)

So let's start with Throcky of When the Waves Kiss the Trees!

- Kalem "Throcky" Throckmorton started as a joke based on those posts that went around a while ago about the math problems that included "my cousin Throckmorton." My friend asked me to have a side character named Throckmorton in exchange for...something. I honestly can't remember it's been a couple years I think ajfnnzfn BUT!! I agreed, and thus Throcky was born.

- At the beginning of WTWKTT, Rute doesn't know he's a changeling. He's still stuck in the human form his fae mother put him in. However! The city he's currently living in has started to industrialize, and as factories pop up, he begins to get sick. A sudden rise in the iron around you will do that, I suppose!

- The doctors are like "get some fresh air!" and his mom, instead of taking him to the park or smth idk, is like "you're gonna go live with your reclusive cousin and his goats for a while" and Rute, deliriously ill, is just like "yeah ok makes sense"

- Everyone give a round of applause to Throcky for nursing Rute back to health!

- More info about Throcky! He basically has a backyard farm where he keeps mostly chickens and goats. Sometimes something else wanders into the yard and he's like "well I guess you live here now"

- He has a fat grey tabby named Celery! She's a menace and we love her.

- Along with his animals, he's got a baller garden. It extends to inside his house bc holy shit, that's a lot of plants, sir--

- He makes a KILLER rosemary bread (among other things. Honestly Throcky is husband material the more I think about it.)

- He has a milk delivery service! Once a week he'll deliver goat milk to folks in town and also! To the castle! He'd do it more often but he's just one guy. (Rute eventually helps out with deliveries and that's how he meets Oliver 👀 Goat Milk Said Gay Rights!)

- Throcky got this little house away from everyone to be ALONE okay people are TOO MUCH all he needs are his GOATS and his CHICKENS and CELERY

- Honestly tho he cares way too much. He loves his family and he loves the people he delivers to, he just also loves having a place alone to retreat to at the end of the day. Classic introvert. Anyway stan Throcky

Okay! Now on to Midwest Monster Hunting WIP!

- So first of all I'm currently hyperfixating on The Witcher so jot that down

- Second of all, this takes place in Ohio, and Ohio (as described by my partner) is a strange lovechild of the Midwest and the South so. Jot that down as well

- It's still in the planning stages, but! What I'm thinking is, at some point humans kinda decided "so we don't feel like giving our children to the fae anymore, this seems Fucked Up. We're hardy folk we can totally take whatever punishment you decide to dole out" (now that I'm thinking about it like. How very American of y'all)

- The fae, of course, Don't Like Not Getting What They Want, and so oops! They "accidentally" unleashed otherworldly monsters into our world! HOWEVER if u give us ur babies we'll train them to fight and kill these monsters to protect you 👀

- Humans are like. Shit. I guess you got us. Have our babies. Never mind that you're gonna keep releasing more monsters so that we keep giving you our children. This is Fine.

- The monster hunters will eventually get a Cool Title but I'm not that far yet

- There are a few main faerie courts in this story! We've got the seasonal courts (spring, summer, autumn, winter) and the celestial courts (sun, moon, stars). If you give your kid to one of the seasonal courts, you'll probably definitely see them again once they've been trained up! If your kid ends up in a celestial court.....well, they'll be damn good monster hunters and the pride of your town if they survive!

- OH ALSO your kid isn't gonna come back looking the same. In general, their hair is gonna look more like....like if they were fae that grew up in that court. They're gonna have cat eyes to better see in the dark. There's gonna be an otherworldliness to them. Also they'll probably be sporting a new name. Apologies.

- The story follows Avery (name pending, I'm not entirely attached to it), a monster hunter from the Court of the Moon; Antonia Figueroa, one of the more prominent local witches; and Javi Justiniano, this weird person who just has weird magical things happen around them more often for some fuckin reason idk I totally dk but that's Spoilers

- They will all kiss. Eventually. Listen I like slow burn in theory but it's so hard to write I'm so impatient I just want them to KISS--

- Avery doesn't exactly....kill the monsters. Unless he HAS to (ie it's fatally wounded when he gets there). What he does in most cases is sedate them, and then put them in a pocket dimension he creates for that kind of monster to thrive in. Is this a power he learned in the Court of the Moon? Possibly. That's a cool idea

- If someone wants like, Proof that he killed it, he'll just glamour a rock or smth to look like a tooth or an eye or w/e

- Of course, once you've created like. A TON of pocket dimensions. Something's gonna notice, and that Something probably won't be too keen on you playing with the fabric of reality so much. Also you're gonna get tired I feel like

- Antonia (aka Toni) is the local witch, and thus helps monster hunters by creating sedatives for the monsters, or making antidotes for various monster venoms, or breaking curses. Among other things!

- She knows how Avery works and like, she's worried about him, but she helps him anyway. She doesn't stop telling him that he's gonna get himself killed this way, tho!

- Javi seems to attract magical phenomena, but also, monsters seem to be drawn to them and become calmer around them. They don't know why, but like, if a monster flies in through their bedroom window and curls up to go to sleep in their bed, they're just gonna let it, y'know? Maybe give it a pat. Feed it some Oreos or smth. Can weird flying monsters safely eat Oreos?

- There will be adventures! There will be demons in the corn! There will be cool monsters! There will be Gay! There will be polyamory! What's not to love?

This ended up being wAY LONGER THAN I ANTICIPATED but it was a lot of fun so!! THANK YOU MAX FOR THE ASK AND FOR MY LIFE ILYSM!!!

[goodlesson]

got tagged by the ever wonderful @fortiesbucky to answer 73 (!!!!) questions. since i’m a lil wine drunk and waiting for my pokemon game to download i figured why not, let’s do it!!! here goes nothing. my answers are under the cut!

this is a ridiculous undertaking but i’ll tag some ppl i guess. if you have some time to kill....go for it! @dansmlth @mabelmcbae @mirandabeach @the-best-of-what-we-had-youknow @stormerforweekes @unseenpolarstars

on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now? like a 4?? we’re in the middle of a global pandemic (Yikes) but my big job interview is finally over with and it went really well so i guess that’s kind of exciting!

describe yourself in a hashtag? #DoItForDua

if you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be? i’m ace let’s bake a cake together instead (looking @ u dan bastille)

if your life was a musical, what would the marquee say? this is not a musical despite the copious amounts of terrible singing

what’s one thing people don’t know about you? i WILL cry when ur least expecting it 

what’s your wake up ritual? make coffee/breakfast, mess around on tumblr for a bit and catch up on messages from friends, then log on to start work at nine

what’s your go to bed ritual? i’ve been playing animal crossing for like an hour before bed every night. that’s about it

what’s your favorite time of day? morning after i’ve had my coffee and i have my one hour of motivation to do things sxkljsdf

your go to for having a good laugh? vines that cured my depression compilations on youtube

dream country to visit? oh this is a hard one!! would love to go to the UK someday

what’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever had? my 13th bday party when my mom got all of my friends together to surprise me 🥺

heels or flats/sneakers? converse baby

vintage or new? new. i’m not trendy or skinny enough to pull off vintage anything

who do you want to write your obituary? anyone except my mother

style icon? when dua lipa went through that phase of wearing sweatpants and bras onstage....yeah i vibe w/ that

what are three things you cannot live without? music, my hydroflask, and my electric blanket

what’s one ingredient you put in everything? GARLIC

what 3 people living or dead would you want to make dinner for? listen...i really just wanna hang out with dan smith. also niall from 1d. and hm....maybe....ok this is a weird answer but marina keegan. she died at 22 after graduating from yale and her book literally changed my life

what’s your biggest fear in life? love & intimacy oop

window or aisle seat? window

what’s your current tv obsession? too hot to handle is the funniest thing i’ve ever seen

favorite app? rn i’m using discord a lot. also instagram

secret talent? i know every word to every cover the glee cast ever did

most adventurous thing you’ve ever done in your life? studying abroad in ecuador!

how would you define yourself in three words? positive, introverted, and....and.....maybe simple? (in the sense that i’m ok with just living a life without fancy things or huge ambitions)

favorite piece of clothing you own? my fuzzy north face fleece jacket!

a must have clothing item that everyone should have? buy yourself a good rain jacket pls just do it

a superpower you would want? being an empath would be cool

what’s inspiring you in life right now? my friends!!! i have so many ppl to talk to rn and staying connected with them is really keeping me going

best piece of advice you’ve received? everything works out in the end, don’t stress about what you can’t control

best advice you’d give your teenage self? just tell ppl you aren’t straight it really isn’t a big deal

a book everyone should read? out east by john glynn

what would you like to be remembered for? loving my friends and writing some stuff that maybe impacted a few ppl

how do you define beauty? kindness! openness!

what do you love most about your body? my smile i guess?

best way to take a rest/decompress? listening to music, wasting time on the internet

favorite place to view art? ....online?

if your life was a song, what would the title be? Avoiding Intimacy 

if you could master one instrument, what would it be? guitar

if you had a tattoo, where would it be? i’ve been thinking about this lately. probably on the inside of my arm somewhere?

dolphins or koalas? DOLPHINS (are fish! no they aren’t. yeah they are. just cuz they live in water doesn’t mean they’re fish!)

what’s your spirit animal? penguin

best gift you’ve ever received? my boss surprising me with those brownies yesterday was pretty cool

best gift you’ve given? i made my best friend in college this little jar full of our inside jokes written on little slips of paper. i thought it was pretty cute

what’s your favorite board game? rummikub, life, cards against humanity

what’s your favorite color? yellow

least favorite color? brown

diamond or pearls? diamonds

drugstore makeup or designer? drugstore

blow-dry or air-dry? blowdry (with a diffuser of course)

pilates or yoga? neither wtf do i look like a flexible person to u

coffee or tea? coffee

what’s the weirdest word in the english language? my roommates and i were playing that avocado smash game a few nights ago and now the word ‘avocado’ will never sound correct ever again

dark chocolate or milk chocolate? dark chocolate

stairs or elevators? elevators (i’m lazy)

summer or winter? summer!

you are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat? BAGELS

a dessert you don’t like? anything with a jelly or creamy/custardy filling

a skill you’re working on mastering? playing the guitar

best thing to happen to you today? my interview went really well!!!

worst thing to happen to you today? i had like three crazy stress dreams about said interview so i was exhausted all day lol

best compliment you’ve ever received? ‘your smile just lights up a room’ 🤧

favorite smell? vanilla

hugs or kisses? I WUV HUGZ

if you made a documentary, would it be about? how the portrayal of sex in modern pop culture affects our views of love and romance and intimacy in negative and unrealistic ways!!!!

last piece of content you consumed that made you cry? bitch every livestream dan bastille does makes me tear up

lipstick or lipgloss? the only correct answer is CHAPSTICK

sweet or savory? sweet

girl crush? dua lipa and it’s not a girl crush i full on fuckin LOVE HER

how do you know you’re in love? don’t ask me this

a song you can listen to on repeat? anything by bastille

if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? would love to be a cat just chillin on the ground someday

what are you most excited for about this time in your life? normally i’d say all the concerts i have coming up lmao screw you corona

[herondaleholly31]

“I’ll keep you warm”-Ben Hardy X Reader

Overview: You and Ben take Frankie on a winter beach walk :) 

A/N: It’s been a while I know. Who would’ve thought being in your final yea of A-Levels actually meant you had to work? I’m back on top (at least for the moment) so I am catching up on the some writing so hopefully I’ll upload some more soon. Since my last imagine there are a lot more of you so this is just a quick Hi and thank you for reading my stuff it really means a lot. I hope you like this imagine too. If you have any requests send me a message :) 

Like and Reblog!! 

Word count:1615

Frankie was barking with wild excitement. His head kept popping up from the boot, no matter how many times you asked him to get down. When he saw the glittering mass of sea the dog got so excited, he started barking at the window, only stopping when he got too excited and smacked his head on the window.

“Is he alright?” Ben whipped his head around.

“Watch the road!” You laughed, lightly pushing his cheek to look forward “and he’s fine. Ok, next right.”

The music blasted from the speaker of your old car, the bass so strong it was causing the tub of chewing gum to vibrate violently.

“Remind me why we had to drive your old car?” Ben half asked, half yelled.

“It’s a tradition! I always come to the beach in this car.” Your feet stretched further on the dashboard, looking over at Ben who eyes were back on the road. Damn, he looked cute; particularly when he chuckled at your last comment, shaking his head slightly. As he continued to drive to the shore, your chest felt warm. It felt great to be home.

 As soon as you pulled into the makeshift car park and the engine spluttered off Frankie was at it again, scratching against the boot door and whining. You opened the door and he shot off like a cork. Ben called him to stop and the dog skidded to a halt, kicking sand up into a small hazy cloud. The car park was deserted, normality in the middle of February. The tracks of car tyres and dragged body boards with pattering’s of feet had been dusted away, making the place seem almost forgotten. It made your blood tingle with excitement. That was until You peered into the boot and groaned “oh noooo.”

“What?”

“I didn’t bring enough layers,” you shook your head “I’m such an idiot it’s freezing.”

“But Ben, I never get cold at the beach,” your boyfriend mimicked you higher pitch voice “The beach was practically my bedroom when I lived here.”

“Oh, you’re so FUNNY!” after failing to think of a comeback all you could do was mock his laugh. Ben’s face softened.” I’ll keep you warm love” he grabbed your hand and tucked It into the nook of his elbow, yelling at Frankie to stop sniffing and start walking.

 Light grey clouds scuttled across the sky, a watery sun peaking through the cracks onto the deserted beach. It was nearly golden hour and a chilling breeze lapped at the sparkling water. The scent of salt stuck in your nostrils. Frankie, too excited to stay with you, bolted down the sandy path and shot towards the water. His bark caused seagulls to fly from where they stood, cawing indignantly. You and Ben took your time, him holding onto your hand so you wouldn’t slip on the crumbling sand dunes. Voices raised to be heard over the wind you two huddled close together as you walked by the shore. Occasionally Ben would break away to throw Frankie his tennis ball; bowing when you’d applaud a particularly long shot. His cheeks were flushed pink with cold but he was grinning widely, his blonde hair tangling into a messy mop. One time you stretched out to fix it but he swatted away “I want the beach look,” he laughed. It was nice to see him so relaxed. Back in the city Ben rarely had time to stop; if it wasn’t a movie then it was interviews, dinners with directors, gala or benefit nights. They were fun, but it was always work. Here, he could concentrate on him and you. Being just your boyfriend, not working you into his schedule like you’re some kind of business partner.

“I can see why you and your friends would come here,” he said, “It really is beautiful.”

“My friends mum owns the beach café on the hill” you pointed to the cliff that curved towards the sea “we used to spend all summer making bonfires and eating free chips.”

“Please say she’ll give us free chips,” Ben groaned.

You shrugged “She might give them to me.”

“Will she change her mind if I use my full name?”

“Using your fame for free food?” you pretended to wipe tears from your eyes “I’m so proud.”

 An older couple were strolling in the opposite direction. They wore matching green coats and walked with the lack of purpose that was common on a Sunday afternoon. They smiled sweetly at you and Ben, the way that you cuddled into each other, your paths weaving haphazardly when one of you would laugh so hard, you’d stumble. The wife turned to her husband and asked if he remembered what it was like to be that young and in Love. The husband looked over, saw the way you’d steal kisses and how Ben would jump on your back in a piggyback motion, roaring with laughter when you’d almost topple over head first into the sand. A small light haired dog yapped by the sea shore in delight, biting at the waves and looking confused when he wasn’t unsuccessful.  The husband looked back at his wife and smiled. Yes, he said, I still feel like that now. He loved the way his wife blushed,linking her hand with his. They continued to walk across the beach, the sound of you two ringing in their ears.

 “Did you see that couple walking along the beach?” you asked, dusting sand off your knees and upper thighs-it had already gritted into your wellie boots. “They were so cute. Do you think you’ll still love me when I’m that age?”

“I’ve got to be with you until we’re like that?”

“Rude.”

“I have no doubt about it,” Ben winked. He got distracted saw his dog splashing in the froth “Frankie,” he sloshed over to scratch behind his dog’s ears “You coming?” he called to you still on the shore. You shook your head and tried to protest, but Ben wouldn’t hear it. “Come on,” he grabbed your hand and dragged you in.

“Ben nooo” you tried to pull back but your boyfriend was persistent. 

“If you don’t stop whining, I’ll push you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

He wiggled his eyebrows before gently pushing your shoulder “oops.”

“Stop it.”

He did it again, harder. “My bad.”

“Ben,” you shoved him and he stumbled, causing seawater to slosh onto his jeans.

“Oh, you wanna play that game?” light shoving dissolved into a play fight, pushing hard enough to stumble but not to fall over-that was until your boot slipped into a dent in the sea floor. You wobbled, gasped, and fell with a soft smack into the sea. Instantly your skin numbed with cold, skin and clothing sticking together like glue. Your eyes stung with salt as you gasped for air. Although you couldn’t see you could hear Ben laughing hysterically.

“Oh my- “

“I’m so sorry,” Ben gasped “You just…. you” he couldn’t finish his sentence as he fell into silent laughter.

“BEN!” You watched your boyfriend flailing about, clutching his sides and his laugh becoming higher and higher with hysteria. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” When you stood up your clothes made a sucking gloop before starting to pour like a shower. Your teeth started to chatter. “I’m so cold.”

“I wish I’d filmed it.”

“I have no spare clothes. I’m cold and wet and I have no clothes. DON’T YOU DARE MAKE A JOKE,” you pointed warningly. Ben closed his mouth again. When you tried to walk out of the sea more water trickled down your stomach. Tears pricked at your eyes. “I’m cold.”

“Oh Y/N” Ben’s face softened as he saw how upset you were. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“You got me wet,” you whined.

“I’m not going to make a joke, I’m not going to make a joke,” he closed his eyes and shook his head smirking. Ben followed you as you went out to the sand, then started to take off his jacket. Ordering you to take off your wet clothes he pulled off his big hoodie, goosebumps already littering his skin “Here.” Without hesitation, you pulled the jumper over your head. Although the warmth spread across your skin that wasn’t enough for Ben, who pulled you into his chest and wrapped his coat around so you were smooshed into his chest. He rubbed his hands violently on your back. You moaned softly as the warmth made your skin itch slightly. Ben rested his chin on your forehead, drawing you closer as your shakes subsided. He didn’t want to let go though. “Warmer?”

“Much warmer.”

“You’ll laugh about this one day.”

You poked at his side, causing him to jerk “ow! Okay maybe not.”

“Stop moving I’m getting cold again,” you smiled.

“You were the one who made me move!”

“You pushed me into the sea so I win this argument.”

Ben shook his head but he was smiling. You lodged your chin onto Ben’s chest, admiring this angle of his jaw and lashes. “Wanna go get those chips now?”

“In a minute. I want to hold you like this for just a bit longer.”

In the background, Frankie was barking at a seagull. The waves crashed onto the sand. The sun was starting to set, staining the sky a burnt orange and smudged with grey clouds. The jumper was soft against your skin, and you already knew you were going to steal this jumper. Ben felt a wave of calm with you in his arms, your heart beating against his chest.

 “I would push you in the sea a thousand times more if it meant I could hold you like this.”

“So, you admit you pushed me on purpose?” you teased.

“Just shut up and let me kiss you.”

“With pleasure.” 

[bereft-of-frogs]

The fic I’d like to see from you is a fic I can’t believe I haven’t seen yet and think you’d be the best fit for. “Dark World” where Loki gets still very stabbed but not quite as stabbed, so he’s super injured but isn’t dying, but they can’t go back to Asgard and Malekith has the aether and there’s a dust storm rolling it. Very whumped Loki with Thor and Jane he just saved and also the world is maybe ending and if it doesn’t he probably has to go back to jail. (Wait, can this be both memes?)

It can certainly be both. When I posted them both I was like ‘oh these are completely different, these will totally be AUs I won’t write, this is just for fun.’

Look at us now. Even the Harry Potter AU I’m like...dang I could write this though.

(Also reiterating: if anyone wants to write anything based on these headcanon AUs, please feel free, and please tag me in it so I can read them.   : D )

So, okay, Loki getting stabbed but not dying.

CW for the description of injuries

First off, I am probably going to write the one from last night - at least a small snippet - where Frigga is captured instead of killed so when Loki is wounded she’s there to take care of them. But a more canon-compliant AU, where Frigga is still dead and it’s just the three of them alone. (Also warning, I’ve seen Dark World...maybe twice? So I might be wrong on some canon stuff, I’m going off of what I see in gifsets and what I read on the wiki and in other people’s fics...):

- Loki’s injuries: so I’ve seen it going around that the reason for the black veins/ grey skin is some kind of poison on the blade, so if there’s no poison on the blade he probably doesn’t die right away. But he’s bleeding a lot, and he’s got a collapsed lung. He’s having a lot of trouble breathing, he’s in an insane amount of pain, and is convinced he’s dying. Cue the desperate apologies and deathbed confessions. At least until he’s too out of breath to talk.

- I like to headcanon that both Thor and Jane have some form of first aid training. Thor is more of field medic and Jane is more Wilderness First Aid (if you’re living in small-town New Mexico and studying astronomy, I’d imagine there’s some hiking to be done to find good stargazing spots and WFA are always good skills to have if you’re hiking in remote locations.) Between the two of them they at least can get Loki stable enough to be moved, but his condition is rapidly deteriorating. They don’t have any equipment, but at least manage to control the bleeding a bit and get him to the shelter of the cave.

- so Thor is feeling...pretty shitty about all of this. Wracked with guilt over being the one who took Loki out of his cell, where he was at least safe, being the one that Loki was hurt trying to save. Loki wakes up a bit and is like ‘it’s okay, did you really think I was going back to jail?’ and they have this horribly sad conversation about death being just another kind of freedom while Thor begs him not to let go.

- while this sob-fest is going on, Jane stumbles across an opening in the back of the cave - one that leads back to Earth. So Thor bundles Loki up again and they make it back to Earth and find Selvig who is like ‘nope nope nope, Loki’s back, don’t like this’ but they’re like ‘cool, Loki is also dying, so it’s fine.’ Selvig’s house at least has some supplies, so they’re able to at least stop more air from entering the chest cavity. (There’s this special type of dressing called an ‘occlusive dressing’ that’s coated in a wax that creates a seal over the wound so no more air can get in. Fun fact.) He’s still not doing so hot and probably needs surgery but there’s nothing to be done, they’ve still got to defeat Malekith. So they kind of bundle him in Selvig’s bed and hope he survives while they go off to end the fight.

- they do and Thor returns to find Loki thankfully still alive but unconscious and fading fast. Thor’s accepted he’s not going back to Asgard since that will find them both in a cell, or worse, but he needs help so instead he turns to SHIELD - but oops SHIELD is actually HYDRA and while they save Loki’s life they trick them and imprison them in the base in Sokovia and voilà more whump as they’re interrogated and experimented on (and who are these other two locked up in this dingy basement?) while Jane desperately looks for them and finds no trace and Sif comes down to look for them and finds no trace...

- but then Asgard does finally find them and basically threatens war on Earth if they are not returned because Odin goes into Protective Dad mode when he sees what’s being done to them and HYDRA all falls apart and Winter Soldier/Age of Ultron shake out a little differently.

(that got a bit away from me there at the end)

(basically the third act of The Dark World is where I start to lose memories of the plot. Somehow they get back to Earth? Somehow Malekith is defeated? How does this fit in with Winter Soldier? I don’t know. I’ll figure it out later.)

(Yes I ended up on PubMed this morning don’t @ me)

(If I write this you know for sure I’ll be reading a bunch of thoracic impalement trauma articles in prep because I’m just that extra)

(The problem with this is I kept being like ‘well for this injury I would do this’ and keep remembering they don’t have a fully stocked ambulance of things they would need to treat this.)

(Yup, fun fact about me, this is how I made money while I was in undergrad and thought I was going to med school, I got my EMT license at 18 and worked on an ambulance during the summers, and was a clinical research assistant in an emergency department.)

(I went into academics instead which obviously is working out...just super...)

(I’m kidding, I really like my death studies/history of medicine degree, I would just also like it if I had a job.) 

Thanks for asking!

I have...so many AU ideas now. so many. I am out of control. It’s bananas over here.

[infinitum-imaginaerum]

Oh shit, sorry😂 well maybe 24 could do

Joshua | A.24 “I thought I’d never see you again.” 

Word Count | 6,200 

Warnings | THIS IS VERY…. heartbreaking. It does have a happy ending to soothe my broken soul. There’s no warnings, really. Other than I am not responsible for your tears. T_T  

Notes | As said in the warnings, it hurts. There’s no good gifs for angst lmfao; I try really hard to pick appropriate gifs so oops. Please check the status of the game on my blog before requesting!

Send a bias, a section, and a number and I’ll write you a thing!

The end of high school was a rough time for both of you, but simultaneously the best years of your life with him. Joshua was your high school sweetheart, a boy you’d met in your late middle school days. The two of you ended up going to the same high school and grew very close.

He was your world and everything in it for those four years.

Your freshman year, you remembered how ecstatic you were to find that he was in three of your classes, including your homeroom and shared the same lunch as you. Sure, there were other friends that had also come to your new high school from middle school, but none of them were there for you like Joshua was. The two of you often spent time doing homework together in the library after school and had lunch every day. Sometimes he brought you snacks or sweets that he remembered you liked when he first met you, those days you’d lean over onto his shoulder and just relish in his presence.

The more time went on through your freshman year, the more the two of you grew attached to each other in a more special way. By the end of that first year, you could confidently say that the feelings you had for him were planted and definitely going to be ready to bloom.

Summer away from him was really hard; he left to visit family while you stayed and had some volunteer jobs around your community. Though you enjoyed the warm days and the shining sun on your face, it just wasn’t the same without him. Over previous summers the two of you had visited every now and again—since he was in your school district, he lived pretty close to you.

The fall of your second year, you were surprised to see him. He’d gotten much taller over the summer, and much more handsome than you’d last remembered. Though it had been a tad over three months, things had definitely changed. Sophomore year you only had one class with him, and didn’t share lunch, so the two of you spent much more time together after school, much of it not including studying.

The two of you started to hang out away from studies, often spending time at the park just down the block from your house. Of course, the two of you responsibly made sure to get your studies done first before partaking in the leisure time you got with him. Often, when you would walk to the park from the school, the sun was going down, and the beautiful hues of the sunset illuminated his face he turned to you to offer to take your bag.

Many days you could remember sitting on the swings with him, talking about anything and everything, but mostly about the summer during the beginning of the semester. He sat on the swing next to yours, kicking back and forth just a couple of feet, not swinging too far away as the two of you conversed, joked, and teased. You fawned over the way he looked, turned against the chain to face you when he was teasing you, begging to see your adorably blushing face and you would always turn to him, that smile of his ingrained into your mind as one of your fondest memories.

There was one day in particular you would never forget, as it set off the sparks into a glowing fire between the two of you. He insisted on pushing you while you sat on the swing, just two kids, Joshua sixteen and you fifteen at the time, enjoying each other’s company in the park. The seasons were changing, and it was starting to get a little colder, but that cold didn’t seem to matter when he suddenly took a hold of the chains on your swing, bringing you to a halt as he stood behind you.

“Joshua?” you asked, about to turn your head to give him a questioning look, especially as his arms snuck between the chains to wrap around your body and hug you from the back. His chest was warm against you, his breath on the back of your ear sent tingles down your spine. Wordlessly, he leaned forward, his soft black hair flittering against your face as he turned his warm lips into your cheek.

A soft pink blush pricked your cheeks; you could feel it burning as you tried to stifle the butterflies in your stomach. One of your hands untangled itself from the chain to softly place over his crossed arms.After that day, every time the two of you studied, he would sit next to you instead of across from you like he used to before. As the two of you worked on your shared class’ homework, he’d sneak a peck against your cheek any time he wanted a bit of your attention back.

That winter he took you on your first real date. He picked you up from your house to take you to a nice dinner. The look on his face when you opened the door to greet him, the smile that adorned his gorgeous pink lips had you blushing and stepping out to close the door behind you. When he brought you home that night, you’d half-expected him to kiss you on your doorstep. But Joshua was the type who wanted to take things pretty slow, and so he took you into his warm embrace, cradling you against his warm body and took your chin to tilt your head, enough to press a warm lingering kiss against your cheek before bidding you goodnight.

Through the second semester of your sophomore year, people began to hear about yours and Joshua’s relationship. Some people were happy for you, others not so much. He often had to reassure you that it didn’t matter what others thought about your relationship, as long as the two of you were happy. There was a lot of late-night talks that got you in trouble with your parents, things he promised to your mother’s face would never happen again. He was a good boy who just wanted to take good care of you, and that promise stood true.

Summer rolled around again, and again Joshua left you to visit his family. Things were a lot harder now that the two of you were an item, but he often called you, especially when he knew you were getting ready for bed, just to hear your voice. The two of you talked about your summer volunteers, and the new job you had gotten to start putting money in a bank account. He didn’t tell you much about what he was doing, just that he was visiting home and loved the weather there, but that he missed you a lot and knew that he would come back soon.

Things got intense in your junior year. Joshua had gone through most of his puberty over the summer, starting at the end of the previous school year. Now he was much taller than you, his features were getting more chiseled and you were filling out. Despite the raging hormones, Joshua was still good to you. He was still a good student and a good man, despite the fact that his friends were starting to turn into typical high-school jerks. They made fun of his commitment to you, telling him that he should cut you loose and play the field. You got really insecure about your relationship with him, fearing that his friends just wanted to get rid of you because you took up a majority of his time.

Your junior year was the first time the two of you got into a fight, and the first time you cried in front of him. When you had expressed your feelings of insecurity to him, he felt the insecurity with you and fired back in a way that he shouldn’t have. It got a little aggressive.

“Have I been anything but good to you?” he fired at you, getting frustrated. You could tell by the way he pulled at his hair, tugging it away from his face as he paced a few steps this way and that.

“I’m not saying that! Things are just different than they used to be, your friends—”

“Why do you care what my friends think?”

“Because they keep telling you to dump me!” you yelled at him, the tears finally breaking from your eyes to stream down your face. Joshua looked at you sadly, realizing the result of this small and insignificant fight in the greater scheme of things. With that one sentence, he had learned so much about what you knew about his friends. “They tease me, saying that I’m just trapping you down, Joshua, don’t you get that? I’m just in the way to them!”

He stepped forward to cup both of your cheeks, brushing their streaks away with his thumbs to tilt your face up to look into your eyes. Your blurry eyes looked up at him, melting under his gaze as his face drew near. His nose brushed against yours, his eyes fluttering closed as he made this big step. Your eyes closed with his, the warmth of his breath fanning over your lips before being replaced by his own.

Joshua’s lips were soft, warm, and supple against your own, kissing your insecurities away. The kiss was slow and gentle, letting you melt into him while he melted into you and your shaky hands rose to his sides to tug him a little bit closer to you. When his lips departed from yours, he didn’t go far. His breath was still on your lips, thumbs tenderly stroking your cheeks before he kissed you again, and again, and again. All gentle, sweet, lingering close mouth kisses that had your insides doing flips. It was everything you could have imagined; the way he made you feel, it felt like heaven.

“You are everything to me; don’t take what they say to heart. At the end of the day, it’s how I feel about you, not them, right? This relationship is between you and me, and only you and me,” he whispered to you, his nose still tenderly brushed against yours.

“You’re right,” you replied, hands gripping his shirt. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

He dragged you into him, cradling you against his chest with one hand on the back of your head, holding you close. “I’m sorry, too.”

The rest of the first semester of junior year was a struggle. The two of you battled with insecurities, the words from the outside getting between you. Joshua constantly reminded you that it was the two of you against the problem, not the two of you against each other. You were a team and needed to work like a team. So, the second semester went a lot smoother; you fell deeper in love with him, and he did you.

Summer came around again, and Joshua left again like he always did. You moped, hard. You missed him desperately; he was your whole life besides school and work. All you could do was work, and you worked just to keep your mind off him most days. Some days, because you’d spent your whole day busy, you missed his nightly calls. He was getting concerned about you, wondering what was going on since he knew you looked forward to his calls. He called you every night, and texted you every morning, reminding you to have a good day and make sure that you were taking care of yourself.

Work consumed your summer, no time for volunteer work or other things you loved. You needed the mindless tasks that had no relation to him to keep your sanity. One night when he called you to bid you goodnight, the tension was palpable.

“…What’s going on, honey?” he asked you out of the blue.

You were lying in bed, getting ready to sleep when his question brought life back to your body.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been so tired lately, you sleep early a lot and sometimes we don’t get to talk. I’m getting worried about you,” he told you, cupping the phone to his ear as he paced around the living room of his aunt’s and uncle’s home.

“I’m just working a lot, Shua… I’m fine, I promise.”

“You are working a lot, and that’s what worries me; I think you’re working too much,” he finally said, speaking his mind to say everything he wanted to say.

You could feel the tears prick at your eyes again. He wanted your candor; he wanted you to tell him the truth about why you were working so much, because he knew it wasn’t because you needed the money. “You need to rest more; I know things are hard, they’re hard for me too. I miss you so much, and miss you more every day.”

Silently, the tears streamed from your eyes, back across your temples and into your hair as you looked to the ceiling, clutching your phone to your ear. You didn’t want him to hear you, so you muffled quiet sobs with the covers you’d pulled up to your chin.

“You’re crying,” he commented, able to hear the concern in his voice.

“I’m fine,” you replied shakily.

“You’re not… I knew I should have stayed this summer. I shouldn’t have left you, I’m—”

“Joshua! Stop!” you cried. It was true, you missed him dearly. But that was no excuse for him to not see his family. You couldn’t take him away from them.

“I can’t listen to you cry, baby… it pains me; I need to be there for you, to hold you.”

“You’re halfway across the world, Jisoo,” you choked, using the name more personal to him, the one only his family used.

“And I would get on a plane right now to come back to you, sweetheart. You are hurting, so much, and only I can soothe that. I’m going to book the soonest flight home, and I’ll be with you—”

“Hong Jisoo! You better not!” you almost yelled.

A few moments of silence before your mother was knocking on your door, opening it. She looked over you, asking if you were alright, noticing that you were on the phone with your boyfriend. The tears on your face broke her heart, especially as you looked at her, eyes puffy and red. She knew you were working yourself to the bone, that the exhaustion was sure to play a part in the tears, even though she knew you missed him dearly.

“It’s just two more weeks, I can make it…” you uttered to him through the phone after turning your eyes back to the ceiling.

“Alright, baby… please take care of yourself, take an extra day off for me…I’ll let you go, I know your mom is in there,” he whispered back, waiting for a reply that never came. “Sweet dreams and rest well, princess.”

“You, too… I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Wipe your tears and hold your head high. I’ll be back for you.”

You brought your arm up to push the tears off your face, sniffling a bit as you followed his plea. “I’ll wait for you.”

“That’s my girl, goodnight.”

You hung up the phone after muttering goodnight to him as well. When the phone hung up, your tears bubbled on your water line, but you refused to let them fall; you would be strong for him, the way he wanted you to be. Like you said, it was just two weeks. Despite that, your mother took a seat on the bed next to you to bring you into her arms, which just made it harder to keep the tears back.

Those two weeks were so agonizingly slow, but once he was back, you thought your heart was going to burst. Seeing him for the first time after the summer was over, on the first day of your senior year, you jumped into his arms in a way you never had before. He could feel your longing for him, all of the pent up emotions flowing out as you were finally allowed to cry in his arms like he wanted you to.

Senior year was a breeze. Things were great; you were about to graduate and go off to college, accepted into your dream school. You had Joshua, the love of your life. Your job was going well. Everything had fallen into place so perfectly up until the two months before you were about to graduate.

Joshua dropped a bombshell on you. He was leaving to Korea after graduation to pursue a music career. He had mentioned something very briefly to you about his aunt and uncle begging him to give it a shot. Joshua was talented; he could sing and dance and play guitar, but he mentioned leaving was a very tentative option, and it was long before the two of you grew together.

Your parents were out of town on a business trip, leaving the house to yourself. He sat in your room on your bed with you as he gave you the news. He watched your heart shatter in front of him, watched the tears well in your eyes as you looked for a solution, stroking the back of your hands with his thumbs.

You could go with him. You could give up your college dreams and attend a college in Seoul; it wouldn’t be that bad. Still you shook your head, the tears silently falling off your cheeks and onto your hands, onto his hands. Was he breaking up with you, now?

“I could… I could go with you. I want to go—”

He stopped you, shaking his head as he reached up to wipe some of your tears away, tears gathering in his own eyes as your heart broke further. He was definitely breaking up with you.

“You need to stay here; you got into your dream college, babe, and I’m so proud of you. Your family is here, your college is here, everything is here,” he reasoned.

“You won’t be here!” you cried, shaking your head as you pulled your hands from him, standing from the bed to get away from him. You felt like you couldn’t breathe, your breaking heart suffocating you, the pain so great. You didn’t want to believe him; you wanted to think this was all a test and that you’d passed, in some sick way. He sighed heavily, swallowing hard as he pushed his own tears away from his eyes. He knew it was going to be hard, but he didn’t know it was going to be this hard. He had a plan, but at this point, he wasn’t sure if it was going to work, or if it was even fair of him to ask you.

“Baby—”

“Do not call me that!” you yelled, body convulsing as your arms crossed over your chest, sliding to the floor once your back hit the wall near your room window. You curled your arms over your head after pulling your knees up against your chest.

Joshua looked up at the ceiling of your room, blinking back hot salty tears, feeling the tightening in his throat too. He couldn’t even look at you; he couldn’t stand it when you cried, much less when he was the cause. He dropped his face into his hands, regretting this whole decision.

“Please do not think badly of me; I am trying to do what is best for both of us. I love you with my whole heart, and I can’t stand the thought of leaving—”

“Then why!” you screamed, throwing your arms off your face to look at him. The tears that carved down his cheeks only increased your sobs. “Why are you doing this? Why are you breaking up with me? Why are you leaving me?”

Now was his chance to slip in his plan. He swallowed hard, looking into your eyes as you kneeled on the ground about four feet away from him. He slipped to the floor with you, tentatively reaching for you. Part of you wanted to slap him away, but the greater part of you begged to be in his arms.

“I’m not breaking up with you. I have a plan, and it might not be fair to ask you, but I want to give it a shot. I know you’re the one for me,” he whispered, stroking your cheek before he continued, “I would bring you out there as often as you could come, and I would come visit you whenever I could. Every winter and summer I’d bring you out to me for those months that you are out of school. It would be long distance, and it will be hard, and maybe it’s too much to ask, but the second you graduate college, I’ll move you out there with me. If you take classes online in the summer and winter, you could be done in three years.”

It was a plan, and it soothed your heart to know he wanted to keep you, that he wanted to work things out. But three years, minimum, was such a long time. And being away from him all the time could take a serious toll on your relationship, not just physically but emotionally and mentally. A minimum of three years and then you’d be with him forever, is that what he was promising?

“If you’ve found someone else by the time college is over, I will understand. But I will wait for you, I swear it. I want you forever, and if you want to at least try for me, then I want to give you something, and every time you think that you can’t do it anymore I want you to look at it. I want you to feel it between your fingers, and I want you to remember that I am waiting for you,” he explained, dragging you into his lap to cradle you.

“Joshua…” you sobbed, turning your face into his neck to sear his skin with your hot tears.

“Every waking breath I have is for you. Three years or six, I’m yours no matter the distance. I am committed, dedicated to you, and if you are willing to give this a shot… I will do everything I can to make it as easy as possible,” he whispered to you, placing his left hand against your right, sliding that hand down your arm as you went to wrap that arm around his neck. He kissed against your arm, against the shoulder exposed by your tank top.

You drew back from his neck with the guiding touch of his fingers for him to direct his lips to yours, sealing his promise that he would wait. You knew he felt strongly for you, but you didn’t know it was like this. He broke the kiss, not expecting an answer now, anticipating you would take some time to think about it as he looked into your eyes.

“If it means being with you…I promise I will try,” you answered.

The emotions overwhelmed him as he threw his arms around you, squeezing you in his lap. He knew it wasn’t a guarantee, but the fact that you were willing to give it a shot gave the two of you at least two more months before he would leave. He dug into his pocket as you rested in his lap for the trinket he promised you. He took your left hand with both of his, sliding a simple silver band around your ring finger, encrusted with tiny sapphire stones.

“It’s a promise ring, and with that ring I promise to wait, and I promise to be yours when we come back to each other. When you feel like you’re drifting, like you can’t do it anymore, when you feel like I don’t love you anymore, I want you to look at this ring, to feel it between your fingers, and know that I am with you in presence, that I love you with everything I am.”

He stayed the night that night, holding you while you slept, sinking into your togetherness that you were confident would never break as long as the two of you gave it everything you had. You woke up to him, possibly more in love with him than you’d ever been. The two of you went to school that day and met between every passing period for sweet embraces and gentle kisses, reaffirming promises that everything would be okay.

Graduation came around much too soon. Instead of crying tears of joy that day, you cried for the loss of your sweet Joshua, who would be leaving you in the coming week. You hadn’t told your parents, so they just assumed you were so overjoyed with finally moving on to bigger and better things, they never asked. Joshua spent every waking moment he could with you, whether he was over at your place, or you were at his helping him pack his things.

The night before he would be leaving, he took you out to dinner at the same place he took you for your first date. It was a fancy place, fairly expensive and high-class; he wanted to make the last night as memorable as possible. All thought dinner he held your hand, trying to keep your mind off the fact that he was leaving. His family had left a few days before to take some of his things half-way across the world, so he brought you back to the empty house, hotly lip-locked as he pulled at the zipper of your dress to make sweet love to you.

You spent the whole summer working two jobs to save as much money as possible to get ready for college. He came back to visit, the week before you started college, in the apartments you could barely afford where you would be living for college a few cities away from your high school town. His housewarming gift was a picture of the two of you that he snapped on his phone in a dazzling sterling silver frame. You relished the four days you had with him before he’d leave again. Those four days he stayed with you, waking up to you every morning. He got acquainted with your roommate; one that he had no doubt would change before the next time he saw you in the winter.

It didn’t matter, either way. He left too soon as usual and you began classes, a nervous eighteen year old freshman at a new fancy school in a big inner city. He called you every day, sometimes twice a day, to make sure you were eating well and keeping up with your studies. Occasionally you received small trinkets from him through the mail which you used to decorate your dresser in a little corner, around the photo he gave you the day he visited.

As promised, you spent every winter, every spring break, and every summer with him. Sometimes he’d surprise you for a few days here and there, and the two of you made it work until your senior year.

You weren’t able to visit him in the summer before your senior year, nor the winter. He, similarly, wasn’t able to make it out to see you during the entire fall semester. The calls dwindled, but you couldn’t focus on your heartbreak; you had to focus on school. Winter came around, and still you couldn’t visit. Come spring semester, he called you on average once a week. You were so immersed in your studies; you hardly had time for yourself, just looking forward to graduation which rolled around quickly. You remember signing the papers, taking the graduation course, and getting your cap and gown ready to walk to receive your degree.

Your mother was in your new apartment, having helped you move from your old one. You were unpacking boxes with her in your new bedroom until you came across a box that totally destroyed you. You left it unmarked, but when you opened it, you knew why. Inside it were all of the things Joshua had sent you over the years, the jewelry and pictures, the little plushies and snacks, including the photo of the two of you he’d given you the first day in your first apartment, as well as the velvet box that held the promise ring you no longer wore.

Tears carved down your face as you looked at the picture, peppering the glass with them as you stared down at it, stroking a finger over seventeen year old Joshua’s face. Your mother came over to sit with you, but didn’t say anything, just hugged you.

You waited for him, just like you promised you would. But you hadn’t seen him in almost nine months, you hardly talked to him anymore, and you were sure he moved on. It broke your heart, since he was the one who was so committed when he made all these promises to you in the beginning, when you begged to go with him. You put the picture back in the box and stood up to go out to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Your mother spent some time with the box, looking through all of the things. She loved Joshua like her own son, and despite everything that had happened, she posted the photo up on your nightstand and took the velvet box with your ring in it, tucking the rest of the things away.

Graduation day was here, and you looked so dazzling in your cap and gown which covered and beautiful short navy dress. Your hair was done in loose curls, makeup absolutely on point. Your father robed you, placing your honor cords around your neck and right before you were going to turn to head back to your line, your mother appeared, holding out a familiar velvet box for you. You looked at her, shaking your head, but she insisted. The memory of it burned you when she opened it. Violently, you pushed back the tears.

“He would really like it if you wore it,” she commented, but when you asked for an explanation, she didn’t say anything. Gingerly, you placed the ring around your finger, your heart fluttering in your chest, replacing the pumping of adrenaline from finally graduating aside to replace it with different emotions. All through the line, you questioned your mother’s words. It almost distracted you from hearing your name being called. Clumsily, you climbed onto the stage, crossing the floor to shake hands with the dean of your college, of the university, some other very special people before being handed your degree.

The ceremony seemed to drag on for ages before you were finally released. In the crowd of people, you looked for your parents. They held a bouquet of flowers for you, waiting for you with proud smiles as you went to embrace them.

“There’s someone here to see you,” your mother said, and suddenly your heart was in your throat. She led you to a group of people, a bunch of friends from high school who all congratulated you, forming a wall that slowly began to split.

Your right hand came up to cover your mouth, your cap coaxed out of your other hand by your mother as you laid eyes on a man you hardly recognized. The tears stung your eyes, your brow drawing together as you fell apart standing there. The dazzling smile on his face, a bouquet of roses in his hands dawned in a pressed navy suit had your feet moving involuntarily.

“Joshua?” you asked, your heels clicked on the pavement of the parking lot as they took you to him. He looked so refined, so much different than when you had last seen him. Your tears were no match for your waterproof mascara, even as they fell from your eyes, especially the moment your arms wrapped around his neck, body pressing into his to feel his warmth, the warmth that felt like home.

The crinkling of the plastic surrounding the bouquet as he wrapped his arms around you didn’t drown out his whisper in your ear. “Congratulations, beautiful.”

Unable to say anything, you just sobbed into his neck, your heart so overwhelmed with emotions. He was really here, in the flesh, congratulating you at your college graduation. He could feel the silver ring on the back of his neck when you took it, reeling back to crash your lips against his. The flowers he got you were taken by your mother so that he could embrace you more intimately. His kiss was other worldly, warm and welcoming, as if there was never a blip in your relationship, as if you hadn’t been mostly apart for four years.

When you pulled away, you were half-laughing and half-crying. You looked over him.

“God, you’ve gotten so handsome,” you laughed, though your brow was drawn together in distress, the tears still free-falling until his fingers swiped them from your chin. “I thought I’d never see you again,” you sobbed, stepping into him to hide in his chest while your mutual friends from high school stood around, some smiling, some crying, some clapping.

“Your mother called me to tell me how busy you’ve been, and that you were graduating and there was no way I was going to miss it. She talked about how you missed me every day, how you still have our picture up—we made it, baby, and I have missed you with every fiber of my being and I can’t wait to take you away, to take you home with me,” he explained, drawing your left hand back to kiss the back of it and marvel the untarnished promise ring around your finger.

You pulled back to look up at him; he really was going to keep the most important promise he made to you, that you would still be his on the other side, and that he’d take you away when you were ready.

“You mean it?”

“I promised you,” he reminded you with a gentle laugh, stroking your cheeks while you gripped his jacket. “You’ve gotten even more beautiful since I last saw you.”

“You came back for me,” you said, voice cracking with the emotions, still shocked by the whole thing; by his presence, by his complete devotion to you.

He took your lips, kissing you softly for a lingering moment. “I told you, you’re the one for me. I would have waited to the end of the earth for you, and I’d love to replace this ring,” he said, playing with the promise ring around your finger as he stepped away from you. If your heart could jump out of your throat, it would have. Since junior year, you had considered the idea of marrying Joshua. When your senior year came around, it felt solidified, especially after your talk about him leaving. If he went through with everything he said, you promised you’d be his forever.

He got down on his knee, suavely reaching into his pocket for a different velvet box.

He spoke your full name, taking your left hand to kiss the back of it, “Before I left, I promised to be yours forever when we made it through this. Today, on your day of graduation, it has been proven that our love withstood the test of time and distance, has conquered all of the trials and tribulations. Now, I kneel before you to ask for your hand, for the blessing from your parents, to keep you by my side until death and beyond. Will you do me the great honor marrying me?”

Both of your hands were over your mouth the second his knee hit the ground. Your previous classmates, some you were still very close to, hooted and hollered. You wanted to glance back at your parents, but your eyes were glued to the love of your life. You vigorously and enthusiastically nodded your head, squeaking out your response as a smile pulled at his lips.

“Yes, Joshua, I will,” you replied, crying tears of joy for the first time in a long time. Gently, he pulled the promise ring off your finger to change it to your right hand, replacing it with the dazzling diamond speckled white gold engagement ring. He kissed both of your ring fingers before standing, pulling you into him to collect your lips once more.Many cheered, clapped, hollered, congratulated, and more. You could feel your mom and dad’s hands on your shoulders when he broke the kiss so you could acknowledge them for a moment. Your tears were hot, but they were so comforting in this moment. Joshua’s arms were still tight around your waist, having been gone from you much too long to let you go so easily.

The three of them gathered you in a group hug, and for the first time since high school, everything was right again.

[sapphicscholar]

Pride Month Prompts Day 3: First Date (Majorly Judging You - Lucy/Alura)

From this Pride Month Prompts post! I’m taking the opportunity to write some short fics for a variety of pairings that I haven’t written for as much, maybe at all. They won’t be going on AO3, so I’ll be sure to tag them all with #pride month prompts so you can find them later if you want. 

Day 3: First Date

Pairing: Majorly Judging You (Lucy x Alura) - told ya this month would be about taking a stab at writing for ships I’d never written before

A/N: Remember how I said I was gonna try to cap things at 1,000 words? Oops.

Age 15: Technically speaking, it was not a date. It was four teenagers all hanging out and getting pizza. At least, that was what Lucy told her father when asking if she could go out that coming Saturday. In reality, it was a double date, and Lucy’s first date at that. Derek had asked her out after the basketball team won the championships. It didn’t matter that he was only a sophomore and therefore only got to play about 5 minutes of the game; he was still a big deal, and he had really nice dimples, and Lucy happily agreed. The date itself was fine, if a little awkward. Derek talked more to Chad than he did to Lucy, so Lucy talked more to Julie than she did to Derek, but when they got the check, Derek paid for Lucy and Chad paid for Julie, and when they walked around town, they paired up and held hands and tried not to think about if their palms were sweaty. At the end of it, Derek kissed her, tasting like pepperoni and the whole handful of mints he’d shoved into his mouth when he thought Lucy wasn’t looking. It was nice. Better than her first kiss at one of those multi-school mixers she’d gone to last year. Later that night, he texted her to say he’d had fun and ask if she might want to do it again. The yes came easily, and even though the relationship only lasted until the end of the school year, she didn’t regret it. It was simply time for it to be over, for them to both move on.

Age 17: Not seriously dating anyone for a whole year hadn’t been intentional, but it was hard switching schools mid-way through high school, and she didn’t want to get a reputation by saying yes to the very first boy who asked her out, especially when she didn’t even know his last name, let alone anything else about him. After a full year at her new school, though, Lucy decided some fun fling was rather overdue, so when Arun started swinging by her locker a bit more often than was strictly necessary, Lucy paid attention. He had dark hair and deep brown eyes, and he was sweet in a way that made her stomach swoop pleasantly. Her friends nodded their approval when he asked to sit with her at lunch one day, and within a week, he’d asked her to the movies. Deciding Arun could do without the parental disapproval on date 1, she lied and told her father that she was going to the movies with all of her friends from the track team. Theoretically, they were also going to the movies that Friday. Just not with her. Or the same movie. Not that she and Arun saw much of the movie. After watching half an hour of an action flick that didn’t seem all that different from every other action flick out there, they both decided it would be a shame if they didn’t take advantage of their back row seating to make out, and they only stopped after a staff member flicked a flashlight over at them and asked them to “knock it off. Please.” Lucy forced herself to look apologetic until he left, at which point she had to muffle her laughter with her whole hand. Who would have thought Lieutenant Colonel Lane’s daughter with her Dean’s List honors would be the one getting busted for inappropriate behavior in a movie theater? From that point on, Lucy decided Arun was good for her. He made her feel light, insisted she have fun. He did things like let her throw popcorn at him while he lunged out of his chair to catch it in his mouth in midair. He made a scavenger hunt with little candy rewards at each stop for her 18th birthday. He bought her a West Point sweatshirt when she got her acceptance letter, even though she already had a ton from growing up in an Army household, telling her that she deserved a new one to celebrate her accomplishments. They tried to make long-distance work after graduation, but it became clear that the 12 hours of distance between them and the rigors of life at West Point weren’t exactly conducive to a relationship. So they called things off during a teary coffee date over winter break.

Age 21: Lucy had long admired the graceful way so many women carried themselves. The slope of an elegant neck. The soft, smooth skin so well maintained. She thought they were beautiful, but in that untouchable, graceful kind of way. It wasn’t until her junior year she realized that kind of admiration might mean something more, something deeper, something about her. Not incidentally, junior year was when she got close with Ximena. They’d clashed during Lucy’s first two years, always somehow at each other’s throats, competing for some privilege or award or honor. But then they went and got to know each other beyond a semi-anonymous rivalry. And it turned out Ximena was more than just smart and athletic and talented; she was sarcastic and funny and able to make Lucy smile, even when everything seemed to be going to shit. And she was pretty. God, was she pretty. After several months of going from rivals to friends to best friends, Ximena went and mentioned an ex-girlfriend from high school. Lucy was silent just a beat too long, and Ximena bolted. It took Lucy three full days to figure out what she wanted to say, and she had a whole speech prepared--hell, she’d taken notes in a shorthand that she was positive no one else would be able to decipher--but when she found Ximena looking guarded and wary and sad underneath all of it, none of the words felt right anymore. Instead, Lucy pressed her lips hard against Ximena’s and felt a part of herself she’d never known to look for before suddenly light up, nerve endings and atoms and neurons all crackling to life and sending her hands into Ximena’s hair while she lost herself in the feeling of Ximena’s mouth, hot and desperate and just a touch too hard. Their dates were all secret, disguised as study time or long runs or even sparring sessions that left them both turned on enough to be nearly reckless. During the summer before senior year, Lucy tried hinting about her newly discovered bisexuality to her father, only to have him dismiss it at every turn. And she didn’t want to disappoint him--not when she’d finally made him proud with all that she’d accomplished at his alma mater--so she carefully, quietly withdrew. Only Lois knew, but she had her own life, her own boyfriend, her own place in the world that was increasingly far away from Lucy and their father, and no matter how many times she insisted that Lucy was welcome at any point, she couldn’t help but feel it as a distancing.

Age 30: After things with Ximena finally fell apart after a year of long distance, with both of them out on active-duty and their letters censored to a point of emotional stiltedness, Lucy took a long hiatus from the dating world. Celibate, she was not, but she wore her singledom like a badge of honor, dedicating herself full-time to her tour of duty, to her graduate studies at Harvard, and then to her work as a trial counselor. Over the years, she watched as the honors and accolades piled up, and each time a new one came, she preened under her father’s attention, trying not to focus on why that sense of fulfillment never went deep enough for her to feel it--to feel it in the way she’d felt the warm weight of Arun’s belief in her before she left for West Point or the deep-rooted sense of security in how proud she knew Ximena was, even when Lucy’s victories meant a second-place finish for herself. But then she was back stateside in Metropolis, and James Olsen was hanging around that boyfriend of Lois’s she just knew would end up a fiancé any day now. Lois had laughed and rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath about “calling it” when Lucy had asked her who the tall guy was. Still, whether her sister had called it or not, James was handsome, and his deep laugh seemed to echo all around them, filling the whole room with a sense of levity, and when he wrapped his strong arms around her, she felt safe. It was enough for her to ignore a lot of signs that things weren’t working, but eventually it all became too much. First it was him choosing to chase Superman all over the city instead of spending time with her. Then it was her choosing to devote all of her time and energy to her job instead of to building a relationship and a life with him. By the time they were rekindling things in National City, he had found himself a new girl--and, because the world loved irony, as it turned out, he’d also managed to find himself a new Super who he could admit to crushing on without worrying about what it meant--and Lucy found herself caring less and less about putting in the effort to fix a relationship that seemed broken beyond repair.

Age 35: Ever since law school, Lucy had sworn she would never date another person in the legal profession. No lawyers. No clerks. No law professors. Nothing. But then a judge from Krypton with wavy brown hair and sharp cheekbones and a way of talking that was deliberate and precise and made Lucy want to sit and debate her for hours before maybe leaning over and kissing her for another few hours showed up. Of course, nothing was easy, so she turned out to be Kara’s mother, the one they’d all assumed was long since dead. For months, Lucy resolved to be there for Alura as a friend and nothing more. Everything was messy enough as she attempted to adjust to life on Earth and rebuild a relationship with the daughter she’d sent away to save, only to doom her to decades spent grieving the planet and the people she’d believed were lost forever. Of course, being there for Alura as a friend also meant seeing so much more of Alura. It meant long days spent talking about other planets and ways of life together. It meant sweaty afternoons spent in a training room helping Alura, who had decided, despite having no military training, that she would fight alongside her daughter to regain her trust, to show her that she firmly intended to establish a life right alongside hers. It meant nights spent helping Alura acquire furniture and decorations and all the little necessities for her apartment that had, somehow, begun to feel a whole lot like their apartment. It took a joke muttered in the DEO’s control room with Alura nearby enough to overhear it for her to ask Lucy point blank if they were dating. It took another week for Lucy to sort through her own feelings before coming back to Alura with an answer: No, we’re not dating. Yet. She tried not to look too pleased when Alura’s expression fell, but it was a matter of seconds to rectify it by explaining that she’d like to start, or at least to try. The homemade dinner at Alura’s apartment didn’t feel that different from the many nights they’d spent there together over the months leading up to their first official date. They still shared stories from their pasts, their hopes for the future. But this time that future included a possible “us.” It included the near future and plans for dates and outings they’d go on, not only as two friends, but as a couple. At the end of the night, it felt perfectly natural to lean in for a kiss--the same kiss Lucy had been telling herself she was just fine without every other time they shared a meal together. Instead of the electrifying frisson of excitement, the earth-shattering discovery of some new part of herself that she’d felt with Ximena, the kiss she shared with Alura felt like all those pieces that had been unsettled and upset as she discovered herself were finally falling back into place, righting themselves in a new order that felt good, that felt whole, that felt like home.  

[keijiwrites]

baby come back to me

prompt: Jercy, on their last day/moment together before they leave for separate colleges oops I hurt myself

I had fun writing this. Thank you, anon!

Jason wasn’t feeling so good if he was being honest. He and Percy - his boyfriend of three years - were going to be leaving for college the next day; meaning, Percy would be across the country studying and they would both be busy with college and other college related things. Jason was happy they would both be headed to college, he was. He just wasn’t happy with the distance between them.

Percy would be studying in Florida while Jason would go to California. It was a lot to take in, but Jason knew they would make things work. They always did.

They had agreed they would be spending their last day together. Now, they were sprawled on the couch watching a t.v. series and eating. Percy was lying on Jason, the blond with his arms around Percy and playing with his hair. His eyes were on the t.v. but his mind was elsewhere.

“I can feel you thinking.” Percy mumbled followed by a sigh. He turned his face to Jason, eyes conveying everything he wasn’t saying. “What’s up? And be honest.”

Jason sighed, arms tightening around Percy subconsciously. “It’s just. . . we’re going to be hours away, you know? And there’s a time difference, too. And we’ll be busy, what if-”

“Whoa, dude. Hold up.” Percy chuckled. “We’ll be fine. We’ve always been. Right?” He placed a kiss on Jason’s chin, making him smile.

“Okay. I believe you.”

“Good. Cause I was thinking we could eat something before my flight. Maybe we can go to Chiron’s?” Percy pursed his lips as he looked at the clock. It was currently five. “Seven? Give you some time to get ready.”

“Okay, babe.” Jason puckered his lips, making Percy roll his eyes but kiss him. This was something they would be missing. A lot.

They finished watching their movie, casual kisses between the scenes they were actually interested in.

After the movie, Jason made to get up but Percy wasn’t having it. He tightened his arms around Jason, face buried in Jason’s neck.

“Uh, Perce? Are you going to let go?”

“No. Just a little more.” Percy mumbled.

“Are you sure you want to go to Chiron’s? We can stay in, you know?”

Percy didn’t say anything. Jason frowned because Percy usually, mostly always, had something to say.

“I don’t mind spending the rest of the evening like this.” Jason mumbled, stroking Percy’s back softly. “We can make your favorite.”

Percy peeked up at Jason through his bangs. “Really?”

Jason grinned. “Of course. I mean, it’s not Sally’s famous blue pancakes, but, I can make a mean homemade burger.”

Percy returned the grin, “Okay. Let’s get to it then. I’m hungry.”

Jason felt some sort of relief as he watched Percy stand. He wasn’t feeling like himself either, but he didn’t want to show it too much. He just wanted Percy to be okay. He was leaving first after all.

Jason prepared the meal, Percy watching closely from the counter, exchanging kisses and jokes. As the burgers were getting done, Jason stood between Percy’s legs, wrapping his arms around him and burying his face in Percy’s neck. He inhaled deeply, they reality that Percy was leaving sinking in rapidly.

“Jace, you okay?” Percy rubbed Jason’s back soothingly.

“I don’t know,” the blond replied, gripping onto Percy’s shirt like a lifeline.

Percy kissed Jason’s temple softly, mumbling under his breath how they would be fine. How they would get through it together and how they will be seeing each other during summer and winter break. Even if it was for a day.

Jason pulled back, eyes watery and red. His glasses were askew, making Percy smile softly and fix them.

“We’ll be fine, okay?”

Jason nodded, wiping his cheeks. “Yeah. Okay.”

They had to remake the burgers, having forgotten them.

The trip to the airport was quiet, except for Paul and Sally who were filling the tense silence every once in a while. Jason and Percy were in the back, holding hands and trying to keep the nerves at bay. Percy was jiggling his leg; Jason trying to calm him down, but his own nerves were getting the best of him. He was constantly fixing his glasses. That was his very obvious nervous tick.

Paul dropped them off at the entrance of JFK, eyes a little watery but in denial of it. Once Percy got his boarding pass and gave his luggage, he turned to Jason and Sally. He was smiling, but Jason knew he would soon be crying. They all would.

Sally went first, hugging her son tightly and pressing kisses onto his temples rapidly. She was mumbling words Jason couldn’t hear but he was sure she was telling him to take care of himself and call often.

Jason tried hard not to cry, but it was a little hard when Percy started to sniffle as they embraced. His eyes watered as he - for the umpteenth time - pulled Percy impossibly closer.

“I’m not really liking this.” His boyfriend murmured.

“You and I both, babe.” Jason ran his fingers through Percy’s hair, telling himself to remember this feeling.

The feeling of having Percy so close, to feel his heartbeat against his own, feel the heat of his skin.

Jason pulled away, cupping Percy’s cheeks and stroking his thumb along it slowly. “I’ll miss you.”

Percy’s smile was watery, knocking their foreheads together. “I’ll miss you too, blondie.”

Jason was going to tell Percy off by the call of the dumb nickname he acquired when they started dating, but it all went down the drain when the other kissed him. He melted into the kiss, tears pricking his eyes. The kiss was a simple press of the lips, but they felt everything they wanted to convey to each other in it.

A promise.

An ‘I love you.’

An ‘I’ll see you soon.’

‘I miss you.’

They pulled away, eyes watery and nervous giggles bubbling out of their mouths. Jason tried to blink back the tears because he absolutely despised crying in public. He wiped Percy’s cheek, skin warm under his thumb.

“I’ll call you later, okay? Time’ll pass in the blink of an eye. Promise.” Percy spoke softly, not wanting to break their little bubble. He kissed Jason’s forehead.

Jason nodded, and with a last kiss, Percy turned away, duffle bag over his shoulder. He waved one last time over his shoulder and Jason could see the tears in his eyes. His red cheeks and nose was what gave him away.

He watched until he couldn’t see Percy anymore. With pain in his heart, he turned and went to the car where Sally and Paul were waiting with open arms.

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