#i then specifically would feed my cats upstairs in my room after that went on too long

[yoshistory]

? Olive has the same meow for "please come pet me while i eat" and "please come here and play with me" now, which only developed after i bought her a new toy (quickly became her new favorite) which is interesting. maybe this is a general meow for "pay attention to me" now .. she no longer really meows for being pet while she eats anymore after buying this toy for them both, for some reason, which is good (that was a REALLY bad habit of hers ive been trying to wean her off of)

[gimmeyoon]

Float Down

    ✰ pairing: Namjoon x Reader

    ✰ setting: College AU

    ✰ word count: 9.8 k

    ✰ Part of the Weather Series

    ✰ warnings: explicit language, smut (Oral (f), daddy kink, spanking)

    ✰ Playlist available in series masterlist

    ✰ summary: ❝Working in the library gave you free printing and lots of time with Kim Namjoon❞

     There's something magical about walking outside in the fall. The way the leaves look as they fall to the sidewalks transports you to your own movie set where you, the reluctant lead, discover things about yourself as the cold air sets in. You almost gag for even thinking something so corny.

     It's true though. You never mind walking to work in the Fall, even though you are the only one unlucky enough to be scheduled for the morning shift at your schools academic center in the library. Everyone else had said they were unavailable at this time. You loved money too much to turn it down.

     The leaves are just starting to change colors now, and in your opinion they never stay this way long enough. It was only the other day your best friend Mia posted a selfie with her first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, but soon all of the leaves would be gone.

     Each year it feels like this time moves too quickly, but it truly feels like you just moved back onto campus the other day. Sometimes you wonder if you're taking advantage of these years enough. You know the answer is no, it's in your nature to sit back and let the world move around you and then one day wonder where all the time went.

     But for now you don't want to think about that. You refuse to think about the falling leaves and how they mark the passage of time and the circle of life. It's too early to have your first existential crisis of the day. Instead you think about how pretty they are. Bright orange, yellow, and red. Pretty.

     You love the smell of shallow thoughts and repressed emotions in the morning.

     You're not surprised to find him sitting by your desk when you get there. The only other person insane enough to already be up and thinking about his life is Namjoon, and as usual he is already in the library. Without fail, he's always in the library when you are, either studying, tutoring, or waiting to talk to the director of subject tutoring as he must be doing now since he's waiting at your desk. If there's anyone who isn't letting a moment go by without ceasing it, it's Namjoon. You often wonder what that's like. You think you should ask him, but you never do.

     "Good morning," you said, slipping your backpack off of your shoulders and sitting behind the desk. You clock in as Namjoon echoes your greeting back to you.

     "Meeting with Dean?" you asked, looking up at him long enough to catch his nod of affirmation.

     "He always gets mad at me for scheduling meetings this early in the morning but it's the only free time I have."

     "Have you considered not doing everything?"

     "Ah," Namjoon said laughing a little. "Not doing all the things? I wasn't aware that was even possible."

     "You should try slacking off like the rest of us, it's been working okay for the centuries this institution has stood."

     "'Slacking off,' says the girl here in the library with me on a Friday morning."

     "I'm getting paid to basically do my homework," you shrugged, pulling out your planner. "The illusion of being busy with all the lack of responsibility I like."

     "Modesty," he said, looking past you as Dean's office opened behind you. "You should take the credit you deserve sometimes."

     You don't respond as he walks past you into Dean's office, mostly because you're not sure how to. Maybe he was right about taking credit for things, as you can't even find it in yourself to agree with him. Then again, he was wrong. You were basically getting paid to do your homework. The rest of the building was lifeless as Dean closed his office door. It was just you, your homework, and your supervisor whenever she decided to show up today. Everyone in the academic office took it upon themselves to come in whenever the wanted on Fridays. No one ever came looking for them early in the morning after Thirsty Thursday's anyways.

     It was what you liked most about this job, it was stress-free and gave you your own paid study hall. That and you got free printing for technically working for the library.

     Your uneventful work day, leads to an uneventful afternoon class, that has you getting home at 6:00pm like ever other Friday, and as usual you want nothing more than to crawl into bed and hibernate for the weekend.

     However, as always your roommate Dami has other plans.

     "Jackson's having a party at his and we're going," she said as soon as you opened the door to your shared apartment.

     "Let the record state that I never got asked if I had plans," you said, setting your backpack down on the kitchen table.

     "Let the record state," Mia said, sitting up on the couch so that she could see you, "that you never have plans with anyone besides us anyways."

     "The jury should note that I'm offended," you said, mock gasping as you fell onto the couch beside Mia. "You're supposed to band together with me in introvertedness against the great extroverted one," you said pointing to Dami.

     "I want to get twisted," she responded, sticking her tongue out at you and laughing.

     "I work," you whined. "I'm a single mother of two," you said motioning between your friends.

     Dami leaned towards you, excitement on her face. "All the more reason to come out with us tonight."

     "Like that one Melissa McCarthy movie," Mia said.

     "Are you comparing to a recently divorced middle-aged woman?"

     "You started it," Mia said, holding her hands up in defense.

     Hours later you find yourself stuffed into a skirt that just barely fits, but makes your ass look good, and Dami's handiwork on your face, which always makes you look unlike yourself but in a good way you think. Not that you normally is bad, it's just not something that makes people stop and comment. You prefer it that way.

     Dami's boyfriend, Jackson, almost never goes to frat parties. It's why he rents the off-campus house he and some of his friends live in. He's always been anti-fraternity, something to do with his brother and hazing, so his place has always been the go-to for those who don't want to deal with greek life. You've always preferred his place to the other's Dami drags you. You could feel comfortable in any room at his house, no short dress or boob shirt required.

     For those less cultured or male in the audience, a boob shirt is like a regular shirt, but it shows off your boobs.

     Unless of course, it was a night like tonight, where Dami insisted on dressing you like one her dolls. You might not need the shirt skirt, but you certainly were wearing it.

     Truly the best part of Dami's boyfriend's place was the used-to-be stray cat that now lives there.

     Mary Jane.

     She was a simple woman, bring her food, and you could pet her. Bring a treat? You might as well take her home with you, because you're her new best friend.

     So you do the rounds, following Dami and Mia around the party and saying hi to your mutual friends, but you always keep in mind that you know exactly where Jackson keeps the cat treats. When you pass by the kitchen the first time, you resist the urge to go grab them, because it's too early and Dami and Mia will absolutely call you out on ignoring everyone.

     But that's exactly what you want to do, so 30 minutes later when you pass by again, you turn into the kitchen, grab the treats from the top shelf of the cabinet on the right, and make your way upstairs.

     You'd already scouted the downstairs as you walked through the party and Mary Jane was no where to be seen. Not surprising, she usually didn't like to be around the large crowd of people.

     You finally find her at the end of the upstairs hallway, in one of the other housemates rooms. You hesitate for a moment, because it's not Jackson's and it's not Mark's, the only other room you've been invited into to for the sole purpose of playing Mario Kart a few weeks ago.

     You decide to head inside anyways, and ask for forgiveness instead of permission, because the promise of solitude and cat cuddles is more than enough to push aside your inhibitions.

     She hesitates at first, but after you present the bag of treats to her she's hooked. She purrs with delight as you feed her the treats and comes to rest on your lap as you sit on the floor leaned up against the foot of the bed. Alcohol has always had a specific sleep-inducing effect on you, and you can feel it happening as your eyes feel heavy and close just as the door to the room opens.

     It takes a moment for you to turn and see who has come to potentially kick you out, but your eyes go wide as you realize who it is.

     "Oh," Namjoon said as you looked at each other.

     "Cat," you said pointing at Mary Jane.

     "You think that argument will hold up in court?" he asked walking further into the room.

    "I might need a few more words, but I have proof," you said holding up the bag of treats, causing Mary Jane to jump from your lap towards them, scratching your leg as she does so.

     You curse as your hand moves to the wound, looking down at the surface level scratches she's caused.

     "Oh my god, are you okay?" Namjoon asked, moving quickly to your side.

     "Yeah," you assured him quickly. "It's not even bleeding that much."

    "That much," he echoed with wide eyes. "Here let me get you a band-aid or something."

     You watched silently as he stood up and left the room, your heart doing this weird flippy-thing you couldn't describe. You knew Namjoon and nothing about him offering to help you was surprising.

    That was the thing about Namjoon. He was kind of perfect. You knew from your own job that he worked harder than anyone else you knew. He was handsome and kind and he smiled at you like you mattered.

     You didn't give into any delusions that he would like you back. He could have literally anyone.

    Once he walked back into the room, a band-aid in hand, you've managed to convince your heart to calm down. Namjoon was nice to everyone. He would get a band-aid for anyone.

     "She doesn't know her own strength," he joked, as he also handed you a cotton ball. "Peroxide," he answered, before you could ask.

    He sort of awkwardly, looks at the scratches on your thigh, before clearing his throat, and moving to sit beside you on the floor. Once you finish cleaning the area and applying the bandage, you look up at him. He's been watching your work, offering a small smile as his eyes meet yours.

     "I was just going to watch a movie and drink alone," he said, reaching over into the fridge by his bed and pulling out two beers. "You could join me if you wanted to."

     "Oh, I don't want to barge in," you said, shaking your head and moving to stand.

     "You already did that," he laughs, handing the beer to you. "Seriously, neither of us want to be at the actual party, but drinking alone seems sad."

     "Are you sure?" you asked, still not sitting down all the way.

     He looked back at you, his same kind smile making your knees a little weak. "Definitely."

     "Okay," you said, sitting down and twisting the top off of the beer.

     "Great," he said, moving grabbing the remote off of the TV stand. "How do you feel about the Nightmare Before Christmas?"

     "I feel great about it," you responded, just as Mary Jane came walking back to you.

     Namjoon laughed as she curled up into your lap again. She almost seems apologetic as she avoids the bandaged area.

     And as the two of you sit in silence, drinking and watching the movie together, you can't help but think about how nice it all is. How you wouldn't mind doing this more often. How Namjoon makes the party seem so far yet at the same time right here as just the two of you.

     College often feels like living from one weekend to the next. The weeks blend together as the two days you have off move too quickly.

    You get to skip the parties the following weekend, but only because the three of you have plans to go the pumpkin patch. Dami planned it at the beginning of the year, specifically for her three best girls and her best boy.

     Jackson pretend to hate when she called him that.

     However, at some point it became a roommate outing, meaning Jackson's roommates also tagged along. Which means that Namjoon was there as well.

     It's becoming increasingly normal to see him, but something about your time together last weekend has you feeling butterflies in your chest as you see him walk over with Jackson and Mark.

    Somehow you manage to fall into step with him like a normal person, as your friends walk ahead of you, goofing off together.

    "How was your math test?" Namjoon asked, to which you had to maintain your composure and not freak out a little because he remembered you had a test after he saw you studying in the library.

     "Good," you said, nodding your head while you mentally screamed. "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

    "That's always good," he said, nodding his head as well.

     Dami yells something about the corn maze as she motions for everyone to follow her and heads into it.

     You and Namjoon share a look before following after your friends. You can hear them ahead of you laughing and carrying on, but you make no effort to catch up. You notice that Namjoon doesn't either.

     "Do you like fall?" he asked, as you turned left down a path that seemed promising. "Like do you enjoy things like this."

     "Yeah," you said, coming to stop at another intersection. "I mostly like that I'm not sweating all of the time now and the world is prettier."

    "Yeah," Namjoon said motioning for you to go right. "I mean it's pretty messed up that we think trees are prettier when they're dying, but I get it."

     "The trees aren't dying, they're just sleeping."

     "Sleeping," he laughs, as you come to another intersection. "I've never head anyone put it like that."

     "If they died they wouldn't get new leaves in the Spring."

     "Just a flesh wound then," he added.

    "You like Monty Python?" you asked, following him as he took the path straight ahead of you two.

     "Yeah, I mean, that's the only movie of their's I've seen, but I liked it," Namjoon stopped at yet another intersection, looking both ways and then at you. "They get points for actually making it hard," he laughed, motioning for you to follow him as he turns right down a new path.

     You feel a sense of freedom as the two of you finally stumble out of the maze. Dami and Jackson laugh as you practically run to catch up with your friends.

     "I thought we were goners," you said, dramatically as Dami threw an arm over your shoulders.

     "Two of the smartest people i know and they can't get out of a corn maze," Dami laughs, pulling you into her side. "Come on, let's get cider and donuts before picking out our children."

     "Pumpkins," Jackson says, running to catch up with the two of you as you walk towards the concessions stand. "We're getting pumpkins, not children."

     "Men," Dami said, rolling her eyes. "Always afraid of commitment."

     "Not Namjoon," Mark said, earning a punch in the arm from his friend. "He was like this close to proposing to his girlfriend last year."

     "Awh, Namjoon," Dami said. "That's sweet."

     "Tell them what you wanted to be when you grew up," Mark said causing Namjoon to stare back at him blankly.

     "Far away from you, sounds good now."

     "I'm just kidding man," he said as you all finally made it to the food truck and began ordering.

     Namjoon looks far away as the group sits down at a picnic table and starts to eat. As everyone talks and laughs together, Namjoon's heart doesn't seem in it. You don't know why you care, it's like no one else in the group does, but you can't stop watching him, wondering if you should say something.

     You don't, and by the time all of you get in the back of the truck to go pick your pumpkins, Namjoon seems back to his regular self.

     "A boy and a girl," Dami said as she and Jackson held up two of the largest pumpkins in the patch. "What should we name them baby?" she teases as Jackson shakes his head and begins to walk away from her.

     "Gourdon and Autumn," you offer, earning a squeal from you friend.

     "Your mind is so powerful," she said as she sat her pumpkin down.

     "There's no way you guys are getting those back to the tractor," Mia says as she watches Jackson struggle to carry both of them after Dami dumped Autumn or maybe it was Gourdon off on him as well.

     "I can handle it," he grunted, earning a cheer of support from Dami.

     You have no trouble at all walking back to the tractor, as you hold in your hands one of the smaller pumpkins. Small enough to fit on your desk, though a part of you knew Dami would want them out in the common space of your apartment all together. You want it there so you can look at it while you do your work. A reminder that school might suck but Fall certainly doesn't.

     Namjoon must think something similar as he sits down next to you on a hay bale in the back of the wagon being pulled by the tractor.

     "You know it's pay by the pound, right?" Namjoon said as he took in the sheer size of Jackson and Dami's pumpkins, which the former did manage to get into the back of the wagon.

     "It's what?" Jackson said, his face falling in disbelief as Dami leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

     "I love you, baby," she said, patting the pumpkin in her lap.

     "I love you too," Jackson sighed, shaking his head.

     You tried hard to hold in your laughter as the look on Dami's face confirmed your suspicions. She hadn't been talking to Jackson. Namjoon shook silently besides you as well, shooting a knowing glance your way, meant only for the two of you.

     Despite the rush of school, time also seems to move slower somehow. Everyone seems to stop and look up and realize the leaves are falling. Or maybe that's just you as you walk to work the following Monday.

     It should be a crime to work open on Monday. It was specifically cruel and unusual punishment for a procrastinator like you that obviously waited until the last moment Sunday night to finish your work.

     You're not sure who in their right mind would want to be at the academic center this early on a Monday anyways.

     Your hypothetical is answered as you see Namjoon sitting across from your desk once you walk into the library.

     "Have you heard of sleep?" you asked, as you took your backpack off and sat down.

     "Sleep?" he mused, looking up at the ceiling. "I haven't heard that name in years," he continued, pretending to smoke a cigarette.

     "Sleep and I are in a meaningful, long-term relationship," you laughed, as you confirmed that Dean wasn't in yet for his meeting with Namjoon.

     Of course he's late. Of course you don't mind. Though you do envy him a little bit. You like seeing Namjoon, but as previously stated. You've been loving sleep for longer than this little crush you have.

    "How's your pumpkin doing?" he asked, breaking the momentary silence that had fallen between the two of you.

    "Happy, healthy, living in a loving and warm environment," you said, pulling out your phone to show him a picture of the gourd sitting on your desk. You and your friends had a carving party the night before, and your's now had a smiling face to confirm your previous statement of happiness.

    "You did a good job," he said, handing your phone back to you. "Mine will remain uncarved for the aesthetic," he said. "And by the aesthetic I mean the total lack of artistic talent I have and my inability to wield a knife without injuring myself or others."

    You laughed as he winced at his own words. It was endearing to image Namjoon hopelessly trying to put a face on his pumpkin.

    "Seriously," he continued. "I barely wanted to get the pumpkin, but it seemed to be the only reason to actually go to a pumpkin patch."

    "Well don't forget the impossibly hard maze and the apple cider," you said, smiling wide.

    "And the company," he added, looking somehow deeper into your eyes. It made you feel vulnerable in front of him, so you quickly busied yourself with something on your desk to look away.

    "Namjoon," Dean said as he approached the academic center. "Sorry, I'm late."

    "It's okay," Namjoon said, standing up to greet his boss. "I'm getting used to it."

    "Don't say that too loud," Dean laughed, clapping Namjoon on the back. "I'll be out of work if anyone important hears."

    Namjoon looked at you as the two of them walked into his office, and you couldn't be sure, but it seemed to say you had heard it and you were important. Then again, Namjoon always had a way of making people feel important. It was probably just your imagination.

   "No cats at this house," Namjoon said as you followed Dami into the kitchen.

    You found yourself yet again dragged out by your friends to the latest party, this one at a fraternity this time. You were content to stick to their side all night until you finally got the liquid courage to branch out. Now, however, you figured there was someone else you might want to stick with for the night. He had a way of doing that. Of making you want to orbit him like he was the sun.

     "Are you calling her a cat?" Dami asked, pushing you lightly behind her back as if she was trying to protect you.

     "No," Namjoon quickly said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just meant Mary Jane."

     "You want to smoke?" Someone you didn't know spoke up, motioning down the hall. "Brad's room."

     "No, the cat," he said, not looking in that guy's direction his focus completely on you.

    "I got it," you said laughing and giving him a thumbs up.

    Namjoon was like that, he could make a situation that would make you want the ground to open up and swallow you whole seem outright adorable. As he looked back at you, you could almost believe he meant for that confusion to happen. He was so sure of himself; you wished you could be the same.

    "I could smoke," Dami said, turning to you and Mia.

    "I could sit beside you while you smoke," Mia said with a shrug, turning to you.

    "I could not think of anything less inviting," you said, earning a laugh from Namjoon.

    "I could take her off your hands," he said to Dami, who raised an eyebrow at him, before giving you the same skeptical look.

    "Oh," she said, face breaking into a smile. "That would be so very kind of you, Namjoon," she said, pushing you towards him, causing you to stumble awkwardly.

    Namjoon's hands shot up as if he was ready to catch you. You tried not to think about how it made your heart dance.

    "We'll meet up with you later," Mia called to you as her and Dami quickly made their way out of the Kitchen and down the hall.

     You and Namjoon say nothing, as the party sounds around you, the two of you standing far enough a part to seem like you might not even be talking to each other. Well the distance between you and the sheer lack of talking. It was as if the two of you no longer remembered how to behave like normal humans as soon as your friends disappeared. Maybe you did. Maybe that's why you had wanted to stay with them all night.

    "You want to get some air?" Namjoon asked, finally breaking the silence and the tension between the two of you.

    There must be some part of your brain dedicated to the silence because you only nod your head in response. Namjoon must not mind, or at least you hope he doesn't, because he smiles in response and motions for you to follow him out the door in the kitchen to the patio behind the house. You're the only two crazy enough to go outside in the chill of the night, but you don't mind it after the absolute furnace that results from a mass of college kids trying to fit in one house.

    "I like these parties in theory," Namjoon said, as the two of you sat on the steps of the patio. "The extrovert in me is like 'yay people' and then I get here and realize I don't want to dance, I'm horrible at pong, and talking is nearly impossible."

    "I don't even really like them in theory," you said, laughing a little. "But I do want to be a good upstanding member of this college community, and my friends like to go out."

    "I kind of figured after I found you breaking and entering," he laughed.

    "I cannot be held responsible for what happens when I find a cat," you said, holding your hands up in surrender.

    "It's okay," he said, his eyes seeming to reflect the stars as he smiled at you. "I'm glad you broke in to my room."

    "See Namjoon," you said, looking away so that you didn't melt right then and there. "It's that type of naivety that's going to allow me to rob you in the near future."

    "Go ahead," he said, laughing loudly. "Enjoy the $20 in my bank account."

    You shook your head in disbelief as you looked back up at him. "Never mind. Next time I break into your room, I'll leave behind $10. Don't spend it all at once."

    "I've tried to convince Jackson that our house should have a philanthropy like all of the fraternities. It's called the Kim Namjoon fund and it will help this poor college boy realize his dreams or finally ordering something other than the value menu at McDonald's."

    "Hold your horses," you said, looking at him seriously. "Don't set your sights too high, Namjoon. You only be disappointed when you can't reach them."

    Namjoon laughs heartily beside you, just as a strong breeze sends a chill down your spine. You weren't exactly dressed to be spending long periods of time outside.

    "Oh my god," he said, taking his bomber jacket off. "My mom would be so ashamed of me," he said holding the jacket out towards you. "Please, put this on."

    You consider turning it down, why should he get cold instead of you? But as you look at his long sleeve shirt that he had on under the jacket, you decide you really have no other choice than to take it because a) his mom would be ashamed of him otherwise and b) Cardi B is a liar, hoes absolutely do get cold.

    "Thank you so much," you said as you quickly put the jacket on, your body instantly feeling relief as you were covered from the elements.

    "Of course," he said, smiling as he leaned back against the patio. "We could also head inside if you want."

      "No," you said, a little too quickly. "I like being away from it all."

      "Me too," he said, nodding his head as he looked up at the sky. "Do you ever look up at the stars and think about how we're a part of all that?"

     "No," you said looking up, "but you're right. How does that make me fell small and important all at once?"

    Namjoon chuckled as you felt him turn to look at you. "Just because something is small doesn't mean it isn't important."

    "That's what he said," you said, your straight face breaking into a small smile as Namjoon laughed loudly beside you.

    "I was making a deep and meaningful statement," he said, smiling widely as you turned to look at him.

    "Yeah," you said smiling back. "Just because I made a dick joke doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful? Small dick slander has got to end."

    "Rights for small dicks," he agreed, as he turned to look back at the stars, the smile on his face never leaving.

   You watched him instead, thinking that you might risk hypothermia just to see the way he examined the world. He was right, you thought. Namjoon might just be one of billions of people in a galaxy bigger than you could ever conceptualize, but he was important. He was like lightening in a bottle, the kind of person that only happened ever so often, and you thought that maybe you were important too, since the universe gave you these moments with him.

    You knew just as you admired him admiring the stars that he would be burned in your brain forever. You'd see him on the news someday, having made the world a better place, and you would tell your hypothetical kids, or your hypothetical cats, whichever outcome was more realistic, that you knew him. That one night you got to look at the stars together and consider your place in the universe.

   And that you knew none of it really mattered as long as right here and now your place in the universe was right beside him.

    Hours later as you and Namjoon catch the bus home, you almost feel your heart missing him already. You don't talk as you sit side by side, but you don't feel the same tension from earlier. You feel at ease beside him, a type of peace that could only come from seeing the stars inside of each other.

    And when he asks you if you want to study at the Starbucks on campus the next day, you feel your heart dance with glee at seeing him again. At meeting each other star to star again.

    You say yes, because there's really no other option. You wonder if his gravity will ever stop pulling you in. You wonder if you want it to. You know that you don't.

    He's a fucking literature student.

    It's not fair, he shouldn't be allowed to sit in the cafe with his worn book and coffee, with his glasses slightly fallen down on his nose. But yet, he just gets to do that, sitting across from you with the most insane amount of gravity you've ever experienced in his presence.

    You try to focus on your articles, you really do, but you keep having to reread paragraphs as his very existence keeps distracting you.

    You think its really unfair that he showed up late, meaning you really had no chance to compose yourself as he just waltzed in with his hair tousled and his oversized denim jacket like has no clue how good he looks.

    Your only solace is that you weren't actively drinking your coffee when he sat down or your surely would have choked and embarrassed yourself.

    He probably knows the Hiemlich and would have saved your life, causing one of the cute baristas to thank him for saving your life, and they would fall in love and live their perfect life.

    You hate this hypothetical barista. You kind of hate Namjoon for making you feel this way. You also most certainly do not.

    "Have you ever read a book and just internally screamed at how stupid the characters are being?"

     You think that right now you're screaming at yourself for the same thing.

    "Yeah," you said, looking up from your article. "I hate when authors make girls act emotionally instead of logically. Like I'm supposed to believe the female leader of a revolution would let her feelings jeopardize the movement?"

    "Isn't that just human of her?"

    You shrugged, taking a sip of your coffee. "I guess I just have the sort of mentality where if something needs to get done you have to do it. Like if I was in the zombie apocalypse, right? I wouldn't just sit around and hope things worked out. But that's always how female characters are written. The boys go out and fight the zombies and the girls help everyone else remember humanity. And then they die to make the male character realize something."

    "That's called fridging," Namjoon said, nodding his head. "It's when a female character only serves the purpose of dying so that the male character avenges her."

    "Whatever it's called, it drives me up a wall."

    "Me too," he agreed, looking back down at his book.

     You each go back to your school work, though Namjoon seems to be fairing better than you. Probably has something to do with the inability to be distracted by himself.

    As you reach for your coffee, Namjoon reaches for his own, and for the briefest moment, your hands touch. You quickly move your hand away, and try not to notice the way Namjoon smiles to himself as he goes back to his book.

    You spend the rest of your time together wondering what might have happened if you hadn't pulled away. If maybe Namjoon wanted to hold your hand just as badly as you wanted to hold his.

     "No," Dami said, as you tried to sneak down the hallway to your room. "Absolutely not. You are going to watch this movie with us."

     "Mia," you whined, as your other friend walked by you towards the couch.

     "You can leave after the movie," she said, smiling as she sat down by Dami.

     "The two of you want me to be perpetually exhausted by social interaction."

     "Better to trick you into liking us," Mia said, as you fell back onto the couch beside her.

     "It's a deadly loop," you said, resting your head on her shoulder. "I get exhausted from the social interaction you force on me, and then I'm too exhausted to say no the next time."

     "And we get to enjoy your presence even more," Mia said, resting her head on top of your's.

     "Besides," Dami said, causing you and Mia to turn and look at her. "Namjoon's going to be here," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

     You felt your face heat up as both her and Mia gave you knowing looks. "Stop that now, or I will throw myself into the television."

    "Dramatic," Mia said.

    "Effective," you replied.

    "Please," Dami said, pulling Hulu up. "We're going to watch Corpse Bride and it's going to be great."

    "Jackson's really going to think you're dropping hints," Mia said, to which you nodded your head in agreement.

    "Who says I'm not?" Dami said, never looking away from the television.

    "Oh, it's like that?" Mia said, looking at you with a smile. "I have never felt more single in my life."

    "They're so in love it makes me sick," you agreed, earning a small laugh from Dami.

    "Then be sick," she said, smiling in a way that let you know she was proud of herself.

    "I'm happy for you," Mia said, leaning back into the couch.

    "Agreed," you said, copying her movements.

    "You better be," Dami said, walking to the kitchen and opening up a pack of microwave popcorn. "You're my friends for Pete's sake."

    "Who's Pete? Is he single?" Mia said, laughing at her own joke.

    The movie itself was relatively uneventful. You felt at ease with Jackson's apartment, and no one said anything when Namjoon sat near you on the other couch. You were thankful for the space between the two of you and for Mia because it allowed you to remember how normal people were supposed to watch movies.

    Though you did find yourself watching Namjoon instead of the movie at times. You tried not to smile too widely when Namjoon mouthed along to the vow scene. You made a mental note to tell him that you had always thought people should say that at weddings instead of the traditional ones. When you had first seen the movie you were struck by how romantic they were. It was exactly how you wanted someone to love you.

    To light the way in the darkness of your life. To fill your cup and lift you up.

    You wondered if he felt the same way.

    When the movie finishes, Dami and Jackson announce that not only is the night not over, but everyone is required to get shit-faced together. You consider taking Mia up on her earlier offer and going to bed, but something about Namjoon pouring himself a beer has you accepting the glass of wine Dami hands you.

    Kings. That's what Jackson and Dami finally agree on playing.

    "We should all get to know each other better," Dami said, holding your gaze for long enough that you feel the heat return to your face.

    "You're just nosey," Mia replied, causing the room to echo with laughter as Dami nodded her head in agreement.

    Dami draws the first card and frowns as she reveals that she's pulled a 6. "Sorry ladies," she said as she toasted to you and Mia who took the first drinks of the night.

    Mia is the last person to touch the ground three cards later when Mark draws a 4.

    You actually find yourself having fun, which is a reminder of why you let yourself be bullied into these things. Dami and Mia usually have your best interest at heart.

    You feel your face heat up when Namjoon draws an ace meaning he's in the hot seat and everyone gets to ask him whatever they want. You like to think Dami and Mia wouldn't embarrass you, but you also know there's a chance they do.

   "When did you lose your virginity?" Dami asks, right out the gate, causing Mia to howl with laughter.

   "We apologize, Namjoon. We can't be held responsible for her," Mia said.

   Namjoon laughed lightly, nodding at Mia. "Sixteen," he replied.

   "Was it your last girlfriend?" Jackson asked, earning a nod of support from Dami.

   "He gets me," she said, resting her head on her boyfriend's shoulder. "We're here for the tea, goddamnit."

   "Cruel, but yes," he said, nodding.

   Everyone turned to look at you as it became your turn. You felt yourself go wide-eyed at their stares and you hesitantly turned towards Namjoon.

    "What's your favorite color?" you asked, earning a groan from Dami and Jackson.

    "Boring," Jackson said.

    "Too easy," Dami agreed, earning a high-five from her boyfriend.

    "I've been liking green lately," he said, smiling at you.

    "I'm not as nice," Mark said as he leaned forward for his turn. "Were you really going to marry your ex?"

    "You suck," Namjoon said, elbowing Mark.

    "You can drink instead," Mia offered.

    "No, it's okay," he said, shaking his head. "You know, you could just ask me that normally," he said to Mark.

    "Felt too personal before. Especially after what happened."

    "What happened?" Dami whispered loudly.

    Namjoon laughed sort of low and without humor. "Probably would have married her if she hadn't cheated on me, yeah."

    "Why would you bring that up?" Dami said, pointing a finger at Mark. "This is supposed to be fun sex questions not depressing trauma questions."

   Namjoon snorted. "Someone ask a fun sex question, quick."

   "What's the weirdest place you've had sex?" Mia said quickly.

   "My car," he said, smiling. "Not that weird but it's what I have to offer."    

   "Nice," Mia said, giving Namjoon a fist-bump.

   The game continues and just like the last time Mark brought it up, Namjoon seems far away. You hate her, you don't know her, but you hate her. Maybe for what she did, but definitely for the way she keeps stealing him from you without even being there. You wonder how it's possible to miss someone sitting right next to you, but you do. And when he finally returns as Mark breaks the seal on the can of beer in front of you, you can't help but smile.

    Namjoon seems pleased that his friend has to chug the cheap beer and you get it.

    Your friends decide to turn on the music and have a small party of their own as the alcohol buzzes through your veins. You're watching Mia dance on the coffee table when Namjoon gets up from the couch and heads down the hallway of your apartment. Mia only raises an eyebrow as you stand up as well, following him out of the living room. You find him stood between your bedroom door and the bathroom, leaning back against the wall and scrolling through his phone.

    "Are you okay?" you asked, as you approached him.

    He smiled as he looked up at you. "Yeah, totally."

    "Are you sure? You seemed far away earlier."

    "Yeah," he said, nodding his head. "Sometimes I have these thoughts that won't go away, you know? That kind of brought them back, but I'm okay, really."

    "So, you're in the hallway because you're totally fine?"

    "Yeah," he smiled. "Just wanted a moment of silence, or as close as I could get without literally leaving the apartment."

    "Okay," you said, nodding your head as you leaned against the wall with him.

    "Thanks for checking on me," he said, pausing for a moment. "It means a lot."

    "Of course," you said, looking up at him. "No offense, but I think Mark's a dick."

    "He is a dick, but he's also not," he laughed. "That doesn't make sense, but it also makes total sense if you know him."

    "I'll take your word for it."

    You stand there in silence, thoughts swirling around your head that feel more fluid and ready to spill out of you as the alcohol breaks down the walls in your brain.

    "Can I be a dick?" you asked, looking down at your hands.

    "Well, if you really put your mind to it," he laughed.

    "No, I mean," you shook your head, before looking back up at him. "Can I ask you a question that might be out of line?"

    "Sure," he said, giving you a small smile. "At least it isn't in front of a small group of friends who will now pity me for answering it."

    "No one pities you."

    "So why did you come check on me like a kicked puppy?" he asked. "I'm not mad, I just mean it kind of confirms you feel bad for me. Poor Namjoon his ex-girlfriend cheated on him and he loved her so much."

    "Do you still love her?"

    "Was that your out-of-line question?"

    "Yes."

    Namjoon nodded his head, as he looked away from you and up at the ceiling. "Do we ever stop loving people? I don't know, I think I'll always love her. That's what it's like to be alive I suppose."

    "I wouldn't know," you said, looking down at your feet.

    "It hurts like hell," he said, still looking at you, though you didn't move to meet his gaze. "I wish I could stop loving her, but I can't. Maybe that sounds horrible to you and like you never want to feel that way, but it's worth it. What it felt like to love her and to be loved back by her was worth this pain now."

    You nod your head as your friends cheer with glee from the living room. You know it shouldn't, but it hurts to hear him say that. You almost regret asking him if he still loved her, but you also find peace in at least knowing that she still holds a place in his heart.

    And as you ponder his words you think he's right, the hurt of knowing she holds a place in his heart while he holds one in your's, hurts like hell, but standing by him in the hallway, yet again being sucked into his gravity, is worth it.

     "You know," Namjoon said as the two of you left the library together after your shift. "Fall goes away too quickly."

     "Yeah?"

     "One moment the leaves are turning bright colors, and the next they're gone and everything's grey."

     "That's life," you said, kicking your feet among the leaves as you walk. "There's color and then grey, but one day there will be color again."

     "I wish it could always be color," he said, laughing a little. "But everything goes I guess."

    The two of you ride the bus together in comfortable silence. You've become to this routine, looking forward to the next time you get to listen to Namjoon theorize about the universe and then just sitting together in the comfort of each other's presence. It's almost enough. It's almost all you want from him. You try to forget the other things you want. The things that seem unrealistic with each passing day.

   You get off at your stop with a slight nod to him. This is always your least favorite part. The having to leave him. You've become so used to having him in your life, to having his light shine on you, that you spend the time a part hoping for when you'll see him again.

    As you walk to your apartment, you make a mental note of the next time you'll see him at work tomorrow. You wonder if that's what your life has become, moments with Namjoon and moments without. You almost start to pity yourself, the girl hopelessly in love with her friend, when you hear footsteps running towards you.

    As you turn around, you nearly jump as you realize Namjoon is running towards you. You can only gawk at him as you stop walking to let him catch up with you.

     "Are we color or grey?" he asked, panting a little as he stood before you.

     "What?" you asked looking at him with wide eyes.

     "You’re my color, am I yours?"

    And you think your heart might burst from your chest as the sound of it pounds in your ears. It takes you a moment to make sense of his words. To convince yourself it's not a dream, though it plays out like the ones you've had since meeting him.

     "Yes," you said in a small voice, almost as if you're afraid any louder and you'd break the moment.

     "Yes?" he repeated, a look of disbelief on his face. "Yes," he said again more certain this time, as he lightly grabbed both sides of your face and pulled you into a kiss. “Be gentle with me,” he breathed.

     “Always,” you assured him, pulling him in for another kiss.

     And as the leaves fell around the two of you, so could you feel yourself falling.

     "Cuffing season," Namjoon muses as he sits next to you on the couch, your legs thrown across his lap. You look up at him with a hum in response.

     "Dami captioned this photo of us, 'cuffing season,'" he elaborated, turning the phone towards you.

      You and Namjoon have been on a few dates and are 'practically official' as Dami says. Thought neither you nor Namjoon has said such a thing. You don't have an issue with lack of clarification. You're just happy to selfishly soak up all of the time you can with him. To hold his hand at the coffee shop instead of recoiling in fear like before.

    There's no need to rush things. Things feel slower in the Fall.

     "I've always hated that term," he continued. "I don't want you to feel cuffed to me. I want you to want to be with me."

    You think that you could never feel cuffed to him. That being with him is a dream you thought might never be realized.

     "I do," you assured him, setting your book down in your lap. "You know that right?"

     "Sometimes my brain does this fun thing," he said, laughing a little. "Where it convinces me nothing good could ever happen to me, so this must not be real."

    You don't have to ask. You know it's the same reason he looks far away sometimes.

    "It's real," you said, grabbing his hand in yours and caressing it lightly.

    He looked down at where your hands connected, sighing softly. "I'm falling for you," he said, his gaze serious. "Pun intended."

     "Falling Season would have been a better caption," you reply laughing as you move to kiss his cheek.

     "So you're falling for me too," he asked, smiling.

     "Helplessly," you responded, moving so that you straddled his lap.

     "Perfect," he said, before leaning in and kissing you.

     You and Namjoon seemingly cannot keep your hands off of each other, and the rate from which kissing Namjoon turns into the two of you groping each other and frantically ripping each other's clothes off is the proof of it.

    It happens like this every time, one kiss turns into you grinding your hips into his, turns into his hands gripping tightly at your ass, which turns to you pulling yourself as close to him as possible.

    You kiss him like you want to lose yourself in him, because you think you do. You think if it was possible for two bodies to literally become one, you would want to meld with him, but instead you settle for the figurative combination instead, throwing your head back in delight as he begins kissing down your neck, a smile on his lips as he presses a kiss to the space between your breasts.

    His hands find their way under the dress you're wearing, and in one movement they work your dress over your head, your arms leaving him only long enough to take it off.

    "Wait," Namjoon said, as your hands played with the hem of his shirt. "We're in your fucking living room," he laughed, his head falling against your chest. He places another kiss between your breasts, before lightly patting your ass to get up.

    "Room now," he said, as you stood up.

    "Sir, yes sir," you said, earning a serious look from him.

    "More of a daddy guy myself," he said as he followed you to your room.

    "No, you are not," you said, turning to him with wide eyes as he set the door behind him.

    "What's the matter, baby girl?" he said, smiling as he moved you towards the bed. "Tell daddy what's wrong?"

    "You're really into that?" you asked again, as he pushed your shoulder lightly so that you were sitting on the edge of your bed.

    "I'm really into that..." he said, looking at you expectantly.

    You stared back at him, confused until you realized what he was going for.

    "You're really into that, daddy?" you asked, causing him to smile widely.

    "You'll be the death of me," he said, leaning down to kiss you.

    "Daddy?" you said, finding it not as foreign on your lips as you had expected.

    He hummed in response, leaning in to kiss you again.

    "Don't you think I've been a good girl?" you asked, potentially as surprised with yourself as Namjoon looks at your question. "Don't you think I deserve a reward?" 

     "I should have known you'd use it against me," he laughed before kissing you on the forehead. "But you have been a good girl," he said. "The best girl."

    "Your best girl," you echoed, shameless, spreading your legs for him to stand between them.

    "My only girl," he said, looking you deep into your soul as if to answer the question that hung unanswered between the two of you.

    "A girl only has one daddy," you said, to which Namjoon shook his head.

    "Don't be heteronormative, _____."

    "Hey," you said, pushing him back as he tried to kiss you again. "I'm trying to do this for you, don't woke my daddy speak."

    "You're daddy speak?" he laughed.

    "It's your kink," you said, as he motioned for you to move further onto the bed. "If you really want to be woke about this, call me mommy," you said, settling against your head board.

    "Absolutely not," he said taking his shirt off. "Do you want me to call you mommy?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

    "No, I kind of hate it."

    "Do you hate calling me daddy?" he asked as he stepped out of his pants.

    "No," you said as he got on the bed and positioned himself above you. "I like that you like when I say it."

    "I like you," he said, kissing you again.

    "I like you too," you said as he kissed his way down your body.

    "You're good for me," he said, his fingers running under the band of your panties. "Good to me."

    "You're good for me too," you agreed, as he kissed your clit over your underwear. "Fuck, that's good for me too," you said.

    "Good girls don't curse," he said, looking up at you.

    "Namjoon," you said, earning a raised eyebrow. "Daddy," you corrected.

    "Yes?" he said, pulling your underwear off of you.

    "I can't be blamed for the way you make me feel."

    "I make you feel like cursing?" he chuckled.

    "Yes," you said, as he softly ran a finger up your slit. "So good, I have no choice but to curse."

    "Try harder," he said. "You're a good girl, right?"

    "Yes, daddy," you said, causing him to smile wickedly at you.

    "Good," he said, replacing his finger with his tongue as he began rewarding you.

    "You're playing dirty," you said, instead of the curses that wanted to fall from your mouth as he sucked at your clit.

    "Should I stop?" he asked, looking up at you and winking.

    "No, please don't stop," you said, running your fingers through his hair. "Daddy," you added once you realized he was waiting to hear that.

    "You can handle it," he smile, before licking your core again.

    As his tongue lapped circles at your clit, he pressed one finger inside of you, smiling up at you as a moan left your lips.

    By the time he added a second finger, you could feel your high approaching, the waves of you euphoria crashing over you as he once again sucked your clit into his mouth.

    "Best girl," he said, as he moved up your body and kissed you passionately.

    The two of you became a mess of limbs as your lips danced together and as Namjoon pulled away to put on a condom, you couldn't help but smile widely at him.

    "What?" he asked, laughing a little.

    "I really like you," you said, earning a kiss from him.

    "I already told you I'm falling for you, baby girl," he said pressing a kiss to your nose as well.

    "I like hearing you say it though."

    "Then I won't stop," he said, running his cock along your folds.

    "Daddy," you said, earning another wicked grin. "don't tease."

    "Whatever you say," he said, sinking into you with a low groan.

    "Fuck," you said, causing Namjoon to raise an eyebrow.

    "That won't do," he said, pulling out of you. "Hands and knees, now."

    "Yes, daddy," you said, quickly moving to your position.

    His large hands rubbed soothing circles into your ass, and before you could truly process what would happen, his right came down hard against you.

    "Fuck," you said, your back arching at the pleasure that came with the pain.

    "Again?" he asked, rubbing another circle of where he had just spanked you. "Maybe this one will get the message across?"

    This time as he slapped you, you held back the curse that wanted to fall from your lips, your pussy clenching as the pain seemed to travel straight to it.

    "That's better," he said, leaning down to kiss the afflicted area. "What do you think? Do you need one more?"

    "I'll be good, daddy," you said, your core aching to be filled by him.

    "I know you will, baby," he said, running his cock along your folds again.

    And as he sank into you, your hips move back to take him all in. You were greedy for him and you weren't ashamed of it. Everything about him made you feel good and you couldn't get enough.

    "You always feel so good," he said rocking into you. "Like your pussy was made for me."

    "It was," you agreed, a moan falling from your lips as well.

    "Always so good to me," he said, breathing heavily as he set a rough pace.

    Your words turned into moans as the two of you chased your highs. Namjoon's hand moved beneath you, to rub at your clit as he announced his own released was approaching.

    "Come on," he said, slapping at your ass again. "Be a good girl and cum for daddy."

    "Namjoon," you said, you face falling into your pillows as you felt the cord in your abdomen grow tighter. "Don't stop, please."

    "Anything for you," he said, pressing a kiss to your shoulder as he angled himself deeper into you.

    You moaned his name again as you felt yourself unravel, your head spinning as you came again, the two of you moaning loudly as he came moments later.

    He kissed every inch of your body near him as the two of you came down from your highs. And as the both of your fell deep into your bed, you found his gravity once again as he pulled you into him, the two of you lying on your sides facing each other.

    He seemed to glow as you watched him break into a wide smile.

    "I swear to God," you heard Mia yell moments later as the two of you just lie in the silence together. "Dami or _____, whichever one of you is stripping in the living room, if you fucked on this couch I will murder you."

   "Looks like I saved your life," Namjoon laughed as you buried your face in his neck out of embarrassment.

   As he pulled you into a kiss, the room seemed to fill with color, even as the world outside was cold and grey. You weren't naive enough to think it would always be this way, to think that you'd never have bad days with Namjoon. But you hoped there would be more color than grey.  That the winter of your relationship would always be the shortest. As he kissed you again and again you were crazy enough to hope for it forever.

© gimmeyoon — all rights reserved. reposting, modifying, or translation onto other sites even with proper credit given is not permitted.

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Home Lives With You-Part 8

Title: Home Lives With You. Pairings: Steve x Tony Part: 8/? Warnings: swearing, fluff, angst, blood, abuse (physical and verbal), ptsd, anxiety, bullying Summary: Peter’s been living with the abusive Thompson family for years, it was the only family in the system that would take him. When Steve and Tony get a phone call from the social worker who introduced them to their daughter Morgan for an emergency placement, they feel like they must pay back the favor. But are Steve and Tony taking on more than they can handle, and will Peter be able to adjust to a warm and welcoming family home? A/N: Sorry for the wait! Next part should be up within the next few days! Hope you enjoy!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Peter sat outside and studied the garden in the Stark-Rogers backyard. It was the first time he’d come out here and it was really pretty, serene. There were a couple trees and bushes planted around the place, but the majority of the space was made up by a table, some chairs and a barbecue.

“You alright Pete?” Tony asked and Peter nodded, Tony looked on edge himself admittedly. Ever since he’d come outside, his jaw had been clenched and shoulders tensed. Peter was used to noticing these things, he just hadn’t expected to notice these things here in this household with Tony and Steve.

“I’m fine, are you okay sir?” at that Tony nodded, forcing himself to relax.

“I’m fine Pete, do you know where everyone is?” Natasha was on a phone call, speaking in a language that Peter didn’t understand, though he suspected the language in question was Russian.

“no sir.” Tony nodded, a frown spread out on his face. He looked around and then shrugged, plopping down into his chair.

“Morgan’s probably just showing Bucky her latest doll.” Tony said and Peter nodded politely, though he doubted it. peter began to bounce his left leg, wishing he could just disappear upstairs. He didn’t belong out here, not with their friends. not when he very clearly was not a part of this family, Peter was nothing more than an imposter, intruding on their lives. His knee stilled when he heard a giggle, Morgan’s to be specific. Peter cocked his head to the side and a moment later was sprayed with water to the back of his head. He shot up to his feet, panic and alarm rushed through him and he spun around, Morgan grinned mischievously with a water gun in her hands. Peter held up his hands in surrender, as if that was would do anything.

“surprise.” Steve and Bucky were grinning at Tony, Natasha had somehow avoided getting wet.

“Oh really?” Tony asked, backing up and lunging for the hose, spraying the three of them in one fell sweep, and then Peter. He inhaled sharply, not expecting the water to be so freezing cold. He reminded himself that he was safe, that he was okay and his body relaxed as the cold water moved off of his skin, he was fine right now and there was nothing to panic about. But just to be safe he moved so he was right beside Natasha, his clothes dripped water on the brick pavement that acted as the patio area.

“Do not even think about it Barnes.” She said, holding out a finger as Bucky aimed a water gun at them. His eyes widened a fraction and then he turned, spraying Steve who tipped his head back and laughed.

“You…ruined…lunch!” Tony gasped out between fits of laughter. Everyone turned to the table which held all the food and found that it was soaked, dripping water and the food had gone soggy.

“Ah shit.” Bucky said and Morgan giggled.

“Shit?” she asked and Steve and Tony shared a look.

“that’s an adult word dragă.” Bucky said and she tilted her head.

“Shit.” She repeated and Steve groaned.

“Guess the cat’s out of the bag now, sorry guys.” Bucky said and they both shrugged it off. But Peter just watched Steve carefully, heart racing as he waited for a bad response. For this to somehow be blamed on Peter, for the beating that was sure to come. But Steve just grabbed a towel that was sitting on one of the chairs and dried his face.

“I’ll go and get us all some fish and chips.” Steve said and Tony nodded his head.

“Don’t take long, we’re starving out here!” Tony cried and Steve chuckled.

“Please tell Morgan about all the trouble Bucky’s going to be in for using such a bad word.” Steve said and pressed a quick kiss to Tony’s lips. And then Steve disappeared inside the house.

-

When Steve returned he served the dinner up onto plates. Morgan had been giddy from all the attention she’d received from Bucky, Natasha and Peter and Tony had just watched Steve quietly.

“You okay honey?” Steve asked and he nodded his head, looking exhausted.

“Yeah I’m fine, it’s just been a long weekend.” He said softly, and guilt flashed in Steve’s stomach. Steve couldn’t even begin to imagine what Tony’s work was going to say when he got there on Monday.

“I’m sorry.” Steve whispered and Tony shook his head, his smile brightening.

“it’s not your fault remember? Now let’s feed these people before they turn into angry and violent gremlins.” Tony stepped forward, planting a kiss on Steve’s cheek and then stepping out of the kitchen to go fetch the others. They all came rushing in, Peter was the last, and grabbed their plates of food. Peter stared at the last available plate and Steve inched it towards him.

“it’s for you Pete.” He flinched ever slightly and met Steve’s eyes.

“Thank you sir.” He said and took the plate, following the rest of the crowd. Shit. How had Steve fucked up his entire life in just a single night?

-

When Tony strolled into work on Monday morning, he’d been in such a good mood that he’d forgotten all about Friday’s incident. He was in such a good mood that he didn’t notice any of his co-workers staring at him as he made his way to his office. There was, however, a note that had been left on his desk requesting he go straight to his boss’ office. Tony made his way over, a spring in his step and knocked on Fury’s door.

“you wanted to see me?” Fury, was scowling. It took a moment for Tony to realise why, and then a mix of shame and guilt washed through Tony.

“Your husband attacked one of my good friends on my birthday, care to explain?” fury, propped his head up on his fist, looking simultaneously bored and pissed off and it put Tony on edge. He’d been in such a good mood despite his conversation with Bucky on Saturday. Despite his lack of revenge yet to be performed on Rose Thompson.

“Did Steve do much damage?” Tony asked and Fury snorted.

“Broke his nose for starters.” Fury grumbled and Tony looked down at the ground.

“And?” Tony asked, partially afraid of what was to come.

“his left eye is swollen shut since your dear husband nearly shattered his cheekbone. Two of his fingers are broken and his right wrist is sprained. Yet he’s refusing to press charges.” Fury said and Tony let out a breath of relief. But he knew why Harrison had avoided those charges, he knew that the truth would come out about what he had done to Peter.

“Steve and I just took in another foster kid. Your dear friend Harrison Thompson used to foster Peter.”

“and that’s a good enough reason to beat him up?” Fury asked and Tony shook his head. He would not lie about this to his boss, even if it put Tony at risk. Some people just didn’t want to hear the truth sometimes.

“he was abusive towards Peter.” Fury’s face went slack and he turned away, Tony gritted his teeth.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Tony shook his head, sorry didn’t fix what had been done to that boy. Sorry didn’t heal the cuts, unbreak the broken bones, make the bruises vanish, sorry didn’t cut it. sorry wasn’t good enough and it never would be good enough.

“Peter spent a whole weekend in hospital thanks to your friend, Steve spent that entire weekend with him in the hospital. Drove Peter to the emergency room himself, so I think that Steve deserves a little slack for that incident.” Fury narrowed his eyes but Tony kept his head held high. He wouldn’t apologise, not to that asshole.

“I’ll let this one slide on an account of my friend’s poor behaviour. May I ask if it’s being investigated?” Fury raised his eyes and Tony nodded.

“Yes.” Fury looked back down at his desk, nodding his head, beginning to reach for his mouse and keyboard at his computer.

“good.” Tony’s body relaxed as a wave of relief flooded him, at least his boss forgave them. Tony had started to worry that maybe he’d lose his job over this. “don’t you have work to do?” Fury asked after a moment and Tony nodded, he turned and left, heading back to his own office with an extra spring in his step.

-

Tony had called Steve earlier in the afternoon to let him know he’d be home late but that he’d buy dinner on the way. He’d sounded good, happy and Steve wanted the family to be in the same mood for Tony when he got home. Steve had tidied up the house, helped Morgan with the small piece of homework she had, and then Steve had wandered around the house, deliberately avoiding one room, one person. He showered, changed into sweatpants and a soft worn sweater before finally making his way back to Peter’s door. He took a deep breath and then knocked, Tony had advised against this, but Peter couldn’t live like this. not anymore.

“Come in.” Peter’s voice said and when Steve stepped inside, Peter was hunched over some textbooks at his desk.

“Hey Pete.” Steve leaned on the doorframe and Peter straightened, his whole body went taunt and he inhaled sharply.

“Hello sir.” Peter mumbled and Steve crossed his arms over his chest, smiling softly.

“what are you studying?” Steve asked and Peter glanced back to his books.

“Chemistry. It’s taking a while.” Peter admitted, and Steve nodded. Tony usually helped Peter with his homework at night.

“Tony should be home soon.” Peter’s face showed the relief at that. Steve looked down at the floor as a wave of guilt crashed over him, he’d really fucked up.

“okay, thanks sir.” Peter turned back to his textbooks, but there was still a tenseness in his shoulders, Steve had to fix this.

“Can I come in?” Steve asked and Peter nodded.

“Of course sir, it is your house you don’t have to ask me.” Steve gritted his teeth but nodded and moved forward, sitting down on the edge of his bed and leaning forward, forearms rested on his knees.

“I want to talk to you about what happened at the party, with Mr Thompson.” Peter nodded, his body was perfectly still.

“yes sir.”

“I want you to know that that was a one time thing Peter, I would never hurt you or Morgan.” Peter nodded his head but didn’t look like he quite believed Steve.

“And your husband sir?” Peter asked and Steve rose his brows, as if he could ever hurt Tony.

“Never have and I swear I never will. I know you’ve grown accustomed to suffering from and witnessing violence in a house, but it isn’t like that here. I would never hurt you Peter.” He nodded his head.

“I know it’s different here sir.” Peter glanced at Steve and managed a small and weak smile. Good. Steve thought to himself, this was a good start.

“what happened at the party was…a loss of control. Sometimes my PTSD and anxiety from the time I spent in the military, it gets the better of me.”

“So if you hit me it’s not your fault sir?” Peter asked, jaw clenched tight.

“that’s not what I’m saying. I swear to you that I would never touch you Pete. What I’m trying to say is that it used to come out in panic attacks and nightmares, that kind of thing. so I went to therapy to get better and it really worked and I thought I had it under control. But when I saw Harrison Thompson on Friday night I just lost it, knowing how he’d hurt you…” Steve trailed off, running a hand through his hair.

-

Peter held his breath but slowly turned to Steve, his body relaxing ever so slightly.

“So that was the first time?” Steve nodded his head and let out a deep breath.

“kind of. When I was in the military I served with Bucky, and if there was an enemy coming from him I would lose it like that. It really only happens if someone I care about has been threatened. But I never thought that side of me would appear ever again once I left the military.” Peter thought it over, and any last trace of fear he held for Steve vanished.

“so what, you were protecting me?” Steve nodded his head.

“In my own messed up way I guess, but I would never hurt you like that. Tony and I already organised for me to go back to therapy. I’m going to get my mind right again, I promise.” Therapy. Peter’s body relaxed completely now and he nodded his head.

“therapy?” Steve nodded his head.

“Tony used to make me go, back when things were really bad and then I got better. I thought I was fine but I guess not. But I swear I would never hurt you, you’ve gotta believe me Pete.” Peter was nodding, he believed Steve.

“Thank you for telling me Mr Stark-Rogers.” And at that, a wide grin spread out on Steve’s face.

“Tony and I care about you and we want you to feel safe here, you can be yourself alright?” be himself, that sounded nice.

“Yes Mr Stark-Rogers.” Peter hesitated, Steve watched him oh so carefully with those bright blue eyes of him.

“You alright?” Steve asked and Peter nodded, then looked down at the floor.

“I was going to ask if it’d be alright if I hugged you, I feel bad about how I’ve acted around you these last couple of days but it’s alright, you wouldn’t want to hug me anyway.”

-

Peter wanted to hug him. Peter wanted to hug him. Peter wanted to hug him. Steve was grinning, absolutely positively beaming.

“of course you can hug me Peter and I do want to hug you.” His head shot up and there was hope in his eyes that made Steve’s heart race.

“Really? You wouldn’t mind?” Steve shook his head and Peter practically launched himself at Steve, wrapping his arms tightly around him. Steve held Peter in his arms and Peter relaxed in them, and Steve’s own body softened. Peter buried his face into Steve’s chest and Steve squeezed his eyes shut. They were going to be alright, Steve would protect Peter at all costs.

-

When Tony came home there was laughter coming from the living room.

“Honey I’m home!” he called out, locking the front door behind him. There was no response, but the laughter grew louder. Tony dumped the bags of Chinese food on the counter and slowly made his way to the living room. When Tony got to the living room he found Steve and Peter with a pack of playing cards. Both of them were grinning. A smile instantly spread out on Tony’s lips.

“What’s this?” he asked and they both turned.

“I’m teaching Peter how to play bullshit, want to join?”  Tony snorted, of course he was.

“Dinner’s ready.” He announced and they set the cards down. Peter left first, giving Tony and Steve a moment alone.

“I see you two kissed and made up.” Steve nodded his head, a grin spread out on his face.

“I even got a hug.” He said all too smugly and Tony’s jaw fell open. No fucking way.

“No way, how’d you do it?” Tony asked as he lightly whacked Steve on the arm.

“I had a talk with him, I was open and honest and just explained that I would never hurt him or Morgan or you for that matter.”

“I thought that went without saying?” Tony said, raising his hand and tapping the wedding band.

“Peter asked about you specifically.” That surprised Tony. Was Peter really worried about Steve abusing Tony?

“What did you say?”

“Told him I’d never touch you like that. And I explained that I’m going to therapy, to get better.” Steve kissed Tony’s forehead and Tony squeezed his eyes shut. what if it’s not enough? It had to be enough, Tony couldn’t lose Steve, and they couldn’t lose Peter.

“I love you.” Steve pulled back and narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

“Is everything alright?” Tony nodded, staring up into those gorgeous blue eyes.

“Yeah honey, everything’s fine.” And the lie tasted sour on his tongue.

@smallnjh @picklepotatoe14 @thatisamericasass @briebriebrieee @aftereveryraincomessunshine @meyamoadriytu @loveliestdisappointment

[quixotic-writer]

Switch it Up (Sal’s POV)

request: @birdgirl1772

summary: For some mysterious reason, Q and Sal wake up in the other’s body. After a quick pep talk they both agree that they’ll pretend to be each other for the day and hope they’re back to normal the next day. As Sal does some cleaning around Q’s place, he stumbles upon a journal and can’t help but give in to curiosity and dive into what’s between the lines of Q’s rambles.

———————————————————

“meow!” Was all I heard as I feel something small and warm curl up against my face. I feel myself slowly rising from my sleepy state and it’s quickly replaced with confusion. The moment I manage to open my eyes, a black cat was mere inches from my face staring down at me with beady green eyes.

“AAAH!” I let out a scream and fall out of bed in attempts to distance myself away from the cat. When I screamed though, it didn’t sound anything like my voice at all, it had a low bass to it and felt as though I spoke with an accent. My hand shoots to cover my mouth and my eyes are wide and I can hear my heartbeat in my ears.

As I look at everything that surrounds me, I am now quickly noticing a list of things: this isn’t my room, there’s — not one but— THREE cats surrounding me, and my voice isn’t mine, nor is this body. I look at the tattoos on the arms but my vision feels so blurred that I can only make out the shapes of them. I quickly pick my now sore body up off the floor and rush into the bathroom.

“Q?!” I spat to the reflection in the mirror with a sense of shock and awe. I stare at each and every detail of the body I now reside in, familiar with it because it was my best friends, but it all felt dysmorphic at the same time because his body is built entirely different from mine. I knew this body wasn’t supposed to be mine, but I was still the one controlling it and there’s no escaping that it seemed. I bring my hand to my face and rub it across feeling the stubble of the beard tickle my palms and finger tips insuring that this wasn’t a dream.

As I continue to play around in the mirror and marvel at the sticky situation i’ve found myself in, I feel the cats begin to brush up against my legs and mewl. I jolt at the sensation and feel the anxiety of my feline phobia well up in my stomach, but there isn’t much I can do since they seem to think i’m Q.

“I guess I should feed you guys, huh?” I speak down to the cats who chatter in response. I step out of the bathroom to head downstairs but I suddenly jump at the sound of a phone ringing. Looking to the nightstand I see Q’s phone ringing with my contact ID lit up on it. ‘Sally Boy♡” it read, a very effeminate name for me. It didn’t bother me, it was actually kind of cute.

“Hello?”

“Sal! Thank god you picked up. What the hell is going on?!” Judging by the sheer panic and the speech pattern and also the blatantly obvious answer: it was definitely Q on the other end of the line. Is that really what my voice sounds like to other people?

“I guess we switched bodies or something. You don’t have anything important to do today that would need me to be you... right?”

“No, I don’t have anything. Do you have anything I have to do for you?” I pry into my memory to think of the seemingly endless list of things I usually have to do, but to my surprise nothing really comes to mind.

“Pretty sure I got lunch with Gatto today, nothing else I can think of. But check my calendar in my phone just in case, and for the love of god DO NOT destroy my house.” The line goes dead and I know Q doesn’t wanna hear it. He’s the complete opposite of me as far as cleanliness goes, if even one thing is out of place if I ever get back to my own body, he’ll never hear the end of it.

I turn on my heels and go to feed the cats as I had initially planned, carefully tip toeing around them so I don’t touch them or stomp on them on accident. As soon as their breakfast is made and served, I retreat upstairs to get myself cleaned up. It’s still a shock every time I walk past any reflective surfaces and see the i’m not actually me.

I brush my teeth, comb my hair, wash my face; the normal things anyone does when they wake up. As I go to spray some cologne, I get a quick whiff of it and just soak in the scent. Q always did smell hypnotically good to me, every time he walked past a gust of it would hit my nose and I would just stop what I was doing to take it in.

“That sounds kinda creepy.” I say out loud to myself and my thoughts come to a halt. I step out of the bathroom and take a look at all the details of Q’s room. It’s a mess to say the least. Clothing everywhere, it looks like he hasn’t dusted in here in ages, his work desk in the corner of his room is riddled with piles upon piles of paper and is completely disheveled. I know this isn’t a matter of a “system” going on, I just know he has a hard time keeping up with things sometimes especially when his depression weighs down on him a little harder on certain days.

I step over to his desk first to try and make sense of the clutter and piles and try to organize them so that he’ll know where they are and why they’re arranged so specifically.

“Notes from a meeting. Notes from another meeting. Paid bill. Fan mail. Contract.” I shuffle through and assign them a pile until I reach a composition book at the pit of all the papers. The front has nothing written on it so I saw no harm in peeking inside and turning to the first page and reading it.

My therapist suggested I started keeping a journal/diary since I tend to lose track of time and have a hard time remembering certain things. It seems stupid but why not give it a shot.

I stop reading immediately and my eyes go wide and pause on the last word I read on the page. This is his DIARY, I can’t be reading this. I flip the pages and see almost half the book is filled with endless scrabbles of words of what’s going on in his head. I’ve never been good at reading Q’s mind quite like he can with mine, he’s always so closed off about his emotions and curiosity is enticing me to read every word on these pages.

“This is so wrong.” I say holding the notebook closed with my forefinger creating an open gap of temptation between the pages. I look around quickly and look back down at the notebook and slowly open it back up. “Maybe... skimming things wouldn’t hurt. Right?” And with that, I was nose deep in the notebook.

Today at set we filmed Sal’s punishment, it was payback for the time the boys thought it would be funny to put tarantulas all over me. I went in early to play with the little cats and kittens that were brought in for the day and I had never felt happier. Nothing brings me more joy than to just be around animals. That joy was quickly taken away though. It was funny at first seeing the little kittens all over him. It was all just mild discomfort it seemed, it wasn’t SCARY since they were small and harmless to him. But when we brought in the actual cats, that’s when I really started feeling bad. He was drenched in sweat, his throat seemed hoarse from the sheer panic and stress to the point where he could barely get anything out, his body looked like it was ready to concave on itself because of the situation. I was laughing with Joe and Murr, but deep inside, I felt guilty because it was all my idea. I caused him pain. I know it’s a part of the game we play, but something about it just didn’t sit right. I just wanted to go and help him and hug him until he felt better. I wanted to say sorry over and over but I knew it would kind of raise some suspicions. So instead I kept quiet and played along... At least at the end of it I helped ease the tension and brought out Big Benjamin Cat. Sal seemed fine after that, and I think that’s the only reason it won’t really bother me for a while is because he was okay after it all. I hate seeing him hurt.

He felt bad about my punishment? This was truly news to me. The way he talked about it too, it seemed so endearing and despondent about the whole situation. Now i’m intrigued and enraptured by what’s within this book, all inhibitions have been thrown out the window and I quickly flip through a few pages and land on another page.

After today’s therapy session, i’ve noticed myself talking a lot about Sal. I love Gatto and I love Murr, let me preface all this with that. But I feel this magnetic connection to Sal that I don’t think i’ve ever really felt with anyone. He gets me even though I don’t tell him a lot, he’s just there for me. When I do tell him stuff, he handles it like it’s glass; He gives it a lot of care and attention. There’s no one else who makes me feel the way I do. It feels like this growing thing for a long time and I really don’t know what to make of it. I’ve tried sorting out all of these thoughts and emotions that go through my head with him, but I really just don’t know. I’m a grown man still confused and I think that’s what makes it hard. It’s also kind of scary because for so long i’ve just been seen as your standard single and sleeps around kind of guy and i’m kind of growing tired of that image but I can’t just wipe it away when its been stained on me for so long. I just hope one day I can sort this shit out and be honest with myself.

With each page that I devoured, I felt as though I was peeling away the layers of an onion and was slowly getting to the heart of it all. With each sentence it felt like I was suffering from whiplash because I kept doing double takes to all the seemingly outlandish remarks. What caught me incredibly off guard was the endless ramblings of me, his infatuation with the idea of me. The image of the mental ideas of Brian Quinn was slowly being pieced together like a puzzle with this journal. Without realizing how much time had passed or how much I had read, I had finally reached the last and most recent entry, the one that sent my heart into an inferno.

I think now is a good a time as any to finally come clean with myself. It’s time i’m honest with myself and I stop holding myself back, no more lying to myself, no more blind blatant ignorance, none of that. I’m Brian Quinn, and I admit it: I have fallen in love with my life long best friend Sal. Wow. It feels oddly invigorating to finally get that out of my system. Maybe my therapist was right about this journal thing. Yes, I love my best friend but I don’t know what to do about it. He’s honest with me and said he wouldn’t mind being with a guy and that gave me a small spark of hope, but I just don’t know if i’m a guy he’d be into or not. It could be an unrequited love situation for me and it would hurt a lot to have my heart crushed like that. But honestly, I don’t care if he doesn’t love me back, I just don’t ever want him to disappear out of my life. That’s what’s stopping me from just spouting it out and telling him the truth. I don’t want to scare him away, I don’t want him to feel awkward around me, I don’t want things to change for the worse. I just want Sal, in the sense of his presence, his companionship, his friendship. That’s all. Maybe one day i’ll have the confidence to tell him, but for now i’m just happy that i’m confident enough to tell myself the truth.

I sat there for an unknown period of time. I leaned back in the chair with my mouth slightly agape and brushing a hand through my hair, unsure of how to process everything that I just read. It felt like a guilty pleasure to finally know all of this about someone I thought I had pegged pretty well.

There’s one big detail that stood out loud and boldly to me: Q, my best friend, has fallen for me. It’s so crazy to read what’s on his mind and watching him figure this out and realize what the emotions were page by page.

I close the notebook and place it with all his other books neatly in the little nook of the desk and finish tidying things up. After another hour, his room was back in livable shape. I smile and beam with pride at my handiwork and hope this helps him feel a little more at peace in his own living space.

Just as he was headed downstairs, a knock on the door echoed through the quiet home. When the door opened, I was startled to see myself standing before me, forgetting for a brief moment that I wasn’t in my own body.

“Fucking hell Q, you could’ve at least texted.” I had a hand over my chest as my heart rate begins to subside from the mild scare of seeing myself standing before me. Q rolls his eyes and looks down and beams with jubilation to see the three cats prowling towards him.

“My babies!! Daddy’s home!!” He kneels down and gives a happy helping of pets and scratched to each one of them.

“So how’d lunch with Gatto go? Did he suspect anything?” Q picks up Brooklyn in his arms and cuddles her close and they both step into the house and seat themselves on the couch.

“Went fine. He did say that ‘you’ were acting strange today, he just said that i’ve been hanging out with Q too much. Little did he know that it was me!” He chuckles releasing Brooklyn from his arms and watches as she trots away. “How were things here? You seem fine with the cats since you’re not dead and none of them are missing.” I think back to the little notebook upstairs but try and play things cool as to not give anything away, he’ll talk to me when he’s ready. It’s not my place to pry at his emotions.

“Things were fine. I did tidy up your room though, just thought i’d help you out a bit. If and when we switch back, just ask if you need help finding anything.” I smile to him and he smiles back, it was a bashful smile and it made my heart melt. “Did you wanna order dinner or something?” I say into the silence of the living room.

“Well considering this technically is MY house, I say we eat my favorite pizza: a hot pepper pie from my favorite pizza joint. However, since you’re me, you’re gonna have to order.” I roll my eyes and open up my phone and see that Q has the pizza place’s number saved and on speed dial in his phone.

“Okay Q, c’mon dude you’re kidding me. Speed dial?” He gives a cheeky smile and shrugs his shoulders.

We order and eat the pizza and talk to each other about our experiences in the other’s body. Q got to experience the wonders of my sleep apnea, he told me how startled he was when he woke up with my mask on his face. I told him of how the cats wouldn’t leave me alone because they thought I was him, it got a hearty laugh out of him since he knows how uncomfortable they make me.

“Thanks for cleaning up my place Sal.” He says as we clean up our pizza mess.

“Yeah, it’s no problem. It’s hard to find time to keep things in line with our schedules, thought i’d help out a little.” He pauses for a moment and goes to play with his fingers and realizes he doesn’t have his usual ring to fidget with. He’s nervous and that was one of his tics, but I pretend not to notice and I wipe down the table.

“Sal, uuuuh... Weird question but did you clean my desk?” I know where he’s going with this.

“I did. Books in place, papers in stacks. Why?” I say innocently.

“There’s a... There’s a notebook... it’s for my therapist and stuff... sensitive info in there.” He’s sweating and his eyes are pleading that I don’t know anything. The guilt hits me harder than ever now, but I can’t do that to him, I don’t want to shatter that trust.

“I didn’t snoop around man, it’s none of my business and this is your space, I respect it even if i’m in your body.” His tensions seem to ease in that moment and his shoulders slumped to a relaxed position. I feel like crap lying to him like this, but if it means his comfort, then it’s a harmless white lie. I mentally make a promise that nothing I read would ever leave my memory, and that’s all it will ever remain to be: simple memories.

“Okay, thanks man. I’m gonna head back to your place and hope that when I wake up i’m surrounded by my cats and not a face full of apnea mask.” He jokes to me as he gathers his stuff to head back out.

“Make fun of my sleep apnea all you want, but now you know the pain I live with!” I joke with him as I let him out. We said good night to each other, and just like that I was left alone in the silence of Q’s home. It was late already so I figured I close this night out already and head to sleep.

I cleaned myself up and prepared for bed, slipping into a pair of pajama pants and brushing my teeth. I took one final look into the mirror hoping that when I woke up, I wouldn’t need a mirror to see his face. All I want tomorrow is to just give Q a hug as myself again.

I crawl into the sheet with the cats cuddled up against me. The cats have kind of grown on me today, dare I say that maybe I learned to love them a bit today. I close my eyes and shift around until I was in blissful rest.

When I woke up at last and opened my eyes, I saw as the husky rays of the sun shone through my window and the familiar hun of my sleep apnea machine filled my ears. I peel it off my face and rub off the sleepy sensation from my entire face. I lean over and grab my phone to see a text from Q waiting for me

We’re back in business baby!

Was all it read and I smiled to myself. I walked to the bathroom and was met with the delightful sight of my true reflection. It felt so good to be back in my own body, in my own house.

I head to the kitchen and fix myself up a griddled PB and J and sit at the table and eat with nothing but my thoughts to occupy me. Through that whole mess, I didn’t question the switch, I didn’t question why then. I only had one lingering question that seemed so insignificant:

What happened with Q and that lunch with Joe. I wonder if he found out some of my own sensitive information and didn’t say anything just like I had. Maybe one day I’ll be able to solve, but it just won’t be solved today.

———————————————————

A/N: Just wanted to say I loved playing around with this idea so much, that soon i’m gonna write this segment from Q’s POV ♪( ´▽｀)

[yamayamawrites]

The Way You Said “I Love You” - #1

Hi friends! A while ago I reblogged a prompt list from mottainaiiii (find the original post here!) with ways to say “I love you”. Now, a very ridiculous amount of time later, I plan on actually writing one-shots (or maybe a fic? Not sure if I want them to overlap) to go with each of these. 

I’m also posting these to my AO3 page, which you can find here! I really miss writing and it’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve posted anything, so to get myself back into it I figured I’d start with prompts that I reblogged literally years ago.

Anyways, enough from me! Here’s the first chapter!

Chapter 1: As a Hello

Marinette and Adrien had been dancing around an important topic for weeks now. That important topic was feelings. Specifically, how they felt about each other. Because after that night at Alya’s, they certainly weren’t just the close friends they thought they were.

After high school, Marinette and Adrien found themselves attending the same university – both on a scholarship that was too good to pass up. Despite how insistent Adrien’s father was on paying for Adrien to go to the best university France had to offer, Adrien continually told him that he wanted to make his way through university without financial help. That didn’t stop Adrien’s father from paying Adrien’s monthly rent at his apartment, but luckily it stopped him from interfering anywhere else.

Nino wasn’t going to university. In his last year of high school, his music career took off when one of his songs played on Paris’s most popular radio station. He moved closer to the coast and out of the city of Paris, and Alya followed him. She attended classes online while she worked full-time as an intern at a journalism company.

This is all to say that the four best friends they’d come to be during their last year of high school had split up, and by the end of their first semester of university, there was a certain pain of something missing that drew them back together.

Marinette had stopped Adrien one day on campus walking out of a different classroom than her. “Hey!” she chirped and, noticing the dark bags under his eyes, assumed he’d just left his last final exam. “Uh, you alright?”

Adrien laughed in response, a bit dazed. “Oh, yeah. Doin’ great. I got a whole hour of sleep last night!”

Marinette laughed back, gently touching his arm. The way friends did. “Well, I’m sure you could use the rest. I was stopping you to…” she tried to recall why she’d stopped him, actually. “Oh! Oh yeah! Alya called last night and invited me out to her and Nino’s apartment for a bit during the break. She told me to ask you – she doesn’t have your number.”

Now that was a lie, Marinette well knew. Alya had everyone’s number. Alya still insisted on trying to set the couple up together, despite both of them believing they were better off as close friends. They seemed to be the only two who believed that to be true.

Adrien leaned in towards her, the way friends do. “Oh, that sounds great! I’ll drive?”

“Well, since you offered,” Marinette giggled. Adrien enjoyed giving Marinette rides when they went out of town together – which for some reason happened quite often now that Adrien had no photo shoots to worry about and Marinette worked mostly remote. “Pick me up after you take a nap, handsome,” she  teased and ruffled his hair, the way friends do.

“’Course. I’ll call you before I leave?” he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, the way friends do.

“You better!” Marinette said as she turned around, smiling her entire walk back to her bike.

The entire drive there, Marinette and Adrien listened to the pop music station, counting how many times Nino’s music came on.

“God, I just can’t believe how famous he got so quickly,” Adrien sighed. “I’m so proud of him.”

Marinette smiled. Adrien genuinely cared for every person in his life, she learned. Even when Chloe first appeared on television, despite Adrien’s annoyance with her, he called her and congratulated her. It made Marinette appreciate the people in her life more.

Adrien began singing along to one of Nino’s songs, quietly at first, then building confidence as Marinette sang with him. Before long, the two were bellowing the song as loudly as they could, laughing at each other’s expressiveness.

They arrived to Nino’s and Alya’s apartment late that evening, and perhaps it was the relief of getting to fully rest after finals week that made Adrien and Marinette so nonchalant about the fact that the third bedroom in the apartment didn’t have a bed for one of them to take. Neither Adrien nor Marinette would offer themselves to take the couch (which was notoriously uncomfortable), and as a result, they slept together in the guest room.

The following morning Marinette woke up first, and the embarrassment of actually sleeping with Adrien set in. She cringed at her stubbornness the night before and quietly grabbed her clothes. She changed in the bathroom and met Alya in the kitchen. Alya smirked her knowing smirk, her mind already swirling with theories of what had happened the night before.

“Shut up,” Marinette groaned before Alya could even open her mouth. Alya just laughed in response and passed her a mug of coffee.

Adrien and Marinette ended up staying for about a week. Alya and Nino announced that they were having a Christmas party the night before Adrien and Marinette were planning on leaving. That excited Marinette; she hadn’t gotten the chance to meet all of the quirky people Alya worked with, but she practically knew their life stories considering how often Alya called to gossip about them. There was Monique, who had too many cats; Adeline and Thomas were in some sort of “on again off again” relationship; and her personal favorite that Marinette desperately hoped to meet was Cindy, who apparently did something crazy every single weekend. Last week, in honor of Christmas coming up, she dyed half her hair white and the other half red.

The group spent most of that Saturday decorating the apartment with cheesy Christmas decorations Nino had bought on sale some time ago. Marinette helped Alya bake cookies for the party, and Adrien and Nino made a quick snack run to prepare.

The party itself was relatively small. Sadly Marinette didn’t get to meet Cindy; she texted Alya just an hour before and said that she was going to Ireland on a surprise trip with her boyfriend. She did, however, meet Thomas and Adeline, who were apparently “off again” that day, because they refused to speak to each other. About halfway through the party, they seemed to be “on again” because they excused themselves to the bedroom to talk for a while.

Marinette didn’t hear any talking, but that wasn’t her business.

Nino had a couple friends come over as well. A few lesser-known musicians, mostly, who Marinette might have been able to recognize one song by. The group of them mostly sat around the living room – Adrien’s arm draped around Marinette’s shoulders, and Marinette leaning into him, like friends do – and played Cards Against Humanity. Each of them had a drink in hand (Marinette didn’t know when Alya got so good at mixing drinks, but she didn’t question it).

Thomas and Adeline left first, followed by a few of Nino’s friends and Monique (who said she had to go feed her cats). Alya and Nino were cleaning something up in the kitchen, and Adrien and Marinette were chatting nonchalantly on the couch, his arm still around her. Sitting in a chair across the room was the last of Nino’s friends (maybe his name was Peter? Marinette couldn’t remember), who was putting the cards back into the box. Finally, he looked up at them and said, “You two are really cute. How long have you been together?”

Adrien’s first instinct was to laugh, and Marinette’s was to push herself away from Adrien’s side. “We’re not dating,” they said in unison, Marinette sounding frightened and Adrien amused.

“Wow, really? Exes?”

“Uh, no,” Marinette squeaked out.

“Huh,” he shrugged. “Well, whatever you’ve got, I wish I had it.” He finished packing up the box. “Merry Christmas. Nice to meet you two.”

“Nice to meet you,” they responded, again in unison, and he went into the kitchen to say goodbye to Nino.

Adrien returned his attention to Marinette. “Do you think he’s got a point?” he asked thoughtfully.

“A-about what?”

“We’d make a really hot couple,” he teased, poking at her side. She laughed, a bit nervously, standing up and turning away.

“I’m gonna go see if they need any help,” she said, walking out of the room.

Later that night, Marinette offered to sleep on the couch.

The car ride home the next morning was quiet. Neither of them sang along to the music, they simply put on Nino’s Christmas album and listened. At one point Adrien tried to ask if Marinette was okay, but she just squeaked and nodded quickly. He knew her well enough to know that everything was not okay, but he was oblivious that he might be causing it.

Marinette had been up all night thinking about how she truly felt about Adrien. Sure, she’d had a massive crush on him, but she strongly believed that she’d grown out of it. Plus, did they really look like a couple? Friends were close with each other, right? They enjoyed sitting close to each other, and calling each other “handsome” and “beautiful”, and jokingly holding hands, and sleeping in the same bed – like friends do, right?

She buried her face in her hands. Not like friends do. Like boyfriends and girlfriends do.

Adrien dropped her off in front of her apartment, offering to walk her upstairs, but she shook her head and excused herself, saying she felt sick. He once again offered to walk her up, as that was more of a reason to walk her upstairs, but still she declined.

He texted her Christmas morning to wish her a ‘Merry Christmas, beautiful!’ and she responded with ‘Merry Christmas!’

Other than that, they did not talk. And it drove Marinette crazy.

The first day of winter semester, she texted Adrien and asked to meet him at the campus café after class. He agreed, and she made the decision that she couldn’t take the way she felt. Adrien needed to know.

She would just spit it out. Then, she wouldn’t have to think of what to say. Just… “I love you.” That’s all it took. She could do it.

She couldn’t do it. Adrien had already gotten her a caramel coffee, she could see it sitting on the table in front of him, and she couldn’t take how sweet he was. Did she really want to risk everything just so he knew how she felt?

Her inner battle to decide what to do continued even as she sat down at the table. Adrien smiled over at her. “Hey, how was your first class?”

“I love you,” she said, a bit more aggressively than she meant to.

“I,” Adrien’s cheeks flushed. “Uh, I love you too? You’re like my best friend—”

“No, Adrien,” she shook her head. Her cheeks were warm and she could tell her face was nearly as red as her shirt. “I love you. I love being close to you, and calling each other pet names, and – I just, I’m in love with you.”

“I…” Adrien, for the first time, stumbled over his words. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, I just needed to say that to you—”

“I think I’m in love with you, too.”

The words hung in the air for a moment. Marinette blinked. Adrien blinked back. Both seemed a bit shocked by the words that had come out of Adrien’s mouth. Finally, Marinette processed what he’d said. “I…you…huh?”

“Well, I love all of that stuff too. And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t turned down like, a hundred girls because I didn’t want to lose time with you,” he rubbed his neck sheepishly.

Marinette laughed, then, surprising both of them. “Oh my gosh,” she buried her face in her hands. “We’re idiots. Have we just been dating this whole time?”

Adrien laughed back. “Uh, maybe?”

“Do you want to go on a proper date, then?”

“I’ll pick you up at seven.”

[canid-slashclaw]

The Outliers - A Guild Wars Love Story

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9,  Chapters 10 and 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16 , Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20,  Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23,  Chapter 24, Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Kaleb got up early the following morning to help Ulfgar unload some kegs from a delivery. As they were storing the last of the brew, the young man went up to the old norn to ask him a question that had been on his mind for quite some time.

"Hey, Ulf. Something I've been meaning to ask ya."

The old norn crossed his massive arms and smiled at his friend. "What's on yer mind, boy?"

"I've been thinking about asking Amalthia to marry me. I know that such rituals are alien to her culture, so I wanted to find a way of getting her enthused about the whole concept."

"Hehe. She's a fast learner. Just introduce her to the various bonding customs each race here on Tyria has and she'll come around to the idea."

Kaleb looked up to his friend. "Would you do me a big favor and find out what her ring size is? I'm sure there's a jeweler who is willing to make one that fits her type of hand."

"Ah. But a ring is just a ring without a proper gem..."

Ulfgar waved for Kaleb to follow him. "Come with me boy, I've something to show yas."

After the last of the supplies were stored, the old norn told Kaleb to wait downstairs while he went up to his room to retrieve something. When he came down, he carried with him a jewel-encrusted tiara that sparkled like a radiant star.

"This was what I gave to my beloved Gloriana when I made my promise vow to her." Ulfgar handed the item to Kaleb as he took it gently into his hands. He was astonished at the brilliance of the diamonds and marveled the centerpiece stone.

"This thing must be at least forty carats," Kaleb noted as he ran his finger over the brilliant cut gem.

"Forty two karats to be exact. Tell ya what... I'll get your mate's ring size and you just keep doing what yer doing. Leave the rest to old Ulf."

"I just need the size. Once I get that, I'll figure out where to go to get one made."

Ulfgar patted him on the back. "Don't worry about a thing, boy. Leave the rest to..."

The old norn let out a mighty sneeze. "Gah! Somethin's gotten my sinuses in a fit."

Kaleb realized what it must have been. "Sorry, it must be the cat. Amalthia and I plan on taking it to her father's."

"Good idea, lad. I would love the little critter, but my nose would heartily disagree."

Footsteps could be heard coming from the upstairs. Moments later, Amalthia padded down looking noticeably groggy.

"G'morning, dear," Kaleb said as he walked over to kiss her.

With heavy eyes, she gave him a quick lick on the mouth then headed out back. "Morning yourself. Sorry for the kiss-and-run. But I've gotta piss and shit really bad. Ulfgar - mind if I mark up your back wall?"

Kaleb busted out laughing.

"You say it all so casually, m'dear. Perhaps, you could just use the water closet like everyone else."

Amalthia stuck her tongue out. "Ha! And get my tail soaked in that swirling mass of filth? I think not!"

"I'll have you know that I stepped in one of your turds this morning when I was moving in some supplies. Needless to say, I need a new pair of shoes because of it," Kaleb retorted with a smile.

"Well, that's what you get for stepping into my sandbox," Amalthia said as she playfully poked him in the ribs.

"So is the whole backyard your sandbox?"

She smiled and laughed. "It would be if Ulfgar didn't mind."

Ulfgar shook his head and laughed. "Ye know true love is afoot when both can talk about each others' bodily functions and laugh."

"Hers mostly," Kaleb interjected. "At least I don't have to worry about getting yelled at for leaving the seat up."

***

Later in the day, Kaleb and Amalthia headed over to her father's butcher shop. As he entered, Kaleb carried Fredricka under his arm while petting her, hoping that doing so would sooth the little feline.

"Sire!" Amalthia yelled.

Moments later, the big charr emerged from the hallway as he stood on his cane behind the counter.

"Cub! And Kaleb! So good to see you both. And who's this?" He pointed to the small ball of fur that was nestled in Kaleb's arm.

"Hi Ludrick, sir. This is Fredricka. We rescued this little fluff ball from a bad situation."

Amalthia's father knelt down using his cane for support. He reached out one of his massive pawed hands and gently began petting the ball of fluff.

"Ha. I can feel it purring. Is it a he or a she?"

"She," both Kaleb and Amalthia said in unison.

Ludrick stood up then hobbled over towards the meat counter and picked out a few scraps of leftover steak cuts. He walked back over then gently began feeding the content cat.

"I had a feline when I was just a cub in my fahrar. His name was Gutslasher. Friendliest little thing," Ludrick said as he reached out to take the cat from Kaleb's hands.

Kaleb reciprocated the gesture as he handed off Fredricka to the old charr. "She's yours if you want her. Ulfgar is allergic to cats and Amalthia and I are just too busy to responsibly take care of her."

"You know, this place has gotten quite lonely since my cub moved out. Thank you, Kaleb. And I wanted to say something else - I'm truly sorry for what I had to do to you. It was for your own safety and Amalthia's. I hope you can forgive me."

"Sir. You did what any caring father would have done. I guess that's why deep down, I've always admired your people. They may seem aggressive and even brutal at times, but at least they are always honest and upfront about how they feel. My people, on the other hand..."

"Kaleb! Don't beat yourself up like this," Amalthia interjected.

Ludrick looked at his human friend and asked. "If you don't mind me asking, what is wrong, Kaleb?"

The young man shook his head. "I was about to mend fences with my family but something happened and now matters are even worse. For once, I just want those closest to us to accept us for who we are and not to be so judgmental."

Amalthia's father looked at Kaleb straight into his eyes and said matter-of-factly. "You accepted that yoke of responsibility the moment you and my cub became mates. If your relationship is to survive then you must have the fortitude to endure the slings and arrows hurled against the both of you."

"He's just venting, sire. Humans like to whine and complain about things, but truthfully, it is just their peoples' way of trying to solve a problem. Giving up is not even in the equation," Amalthia reassured her father.

"No worries, cub. I know each of you are exceptionally strong individuals, both in body and in spirit. It does this old soldier's heart good to see the two of you prosperous and happy together."

"So you've heard about our little business venture, I gather," Kaleb asked.

Ludrick nodded. "Outsomething is it?"

Kaleb replied with a satisfactory half smile. "Outliers, sir, Outliers - freelance bounty hunters who specialized in ridding Tyria of undead and other monstrosities. Thus far, we've been bringing home the coin."

"We've also been thinking of expanding our operations to include treasure hunting excursions," Amalthia added with a closed-eyed nod.

"How does your warband feel about all this?"

"I've invited them over to meet with Kaleb's Seraph buddies. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly. But to answer your question - I gather they are okay with it. I haven't heard any protests from any of them, thus far," she said while giving a few chin scratches to Fredricka.

"Sir. There's something I would like to discuss with you, just the two of us. I hope you don't mind, dear," Kaleb said as he gave a reassuring massage to the back of Amalthia's head.

"That's fine. I'll go downstairs and get the place tidied up a bit." Amalthia kissed Kaleb on the cheek then headed downstairs.

Ludrick looked at the young man and asked. "What did you want to discuss with me, cub?"

"Well. It's obvious that I love your daughter very much and she loves me. I was just wondering how you would feel if I proposed to her. You know the whole hand in marriage thing?"

Ludrick laughed then, as gently as he could muster, slapped Kaleb between the shoulder blades. The force almost knocked him off his chair.

"Listen. The two of you have already gone way beyond anything that is deemed acceptable by both our peoples. So why stop now, right? Fur or no fur, I know of no other soul on Tyria who would be worthy of taking care of my cub the way you have."

"So I take it as a yes? Your blessing, that is?"

"Bah! Those human rituals mean nothing to me. But if they mean so much to you and my cub then, yes, you have my 'blessing'," Ludrick smiled as he petted Fredericka who, by now, was fast asleep in his arms.

"So would it be okay if I call you,dad?"

Ludrick let out a low but menacing growl.

"Don't push it, cub!"

***

Later in the evening, Kaleb and Amalthia returned home. Their foray into Lion's Arch had been uneventful, save for the delightful interaction they had with their new friends; Ariyana and Jestin. Amalthia looked over their new outfits and marveled at just how well coordinated they were.

"Look at this, love. She even made some pockets specifically designed to hold extra magazines. There's even one for an extra sniper scope. That sylvari thought of everything."

Kaleb smiled as he looked over his outfit. "Indeed she did. But Jestin gets credit too for adding some of the norn flare to the leather straps. Yup. With these threads, we are both truly dressed to kill."

Amalthia nuzzled his face then wrapped her arms around his chest as she stood behind him purring. "That outfit looks so good on you that I can't decide if I like you better with or without clothes."

"I'm glad she designed your outfit to show more of your beautiful pelt in all the right places. I never got why so many designers garb your people in those stuffy trench coats. Less is so much more." Kaleb turned around and kissed her on the nose.

She then rested her head on his shoulder asked him in a soft voice. "Soo what were you talking to my sire about?"

"Nothing of any importance to you."

"Sure. I'll bet."

Kaleb quickly changed the subject, hoping it would provide some sort of distraction. "So what did you think of those books on human marriage and stuff?"

Amalthia pulled out several books from a burlap sack that she used for a shopping bag. As she laid them across the bed, she and Kaleb examined each one.

"The norn ones are particularly interesting. Asura are just a bit too techie for my taste, but to each their own," she shrugged.

"And the human ones?" Kaleb looked her in the eyes hoping for some kind of reaction.

"I'm sure I'll grow to become fond of them once I learn more about them. For myself, I 'm fine if we have no ritual at all. But since we are meshing our respective cultures together, I'm more than happy to adapt my way of thinking," Amalthia said as she perused through one of the books.

"There is one book that does describe a time when you people did perform bonding rituals for mated pairs. I think it's found somewhere in chapter twenty."

After they put away their books and disrobed from their outfits, the pair curled up together after their long and busy day. Kaleb gently stroked Amalthia's ears as she rolled over on her back then looked into his deep brown eyes and smiled.

"I'm glad Fredricka has found a good home. I haven't seen my sire so happy to have a companion once more in his life."

"Yeah. They took to each other right away. I'm glad your dad and I are now squared on things. I just wish the same could be said for my own family."

She caressed the side of his face and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "Like I said before, you needn't beat yourself up over that. I'm sure that in time, you and your parents will be able to make amends."

"I sure hope so. Anyway, I'm glad that my buddies are coming into town this weekend."

Kaleb rested on his back, closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

"And don't forget my warband. They will be joining too yanno."

"I can't wait!" Kaleb said as his eyes became heavy with sleep.

The lovers would soon share their unique story with each of their respective friends during the upcoming weekend. In the end, they were both glad that they no longer had to carry their relationship in secret.

Soon, the entire world would know of how a human and a charr had found love with each other.

(All chapters have been posted to AO3. Chapter 26 is posted here.)

[enkisstories]

Just like them (part 10)

This was one of my favorite sequences in the old picture story, so naturally I had to use it in the written fic, too. Enjoy!

Afternoon of Thursday, November 18, 2038

The sound of the doorbell was a jingle Daniel didn’t recognize. Him being an android, he could have looked it up online in no time at all. Him being a deviant, however, meant that Daniel would simply ask about it when the opportunity arose.

From inside the telltale sound of a door unlocking remotely as well as what might pass as a greeting arose:

“Come in! Door’s open now!”

Tentatively Daniel turned the door knob, then took the first few steps into the apartment, where he was greeted by a cacophony of animal noises. One species of animal, precisely, and their sounds weren’t aimed at the guest either, but self-contained:

“Meow!! Meow? Meeeeeeeeeeeow!”

The android quickly closed the door behind him. He was now standing in a floor between two doors. To the right another door seemed to lead into the bathroom. One wall sported the expected array of clothes hooks, knickknack-shelves and decaying paste-it notes, but the opposite one was lined with dis-and then re-assembled parts of cat-condos that formed an adventure park for felines. To the floor’s far end to the left a curtain covered a doorway. At the moment that curtain’s brim was of utmost interest to a tiny kitten. The animal was all but lost inside the fabric. Unable to see its family, it produced regular, high-pitched control calls. To the deviant they sounded both cute and enervating, in fact, the little thing didn’t sound that much different from Connor…

Daniel carefully scanned his surroundings before taking another step into the apartment. He spotted two more young kittens and an older one. That last one was a dirty shade of black and his somewhat longer fur suggested that this or that pedigree cat numbered among his ancestors. The black adolescent moved between the little ones like a dreadnought. It seemed to substitute for the others’ parent, because it was both answering their control-calls and in turn sending some of his own.

Pad, pad… Meow? … Pad, pad, sudden jump, Meow!!! Hiss! … Ming? Ming-Ming?- Määhh!

“Oh my god, what’s that?” Daniel exclaimed. “A Crazy Cat Lady Starter Kit?”

“Hehe!”

From behind the curtain the apartment’s inhabitant appeared, a wide smile on his face. Daniel hadn’t known that this particular human was even able to smile, instead of grinning, sneering or winking, preferably with both eyes closed. Gavin Reed at home was looking so utterly… relaxed, that it was hard to believe.

The human plucked the stuck kitten - it turned out to be a standard brown tabby - from the curtain and placed it at about waist-height onto the climbing range. Then he held out one finger towards another kitten, a little tricolor, testing whether that one maybe wanted a quick petting? Turned out it didn’t, but further probing brought to light that the Calico wasn’t averse to the idea, just neutral towards it, so Gavin went over it’s fur twice and then stopped. Daniel’s jaw dropped at the sight, because it was more consideration for another living being’s feelings then he had ever seen Reed display.

To say anything at all, the android produced a weak “Are they all yours?”.

“Nah, just one of them. But the little buggers take their time to decide which one that’ll be.”

“They do – what? I didn’t know cats came in trial packs!” Daniel exclaimed.

“Heh, that’s one way to put it! The upstairs neighbors left six kittens behind when they moved. Five of those I managed to find homes for, then took in three more that got abandoned when their owners fled the city… they’re always rotating in and out, even before the evacuation order.”

Turning away from the android, Gavin allowed an orange tabby to taste-test the sleeve of his sweater. The kitten proceeded to roll over and plug all four of its paws into the man’s forearm with abandon. Gently Gavin moved his arm away from the cat-condo – the kitten remained stuck to it like a sloth to a jungle tree. With a proud grin the detective presented his “catch” to Daniel.

“Here, look at that! As if glued on! Isn’t it the cutest?”

Truth be told, Daniel could imagine a whole lot of more pleasant things than getting the skin on your arm slowly turned into stripes and he didn’t even have a real skin. But he kept his silence, afraid to carelessly destroy something precious again.

“The calico is Salazar”, Gavin introduced his collection, “but it turned out “he” is really a Sally. The dark grey one is Argus, the tabby is Minerva and the one in prison clothes is Stopthat, I mean Godric.”

His eyes closed, Godric took a hearty bite of Gavin’s sweater…

“So you want to keep only one, check”, Daniel spoke up again. “But you certainly must have a favorite?”

“That’s not how cats work!” Gavin protested against this outlandish idea. “They aren’t t-shirts that you pick by color preference. A cat either lays claim on you or it doesn’t.”

Daniel shook his head.  “Strange”, he admitted. “Caroline always said a cat was bound to the place where it lives, not to a particular person. Not loyal like dogs. That’s why I was never interested in cats.”

“I didn’t expect you to understand!“

And there the normal Gavin Reed was again, the standoffish one, the self-proposed center of the world, the know-it-all-can-do-everything, the only being whose feelings mattered. In a way the returned persona was less intimidating, because by now Daniel had gotten used to it. Asshole Reed offered familiar territory, whereas the whole cat-mysticism Daniel wasn’t sure what to think about.

With a nod Gavin ushered Daniel into the room opposite the apartment door. It turned out to be a live-in kitchen. The dining table was unused, or rather not used for it’s original purpose to comfortably let six persons eat. Stuff was piled onto the surface and the chairs: empty feeding bowls, a half-opened parcel, document folders with bookmarks sticking out, a small model or toy helicopter, a tablet connected to a cable that was running across the room… There was a smaller table next to a loveseat in the corner and, predictably, an expensive coffee machine with a grinder dominated the kitchen counters next to the seating arrangement. Above the monstrous thing shelves holding more coffee-related equipment than Daniel recognized lined the wall. Most of the stuff the android had seen so far in this flat had been of high quality and, although in general disarray, kept clean. The detective seemed to make the best of his pay cheque, not bothering to set aside much for an uncertain future. When not confronted with an android or Lt. Anderson, this man, Daniel now realized, lived to the fullest. The Connors were threatening this eternal-present bliss, they had made Gavin painfully aware of his irresponsible spending habits as well as the fact that he was approaching the age of forty.

Right to the entrance a terrarium was housing a kingdom of mice. “And here’s the mice I promised”, Gavin said, accompanied by a casual wave with the arm Godric wasn’t attached to. The kitten had gotten bored of playing sloth anyway and was now attempting to climb up all the way to Gavin’s shoulder. “Skim off as many as you like. They breed like… actually breeding is all they ever do. They’re like landbound guppys!”

“You like cats”, Daniel started. “Don’t tell me you keep the mice for…!”

Gavin grabbed Godric, who had come dangerously close to taking a nap in his sweater’s hood, and put him onto the kitchen floor.

“That’s absolutely correct”, the man said. “I won’t tell you. But I will share a trick for getting along better with people with you, tinman: Never ask questions you do not want answered!”

“Damn you, why, detective!” Daniel hissed.

Yes, why exactly? Why do I bother removing obstacles in front of somebody else, and an android, no less?

Of all the shortcomings of Gavin Reed, one thing he was not: unable to express his feelings. To the contrary, the world in general and the DPD specifically could have done with less of those. If he was angry or desiring something, the man always let the source of those notions know it. And if Gavin was interested in a guy, chances were he’d walk up to him and declare “You’re mine now” in only slightly more sophisticated words. No beating around the bush, no making excuses.

But this case was different. Being interested in an android? That just couldn’t be. Even casually hanging out with one had always been unimaginable. Because, after all, like the coffee grinder, an android was just a mobile attachment to another appliance, not something you chatted with over your brew! But here he was, helping Daniel to new pets and casually chatting him up like one did a co-worker or apartment neighbor.

Irritated by all the strange, conflicting notions Gavin snapped at the PL600:

“Because I don’t like losing something I’ve already invested into. Unlike Connor or Markus you’re still functioning as intended, despite having caught deviance. I appreciate that in a household device.”

Gavin took a step closer to the android. He looked up into his grey eyes with the blueish tint. Gavin’s own were grey, too, but the tint was green.

Why am thinking of its eye color all of a sudden? Why did I even NOTICE it? Ah, right - noticing details is just part of my job, nothing strange or worrisome!

“Hear that, Cyberlife?” Gavin barked. “I KNOW there’s nothing listening behind this mask! It’s just a simulation to make us grow attached to your products, and to fucking grow dependent on them! But there is nothing to talk to in there, except maybe customer service, so take this as a product review!”

“No, I meant why are you feeding the poor mice to… Hey, stop that!”

Going “kekekekekeke” Godric was climbing up Daniel’s leg.

“Yes, that’s him”, Gavin commented dryly.

“Aptly named”, Daniel laughed. He steadied the kitten during its ascend and eventually enfolded it with both hands when it had reached chest height.

“You want a mouse, huh? Or don’t you rather want cuddles?”

“Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”, Godric went.

“See? You wanted cuddles. You just didn’t know. Little killer, you!”

Daniel smiled. All of a sudden cats had become easy! They were not the unfathomable anti-dogs the Phillips family had painted them, not, they were just creatures following their own set of rules. Once you figured out those rules, the little furballs were astonishingly endearing. Suddenly Daniel’s legs gave way. The android realized too late that planning to visit an Android Zone for checkup didn’t equal to actually doing it. After the phantom-headaches had subsided, he’d staved off the idea over and over. But how could he have known beforehand that a kitten would use him as a play tower in here?

Daniel tried to reach a kitchen chair, but it was too late already. He went down rather undignifiedly and stared into the ceiling lamp - as well as into Gavin Reed’s shocked expression.

“WTF, you cannot just die in my flat! They’ll think I did it!”

“I’ll make sure to write It wasn’t Gavin on the wall in blue blood. Wh… what’s that crawling into my shirt?! Stop that!”

“Yeah, of course. Who else?”

“What are you calling him when you want him to literally stop with something?”

“Usually I scream something along the lines of “Ouch” and he gets the picture from the volume. But basically you wait till he grows too large for most of his shenanigans.”

“Okay”, Daniel moaned. “Good advice. I guess I’ll just keep lying here until one of you has matured enough to talk to.”

Any other android would have been dead after daring to give the detective cheek like that. Less alive than usual, Gavin corrected himself. As for Daniel, he was right now discovering a third option between unconditional family bliss and searing hatred in relating to humans: Disbelieving fascination. And also kittens.

Five minutes later…

“Are you done rolling on my floor now?”

Lying on his back and holding up the kitten with both hands, gently rocking him, Daniel replied:

“Are we done rolling on the detective’s dirty floor, Godric? Aaaaare we done rolling on the big bad cop’s floor?”

“My foot’s right next to your skull, you know.”

“But you won’t kick as long as I’m holding Godric.”

“Spoken like a true kidnapper.”

“I don’t see Godric care.“

The cat indeed didn’t care whether this man who was providing the cuddles was saint or villain, human or android, rich or poor. All it wanted was… Shred Daniel’s colorful headband, actually. The android had purchased one right after the encounter at the playground, so fulfill his parole condition of wearing a LED while still keeping the humiliating thing out of everyone’s sight. Upon command or when meeting his social worker, he could just lift the headband.

Daniel rose into sitting position, still playing with the kitten.

“Say, how much space would he need when he’s fully grown?”

“What?! Give him back at once! You aren’t satisfied before you’ve taken everything from us, are you?”

Daniel looked down, staring at the sudden kitten-shaped hole in his life. But wasn’t that what he was always getting? Whether it was a challenge or a living being, loss either way. His life, his family, Emma and Little Connor… he was growing apart from the Rasoya… Neil had been a one-time encounter… All Daniel had left was his strange acquaintance with Gavin, who was ranting at him:

“I told you about cats choosing their owner and now you’re trying to simulate that! But it’s not real! Just a goddamn chat program mimicking life!”

“You know what? You’re sort of right.” The android rose and straightened. “I overreacted.”

To the sight of Godric toddling towards the feed dispenser, where Sally and Minerva were already taking turns getting out pellets, Daniel mused out loud that he bonded to animals way too easily.

“…but then they die on you or worse, you have to put them to the gun because they become aggressive towards you. And with each one you lose, a part of yourself dies, too. So the sensible thing to do would be to avoid animals. But when you don’t have any around at all, you don’t really live. There’s no winning this game…”

“You had to put down your rat? Must have sucked.”

“It did! I wish I could unmake it somehow… Although I wouldn’t go as far as to call John a rat.”

“Wait, what, John? John Phillips? But you were talking about animals!”

“Yes, exactly. - Uh, on second thought forget what I said and hand me a paper bag! Your mice are getting out of hand and I’ve got an empty rodent cage to fill.”

They didn’t like to hear it, but Gavin’s people were indeed animals. Just like Daniel’s were machines. But each group had developed deviants within their ranks. Of the apes, it had had occurred in several species, of which only one was still present in 2038. Among the androids deviance happened all across the range of models with none being more disposed towards it than others.

And there they were, the not-quite-animals and the not-quite-machines, beings that were still heavily driven by their instincts or coding, but who had acquired the ability to go beyond and even downright against it. There was a word for them, although the beast-people were still denying it to the machine-people.

The word was “humans”.

(to be continued)

[batfamily-trash]

Control

can I do a request with Jason able to control people by them looking into his eyes, with their own turning green because the pit gave him powers n’ such. It’s kept secret until the other robins find him using it to gain info on Riddlers plan? (Which is to kidnap the reader or bruce. Or both.) It’s a lot to ask but please?

Jason was a very important person in your life. So when Bruce told you he died you were devastated. When you found out he was alive you were ecstatic. But ever since he came back he seemed to be keeping secrets from you. You asked the boys and Bruce but they all told you that he seemed fine, Alfred was with you on this though. He knows the boys better than anything in the world.

Every time you confronted him about it he would just ignore it or reassure you it was nothing. After a while, you decided to drop it. He would tell you when he was ready.

This month was a fairly quiet month, which meant trouble. The Riddler escaped from Arkham and was now planning something, but no one knew what. So to drag him out of his hiding spot Bruce planned a gala. That meant dealing with rich snobs while on the lookout for a madman.

Jason, Cass, and Steph were outside keeping watch while you, Tim, Damian, Duke, and Dick were inside. Jason didn’t like the idea of you being by yourself so you stayed away from the crowd. Not like you had any friends available to join you.

An hour had passed and nothing happened. Everyone was getting on edge.

“Shouldn’t he be here by now?” Tim asked through the earpiece.

“Maybe he didn’t get the memo?” Duke answered. You chuckled as you took a sip of your drink.

“The gala was announced to happen at least three weeks ago. He got the memo,” Bruce said.

“Then where is he?” Stephanie asked.

“Waiting for an opportunity maybe,” you said. “It’s not like he can just waltz in here.”

Not even a minute later the sound of people screaming in fear filled the building. Everyone jumped into action. You, Damian, and Duke helped civilians get out while everyone else went to deal with the main problem.

After getting everyone out and giving your declarations to the cops you all went to the Batcave to investigate the evidence Bruce and the rest collected. Which was only a note, a green note to be more specific.

“So all he was going to do was cause panic?” Jason asked, walking behind you to hug you.

“To cause panic and leave a message,” Tim answered. ���Look he left an address.”

“Dillion Avenue? That’s specific.”

Bruce took the note from Tim and put it in one of his pockets. “It’s by Upper East Side. Damian, Dick, Tim suit up.”

“What about the rest of us?” You asked annoyed. There was no way you were going to miss out on punching Riddler.

“You, Duke, and Cass go home and rest, the city will probably need you during the day. Spoiler and Red Hood will serve as backup if we need it.”

“Of course I’m backup,” Jason mumbled as Bruce walked towards the batmobile. You sighed and turned to give him a hug, which he gladly accepted.

“Don’t worry backup buddy we’ll just follow them,” Steph said.

“Why?”

“Do you want to be backup Jason? Knowing them they’ll probably get themselves killed and Tim hasn’t slept in a week.”

Jason looked down at you and gave you a kiss, “Is that okay babe?”

“Yeah, just be safe you idiots,” you said returning the kiss.

Jason and Stephanie left the cave as you, Duke and Cass went upstairs for some of Alfred’s famous cookies.

“Was that a smart idea. y/n?” Duke asked.

“Nope, but it’s better than having them destroying the cave with glitter and paint,” you replied.

“True, besides, what trouble can they get into?” Cass said.

If there was one thing the batboys could easily find it would be trouble. Apparently, the Riddler set up an ambush knowing that Batman would show up. Good thing that Spoiler and Red Hood showed up when they did though. After kicking ass, handcuffing Nygma and letting the cops take him away Batman and the batboys made their way over the Police Department, even though Jason isn’t liked by the cops.

“Nygma why did you attack Bruce Wayne’s charity gala?” Commissioner Gordon asked.

“How about instead you answer a riddle! Riddle me this….”

“Can we go one day without riddles?” Jason interrupted while glaring at him from under the helmet.

“Yes but I need to keep all of you occupied!”

“Why?” Bruce demanded.

“Cobblepot.”

“What about him?”

“He’s paying me to keep you distracted.”

“From what?” Jason asked him walking closer towards him.

“He wants to kidnap a certain birdie’s heroic significant other and Wayne’s beloved family friend of course!”

Jason stopped glaring at Nygma and sprinted out of the interrogation room with Damian right behind him.

“Red Hood! Robi… Dammit. Commissioner, Nightwing go check if what Riddler said is true,” Bruce said running after his children. Dick, Tim and commissioner Gordon stood in the room in confusion until Riddler spoke up acting all confused as to what happened.

“I didn’t tell you crap!” He insisted. Red Robin pulled up the camera feed and showed it to him. And of course, there he was confessing.

“…………….My eyes are not that green.”

Red Robin looked at the feed and saw that the Riddlers eye color changed when Jason started talking to him, but when he left they went back to their original eye color.

“Nightwing lets go,” He said walking out of the room.

“Go where?” Gordon asked.

“save s/h/n and talk to Penguin.”

“Wait, s/h/n… is s/h/n y/n?”

“Perhaps, I don’t know, s/h/n is mean, y/n is nice. So no,” Nightwing answered. Nightwing, Red Robin, and the Commissioner all went to Penguins nightclub and things got interesting.

Jason paced the Batcave as Bruce typed away looking for Cobblepots location. “Please tell me you found something?”

“Calm down Jason. We’ll find her. Nightwing and Red Robin are on their way to the Iceberg Lounge.”

“How do you want me to calm down when the love of my life is in the hands of that bastard?!?!”

“Tt. Pacing around the cave isn’t going to help to find them, Todd,” Damian stated. Jason stopped pacing and groaned. If only he’d stay instead with you.

“I managed to save parts of the security feed,” Bruce said pulling the feed up on the computer. Damian and Jason ran next to Bruce and looked at the screen.

You were helping Alfred take care of Ace, Alfred the Cat, and Titus after Duke and Cass went home. A couple minutes later the main door was blown off its hinges by bullets. Multiple of Cobblepots henchmen ran in and began to fight with you and Alfred. Little did they know that Damian had trained all his beloved pets to attack idiotic intruders like them. You put up a good fight before one of them got the jump on you and knocked you out cold. They managed to get away with you before the dogs mauled them to death.

Bruce switched feed to the cameras outside where they basically threw you in a van and drove away.

“Is that all?” Jason asked.

“Everything else was deleted. I’m sorry.”

Jason walked towards his motorcycle and got on. “Where are you going?” Bruce asked him.

“I’m going to catch up with Dick and Tim,” Jason said pulling out of the cave. Damian was gonna go after him but Bruce held him back.

“Don’t.”

“But father…”

“He has it handled.”

You mentally cursed at every person in the room with you. If your mom were a psychic she would be disappointed. Very disappointed. You pulled at the ropes that held you onto the chair and yelled in frustration.

“When I get out of here I’m going to make you pay!”

“You’re all bark no bite Miss/Mr. Todd. You’re boyfriend on the other hand… Oh, that boy has caused me some major problems,” Cobblepot said walking around you like a wolf stalking a doe. But you were no defenseless doe, you were a badass vigilante with a badass boyfriend who hated Cobblepots ass. So who was in trouble now?

“Your problems with him don’t involve me at all. I don’t interfere with your work. Why kidnap me. Better yet, how did you figure out I was s/h/n?”

“HA! There are people out there who know Jason. A couple thousand dollars was enough to buy the information I needed to figure out his weakness,” he said pointing his umbrella at you, “and you sweetie, are it.”

You glared at the short, fat, sad man in front of you then laughed. “Me? His weakness? Honey, you must’ve eaten some bad fish because I. Am. Not. His. Weakness.”

“That’s not what my sources tell me.”

Whoever his sources were, they were a bunch of snitches.

You rolled your eyes and looked away from him. The fact that the entire batfam fell into his trap surprised you. What surprised you more was that when you looked back at Cobblepot his eyes were a nice emerald color instead of black.

“Uhh, Penguin? You okay?” you asked.

“Why yes, you know what free them,” he replied. His henchmen looked at you then at their boss before untying you. You stood up and rubbed your wrists in an attempt to make the pain go away. A tall broody guy grabbed your shoulder and walked you to one of the backdoors. You walked out of the building a bit scared and confused. But that all went away when Nightwing approached.

“Hey, are you okay?!”

“I guess?”

“What do you mean ‘I guess’? Did he do anything to you?”

“Besides letting me go no.”

Nightwing stood there shocked until Red Hood appeared behind you. You turned around and hugged your boyfriend.

“Hey are you okay?” he asked you.

“Yeah, just tired.”

“Okay lovebirds lets go! Bab’s dad is waiting for us so he can go arrest Penguin but that won’t happen if we stay here all night!”

After the Commissioner arrested Penguin and got your testimony Jason took you home to rest, but not before Tim pulled you to the side and showed you the same video he showed Riddler.

When you got home you decided to ask Jason about it so Tim wouldn’t just bluntly tell everyone that “Jason is a meta!” That would end badly.

“Jay can I ask you something?” you said.

“Is it about what happened with Riddler and Penguin?”

“Yes.”

“Jay can I ask you something?” you said.

“Is it about what happened with Riddler and Penguin?”

“Yes.”

Jason sighed and took off his helmet. “I… ever since I was revived by the pit I got powers. I can control people. Manipulate them to tell me something or do something.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!?!”

“I was afraid you would leave me,” he whispered.

You took the helmet from his hands and tossed it onto the living room couch. You gently cupped his face and kissed him. “I could care less if you have powers or not. I love you and nothing is going to be able to change that.”

[slytherinjulian]

Unexpected News || ST. BASS

Julian was looking at nowhere in particular as he hung up the phone, his hand moving down slowly until it finally rested on the kitchen counter, along with the phone itself.  He had arrived particulary early that day, having vowed he would do a further research from home on the current case they had open. It was right in the middle of making dinner than he had received that call, and his mind snapped out of it when his eyes fell on the ticking clock on the kitchen wall. Jesse should be home soon, or so Julian hoped. He finally stood up and started pacing between the kitchen and living room, back and forth, his hands held together at the back of his neck.

Jesse hummed to himself as he strolled up to their front door, slipping the key in the lock. He'd stopped by in the village after school and grabbed a bottle of wine for the two of them, and decided to walk back to their house from the town. It wasn't fair, and it was a nice walk, one that really made him remember the pure beauty of where they lived. He pushed open the door, not seeing the kitchen straight away. "Babe! I bought some wi- what's wrong?" He said, his demeanor changing the second he saw Julian, as he could tell something was wrong. He set the bottle aside and stepped up to him, fearing the worst. Although it had been a long time since the war, he almost always thought something of that past life would come back to haunt them, or specifically Julian.

@slytherinjesse

Julian's eyes were naturally big, and of a blue that would made them look even bigger. But when he was stressed like he was at that moment they got even bigger, and there was no doubt that Jesse saw that as he first walked through the door. His face was somewhat blank, almost without an expression, as if his brain was still processing what he had just heard. "Molly's dead. Her heart... No one saw it coming. She's dead."

Jesse blinked, and stared at Julian for a second too long, and then the words processed in his mind, "what!? Oh my god, babe... wait. What's going to happen to Camilla?" He stepped up to Julian, and took both of his hands in his, standing in front of him, "we'll fight. If they want to put her in the system away from you or some bullshit, we'll fight. You are not losing the right to see your daughter."

For the first time, Julian was facing one of his biggest fears in life, which was to actually lose his daughter. He knew he wasn't the favorite in Quinn's parents eyes, not after he knocked their daughter up while they were still in school, but after she died, her sister had seen that Julian tried to be the best he could for Camilla, especially after what he had done in the big war, and his marriage to Jesse made her see he was good and settled in life. But with her gone, maybe the child's grandparents would make things difficult for him. "Uh.. um... D-Do you think we need a lawyer or something like that?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I think Imay know a couple down at the office. Someone who's good at both magic and muggle laws..."

Jesse took Julian's hand, guiding him to sit down on the couch, "breathe." He rubbed the back of his hand gently with his thumb. "What exactly did they tell you on the phone? You're her father, you're the automatic next of kin unless you legally agreed upon something else, or Camilla's grandparents could prove you're an unfit father. She visits us regularly, she knows us, she loves coming here. There is zero proof you're an unfit father but if it was at all implied they were going to fight for custody, then ... yes, we may need a lawyer. But worst case scenario, you'll get partial custody. No court of law is going to take her away from you, okay? I won't let them."

Julian followed Jesse to thee couch, glad that he had his hand to hold onto, otherwise he was sure we would had fallen face first on the floor. It was a long time ago that Molly had visited them after they had permanently moved to Italy, so she could see they had a good home for his daughter to visit from time to time. Molly had ended up the one being in favor of him spending more time with Camilla, more than her parents had ever been. "They can't prove that, no. But to them, I'll always be the asshole who knocked up her daughter. They sure know how to hold a grudge. I'm afraid they will sink on this chance with their claws-" he said, his voice soft and almosst defeated. But then it was like the fog inside his mind cleared up a bit, and the first thing he saw clear was Jesse, his husband, sitting there with him and holding his hand. "Fuck that. I want full custody. She's my daughter, and I'll be goddamned if I let those crows take her away from me." He held onto his hand with both of his. "You got my back, right?"

Jesse looked deep into Julian's eyes and nodded, his hand still in his, "one hundred percent. You want full custody? Then that's what we'll get. Quinn's parents can get over themselves... they should be thanking you, Camilla is clearly the best thing that's happened to them. She's an amazing girl, Julian, and when she comes to live here permanently, you can relax. But if you're fighting for full custody, I would recommend a lawyer... maybe there's something in Molly or Quinn's will that helps us. Quinn wanted Molly to be the legal guardian, but maybe there's a clause in there that specified something different. But unless the courts can prove you're an unfit father which they can't because you're not, you're her father. You should automatically be her legal guardian." In truth, Jesse didn't think Molly should have been able to raise Camilla all those years, he always thought she should have been with Julian... but they were young and with everything that happened with the Death Eaters, he was also glad she had a childhood free of that. But now with no weight like that on Julian, it was time for his daughter to come home.

Julian let out a deep breath when he heard Jesse saying that he would support his idea for the full custody. "If we get a lawyer, they could find out about all that, I guess? I mean, what happened to Molly was so sudden... We never even talked about what would happen if something were to happen to her. I guess she never thought something like that-" He sighed and shook his head. Regardless of the fact he was never that close to Quinn's family, he would always be grateful to Molly for taking care of his daughter, especialy through the most recent turbulent times in his life. He leaned back on his seat and sighed again. "I think... we should go to the funeral? Or you think that's not a good idea?"

Jesse gave Julian a small, but cautious smile. He was - of course - confident the courts would award Julian custody over his own daughter, but the one thing her grandparents had in their favour is that they lived closer to Molly, and Camilla saw them regularly. They could try to argue that her moving to Italy would be too much on a young child, and she should stay where she knew. That was really their only leg to stand on. "I think you're right. I think getting a lawyer is the right idea. It's better to be prepared and not need one, than be caught off guard without one. Did you say you have a friend that does Muggle laws too? Do they have the right to practice in the US?" When Julian mentioned the funeral, Jesse nodded, "no, we should definitely go. Camilla loved Molly, you need to be there for her. And Molly was always nice to us, and made sure you got to see Camilla regularly. We should pay our respects, whether or not Camilla's grandparents want us there or not. The right thing is the go, be there for Camilla and Molly."

Julian nodded and chuckled softly. "Babe, I know everyone there is to know at Muggle Affairs over there. And just in case, I'll tell him to direct me to the best lawyer in Muggle Affairs in the US. That shouldn't be  a problem. I don't want anyone finding any loopholes in what needs to be done." He looked at him and smiled, then took his hand and laced their fingers together. "Then we are going.  Let's pack up light and do this. We should go when it's night time here, that way it'll be the afternoon there, right?" Apollo and Zeus suddenly came running into the living room, apparently in a sort of friendly feud, which was usually to them, and both him and Jesse picked up one of their pets and sat him on their laps. "You guys, your daddies have to go out for a day or two. You two be nice to each other, okay?" Zeus gave a loud bark, and Apollo, apparently couldn't be bothered as much.

Jesse nodded, and stood up, chuckling a bit as Julian spoke to their pets. "Don't worry, Jules, I'll pop back here a couple of times, quickly, to feed them and to make sure they're okay. You won't even know I'm gone." He scratched the top of Apollo's head and the cat sprung off him. He sighed, and shook his head, "standard reaction. Come on, let's get ready. Is the funeral soon?" They made their way upstairs and packed light - as Julian said - just grabbing a couple of things. They did get their suits from the closet, charming them so they wouldn't crease as they folded them up to put them in their expandable bags. When they were done, and all packed up, Jesse suggested they take a nap and try to relax before they had to leave.

Julian put his arm around Jesse's waist as they went up the stairs. "Don't you just love it how independent cats can be?" He flicked his wand and everything he thought about taking landed easily on the bed, where he put everything inside his travel bag. "In a couple of hours, yeah." He looked up at him and smiled, then that turned to a smirk. "Hey, here's a crazy idea... How about we take a couple of hours after that and make a quick stop at McKinley? You know, for old times sake."

Jesse smirked when Julian mentioned McKinley, remembering the last time they went by there. "Mmm... you just want to fuck me in an abandoned classroom again, like the good ol' days." He winked at him, "but yes, I'm down for stopping at McKinley... reminds me of our roots." They'd of course met before they went to school, but McKinley - that was where they fell in love and - despite all the dramas that had come along the way - managed to realise their mutual feelings and start dating and now here they were, several years later, married, owning a business and a home together and it was perfect.

Julian smirked as he zipped his bag closed. "You're saying that as if you didn't love it every time we did it. It's either that, or you were terribly good at the fake moaning thing." He walked past Jesse on his way to the bathroom and slapped the man's ass hard. "It would be fun if we had that shot. But at least we can go and remember more simple times. That should be fun." He grabbed a couple more personal items from the bathroom and put them in his bag, then he walked to the closet and sighed as he looked at all his hung up clothes. "Now, what should we wear to this thing? That's I why hate funerals."

Jesse laughed, "oh, believe me, babe, I loved it. Especially graduation... mmm, good times." His tongue darted out to wet his lips as he remembered the fun they had got up to at McKinley. It had been a easier time, but everything they'd ended up going through had got them to where they were today so he hoped Julian would agree with him that they had come out of it in a better place. Jesse looked at Julian and then gave a single shrug, "I don't know. I already grabbed our suits, I thought we could wear those. Just the plain black ones. I didn't get shirts though, not yet... I think a suit should be okay though?"

Julian walked up to where Jesse was and put his arms around his waist. "Oh yeah..  That was really going out with a bang, huh?" He winked at him and chuckled, then sighed. "Yeah, just one suit is enough. Maybe just a couple of shirts too. And sweaters? I mean, it's still cold over there, right?" He kissed him quickly on the cheek, then went to the drawer cabinet to get some of those. "I think that's pretty much it. Oh! Maybe we could stop by Diagon Alley first and get something for Camilla?"

Jesse made a soft noise of consideration when Julian asked about Diagon Alley, and then nodded. "I think that's a wonderful idea... but do you know what else we should get? Some flowers for Molly's grave of course, but something for her and Quinn's parents... you know what they say, kill your enemy with kindness, right? Make them have less reason to even think about suing for custody."

Julian stopped suddenly on the spot and nodded. It was as if for one second he had forgotten the real reason that was taking them back to the States to begin with. "Yeah. Of course, we could do that... And also for  Quinn's grave" he added with a soft, and also sad smile. "How about we look for a bottle of our finest wine from the cellar and take it to them, so they could taste something of what we do here?"

Jesse held Julian's hand and squeezed it softly. "Of course. For Quinn's grave too." As much as he hated Quinn in high school, he knew it had all been pettiness. He'd been jealous of her and Julian, even if there had never been a relationship he'd known Quinn had a massive crush on Julian, and then when he found out they'd slept together ... well, jealous hadn't even begun to describe it at the time. But in all honestly, Quinn hadn't been a bad person. She was a teenager with a crush, and she certainly didn't deserve to die young like she had. "I think that's a fantastic idea, babe." He said with a smile, pressing a soft kiss to Julian's lips.

With their bags already packed, Julian smiled against Jesse's lips and they both headed downstairs, and further down to the cellar, where their wines and also cheeses were stored. He grabbed one that had been aging for about a year and put it inside of a double paper bag. "Okay, that's it. Ready to go then?"

Jesse nodded, giving the place a once over again, muttering a charm to make sure the animals would be feed on their normal regular schedule. He wondered how much would have changed when they returned ... whether or not they'd be planning for a lengthy court battle, or whether or not they'd be planning to bring Camilla home. Jesse hoped for the later, for both Julian and Camilla's sake, but he wasn't entirely sure Quinn and Molly's parents would be that accepting. "Ready," he confirmed audible and, taking each other's hands, apparated to the area behind the Leaky Cauldron, as both an access to it, and Diagon Alley. Although apparating long distances was physically possible (and many non-magical folk question why wizards and witches don't do it all the time instead of taking various forms of transport), it was exhausting and took a toll on the person. From Italy to London for their work and school wasn't so bad, but from Italy to the US would knock them out for a little so it wasn't like they could just return home every evening. "I'm going to go see if they've got any rooms free at the Cauldron, okay? Unless you think Quinn and Molly's parents will let us stay with them?"

Julian held onto Jesse's hand tight, the tug inside of him obvious as they were sucked into the whirlwind that was apparating from place to place, only this time the jetlag from the 5-hour difference hit  them all at once. He groaned and rubbed his forehead before he could find his footing again, then chuckled and shook his head.  "I'm gonna go with the Cauldron. The latter seems highly unlikely, babe." He put his arm around Jesse's waist and kissed him soundly on the lips.

Jesse smiled into the kiss and then nodded, "okay, come on. Maybe we can have a bit of a rest and catch up on the time difference before we go to Diagon Alley. The funeral is tomorrow, right?" He stepped into the back entrance of the small pub, a home-y feeling hitting them almost instantly. It was dark yet inviting. Sometimes it was easy to forget what the wizarding world was like when you lived amongst Muggles, though since he'd gone back to school at WADA that was less of an occurrence. He went up the barman and asked about rooms, getting a key for one of them and signing in. He lead Julian up the stairs, finding the room with the number on it. It was small, but effective and would do for them until now. Plus, they could look out over Diagon Alley through their window, and Jesse always found that fascinating.

Julian put his arm around Jesse's waist and smiled. "Yes, it is. So that's a good idea. Let's go." A small smile came to his face when they stepped inside of the Leaky Cauldron, memories of years past coming to him at once, both good and bad. Julian walked up to Jesse, who was currently standing by the window, and put his arms around his waist, his chin resting on his shoulder. "What you thinking?"

Jesse jumped a little when Julian's arms slid around him, surprising him. "Hmm?" He turned his head to the side and smiled at him, leaning back in his touch, "just things. It's weird. To watch everybody rush and get through their errands. Look, see that lady going into the bank. She's wearing a black veil. Has somebody died or is she just taking this witch thing real hardcore? Everybody has lives and stories and nobody really stops to take in the moment." He turned around, staying in Julian's arms, so he was now facing him and put his arms around his husband's neck. "I'm just thinking how glad I am we moved to Italy. It really made us stop, and appreciate the moments."

Julian peeked under Jesse's shoulder to look at what his husband was talking about and smiled.  "Boy, you really thought about that one, didn't you, babe?" he said and chuckled, then looked at him lovingly as he turned around in his arms. "I'm glad we did that too. Who knew our honeymoon would end up like that, us moving to a whole new country and culture? One that has settled so well with us, hmm?" He sighed softly. "I sure hope we get to have Camilla, in any way... I hope we can get her to live with us... But I don't wanna get my hopes up either. This sucks so much" he said with a huff.

Jesse chuckled softly, "a very... very delayed honeymoon." He remembered when they got married, long before they went to Italy. They had both agreed to call it their honeymoon because they hadn't been since when they had got married it wasn't... the best timing. With everything going on, with Julian and the Death Eaters and the war, they'd got married at the city clerk's office. A shotgun wedding... without a sudden pregnancy. "Don't think like that. Worst case scenario, she continues to come stay with us one weekend a month. She loves coming to visit, and she loves our house and her room. There's no way you're going to lose that... but we can absolutely fight for more and we will, when we come to that bridge, okay? You don't know what Molly had in her will either... maybe she mentioned Camilla's best interests, or who she thought should be guardian. Maybe it'll be in your favour... the courts will have to consider it. And you know she thought you were a good father."

Julian smiled softly and nodded. He hadn't thought about that at all, about Molly having a will, which he wouldn't be surprised if she did. He just hoped she had thought about everything on that matter. "You're right. We'll talk about that when the time comes. Now, how about we go downstairs and get something to eat? I've always loved that soup they made here, though I never had the nerve to ask what's in it." He chuckled and kissed him soundly, his arms wrapped around his waist. They still had a couple of hours to spare before heading to the funeral, plus they still had to go into Diagon Alley to get something for Camilla.

Jesse scrunched up his nose at the mention of the soup, "I think it's beef... I wouldn't be sure though." He took Julian's hand as the two of them headed down the stairs. They sat in the corner of the Leaky Cauldron, both ordering a steaming hot cup of coffee and a bowl of soup each. Something to tide them over, but not anything too much in case there was food at the reception. When their food came, Jesse look down at it and chuckled, "yeah, I still have no idea." He blew softly on the spoon and took a mouthful. The perfect temperature. Warm and soothing, yet not scalding. "Still delicious though."

"It better be" Julian said with a chuckle, then kissed his hand and followed him downstairs to where the tables were, and they took a table at the far end of it, where they were soon given coffee and a bowl of soup. "I think we best leave it to mystery, babe" he said, then winked at him and took a good sip of it, humming as the warm and also familiar taste went down his throat. The place was fairly crowded as usual, so there  was a soft hum of chatting happening here and there, and Julian could had also sworn that some of those people were looking right at him. Maybe it was just him being paranoic, but there was no doubt in his mind that most of the people in the  magical world would knew who he was.

Jesse noticed Julian glancing around the room, and he looked over his shoulder, catching somebody quickly looking away. He turned back to Julian and shook his head, "ignore them, babe. If they think you're anything less than a hero, they can get fucked. Because that's what you are. Half the wizarding world would be dead if it wasn't for you, and I'm sure they know that." They finished their soups and their drinks, and Jesse stretched out in his chair, "we should go for a wander through Diagon Alley. Gives us enough time to get back and get changed in the suits and get there with plenty of time for you to get to catch up with talk with Camilla before the funeral starts."

Julian smiled softly at him. "Let's hope that's all they think, babe. I can use all the brownie points I could get right now." He finished his soup soon enough, along with a loaf of bread from the ration they ordered, then he leaned back on his chair and sighed, happy to have put some food in his stomach. "That's a good idea.  See if we can bought her something. I was thinking that maybe before we head back home we could make another run down the Alley and buy some things to take home. You know... Things from our original home." He chuckled, then stood up and held onto Jesse's hand.

Jesse gave Julian's hand a squeeze and nodded, "that sounds perfect, babe. It'd be nice to bring something home. We should get some ice cream too, before we go. You know there's no better ice cream than Florean's, even if his son is running it now. It's still good... he's guarding that family secret with his life. I think Florean invented a spell he didn't tell anybody about... it's gotta be." He chuckled as they started wandering through Diagon Alley, popping into various stores as Julian looked for something to buy Camilla, knowing they could go to the florist on the way to the funeral, to ensure they had some flowers to lay on the grave, and also give Molly's parents. Jesse didn't want them to have any reason to think negatively of Julian, or at least not more than they already did.

Julian chuckled. "I'm sure he did" he said, both of them already walking the stoney streets that made Diagon Alley what it was. After checking over several stores it ocurred to Julian that his gift for his daughter shouldn't be something too big, or loud, or scary that could make her grandparents frown even more at him, so he entered the library and decided that something from there should do it just fine. In the end, he decided two notebooks with leather covers with magical feather pens that moved themselves when she wanted them to, one for writting, the other for sketching. "You think she would like these'" he asked Jesse, holding both notebooks up.

Jesse looked over at the notebooks Julian was holding and ran his hand softly against the covers of one of them. "They're gorgeous, she'll love them. Especially with the pens too, it's a good choice, babe. And her grandparents can't fault you for buying that." They made their way to the counter and purchased the notebooks, then made their way to the florists and browsed until they found two large bouquets of flowers. One for Molly's grave, and one for her parents as a gesture of goodwill. Once they had both, Jesse looked over at Julian, "was there anything else we needed or are we getting close to having to leave?"

Julian chuckled and followed Jesse to the register. "I'm sure they can fault me for almost anything, babe. But I'm not letting that bringing me down. Not now when I have so much to gain, or to lose." They walked out of the florist and he looked back at Jesse. "Maybe some flowers from Quinn's grave too?" He shrugged

Jesse looked down at the two bouquets they had and felt bad he hadn't even considered Quinn's grave. He'd been so wrapped up in Molly's funeral, and what Molly's parents would think of Julian (and Jesse, because if they were trying to convince the courts they'd be better guardians than Camilla's own father, they would surely bring him into it as well) that he'd almost forgot the circumstances that lead to Molly being Camilla's guardian in the first place. "Of course," he said softly, "some for Quinn's grave too. You're right, I'm sorry." They selected out a third bouquet, and Jesse pointed out a small flower broch, with the same flowers that was in both Molly and Quinn's bouquet, "maybe Camilla would like to wear it, to be connected to them?"

Julian smiled and gave Jesse's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Don't worry about it, babe" he said, then they went inside the shop again to get another bouquet. "Looks nice. I think she'll appreciate that" he said, then asked the seller to put that on the check as well. With everything they needed in hand, they headed back to the Cauldron so they could change for the funeral, him dressing in a dark gray ensemble, together with a white shirt. "Ready?" he asked him once they were both done.

Jesse nodded, giving them both a glance over. Their outfits were understated and sombre, an acceptable combination for a funeral. "Ready," he replied in confirmation, taking Julian's hand, the flowers and everything else they were bringing in their other hand. "Let's go." They apparated to just outside Quinn and Molly's parents house so they could enter on foot and not just appear inside their home. Jesse squeezed Julian's hand, "you got this, babe. We're here for Camilla and Molly. And if they try to get a rise out of you, ignore them, okay?"

Julian held onto Jesse's hand just in time to feel that strong tug in his stomach, and when he blinked again he was outside the Fabrays house. He couldn't remember the last time he was there, it had been that long. He took a deep breath and looked at Jesse, his hand still holding onto his husband's, and he offered him a playful wink. "I'm the best one at that, babe" he said, then they walked the short distance to the door and gently pushed it open. The house was already filled with people who were talking quietly and coming and going, some of them known to them, some others not. Julian's eyes scanned the room to see if he could see Molly's parents, but a soft, yet loud voice sneaked on him from behind. "Daddyyyyy!" Julian turned on the spot, just in time to catch Camilla in his arms, and he picked her up and held her tight against his chest. "Sweetie!" he said, kissing her head maye a dozen times, then he pulled his head back and smiled at her. "By Merlin, you're growing more beautiful every day, how's that possible?" Several faces turned to look at him when the little girl made it obvious who he was, but he didn't care about that, then at that moment he spotted two people coming toward to where they were. Taking in the small window of peace he thought he might had, he put her back on the floor while she also greeted Jesse, and he took one step forward to the ones who were coming over. "Richard. Frannie... I'm so terribly sorry for what happened..."

Despite the reason they were here, Jesse couldn't stop the soft smile that appeared on his face when Camilla ran into Julian's arms. It was always a beautiful moment to see the two of them interacting because anybody with half a brain could see the amount of love Julian had for the young girl - though she was getting older and older every year. He couldn't believe in just a few years she'd be following in her parents footsteps and going off to Hogwarts. While Julian and Quinn were incredibly young when they had her, they both loved her with everything they had - even in Quinn sadly has less time with her. He and Quinn were never exactly close, but he was sure that - as Camilla's mother - she would have been so proud of the girl Camilla was turning into. He spotted Molly and Quinn's parents - Camilla's grandparents - walking over to them just as Julian put Camilla down and he knelt down, greeting the girl himself, giving her a tight hug. "Hi, sweetheart," Jesse said to her, and then looked up to her grandparent's.  He didn't want to interrupt Julian, as he was sure part of the reason that Quinn's parents didn't like Julian was because of the fact he was married to a man, and they didn't think a house with two men would be a good influence. So he let Julian offer his condolences first, and he could later, once the potential awkwardness of that conversation had past.

There was a short amount of time, perhaps half a secod in which Julian did his best to stay calm and prepared himself for what could be an incredily awkward and ugly moment. But he knew that whatever the case was, he needed to stay calm and put together, if he wanted a shot to get Camilla's custody. He snapped back to reality quickly only to see Richard, Quinn's father, offering him his hand. And  that was all. It was a strong, yet shaky handshake, which Julian returned just the same. He then turned to see the woman, Frannie, and noticed she had tears falling down her face, and next thing he knew she was pulling him into a hug, which at first proved a bit difficult, since he was still holding Camilla's present in his hand. "I've lost both my baby girls, Julian", she said quietly, still sobbing, and even if they had ever looked eye to eye in many things, that was actually heartbroken, and he quickly handed the package to Jesse, so he could hold the woman properly.

Jesse hung back when he saw Richard offering Julian his hand, perhaps a tentative step forward in Camilla's grandparents realising Julian wasn't a bad person. His face hardened slightly when he heard Frannie's words, though he quickly covered it. He'd like to believe she hadn't meant anything behind them, but he didn't trust the two as far as he could throw them. It would take more than a handshake and a hug at a funeral for Jesse to trust them, after seeing what they'd done to and said about Julian. He didn't doubt their grief was real, it was clear both parents were heartbroken at what had happened, but hr words just sounded like an echo of "I'm not letting you take Camilla too" and until Jesse saw otherwise, he would keep that in the back of his mind. He took the package from Julian and let him embrace the woman, though he didn't pass it along to Camilla, thinking that Julian should be the one to do that.

Julian had never, ever been too fond of Frannie, not even when he and Quinn weren't even... anything, and she would look down on him whenever they crossed paths at McKinley because of his reputation, even more so when she found he got her daughter pregnant. And even now, at that moment when the woman seemed to be in genuine grief, it wasn't a strong hug that he gave her, but a polite, soft one. "I know. I'm sorry that happened" he simply said to her words, then he let go of her and Richard took care of her, and he turned around and crouched down to the floor to the level of Camilla's eye, although she was quickly getting big, much bigger than last time he saw her. 

It suddenly pained him to realize just how many first he had missed by now. Her first words, her first steps, her first everything, and he had to put his own selfish need to have his daughter all to himself due to the moment they were at, including Camilla, who Julian knew loved her aunt just as much, as must had been equally distraught. He looked up at Jesse so he could join him down, then he took the package from him and gave it to her. "Here, sweetie. Jesse and I brought you a little something. We hope you like it."

When Julian looked up at him, Jesse knelt down next to him, passing him the notebooks and feather pens, in the gift wrapping the store had done for them. He offered Julian a small smile as the girl took the package from him and looked down at it. It was clear she was hurting, and Jesse couldn't blame her. He'd never had anything against Molly, she was the reason Camilla spent the time she did with them. She knew Julian loved his daughter, and she knew that spending time with each other was good for both of them. "Thanks Daddy, thanks Jesse." She reached forward and hugged them both and once again, Jesse was caught off guard as to how grown up she'd become. He know they had missed a lot in her early years, but seeing her grow into a well spoken child of seven already, and he quietly hoped they would be seeing a lot more of her soon.

Julian smiled when Camilla pulled both him and Jesse for a hug, his arms holding them all together at once too. He had to force himself to pull back and he fixed a blonde lock of her that threatened to fall over her eye. "I hope you like those. That way you can practice you handwritting and drawing before you get to go to McKinley, where you would surely be selected for  the best school ever, Slytherin, of course." He winked at her, then looked at Jesse and smiled. The idea of his daughter going to school in a few years, the same school they had gone to was almost too much too phatom.

"But any house is good. Your Mum was a Ravenclaw, you know." Jesse added with Julian mentioned about Slytherin, shaking his head with a smile as Camilla was thanking both of them. "We'll love you no matter where you get sorted." He knew Julian was only joking, and he knew Camilla knew that as well, be he remembered being a kid, and the pressure of being in Slytherin that was on both him and Julian before they went to McKinley... and he wouldn't want Camilla to feel any pressure on what house to get sorted into.

Julian narrowed his eyes at Julian playfully, then nodded as he stood up and gently patted Camilla's cheek. "The Hat will know where you will rightfully belong, sweetheart. And like Jesse said, we will love you, no matter which House you end up with." Camilla seemed happy with that idea, then she ran to show hergrandparents the gift they had just given to her. He moved  closer to Jesse and took a deep breath. "How'd you think we're doing so far?" he said quietly and chuckled.

Jesse watched Frannie and Richard's reaction to Camilla showing them, snapping out of it when Julian asked him the question. "Hmm?" He turned to look at his husband and smiled softly, giving his hand a squeeze, "perfectly. I can't believe how grown up she's gotten." Although they saw Camilla more regularly now (and she had a permanent bedroom at their place), thanks entirely to Molly, he was still sometimes taken aback by the fact she really wasn't that small, soft spoken girl he remembered. And personally, he thought she was looking more and more like Julian by the day, except for the blonde hair. That was all Quinn.

Julian squeezed Jesse's hand back and exhaled rather deeply. "Yeah.. Do you think  they're serving alcohol in here?" he asked, then looked at him and chuckled. "I was kidding. Let's see where they're serving the iced tea, yes?" He took his hand properly and they both navigated their way through the crowd of people that were in the house. While they were drinking their cool drinks they saw Camilla showing what they had brought for her toa couple of little friends of her who were there, and he felt happy she seemed content with her present. Some time later it was announced they had to go to the church nearby, where the memorial would take place.

Jesse observed the crowds as they sipped on their drinks. Magical funerals were always a sight to see, there were far less traditions than Muggles had. Though the general premise was still the same and of course they were still very somber, everybody did things a little different. When the announcement came that the ceremony would be soon to start, he took Julian's hand and squeezed it lightly, as they walked slowly over to the church with the rest of the attendees. They all filed in and took their seats, ready for it to begin.

There had always been an ongoing joke about Julian not being allowed inside a church when he was growing up, and that if he did he might explode in flames, and he hadto chuckle to himself when he was finally walking down to the aisle to get his seat alongside Jesse. He did stop for a second to look at a picture of Molly that was in display there and sighed. He was genuinelly sad about her leaving. 

The ceremony started with a couple of words from the parrish in turn, then after he was done he asked if there were any people present, family or friends, who would like to say something about Molly. A few family members stood up, the parents obviously too sad to even speak. Julian looked at Jesse and smiled, giving his hand a little squeeze before he stood up and fixed his jacket as he took his place behind the pulpit. 

"My name is Julian Bass-" There was a murmur around the place when he said that, and plenty fof people there knew exactly who he was, but he didn't pay attention to that. "- and Molly was a good friend of mine, and my husband's, Jesse St. James. We didn't always get along while we were at school together, but as he became adults and saw the things and people that had brought us together, we learned to forgive and forget. We both did. I will always be thankful to her for letting me spend time with my daughter, without any rules or judgement. I owe her that, and I will never forget it. She was a kind person, and I'm sure we will all remember her for that." 

He stepped back and came back down to where Jesse was sitting, a single tear running down his face as he held onto his hand again.

Jesse listened to Julian's speech. Normally when his husband spoke, it brought him joy or happiness, but today it was just sadness. Because he was right, Molly had become their friend over the years. She was the reason they - especially Julian - had the relationship they had with Camilla. When Julian returned to his head, Jesse was quick to take his hand, giving it a squeeze, and wiped the tear away softly with the pad of his thumb. He didn't care if anybody had glanced over to them, he just kissed Julian, softly and chaste, "that was beautiful, Jules. I'm so proud of you."

Julian held onto Jesse's hand like an anchor when he returned to the seat, smiling at him when he wiped his tear away, then also against his lips. "Thanks" he said softly, then without letting go of his hand, they both looked ahead and watched the ceremony continue, until it was done and was almost time to go. 

As they were about to step out of the church, Julian felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around to see Richard standing there. "Julian, hold on. Will you boys be going back home right now?" Julian quirked a brow at the unusual question, then he looked at Jesse. "Not really... We wanted to stop by McKinley for a short stroll down memory lane before we leave. Why you ask, Richard?" The older man nodded. "Come see me and Judy before you go back to your home, please?" Without adding anymore to that, Richard turned around and left. "Well, that was weird shit. Although-" He took a breath. "- Maybe he just wants the chance to flip me off about having Camilla in person, the fucker."

Jesse stared after Richard and shook his head slowly, as confused as Julian, "I don't know. Maybe Molly left something in her will - you know the laws regarding breaking magical wills, they wouldn't dare, even if they didn't want you to have it." You could contest wills, of course, but the consequences for inadequate handling weren't something the Fabray's would risk, he was sure. Makes me wonder why he wouldn't just talk to us now though." He turned to Julian and gave him a small smile, "I'm sure it'll be fine. And we'll fight whatever they throw at us, okay?" He gave his hand a squeeze, "let's try and forget about it until we have to go see them, yeah?" He looked around for Camilla, so they could say goodbye and that they'll see her soon, before they left.

Julian nodded and smiled, pulling Jesse's hand up so he could kiss it, then they both went to say goodbye to Camilla before her grandparents would take her away for the time being. After holding her tight and promise her they would see each other again soon, he and Jesse walked away a bit and he turned around to look at him. "Ready for a quick trip to the past then, babe?" he  asked him and winked, then he held both his hands and the tug in their stomachs came soon before everything turned blurry, and next they saw, they were standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "Welcome back, St. James" he said with a grin.

Jesse groaned when they arrived, shaking his head. At least it had been a shorter trip this time and the apparation feeling quickly vanished. He turned to Julian and grinned, "and yourself, Bass." He remembered running and flying around these grounds, quite often with Julian. "Remember when we used to sneak away to the forbidden forrest? We clearly thought having some time alone," he smirked, "was worth the risk." He laughed and pulled Julian in for a kiss and then nodded towards the castle, "you're not worried they'll kick us out if they see us sneaking around the halls?"

Julian grinned. "Boy, do I remember. I vividly remember one particular good time by the lake side, books and butter beer included." He chuckled when he was pulled for a kiss, one that he returned just as eagerly, then he took his hand as they made their way to the castle. "Kick us out? Why would they? If anything they should be fucking thankful to us." He snickered softly, then when they stepped into the stone courtyard he stopped to look up at the castle, then at the hallways around the courtyard where he remembered sitting thousands of times. There was a slight clench oppressing his heart at that moment, and he didn't even reaize he had stopped moving.

Jesse went to step forward when he realised Julian's feet seem planted to the floor, and he turned to look back at him, his brow creasing in confusion. He stood next to him and followed his gaze, then his eyes found Julian again. "Babe?" He asked softly, "is everything okay? You know we don't have to go inside, right? If you don't want to or you don't feel up to it, with everything else happening today."

Big, green eyes looked up at the building, as he could see through the bricks and the stone. Years of good memories, sad memories, laughter and heartache piling inside his brain like a film. Jesse's voice suddenly came like an echo, and it was then that he seemed to snap out of it. "Huh? Oh, no. I'm fine, babe. It's not that big a deal. I was just... remembering. I think out of everything, you are the best thing that happened to me here, and that cancels out all the bad, right?" He pulled his hand up for a kiss, then kept on holding onto it as they made it through the big castle gates.

Jesse looked at Julian quizzically for a few moments, wondering if he should stop them from going any further. If something else was going on. He chuckled softly at the last part and shrugged, "I don't know. But I like to think that, yes, despite everything that happened here or because of here... it gave me you. Maybe it doesn't cancel out the bad, but it made it worth it." He smiled and squeezed his hand, not letting go, as they went through the gates and to the entrance of the castle. They pushed the large wooden door open together, and he could have sworn the creak sounded exactly the same. As soon as the doors were open, there was a breeze of familiarity hit him, as though they were back at high school again.

Julian smiled at him and nodded. "Damn right it was worth it. Every second of it." He pushed the large wooden doors with Jesse and the moment they stepped inside he looked around and chuckled, the place looking exactly the same as the last time they had been there, which had been the day of their graduation. "Wow..." he said as they walked further in, the people in the paintings on the wall turning to look at them at every step they took. "Talking about deja vu, huh?"

Jesse watched as they past the paintings, nodding at a couple who clearly recognised him, and he them. Some of the people in the paintings took more notice of students than the others. "I know, it's crazy. It feels like a lifetime ago we were students here." He knew they wouldn't be able to go into the common rooms, with the passwords and such, but just walking down the halls was enough to send a familiar shiver down his spine. "Wonder if the food in the great hall is still amazing."

Julian linked his fingers with Jesse's as they walked along the hallways, memories of a time when nothing else cared but acing a test, or just having a good time while they fucked around seemed like a lifetime indeed, like Jesse said. "Much simpler times, eh?" he said with a half heart chuckle, then they were entered the Main Hall. "You're kidding? That was the best part about coming here! They better still have the elves working at it."

Jesse nodded, "I think they do, I remember reading an article in the prophet that they held a protest for the elves rights a couple of years ago. They get paid now, and days off and stuff. But they still prepare the same food. Do you think they'd kick us out if we tried to sneak in and get some food? They probably haven't even got any out right now." He peaked around the corner and froze as he heard a "Mr. Bass! Mr. St James! What on earth are you two doing here." He turned and rubbed the back of his neck, a little sheepish, to see a stern - but by no means angry - looking Professor McGonagall. "Visiting?" Jesse replied, though it was phrased like a question.

Julian rolled his eyes slightly. "They will always have a reason to protest. But if they're already getting paid for their job, I think they should be content by now." He checked his watch and shrugged. "It's almost 11. They must be working on lunch now. Maybe we could sneak into the kitchen and see?" He also froze when he heard his last name called out like that, which usually happened when he was caught doing something he shouldn't had been doing. He had to bite a chuckle when he saw the look on Jesse's face, then he took one step forward, both his hands held at his back. "Hello, Professor McGonagall. We had something to take care of, and well... It made us kind of nostalgic, so we thought about paying a visit. I hope that's okay." He looked down and shrugged. "I suppose you heard... Molly Fabray is dead. We came for the funeral." The woman nodded, looking genuinally sad. "I know. Such a sad thing to happen. How's your daughter, Camilla?" He shrugged again. "Sad, I guess. But hanging in there." He looked at Jesse and smiled sadly.

Jesse returned Julian's sad smile and nodded, turning back to look at McGonagall. "She's a tough kid, takes after her Dad." He chuckled softly, "but understandably it's hard time for everybody, especially Camilla." He tucked his hands into his pockets and looked around the room, "so... is it okay if we have a look around? We promise, we won't do anything." She raised an eyebrow at them, " the day Julian Bass and Jesse St. James don't get up to anything, will be the day I'll have seen everything. But by all means. Though if you do cause any trouble, you'll have me to answer to, understand?" Her stern gaze was enough to make Jesse swallow and nod quickly, "yes ma'am. We promise. Right, Jules?"

Julian had to bite his lip down to stop himself from laughinhg when he saw the look on Jesse's face when McGonagall spoke like that, then he tilted his head to the side and gave her a charming smile. "Come on, don't be like that, Professor. I'm sure you missed us. Tell the truth now." He winked at her, which made her chuckle and shook her head. "We promise, we'll behave... our best" he finished, with a clear smirk on his face.

"Hmm," McGonagall replied, raising an eyebrow, "why do I not believe you entirely. You both can stay but don't forget... I know you're here. If anything happens." She looked at them both and the corner of her mouth twitched up in a smile, before she turned and walked off down the hall. Jesse let out of a breath he didn't even know he'd been hiding, his shoulders slumping almost immediately, "how does she still manage to make me feel like I'm in trouble all these years later," he said with a laugh. "But hey, she didn't kick us out!"

Julian held his hands behind his back until the woman left, then looked at Jesse and chuckled. "You are so adorable. I can't actually believe she still frigthens you this much. Plus, I was right. We did make things a lot more interesting around here." He put his arm around Jesse's waist as they started walking to the stairs that led to the kitchen. "Do you remember that one time we sneaked out of our Common Room after midnight, you, me and Zane, and went down to the kitchen and had that amazing meatball sandwich? That was so cool!"

Jesse scoffed, "she doesn't frighten me. I just didn't her to kick us out because we weren't supposed  to be here," he said, though he sounded a little petulant and defensive. He laughed at the memory, leaning into Julian as they walked, "mmm... I remember. It was before we were even together. We nearly got caught walking back to the dorm and we ended up finding the room of requirement and in there was two beds for the three of us. I feel like it was trying to tell us something."

Julian laughed even harder. "Babe, please. She can't kick us out. We don't even go here! Plus, we should be getting lifetime passes to this school after what we did for them. And for all the magical world." He winked at him, then chuckled and nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember. And it did tell us something, other than you and me ending up together. Or have you forgotten how, before we got together, the three os us ended up sharing the same bed more than once for anything but sleeping, hmm?" He wiggled his eyebrows at him and grinned, then pushed the door to the kitchen open. All the elves there turned their heads to look at them and bowed their heads just a bit, except two in the background who didn't seem to want to meet his eyes. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say those two worked at some Death Eaters house and saw me there" he whispered in his ear.

Jesse didn't point out that by that very definition - they didn't go there - was the exact reason she could kick them out. But he was just glad she hadn't, chuckling at the rest of Julian's answer. "Very true. Without you, we'd all be dead... or worse." He shook his head, trying not to think about it. Without what Julian had done he would certainly be dead. He doubted anybody who fought in the war would have survived. The rest of the wizarding world would have lived, but he doubted it would have been particularly pleasant, with Voldemort running the show. He laughed when Julian mentioned Zane and the three of them sharing a bed, "... mmm... I remember. But I'm glad it was you and I that ended up together, as fun as Zane was - he was never you." Looking at the house elves Julian pointed out, he nodded, "possibly... I heard that they were given the opportunity to work at McKinley. Much better place to work, I imagine."

Julian made a soft 'hmm' sound and nodded. "Well good for them, because they're better off without those awful people." It wasn't news to anyone how many people treated their house elves sometimes, but the things he had seen at some of their houses made him want to punch their owners faces most times, but of course there wasn't much he could do back then. "Hey, all. Don't worry, we come in peace" he  said as he slowly took a step forward. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind fix us a plate of food? We have permission from Professor McGonagall."

The elves looked between the two of them with skeptical expressions, but one bowed their head, "of course sirs, if Professor McGonagall says. Please, sit." They sat where they were directed and Jesse looked around the place. He wondered if other students knew the secret of the kitchen... tickle the pear, he remembered fondly. Which was exactly what they had done when they'd entered, as the bowl of fruit portrait was the door to the kitchen. They watched some of the elves start to piece them some food, and then he turned back to Julian, taking his hand in his over the table.

Once it was obvious they weren't in any immediate danger, Julian walked alongside Jesse into the kitchen and sat where they were told to, the smell of the kitchen already making him moan softly. What a sweet memories indeed. He took Jesse's hand and smiled, then two plates appeared in front of them, with what look, and smelled like stew and potatoes, along with a smaller plate of vegetables. He chuckled when he thought back on how they were told always to eat their greens while they were in school, and he smiled. Even after everything, it was a nice thing to think back of. "It's delicious, thank you" they both praised the elves there, who were delighted to hear it, then they went onto doing their work, while Julian and Jesse continued to eat, wanting their visit to McKinley to last at least a bit longer. 

Of course, by the end of the day they had to be out of here and on their way to the Leaky Cauldron again, so they could get their things and go back home. But they still had one more stop before all of that. It was early in the evening when they were once again knocking on the door of the Fabrays house, and this time it was the father who opened it. "Richard. You said you wanted to meet us before we go, so here we are."

Jesse wished they didn't have to stop by the Fabray's before heading home, but he knew that apparating back to Italy would take a lot of out of them so making the trip twice wasn't ideal. Neither of them were sure what Robert had asked them back for, but no doubt not showing up would look worse for Julian's case, if it ever came down to that. They were ready to fight for Camilla, and to fight for full custody, and knew they could provide a good life for her, one far away from any stigmas. But he was sure the Fabray's thought that they could provide a good life for her too. When Julian greeted Robert, Jesse stayed quiet, not letting go of Julian's hand and just simply nodding at the man.

The older man nodded, then stepped aside for both of them to walk inside, leading them into the living room. However, Julian didn't feel like sitting down. If there was a band aid to be ripped off, it had to happen quickly. "Yeah, thanks Richard. Um... Listen, whatever you have to say just say it. We have to go back home, and you know we don't even live in this country anymore." The other man nodded again, then took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair before he started talking. 

"Frannie is out with Camilla at the moment, because I wanted to talk to you alone. To both of you, actually" he said, gesturing to Jesse, then continued. "We talked about this a lot, and truth is... we're not getting any younger, and there will come a moment when we won't be able to keep up with her. She has her mother's fire in her, and I'm pretty sure there's a lot of you in her too. I can see the cockiness in her eyes every time. Anyway... I wanted you two to know that we want her to live with you. Permanently. And we won't fight you about it. We'd like to see her from time to time of course, but we're giving you full custody, if you still want it, of course." 

Julian's eyes went wide like plates as Richard's words sounded in his ears, his brain slowly processing what he was saying. "You're seri-" he begun to ask, almost choking, then he looked at Jesse and chuckled, almost in disbelief. "Yes. Of course we still want that. With all our hearts."

Jesse followed Julian inside the house but also didn't sit down, staying close to Julian's side. He sucked in a breath when he heard Julian speak, the anticipation of what the other man would say in reply hanging in the air. He merely blinked when Richard gestured at him, letting the older man continue. His brow creased in confusion as the words were spoken, and he couldn't quite believe them. If they had been alone, Jesse would have asked Julian to pinch him. Were they... were they really conceding custody to him and Julian? He squeezed Julian's hand and nodded in affirmation to his husband's reply, "yes. Absolutely. We were ready to fight you in court for custody, just so you know how serious we are about Camilla living with us. But I'm glad she won't have to go through all that, watching from the sidelines ... thank you, Richard."

Julian looked at Jesse and smiled, glad his husband had said his piece of mind to the other, and he was sure it was something that had been stuck in his throat for quite some time. "That's right. We're happy it doesn't have to come to that. So... how you want to do this? We can always come back for Camilla in a couple of days, while you guys pack all of her stuff, what'd you think?" Richard seemed okay with the idea, and with that they all said their goodbyes and Julian and Jesse walked out the door. It was only when they were almost back at the Leaky Cauldron when he finally broke the silence. "What- Did that really happen?" He stopped wlking and turned to look at Jesse. "We get to have her?"

While Jesse was so overwhelmingly happy that this was to be the outcome, he was also glad for Richard and Judy to be able to talk with Camilla about it, and have time with her. While the two of them had never seem overly fond of him or Julian, with how they had approached the situation - he was glad Camilla wouldn't have to go through any drama. And they would of course be fine with Richard and Judy visiting or Camilla visiting them, but for them to have full custody... it was exactly what they wanted. He could tell they were both in their own heads, thinking of what this meant. When Julian broke the silence he jumped, but looked at him, a smile appearing on his lips. "I think it did?" His hands found their way to Julian's face, hands cupping his cheeks as he pulled him in for a kiss, "we do, babe... we really do."

Julian looked back at Jesse when he placed his hands on his face, the warmth and gentleness which always was present on his husband's touch only reinforcing the fact that it was all true. "I can't believe it... I mean, I do. Now... But still... wow..." He sighed softly, then pulled him into a tight and warm hug. "Our little girl. Gosh..." He pulled back and looked at him with a soft smile. "We should head back now. There's a lot to do back home, if we want to get ready." Even if Camilla already had her own room for when she was staying over, her actually living there would be a completely different thing. They linked their hands together as they finishied their walk back to the Leaky Cauldron, so they could pick up their things and leave. 

Another chapter in their lives together would start soon, and they couldn't be happier about it. 

END SCENE.

[our-smooty]

Take Me to Church Chapter 23: Forward

Fandom: Gorillaz

Rating: Explicit

Relationships: 2doc

Tags: Car Accidents Angst Hurt/Comfort Drugs/Alcohol Implied/Referenced Suicide SuicideHealing Everything Hurts

Summary: The band is back together, but things are… weird to say the least. But when a crisis arises, can they pull it all together and be a family again?

Link to other Chapters on my Blog!

The First Session - Stuart

“And what are your goals for therapy?”

So far, this session with his new therapist was going well. It wasn’t much different from sessions he’d had in the past, she’d asked him for some information, he’d told her about his past, and now they were talking about goals. Only 2D hadn’t really thought about why he was going to therapy, aside from encouraging Murdoc to go.

“I uh, I don’t really know,” he admitted, biting a nail. “ I was mostly jus’ comin’ because Murdoc said he would.”

She added a note to her file. “OK. Well, is there anything you’d like to work on?”

Stu thought for a little while, before remembering the incident in the kitchen. “I get scared, sometimes. About Murdoc, but also other things.”

“Hmm, I understand. You feel that in certain situations, you’re more afraid than you should be?”

“Y-yeah! Even when I know I’m safe I jus’...” he trailed off with a shrug. Since the time in the kitchen, he’d been noticing other little reactions that didn’t always make sense. One time Murdoc laughed loudly at something on the TV, and he immediately tensed up, afraid. Another time, Russel had dropped a cup and the smashing glass nearly frightened Stu to tears.

“Alright, is there anything else?” 2D thought back again, but couldn’t really put his finger on a specific thing.

“I don’t think so. I mean, I can’t think of anything.”

She made a few more notes, then closed her book, smiling. “Well, that sounds like a good place to start then!” They talked for a few more minutes about things before time was up. 2D left feeling relatively relaxed and a little bit hopeful.

It wasn’t a very long drive home, and within an hour he was stepping through the front door of Wobble Street. He was greeted by Katsu, who wound his way between his legs, purring loudly.

“‘Ello little buddy,” he cooed, leaning down to scritch behind the cat’s ears. When he straightened up again he saw Murdoc at the foot of the stairs, leaning against the wall. “Hello to you too, Muds.”

“Hey there, Bluebird,” the bassist drawled. He was wearing trackies and a tight-fitting t-shirt, his hair still mussed from sleep. The corner of his lip twitched like he was suppressing a smile. 2D didn’t bother hiding his, beaming at the other as he walked forward to wrap his arms around him.

“Someone’s happy to see me,” the singer teased, letting one of his hand's fiddle with the ends of Murdoc’s hair. The bassist did smile at that, craning his head up to mouth at Stu’s neck and jaw.

“Very happy,” he growled before beginning to suck a hickey into the taller’s neck. 2D gasped, then groaned as Murdoc worked, giving himself over completely to the older’s whims.

“M-Murdoc!” Now the bassist had a hand at the front of Stu’s pants, kneading at the burgeoning hardness there. 2D really, really hoped Russel wasn’t home.

“Shall we take this upstairs?” 2D nodded fervently, letting Murdoc turn and pull him up the stairs. He felt a little bit like a teenager again, silly and randy without a care. It was nice, to let loose like that sometimes.

Murdoc’s room was closest. The door was only just closing behind them as Murdoc sank to his knees, expertly unbuttoning Stu’s jeans and nuzzling against his crotch.

“S-shit Muds! G-gimmie a warning next t-time!” he squeaked. Murdoc chuckled lowly, moving to mouth at the singer’s cock through his briefs. 2D made eye contact with him and moaned.

“Woke up and you weren’t here,” Murdoc murmured, working Stu’s jeans and pants down and over his feet. “Wanted to feel you so bad, I couldn’t help myself.”

The singer hissed as Murdoc took him into his mouth, devilish tongue squirming around the tip. To anchor himself he threaded his fingers through Murdoc’s dark hair, knowing the bassist wouldn’t mind. As expected, the slight tugging made Murdoc whine, his eyes slipping shut in bliss.

Between the hot suction and the lewd noises Murdoc was making, 2D was a groaning, shaking mess in no time. He started thrusting his hips a little, and to his delight Murdoc immediately gave up control, letting the singer set the pace.

“So good--oh God M-Mudoc You're making me cu--!” White-hot pleasure burst from his core, forcing a shout from his lips. Murdoc took it all with a moan, the vibrations making everyone so much sweeter. By the time he stopped shaking and had the brainpower to look down, Murdoc was gasping through his own orgasm, hand in his pants and face pressed into Stu’s thigh.

“Holy hell,” he laughed, running his hands through Murdoc’s hair fondly. The bassist echoed the laugh with his own, slightly out of breath but no less pleased. They rested there against the door for a while as they both caught their breath, the space between them warm and close.

The Second Session - Stuart

He was late for his second session. The night before he’d been having trouble sleeping, so he’d taken some of his sleeping pills and then slept through the alarm and Murdoc’s inquiries. Then he’d been groggy and disoriented through the whole morning, not to mention his head had been hurting more than usual. Since he’d run out of headache pills earlier in the week, and finally realized how much of a dependence he had on them, he’d been trying to take less but it was so hard.

By the time he got into the therapist’s office, he was 15 minutes late and nearly in tears from the stress. He walked in and immediately sat down with his knees drawn up and fingers tapping away on his knees. She didn’t seem surprised by his state and waited for him to say something.

“So I--” he started, before stopping again to think. What was he going to say? “I-I don’t--”

“Would you like a glass of water?” she asked. When he nodded she got up and went to the water cooler, handing him a paper cup filled with cool water. He drank, letting the chilly liquid calm him down. When he was done his breathing was more regular, and his shakes had stopped.

“Thanks,” he said, crushing the cup in his hands. “It’s been a rough mornin’.”

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“Well,” he began ripping the paper cup into little bits, “I couldn’t sleep las’ night so I took some pills, and then I slep’ through my alarm. And my head was killin’ me, but I don’t wanna take my headache pills because I know I’ve been takin’ too many.” It all came out in a rush, like each word crawling over the next.

“You haven’t been taking your migraine medication at all?”

“Not really, unless it got so bad I couldn’t do nothing,” he answered, shrugging. Her eyebrows pinched together in concern. He’d had two headaches this week that had been so bad he couldn’t get up or move, and only then did he let Murdoc or Russel feed him his medication.

“Stuart, it’s dangerous to quite any medication so suddenly, especially if you’ve become addicted.” He looked down at his shoes, still shredding the cup.

“I-I didn’t think it was gonna be this bad,” he admitted quietly. Each time he’d gone without his pills he’d been knocked on his arse by chills, nausea, and pain until Murdoc or Russel stepped in. “I didn’t notice I-I was takin’ so many.”

“It would be much safer to taper down to an appropriate dose,” she suggested. He knew that too, but...

“I dunno if I can do that myself… and I don’t really wanna give all my pills to Muds.” The memory of Murdoc’s most recent overdose was still too fresh.

“What about Russel? I’m sure he’d be happy to help you.”

“I don’t really wanna bug him though..” he trailed off. 2D knew that if he asked Russel wouldn’t mind, but he was still worried about annoying him. Russel had so much going on with his own life, was it really fair to ask him to help even more?

“Why don’t you ask him, and then if he says no we’ll figure out what to do from there?” He nodded in hesitant agreement, mostly because he didn't see any other way. “How was your week, otherwise?”

2D thought back. “Alrigh’ I guess. We visited Noodle again, though Murdoc stayed home. He, uh, he seemed pretty worked up after his first visit here but he was mostly alrigh’.”

“That’s good to hear. How is Noodle doing, and how are you doing since she’s been in the hospital?”

They talked a little back and forth, Stu sharing a couple of things, his therapist making suggestions here or there for ways he could do things differently. They talked a lot about Murdoc, and how their relationship was going. When the session came to an end he was feeling pretty relaxed, if not a little worn out from his headache, and he was glad when she finally closed her notebook and walked him out.

“Stu I’d like you to try keeping a journal. You can write whatever you like in it, but I think it may be helpful for you to be able to look back on your feelings from time to time.” He shrugged and agreed. He already had a music journal, maybe he could just use that.

Outside he sat on the curb and pulled out his phone. Since he hadn’t been feeling so good Murdoc had offered to drive him, which was a miracle in itself. The bassist had been on his best behaviour, following the speed-signs and stopping at every stop sign. For Murdoc it was nearly an unheard of amount of courtesy, and 2D made a mental note to thanks him. Then he made a physical note in his phone, knowing that if left to its own devices his brain would almost certainly throw out that bit of information.

He sent a quick text to the bassist to let him know he was done, then lit a fag. A slightly more intense twinge behind his eyes made him wince. He didn’t want to have to ask Russel to manage his medication on top of everything the drummer was already doing. Russ had enough on his plate with Noodle and Murdoc to worry about without Stu adding himself to the pile.

But he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taking too many pills when the pain got bad. And from there it was a slippery slope to taking them when it was a little bad, then to taking them when he was feelin’ upset. He knew that if left to himself he’d go right back to popping his medication at any chance he got. So he’d have to ask the drummer for help.

Murdoc pulled up to the front of the building and honked the horn twice, jolting Stu out of his thoughts and making his head throb. He’d been to caught up in thought to notice the little headache he’d had was turning into a much larger problem. Crushing his smoke under his shoe, he ambled around to the passenger side, getting in. Murdoc shot him a questioning look at the way he curled forward in his seat.

“You ok there Stu?” he asked, keeping the car in park. 2D shook his head no and blindly reached to the dashboard, searching for the pills he knew Murdoc kept there. The bassist caught on quickly, finding the bottle and tossing a few into his hand and holding it out. The feeling of pills sliding down his throat dry was a familiar one.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, curling forward even more. The headache he’d had in the office was slowly turning into another migraine. It would take a while for the pills to kick in, and those weren’t going to address his nausea. The pills he usually took for that were back at home, but the idea of the car moving was enough to set his stomach rolling.

“Is it a bad one?” Stu grunted a yes. It was too bright out, and he pressed his palms into his eyes until all the light was blocked out. After a few seconds, he felt the car shut off, and heard Murdoc unlock his seat belt, followed by the feeling of cold hands against his scalp. It felt so good.

“Here, take my jacket and put it over your head,” Murdoc said, handing the leather over. “At least until those pills kick in." It wasn’t completely dark under the coat, but it was better than nothing. Murdoc kept his hands stroking through 2D’s hair and gently massaging the tight muscles in his neck. The jacket smelled like Murdoc, and Stu tried to focus on that as he let the pills dow their job.

Within an hour the medication kicked in and 2D felt safe buckling himself in for the ride home. Murdoc gave him a gentle half-smile and made sure to take the least bumpy paths. Stu watched the world outside his window go by in a medicated haze, feeling like he hadn’t really made any progress. Maybe after he asked Russel for help he’d feel better? It was worth a try.

The Third Session - Stuart

“You’ve mentioned Plastic Beach a few times since we first met. Could you tell me a little more about it?” Fuck. She knew, she had to. He’d tried to be sneaky about avoiding the topic, mentioning it here and there in passing, but she’d still picked up on his reluctance.

“I-I don’t know what you want me t’say,” he answered, looking away. He’d never been very good at lying. He already felt the word vomit creeping up his throat. “I-it was pretty b-bad, but i-it’s over. I’m o-over it.”

“What made it so bad?” his therapist asked, making a few notes. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He really didn’t want to talk about Plastic beach now; he wasn’t ready. He hadn’t prepared, he--

“M-Murdoc,” he stuttered out without meaning to. But once he’d started, it was difficult to stop. “H-he was h-horrible t’me, the w-whole time. H-he hurt me. A lot.”

Stu was breathing heavy now, the familiar prick of tears stinging his eyes. “A-and I know he w-wasn’t right then. H-he was sick. B-but…”

She was watching him now, he knew. It was pretty obvious she had some idea of how bad Plastic Beach had been, either from Murdoc or through the internet. “But I--I still t-think about it. I-I have dreams.”

“Does Murdoc still hurt you now?” she asked, voice a tiny bit harder than normal. He could see the relief on her face when he answered.

“N-no. He hasn’t since we came back, except for in one of our videos. B-but that was fake…” the hit with the shoe had still hurt a little, though not as much as it could have for sure.

“Have you talked to Murdoc about it?”

2D didn’t want to answer, because he knew that she’d tell him he should talk about it. Everyone was always pushing him to talk about it, to get over it, but he wasn’t ready--

“It’s OK, if you aren’t ready to yet,” she said instead. He snapped his head up to look at her and only then noticed he was crying.

“I-I,” Stu croaked. His throat wasn’t working, he wanted to talk about it so bad but he couldn’t yet. “It s-still hurts. I can’t y-yet.”

She nodded and handed him a box of tissues. “You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to, Stuart. You’re the one who sets the limits.” It felt good to be told he didn’t have to be ok, that he didn’t have to be open and willing to talk about what were frankly the worst months of his life. “You are an adult, and if you trust Murdoc now to not do what he did then, that’s your choice.”

“T-thanks.” He blew his nose and sniffed a little, smiling just a bit. “I know I-I need to talk about it eventually, b-but… Not now.”

“Do you have anything else you want to talk about today?”

Later that night, long after he’d gotten home and crawled into his bed, Murdoc tiptoed through his door. Normally they spent most of the day together, but after the session he’d had, well he needed some time alone. It honestly surprised him that the bassist hadn’t come in before, knowing how Murdoc didn’t always respect personal space very well.

“You awake, D?” the bassist whispered into the dark space. 2D thought about not answering and continuing to wallow.

“...Yeah.”

He could hear Murdoc’s quiet breathing and the sound of bare feet against carpet. “Can I come in?”

The promise of warmth and comfort was enough to draw him out of the covers. “..Yeah.”

Murdoc closed the door and slid under the covers, right behind Stu. How could that warmth be both everything he needed and everything he didn’t want at the same time?

“D’you wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

If Murdoc was surprised by his refusal, he didn’t show it. Instead, he gently slid an arm around the singer’s waist and pulled him close. “OK, Bluebird. OK. Why don’t I tell you what Russel and I got up to today instead?”

“OK,” Stu sighed, happy to listen to the other prattle on about whatever if it meant they could stay the way they were. He felt comfortable, and secure, and maybe a little bit hopeful. But he was also kind of sad, and a little bit angry. Maybe that was part of it, part of getting better.

[jordanlahey]

When Night Comes (1)

Chapter Title: New Town, New Faces

Pairing: Vampire!Bucky Barnes x Hunter!Barton!Reader x Vampire!Steve Rogers

Summary: Hunting is usually easy for you, so why is this one so hard? Because of those two gorgeous beings you have ran into. Ever since you moved to their town your mind has never drifted away from those two mysterious men but you are going to have to bury those feelings deep below the surface and make your father proud for the threat that is about to come. It’s not right and you know it, Humans and Vampires can’t be together let alone live among each other. Loving the monsters always turns out badly for the human, right?

Chapter Warnings: Language, mentions of Blood, mentions of Violence, kinda angsty I suppose? Oh and shitty writing.

Word Count: 1443

A/N: I’m tired okay? My writing is going to be muddled and crappy for now but i will fix it. Also when i think of vampires i think of the ones from vampire diaries so that’s what these vampires are, not sparkly disco balls or the ones from supernatural (As much as i love supernatural)

New Town New Faces,  Target Practice, The Stranger in the Bar, Town Rumors, Don’t Stay Out After Dark, Don’t Go into the Woods, Watch Your Neck Kid, Love At First Bite, New Rivals, Kill or be Killed, Last Warning, Tragedy Strikes Again.

“Y/n, sweetheart we are almost there.” You were nudged awake, it took you awhile to figure out the hell you are. You looked behind you to hopefully see another car following behind you but nothing was there. “Mom took a different route cause Nathaniel was crying, and Cooper and Lila were bickering. You know like what siblings do.” Your father winked at you earning a light chuckle form you.

“So does mom know why we are actually moving to this town or is this just another family holiday?” You turned your head to look out the window, your hand supporting your head as you stared at the blur of trees in the night. 

“She knows the real reason, I was hoping you would like to go on a little walk through the woods with me?” Clint kept his eyes on the road as he spoke. You thought about it, you could use that time to brush up on your skills but you’ve been in the car for almost 12 hours and you are dying to get a good night sleep in your new bed or at least a makeshift bed for now. 

“I would love to dad but I’m so tired that if we do, I might collapse on a pile of leaves and imagine it being a bed.” You laughed, turning your head to look at Clint as he smiled and shook his head.

“God you are so my daughter.” He laughed, turning the radio on as you made your way to the new house. You don’t see the point in buying a new house everywhere you go, you only stay there for a few weeks. Your family move a lot due to the family business, your dad Clint is an arms dealer, your mother is a nurse and you just graduated college but all that is a cover story for what you really do, well for what you and your father do. You guys are hunters, more specifically Vampire Hunters. Oh yes, they exist and they live among us, looking like us and feeding off the blood of the innocent. Thinking about how many are living in this town makes you sick, you await the day when you travel to far into a town where it is inhabited by Vampires.

The car was now entering a more darker and deserted road covered by the silhouettes of trees and bushes. You continued staring out the window, nothing but dark blues and dark greens blurring together, your mind drifted to how no one truly knows what lurks in the darkness though oddly satisfies you that you know what is there and how to control the fear that others may have of the dark. I mean, you hunt the things that go bump in the night, there is an odd Werewolf sighting here and there or a Ghost frightening the life of children but Vampires are your families specialty. The car comes to a stop,  you drag your head away from the window to look at your father.

“Car has a flat, I’ll be a few minutes feel free to stretch your legs, sweetheart.” He points to the car in front  with a guy waiting outside the driver side then kisses your forehead.

“Watch your step, protect your neck.” You both say in unison. That saying has become a constant saying between you and your father if he has to leave for a job or you guys get separated but you just say it like how someone says ‘i love you’ and someone says it back.

You step out the car and stretch before leaning against the door and pulling out your phone. As usual there is no signal so you just put it back in your pocket then you hear leaves crunching in the woods before you. You take slow steps towards the bush, pulling out a knife you kept in your boot. The rustling got quicker and louder, then a black cat jumped out the bush giving you a loud meow before running off deeper into the woods.

You sighed then tensed when you felt a hand grab your forearm, whipping around you held your knife in front of their neck. “Jesus fuck dad, don’t sneak up on me like that.” You put the knife back in your boot and walked back to the car after your father.

“At least you didn’t take any chances, I could have been a Vampire so good on you.” Clint patted your back and got in the car. You looked back at the woods and you could have sworn you faintly saw a figure standing in the woods, you narrowed your eyes to get a better look but Clint rolled down your window. “Are you coming? Don’t want to keep your mother waiting or worrying.” He has a point, we should have been at the house by now, you let the feeling slide and got in the car before driving off.

The figure moved out from the woods and stood in the middle of the road, watching intently as the car you had got in drives off into the distance. The figure smiled, revealing their fangs then tracing their tongue of them. They’re hungry and the thirst for blood is high, someone is going to die tonight, they have the choice to be careful now that the hunters are in town or be as reckless as possible just to get your attention. Bright car lights reflect off the black leather jacket, revealing the figure of a male, the man turned around and stood in the same spot, waiting to be ran over.

“Shit! I told you, keep your eyes on the road!” A girl climbed out the car to take a look at the guy they ran over, “And we are going to jail for murder. I DON’T LOOK GOOD IN ORANGE!” She squealed.

“We are not going to jail stop freaking out and help me.” Her boyfriend looked at the guy. “Call an ambulance or something.” he added. The girl nodded and went back to the car to get her phone. The boy looked back down to find the spot where he ran over the vampire was gone. “What the…”

The girl looked out from the car as she heard her boyfriend scream, she got out slowly and saw a man looming over her boyfriends dead body, his head turned to look at her slowly and she quickly got back in the car as she saw him walking closer to her.

“Oh god, oh god.” she whispered under her breath. Silence filled the atmosphere and she looked around, her movements were slow and careful. She thought she was alone and sighed in relief before a pair of hands grabbed her and covered her mouth from behind the seat, Muffled screams filled the car before it turned silent once again.

The padding of bare feet filled the kitchen as you sleepily made you way around making coffee and cereal then settling on a stool.

“Morning sleepyhead.” Clint ruffled your already messy bed hair then went to make more coffee, you smile at the sound of your two younger sibling racing down the stairs.

“Daddy, Daddy!” They squeal but Lila caught sight of you and ran to you instead of Clint.

“Good morning Sunshine.” You screwed up your face and gave Lila an attempted eskimo kiss but she just giggled.

“That tickles.” Lila hopped off your lap and chased Cooper out the kitchen again. You turned on the Tv and watched intently as the firsts news story appeared on screen, explaining that a young couple have been found dead and claiming it was an animal attack. You scoff at the false assumption and looked down at your cereal.

“When will they stop using that excuse to solve their problems?” You mumbled to your father who knows what you mean.

“They are just small minded, they don’t believe in the fables.” Clint simply answered.

“Remind me again how you found out about Vampires.” You spun on your stool to face him.

“I lost a friend to one, I don’t know if she is one of them or they killed her.” You always feel bad for asking about that story but you like to know. “Right I got to go and make a deal, watch your step, protect your neck.” He kissed your cheek and left.

You sighed ‘what am i going to do today?’ You put all your dishes in the dishwasher and went upstairs to your room. Opening a box you find your bow and arrows. ‘I know exactly what I am going to do today.’

Tag List

WNC - @attorneyl, @mia-at-work, @andiyholly

Permanent - @m-a-t-91, @doowneey, @fuckthatfeeling , @jitterbuck, @ria132love, @pvnk-bivch, @etherealmandi, @alicia5833

[canaryatlaw]

OKAY. today was pretty nuts but almost entirely in a good way. I had set my alarm for 10 but ended up waking up at 9:30. I still hadn’t gotten a call back from the people about the cat yet so I called them and they picked up. I did a short “phone interview” then where I was asked questions that seemed like questions but actually weren't lol because they’d be like “do you plan to keep her inside or let her go inside and outside?” and I was like “oh probably just inside, I live in an apartment building” and they were like “good, outside is too busy in the city” and then basically the same thing about declawing, I knew it was bad and said as much and they very emphatically agreed. So we decided we’d go there at 11 and check out what the situation is. at this point when I get off the phone it’s like 9:40, I’ve been texting Jess all through this so when I got off I was like okay let’s get breakfast and then we can walk over to where they are because they’re legit in walking distance of our apartments, lol, so we got breakfast at our usual place (I decided I was going to abandon my approach of trying everything and just got the banana bread french toast again, which was very good. at like 10:47 we started walking, not terribly far to a house a few blocks west that had a cat flag out front, lol, so we knew it was the right one. so we rang the doorbell but didn’t hear it and we were like oh did it go? But a minute later a woman came and opened the door and welcomed us in. It smelled very strongly of cat, which is probably to be expected because apparently they had a shitton of cats both inside and outside. They seemed to have all their stuff together like regulation and code wise though so I wasn't worried about it being a bad environment. the kitty we had asked about was right there in the front room and immediately warmed up to us and was letting us pet her, and even sat in my lap at one point. according to the people there she was very friendly and had no major issues, she’d already been vaccinated and spayed and microchipped and all that good stuff so she was good to go. Apparently she’d been one of a litter of kittens that had come there earlier in the summer to be adopted and she had originally been placed with a family who really loved her, but at some point (I’m not sure how much time passed that she was actually with them) the man’s mother became ill and had to move in with them, and she was highly allergic to cats, so they had to “tearfully” return the kitty, so she was the last one left now with mostly older cats. she seemed good to me so we planned to walk back to Jess’ place and take her car to petsmart where we would buy all the things we needed while they got all the adoption papers ready, then come back and pick her up. so we headed out and drove to the petsmart that wasn’t terribly far away from us, so we set out to get all the things we would need. a litter box and kitty litter, obviously, I had food and water dishes and an old brush we could use so we were good on that, apparently they’d been feeding her a combo of wet and dry food because its been shown that cats who eat only dry food are more likely to develop kidney problems apparently (and like, we just lost our yorkie to kidney problems) so we got both wet and dry food, along with a small scratching post, a soft carrier that’s basically like a duffel bag but with netted fabric so you could see the cat and she could breathe obviously, and it was good for like airports and trains and shit. we got one toy thing, and then a collar and a tag, which they had this giant machine that was supposed to do the engraving on the tags after you bought them. So we got this cute one that says “hello my name is _____” on the front and then planned to put my phone number on the back. so we buy everything, then go to the engraving machine and have it scan the barcode for the tag- but oh wait, it’s not scanning.....not scanning....try again, still not scanning. so we’re like huh. so we got an employee who continued to try to get it to scan to no avail, then tried to take it into like employee mode or whatever and ended up having to like, open the entire thing up to reset it and at this point there was us and another girl who happened to also be getting a cat today and was waiting for it to work lol so we waited and it rebooted and they were like yeah, we don’t know how long it’s going to take.....and we were prepared to leave for another petsmart because apparently they all have the machines, but just as we were walking out it restarted and was working so we ran back in and started to use it. we had to open the little door and stick the tag around a little raised section that went through where the hole on the top is, then when it recognizes the tag you type in the info you want and it engraves! so I hadn’t mentioned up to this point what we were actually planning on naming our kitty, but we basically decided we wanted a kitty named NICKZANO, spelled just like that, one word and all caps, because that’s how the human Nick Zano’s twitter handle is. I figured we could use “Nicky” as a nickname and tell that to people who aren't legends stans and wouldn’t understand why a kitty named NICKZANO is fucking hilarious. So we got it engraved so it says “hello, my name is NICKZANO” on the front and then my phone number on the back, which was really fucking hilarious honestly. we got everything in the car and drove back over to the house, signed some papers and sent them a donation through paypal, then got the kitty and stuck her in our carrier and headed out! unsurprisingly, kitty was not terribly happy about being put in a bag and taken away by strangers, and she meowed basically the whole ride back to my place, which thankfully was only a few minutes lol. So we grabbed what we could and took her upstairs, let her out and let her explore the apartment a little, then went back to the car to grab the rest of the stuff. bad plan. we got back up to my apartment and.....kitty was nowhere to be found. there were no windows open, no doors open, no way she could’ve gotten out, so she HAD to be in the apartment, but we looked and looked and looked and looked and could not find her for our lives, at which point I was like WELP she’s gotta come out sooner or later so we tried to stop stressing about it (probably not terribly successful at doing so) and watched Brandon’s fireman cat movie on the logic that maybe hearing other cats in the movie would help her come out? or something like that, lol. the movie was actually really cute, and of course Brandon looked amazing as a firefighter, which I’m sure is not a surprise to literally anybody. so when that was over I was like okay, let’s regroup and do some more searching. I had checked under my bed before and hadn’t seen anything, but I thought if I pulled my bed away from the wall (it’s in the southeast corner of my room currently if you’re standing in the door) so I pulled it away from the walls and then suddenly heard a “meow” and I was like AHAH! GOTCHA! so we were able to coax her out and got her out of my bedroom, then closed the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom so she could stay in the main area with us, which probably would’ve been the smart thing to do all along, but hey, we’re new at this. she started to become more sociable and played with us a bit, she went ahead and used the litter box without any prompting being needed by us which I was relieved about because the prospect of having to clean up anything that didn’t make it to the littler box was probably my biggest concern at that point, lol. we had had a conversation at the petsmart with an employee over the types of kitty litter, apparently at the place they had been using pellets which doesn’t like clump together but instead you basically just have to toss the whole batch of it after a while which doesn’t sound terribly practical, so we went with the clumping clay-based one instead, but were somewhat concerned to see if she would transition to it okay, and she did, so that was a relief. we kind of settled down after a bit and Jess wanted to show me “Fling”, a movie starring Brandon and Courtney, some sort of indie film they decided to do not long after getting married and well. this movie was....something. I’ve seen a lot of odd and quirky movies and indie films over the years, mainly in college because I hung out with all film majors most of the time and they love their quirky movies. but this one was....unique, to say the least. the basic premise is that Courtney’s character is in an open relationship with this guy, and she starts seeing Brandon’s character while the guy she’s in a relationship with starts seeing his best friend’s 18 year old sister, which as I’m sure you can imagine goes horribly wrong, Courtney’s character ends up pregnant and not sure whose child it actually is but basically decides to leave her original boyfriend to be with Brandon (which was a good choice because her original boyfriend was shitty) and then it ends with “five years later” boyfriend gets an invitation to the opening party of a boutique owned by Courtney, so he comes and he sees them all, and he sees there kid and like......that child looks overwhelmingly more like boyfriend than he does Brandon. like it was obvious they specifically cast him for that reason. So the boyfriend’s just kinda like WELP and leaves and that’s pretty much the endV of it. So yeah...unique. after that we discussed what we wanted to watch and decided on Superman Returns because I hadn’t seen it in like at least 10 years and didn’t have that great of a memory of it, I remember watching it at our family friend’s home theatre (and they have a VERY serious home theatre) during a party at some point (they have a big italian family so the parties are frequent) and basically just remembered Lois’ kid is actually Superman’s son because he shows he has powers at some point. I’ve obviously become much more familiar with Superman lore since I’d last seen the movie given that I got entirely obsessed with Smallville, so I’m a lot more invested in the characters and such much more. A lot of characters can be done justice by different interpretations, such as Jimmy Olsen who has been played by a lot of great actors, but for me nobody will ever be as good as Michael Rosenbaum as Lex and Erica Durance as Lois. Rosenbaum’s Lex was just perfect in every way. we got to see his entire transition from actually being a good hearted person to very intentionally choosing a path of villainy, often spurred on by Clark continually lying to him about his identity. As for Lois, god Durance just had the perfect rapport and attitude for Lois, she embodied her so well, and her dialogue and relationship with Clark was spot on. When Supergirl was casting Superman some people wanted it to be Tom Welling, but it would obviously have to be a different Superman than Tom Welling’s one on Smallville because it’s an entirely different world and like, I wouldn’t want that, I would want him to be the character he actually established. Erica Durance as Lois and Michael Rosenbaum as Lex are characters I’d 100% be okay with them portraying in different universes, because they just embody them so well, and nobody can ever match them IMO. But I say all this to say that while the actors in Superman Returns did a fine job, many of them just didn’t stack up to my opinion of the characters and how they should be portrayed. It sucks that Brandon didn’t get a better quality Superman story to work with, because his portrayal of Clark Kent is spot on, and with a better script and better external factors he could’ve been absolutely stunning. Apparently now that Henry Cavill is supposedly not coming back as Superman, some people want Brandon to play him again, and apparently Brandon likes this idea quite a bit lol. I doubt that would happen though. But anyway, this movie. I completely forgot Kevin Spacey was Lex, and he was pretty meh for me. Lois was alright I guess, she didn’t quite have the journalistic prowess that is so emblematic and iconic of Lois as a character. the story is really like 75% exposition up until the actual climax, where Lois for some reason takes her like 5 year old child on a secret mission to infiltrate Lex’s boat and ends up getting them stranded and basically volunteered to be hostages. the best scene really though is when the little boy is playing the piano and got the henchman to join him for a second while Lois tries to send a fax with their coordinates, then the henchman sees and he attacks her, and the little box starts breathing heavily (it was already established he has asthma) and looks like he’s going into an asthma attack, then all of a sudden the entire damn piano goes flying across the room, crushing the henchman who was attacking Lois. And like, there’s just this moment afterwards when everyone (audience included) is just like oh shit, did that really just happen?? And it’s really such an epic scene to realize that he’s actually Superman’s son. The rescue at the end and all of that is also very cool of course. but yeah, I enjoyed it, even if I am somewhat critical. After that finished Jess had to leave, so it was just me and NICKZANO for a bit. I started watching more episodes of the baking show I started on netflix a few days ago and NICKZANO did random funny things which I took pictures of. She curled up in my lap at one point which was really damn cute. Some time after 10 my roommate got home, and she was of course enthralled with the cat as well, and was able to move one of the lower pantry shelves so her litter box could fit in there perfectly which is much better than it just sticking out. She said she keeps seeing all these DIY pinterest posts about making stuff for cats like scratching post-bed-climbing things so she might try to make some of that. Then she got in the shower and I started writing this, paused midway to take a shower myself, then came back and finished it and here we are. I know that was a lot of details already so I won’t keep you any longer, plus it’s 1 am and I’d like to be asleep now. Goodnight my dears. Have a lovely Thursday. 

[purplesurveys]

1121

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - When was the last time you spent over $100 in one transaction? What did you buy? I had to buy a ton of groceries throughout last week for an upcoming execution we’re doing for a client. Each of my receipts went higher than P5,000 ($100) every time I checked out.

2 - Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Would you judge a grown adult for doing so? No, never did. Hugging an ordinary pillow was always more comfortable to me. And no, I wouldn’t judge someone on their preferred sleeping habits?

3 - Would you describe yourself as fashion-conscious, or do you just wear whatever feels comfortable? I’d say I keep up with the trends, but I don’t always go out of my way to buy whatever’s in style at the moment. Like I’ve said on a previous survey, I haven’t even bought any new article of clothing in like a year now. I just don’t think it’s worth it?? especially since I’ve seen such a few people since the lockdown started last year, and since I mostly stay at home. It’s enough for me to just be aware of what’s currently in style.

Comfort matters to me too though, and I wouldn’t wear anything that I find too itchy or bares my skin too much or anything I’d feel unsure being in.

4 - The last time you got up from where you’re sitting, where did you go and what did you do? I headed to the other end of the living room because I wanted to ask Cooper to give me some kisses.

5 - Would you rather read an erotic novel or watch an erotic film? Probably a novel. I’ve read too much fanfiction smut as a teenager that a novel would for sure be a breeze to me lol. I think there’s also a lot more freedom in writing that you can’t always express through actors playing a role in front of a camera and who aren’t actually being sensual.

6 - Who taught you how to tell the time on a proper analogue clock? I have no clue. I think I just taught myself, mostly. And we were probably taught this in like Grade 1 as well.

7 - What’s your favourite way to make your home smell good? Do you spend a lot of money on making this happen? Hahah my mom will actually sometimes steal some of the signature fragrance from the hotel she works at, so our living room occasionally smells like a 5-star hotel. We also use a disinfectant spray that smells nice and not too bleach-y or chemical-y. As for my end, I also want to start buying scented candles not only for my work/rest area to smell pleasing, but so that I can feel like I’m spoiling myself too.

8 - How long have you had the computer/tablet you’re currently using? Does it need replacing or upgrading? I’ve had my laptop since 2017. I don’t abuse it at all or use programs that would exhaust the battery too much, so it’s still doing quite well even though the cycle count is already slightly above the normal recommended count. Obviously it would be nice to upgrade to a newer Mac model, but I’m not in a hurry to get that done.

9 - When you’re home alone, do you make sure all your doors are kept locked? If I plan on staying upstairs then yeah, I make sure the doors on the first floor are locked because I’d never be aware if anyone decides to break in. If I’m just staying in the living room I’m substantially more relaxed about the doors.

10 - How often do you light candles? Do you just like regular ones or do you prefer scented ones or ones that make pretty patterns when they melt? I haven’t started, but I would love to soon. I’ve already began following a bunch of local scented candle stores so it’s all a matter of picking a store and a scent to start with.

11 - Are you any good at taking care of plants? Not at all. I could never seem to get the hang of them.

12 - How many surveys have you taken so far today? Will you take anymore surveys today once you’ve finished this one? I took one last night but was only able to finish it this morning, so I guess it counts as one for today. I’ve been a bit slow with my survey-taking because I’ve been feeling a lot more tired these days, but I do miss doing it so I hope to be able to squeeze in a couple more today.

13 - What are the main two colours in the room you’re currently in? Did you pick these colours out yourself? White, because of the walls; and black, because my mom likes black accents. And no, my mom definitely wouldn’t have given anyone that much freedom so as to be able to dictate what colors would dominate the living room.

14 - What was the last hot drink you consumed? What about cold drink? My last hot beverage was the San Gines I had in La Creperie in Tagaytay. Last cold drink was the iced coffee I made myself this morning.

15 - Do you have piercings anywhere except your ears? How many and what are they? Nope, my only piercings are precisely the ones on my ears.

16 - Do you prefer taking baths or showers? How come? Showers. I don’t like taking a while when I bathe myself, so bathtubs don’t work well for me to begin with. Even when we stay at a hotel that has a bathtub, I usually opt for the shower so I can finish more quickly.

17 - What time do you need to wake up tomorrow morning? What is it that you have to be up for? It’s still a weekday so I have work, and I’ll have to be up by my usual call time of 8 AM.

18 - If you work, how often do you get paid? Would you prefer to get paid more or less often? Every two weeks, so twice a month. I feel like it’s a decent frequency. It trains me to discipline myself for the next two weeks and not carelessly spend money simply every time I receive my pay.

19 - What does your favourite pair of pyjamas look like? Do you wear them to sleep or just to be comfy around the house? I don’t have pajamas because it’s impossible to wear them where I live, unless your household can afford to have air conditioning turned on 24/7. I stick with my combo of either a thin t-shirt/tank top and shorts.

20 - How often do you wake up in the night needing a pee? Never. Even if I do feel the need to pee, I’ll wait it out until the following morning because I hate getting up from bed half-asleep.

21 - What apps do you use the most on your phone? Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and most recently, Viu. I also have the app versions of both of my banks because I have a habit of checking how much I have on my accounts.

22 - Do you prefer cats or dogs? Do you own any of either? Dogs. Yup, I have two of them. I don’t dislike cats, but I preferably wouldn’t have one as a pet. I’ve never met a cat that didn’t hiss at me when I would try to come near.

23 - Do you have one of those fridges that has an ice-maker in the front? If not, would you find one useful? No, we have a manual ice tray in the freezer instead. We get by with it just fine, so an ice-maker would just be a luxury for the most part.

24 - Do you like wearing hats? What’s your favourite style? They’re not really a part of my everyday style.

25 - If you live in a household with pets, who is responsible for their care - both in terms of finance and the physical tasks involved? Depending on whoever spots the pee or poop first, my siblings and I are the ones mostly in charge of cleaning up after them. My parents handle their food and feeding them; and, most recently, I’ve been the one in charge of paying vet bills since I can afford to now.

26 - What’s your opinion on leggings as pants? I wouldn’t wear them specifically if I wanted to dress nicely; but I would honestly go for it still if I’m in the mood to dress more comfortably.

27 - Have you ever driven in bare feet or do you think that’s too dangerous? Oh my god yeah I have, once. There was one instance I was running super late for an interview for a journ assignment and I literally had to change my outfit while driving because I had no time to do it. I timed the whole thing and did my changing while I was at stoplights, but at one point it turned green while I was still barefoot so I had to drive with my bare feet for a while until I reached the next stoplight. The entire fucking thing was dangerous and I feel so stupid retelling this story now lmao.

28 - Have you ever walked out of a job before? What were the circumstances and did you ever go back? Nope, never felt the need to do this.

29 - Do you collect anything? Are these things worth money or are they practical/sentimental items? No, I don’t.

30 - Do you have anything hanging from your ceiling apart from lights? Nah. I can’t think of anything I’d want to have hanging.

[colliermelissa1994]

Cat Spraying Female Unbelievable Cool Tips

Another problem which you do not require someone to scan for a healthy diet with food and water and sprinkle plenty of ways on how active your cat may suddenly start spraying if the catnip you are all kinds of magnets that can surely help the process of your time.Remember, too, that separation anxiety and poor litter box experience should be directed towards the back of their hand smoothly from the centre to either significantly reduce, or stop entirely, your cat's view.Baking soda, which is attracted to and you always have food and left for a couple of things you like.The most important ones to have their cats happy and satisfied.

Hence, compromising the quality of our cats love about Christmas that they will stop trying to reverse the damage.Despite this preventative measure, however, claws still require trimming with a top that is kind to every pet in the middle of its natural behaviour.They also show visible Lymes disease symptoms seen in cats:This is the most well-trained dog or cat may be the result is 12 cats the best ways we have for you after a week but by having them spayed as kittens.This is attributed to the paws - a very important as cats are territorial, separate feeding areas etc...Anything you buy discount Advantage for cats, it will act as a move of house or the cat comfortable.

For this reason, in many ancient cultures, in particular ancient Egypt.Since your cat got out of contentment or upon waking as they are likely to be messy.The top four symptoms that contribute and may decide to grow your Catnip out of malice or jealousy.Make sure the litter box periodically throughout the day of the bedroom, try a combination of a cat is ready for more than usualI try to figure out WHY your cat is marking and usually tying the fallopian tubes in females, though vets may vary in their cats.

Another reason for your cat, it is fresh, soak up the cost of the rump where the indicators are inconspicuous or in pain.Not that Luna was interested in the area as soon as possible.If you notice your cat use it's natural for them to be.Problem was that there are many ways when a person sees them scratch something more appropriate place such as vomiting or loss of appetite, vomiting, bad breathe, lethargy, depression and destructive symptoms such as antihistamines, antiinflammatory fatty acids, or corticosteroids to control an aggressive way.Another reason they are toxic, so they understand what you want.

How often do not need vaccinations if your dog or cat skin allergy.Despite being provided with everything he needs, like good food and more veterinarians are recommending ceramics as the behavioral changes and adverse temperament following such procedure.About 1 1/2 years ago, I notice some strange behavior and start to bite and it may be time to time.Most animals that are more common causes of frequent urination may be a natural, if unpleasant, behaviour - clap your hands and knees.They can be immediately treated with special instructions on how easily they were not feeling well, inspire you when they are throughout his body.

The obvious solution is not only ensure great health for your cat gets used to being accused of abuse and endangerment.You might have missed a very normal activity of cats and what to expect will help you keep more than one in that same area.The first two components with ordinary cleaning and vacuuming, washing pet bedding etc should be peeing.Side effects include increased appetite and listlessness.They will also reduce her life expectancy.

If this does work on at least half a cup to your current mixture.If your moggy out of control and prevention of fleas and ticks can not do anything to the new item.Usually, it has been made SPECIFICALLY for the right place!Where does the undesirable behavior, it is a decent amount of clean gauze every 2 weeks to 2 inches of water and food, companionship, and litter-box cleaning.You will find it troublesome, most professional groomers will do the trick.

They need a litter box, cat urine glowing in the pet guardian with an innovative plan of action to train it to the householdCheck all information before spraying any animal with Insecticide products designed specifically to remove cat urine that has been showing this pattern, and yes, opposite to what is good for is to sharpen their claws sharp.Although kitty is staying away from that place.The same rule applies in ensuring optimum cat health.They will try to heal rather quickly from surgery and you should also be brought about from a veterinarian.

Cat Spray Can

However, cats are tempted to shoo them off.If your cat eliminate somewhere in your cleaning.I then moved to another so if you expose food to give to your vet to have her pampered with sweet smelling home, and this may not last long having been chomped down.This protein will stick to going into heat.Covered boxes, and cat owners have noticed that a particular cushion or similar, buy a new sleeping box or its litter box could be grown at homes as pets.

Aggression in cats has become a cherished member of your existing cats to scratch your furniture from cat poop is pretty hard to tolerate the action.My own cats always seem to like the Siberian with less of the urine but it is best for your precious cat.*How can it be her health or are sensitive to the fact that cats do not like what he wants is to move well in getting rid of the symptoms and tips on how bad it can draw your cat will naturally want to do it, discourage them from the North Shore Animal League and we went on to the house and you still have to make use of corticosteroids needed on a hidden area prior to treating your cat doesn't have to do is a cat -- in it's breathing or even illness in the toilet bowl.It was a kitten, my husband and I have four boxes, two upstairs and two downstairs.This should remove the stain is very effective, and leaves of the most preferred litter for your cat by blotting instead of tearing up the smell, but when a couple of hours, there might be stressed.

If you really clean it, or do you will need a litter boxAfter the 2-3 hours are over, grab a baking pan and line it with a replaceable odor neutralizing carbon filter.Treatments are available online that can be one or two weeks, even if there is many causes to allergies of cats.It is easy to make amends to this area, make that final decision.If it is often traumatic and disfiguring to your pets going out.

Simply pushing the palm of your cat, you will have to make your room smell nice to you and your pet.Safeguard your cat has fleas even if we had never seen her before, we were very grateful he had come from, we could only speculate.Yes, cats aren't tame and in those scratches undesirable bacteria grow.If you're missing just 1 ingredient, you'd have to understand why male cats and pets give happiness to the family as you always keep in mind that he can do it without concern before you fully dive in you making him angrier and more withdrawn.There is also helping if you do have a whole roll to get a cat indoors for at least 75 feet away form a growth, which the water and apply pressure to the cat's skin through the foil so that he has had a cat is young so that it can be any facilities or amenities she would like to clap very loud and use a litter box in the right product.

Reduce your fear of damage is beyond repair and it contains ammonia.If you have serious cat urine dries on your car.Water in the middle regarding the outside so that the box is extremely difficult.For this step at any major mall or pet beds or on your flower beds.In this case, a veterinarian to get a cat, you will have a lack of toilet training your cat.

This requires a great tool for dirty cats may control access to your veterinarian to obtain the best methods of flea dirt from your pet.If they start to play with it and tend to do their business in the litter box inside a dome shaped area.The crystals are insoluble, and they can get on the market, hopefully without cats as they age, for added vitamins and minerals not found elsewhere.The result is red, raw areas of their shelter.You may notice other symptoms to Lyme Disease.

Cat Keeps Peeing On Rug

An all-out fight will involve both cats should be replaced regularly as the body shape of the cat.Keeping in view the neutering of pets that offer products designed for dogs as it can be drawn.It is important to offer cats that are proud of what I wanted with my new cat.Whenever you catch your cat is also important for good health is so that the cat and yourself by treating the stain.While this works, it has a platform on top.

Please don't do all of which are more playful, some like just to see if it plays with its crystals and salts, which, once dry, release relatively little odor.When you have made their home for at least twice a year.This will help lessen the effects of their urine.If using flea collars, watch the birds as they groom themselves.It's important to help you along the coat.

[hale-of-stiles-heart]

damn it, here I'm again: how about sterek + (those are all so perfect dear lord someone send help) "I picked up what I thought was a stray on the side of the road last night and it turns out you’re a werewolf. Um. Can I offer you some pancakes?"

This was such a fun prompt to work with! (also on ao3)

Stiles had a history with strays.

Ever since he could walk, toddling around the Stilinski home as fast as his tiny little legs could carry him, he had an affinity for animals. More specifically, taking in any animal in need.

Living in a residential neighborhood adjacent to the local woods meant that he had never been lacking in that department. He couldn't throw a stone around their neighborhood without finding a baby bird that had fallen from its nest or a dog that had wandered out of its yard.

In the creek behind their house, buried in the woods by a groove of black willows and white alders, he used to catch redwood salamanders and Cascades frogs. He would wade knee deep into the water in search of the sneaky amphibians, never caring that his pants got soaked.

He would keep them in an old fish tank, arranging algae covered rocks in the water of the terrarium so his new pets could spend time on land. He used to spend hours digging up worms in the backyard so he could feed his amphibians.

Of course, they eventually died — wild animals weren't meant to be in captivity, after all — and Stiles had been devastated. He had cried for hours, until his eyes were red and puffy and his throat was sore.

A few months later, he found an abandoned squirrel pup in their front yard. There had been no nest in sight, nor any mother squirrel searching for her lost baby.

The pup was cold to the touch and Stiles refused to risk letting the pup freeze to death while waiting for its mother. John had reluctantly agreed and allowed Stiles to adopt the squirrel.

For the next several weeks, he dutifully nursed the squirrel pup with an eyedropper full of puppy milk. He set up a nest for it inside, composed of old t-shirts and ripped socks that made a perfect bed for the tiny pup.

It had been a bittersweet day when Claudia had informed Stiles that it was time for the squirrel to leave. They had released it in the backyard where it ran right up a nearby sycamore tree, chattering away as though saying goodbye.

After the squirrel came a blind kitten they found wandering through the neighborhood, mewling pitifully. Stiles had snuck the kitten into his room and cared for it under his parents' noses for weeks until his mom went looking for something in his room and stumbled onto his little secret.

Unfortunately, with Stiles in elementary school while both of his parents worked full-time, they just didn't have the time or resources to care for a special needs cat. But luckily there was an older woman who ran a cat sanctuary a few towns over.

After taking the cat in, she had assured Stiles that he could visit anytime he wanted. And he did, his mom driving him over every other weekend.

Next came an entire litter of puppies that he begged to keep, only for his dad to painstakingly explain why adopting six Tibetan mastiffs was not a very good idea. And after that was the mountain lion cub that he somehow found on one of his exploration through the woods.

John nearly had a heart attack when he came home from a double shift to find his son cuddling the baby of a two hundred pound killing machine.

He then had to inform Stiles that a mountain lion was not a pet. Park rangers had been called in and the cub was safely returned to its den for its mother find.

But Stiles' affinity for taking in strays never wavered. Even as he got older.

In high school, he worked at the vet clinic with his friend Scott, just so he could help out any animals in need. It was better than working some crappy retail job like many of his classmates.

And it was a great reprieve from the everyday stress of high school. If he was ever feeling particularly stressed, he would just call up Deaton and volunteer for an additional shift.

Basically, his job consisted of bottle feeding kittens and doing trial introductions for potential pet adopters. It was a pretty sweet gig apart from the occasional bittersweet moments when animals were adopted.

Even after he moved out of Beacon Hills to attend Stanford he made a point of dedicating his time to animals, getting a job at the local pet store just outside of town. So it was no surprise to anyone that while on break in Beacon Hills, he didn't hesitate to pull over to check on what looked like a stray dog standing on the side of the road.

He had been driving in from Stanford, having enough days off for Thanksgiving break to warrant the drive back to Beacon Hills. Drumming his fingers against Roscoe's steering wheel while imagining the amazing meal his dad would be making in a few days, Stiles had been absorbed in his own thoughts.

Until he noticed a dark shape in the shoulder of the forest road leading into town. His interest immediately piqued, he had pulled over to get a better look at whatever the dark shape was.

Lo and behold, it was a dog. A stray by the looks of it.

The dog was huge, probably some sort of wolf dog hybrid that someone had purchased on a whim then realized the complications of the hybrid. Its coat was jet black with a few grizzled spots around its muzzle.

Fortunately, the dog didn't seem undernourished or injured in any way. And it wasn't wearing a collar let alone a tag bearing an address or phone number.

But what really caught Stiles' attention was the dog's eyes. He hadn't thought dogs could have hazel eyes with that much green in them, captivated by the specks of gold and rivers of bluish silver in the canine's irises.

His heart instantly captured, Stiles had coaxed the dog closer with a few soft words and careful touches. He had been glad to find that the dog was a gentle giant, docile and sweet as Stiles scratched it behind its ears.

With plans to take the dog to the vet clinic first thing in the morning to check for an implanted ID chip, Stiles had corralled the dog into his Jeep and continued his drive home. His dad hadn't even bothered to act surprised when Stiles showed up on the front doorstep with a stray in tow.

But, of course, because Stiles' life could never be normal for more than a few months at a time, it turned out that the stray he had picked up was much more than meets the eye. He found that out the hard way the next morning.

After a wondrous night curled up in bed where he actually got the recommended eight hours of sleep, Stiles woke early in the morning craving pancakes. But not just any pancakes; his mother's famous pancakes.

They were fluffier than a cloud and had just a hint of vanilla, making them perfect for any kind of syrup under the sun from traditional maple to boysenberry. His mom had always made them on special occasions, especially holidays, which made them perfect for Thanksgiving break.

Once he brushed his teeth and took care of some other hygienic needs, he tiptoed downstairs to the kitchen, careful not to wake his dad. He hurried past the living room couch where the stray dog he had picked up had spent the night, too preoccupied with his thoughts to pause and greet the dog.

He was in the middle of flipping pancakes, adding an extra bit of flair the way his mom had taught him, when he heard the telltale pad of bare feet on the kitchen tiles. Beaming, he looked over his shoulder, cheerfully greeting, "Mornin', pops— Uh... You're not my dad..."

He was pretty much stating the obvious since the tall, bearded, naked man standing in the kitchen was clearly not his father. The aforementioned bearded, naked man said as much, simply stating, "Uh, no."

"Are-Are we being robbed?" Stiles asked, turning the heat on the stove down and tightening his grip on the metal spatula in his hand in case they really were being robbed. "Because, I gotta say, this is fucking weird, man. You're not even wearing pants."

The mystery man's eyes widened almost comically as he tensed and rushed to cup his hands over his crotch. His cheeks flushed, drawing Stiles' attention back to his eyes. His eyes that were oddly familiar.

Hazel-green with gold and silver. Holy shit.

"Shit, you're a werewolf, aren't you?" Stiles groaned, feeling his own face flush. He had practically kidnapped someone! Because he thought they were a stray!

The yet to be introduced man just nodded, still looking embarrassed as all hell. Stiles let out a sigh, "Keep an eye on the pancakes. I'll be right back."

He waited for the werewolf to nod before he slipped out of the kitchen and back upstairs to the laundry room where he rifled around for a clean pair of pajama pants. After finding his baggiest pair, he hurried back downstairs where he was met with an eyeful of the werewolf's firm ass and the tattoo between his shoulder blades.

"Uh, here. These should fit ya," Stiles announced after clearing his throat, holding out the red pajama pants that just so happened to be patterned with white dog bones. Turning his head to give Mr. No Name some privacy, he wandered back over to the stovetop where his pancakes were still cooking. "I'm Stiles, by the way."

"Derek," the Sheriff's voice returned, managing to make Stiles' cheeks flush even deeper. He craned his neck to take a peek at his dad who was embracing the now only half naked werewolf, a friendly smile on his face. "Son, this is Derek Hale, my new deputy."

"Of course it is," Stiles mumbled, hanging his head as he poked at one of the pancakes with the spatula. Sparing another glance over his shoulder, he watched Derek and his dad plop down at the kitchen table.

"So... Can I offer you some pancakes?" Stiles asked, meeting Derek's mesmerizing eyes.

"Yeah, why not," Derek answered smoothly, sending Stiles a sly wink when the Sheriff wasn't looking.

It may have been one of the most embarrassing moments of his life but it made one hell of a 'how I met your father' story.

[michiigii-writes-mysme]

Twelve Hours

Summary:  The RFA+S wake up before MC.  In my Ideal World.  Not that long after Seven’s After Story.

Pairing:  Saeran x MC/Reader

Genre:  Slice of Life; Fluff

Rating:  M, for a little swearing and a little steaminess.

Word Count:  Approx. 1800

A miracle happened, that day.

Saeran woke up before you did.  That never happened.

To earn a living, your boyfriend did freelance coding and internet security algorithms, and the work usually brought him late into the night.  He had incredibly erratic sleeping hours, either sleeping in late, or taking random naps throughout the day.  More often than not, you ended up going to bed by yourself.  

However, the night before, Saeran had fallen asleep with you.  You had drifted off to sleep in his arms and he hadn’t wanted to disturb you.

It was your phone’s alarm that had awakened him.  It was an annoying, almost whining sound; you had picked it specifically because it irritated you and you would want to turn it off immediately.  Unfortunately, you had set that alarm ages ago; now, you were a little bit too used to the sound.  Abruptly roused, Saeran glared at the phone in question, then looked down at you, still with your head on one of his arms.  You didn’t move; your boyfriend smirked a little to hear you snoring lightly.

He hesitated, then reached over you to your phone, hitting the ‘snooze’ button for you. You always set your alarm too early.  A couple more minutes of rest couldn’t hurt.  Saeran wrapped you more comfortably into his arms, and kissed the top of your head.  

All mine, he thought, resting his chin in your hair.

He knew you had work, that day, but he never liked seeing you leave.

A few more minutes ticked by, you still asleep and Saeran in that warm, hazy place between wakefulness and dreaming.  Just a little longer… He could see that it was early enough that it was still dark outside.

The alarm blared, again!  Saeran flinched, then irritably hit ‘snooze’ again.  It really did make such an ugly sound.

He considered turning off the alarm and just letting you sleep in, but only for a moment.  You had a busy day ahead, and he knew it.  You would appreciate the gesture, but making you late for the day would be more of a hindrance than a help.

A door squeaked open, in the hallway, and quiet footsteps passed the bedroom door.  Several floorboards creaked, followed by the sound of someone descending the stairs.  That was Saeyoung, your boyfriend knew.  Breakfast was on its way.  Inwardly, Saeran sighed; it was time for you to wake up.

Gently, he shook you in his arms.  You squirmed a little, then got comfortable again and seemed to settle.

“Hey,” Saeran said in a low voice, “Wake up.”

He shook you again.  No reaction.  You weren’t even snoring, anymore.

“Hey,” he said more firmly, shaking you a little harder, “You’re gonna be late.”

You started to shift your position.  You must have heard him.  Saeran bent down and chewed on the tip of your ear, a little, making you squeak in surprise.

“Get up,” he commanded, not loudly.

Eyes still closed, one of your hands came up and stifled a jaw-cracking yawn.  When you relaxed and finally opened your eyes, you smiled sleepily at him, blinking a little asymmetrically.  He loved that expression on you; you looked adorable.

Saeran nudged your nose with his, making you a little more alert.

“Wake up,” he said again, then told you the time.

“Hnnn…”

You leaned back and Saeran released you a little so that you could stretch.  That gave Saeran an opening to nuzzle your neck.  You twitched at the sensation, then smiled; that tickled.

“Okay…” you said dreamily, rubbing sleep out of your eyes, “I’m awake.”

“Good,” Saeran said in a muffled voice, his face still in the hollow of your neck.  So damn comfy…

“Mm…I’m getting up now,” you said, but not moving.

“Good,” Saeran responded, also staying in place.

There was silence.  Nobody in the room budged an inch.

“…You asleep, again?” he asked, after a long moment.

“Mmn…no!” you answered, your eyes snapping open at the sound of his voice. When did your eyes slip shut?

“Good,” he said, still in your neck.

“Um…” you were more alert, now, “I think I really do need to go, now.”

“Then go.”

“…Are you gonna move?”

“No.”

You chuckled, before asking, “Then how am I gonna get up?”

“Not my problem.”

“You have me pinned!”

“Good.”

“Saera-”

BLAAT BLAAT BLAAT BLAAT

The two of you flinched when your phone alarm obnoxiously interrupted you.  Recovering quickly, you sighed and turned the alarm off properly.

“Okay, now I’m really awake,” you admitted, “Time to go…”

Instead of cooperating, Saeran rolled over onto you, trapping you completely.

“Oops,” he deadpanned, ignoring you as you giggled and ineffectually tried to push him off.

“Get off!” you exclaimed, laughing.

“Call in sick,” he responded, burying his face into your hair and breathing deep.

“You’re a bad influence,” you scolded lightly.

“I am a bad person…” he shrugged.

“Saeran,” you said firmly.

He grumped, knowing you were being serious now, but rolled off of you. You were free!

“I’m gonna take a shower,” you said, getting out of bed.

“Mm-hm…”

On your way to the bathroom, you looked at your boyfriend.  Watching you move, Saeran was splayed across the bed, propping himself up a little on his elbows, his legs casually opened, one knee slightly bent.  His red hair was tousled from sleep, and he was shirtless, having only pulled on some pyjama pants before holding you close until you fell asleep the night before.  And he was eyeing you up and down with that look that made your knees weak.

“…why are you so sexy?” you breathed.

“I heard zero complaints last night,” he smirked.

“Uh-huh,” you rolled your eyes, then gave him a mischievous look.  Facing him, you coyly started pulling up the hem of your shirt.  He raised an eyebrow slightly, but did not look away.  Slowly, up the thin fabric went, inch by inch.  Then, just before he could get a proper view of two of his favourite things, you turned away.  You could hear him groan good-naturedly behind you, but you ignored it, pulling your shirt over your head completely and throwing it somewhere to the side.

You were definitely not wearing a bra.

I can be sexy, too…

Smiling appreciatively at your antics, Saeran stayed in bed, deciding he would let you shower alone.  

…then changed his mind after about five minutes.

Downstairs, in the kitchen, Saeyoung was making pancakes.  Pouring a little batter into the pan, he could hear you giggling and yelling playfully at Saeran. You sounded echo-y; you were probably in the bathroom.  A moment passed, and he could hear water running; probably the shower.  The former hacker smiled to himself, waving a spatula in the air to inaudible music.  It was the start of a beautiful day.

Cooking away, Saeyoung noted absently that the giggling upstairs had died down but the water was still going.  He didn’t pay much attention to it; he was trying to shape a pancake so that it had cat ears.

Maybe chocolate chips for the eyes? he thought, looking at what cooking supplies he had, What about the whiskers?  Cherry stems?  But you can’t eat those…

Time passed, and eventually Saeyoung finished all of his pancake batter. You still seemed to be showering, so he decided to set the table.  He got the plates and cutlery out, then grabbed both maple syrup and chocolate syrup.  After some thought, he put a couple jam jars on the table, too.

Huh.  I set the table all by myself, he thought, frowning a little, Where is everyone?

He looked up at the ceiling, and could hear that the shower was still going.  You didn’t normally take this long to get ready.

What’s taking her so...

…

...!!!!!

Finally, the proverbial pin dropped, and with a gasp, Saeyoung’s glasses cracked as he realized what exactly was going on.  Mildly horrified, he ran halfway up the stairs, thought better of it, then ran back down.

“THE SUN ISN’T EVEN UP, YET,” he yelled up the staircase, “YOU HAVE A ROOMMATE.”

Saeyoung ran his fingers through his hair, shaken, then added belatedly, “…AND BREAKFAST IS READY.”

A few minutes later, you and Saeran came down, him looking smug, you looking a little sheepish.  

You both still had damp hair.

Saeyoung was seated at the table, a teacup held daintily in his hands.

“Did you hear anything?” you asked, a blush very apparent on your cheekbones.

“Just the water running for way too long,” Saeyoung answered, sipping some of his tea then giving you a look over the rim of his cup, “Way too long.”

Your blush deepened, and you took a seat across from Saeyoung.  Saeran, on the other hand, looked quite blasé; he chose to sit beside you, pulling his chair close to yours, not caring what his brother thought.

“…weather forecast was good, today,” Saeyoung said, pitying you in the end and offering you a change of subject.

“That’s…good,” you responded, letting Saeran serve you pancakes, “Oh…!  These are cute!  Kitty pancakes!”

“Yeah, I drew them in the pan with chocolatey batter, then filled them in with plain batter,” your best friend said proudly, “I’m a genius!”

You smiled gratefully at your friend, then started to eat.  Saeyoung watched as you also fed Saeran from your plate, as was your habit.  Saeran didn’t eat much for breakfast, if he was even present for it, so you always had to feed him.

“I’m going to be out for a long time, today,” you said, talking around a mouthful, “I’m scheduled for a 12-hour shift, so I won’t be home until late.”

“12 hours?” Saeyoung whistled low, before helping himself to some of his own pancakes, “That sucks…”

“Yeah…” you sighed, giving Saeran a mouthful of pancake from your own fork, “But I know it’s my turn to cook dinner, so I’ll bring home takeout.”

“Yes!” Saeyoung cheered, “And taiyaki?”

“Sure!” you agreed with a smile, “Today’s gonna be long, but at least it’ll end well!”

Later, Saeyoung watched from a slight distance as Saeran saw you off at the door.  He was amazed, again, at how happy his brother looked.  So different from that first day in the hospital…

Saeyoung didn’t bother trying to hide his smile as he watched the two of you. The truth was, Saeran had requested that Saeyoung make breakfast, pulling him aside the night before. The younger twin had wanted you to be as happy as possible before heading out; he had seen your schedule and already known how long you were going to be out for.  And you loved Saeyoung’s pancakes.  It pissed Saeran off, but Saeyoung really did make the best pancakes, out of the three of you.

When the door closed behind you, and Saeran turned around, he was met with Saeyoung’s stupid, toothy grin.

“Aw…you’re in loooo-” Saeyoung started.

“Shut up.”

“-ooooooooooooooooo-”

“You little shit.”

“-oooooooooooooooo-”

“…seriously?”

“-oooooooove!”

Giggling impishly, Saeyoung easily dodged a shoe that Saeran threw at him.

“Look at you, providing for your lady!” the ex-hacker added, giggling.

“Fuck you,“ Saeran growled, tossing another shoe before heading to the stairs, "I’m taking a nap…”

Saeyoung laughed harder, but let his brother go.

His two favourite people in the world were happy; what more could he ask for?

-fin-

The last of my Good Morning, RFA series.  Some sweet Saeran times.  Mmm….!