#i think he was a sophomore at NYU at this point

[burtlancster]

In the backyard of the brownstone Lancaster grew up in, Harlem, practicing the horizontal bar—Burt, a teenager, is sitting on the net, and the Australian acrobat who introduced him to the sport, Curly Brent, on the bar.

[equallyshaw]

thanksgiving in the hamptons | little lion au! ↠ luke hughes x ovechkin oc au! ↠ au masterlist! ↠ also idk why i never mentioned it earlier, but lions mom is lily lin. italics is russian. warnings: drama + fighting, kinda all over the place + rusty writing. word count: 4.4k

the season was well underway for her dad and the hughes brothers, as well as liona's junior year at nyu for fashion and marketing. it also marked a year since liona and luke had met for the first time at the party that dawson mercer had thrown, and a year since the two officially got together. this would mark the first time that luke had gone to something that was thrown by her family. though, thanksgiving was a relatively small occasion for the part russian and part britian, her small family and extended family always came together. this getaway had been happening for 12 years at this point, before sasha was born. her friends and her mom had been coming up with their parents to the hamptons during the summer for years and always ended up spending the most time at this one in particular.

when liona's mom heard about ellen and jim coming from michigan to celebrate the holiday- she offered luke and his family to come join them, and the hughes accepted without a second thought. her mother and ellen were excited to get to meet one another and hopefully get to know one another over the few days. they both knew how important it was to liona, for them to get along. when liona came up to michigan during the summer time, her and ellen spent ample time together and she absolutely adored the blonde woman.

liona, her mom, rainn, chris and sasha made their way up in her mom's suv towards the hamptons after leaving Thursday evening for the house they had been renting for 12 years at this point. her father and the rest of them would be arriving by plane tomorrow from dc and new jersey. sasha sat in front next to her mom, while rainn took the front row seat and then it was chris and liona in the back, like old times. they were an hour in to the drive, and still had an hour and a half left until they arrived. rainn and sasha were fast asleep by the time chris and liona began to speak softly in the back, "has luke met your dad yet?" chris asked as she pulled out her ear buds after dying and dug through her bag for her chord headphones, she nodded as she looked towards him. "yeah...why?" she questioned once she saw her nod register within him. he cleared his throat, "uh nothing nothing." he said looking out of the car window. her eyebrows creased before placing a soft hand on his that rested between them. he looked down at it, and then back towards her. "whats up?" she questioned now pulling her's back and shutting her book, the fourth wing. he shook his head looking up front and then back at her, the music her mom was playing was loud enough for her not to hear much while driving. "nothing i promise, i was just curious. but what does he think of luke?" he questioned with a slight grin, and she cracked a bit. "good! i mean for the most part...he definitely is a little closed off just because of - of how we ended but i think they're good for the most part. i also think that because of uncle geno being in love with luke, gives him some ease, but i don't know. i guess we'll find out this weekend." she said shrugging and chris nodded. they had had a somewhat hard breakup before freshman year of college. chris had been slated to head to Harvard for four years (before transferring to columbia for his sophomore year, for the spring semester), the two had broken up because of the distance, but chris just wanted her to be free to explore and have fun, while not feeling like she had to hold herself back because of being in a relationship and it hurt him beyond belief, to let her go. he thought they were high school sweethearts and would have been together for years to come. after an extremely difficult year away from his friends, he transferred. and had hoped the two would have found one another again, but as luck would have it- she met luke.

chris nodded softly, "you know i'll never forgive myself for how i ended things and how abrupt it was." chris explained and liona nodded, "i know, and yknow i forgive you for it. i know you had the best intentions for it." she said giving him a close-lipped smile. "besides, i wouldn't have met luke if we had been together still. for whatever reason it was meant to happen." she said before putting in her headphones and returning to her book.

the five of them made it to the lakehouse, and as soon as liona made it to her designated room, she texted luke that they had made it. the two of them hopped on facetime five minutes later, and she made her way outside towards the pool out back, that overlooked the private beach. "good evening kai." luke said adjusting his pillow and she smiled, "evening pookie." she grinned before flipping the camera around so he could see the waves coming in on the shore. "i can only imagine the view during the day he said, as she turned the camera back around towards her. "its to die for. have some of my fondest childhood memories up here." she hummed before yawning. "long day at work?" he questioned and she nodded, "the kids i nanny were giving me the hardest time this morning and they just drained me." she said rubbing her eye. "well, i wont keep you my kai..." he paused to yawn himself, "i cant wait to see you tomorrow." he said with a smile. the two hadn't seen one another in two weeks due to his very early road trip, which made this weekend even sweeter since they'd actually be together and spend some quality time with one another. "i know me too...you sure you don't want me to pick you guys up?" she questioned and he shook his head profously, "no. don't worry about it, spend time with your family. i promise we are good." he said and she nodded before they hung up. -

the following morning her father flew in, and liona was there to pick him up with sasha. despite sasha not being blood related to him, he had always treated her like his own and they absolutely adored one another. a few summers ago, liona took the time to really teach her russian and sasha loved to converse with him while they were around their mom since their mom knew little to no russian. thick as thieves, those three were. "alex!" sasha screamed in russian, as he walked up to the curve in the small airport near the hamptons. he held his arms open as sasha ran up to him and he lifted her up. "you keep growing young one." he laughed in russian, to which sasha rolled her eyes and the two of them began to walk back to the car. alex ruffled her hair and she swatted his hand away. "hey dad." liona smiled as he pulled her in for a hug as well, and he kissed the top of her head. liona took the flowers from him as he spoke, "hi lioness." he responded as he pulled his suitcase into the trunk. alex hopped in the back seat as sasha and liona took the front, and the three of them settled on a coffee shop to stop before driving back to the house. "so you excited to see luke?" sasha quipped and liona was quick to give her a 'warning' look but sasha only giggled. "see how things go." he said in broken english and liona only rolled her eyes. "alright." she hummed before pulling up to the drive through. "get coffee for mama." alex said from the back seat and liona added the last order.

a little while later, they pulled up to the house and chris was outside waiting to help with alex's luggage. alex hopped out and quickly shook chris's hand, which led to a bro hug. "hows columbia?" he asked chris as the two of them headed towards the trunk, "good! glad to be in the city again and finishing this year. for good" chris explained, and alex smiled widely. "year early?" alex clarified and chris nodded, before alex laughed. "always knew lion could have learned a thing or two from you." he said loud enough for liona to hear it as she entered the house. great, she thought. back to comparing the two, she grimaced thinking of how he'd always compared the two, and always thought chris was the guy to know and be with. "coffee for me?" her and sasha's mom smiled as sasha handed her her's and liona set chris' down on the counter. "ofcourse!" sasha smiled.

"what are you baking?" sasha questioned as the two males walked in, and alex and their mom made eye contact. "hey alex." she said giving him a quick hug, "hi lily." he smiled and she took the flowers from him with a smile. "very kind of you." she said quickly going to find a vase. "pumpkin pie." chris explained and liona nodded looking at the directions. sasha headed off to do some reading while alex went to wash his hands to start the second dessert, medovik which lily had been making since liona was a young girl. it was one way she would help honor her daughters heritage, even if she couldn't stand alex. "need help?" chris questioned as liona had began to wash her own hands to help, and she nodded. "the more the merrier." she hummed before pressing play on her mom's phone for music.

etta james filled the first floor as 'fool that i am' began to play. liona swayed to the jazzy music, as chris took his spot next to her's. the two worked in silence and tandem. lily walked back in and began to help alex, and soon enough they were in the process of cleaning dishes. chris found liona's gaze, as 'sunday kind of love' began to play from the speakers and liona giggled. the two of them had loved to play this song and dance to it, when they were together. chris held out his hand, and liona grinned taking it. his hands found her hand and her lower back, as the two sang the song whilst swaying. alex and lily smiled to one another, as rainn walked into the kitchen. "pops!" she said clasping her hands on alex's shoulder before moving over to the fridge.

chris and liona sang the words to one another, like old times, and during the music break, he spun her around which caused her to giggle. the song ended and dancing in the moonlight now came on. unbeknownst to them, gavin and sean walked through the front door along with the hughes after taking flights and trains to get here. "your faves are here!" sean announced as he entered the kitchen. he froze and gavin walked into him, as he spoke to the hughes family. "man-" gavin began but froze himself as he saw lily and alex conversing at the sink, and then his eyes landed on chris and liona who were still dancing with one another. along with rain who was eating a snack. "is that medovik?!" gavin questioned loudly, and all eyes found him. liona quickly stepped away from chris, and turned right as luke stepped into the kitchen beside sean and gavin. a huge smile erupted on her face, and made her way over to greet him and his family. "hi!" she said to all of them as her mom shut off the music. "welcome to the hamptons!" she added, looking at all of them and then back at luke. "hi guys! would you like a tour?" her mom swooped in and all of them nodded. "cmon ill show you around!" lily said beginning to walk off towards the other end of the house, as luke and liona stayed put. "let's head to my room." she said softly, pulling her with him towards the stairs.

they made their way up the stairs and headed down to her room, and she let him walk in first. "how was the flight?" she questioned and he shrugged setting down his bag near the door. "not bad, jack just got on my nerves this morning." he chuckled laying down on his back. she laid down next to him on her side, propping her head on her hand. "well im glad yall made it in one piece." she hummed pushing a long lock from his face. his gaze shifted towards her, and she leaned in to give him a quick peck. "im glad you made it." she whispered before kissing him once more.

_

it was now thanksgiving and the families sat down at the long, wooden table. the two families had gotten along rather well so far into the trip, and that made liona's heart soar. knowing they got along well, was a very big thing for her. she sat down next to luke and across from chris and rainn. luke and her hand found one another's under that table quickly, before helping pass the food around. comfortable conversation washed over the table, and the conversation turned towards discussing school and how the group of friends were doing with their studies. "im good! im going to be starting my year long internship with conde nast this janurary." liona said with a small smile on her face, "are you excited for it?" ellen asked and liona nodded. "yes! id always hope to work there in some sort of fashion and interning there is a dream come true." she gushed, and ellen smiled widely. "oh! chris is it true your graduating this spring? alex mentioned that you were fast-tracking your under grad?" her mother questioned chris as gavin asked something about columbia. "yes! ill be done this may and then hope to travel around europe for a bit." he said shocking the friend group, as they had no idea. "wait what?" liona questioned softly, referring to the europe part. "ever the smart one." alex remarked tilting his drink towards the boy who smiled. "that's so cool bro, i think gavin and i were heading to Britain for a study abroad. we have to get together!" sean exclaimed and the three boys made commitments to meet up. liona sat there looking at chris, feeling somewhat pissed. he'd never said anything, and he always told her everything. even despite the breakup.

"what? trying to find a way to one up him?" sean joked causing the friend group to laugh, as they thought of how the two of them always went head to head with academics and other competitive things. liona's jaw tightened as she bit back her sarcastic remark, "the two of them used to be each other's competition in everything. growing up next to one another always brought out the worst in them, always having to be on top of it all." alex joked filling in the hughes family, "which is always how their relationship worked." alex added before realizing what he had said, out loud for that fact. sasha choked on her lemonade, as liona stood up abruptly and pushed her chair back, so she could walk out of the room. "lion!" her mother called for her, but rainn was already on her way after her.

liona walked out the back door and towards the private beach, with rainn on her tail. liona felt tears prick her brown eyes as she crossed her arms. her father always found a way to jibe at their relationship and how it ended, and that he always thought that they should of gotten back together. it seemed as if he never gave luke a 'proper' chance, even after a year.

"hey-" rainn said putting a hand on her friends shoulder, but she pushed it off. "you okay?" she asked softly and liona made a tsk noise. "okay? okay? you think id be okay with my idiot of a father bringing up my relationship with my ex who he has always thought of as the superior one and would always be the superior guy to anyone else i date? he embarrassed me in front of everybody!" she screamed at rainn. rainn didn't take offense, because she'd be just as pissed if her dad did that. "i don't understand how he shoots himself in the foot after making so much progress with me! and my mom!" she yelled at no one in particular, before screaming out to the sea. rainn frowned before looking back at the house, where she knew they were all watching. liona sat before wrapping her hands around her knees and perched her head watching the waves. rainn began to walk off to give her space, and back up to the house. she walked inside facing the friend group, hearing lily and alex yelling at one another up stairs. "ahh who'd a thought?" she said sarcastically referring to them upstairs as she noticed the hughes family standing in the kitchen, and smiled softly at them. "her dad is an ass." she exclaimed and they all hummed in agreement. rainn walked over towards the hughes and they all turned towards her, "hey...im sorry to bother but i think you should go see lion." she said looking at luke who nodded and immediately began his way towards the back door. "good luck." sean remarked as luke opened the door, and he paused looking at him. "she's sour when her dad pisses her off." gavin explained, and he nodded before walking out.

liona had been crying since the moment rainn walked back towards the house and as soon as luke heard her sobs, he jogged towards her. he sat down without a word and pulled her into his chest, trying to comfort her. "im sorry." she sobbed and luke shook his head, pressing soft kisses to the top of her head. "he does this every time...one step forward and then takes three steps back." she said frustratedly, as luke pulled her in tighter and she curled up to him. "he always feels the need to somehow make jabs or comments at me about chris because he feels as though i was wrong for breaking up with him." she remarked and luke's eyebrows furrowed. "i thought he broke up with you." he said peering down at her. she nodded, "no he did, but chris never had the heart to tell my dad that, that first christmas back from school." she remarked and that made luke angry. "sometimes i feel as though he never wanted me as his child, but chris." she said barely above a whisper and luke's heart broke. "there's no way in hell that is true." luke said softly pulling her chin, so she could see his face. "he would be an absolute fool, kai. an absolute fool if he ever thought that. but he loves you kai, even if none of us understand or always believe it, but he does." he said with a soft smile. "but you're not wrong, he is an ass but he's a stubborn one that i know you absolutely adore and cherish." he said tracing her chin softly. she nodded, knowing he was right but she was beyond angry with her father at the moment.

"you are the strongest person i know, cammie." he began with his nickname that meant strength and resilient - honoring the russian chamomile flower that was her favorite. "you bloom in the midst of trying times despite it all. you bloom despite hardship, and that in itself is beautiful. this is just another one of those times, i know you'll come out on the other side." he said slowly in russian. the way the words flowed and rolled off his tongue, brought warmth to the girl's heart. "i see my little lion lessons have paid off immensely." she softly remarked causing him to chuckle. "that and the pretty penny duolingo charges me monthly." he added, and now she laughed. "you don't know how much that means to me, your effort does not and will never go unnoticed." she began looking up at him as her hand found his cheek, "means the absolute world to me." she smiled before pulling him in for a deep kiss. his hands found her back, bringing comfort to her.

they pulled away after a bit, resting their foreheads against each other. "just forewarning, when we go back in there i may rip my dad's head off....in russian." she warned and luke nodded. "your mom and him were already going at it upstairs when i walked out." and that made liona sigh. she could already see them fighting in her mind, and that made her shift in his arms. "where was sasha?" she asked and luke looked back down at her, "she was on the other side of the house with her airpods in." he said and that made her frown. sasha had rarely seen her mother yell, and fight with her dad. so on the off chance that they did, liona always made sure she was out of the house or doing something to distract her.

"we should head in." liona said standing up and looking back at the house, and luke nodded. liona held out a hand for luke to help him up and then headed back up the path, still holding each other's hand.

luke opened the door for liona, and she stepped inside. she smiled softly at the hughes that stood in the kitchen still as ellen made her way over to her. "im so sorry you had to hear all of that." liona apologized and ellen waved her off, before pulling her in for a hug. "you ok?" she questioned softly and liona nodded. "yeah..this happens sometimes i suppose." liona said shrugging and ellen gave her a small frown. "were going to be heading into town to get some dessert, and i think were staying at a hotel too before flying out tomorrow. you are more than welcome to join us." and liona smiled. "thankyou...i might join you guys for some dessert in a bit. i have to speak to my dad first but i have a feeling my mom is gonna want to leave tonight with sasha and i." she explained and ellen nodded. "well let us know and we'll be there anyway we can." ellen comforted. "i appreciate that very much, sincerely. ill let you guys know." liona smiled before heading towards the dining room, and saw her friends conversing.

they all looked back at her, with long faces. "im fine. i promise. about to go rip my dad a new one." she remarked heading past them, "hey were gonna leave tonight. were gonna get a rental car and go, if you want to join." sean explained and liona nodded, "thankyou. im gonna see what my mom wants to do." liona said and the group nodded.

she took a deep breath as she stood in front of the stairs, and once she exhaled, she walked up.

her parents weren't fighting anymore, and liona began to search the rooms to see where they were. she opened up her mom's room, nobody. she opened up the extra bedroom, nope. next, she began her way toward the room her dad always got. without thinking anything of it, she opened it without knocking and she froze looking at the scene. no wonder they had grown silent.

her parents heads whipped towards her in shock, as she took in the scene before her. she couldn't wrap her head around them being close to each other, let alone being in each other's arms and looking as if her dad was comforting her mom in some way. and once she looked at her mothers face, she saw that it was puffy. "oh my god." liona breathed, and took a step backward. "liona-" her mother called right as she sped off to her room. "oh my god- oh my GOD!" liona screamed as she began to push her clothes and beauty bag into her weekend tote. "lion-" she cut off her dad, "don't you dare speak to me - either of you!" she said zipping her bag. "please sweetie-" her mother said taking a step forward, to which liona squawked at. "to think i was coming up here to give you an earful...and to see that?! what the fuck are you thinking!" she cried, bringing the back of her hand to her mouth. she shook her head as alex took a step forward, "no. you have told me over the years how much you have hated him and how much you can't stand her. and now this? no. i wont be apart of this, whatever this is because the two of you have never gotten your shit together for me, for the sake of your child." liona exclaimed.

"darlin-" she cut off her dad, "no! its my turn to speak." she remarked as she threw her bag over her shoulder, "my whole life has been at the expense of your relationship and your incapability of getting along. so apologies for me being uncomfortable seeing you two close like that. my sincere apologies for reacting a certain way to this shit show." liona spat with anger seething from her body. "cancel my flights for christmas to dc." liona breathed before walking past the two.

she made her way down the stairs, and her friends were waiting for her at the bottom. "ill explain later." she said as she locked eyes with luke who had let his family go ahead in the uber they called. luke took her bags and they made their way out to the rental car, his family had rented for the weekend. liona settled into the front seat, bringing her knees to her chest and looking out the door window.

"im here, always. if you want to talk." he offered as soon as she turned on the car. she peered over with a small smile.

||

her insta:

UM

hehe

i hope you all enjoyed! pls like and reblog if u did (:

[eddieandbird]

Flight of Icarus - Chapter 1

synopsis and reactions

The story is told from Eddie’s perspective and starts with the Hellfire club in the middle of a campaign. He just brutally killed off Gareth’s character and the club is discussing it hilariously. Right now the club consists of six members:

Eddie - senior

Gareth - freshman, newest member of Hellfire

Dougie - senior

Ronnie Ecker - senior, started Hellfire with Eddie

Jeff - sophomore

Stan - junior

Most of the members are also in Corroded Coffin, including Eddie, Ronnie, and Dougie (Gareth joins at a later date?)

Ronnie (Full name: Veronica Ecker) seems the closest to Eddie at this point. They both moved to the trailer park at the same time and have been friends ever since. Eddie seems very protective over her, even though he tries to look like he’s reluctantly helping her out with rides home and stuff. They have similar backgrounds; didn’t grow up with a whole lot of family. Eddie also said when they were 13, he considered that they were dating. (This falls in line perfectly with my head cannon that Eddie wouldn’t have the balls to ask his crush out, he would just assume they were dating and let them figure it out eeeeee!!!) After Eddie had his mind made up that they were dating, he goes in FOR A KISS and she gets freaked out and pulls away lmao. (I honestly love Ronnie as a character and might even use her for a couple Eddie fics)

After the Hellfire meeting, Ronnie reveals to Eddie that she got a full ride law scholarship to NYU. I think this sends Eddie into a spiral, considering he doesn’t really have plans for college and he also might be afraid of losing his friendship with Ronnie when she moves, but like the compassionate, sweet boy that he is, he lets her know how proud he is of her.

I’m not sure if we got this information before, but Eddie’s Dad’s canon name is Al Munson. (Eddie doesn’t give us a full name, but I’d like to think it’s Albert Munson). Just like he was hinting in season four (y’know the scene where he’s talking to Steve and hot-wiring the camper van?), Al Munson seems like a typical deadbeat dad, but Eddie only discusses this briefly. 

The chapter ends with Eddie getting pulled over by a cop, Officer Moore. He’s obviously being annoying, giving Eddie shit for his driving and insinuates that Eddie has drugs in his car, but ultimately leaves him and Ronnie alone. 

Review~

So far the writing is charming. I’m not sure if it’s just too early in the book to tell, or I’ve been reading too many fan fictions or what, but I do feel like Eddie’s voice is lacking some of the whimsy and pizzazz that I picture him to have. That being said, I do appreciate the author showing off Eddie’s softer side and hiding his emotions in the internal dialogue.

[jonathanbyersphd]

Your headcanons on college era jancy?

(Also casually sliding a slip of paper saying ‘Jonathan’s wnyu show?’ Under your door. Can be for either spidey au or canon show timeline. It can even be both if you like.)

Hi Emily! Also College aged Jancy my beloved

(also he's def part of WNYU in the Spidey AU but it's only mentioned briefly in the first chapter)

TRAGICALLY (because the duffers hate me) I have resigned that Jonathan's going to NYU and Nancy's going to Emerson (originally I was a big fan of the NYU/Sarah Lawrence variant but also NYU has a journalism degree not like I'm mad or anything anyways)

Jonathan takes to college like a duck to water, like it doesn't take him very long to find friends at Tisch at all and he loves exploring the city in his free time

Nancy, my beloved, has a tougher time with the transition only because she doesn't really get along with her in-room roommate but she gets along with her suite mates and she doesn't give up just complains to Jonathan a lot

Jonathan, of course, takes photos of everything to send off to Nancy and she writes him like five page letters (he keeps them all in a shoe box)

I think they call each other twice a week but they're short phone calls because they can't really afford them

They alternate weekend visits at least once a month

Nancy definitely makes him participate in some weird sweater exchange like she'll take them and then when they don't smell like him anymore she'll send them back and he'll send a new one

Nancy obviously joins the paper and accidentally ends up usurping the editor and taking over

Jonathan joins WNYU and it's like the most eclectic hour of music on campus but no one kicks him off

Jonathan working at a bar is real to me

Jonathan is also a wedding photographer

Nancy works as a teacher's assistant after a TERRIBLE first day as a barista

Jonathan becomes an RA sophomore year but he ends up hating it because it's so much responsibility and Nancy ends up having to see him more than he does down to see her so he quits

ENGLISH LIT MINOR JONATHAN BYERS IS REAL TO ME

Nancy definitely studies abroad at some point (London or Rome maybe) Jonathan suffers greatly

Related, Jonathan gets really into baking while she's away

Nancy has a hobby graveyard because she can't settle on anything

Until she FINALLY gives in and does ballet again (Jonathan is a big fan of the leotard she makes fun of him for this)

I think like junior year Nancy freaks out because he's never dated anyone else and tries to break up with him and he's like you're the love of my life so respectfully no and she's like I'm the love of your life 🥺

They scheme their way out of going home for Thanksgiving early and spend that week on like cheap vacations with each other

Argyle randomly decides to move to NYC and basically funds Jonathan's apt junior & senior year (rich kid Argyle)

Will ends up going to NYU and Mike goes to Princeton so for a hot minute there the Cali Crew rides again, Argyle loves this, Jonathan & Nancy less so

In my head they settle in NYC but I am partial to the brief idea of them living in London or a Paris for a minute

Oh and Jonathan proposes before senior year because he can't hold it in anymore she of course says yes and they get married the fall after graduating

[xofanfics]

Without Warning - Part II

Part I | Part II | Part III

Genre: angst, slight fluff

Pairing: Reader x Doyoung ft. Mark

Word Count: 3.5k

Summary: You and Doyoung had the best summer you could. Now that he’s hundreds of miles away in college, you have to go through senior year alone. You meet Mark at a time when Doyoung is making you feel like you’re single. Even though Mark had cheered you up, by the time you got home, your happiness vanished into thin air. Your mom wasn’t home yet, which didn’t make you feel any better. At a time like this, her working the three to twelve shift at the hospital wasn’t helpful. It was a little after ten thirty and you decided to take a bath, hoping that it would take your mind off of things.

No one, Doyoung had said. He referred to you as “no one.” What did that mean? Did it mean that he just didn’t want to explain at that moment? Did it mean that he didn’t want that person to know that he was dating someone? You didn’t know but you knew that you shouldn’t make excuses for him. You reached out of the bathtub for your phone, which you’d placed on the toilet seat. You found yourself on Instagram again, looking at his story. You hadn’t looked since earlier but you saw a girl in the background of whatever video Doyoung had taken with his new friends. You saw the girl’s flirty smile and her stupid pearly white teeth and her overall aura of flirtiness. At the back of your mind, you wondered if this was the girl Doyoung had been talking to.

Tears built up in your eyes. Had he actually cheated on you? Whether it was with that girl or someone else, you couldn’t help but think that he cheated on you while he was away. You couldn’t help but feel like he was a liar. Even if he hadn’t cheated...had he thought about it? Had he considered forgetting about you and being with someone else for the night? Had he flirted with someone else? Was it one of those small acts of cheating that were in the grey areas of what was black and what was white? You couldn’t be sure what he was lying about but you knew one thing for sure—he definitely was lying about loving you.

You felt like such an idiot for thinking that long distance would work. Of course, he’d make new friends and be busier but you never anticipated that you’d be the very last thing on his mind. Did he really not care at all? Did everything you’d been through up to this point not mean a thing to him?

You watched the video over and over again and, finally, you clicked to the next story and found a group picture. He tagged all of his new friends and the girl was tagged too. Immediately, you went on her profile. Her name was Maria Silva and she was from Brazil, according to the flag in her bio. She was nineteen and she was a sophomore at NYU, apparently, studying in their pre-medicine program. All of her pictures were Instagram-worthy and she just seemed so cool—cooler than you were by far. 

You closed your phone, wishing that you hadn’t even looked.

*

You opened your eyes in the morning earlier than expected, being met with the sting of the sunlight peering into your room. You’d forgotten to close the blinds before you fell asleep. With a groan, you got up to close the blinds and plopped back in bed. You grabbed your phone to see what time it was. It was a little after nine in the morning.

Then everything hit you like a trainwreck. Doyoung, the party, Maria’s instagram account…You wished that it had been a dream. You wished that you still had the loving, caring Doyoung that you knew from before. Was everything you’d come to know and love about him a lie?

Your phone vibrated in your hands and, surprisingly, it was a text from Doyoung. 

Doyoung [9:17AM]: Are you awake?

Y/N [9:17AM]: What does it matter?

Doyoung [9:19AM]: Can we talk?

You didn’t know how to approach his message. Talk to you? About what? Was he going to apologize? Did he remember anything at all? Was he planning on breaking up with you? You didn’t know what to expect from him. But you were angry. How dare he text you as if nothing was wrong! As if he hadn’t hurt you.

Y/N [9:21AM]: Okay, talk.

Instead of him typing his reply, he Facetimed you. You tied your hair back in a bun before you answered. Doyoung showed up on the screen a few seconds after the call had connected. It seemed like he’d been up for a while. You recognized the t-shirt he was wearing; you’d slept in it a few times, those nights you’d sneak over to his house when his parents were out of town. His hair was messy and he had his glasses on.

“Hey,” he said, so casually, as if everything was okay.

“Hi,” you said dryly. Doyoung didn’t say anything for a few seconds; he was thinking, trying to figure out how to carry out the conversation.

“Wow, you don’t have anything to say,” you said, anger simmering up in you, “when you’re the one who called me first...”

“I know...I wanted to say that I’m sorry for the things I said to you last night. You were right,” he said, “I was drunk.”

You shook your head. “I think you meant every single thing you said. The truth comes out when you’re drunk, right?”

“I was frustrated and I took it out on you...”

“You know, I would’ve rather just broken up before you left. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be told that you’re loved, that breaking up isn’t necessary, and for this other person to insist that you can make the relationship work, only to have it blow up in your face a couple months later?”

“Y/N, I-”

“I’m not saying that my life has been harder or comparing our struggles. I know you have a life and I mean, I do, too. But I guess I just never thought I’d have to beg my boyfriend for a fucking phone call every now and then. I never thought I’d feel like a burden to you. You have your new life in New York and have to make room for new things. And sometimes the old things get replaced. So, Doyoung, maybe you’re right. Maybe this was a bad idea.”

His face twisted into a frown, flinching as if he was hurt by your words. “Are you...breaking up with me right now?”

“Yeah,” you said, “I guess I am...After all, you did refer to me as no one on the phone last night.”

“I-I don’t remember saying that.”

You sighed. “It doesn’t matter Doyoung. Whether you said it out loud or not, your actions have shown me that I am no one to you.”

“Y/N,” he said, “You know you mean a lot to me…”

“It doesn’t feel that way.”

“I’m sorry. I know I haven’t been a good boyfriend to you. I can make it up to you, I swear. I made a mistake. It’s not—”

You bit your lip, finally, trying to hold back tears. But your attempt failed and a few tears fell anyway. “Yeah...I made a mistake too. I shouldn’t have believed those things you said. Enjoy New York. I hope it’s everything you wanted. Goodbye, Doyoung.”

“Y/N, pl—”

You hung up on him, blocking his number before he could call you back. You didn’t expect relief to pass over you but you felt better knowing that you didn’t have to be stressing over someone who had shown you over and over again that they didn’t want you. Your heart pounded in your chest and it hurt like hell, but you knew that it was for your own good. Not being with Doyoung was a foreign concept to you but you’d have to cope with it from now on.

This was the first step you needed to take if you wanted to be happier.

*

The next couple weeks were hard, especially with Doyoung trying to reach you in any and every way possible. You had his number blocked, so he tried to call you from a friend’s phone. He tried to call you on Snapchat and Instagram before you blocked him on those too. Doyoung was so desperate that he tried to reach you on LinkedIn, as well. But you ignored all of his attempts. He’d reached out to Amber and Phil a few times, begging them to get you on the phone with him. He’d sent messages through them, too. But you ignored and declined any and everything that had to do with your ex-boyfriend. 

“What if it’s not what you think?” Phil had asked, at one point.

“I don’t care,” you’d said. “I deserve better than the shit he put me through…”

You couldn’t help but feel annoyed at Phil, for standing up for his old friend. It was unreasonable for you to expect him to cut Doyoung off just because you broke up but you were annoyed at the fact that he kept trying to vouch for him when you’d already made up your mind. It probably made Phil a little uncomfortable, especially if they were still in contact. He and Doyoung had been pretty close friends because they played soccer together after school sometimes. But their friendship wasn’t your problem. 

You made your mind up and you stood by that for the past month. Your relationship with Doyoung was becoming more like a memory and those memories were now distorted with your new perception of him. It still hurt that he hadn’t been honest with you. That was the part that made you upset—the fact that he wasn’t honest from the beginning, the fact that he made promises he ended up not being able to keep. 

Part of you wondered if maybe you should look into dating someone else, but then you reminded yourself that dating during senior year didn’t work out too well for you last time, being that things ended up like this. Dating senior year would only get complicated as the relationship went on, with college applications due soon. You didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Doyoung so the best thing that you could do, right now, was to be single, enjoying your time with your friends and getting ready for college.

Mark didn’t like to see you sad, especially when it was over that asshole who had treated you like complete trash. How could he date someone as amazing as you were and then throw it all away so easily? You weren’t the kind of person where it took a lot of effort to make you happy. You laughed at anything and it didn’t take much to bring a smile out of you. 

Mark noticed you trying to hide how you felt when his name came up in conversation but, little did you know, he could see right through your facade. He didn’t say anything but he watched you from a distance, hoping that you were okay. He imagined that you were still feeling a bit hurt even if you tried not to show it.

As you, Phil, and Amber walked over toward the table, he noticed your huge smile. You were talking excitedly about something or another and you looked so cute while you were doing it. Whenever you walked into a room, Mark’s heart fluttered. He noticed about two weeks ago and he wished that he could tell you. But he felt like maybe he shouldn’t say anything. After all, you were going through a breakup. He was sure you were having a hard enough time as it was. The last thing he wanted was to add to your frustrations. 

“Hey Mark,” you said, sitting down next to him. As Phil and Amber sat across from you, you asked. “What are you guys doing this weekend?”

Mark said, “I don’t have anything planned. My parents are leaving me and my brother here to rot while they live it up in Mexico. It’s my mom’s birthday and apparently we’re not invited to the party.” Mark pouted. “I wanna go!”

Lucas sat down next to Mark on the other side of the table. “Me too!”

Mark chuckled. “Do you even know what we’re talking about?” 

Lucas smirked. “Nope, but I wanted to feel included so…”

“I’m not doing anything other than writing an English paper. Thank God our math test got pushed to Wednesday.”

Mark said, “Well anyway, are you guys down to come over tonight? My brother will be home but he should be able to get us a bottle of something.”

You raised your eyebrows. You rarely drank but you were definitely down to get drunk with your friends. “Let’s do it.”

“So does that mean that this is a party?” Lucas winked as he stole one of Mark’s french fries.

“No,” Mark said, “but you can bring one person with you. Apartments are only so big, you know.”

Lucas said, “I’ll see what I can do. And I’ll bring some cards so we can play circle of death or something.”

*

You stood in front of the refrigerator, the door open, looking for leftovers. There was spaghetti that your mom made yesterday but you weren’t sure if you wanted that. You had half a mind to order Chinese food but, before you could make up your mind, your mom called. 

“Hey mom.”

“Did you eat dinner yet? If you don’t want spaghetti, you can just order something on Grubhub.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just eat the spaghetti. I’ll save Grubhub for another night”

“Okay. I just got on my break. You remember I’m working a double tonight, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to see your friends? You should invite Amber over or something so you won’t be lonely.” 

“We’re actually going over to Mark’s house. He invited us over so we’re gonna hang out for a couple hours.”

“Okay, that sounds fun. Mark seems like a nice kid. Well, have fun. And don’t stay next door too late. I’ll be back a little after eight in the morning.”

“Okay, see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight.”

You heated up spaghetti as planned and turned the tv on to look for something to watch on Netflix. You flipped through the list of trending movies and shows but couldn’t decide on anything, so you decided on one of your comfort shows. And, of course, you couldn’t help but remember the times you and Doyoung had sat on this same couch, eating snacks and watching tv. It was like everything reminded you of him. That was the part about breaking up with someone that sucked the most. Even though Doyoung wasn’t here, physically, it still felt like he was everywhere.

You pushed the thoughts out of your head. You refused to sit around mourning a relationship that was doomed the second he got on that one way flight to New York. Instead, you picked up your phone and went on Instagram instead. You scrolled through your feed, taking notice that there were plenty of cute guys that went to your school. You scrolled through the Instagram stories and came across an old flame, Jason. He liked you before Doyoung came and swept you off of your feet. 

Briefly, you wondered what things would’ve been like if Jason had confessed his feelings to you sooner. Jason was in your class, at least, and wouldn’t have been away in college right now. Plus, he wanted to go to one of the UC schools. At least they were all in the same freaking state! Soon, you pushed those thoughts out of your head. Because it didn’t matter anymore.

Then you began wondering if, maybe, you texted him. No, you thought. Jason was still friends with you and still greeted you every time he saw you, but he’d kept his distance while you were dating Doyoung. You wondered if he resented you for that, for not choosing him. You did like him at the time, but Doyoung came on a little more strongly. As a more shy guy, Jason had been out of luck. You groaned, thinking of how complicated things were. You were getting desperate, to think that you could just text Jason and try to reignite that old flame. The last thing you wanted was for him to feel like you were using him. Were you becoming that desperate for love and affection, for any kind of male attention?

Your phone started vibrating in your hand, taking you by complete surprise. Mark’s voice filled your ears.

“Hey, Y/N? Are you coming soon? Lucas and Phil just got here. We’re just waiting on Amber.”

“Yeah. I just ate so I’ll be over in a few minutes.”

*

Mark had cleaned the house from top to bottom after school. He vacuumed, he wiped the kitchen counters, cleaned out the refrigerator, organized the cabinets and made his bed up—the proper way. He didn’t have anyone to impress but he didn’t want you to think he lived in a pigsty—not that his room had ever been a pigsty—but he finally folded his clean laundry and put things away, where they belonged. To be honest, he hadn’t had any friends over since he moved. He always hung out with friends anywhere but his house. And it wasn’t on purpose, but it just hadn’t happened as of yet.

Lucas arrived a little early, before seven like they’d planned, stating that he “had nothing else better to do.” Mark didn’t mind. Lucas was a friend Mark had made outside of his friend group with you, Amber, and Phil. They had pretty much every class together. They got close in AP biology and they’d been pretty much inseparable ever since. 

Lucas smirked, looking at his friend who was walking back and forth from the kitchen to the coffee table, setting up cups, plates, and snacks. “So when are you going to tell Y/N you like her?”

Mark’s saliva went down the wrong pipe and he started coughing. He cleared his throat and said, “What are you talking about?”

“Anyone with a decent IQ would know that you like her,” Lucas explained. “The fact that you were just on the phone with her grinning like a first grader with a crush tells me everything I need to know.”

Mark sat down at the coffee table and turned to Phil, who had arrived just a few minutes ago. “Is it obvious?”

Phil shrugged and said, “I dunno, I mean I kind of had a feeling you might…” 

Mark buried his head in his hands, groaning. “Do you think she picked up on it?”

Lucas said, “I doubt it. She probably just thinks you’re a nice guy.”

“God, what if she does know and she thinks I’m an idiot?”

“Y/N’s not a mean person. If she doesn’t like you like that, she’s not gonna rub it in your face,” Phil said, trying to reassure his friend.

Mark’s eyes widened. “Did you hear all the shit she was talking about her ex?”

Phil laughed. “That’s different…She hates him, she doesn’t hate you.”

Mark knew that you weren’t the type to be mean to someone for no reason. He knew it in his heart but he still didn’t want to make himself look like an idiot. Did you know about his crush? Had you picked up on it? Were you just being nice and pretending you didn’t notice? 

“And understandably so,” Lucas said, nudging his friend. “I wasn’t that close with him but I heard what happened. I thought it was kind of fucked up. That’s why I’m not getting into any relationships this year. We don’t know what colleges we’ll get accepted to yet. Imagine doing a long distance relationship!”

Mark’s heart dropped, just for a second. He had a crush on you, yes, but he never considered what would happen if he got further than that. What would he do if you liked him back? Would he ask you out? Would you even want that, given the history of your past relationship? He would love to be with you and have the chance to treat you the way you deserved to be treated. But he wondered if it was too soon. It’d been two and a half months already since he met you. And about two since you broke up with Doyoung. Was it too soon? Were you still in love with him, even though he’d hurt you in one of the worst ways? How long did it take to recover from a breakup? Mark didn’t have the answer to any of those questions.

Mark’s brother came in the door with his girlfriend trailing behind, holding a grocery bag. “Hey guys. We got some cheap vodka and some fruit punch. That’s as good as it’s gonna get.”

And as his brother said that, you poked your head in the open front door behind Mark’s brother. “Don’t tell me you started having fun without me!”

“We would never!” Lucas smirked, rubbing his hands together. “But it seems like it’s time to get this party started.”

***

A/N: If you want to be updated pls lmk by messaging me, sending an ask or commenting! Thank u for your support for this fic so far ❤️

[samanthadalton]

Slowly falling (part 3 finale)

And here we are!! last part of the fic, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I ended it just at the end of the pool scene but I know in my version, Nicole is dead so the story would obviously play out different. So in this version, Nicole is actually a vampire and when Kamilah buried her, it helped Nicole not turn feral since Vega fed her his blood before the attack on the castle. So Nicole would obviously come out during the tribunal to back up Vega’s claims in which Adrian would be found guilty and then the gang will break him out and you guys know the rest :)

also i took some lines from the book, bc the pool scene is just too good :))))

slightly NSFW (but quite tame but I’ll tag it as that anyway)  also mentions of death 

taglist: @cloud9in @alleycat97 @thedaft1 @mrs-avamontjoy @itszdavenport @iamsimpforpoppy @otakufangirl-12 @orisasay @justavampirefan @waterinathermostat @bloodkueen @dimis-yiddies @alexlabhont @thepotatobleh @mara-re @fundamentalromantic 

wordcount: 2.5k 

Amy wakes up, dazed. Her eyelids feel heavy as she blinks away the last remains of her sleep, wondering when she went to sleep in the first place. As she takes in her surroundings, she sees she’s in Kamilah’s office, laying on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, unsure of where it has come from as the sun begins to set. She rubs her eyes sitting up to see Lily typing away at Kamilah’s desk, looking slightly zombified as her fingers fly over the keyboard. 

“Hey Lil?” As if in her own world, Lily continues typing, her eyes never leaving the screen. Amy amplifies her voice louder to capture her attention, “Lily!” 

“Huh,” Lily jerks her head up, her concentration breaking. “Hey Ames.” She tiredly rubs at her eyes, shaking her head a little before mustering a small smile, “sleep well?” 

Amy yawns a little smiling back, “yeah, this couch is pretty comfy. Thanks for the blanket.” 

“Oh that was Kamilah, I haven’t gotten out of this chair since we’ve come back from the gala.” Lily stretches before continuing with her typing, already back in full attention. Amy looks down at the blanket, hugging it closer to her body, feeling a glimmer of something she can’t quite put her finger on. 

“So have you found any evidence yet?” 

Lily shakes her head, “whatever Vega is hiding, he’s done a damn good job because it’s heavily encrypted, I’ve broken past so many firewalls but it feels like there's millions.” Lily runs hand down her face, “Oh yeah, Kamilah said that if you wanted to clean up she left a key to one of the rooms.” Lily gestures towards the table before refocusing. Amy stands, and swipes the key from the table before making her way to the room to clean up. Once she’s finished taking a shower, Amy chooses a new outfit from the closet and makes her way back to the office. 

“Good you’re here.” Kamilah lets her gaze roam Amy’s body for a few seconds before meeting her eyes. Amy can see the fatigueness in her demeanour, how her body is slightly slumped and her hair slightly frizzled. 

“Are there any updates?” 

Kamilah shakes her head, “not yet. If only Lily could do her job better we could actually get the evidence,” Kamilah retorts, a hint of malice in her tone. 

Frustrated Lily slams down on the desk, “hey I’ve been working on this all day. My skills are the best of the best, it’s just Vega’s is better.” Lily, downcast, looks down at the screen, her head spiralling at the sight of the numbers on the screen. 

Kamilah sighs heavily, her head hanging low, “I apologize. I’m just frustrated.” Lily musters a small smile and continues typing away on the keyboard but Kamilah stands from her chair and lays her hand over the young vampire’s stopping her, “I think that’s enough.” 

“But Adrian-” 

“He will know we did our best with the time we had. There are only a couple of hours until the tribunal, it’s inconsequential at this point.” 

“But how will we know what Vega is hiding?” Amy interferes. 

Kamilah looks at Amy, “we won’t until it’s presented.” Her head turns back to Lily, “I think since you and Amy were at the castle it’s only fitting that you two testify on Adrian’s behalf.”  

“Of course,” the girls say simultaneously. 

Kamilah gives a satisfied nod, ”we’ll reconvene in an hour, I’m going to go for a swim. Lily you should get some sleep.” Kamilah makes her way to the door but before she leaves she throws her head over her shoulder, her eyes blazing into Amy’s, “and Amy you’re welcome to join me.” Kamilah turns her head and continues walking. 

Amy looks in surprise as she whispers to Lily, “what should I do?” 

“Girl why are you still here? Go!” Lily shoos Amy out of the door. 

Amy trudges up to Kamilah as they wordlessly enter the elevator together. Amy can see a hint of a smile on Kamilah’s lips as they go up to the rooftop. As the doors open, Amy lets out a short gasp. A gorgeous pool lies in the middle of the rooftop, the water glimmering under the moonlight as the stars sparkle overhead. 

“Woah, and I thought Adrian’s rooftop restaurant was nice.” 

Kamilah merely shrugs her shoulders, “Adrian finds solace in the company of others. I find it in solitude. Swimming here alone, under the stars...it brings me peace.” 

Amy cocks her head slightly to look at the other vampire, “but you invited me up here.” 

“So I did.” Kamilah replies, Amy waits for something, instead Kamilah paces over to the bar, reaching behind it. She gives Amy a conspiratorial look, “drink?” 

“Sure, I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

Kamilah begins mixing together a concoction of liquor before pouring it into 2 glasses. She hands one of the glasses to Amy before settling down on a lounge chair. Amy assesses the milky white liquid before taking a small sip, she squirms slightly as she coughs slightly, “it’s certainly strong!” 

“That’s what makes it good,” Kamilah watches as Amy takes a bigger sip, her features in more control as she enjoys the drink, “It’s Arak. Distilled from anise seed.” Kamilah takes a huge gulp of the drink as she looks out to the sky, while Amy takes a seat on the lounge chair near her. 

“Thank you Kamilah.” 

“For what?” 

Amy shrugs as she gazes off into the distance, her hand swirling the drink in the cup, “everything I guess. For helping Lily, Adrian,” she pauses, “me.” 

“Of course, I know Adrian would do the same if he were in my position.” 

Amy nods, “knowing him, he probably would.” 

Kamilah gives Amy a side glance, looking for something but she can’t quite put her finger on it. When she doesn’t find what she’s searching for, she places her drink down and begins unbuttoning her shirt before sliding it off her body, exposing her smooth toned upper body. 

Amy's eyes widen, “oh!” She awkwardly glances away, as Kamilah places her hands on her trousers, smoothly slipping them off. “You’re taking off your clothes. That’s a thing you’re doing.” Amy gulps uneasily, trying her damndest not to make her gawking conspicuous. 

“Well I’m not going to swim in my suit,” Kamilah bluntly answers as she enters the swimming pool. She begins swimming a few laps as Amy looks at the water droplets glimmering off of her body, only accentuating her curves more. She stops swimming before looking up at Amy expectedly, “coming?” 

Amy pauses momentarily before nodding, “yes,” she hesitantly glances over at Kamilah whose gaze is still burning on her, as she slips off her clothes, folding them neatly onto the chair before she dives into the pool. When she reaches the surface, she slicks back her wet hair, “it’s cold.” 

“Is it? I didn’t notice.” Amy turns on her back and floats towards Kamilah who’s already aimlessly floating, together they stare up at the sky, lost in the shimmering of the stars. A few moments later Kamilah breaks the silence, “it’s funny,” when she speaks her usual commanding hilt is gone and replaced with something softer, more resonating with the voice Kamilah used when she was helping Amy after discovering Nicole’s body. “How old are you Amy 23?” 

“24,” Amy replies.

Kamilah chuckles, “I remember that age. I thought I knew everything. I thought I’d felt all there was to feel. I imagine you feel the same way.” 

Amy gingerly answers, “I guess? I mean I feel like I’ve been through a lot.” Kamilah turns her head to face Amy, and when their eyes meet, the older vampire’s eyes look so deep they almost look bottomless.

“Have you ever been in love?” 

The question catches Amy off guard, as she shoots her eyebrows up. “Once.” Kamilah curiously cocks her head as she appraises the tenderness in Amy’s tone. Amy gazes back up to the sky, as if the stars are painted in her eyes, “Christopher. He- he was a childhood friend of mine. Everyone used to always make jokes that we were dating but it wasn’t until we were freshman in highschool when he asked me out.” Amy’s lips quirk up slightly, “I felt like the happiest girl in the world. We both even agreed to go to college in New York. He got into Columbia and I got into NYU.” 

“What happened?” 

“Our first year in college was the worst.” Amy’s eyes darken, a somber look in her eyes as she recollects, “we agreed to live together while we were in college but we ended up fighting all the time. During our Sophomore year, we agreed to break up. I moved out and ended up moving in with Lily.” Amy lets out an airy laugh, “but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, I was so heartbroken during my college years, I tried moving on but it didn’t feel right. Fast forward to the end of my Junior year and we randomly bumped each other. We got to talking and decided to get back together again. We agreed to take it slow, so I was still living with Lily.” 

“Well I’m guessing it didn’t work out.” 

“No.” Amy’s eyes glisten with tears as she blinks them away, her voice becomes hoarse as she continues, “a few months after college, Chris, he was- he was walking through the park, and I guess he was attacked by a wild animal but the police found his body torn to pieces.” 

Kamilah grimaces, and apologetically reaches out to Amy, and rubs her arm, “I’m sorry to hear that.” 

“Now that I think about it, it wasn’t a wild animal.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I keep getting flashbacks to what happened in Marcel’s castle. The bodies, the way they were shredded to pieces I-” Amy cuts herself off, as she swallows down her sobs. 

“You think it was a feral?” Kamilah knits her brows together, following suit as Amy pulls herself out of the pool, grabbing a towel to dry herself off.

“I know it is. It’s why I became so triggered I guess, with everything that happened with Nicole. All the memories of his body just came flooding back and I panicked. I-” Amy closes her eyes, taking a slow steadying breath. 

“I’m sorry for asking, I did not realise this was a sore subject.” 

Amy shakes her head, “it’s not your fault, it’s just hard sometimes. For months I didn’t leave my house and it wasn’t until Lily practically forced me to start being more outgoing. She’s the one who told me to go for the job of Adrian’s assistant.” 

“I guess we have to thank her for that.” Kamilah speaks softly, her eyes boring into Amy’s and Amy can see the genuinity behind her eyes. 

“So why did you ask about my love life?” 

Kamilah presses her lips together in thought, “mere curiosity. It’s been a while since I’ve spent my time with someone with so many attachments. The company of vampires tends to make you jaded. It’s nice to be with someone so uncynical. So open to new possibilities.” 

Amy gives Kamilah a small smile, “well you’re welcome for giving you a fresh perspective.” Amy smiles hoping to alleviate the tension a little bit, but the somber look on Kamilah’s face causes her to knit her brows together in thought, huh, she thinks to herself. Maybe Kamilah isn’t as tough as she makes out to be. “Kamilah?” 

Kamilah hums, “yes?” 

“Doesn’t everyone have someone they’re attached to, I mean without Lily, I don’t know where I would be today.” 

Kamilah purses her lips in thought, “no, no they don’t.” 

“But you love Adrian.” 

“I’m quite fond of him, yes. Which perhaps is an illusion itself, because he reminds me of my brother.” 

“But you have loved.” 

“Many times.” Kamilah’s face drops, her voice quiet, “and lost. Just as many.” When Amy meets her eyes, she can see the sadness brimming in the surface of them, 2000 years worth of pain and loss just merely breaking the surface.

“2000 years is a long time.” 

“It defies imagining.” 

“You’re right. I can’t imagine even a small percent of what you’ve seen.” 

“And I’ve seen a lot. I’ve watched empires rise and fall. I’ve watched the world transform right in front of me and yet I-” Kamilah presses her lips together in a thin line, a pensive look on her face. Kamilah sharply inhales, “I’ve felt everything that there is to feel, I’ve loved, lost, grieved, but now, I feel like an empty vessel. Just detached from everything.” Kamilah looks away, as Amy watches as she transforms her expression back into her usual icy demeanour, as if the last few minutes did not exist. 

“I might not know a lot Kamilah,” Amy takes a step towards the older vampire, “but I know that you are so much more than you think you are.” 

“Please,” Kamilah scoffs, but behind the harshness, Amy can see she’s touched by her words. 

“I’m serious. You are incredible. I’m purely in awe of you every single moment.” 

“You don’t need to fuel my ego, I don’t need your pity.” 

“Pity isn’t what I feel at all.” 

“Oh? And what do you feel?” And in that moment, Amy can see the earnestness in Kamilah’s words. 

“Connection. Admiration,” Amy hesitates for a second, “infatuation.” 

Kamilah raises an eyebrow as Amy takes a step closer to her, closing the gap between the two. Wordlessly, Amy tilts her head up, and presses a soft kiss against Kamilah’s lips. When Kamilah doesn’t reciprocate the kiss, she steps back flushed, “I’m sorry.” 

Kamilah places her forefinger against Amy’s lips silencing her, “don’t be.” 

In her eyes shine conviction as her finger trails down Amy’s body before her hand cups her hip, Kamilah leans down, capturing Amy in a long kiss, the kiss full of ecstasy, driving Amy into a euphoric state. Kamilah kisses Amy harder, her tongue snakes into her mouth, eliciting a small moan from the human. Kamilah groans slightly, her hold on Amy’s waist tightening as she leads her to the lounge chair before pushing Amy flat out on it, covering her body with hers. Kamilah dominates the kiss, her kiss full of passion, as if she’s yearning for the desire it brings her. Her eyes flash red as her knee pressing against Amy’s core, evoking a small moan from the girl. Kamilah smiles devilishly, as Amy’s hips buck against her knee, slowly rubbing trying to gain any friction that will bring her pleasure. Kamilah brings her hand under Amy’s chin and kisses her breathless. Eventually the kiss breaks for the much needed air, and the atmosphere is quiet, but charged with electricity. Kamilah rests her forehead against Amy’s as the human pants heavily, and as their eyes meet, everything feels different. 

“We should get going, the tribunal is soon.” Amy swallows heavily and nods, the wind still knocked out of her after the kiss. Kamilah smiles as she climbs off her, and offers her hand for Amy to stand. “Come on.” The women silently make their way to the elevator, but Amy feels different, she feels something that she hasn’t felt since Chris and as she gazes at Kamilah, she can see she feels the same. 

[marvelslut16]

I told you so

Prompt number: 11 “I told you so”

Fandom: Marvel

Paring: Steve Rogers x reader (college au)

Rating: T

Word count: 1.6k

Warnings: Swearing probably. Angsty. Sharon Carter kinda being a bitch. idk if it’s a warning but both Sharon and Peggy are in this, just imagine they’re cousins or something. 

A/N: I was in my feelings today and I was feeling extremely angsty so here it is. If it sucks, I’m sorry. I was pretty sad today and couldn’t snap out of it. I almost didn’t post it. 

You had met him the first day of your sophomore year of college, your alarm hadn’t gone off so you barely made it to your state and local government class at NYU. Your major currently undecided, but leaning towards political science, you have always taken an interest in politics. The only empty seat was next to an extremely attractive blonde man, with blue eyes, and who’s built like a god- no doubt a part of some fraternity. 

Through the semester you got to know this blonde Adonis; he’s a junior in the political science program, not in a fraternity but lives in an apartment with his best friend Bucky off campus, he’s on the cross country team, on the track and field team, boxes at the local YMCA at least three times a week, and takes art classes as his elective- and he’s freakishly talented at it. 

He quickly grew to be one of your best friends, you’d hang out with him and Bucky, your best friend and dormmate Natasha would join you three. You'd also go to every running meet of his, and gallery his art is shown at. You’re his biggest supporter and he’s yours, he goes to everything you do and acts like you’re the best one there.

There’s an art showcase they have at the University every year, the winner gets a scholarship for the following year, second place gets a scholarship for a semester, and third place gets a gift certificate for the school’s bookstore. Steve finally worked up the courage to submit his work, after you joined Bucky’s efforts to persuade him to enter. Steve went to you immediately after finding out that his drawing was selected for the showcase. He refused to tell you what the drawing was, saying you’d find out at said showcase. 

Steve told you to dress fancy, so you wear your finest dress. He has on his best suit, a gorgeous navy blue color. You’re practically glued to his side the entire night, and you're in shock when you come across his submission. It’s a gorgeous drawing of you leaning up against a tree in the courtyard, textbook open on your lap, and your head is thrown back laughing at something. You remember this day vividly, it was one of the first times you had done something with Steve outside of class. Granted it was still class related since you were studying for an upcoming test, but every great friendship has to start somewhere. 

It comes as no surprise when Steve wins first place that night, the colors are so vivid, and the drawing so lifelike you’re waiting for it to move. You smile fondly at Steve, not only does he deserve the scholarship for his drawing ability, but because he really needs the money. His mom has cancer and is going through treatment, so he gives her almost all of the money he makes from working. 

As soon as Steve finds out he wins, you’re wrapped up in his strong arms and he’s spinning you around. Everyone around you thinks it's an embrace of two lovers, especially once they realize you're the woman in the drawing. Although you think he made you look too perfect in it. 

After that night Bucky teases Steve relentlessly for having feelings for you and Natasha tries to get you to admit your feelings for Steve on a daily basis. It comes as a shock to both Bucky and Natasha when you get a boyfriend that isn’t Steve. Bucky resents you slightly after that because you’re hurting the man that’s practically his brother, and Natasha is upset that you obviously aren’t following your heart.  Steve becomes your confidant, you start to tell him everything that’s wrong in your relationship because you want advice. He takes it like a champ and always gives you the best advice he can for whatever problem you have that day. 

Your relationship is obviously toxic, but you think it’s just a possessive love. He doesn’t want you to Steve but you don’t let that stop you. You still show up to everything he’s a part of, and you still sit next to him in classes you purposely took together. The only difference is that Steve no longer comes to everything you do, he doesn’t randomly show up to your work to surprise you anymore, he no longer sends you cute I miss you texts when you’re too sick to show up to class with him. 

“You need to tell him,” Natasha whines, looking up from her textbook to look at you. You roll your eyes at her and some snooty student studying near you shushes her, to which she so eloquently gives him the finger. 

“Why would I do that, Nat?” the student shushes you now. You give him both fingers, to which he slams his book with a huff and storms away from yours and Nat’s table. 

“Well Bucky says-” the redhead lets out a little laugh at your interaction with the snooty student. 

“Bucky, huh?” you smirk at your best friend and send her a little wink. She doesn’t outright admit it, but you know she has feelings for the dark haired man. “You two have been spending a lot of time together recently.”

“That’s not the point,” the usually calm, collected, nothing can shake me hard ass grows red in the cheeks. A small grin appears on your face, they’re really cute together and you want the both of them to be happy. “You should tell Steve how you feel, (Y/N). You’re single again and he obviously likes you.”

“No he doesn’t,” you scoff at her to try to dull the aching pain in your chest. It hurts every time someone tells you Steve likes you, you know that’s not true and you have to try to convince yourself you’re okay with that. 

Before you can continue, a mop of dark brown locks sits beside Nat. you grin widely at the two as Bucky lazily slings his arm over the back of her chair, Natasha’s cheeks practically match her hair. 

“Hey doll, hey (Y/N/N),” Bucky greets the two of you. Your grin turns into a shit eating one at the cute interaction in front of you. “So what’re ya ladies talking about today?”

“How (Y/N) needs to finally tell Steve how she feels, especially since she’s single now,” Nat seems to recover from her blushing stupor just so she can tease you back. 

“The punk’s crazy about ya,” Buck looks at you with nothing but sincerity. “You should tell him.”

“Guys, he’s not. He’s way out of my league and he could have any woman, or man, he wants,” your heart hurts a little more watching Bucky’s arm slide off the chair and onto Nat’s shoulders. You’re never going to get that with Steve. “Sharon told me-”

“Not the Sharon thing again,” Nat whines, head quietly thumping on Bucky’s arm as she throws it back dramatically. 

“What Sharon thing?” Bucky’s crystal blue eyes flick between the two of you. 

“It’s stupid,” Nat rolls her eyes at the ceiling. 

“She told me that Steve would never like me that way, that I wasn’t good enough,” you hold up your hand to stop Bucky when you see he’s about to protest your words. “I know I’m too annoying and not pretty enough, or smart enough. I accepted it long before Sharon told me, she just reaffirmed my sentiments.”

“Sharon’s just a jealous bitch,” Bucky huffs. “She likes Steve but she knows he’s head over heels for you. Hell, Peggy likes him too and Sharon belittles her. (Y/N/N), you’ve gotta tell him how you feel.”

“He deserves to know,” Nat reaches her hand out to grab yours gently. “And you deserve to be happy.”

For some strange reason you’re fueled with confidence by their words. He deserves to know and you deserve to finally be open about your feelings. Your eyes make a quick sweep of the library as you start to stand from your seat to go find him. But your eyes lock on one thing, legs briefly giving out and you fall back to your seat with a quiet gasp. Bucky and Nat follow your line of sight, still glued to the thing that’s breaking your heart into a million pieces. Pressed up against a row of shelving is Peggy Carter, attached to her lips is Steve Rogers. Her hands are tangled in his blonde hair, based on the awkward angles it’s sticking out at, she’s tugging on the strands. His hands are gripping her hips tightly, his lower half holding her firmly between him and the stacks. 

“I told you so,” your voice cracks, but you refuse to let your tears fall in front of your friends. 

As soon as you're away from them, away from Steve, the tears start to flow. Silently at first but they quickly start to pick up. You rush into the second nearest bathroom, hoping if Nat followed you she’d only check the first one. Once in the bathroom you check to make sure all the stalls are empty, finding out they are, you lock the door to the entire bathroom. 

You press your back to the door right as your knees give out again, sliding onto the floor. You don’t care about how gross it is, all you can focus on is the burning aching feeling in your chest. Finally alone you let out a loud gut wrenching sob, you’re mind replaying the few seconds you saw of Steve and Peggy attached at the lips.

Permeant tags: @crimson-knuckled-queen​ @rexorangecouny​

[shawnmendesbuddy]

Boyfriend‘s Brother

Summary: Y/N’s boyfriend is Peter. Shawn is Peter’s brother. Shawn likes Y/N, but has a terrible way of showing it. Warnings: Swearing! PeterxReader (at first)

“Oh my gosh, look who it is? The school’s know-it-all. What a beeyotch,” Shawn said laughing with his friends at Y/N as she grabbed her books out of her locker.

“Yeah I heard she was only with your brother for your family’s money. What a pig!” Shawn chuckled at his friend’s comment.

Y/N kept her head down as she started to quickly walk away, but Shawn grabbed her wrist and pulled her into him. She dropped her books on the ground and cried out in shock at her proximity to Shawn’s face. His warm breath fanned onto her cheeks and she shuddered, cringing slightly.

He looked very similar to his brother, Peter, Y/N’s boyfriend to be exact. They had the same dark brown eyes and curly hair. As she stared into Shawn’s harsh eyes, she saw a flicker of what she thought to be regret, before he pushed her to the ground laughing with his friends as she crumpled to the floor.

Y/N started to gather up the books scattering the floor when Shawn kicked a book she was reaching for, out of her reach. She watched in horror as the book skidded across the floor.

A foot stomped on the book and she stared up into her boyfriend’s worried face. He made eye contact with her and sent her a sad smile. “Leave her the hell alone! The hell are you doing Shawn?!” Peter yelled at his brother, a dark look in his eyes.

“Nothing,” Shawn said shooting Y/N one last glance before following after his friends towards his class.

Peter helped pick up some of Y/N’s books and sighed. “I don’t understand why he he acts like that. He’s such a dick, I’m so sorry.” Peter shoved Y/N’s books into her bag and zipped up it up. He flipped her around and pulled her into a tight hug.

“You look tired, did you have a tough night?”

Y/N nodded. “I was up late studying for that math test.”

Peter nodded. “Sorry I couldn’t pick you up today, Shawn and I had early morning hockey practice.”

Most mornings Y/N would catch a ride with Peter to school because she didn’t have a car of her own. On the rare occasions where he couldn’t bring her, like today, she would ride with a friend.

“It’s alright.” Peter pulled away and left his hands resting on Y/N’s shoulders.

“K so my parents want you over for dinner on Saturday, do you think you can make it there?” Peter asked.

Y/N felt her head spin. Peter was amazing and fantastic and the guy everybody in school wanted. Y/N had met Peter through Shawn when she was a Freshman and he was a Sophomore.

Shawn and her had been partnered up to do a group project on Romeo and Juliet for English. Shawn had invited Y/N over to his house because he said to Y/N, and I quote, “Why would we go to your house? You definitely live in a dump and I’m not getting my clothes dirty.”

Y/N and Shawn had been arguing if Romeo and Juliet were in love, or if they had an obsession with each other.

“They’re definitely obsessed with each other in an unhealthy way. I mean come on, who threatens to kill themselves if their wife is sad? That’s disgusting!” Y/N said.

“Well I think they’re in love. I think it’s romantic that Romeo and Juliet don’t care what their parents think, they just want to be with each other. And plus, Romeo couldn’t live without Juliet just like Juliet couldn’t live without him. They were definitely in love! And I’m surprised, most girls our age fawn over how beautiful and romantic the death scene was, how come you don’t?” Shawn had argued back.

Peter had been walking past the kitchen when he heard the argument going on. He slowly cracked the kitchen door open and peeked his head in.

His mouth gaped open as he saw a beautiful girl sitting across from his brother. She had the kindest smile and the prettiest colored eyes. And her face was full of life and light. Peter felt butterflies flutter around in his stomach.

“I agree with her, they were definitely obsessed with each other!” Peter said intervening.

Shawn shot Peter a look that said ‘back off’ but Peter continued. “I mean, sure they had some sort of attraction towards each other but they had just met two nights before and they are already killing themselves for the other person? It’s ridiculous Shawn!” Peter said taking a seat next to the pretty girl.

She blushed and Peter sent her a small smile. “What’s you’re name?”

“I’m Y/N. You’re Shawn’s brother, Peter right?” Peter nodded.

Peter hardly saw Y/N after that day, but he still would wave at her in the hallways and he still thought she was gorgeous.

At the beginning of his senior year, Y/N’s junior year, him and Y/N were put in the same P. E. class and he finally worked up the courage to ask her out on a date. The rest is history.

Y/N was still stunned that the most wanted boy in the school—next to his brother—wanted her. It wasn’t that Y/N wasn’t popular or pretty, because she was. She was smart and intelligent and lots of guys liked her—with the exception of Shawn and his friends—and Peter felt as though he was the lucky one.

However, there was a slight problem with them dating each other. Well actually three problems. 1) Shawn despised her with every bone in his body 2) Y/N despised Shawn with every bone in her body 3) Peter’s parents hated that Y/N was middle class and not rich like them.

Actually, the third one might’ve been the biggest problem. Sure she could deal with occasional hate from Shawn—granted it was only occasional because Peter would usually whoop Shawn’s ass before he got a chance to say something mean—but receiving hate from Peter’s parents was a slap in the face. She just wanted them to love her, especially because family’s opinions mattered most in her eyes.

But Peter always reassured her that no matter what his brother or his parents thought, it wouldn’t change his opinion on her.

“Are you sure that going over to your house for dinner is the best idea? I feel like your parents hate me more each time.”

The bell rang over head and she sighed. “I’ll walk you to class. And hey, it’s Friday, you still have a day to decide. And I’ll tell them to play nice.” He said as he put his hand on Y/N’s lower back and guided her down the hall towards her chemistry class, which of course she had with Shawn.

“I don’t think Shawn or your parents are going to play nice but if you really want me there, I’ll do it for you.” Peter’s smile stretched across his face. As long as she could see that smile, she would say yes to anything he asked. “Alright, I’ll be there. What time?”

“6:00, I’ll pick you up.” He said. They reached her chemistry classroom and Peter swooped in planting a long and passionate kiss on Y/N’s mouth.

“Oh my hell! Get your mouth off of that ugly bitch!” Shawn yelled as he walked into the chemistry classroom.

Peter pulled away and shoved Shawn into the classroom causing him to trip over the doorway and fall on his face. Peter chuckled as did Y/N.

“Don’t listen to him, you’re beautiful babe. I got to get to class but I’m taking you out for lunch today,”

Peter said slowly backing away.

“Alright, see you then.”

***

Y/N had just finished curling the last strand of her hair when she heard the doorbell ring. “Honey! It’s Peter!” Her mom yelled up the stairs.

Y/N took one last look at her outfit—a black and white striped shirt with a denim jacket over it and dark blue ripped skinny jeans—before heading downstairs.

Peter was dressed in a white shirt and black skinny jeans. His mouth widened a little and his breath left his lungs. He always got this way around Y/N.

“You look fantastic babe, you ready?” Peter questioned.

Y/N nodded and grabbed onto Peter’s hand.

***

“Y/N I’m sure Peter has told you, but isn’t it wonderful that he got accepted to NYU? He’s only going to be 4 hours away, of course by plane. We can go visit him anytime we want in our private jet. Distance won’t be any issue at all. What do you think about him going to NYU Y/N?”

Y/N sighed. It had been a topic her and Peter had talked about for a while now. They both agreed that they wanted their relationship to last through college even if it was long distance. Peter promised to fly out to Y/N as much as possible, but Y/N didn’t have enough money to fly out to him as often as they both liked. Peter had tried to tell her that his parents would probably let her use the jet but she told him she wasn’t so sure about that.

“Well, I was thinking that Y/N would fly out with you guys when you used the private jet.”

Shawn scoffed. “Why would we bring that bitch with us in our,” he put an emphasis on the word our “private jet?

Y/N felt her face turn red. “He’s got a point Peter. I mean Y/N should have to provide for herself. After all we worked our way to the top and so can Y/N.”

Y/N thought she saw a twinge of regret in Shawn’s eyes but it was gone before she could even register it. She waited—the whole table waited in silence—for Peter to do something. To stick up for her. But he didn’t. He sat there stunned that his family would act this way towards the girl he loved.

Y/N felt tears prick her eyes. He was her boyfriend but how were they supposed to make this work if he couldn’t even stand up for her in front of his parents. Y/N stood from the table and ran out of the kitchen.

No one came after her. Not even Peter.

***

Y/N was crying into her hands when she heard the voice. “Will you stop the dramatics? What the hell was that in there?! You don’t think Peter’s already upset enough that our parents hate you? And you go and make it worse by running out and causing a scene! Peter’s a wreck and it’s all your fault,” Shawn said to her.

Y/N stood up quickly and slapped him hard across the face. “You insolent jerk! You douche! You son of a bit—“

A soft pair of lips cut Y/N off from her sentence. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist keeping her steady as she threaded her fingers through Shawn’s hair and pulled him closer—if that was even possible—to her. She didn’t know why she was kissing him back. He had brought her nothing but hell! But it felt so right, so different from when she kissed Peter.

Y/N finally gained the strength to push him away. He pressed his forehead against hers and smiled a genuine smile at her. And she couldn’t help smiling back a little too.

“What just happened?” She whispered.

He chuckled. “I finally got to kiss the girl I’ve liked since Freshman year.”

Y/N’s mouth gaped open and she pushed him away from her. “You’re such a liar! You hate me!”

Shawn shook his head. “I never hated you. I was just embarrassed that I had feelings for someone who wasn’t upper class like me, which is really shallow. I mean, coming from an upbringing like that though,” Shawn pointed his thumb back at the door,”I mean my parents discourage liking anyone below us. Not that your status matters to me,” Shawn said quickly. “Look I know it’s ridiculous, but I needed a way to push you out of my life and I thought by being mean to you, you would back off. But you hardly ever took my crap—well except for this morning—and I liked you more each day. And then Peter started dating you and...”

“You were jealous,” Y/N concluded. Shawn nodded.

“I’m the worst. I called you terrible things and I’m really sorry.”

Y/N nodded. She looked up to see Peter standing in the doorway dumbfounded. “What the hell’s going on out here?! One minute you two hate other and the next Shawn’s confessing his undying love for my girlfriend. Unbelievable! You’re joking Shawn, right?”

Shawn glared at Peter. “The hell I am! You knew I liked her and you asked her out!”

“Because you dodo brain couldn’t get it through you’re thick skull how to treat someone with respect!” Peter yelled.

“Well I guess I must have some sort of sense of respect because you’re girlfriend was just kissing me!” Shawn yelled back.

Peter’s face fell. “It’s that true Y/N.”

Y/N looked down at the ground and nodded. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Peter looked beyond hurt. ”After everything I’ve done to protect you from him? And you choose him? He…he,” Peter sighed. “I just don’t understand!” A single tear dropped down his face.

Y/N wanted to comfort him, but she also didn’t want to send the wrong message. Yes she did like Peter, but the thrill of the chase with Shawn was exhilarating. But now that the chase was done, would their relationship be as exciting?

And Peter had treated her so well. How had she gone and betrayed him?! He was so good to her.

“Look Y/N, I love you. All I want is for you to be happy. And I know that I’m going off to college but we could still make this work. I…forgive you for kissing Shawn. But if you do want to be with him—if he makes you happy—I’m not going to stop you. It’s your choice.”

Y/N stared at both boys, contemplating the pros and cons of each one. Before sighing and making her choice. “I choose…”

A/N: This is a choose your own ending story. I know it’s crappy, but like, I’m trying here 😂. Also please send in requests.

Peter’s Ending

Shawn’s Ending

[tonytonybela]

I think I realized something about 01x08 of Love, Victor

(warnings for spoilers of Love, Victor, Love, Simon, SVTHSA and Leah On The Offbeat)

So

As we all know, Becky was involved in "Love, Victor " but wasn't really responsible for it. Even in the film, we can tell some changes were made to make the story fit the movie format, that including them being seniors (instead of sophomores) and... kinda forgetting about Anna and Morgan?

On "Boy's Trip", after being confronted by a really pissed Victor, Simon confesses that Bram and their flatmates/friends knew everything about Victor's DMs. But something seemed off. Bram had A WHAT now?? It's been a long time since I saw the movie and read the book, however.... I'm pretty sure Simon was the who had a girlfriend ― in the book it was Anna. In the movie it was whoever that girl who Simon runs away from is (maybe Movie!Anna?). As for Bram, even though the movie don't explicitly say anything of the sort, Book!Bram was never in a relationship before. Blue even joked about Simon needing to stop having heterosexual sex! And, if I remember right, Simon was Bram's first kiss!

But then it hit me. Simon and that maybe-Movie!Anna didn't really had anything. She confessed to him (or something like that) during the School Dance but Simon runs away as soon as she does that. In the movie, they never really date! (I guess? I need to see that movie again)

As for Bram: Simon saw the Sexy Minion kiss Bram in Halloween Party. And even though they had lunch together, they weren't that close in high school. I can't be sure of that, but maybe Simon thinks Bram dated her for some time? That would totally explain the "mistake" of Simon's speech.

The other thing I noticed was Simon being in New York. I'm not American so I don't really know anything about the geography of the US (I can point Alaska and Hawaii though!), but wasn't Haverford really distant from New York City? That had me thinking... What if Simon living in New York was meant to be that way? Like, we KNOW from LOTO that Simon felt bad about going to Haverford when he could stay at NYU and be near Bram. But we also know that those boys are really in love. What if in "Love, Creekwood" Simon decides that Haverford is not worth the long distance relationship? I mean, Becky went to the trouble of telling us that Love, Creekwood happens after LOTO but before Love, Victor....

I don't know. I saw Love, Victor in one setting and now I might be imagining things cuz of course it's much more convenient to make Simon and Bram live together in the TV show. I don't blame them (even if it would mean the world to me to see any LOTO references in Love, Victor). The movie!simonverse is already very different from book!simonverse so everything I just said before is probably very very wrong but I'm gay and obsessed OK??

[lyssismagical]

Did my heart love till now? For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night

Parkner Week Day Four: “I will pepper in the fact that I am gay.” / coming out / first date

Peter slips out onto the fire escape, desperate to escape his obnoxious roommates for even a minute.

The city is dark and quiet, despite it only being eleven. Peter’s surprised, considering it’s New York, but the borough they live in is different than Queens or Manhattan ever was.

Harry and Gwen’s bickering follows him out onto the fire escape, so he shuts the window behind him, muffling their voices. They fight a lot. He knows they mean well, they love each other deep down, but they’ve both got big personalities, lots of opinions, and they’re both too stubborn to step down from a fight. Peter’s been appointed as the peacemaker of the group, but even then, there’s only so much he can do. It’s easier somedays to leave them to fight for a little while, get it out of their system, than to try to get them to reconcile.

It doesn’t help that they’re all struggling college students, desperately trying to make a name for themselves in a big city like New York. Harry wants to be a director or maybe join the fashion scene if he can, Gwen wants to make it as an actress, and Peter’s dream is to get on Broadway. They’re all nineteen, though, barely scraping by at NYU or AMDA, trying to pay rent with their minimum wage jobs as waiters.

It isn’t particularly easy, but when has anything ever been easy?

Just because the chances are slim and there will be a lot of struggle, doesn’t mean any of them are willing to give up on their dreams. They’re all prepared for the hardships as long as they have each other.

“What light through yonder window breaks?” A voice calls out from the street below where Peter’s feet dangle. “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou her maid art far more fair than she: Be not her maid, since she is envious; Her vestal livery is but sick and green and none but fools do wear it; cast it off. It is my lady, O, it is my love!”

Peter hasn’t read Romeo and Juliet since he was in high school, but he’d know those lines anywhere.

He can’t see whoever is quoting Shakespeare up to him, too many shadows cast in the street, but the voice is deep with a southern drawl, projecting easily up to where Peter is.

“O, that she knew she were! She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that? Her eye discourses; I will answer it. I am too bold, ‘tis not to me she speaks: Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, od entreat her eyes to twinkle in their sphere till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, as daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night. See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!”

“Do you just have it all memorized?” Peter calls out, knowing it’s meant to be his line. He can’t help the smile as the mysterious Romeo laughs from the streets below.

His voice is softer as he speaks without lines. “I played Romeo for three weeks worth of performances last year. I saw you sitting up there, and couldn’t help myself.”

Peter frowns, thinking back to last year. At AMDA, he auditioned for Romeo, but he ended up playing a background character with a single line instead. He was told it was because he was only a freshman, but it was a pretty big hit to his ego. He can’t remember who actually got the role of Romeo though.

“I don’t suppose you quote Shakespeare to just every sad looking person sitting on their fire escapes?”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Romeo says. “You go to AMDA, don’t you? I think I remember seeing you around… You don’t happen to work at that diner on 64th street, do you?”

Peter laughs. “I don’t know how you know that, but yeah, I do. I’m a sophomore at AMDA, double majoring in musical theatre and performing arts. And spending nights at that diner to pay rent.”

“Me and my friend get dinner there all the time. I remember you because Cassie kept pointing you out as one of the greatest dancers in one of her classes.”

The blush that creeps up Peter’s neck makes him feel warm all the way to the core. He’s been working really hard in his dance classes to get where he is now, it’s nice to get that kind of recognition. “That’s very nice of her.”

“I was pointing you out because you happen to be one of the prettiest people I’ve ever seen,” Romeo adds on. “And you have a lovely voice.”

Peter tries to summon any piece of confidence he can, but comes up mostly empty. “Would you mind stepping out of the shadows, so I can compliment you too?”

Romeo laughs again sweetly, and then he’s stepping out from where he’d been leaning against a building across the street. He walks to the middle of the deserted street until he’s properly under the light of the one of the streetlamps.

“O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art as glorious to this night, being o’er my head as is a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds and sails upon the bosom of the air,” he says.

Romeo is gorgeous and Peter remembers him too. Harley Keener, a Junior at AMDA, in the same musical theatre program as Peter. Harley’s wearing a pair of tight jeans and a flannel, blond curls bouncy and messy, blue eyes wide and sparkling, hands lifted towards Peter as he recites his lines with so much passion and truth.

“You’re calling me and angel? When you look like you do?” Peter blurts. He can hear Gwen’s muffled voice rising behind him and knows he doesn’t have much more time until they finish their argument and come looking for him. “You were brilliant as Romeo, too. I played one of the guards, but I watched your performance every night.”

Harley smiles, showing off his adorable dimples. “I would’ve loved it if you could’ve played opposite me, though. I think you would’ve made an amazing Juliet.”

“I think the world would’ve rioted if they saw a guy playing Juliet. I think Shakespeare would’ve risen from the dead just to have a heart attack.”

Peter can barely stop grinning at the not-so-subtle hints that Harley’s into guys too.

“We’d make a pretty amazing duo, though, don’t you think?”

“My ears have no yet drunk a hundred words of that tongue’s utterance, yet I know the sound: Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?” Peter calls out, putting on his best Juliet voice.

Harley laughs brightly. “You skipped a few lines, but I’ll let it slide if you come down here.”

“If they do see thee, they will murder thee.”

“Is that a no? O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?”

Peter shakes his head, already pulling himself up to his feet. “I’ll be down in five, Harley. You want to get coffee?”

“I’d love to get coffee.”

Grinning, Peter pries open the window and slips back into his apartment where Gwen and Harry seem to have finally gone quiet.

He changes into a nicer outfit quickly, nearly face-planting in his haste to tug his jeans on, and then he skips into the living room to say goodbye to his friends.

“You have plans?” Harry says when he sees Peter. “I thought you were staying in tonight?”

“I met somebody!” Peter practically squeals, bouncing on his toes. He can barely contain his excitement. He hasn’t dated anybody since high school, spending college focused on his career and education, but he’s not about to turn somebody like Harley down.

Gwen lifts an eyebrow. “You met somebody… on the fire escape?”

“We may or may not have been quoting Romeo and Juliet… We’re getting coffee. I’ll catch you both up when I get back, okay?”

Just as Peter’s about to turn away, Harry grabs his arm. “Wait, who was it? Do we know them?”

Peter, blushing furiously and so giddy like he’s a lovesick teenager, says, “Harley Keener. He played Romeo last year, remember?”

Both their jaws drop in shock, eyes wide. They remember him, for sure. It’s hard not to remember somebody like Harley.

Peter doesn’t bother sticking around any longer, racing out the front door to get down to Harley.

Apparently, Harley knows a nice coffee place that’s open at the late hours of night, so he leads the way, bumping shoulders, teasing each other, and making small talk mostly about their friends and school.

“I don’t know if this is too forward,” Harley says when they make it to the coffeeshop. “But I just wanna know if you’re into guys or not. I’m gay… If this is totally platonic, that’s cool too, I just want to know.”

Peter grins, unable to help himself. “I’m bi, so… I thought we were being pretty obvious how we felt by saying we should be two of the most famous star-crossed lovers there are.”

Harley laughs, leading Peter to the counter to give their orders. “I suppose… So, this would be a date?”

“I was kind of hoping so, yeah. If that’s okay?”

“It’s perfect, yeah.”

Harley pays, if only because Peter managed to forget his wallet in his haste to get out of his apartment, and then they start walking back to Peter’s apartment.

Harley talks about how he’s from a small town in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, how he always dreamed of making it on Broadway like Peter, how scared he was submitting an application to AMDA, how much everything changed when he got accepted. He talks about his family, his mom and little sister back home, how proud they are of everything he does, how he’s going to work so much harder for them. He talks about his experience in New York, how different it is compared to Rose Hill, how much excitement there is, how fast it moves and how full it is.

It’s strange to hear about New York from an outsiders perspective. Peter’s only left New York twice. Both times for Academic Decathlon which took him to DC and to Toronto.

In turn, Peter talks about May, how much he loves her, how much she’s supported all of his decisions. He doesn’t say much about Ben or his parents, but he says enough that Harley links their free hands together and squeezes comfortingly. He talks about Harry and Gwen, about school and his job, how much stress has been piled on his shoulders by everyone wanting him to choose a more possible dream. How he refuses to give up on his Broadway dreams.

They make it back to his apartment all too soon, hands still linked, noses and cheeks red from the cold.

“This was really nice,” Peter murmurs. “I would invite you up to my place, but I have two roommates who are crazy obnoxious and loud and a lot. I’d really like to do this again, though.”

“Me too. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now, I didn’t think it would be like that. Quoting Shakespeare isn’t the greatest pickup line.”

Peter shrugs, tugging Harley a little closer. “It worked.”

“Is there anyway I could get your number?”

“I’ll give it to you in exchange for something,” Peter bargains, smiling dopily.

“And what’s that?”

“Kiss me?”

Harley doesn’t waste a second, pressing their mouths together and backing Peter into the brick wall of his apartment building, free hand grabbing Peter’s waist while trying not to spill his coffee. Peter wraps his arms around Harley’s neck and shoulders, smiling into the kiss.

Eventually, they do have to pull away, both of them grinning at each other and they let out twin breathless laughs.

Harley fishes a pen out of his bag, presenting it and his forearm to Peter.

He jots down his number with a little heart, trying not to think too much about the wiry muscle in his forearm and how much he really wants to see Harley’s biceps too. He leans up to kiss Harley once more before he pushes open the door to his building.

“I’ll see you around?”

“Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.”

Taglist: @littlemissagrafina  @spideygirl2003 @romeoandjulietyouwish @c-artara @shadedrose01 @likeaphoenix13 @pj-hermes-tonystark-obsessed  @you-get-killed-walk-it-off @kitkatwinchester  @emo-girl10 @justme--emily  @hold-our-destiny @imalivebecauseirondad @spiderman-peterman @dykeragee @maryserrao @heeeyitskay 

[yikesharringrove]

Hi!! I was just curious about Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship in your mango series! I was wondering if Nancy was an alpha? If she is, does that mean that Jonathan is a Beta or an Omega? Kids??? I have so many questions and am way too invested in this tiny part of this universe lol Please feel free to make this into a part with Steve and Billy talking to them about pups and bonding if you would like.

Masterlist

Part 29

-

I realized I literally haven’t mentioned the Wheelers this entire time rip to them I guess

Also I’m using this part as background to everything esp how Billy and Steve got together. Also no monster au I guess? tbh this part just made me realize NONE of this series is thought out

I literally never established a timeline, so I’ve decided it makes more sense for Billy to come to Hawkins earlier. You’ll see lmao. (this started as a little nonsense thing so the timeline of the whole Mango series is so whack pls no one try and do the math)

+I had traumatic emergency surgery on my uterus several years ago, so I’ve based all of Steve’s stuff on that

-

Steve dated Nancy Wheeler for about a month.

He was always drawn to fiery alphas, liked when they had sharp tongues, weren’t afraid to speak their mind. He liked ‘em smart.

Nancy seemed perfect to him, but Nancy didn’t like how much work omegas were. They needed constant reassurance of love, so much touching and cuddling, and that’s just not how she operates.

They had been casually dating for about a month early in her sophomore year when he asked her to spend his heat with him. She knew that meant he was serious about her, and let him down as gently as she could.

He didn’t take it too hard, and even invited her to a party he was throwing at his big empty house.

That was the first night she really talked to Jonathan Byers.

Their families had always been close, and they had been uncomfortable acquaintances for a long time, but she found him making a pip out of an apple, sat in the kitchen with him and got stoned for the very first time.

They were sitting close to one another, leaning closer, about to kiss when there was a splash outside, there was screaming.

They rushed out to see Steve Harrington, wet and shaking in the cold November night air, doing CPR on, on Barb.

He yelled at Tommy H., told him to call an ambulance.

Barb looked bad. Her lips were tinged blue, her skin pale.

She sank down next to her. Jonathan gently touching her back.

Most of the kids ran when they heard authorities were coming.

She held Barb’s freezing hand until the paramedics arrived.

Steve hadn’t stopped doing CPR the entire time had heard Barb’s ribs crack and splinter from the force.

The paramedics called it.

Steve was never really the same after that. He had become more withdrawn, had quit the swim team and stopped throwing big parties, he started babysitting Dustin Henderson, ended up babysitting most of the party soon enough.

He was still nice to Nancy, would ask her and Jonathan to hang out sometimes. She always thought he was sweet that he was a big heart. Hell, she sat there while he did CPR on her best friend for twenty minutes, but it was easier with Jon. As a beta, she didn’t have to be someone she wasn’t just to keep him from emotional breakdown.

But then Billy Hargrove rolled into town in the beginning of the summer, was all California golden, a big imposing alpha, and she began seeing less and less of Steve.

She thought it was just a summer fling, Billy didn’t seem like the type to stick around for very long, didn’t seem like the monogamous type.

Steve had a bad habit of trusting alphas too quickly, had been with alphas that just wanted to be able to say they’d fucked a male omega.

They were so uncommon, and usually these alphas were just curious, knew male omegas were the only presentation identifiable at birth due to their genitals, had wanted to see for themselves.

But Billy stuck around, starting hanging around Steve wherever he was, joining him when he spent time with the party, or with Jonathan and Nancy.

Billy was starting to grow on her more, as she watched and realized he loved Steve, that he wanted to be as clingy as Steve needed.

They would go on double dates sometimes, and Billy would pull Steve to sit on his lap just as often as Steve would plop himself on Billy’s lap. So she guesses they’re kind of a match made in heaven.

And then Steve got pregnant.

And she expected Billy to run for the hills, but he didn’t. Got kicked out of his house for Steve, changed his whole world for Steve and their pup, and at this point, they were four years in, had two happy pups and we in the process of moving into their first house.

She and Jon hadn’t even talked marriage yet, let alone bonding, were focusing on getting through school.

They had both gone to New York without even consulting one another, decided they didn’t want each other’s college choices to affect the other, that they should pick the best school for themselves.

When they revealed to one another, Jon showed her his acceptance to NYU, his dream school, while Nancy had handed him her Columbia letter.

She got regular updates from Steve, letters stuffed full with photographs and weekly reports. She contacted a bakery local to him to send him a cake when he called and excitedly told her that he had finally gotten his GED, had dropped out of high school in the February of his senior year when he got kicked out of his house, when he was the talk of the whole damn town.

“Letter from Steve.” Jonathan placed the rest of the mail on the counter, ripping open the envelope. “He put in updated pictures of the girls, look.” Nancy cooed over the photos. There was a gorgeous one of all four of them at the beach, Steve had infant Zara strapped to his chest, Billy was holding Mina. It was so cute. “He said they finished painting the house and should be moving in this week.”

“He mention how he was doing?”

“Of course not, have you met him? The only reason we actually knew he almost fucking died was because Billy called us.”

“I guess you’re right.” She was still flipping through photos. “Oh look at this one!” It was Steve caught mid laugh while Mina was doing him hair behind him. “We should go out to California soon to see them. Especially once they’re in their house.

“I’m gonna write Steve back, maybe we could go for New Year’s, or something.” She smiled up at him, stretching on her toes to kiss his jaw.

“I think that sounds nice.”

-

Mina was currently in the process of showing Jonathan every single toy she owned.

His lap was full of plastic food, blocks, dolls, stuffed animals, books, everything. She was talking excitedly about her little toy Camaro, the one that looked just like Daddy’s!

Nancy was just laughing as Jonathan nodded along patiently. He talked to her like she was an adult, asking her details about each toy in a very serious voice.

Steve slowly set himself on the couch. His abdomen still sore from surgery a few months ago. He was holding Zara, all dressed up in a little onesie that looked hand-knitted.

“How are you doing?” Steve rolled his eyes. Jon and Nancy kept asking.

“Nance, I’m fine. Just sore is all.” He kept dodging her real questions. She knew that the doctor had told Steve there was a chance he wouldn’t be able to be pregnant again, knew it was probably weighing on him. She just looked back and Jon.

“How is Mina doing with Zara? I remember when Mike was born I wanted nothing to do with him.” Steve laughed, bouncing Zara a little.

“She loves her. I swear if she could get me and Billy outta the picture, she would rather raise Zara on her own.” Zara gave a little choked off wail. “Sweet Pea, you are fine.” He put her on his chest, patting her back. “How’s school and everything?”

“It’s good! Jon’s going to end up graduating a semester early, so he’ll be finished by this time next year.”

“Oh, wow. Good for him!”

“I hear you left work, how’s that going?” Steve shrugged.

“They could only offer me one month of leave, and with the surgery and everything, I needed much longer. But you know I don’t mind staying home with these two. I mean, Mina’s in full day preschool now, just Monday to Thursday, but Zara is pretty fussy, so it’s okay. Once she’s not breastfeeding anymore, I’ll probably find a new job.”

“And Billy’s school is going okay?”

“Oh you know him, just overachieving at every stage. He had to cut back on his hours at the garage, he got a really nice internship at a law firm in town, and he’s actually getting paid for it.” Billy had been studying pre-law at UCSD, wanted to go into some kind of prosecution, possibly specialize in domestic cases. His internship was more personal assistant work to one of the partners of the firm, but it was better money than the garage, and something to beef up his resume a bit more.

Steve could hear the garage door beginning to rumble and whine as it slid up.

“Speak of the devil.” He smiled at Billy as he came in, kicking off his shoes. Mina sprinted up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, standing on his feet as he walked over to everyone.

“You talkin’ ‘bout me, Pretty Boy?” He picked up Mina so he could perch on the armrest next to Steve, giving him a kiss.

“All good things. Kind of.”  Nancy doesn’t think she’s ever seen Billy Hargrove in a suit. He loosened his tie, had take off his jacket to place into the coats closet, was currently rolling up his crisp sleeves. She could see edges of a few tattoos. She knew he and Steve had each gotten each others initials on their shoulder blades, adding the pups initials underneath them both. Apparently Billy was beginning to work on sleeves. “How was work?”

“Eh. Same old.” He shrugged, putting Mina down to go back to “playing” with Jonathan. He lifted Zara from Steve. “How are you doin’, Nancy? How’s the Big Apple?”

She waved a hand non-noncommittally. “Oh, it’s good. Jon’s working for some underground paper, shooting for punk shows.” Billy grinned.

“Well done, Byers. I’m sure your kid brother’s plenty jealous.” Jonathan laughed.

“He’s come up for a few of the shows he’s really wanted to see. Which is to say most of them.” The timer went off from the kitchen. Steve went to stand, only to have Billy push him back down, handing Zara back to him.

“Sit tight, Pretty Boy. I got it.” Steve rolled his eyes, but smiled softly at Billy all the same.

“He was a nightmare when we were moving in, wouldn’t let me lift anything over ten pounds.”

-

After dinner, Steve and Billy tag teamed putting the girls to bed.

It was kind of amazing to watch. Billy got Mina dressed for bed as Steve fed Zara, then they swapped, Steve made sure Mina brushed her teeth while Billy changed Zara, swapping again so that Billy could read a book to Mina and Steve rocked Zara to sleep.

They were so practiced and efficient, both girls were asleep with half an hour.

“You get a lot of practice with the bedtime thing. I mean, it’s every night.” They were sitting on the back porch, on patio furniture that had apparently been a gift from Claudia Henderson.

It was a perfect night, the Southern California air was just chilly enough to warrant a sweater, but perfect for just being in.

“There’s a park a few blocks that way that’s doing fireworks, we should be able to see them from here.” Steve had poured them each some champagne. Steve and Billy were sitting one the chairs across the little coffee table between them.

They chattered through as the clock ticked down, getting closer and closer to 1989.

Ten seconds to midnight, Billy helped Steve stand up. Five seconds to midnight, Jonathan was digging in his pocket.

The fireworks began as Steve pressed his lips to Billy’s. Nancy turned to do the same, choking on a gasp as she saw Jon down on one knee. Steve shrieked, scrambling for a camera.

“I wanted this to be the first thing I did this year.” Billy was grinning like an idiot, Steve was taking picture after picture, his big eyes full of tears. “I know you want to establish our lives before bonding or having pups, and that’s okay, we can just be engaged for a couple years, whatever you want.” Nancy had one hand in front of her mouth, tears dripping down her cheeks. “Whatdya say?”

“Oh my god, absolutely yes!” Billy and Steve cheered as Jon stood up, kissing Nancy before sliding the ring on her finger.

[wiener-soldiers]

the imperfect bubble - steve rogers

summary: y/n looks at bucky barnes like he’s the sun and the stars; bucky looks at y/n y/l/n like nothing more than his best friend. steve looks at peggy carter like she’s a divine angel; peggy looks at steve rogers like he’s nothing more than the remnants of a college romance. y/n looks at steve rogers like he’s a mirror; steve looks at y/n y/l/n like she’s the only person left that he can confide in.

words: 10.2k (you read that right)

warning: angst, unrequited love, the slowest slow burn you can possibly fathom, okay maybe not a slow burn but more like an oh shit that happened, minimal editing

a/n: im?? back?? i really enjoyed writing this one tho

masterlist | add yourself to the taglist! | faq

Leave your grievances at the door.

It was no longer an unspoken rule; when Steve and Bucky stepped into Y/N’s shared apartment with her college—and by association, their—friend’s Natasha and Wanda for movie night, they found the saying printed on the doormat inside their apartment.

It was a tradition that Steve, Bucky, and Y/N started their freshmen year of college. Steve and Bucky were best friends since childhood and have been through thick and thin together. So it was no surprise that despite the two attending different colleges, they still made it a habit to spend every waking moment together.

The two left their beloved Brooklyn to attend schools in Manhattan—Steve at Columbia pursuing his history degree and Bucky at NYU pursuing his engineering one. It was Steve’s turn to make the trip downtown and hang out with Bucky, but to his surprise, upon arriving at his dorm, he met eyes with a slightly wine-drunk girl hanging upside down Bucky’s bed while he tried to throw popcorn in his mouth.

It was quite the first impression, but Steve learned her name was Y/N, she went to NYU for journalism, and that she’d be sticking around a lot.

That night, instead of going out, Steve joined them in Bucky’s dorm, watching shitty Netflix reality shows, getting drunk on cheap wine, and their weekly tradition lived on ever since.

The doormat saying was one Y/N jokingly said to Bucky in their sophomore year of college. Y/N had moved into a new apartment in the East Village with Natasha and Wanda, two girls she bonded with over mutual hate for a certain TA. Despite Steve and Bucky’s place being decently big after deciding to move into a place together, the girl’s place was decidedly better decorated and more suited for movie nights.

Bucky had come in complaining about how a girl in his class flirted with him just to steal his notes and eventually best him during their midterms. Granted, it was a thrilling tale, but Y/N has jokingly told him to, “Leave you grievances at the door, Buck. This is movie night; we are going to chill and get drunk.”

The unspoken movie night rule stuck ever since.

So, when Steve and Bucky (now juniors) kicked their shoes off upon entering the girl’s apartment, the let out an audible laugh, alerting them that the muscle of the group was here.

“You like it?” Y/N calls out from the kitchen, followed by several ‘pops.’ The smell of buttery popcorn wafted through the air as the two followed the scent into the living room. Natasha was already occupying her seat on the couch. Wanda sat on the floor, in between her legs so to let Natasha braid her hair, as she scrolled through her Netflix queue for movies to watch.

“Looks great, doll,” Bucky smiled at her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Steve notices a red blush crawl up her neck and smirks, sending the girl a wink. Y/N’s blush extends even further.

“Where’d you get it?” Bucky asks, sauntering into the living room and hopping over the back of the couch to land beside Nat.

Wanda giggles, “I custom ordered it on Etsy. I thought it would be funny.”

“You’re not wrong,” Natasha replies before the three of them fall into easy conversation about their weeks.

Steve stays behind the kitchen, observing Y/N as she observes Bucky. He smiles amusedly at her before saying, “I take it he still doesn’t know.”

Y/N rolls her eyes, “He didn’t know last week. He didn’t know last year. He didn’t know since we were seventeen. You think I’m gonna tell him now?”

Steve shrugs, routinely helping Y/N gather the snacks and drinks for their movie night, “I think you’d be cute together, s’all.”

“Yeah? Tell that to the man himself,” Y/N says sarcastically.

“You could always tell him,” he counters, “Guys find it hot when girls make the first move.”

“Whatever you say, pal.”

---

As it turns out, Steve was right. And as much as Y/N hates to admit it, Steve was right about most things.

A few months after some mutual pining, Peggy Carter, the hot British international student that’s studying political science at Columbia grew more balls than Bucky and Steve ever could and asked the latter out on a date.

Y/N liked Peggy. She had gorgeous brown hair that was somehow always perfectly curled, warm eyes, but always wore seductively red lipstick. She looked like a drug, and if she wasn’t dating Steve, Y/N was convinced that she would ask the woman out herself.

Steve had stumbled into the girl’s apartment after their first date. Peggy had taken him dancing in a place in the East Village that played swing music and turned a blind eye when college students with sketchy looking fake IDs ordered cocktails. It’s not like they could do much harm anyway, most college kids who went there hopeless romantics who want nothing more than to dance with their dates with a little liquid courage.

As opposed to hopping on the subway slightly tipsy and potentially falling asleep before he reached in Midtown, Steve stumbled into his friend’s apartment, tipsy and high on the drug that took form in Peggy Carter.

“Hiya,” Steve said with a dopey, crooked smile. Y/N, Wanda, and Nat looked between themselves and Steve with widened eyes.

There were red lipstick stains all over his face.

Natasha smirks at him, “Looks like you had a good time with the missus.”

Steve points at Y/N, his eyes slightly lidded from drowsiness, “I told you it was hot when girls make the first move.”

Y/N lets out a snort. “It’s hot when Peggy Carter does anything, Stevie.”

His enormous grin widens. “Well, you got that fucking right.”

The three girls collective gag at the picture of Steve defiling the girl as Steve rolls his eyes at them, plopping down on the grey IKEA couch the girls were occupying. The couch was a moving in present from him and Bucky and despite how cheap it looked, they refused to allow the girls to get rid of it. If they were being honest, the girls didn’t have the heart to do so anyway.

“Do you mind if I crash here tonight?” Steve mumbles into Y/N’s lap.

“I’m staying at my brother’s tonight anyway,” Wanda says as she reaches over and runs a hand amusedly through Steve’s hair, “You can take my bed if you want, Steve.”

“No, s’okay. I’m comfy here,” he says, voice muffled by Y/N’s thighs.

“You’re a big fucking baby, you know that?” Y/N jokingly says, slapping Steve’s back. He screeches an ‘ow’ but doesn’t move an inch.

Nat smiles at them. Before she met Y/N and Steve, she would’ve been convinced they were dating. But, her heart is just as full knowing the incredibly wholesome and healthy friendship the two share. She reaches down to stroke Steve’s head before saying, “Y/N, I’m gonna go ahead and use the bathroom first—you seem occupied. Goodnight Steve.”

“Nighty night, Nat,” he murmurs. With Wanda, then Natasha stroking his head, sleep comes a lot faster than he intends.

“Steve?” Y/N asks him. It was her turn to slowly stroke his head.

“Mmhmm?”

“Did you let Bucky know you were staying over?” she asks, Mom-mode activating.

She feels her thighs rumble with Steve’s laughter. “He’ll live,” he tells her.

“He’s your best friend, hon. You gotta keep him updating on this kinda stuff.”

“But you’re my best friend too,” he sighs sleepily and Y/N’s heart swells with pride.

The corner of her mouth quirks into a smile, “Really?”

“Yeah, ‘course you duffus. ‘Sides, he probably thinks ‘m getting laid or somethin’.”

“You’re gross.”

“Eh, you love me.”

She did indeed. She let him fall asleep like that with a slight smile on his face, thinking about how well his date went. Y/N slowly slide out from underneath Steve, placing a blanket on top of him. She placed a glass of water and a bottle of Tylenol on the coffee table for him when he woke, along with a sticky note saying:

Gonna be up early tomorrow, lover boy. Take whatever leftovers you want from the fridge. Also, invite Peggy to movie night :)

---

Per Y/N’s request, Steve did ask Peggy to come to movie night with him. To which, she excitedly agreed.

And against Steve’s assumptions, Y/N seemed more excited to have her over than he was.

Steve and Peggy entered the apartment hand in hand, with Steve carrying a takeout bag and Peggy nursing a bottle of white wine. Bucky trailed in behind them, carrying a pack of beers.

“They have a cute place,” Peggy comments, slipping her shoes off and following Steve into the living room.

“Don’t tell it to their face, though. One compliment and they’ll fall in love with you and you’ll never be allowed out of their sight again,” Bucky jokes from behind them, wandering into the kitchen to set the beer down.

Despite their five-person gathering being a six-person one that night, Peggy fit right in. Over cheesy horror movies, glasses of wine and swigs of beer, and copious amounts of takeout, the bombshell of a Brit felt very at home with Steve’s friends. To her surprise, none of them were jealous of her—Steve was incredibly attractive and the perfect guy, so she was sure it was impossible for him to have female friends without them throwing themselves at him.

She was wrong.

She really got a full understanding of their friendship—especially Steve’s friendship with Y/N—when she wandered down the hall to find more blankets. She heard two voices quietly discussing in someone’s room. She would’ve walked away because she didn’t want to eavesdrop until she heard her name.

“Peggy seems to be really enjoying herself.” She recognizes the voice to be Y/N’s.

“God, I hope so. Thanks again for inviting her.” Steve’s voice this time.

“You were the one who invited her, jackass,” she hears Y/N say sarcastically.

She hears Steve groan, “Don’t even start with that. What I meant was…thanks for giving her a chance.”

Softer this time, she hears Y/N say, “Steve, you’re my best friend. I didn’t like your other girlfriends because they seemed like shitty people. Peggy is…Peggy is good for you. Like, really good.”

“Okay now…” he laughs.

“No, I’m serious. If you didn’t ask her out, I was really fucking close to taking her for myself,” she finished before she hears a yelp followed by a soft thud and mattress springs squeaking. She can’t help herself and takes a peek inside the room to find Steve tickling Y/N on the bed. Peggy smiles to herself at the closeness of the friendship.

She’s about to walk away when she suddenly feels the feeling in the room shift.

“Steve, I think I’m gonna ask out Bucky.”

She hears an excited gasp, “Fucking finally! I’ve been saying you guys would be great together for years!”

She hears Y/N shush him, “He’s in the other room Steve, shut up!”

Peggy hears Steve laugh, “Sorry, sorry. Why now, though?”

“Dunno. I guess I just like seeing you happy with Peggy. And I don’t know, it makes me think that I deserve that happiness too,” Y/N says softly and Peggy’s heart melts.

“I’m proud of you, Y/N,” she hears Steve say. Despite not knowing Y/N that long, she’s proud of her too.

“Thanks, Steve.”

---

Y/N doesn’t get a chance to ask Bucky out.

As Y/N, Nat, and Wanda were preparing brownies for movie night when they got a text on their group chat:

Bucky: Can’t make it to movie night

Nat: got a hot date or smth?

Bucky: ;)

“Y/N…” Natasha calls out.

“Mhmm?” the girl calls out. “Gimme a second, I gotta take the brownies before they burn.”

Natasha sighs and walks into the kitchen to find Y/N gingerly setting the pan of brownies onto the counter. Wordlessly, Nat shows Y/N her phone with the group chat open.

The smile immediately falls from Y/N’s face.

“Y/N…” the red-head starts before getting vehemently cut off.

“I should be happy for him, right? My best friend just scored a date—”

“Y/N—”

“I was happy when Steve started going out with Peggy, why can’t I be happy Bucky found someone too—”

“Y/N!” Natasha says, more firmly this time.

“Why did you show me this, Nat?” she hisses, whipping her head and staring accusingly at her.

Natasha narrows her eyes at her, “You fucking know why. This was on the group chat, but I wanted to be there if you needed me when you saw it.”

Y/N’s eyes soften, “Nat, I’m sorry—”

Natasha cuts her off and immediately envelops her in a hug. “Don’t be,” she whispers, patting her head comfortingly, “You’re too good for Bucky, anyways.”

Y/N scoffs into her shoulder, “That’s my best friend, asshole. And Steve always said we’d be good together.”

“Steve has no fucking clue what he’s talking about.”

Y/N laughs a little harder, forcing the tears she was trying to keep in slowly stream down her face. Natasha immediately notices, and wipes them away with her thumbs, “Don’t cry, sweetheart. And don’t think about Bucky. ‘Sides, it’s movie night and—”

“—I need to leave my grievances at the door, yeah I know,” she finishes with a sad smile on her face. Y/N shakes her head, “That saying is kicking me in the ass, isn’t it?”

Ten minutes later, Wanda emerges from the bathroom, screeching in frustration from Bucky’s texts in the group chat. Y/N tries her best to tell Wanda that she’s over it, but Wanda is strangely good at reading people (it doesn’t help that she’s also a psychology major). The girls usually love Wanda’s weird sixth sense, but Y/N couldn’t help but find it quite inconvenient at this very moment.

Half an hour after that, Steve arrives at the girls’ apartment, this time without Peggy. The first thing he does is wrap Y/N in a bear hug, despite her protests at everyone making a big deal out of it. Steve doesn’t care, only hugs her tighter.

The four of them huddle around the TV, watching whatever movie was next on their queue and catching up on life. They tried really hard to ignore the awkward tension and the lack of the Bucky-ness the group had. It was movie night, after all. The perfect bubble that was their movie night felt a little different than it normally had.

---

Bucky misses movie nights for the next few weeks.

With the end of junior year approaching, the group of friends rarely had time to socialize outside their study groups except for their weekly tradition. With Bucky gone doing whatever Bucky was doing, Y/N didn’t see him for weeks on end. The only interaction they had was the occasional meme being sent to the group chat or like on Instagram.

She missed him. But deep down inside of her, she wasn’t that all surprised.

What did surprise her was Bucky’s sudden appearance at their last movie night before the end of junior year.

They were halfway through their first movie—Wanda was teaching Peggy how to braid a flower crown, Steve had agreed to let Natasha paint his nails a red and blue ombre while he played a game of Connect Four with Y/N, all while a random movie played on the screen—when they heard the front door unlock.

“Sorry I’m late!” called a voice. It was distinctly Bucky’s, but the female giggle that followed was not.

Bucky and an unnamed blonde materialize in the living room and everyone looks at the pair in shock. Y/N could feel a few of her friend’s stares be redirected to her, but she can’t seem to overt her eyes from the blonde.

Her hair seemed like it was literally golden as it flows down her light-green sundress. She was wrapped around Bucky’s arm—the arm with his tattoo sleeve on it, the arm that she loved tracing the patterns of the tattoo with during movie night.

Peggy breaks the ice first, “Hi, Bucky.”

“Oh, you have an accent!” the blonde squeals and Y/N can feel her eyes roll. Wanda scoffs beside her.

“Bucky, can I talk to you for a sec?” Y/N asks, more like demands, as she stands up abruptly and walks briskly past Bucky towards the hall, away from the view of the living room.

Once they were out of earshot from their friends, she hisses, “What are you doing here?”

Bucky laughs almost mockingly, “What do you mean, ‘what am I doing here?, It’s movie night, isn’t it?”

Y/N sighs tiredly, “Bucky, we haven’t seen you for weeks. Then, you show up with some blonde girl that we’ve never met?”

“I’ve been busy. What, am I not allowed to be busy anymore? The world doesn’t revolve around movie night,” Bucky snarls at her.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, that’s not what I meant and you fucking know it,” she growls back. “You’ve been radio silent for weeks—you pretty much ghosted all of us. Hell, if it wasn’t for Steve living with you, we would’ve thought you were fucking dead! But we gave you space because we aren’t helicopter-friends. But then, you show up after ignoring us for weeks with some chick I’ve never seen before at my fucking house on fucking movie night?! Can you see why I’m a little pissed off right now?”

“The British chick is here! Why the hell can she be here but not Dolores?” Bucky bites back, his voice rising.

“Because Peggy was invited to my house and Dolores fucking wasn’t!” Y/N says aggressively, her voice nearing a shout.

“This isn’t your tradition, Y/N. You want to control everything about this friend group and trust me, sweetheart, we’re all getting sick of it.”

“Oh, you can’t fucking do that.”

“Do what?”

“Talk like you’re still a fucking part of this friend group.”

“What, you’re gonna kick me out of your clique because I’ve been busy? Because I have a life?”

“No, because you’ve been a shitty fucking friend!” Y/N shouts, chest heaving, and face red.

Bucky’s eyes widen in shock. Sure, they’ve had points in their friendship where they haven’t communicated in a few days, but never this long. And Y/N had most certainly never been this angry with him before.

That seemed to knock some sense back into him. “Y/N—”

“Get the fuck out, Bucky.”

“Wha—”

“I said get out,” she says, eerily quiet.

So, he did. Bucky stormed out of the hallway and grabbed Dolores before marching out of the apartment. When Y/N sat back down with the rest of their friends, she could feel their stares burning into her face, but all she did was reach for the remote and continue playing the movie.

---

After Y/N’s argument with Bucky, he stops showing up game nights. They even make a new group chat without Bucky in it (because apparently, kicking him out of the apartment was fine but kicking him out of the group chat was too mean). Despite not really knowing what exactly was said, everyone understood what happened that night. To be frank, they were all waiting for someone to snap. A confrontation with him was long overdue.

The friend group is different without Bucky’s presence. Not better, not worse, just different.

It was clear that there would be awkward tension among the friends immediately after the argument. Wanda and Nat immediately sided with Y/N and clearly wanted nothing to do with Bucky. Steve was a trickier subject. Wanda, Nat, and Y/N all understood that they couldn’t force Steve not to be friends with him, so they all accepted him as their neutral party.

After a few months, their different was starting to feel normal.

But Y/N still missed Bucky. Despite her years of pining, Bucky was still her best friend. He was still the guy who walked her to her morning lectures after his run and got her wine drunk after a guy rejected her. Y/N missed that version of Bucky—she just wasn’t sure if he existed anymore.

Based on periodic updates that Steve gives her, Bucky is still with Dolores. “He’s happy,” Steve tells her. “Different, but happy.”

After a few months of living without Bucky in her life, she starts to blame herself. Had she been overreacting? Most probably. Did she really need to kick him out of her apartment? No.

“Was what you did justified though? Definitely,” Steve would always remind her. Some days she believes him, some days she doesn’t.

Still, her life begins to reach some semblance of normal. Movie nights are still once a week, but they’ve changed from a place where they have pseudo-therapy sessions lead by Wanda while a cheesy movie plays in the background.

It was about halfway into their senior year when Steve drops something on them during one of their movie night conversations.

“I might move to London,” Steve says out of the blue.

“What?” Y/N turns to him in shock.

Steve stares blankly at his lap, fidgeting with the nearly empty glass of red wine. “Peggy wants to move back to London after we graduate,” he says softly. “She wants me to go with her.”

It was Wanda’s turn to ask, “Well, why doesn’t she stay here with you?”

“Her family’s in London.”

“And your family is here, Steve,” Y/N replies softly, “We’re here.”

Steve sighs and runs a hand over his face before releasing a frustrated cry, “I don’t know what to do, guys.”

Natasha looks at him sympathetically before grasping his hand tightly, “Have you talked to Bucky about this?”

“Not yet…he’s got a lot on his plate right now,” Steve starts, warily looking at the girls sitting around him.

“What do you mean?” Natasha presses.

“Bucky proposed to Dolores a few days ago…” Steve sighs.

“Well…” Y/N starts, trying to find the right words, “Congrats to them.”

“Yeah,” Steve replies lamely before downing the remainder of his red wine. “I love Peggy, I really do,” Steve starts, “but I don’t know if London is right for me.”

Y/N raises an eyebrow at him, “What do you mean?”

Steve sighs again, “I don’t know how to explain it but…lately it feels like our relationship isn’t real anymore⁠—like she’s using me as a prop. It feels like she’s dragging me along because she feels like she has to. I really do love her but going to London with her just doesn’t feel right.”

“And what does feel right, Steve?” Wanda asks him gently.

Steve answer in a heartbeat, “New York. With you guys.”

Y/N offers him her kindest eyes. She murmurs softly, “Steve, I think you have your answer then.”

---

Steve stayed in New York.

He was a little heartbroken by Peggy’s reaction though; she simply acknowledged him and went straight back to packing, not even bothering to fight for their relationship. Maybe there wasn’t a whole lot to fight for after all.

Bucky also married Dolores.

After their graduation, Bucky and Dolores eloped. They didn’t want the pressure of an actual wedding, so they got on a flight to Vegas and got hitched in their graduation gowns. The reassured everyone (especially their parents) that they would have a real wedding for everyone else afterwards.

Y/N, Wanda, and Natasha finally got their own places. Wanda was moving in with her brother, Pietro, into an apartment in Morningside Heights. They were both starting their master’s at Columbia (Wanda in psychology and Pietro in exercise physiology), so they wanted to live closer together. Natasha was finally moving in with her boyfriend, Bruce. They were a very private couple, so they weren’t at all surprised when they told them that they were moving into their own place in Park Slope, close to Bruce’s research job and Nat’s marketing firm.

Y/N was really close to downsizing to a studio when Steve rolled his eyes and told her, “Don’t be an idiot, I’ll move in with you. That place is too nice to give up. Besides, Bucky and Dolores are looking for a place to move into.”

So, what was once Y/N, Wanda, and Nat’s apartment was now Y/N and Steve’s.

Not much changed about the apartment: Y/N kept her old room and Steve moved into Wanda’s. Natasha’s room had the most natural light, so they turned it into an office. Steve, Y/N learned, was the ideal roommate—his stuff was never messy, he helped run errands, and he was a delight to be around.

If it was possible for the two best friends to get any closer, they did.

Y/N fell into an easy routine with Steve, almost like it was second nature. After both taking the summer off, Steve started his law degree at Columbia and Y/N started her job as a Staff Writer at the New York Times. 

They woke up at around seven and Steve got started on breakfast while Y/N used the bathroom first. As soon as she got out, breakfast would be waiting for her, so she got started on making coffee for her and Steve. Steve didn’t usually take long in the bathroom, so they ate breakfast together, enjoying each other’s company before their day started. After they both got dressed, they both walked to the subway and rode the L train before they had to split ways: Steve Uptown to Columbia and Y/N to the New York Times building. Steve usually got out of classes first, so he usually ran some errands for the place or studied in a café in the Village somewhere so to let Y/N get home before he did. She loved making dinner, so Steve usually came home to her blasting music and cooking.

The funniest part about their arrangement is that it was barely an arrangement: they didn’t really agree on splitting up their day this way. It just sort of…happened. It was natural but it felt right to the both of them and that’s all they could ever ask for.

The arbitrary lines of being roommates slowly began disappearing as well. 

Four months into living together, Y/N and Steve started sharing a bed.

It wasn’t romantic, but more like a necessity. Steve had walked by Y/N’s room when he heard slight whimpering. He immediately swung open the door and found her lying on her bed, clutching her stomach in pain with tears streaming down her face.

Steve immediately lost his composure, “Y/N? Are you okay?!”

“It fucking hurts Steve,” she mumbles, “Why does bleeding out of your vagina fucking hurt so much?”

Steve’s eyes immediately soften and he lets out a low hum, “Y/N, I thought you were dying.”

“I am dying. This heat pad isn’t doing shit!”

Steve laughs and makes his way to the bed, lifting the covers and sliding beside her. Y/N immediately shifts so that Steve can be more comfortable. He wraps his arms around her, making sure to put his palm flat on her stomach. In the mess of tangled limbs, they fall asleep like that and take the most relaxing nap of their lives.

Steve shares a bed Y/N that night. And the night after that. And the night after that.

Soon, Steve barely slept in his old room anymore. It got to a point where it didn’t even make sense for him to have his own room: Y/N’s room was bigger, closer to the bathroom, had a comfier bed, and Y/N was in it.

The two spend a weekend clearing out Steve’s new room and moving all his stuff into Y/N’s. They turn they put the grey IKEA pullout couch inside along with an array of painting supplies and camera equipment, effectively turning it into a home studio. They like the apartment better this way.

A few months later, the two get a dog together. The mini Australian Shepard has a gorgeous coat, different coloured eyes, and a scar that stretches across his face, a reminder as to why they rescued him in the first place. The renamed him Mando (because his face reminded them of the Mandalorian helmet) and he was like their child. He was full of energy, so Steve loved brining him along for runs in the park. But he was also quiet, reserved, and sensitive so Y/N adored cuddling with him on the couch.

It was their own little family. Steve, Y/N, and Mando.

Movie nights were still a weekly occurrence, but it wasn’t always at their place anymore. Almost six months after Steve moved in with Y/N, they hosted movie night at their place again.

It wasn’t as if Wanda and Natasha hadn’t seen Y/N and Steve since then, but it was the first time they really felt the changes in their old place.

“You redecorated,” Nat commented with a smile. She noticed there were more pictures up: some of their entire friend group, some of just Y/N and Steve. There was also a hanging shelf above the TV (something that Y/N had always talked about installing but never did) that housed some pottery and other knick-knacks Y/N and Steve have collected over the years.

Wanda notices the dog crate and bed in the corner of the living room, along with a basket of toys for the dog. She asks, “Where’s Mando?”

“Steve took him when he went to get the takeout. He likes to cuddle if that’s what you’re asking, Wanda,” Y/N answers amusedly.

“Whathcu do with our old rooms?” Nat hums as she takes a seat on their new couch. She wondered where the grey IKEA one went; it was unlikely that Y/N had the heart to throw it away.

Y/N sits down beside her holding three wine glasses and a bottle of red wine. She pops the cork and pours them all a drink before saying, “We turned your old room into an office and Wanda’s into an art studio slash guest bedroom. That’s where the grey pullout went.” Y/N finished her sentence absentmindedly, almost like she didn’t realize the implication she made.

Wanda and Nat smirk at each other.

Nat takes a sip of her wine before nonchalantly saying, “You know, I always knew you and Steve would end up together.”

Y/N chokes on her wine, “I’m sorry…what?”

Wanda chuckles at her, “You live together, you share a bed, you got a dog.”

Y/N hums nervously, “We’re not dating.”

“Seems like you’re already married if you ask me,” Wanda counters with a smirk.

Before Y/N could get any more embarrassed, the front door opened and Mando came bolting inside, followed by Steve who laughed as the dog jumped on the couch and licked its occupants.

“Oh, Mando you’re so cute,” Wanda gushed before she immediately became occupied and played with Mando.

Natasha looked on with a knowing smirk as Y/N watched Steve approach, both wearing matching smiles, and Steve presses a kiss on her forehead.

“I got Lo Mein if that’s okay. I tried to make it to the pizza place, but I guess Mando likes the smell of Chinese,” Steve says quietly to her before setting the takeout on the coffee table beside the glasses of wine.

She smiles at him, “That’s okay, thanks for grabbing it anyways.”

“I figured you wanted time with the girls to catch up,” Steve shrugs before hopping over the back of the couch to sit next to you.

As the movie started and everyone started eating their serving of food and wine, Y/N assumed the natural position of leaning against Steve’s chest with his arm thrown around the back of the couch. The smell of his cologne is so synonymous with safety to Y/N, so she naturally leans closer to him.

Halfway through the first movie, Y/N catches Nat staring at her and Steve with a smirk. Nat sends a wink her way which sends Y/N’s face in a red flush.

She averts her eyes and looks back at the movie. We are not dating, Y/N thinks to herself, this is just natural.

---

It was about a year after Y/N and Steve started living together when they both got invitations to Bucky and Dolores' wedding.

Their group chat was blowing up with questions like ‘should we even go to the wedding?’ and ‘won’t it be awkward for everyone involved?’

Steve already knew that he was going. Despite everything, Bucky was still like his brother. They still saw each other almost weekly and although he wasn’t Dolores’ biggest fan just through negative association, he was happy that Bucky was immensely happy.

Y/N, on the other hand, needed more convincing.

“Jesus, I wish he never invited me to his goddamn wedding,” Y/N complained, her head buried in Steve’s shoulder as they sat on the couch, “Is this his version of a punishment? The anxiety of choosing whether or not I should come to his wedding?”

Steve rubbed her shoulder comfortingly, “Y/N, he did use to be your best friend.”

“Before I told him to get out of my life and that I never wanted to see him again,” she states bluntly. “God, I was so fucking stupid.”

“Hey,” Steve says firmly, “The both of you were acting pretty stupid, we’ve established that. But you’ve grown up. Bucky did invite you, which means he wants you to come.”

Y/N stays silent as Steve continues, “I know you miss him, Y/N. And clearly, he misses you too. Maybe this is your first step at mending your friendship.”

“If there’s anything left of it,” Y/N says pathetically.

“You won’t know if you don’t go to the wedding.”

So, she ends up going to the wedding.

The actual ceremony went by in a blur. Dolores was wearing a beautiful gown with gorgeous floral lace and Bucky in a wonderfully fitted velvet suit. Y/N thought the first time she would see Bucky in years would be filled with melancholy, but Y/N just felt better that Steve (from beside the groom) was sending her reassuring smiles the entire ceremony.

The couple was technically already married, so they didn’t have a licensed officiant. Instead, they had an array of friends, including Steve, the best man, say different parts of the pre-made script. It was fun, lighthearted, and had Bucky written all over it—something that Y/N missed about him the most.

At the reception, she took advantage of the open bar. She spent her time socializing with Natasha, Wanda, and Sam, a mutual friend who became an Air Force officer straight out of college. The night was still young, so Steve spent most of his time with the wedding party, occasionally sending Y/N texts like:

Steve: Miss you!

Steve: How many drinks have you had so far?

Steve: You made sure to lock Mando’s crate, right?

Steve: Did I tell you that you looked rlly pretty tonight?

Steve: I can’t wait until everyone gets drunk so I can hang out w you :)

“Texting at my wedding? I thought you loved parties, Y/N,” a recognizable voice says amusedly.

Y/N’s head snaps up and she’s met with a face that she hasn’t seen in years.

“Bucky—”

Bucky cuts her off, “Before you say anything, I’m sorry. You were right, I was being a really shitty friend and I didn’t have the right to ignore you, yell at you, or just bring random people into your home like I owned the place. I just…really missed you. You’re my best friend and my life hasn’t really been the same without you.”

Y/N is rendered speechless. Her mind blanks as she stares into Bucky’s watery eyes, begging for forgiveness. She says nothing and instead wraps her arms around Bucky, pulling him close. The man immediately wraps his arms around her like they’ve never left.

After the wedding, Bucky starts to show up to movie night again.

It takes a whole lot of coaxing to let Natasha and Wanda allow Bucky back into their lives, but eventually, they come around. It wasn’t like college though, but it was nice, nonetheless. One night, Bucky revealed that movie nights are when he feels the most like himself again. The rest of them smile wordlessly at him, but confusion does seep into the back of their minds.

A year since the wedding, the group finally fully accepts Bucky back into their lives as if he never left. He catches up with Natasha during impromptu lunches, takes Wanda to dinner if she’s ever in Midtown, watches the Yankees play with Steve to take his mind off of law school, and drops lunch off to Y/N at the New York Times building if he’s in the area.

Bucky truly misses his friends, but somewhere deep in his heart, he misses Y/N a little bit more.

The rest of them also notice how little Bucky talks about Dolores when they’re together.

They found it strange at first; normally, husbands loved talking about their wives. But Bucky never brought her to their outings, to movie night (despite everyone insisting that they’d be happy to have her over), and rarely brought her up in conversation unless asked.

Y/N found it especially strange. In a mature attempt to move on from her college crush on Bucky, she tried to make amends with Dolores. Turns out, the blonde was an adorable girl from Brooklyn that absolutely adores Bucky. She’s sensitive but hilarious and Y/N loves spending time with her.

She also noticed how much Dolores talked about Bucky. It was clear how much she adored him, so it was almost unfathomable to her how Bucky didn’t talk about the wonderful woman nearly as much as she talked about him.

“Don’t you find it a little weird?” Y/N asked him as he was brushing his teeth. Steve was concentrated on her face despite toothpaste foaming around his mouth. Y/N sat on the bathroom counter, feet swinging as she absentmindedly played with an elastic.

Steve spit in the sink before speaking, “I mean, you know Buck. He’s a pretty private guy.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t shut up about crazy stories he’s had with you and Bucky loves you. I just find it a little funky that he doesn’t act the same with Dolores,” Y/N explained.

Steve sighs and gargles the rest of the toothpaste out of his mouth. “I guess I never thought about it that way… They have only been married for a little over two years though. Maybe they’re still figuring out the ropes of their marriage?”

Y/N shrugs with a sigh, hopping off the counter and stripping off her shirt and pants. Steve tries his hardest not to stare but he can’t help but stare at the curve of her body as she reaches to slip on one of his hoodies she likes to wear for bed.

Steve isn’t really sure where his relationship with Y/N stands, to be honest. It’s funny to him—they act like an actual married couple, minus the romance. Acting domesticated with her just feels so natural to Steve, but he’s scared putting a label on anything will change the dynamic, so he stays silent and cherishes the domestic moments he has with her.

“You’re right, I’m probably overthinking it,” Y/N mumbles before slipping past him, “I’m headed off to bed. Don’t take too long.”

Y/N doesn’t notice Steve’s hard blush as he scrambles to put on some pyjamas to join her in bed.

---

“I’m nervous.”

“Jesus, Steve. You’ll be fine! You’re the top of your class at fucking Columbia, so there’s no way you failed the bar,” Y/N cheers on excitedly from behind him. She rubs his shoulders as he stares at his inbox, too afraid to click on the email titled ‘New York State Bar Exam Results.’

Steve’s foot taps incessantly, “I’m still too scared to look.”

Y/N reaches over his shoulder and kisses his cheek. “Fine,” she says, “I’ll look for you.” She clicks on the email and scrolls down, searching for Steve’s exam number.

After a few seconds, Y/N hesitantly asks, “Steve?”

“Mhmm?” he replies, his head in his hands.

“What’s your exam number again?”

“S-24601,” he replies quickly.

Y/N squeals and hugs him from the back, pressing kisses all over his neck. “You fucking passed, Steve!” she squeals.

“I did?!”

“Of course you did, dummy!”

Steve laughs in excitement and disbelief, grabbing Y/N by the waist and spinning her off the ground. Mando barks excitedly, jumping up happily against Steve’s thighs.

“You did it!” Y/N smiles down at him, her cheeks hurting from all her laughing.

The two celebrate by hosting movie night at their place with extra food, desserts, and ridiculous amounts of alcohol. Wanda brings Vis, the high school chemistry teacher she’s been seeing, Nat brings Bruce, and Bucky finally comes around and brings Dolores along for the celebration. Even Sam, who happened to be off duty, was able to come to the celebration.

Despite it technically being movie night, most of the night was spent trading funny stories about Steve, emptying bottles and bottles of wine and beer, and finally letting loose for the first time in a long time.

Around ten in the evening, the board games came out and the group of twenty-somethings started playing games with a drinking twist. Y/N had been attached to Steve by the hip all night (largely because he always seemed to have his arms around her), but she couldn’t complain. The several glasses of wine she had did make it easier for her to ignore Wanda and Natasha’s smirks.

It also made it easier for her to be ignorant of how awkward Dolores felt at the gathering. Y/N sincerely like the girl, but she was unaware of her discomfort until around one in the morning. Most people had left, and it was just Steve, Y/N, and Bucky cleaning up.

“Y/N, I’m gonna take a quick shower,” Steve calls out to Y/N as she washes the dishes with Bucky picking up trash in the living room. “Goodnight Bucky!” Steve calls out before disappearing.

“Goodnight, Steve,” Bucky shouts back before walking into the kitchen. He leans against the counter and watches Y/N as she does the dishes. Y/N notices his presence, then notices the lack of someone else’s presence.

“Hey Buck, where’d Dolores run off to?” Y/N hums, drying the last of the dishes.

Bucky shrugs, “Took an Uber and went home early.”

Y/N turns around to face him, “Shit, Buck. You didn’t have to stay—”

“Nah, I wanted to. She’s probably fine,” he answers nonchalantly.

“Probably?”

Bucky doesn’t respond.

Y/N takes a deep breath and fiddles with the dishtowel in her hands before saying, “Bucky, why is this the first time in three years of marriage that Dolores has come to a friend get together?”

Bucky’s jaw unhinges a little, “What do you mean?”

Y/N sighs and sets the dish towel down. She takes a deep breath before saying, “We’ve asked you to invite her to come over for years, but you always make excuses for her. You don’t nearly talk about her as much as she does about you, and I know that for a fact because I’ve hung out with Dolores on multiple occasions. Bucky…is everything alright between you and Dolores?”

Bucky stares intently at her for a few seconds before his resolve crumbles. His eyes lose its intensity and are replaced with tiredness as he drags his hand across his face. “Dot and I…” Bucky starts, “are going through a bit of a…rough patch.”

“Bucky—”

“I made a mistake marrying her,” he says bluntly.

“What?” Y/N says in shock. Every time she’s spent time with Dolores, she had been nothing but lovely. She’s perfect for Bucky—she doesn’t understand where he’s coming from.

“I love Dolores but I…”

“But…?”

Bucky doesn’t say anything. Instead, he crosses the kitchen floor in two long strides and grabs Y/N by the face, kissing her fiercely.

Y/N freezes and her eyes widen in shock. What the fuck was happening? was the only thing her brain could possibly register at the point.

Bucky pulls away but the grip on her face doesn’t fade, “But I’m in love with you, Y/N. And I know for a fact that you love me too.”

He leans in for another kiss, but Y/N pushes him away. “Bucky stop!” she says, harsher than she intends, but she doesn’t regret it.

Bucky stares at her, dumbfounded, but she continues, “That was a long, long time ago. And Jesus, Bucky you’re married!”

He shakes his head, “I don’t need to be forever—”

“—And you’re drunk!” she explains in exasperation.

“But I know some part of you still loves me. And God, I love you too. All those years without you and it finally got through to my thick skull,” Bucky argues.

“But what about Dolores?” she whispers.

“Fuck Dolores,” he says. Bucky reaches for her again, but Y/N steps away.

“Bucky, I can’t,” Y/N cries. “Maybe there’s some part of me that loves you, that may always love you. But there’s a bigger part of me that loves what I have right now. Bucky, I’ve never felt so safe before. So happy, so cared for, so loved. I know it’s selfish, but I can’t give away the happiness and security that I deserve to explore what my life would be like with you because I love—”

Y/N stops abruptly, her voice catching in her throat.

“Because you love who, Y/N?” Bucky asks. She notices how his eyes have become glassy and how his shoulders had slumped slightly.

Because I love Steve, Y/N thinks. But she doesn’t find the courage to say it. Bucky can see it in her eyes, though.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” Bucky doesn’t have to say his name who she’s talking about.

Y/N is silent, her heart thumping so loud her she’s afraid Bucky can hear it.

Her silence is enough for him, “Ah.”

Bucky waits a few more seconds before saying, “When did you know?”

Y/N gulps and lets out a shaky breath. When did she know? She racks her brain but can’t think of a specific time. Part of her thinks that she always knew. She was so natural around Steve. So safe and carefree. Steve was there when that perfect bubble of her friendship with Bucky popped, and he even stayed with her after. He was the one that helped her mend her heart and, in the process, built himself a spot inside without even realizing it. Her imperfect bubble, her lens of the world, may have been broken, but Steve was inside, and Y/N knew that it’s all the really mattered.

I love Steve, she confessed to herself. She felt like she was Cher in Clueless, with the fountain of her emotions erupting inside her. Bucky could clearly see it on her face as he smiled sadly.

“Did I ever have a chance?” he whispers.

“Yeah... A long time ago,” Y/N answers softly, not trusting her voice.

“Will I ever get the chance again?”

Y/N shakes her head softly, “Don’t wait for me, Bucky.”

Bucky smiles sadly at her, a tear escaping his eye. She reaches for him, but Bucky shakes his head, “See you around, Y/N.”

And just like that, he’s gone.

Y/N feels like she’s on autopilot. Adrenaline is still coursing through her system; coupled with alcohol and a whole lot of courage, her feet bring her to the bathroom before even realizing. She doesn’t realize that she’s turning the doorknob or stripping completely. She barely registers her stepping into the steamy shower before and she definitely doesn’t fully register her tapping Steve on the shoulder, reaching up, and kissing him fiercely.

He pulls away first, “Y/N?”

She kisses him in response. This time, he responds but pulls away a few seconds later, “Why are you doing this? Are you drunk?”

“Yeah, it’s not why I’m doing this though,” she says, voice raspy.

“Why then?”

“Because I love you.”

“Oh,” was Steve’s response before kissing her again. The two sloppily make out like teenagers discovering sex for the first time before Steve pulls away again.

“I also love you, you know,” he says lazily against her lips. He feels her smile.

“That’s good,” she replies before kissing him once more.

The night lasts a lot longer than both of them intend. But it wasn’t like they were complaining.

---

Life had a strange way of playing out sometimes.

It seemed as if Y/N and Steve blinked and the rest of their lives fell straight into their laps.

When they meet new people, they always ask them how long they've been together or when they started dating.

“A lifetime ago,” Steve would always say, his eyes lighting up and his face flushing slightly.

After the night that Steve learned he passed the bar, Y/N and Steve’s relationship didn’t change all that much, mostly because they acted like they were married in the first place. They already help hands in public, gave each other kisses on the cheek when their friends were around, and they acted more domesticated than a lot of actual married couples only months after they officially started dating.

In fact, most of their friends didn’t even realize they had started dating until almost six months later, Y/N made an off-hand comment about how Steve was secretly really kinky in bed.

The really didn’t have an engagement either.

After two years of dating, five years of living together, and nine years of knowing each other, Steve just decided to get straight to the point.

“You wanna get married, Y/N?” Steve asked her. He had just come back from his job as a corporate lawyer. He honestly hated it but needed the experience and the money to pay off his student loans. His grand plan after he was no longer drowning in debt was to become an Assistant District Attorney.

Y/N stopped cutting the vegetables and turned toward Steve who was leaning against the fridge, suit jacket slung across one shoulder and top button his dress shirt undone. She raises a brow at him, “Pardon me?”

“You wanna get married?” he repeats nonchalantly.

“Now? I’m making dinner.”

“Whenever you want, doll.”

She sets the knife down and slowly walks towards him. “This isn’t you proposing, is it?” she cackles.

Steve shakes his head and laughs, meeting her halfway. “No, I thought of this while I was riding the subway back home. I don’t even have a ring, honey,” he explains. “If I’m honest, it feels like we’ve been married for the past five years, so I kinda forgot that we aren’t.”

Y/N purses her lips in concentration before saying, “That’s fair.”

Steve stares at her for a few more seconds, “So…?”

“Do you want to get married?” she asks him this time, stepping forward and grasping his hands.

“I mean…yeah,” Steve says with a grin, “Telling people you’re my wife is a lot cooler than telling people you’re my girlfriend. Besides, if I ever commit a crime, you have the right not to testify against me because of marital privilege—”

He’s cut off with howling laughter and Y/N burying her face into his chest as he wraps his arms around her. Steve’s tired, really tired, but coming home to her was what he reminded himself he was working for.

“Should we do the whole proposal thing, too?” Y/N asks him after her laughter dies down.

“I don’t mind proposing if it’s something you want to do,” he tells her, pressing his lips to her head.

“Meh. I don’t really care,” she says cheekily before pressing her lips to his.

After their wedding—just like Y/N and Steve predicted—their lives didn’t change all too much. The only noticeable changes were that they were being addressed as Y/L/N-Rogers in the mail, but their lives were pretty much the same.

Their friends found it fascinating: when they had gotten married, they felt that their relationship dynamic had changed a little. But then again, they supposed Steve and Y/N had been acting like they’ve been married since the ripe age of twenty. It’s almost like they skipped a few steps in their relationship and went from friends to acting like they’ve been married for forty years.

The biggest change in their relationship came three years after their wedding when their twins, Avery and Jameson Y/L/N-Rogers were born into the world.

Steve and Y/N were natural parents and they loved their kids. When the twins were three, they took them on their first road trip to the Adirondacks. They spent the weekend at a lakefront cabin, swimming, canoeing, and hiking. When asked years later, the twins would always explain that this was their first memory. At four, the twins started school, and to say Y/N and Steve were worried would be a huge lie. They knew Avery and Jameson would protect each other no matter what. At age seven, a boy on the playground called Avery an ‘ugly liar’, and Jameson threw sand in his face. Steve gave Jameson a scolding about how it was bad to throw sand at people and instead saying that if he was going to throw something, throw a punch instead.

Y/N had to step in and tell him not to do that unless it was a last resort.

At twelve, Jameson had his first real crush on a girl named Mindy. But, Avery knew that Mindy was mean and the daughter of an entitled Karen, so when Jameson asked Mindy if she wanted to dance with her at the school dance, Avery made sure to scare her straight.

“My daddy is a lawyer and sends criminals to prison and my mommy works for the New York Times. So, if you hurt James, everyone will know how mean you actually are are,” Avery threatened, which made Mindy back out of dancing with Jameson. Despite being mad when he was twelve, he was thankful years later when he saw firsthand what kind of teenager Mindy would become.

Now at sixteen, though the two twins were still thick as thieves, they matured into respectable, and frankly perfect kids.

That year, the Fourth of July (aka Steve’s birthday) fell the same night as movie night and the twins took it upon themselves to plan their dad’s party.

“Avery? James? You doin’ alright?” Y/N called from the upper floor of their brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. When it was obvious that Avery and Jameson were at the age that they couldn’t share a bedroom anymore, Steve convinced Y/N to move back to Brooklyn. It wasn’t the difficult, per se, especially when Steve found a place close to where Natasha and her now-husband Bruce lived.

“Doin’ just fine, Mom!” Avery calls back. She was busy frosting the good-old Stars and Stripes cake while James finished the last-minute decorations.

Just then, Y/N heard a thud before some soft moaning. She gasped, already halfway down the stairs. “Are you okay? Do you need help? Screw your surprise, I’m com—”

“No!” James shouted, quickly sitting up, “I just fell off a stool, Mom. No big deal, you don’t need to come downstairs.”

“Are you su—”

“Yep! This is supposed to be a surprise!” James calls back.

“A surprise for your dad, not for me Jameson.”

Avery cackles from the kitchen and James rolls his eyes at her. “We’re fine, I promise,” he reassures her.

“Okay, just be done before everyone gets here. Bucky’s stalling your dad for as long as possible but I know he’ll want to come home soon.”

When Y/N is finally allowed downstairs, she’s impressed with their work. Red, white, and blue streamers are hung all across the ceiling as well as helium balloons that say ‘Happy Birthday America!’ except America is crossed out with Sharpie and ‘Steve Rogers’ is written in her kids’ handwriting instead. In the living room, several games are put out on the coffee table and a playlist full of patriotic movies is ready to be played on the TV. All her friends (minus Bucky and Steve) are in the living room, having a laugh at all the funny touches on the decorations. Their dining table was filled with food their friends brought for the potluck, and for some reason, James had blasted (and looped) a remix of the Star-Spangled Banner and Happy Birthday.

“Do you like it, Mom?” Y/N hears before turning around and facing her kids. Avery’s hand was grasped in James’ and her heart melts. How did I get so lucky? she asks herself.

She gives them a huge smile before enveloping both of them into a hug. “It’s amazing. Better than anything I could’ve done, that’s for sure.”

“Do you think, Dad’ll like it?” James mumbles into her shoulder.

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” a voice suddenly shouts. The three pull apart to find Steve standing at the entrance of the living room with a huge grin on his face. Bucky stands behind him, chuckling at his reaction.

Y/N’s smile widens at the sight of her husband. “There’s your answer, James.”

The party is everything Steve could have really asked for. The food was great, his company was even better, and the thoughtfulness of his kids was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

When the night gets darker, the party of people head to the roof of the building so they can watch the fireworks. As they wait, Avery has everyone engrossed in a story of how James followed her on a date with a boy she really liked, Peter Parker. Steve stood at the edge of the crowd, smiling at how happy his kids and his wife looked. He feels a presence beside him and doesn’t need to look to know who it is.

“You did pretty great, Steve,” Bucky tells him softly.

“With Avery and James?” he asks.

“With life, buddy.”

Steve hums contently as the two of them watch Avery cause a bubble of laughter to erupt from the group. James punches her playfully on the arm, but the smile is still evident on his face.

“How’s Steph?” Steve asks him.

“She’s good. She’s with her mom for the weekend,” Bucky answers quietly.

“And how are you and Dolores?”

Bucky is silent for a few seconds. He clears his throat before saying, “Talking. We’re trying to work it out for Steph’s sake. She doesn’t deserve to have a broken family.”

Steve puts a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Buck. You’re a good father,” he tells his best friend.

Bucky remains silent. After a few minutes of silence, Bucky’s conscious drowns him in guild and he speaks up, “I kissed Y/N when we were younger. It was the night you learned you passed the bar. I told her I thought I made a mistake marrying Dolores, and shit…I don’t even know what I was thinking because I knew she probably loved you. I’m so sorry, Steve. I never told you because you’re my best friend and—”

“Bucky,” Steve cuts him off with a small, sympathetic smile, “It’s okay. I know.”

Bucky’s brows shoot up. “You know?” he asks.

Steve nods, “Y/N told me. Y/N tells me everything.”

Bucky exhales, “Ah.”

“I’m not mad,” Steve tells him.

“You’re not?”

“I am married to her and still best friends with you, aren’t I?”

Bucky chuckles and looks down. He doesn’t deserve Steve, Bucky thinks. But he’s damn grateful a guy like him is in his life. “I’m still sorry,” he says.

“It’s okay, Bucky. I mean it,” Steve says, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

The two stand in comfortable silence when the fireworks finally start to go off. The roof glows with red light and Steve can’t help but admire how beautiful Y/N looks with the glow of light on her skin. Avery has her head on Y/N’s shoulder while Jameson has an arm wrapped around her torso. Steve notices Bucky admiring his family too.

“You know,” Steve starts, “she loved you when we were younger. I actually thought the two of you would be great together and wanted her to ask you out. She was about to.”

Bucky looks at him. “Really,” he asks suspiciously.

“Mhmm,” Steve hums, still looking at the fireworks. “And did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Love her?”

Bucky is silent. He stares at Steve’s side profile; he’s still staring up at the fireworks without a care in the world.

Bucky sighs and answers honestly, “All throughout college, even when I was with Dolores. But guessing by your reaction, I think you already knew that.”

Steve finally glances in his direction, “I’m your best friend. Of course, I knew.”

“Did I ever have a chance with her?”

“Yeah,” Steve says, finally looking at Bucky, “once you did.”

Bucky sighs, “How’d you do it? How’d you find someone you love so naturally?”

Steve shakes his head, his eyes trained on his wife and his kids. They looked so happy, living in their own little bubble. Steve smiles softly before saying, “I stuck around.”

Bucky nods wordlessly before turning his attention back to the fireworks above. Steve continues to stare at his family when Y/N turns around and catches his gaze. Despite the night sky, her eyes are bright and filled with joy and love.

Steve smiles widely at her.

And in their own imperfect, but beautiful bubble, Y/N smiles back.

---

steve rogers taglist: @milea​

[norbaum]

                                     but when you 𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘵 the light i 𝑅𝐸𝒜𝐿𝐼𝒵𝐸...

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆:

✧ ( jack gilinsky + 21 + cis male + he/him ) — did you see 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐘 ‘𝐍𝐎𝐑’ 𝐁𝐀𝐔𝐌 walking down 3rd ? rumor has it they are a 𝐁𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑 @ 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄 & 𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 and have lived in 𝟐𝟐𝟑 e 66th st 𝐀𝐏𝐓 𝟒𝟎𝟏 for 𝐀 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐅. i’d describe them as ( 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙-𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙙 ) but ( 𝙜𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 ), and when they pass by i’m always reminded of 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊, 𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐌 𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐍, & 𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝟏𝟎 𝐃𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑. ( ollie, 22, they/them, est )

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒:

         one half ( the younger ) of the baum twins — the self-proclaimed christmas tree twins but really, it’s their parents’ fault ; works the first shift at the sunrise baking the bulk of goods for the day && has a love for baking in general ; a senior at NYU studying an individualized track of architecture ; a kind soul who genuinely means well even if he misses the point a bit ( read : a himbo ).

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘:

— norway baum was born in a buffalo, new york hospital two minutes and forty-three seconds after his sister fir baum, and unlike his sister, did not scream upon his arrival into the world. it snowed on that december night, CHRISTMAS EVE, an irrelevant fact considering the baums, jewish in heritage, did not celebrate. their parents knew quite in advance that their family would be increasing by two, so it’s anyone’s guess why instead of picking nice normal names for their children they settled on ( as the twins would realize as they got older ) two versions of what amounted to christmas tree.

— nor supposes he ought to be thankful they didn’t name him spruce, because at least norway ( despite also being a country ) could be shortened to a mildly acceptable nickname. instead they graciously made that his middle name leaving every time he gets carded to be an adventure in dubious looks as someone read “norway spruce baum” across the shiny plastic.

— the twins’ entrance into the world would remain a blueprint for most of their lives, fir — the feral child, nor — the calmer but dumber one ; though unlike predicted, they did not balance each other out ( at least in the sense that their parents hoped ). instead it was excruciatingly obvious from the moment they were capable of semi-complex thought that they would be absolute hellions together.

— they grew as thick as thieves as they got older, outgrowing the hellion age soon enough, but only to enter the scheming menaces phase that some may argue they still haven’t left. there were times they had their differences, sure, but in the end they never amounted more to a ripple in the ocean, quickly forgiven and on to the next grand thing.

— they were raised very comfortably in a large house some might consider a mansion ( a modest one at that ), having been privileged enough to be born into the lower upper class. the baums were a rather practical family all the same, in spite of the big house and healthy number of zeros in their bank account, raising their children to be humble, polite, and hardworking : for the most part succeeding ( hardworking might be a matter of perspective ).

— for high school, they attended the local prestigious private co-ed school, nichols ; nor apparently not quite as dumb as everyone seemed to think considering his passing of the entrance exams and decent grades to back that up. nor graduated from nichols ranked surprisingly well, thanks to apparent natural abilities in math and physics.

— college was a toss up, but the choice quickly become a no-brainer when fir was also accepted into NYU. move-in day was a flurry of excitement, most notably the first time the twins would be living ( somewhat ) apart in different dorms thanks to random housing placement and a no co-ed room policy. that excitement lasted about six days for nor, when he became frustrated with the fact that his new roommate, though by almost all accounts PLEASANT, could not seemingly read his mind.

— several other factors, one of which was definitely not separation anxiety, lead them to room together with a few of their mutual friends their sophomore year, and then seek an apartment together the summer before their junior year.

— the 66th st hadn’t really been somewhere nor had frequented, though the neighborhood was known to be affordable and good for students seeking reasonably priced apartments. besides, the apartments were nice, not such a bad commute from school, and they both needed jobs if they wanted to continue to continue to have fun : for though their parents’ generosity extended to both their tuition and rent, it did not extend to spending money.

— in spite of their chaotic energy, they somehow landed one of the apartments on the block and moved in the beginning of august before their junior year ( august 2019 ).

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂:

— nor is one of the bakers at sunrise on weekdays and saturdays, likely with the 4 am shift that makes the bulk of the baked goods for the morning rush. he also helps with the counter if needed when the shop opens. he’s kicking down the door of 401 a little after 9 am on weekdays just in time to bring fir breakfast and go to class, and noon on weekends. he’d always been a bit of an early riser ( though 4 am isn’t really an acceptable time for anyone, it’s something he’s grown accustomed to ), and luckily functions well on just five hours of sleep or so. he is prone to taking about an hour and a half nap in the afternoons, though. he does enjoy his work, especially walking through the near abandoned corner at the wee hours of morning.

— at NYU nor studies an individualized track in architecture through the gallatin school of individualized study ; his track combines studies in architecture with structural classes in the tandon school of engineering so he can better understand practicality and the importance of structural-based architecture.

— has played hockey since he was quite young and the baums were looking for some way to burn off his energy. a sports town like buffalo it was a pretty obvious choice. he played up through high school, until an injury and two surgeries near the end of his junior year pretty much put an end to any serious athletic scholarships to a hockey school. he still played his senior year, but was advised against the rigors of college hockey. it was also in this time that he discovered his love of baking. he has played for fun nearby on one of the beer league teams the past couple years.

— as mentioned above, he really started to get into baking end of his junior year and senior year when he was either in recovery or benched a lot and wanted to contribute something. he bonded with one of his grandmothers over this time and he definitely loves making her recipes even now !! he’s also definitely the type to make baked goods for the neighbors. he started out beginning of last season at sunrise just doing regular cashier stuff but in a pinch when they were running low on something popular and they didn’t have any bakers on hand he was able to whip up a batch and saved the day and after that his manager asked him if he wanted to be one of the bakers.

— of the two of them, nor is the one more likely to cook, but they probably still rely a bit too heavily on ordering take out ( they are trying their best ).

— nor is quite neat, but more due to the fact he doesn’t own very much for things to get messy.

— has plants in his room and absolutely talks to them

— probably falls asleep while rewatching episodes of the great british bakeoff every night.

— sings in the shower and hums or sings quietly under his breath when he bakes. he’s really not that bad but he definitely lacks the creativity to do songwriting or talent to play an instrument so don’t ask.

— fir and nor have successfully gone to each other’s classes before despite being fraternal, most notably the longest gambit they ran sophomore year of high school where nor went to fir’s math class and she went to his history class and they kept it up until parent-teacher conferences in october ( something they had forgotten to take into consideration ) and their scheme was then exposed and they were subsequently grounded.

— he’s not straight and very much just loves who he loves. that being said, his tendency to look past people’s flaws and hand out second chances has gotten his heart broken a few times and has resulted in fir taking to examining anyone he shows the vaguest interest in under a microscope ( and possibly taken to interrogation ).

— fir and nor co-run the most chaotic tik tok @xmastreez. it has no real purpose or direction and mostly consists of capturing random shenanigans of each other, themselves, or random people. they have a modest following.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘:

— put bluntly, nor is a rather kind and gentle soul ; he tends to want to see the best in people and that leads to him coming across rather naive. that may be true in a sense, but it’s less due to ignorance and more that he hasn’t let any hardship or heartbreak get in the way of his worldview. the exception to this is of course anyone who has hurt fir ; you will then learn that he’s very good at holding grudges too.

— nor isn’t someone to worry about the future very much. there was a point early in high school when he did, but after the injury his junior year, he took on a very one week, one day at a time sort of mentality. he is quite happy to live in the moment for now.

— he’s a hard worker, but only when it comes to things that he likes or wants to learn. he’ll put 100% into anything he deems worthy : his baking, hockey, certain classes of study, but try to get him to read something he doesn’t want to or learn something he dislikes and he will become the biggest slacker you have ever seen.

— he and fir bounce well off each other and though nor may be the more responsible one, it’s clear that fir is more of the leader of the two and that his resolve when it comes to his sister’s absurd ideas is not very strong. that being said he can be very protective of fir ( though not overbearingly so ), in a way that can be seen as quite endearing.

— nor is smart, but only in the context of his classwork. outside the classroom or the bakery, and especially in day-to-day interactions, nor just seems to be lacking a certain brand of common sense.

— honestly he’s a fucking himbo. need i say more.

𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄:

— 5′11″ ( one inch taller than fir, a fact hotly contested between them and many times a moot point considering she likes to wear heels ), rather fit thanks to keeping up hockey as a hobby.

— brown eyes, skin that tends to always look a little sunkissed even in the middle of winter, dark brown hair that fluctuates in length, sometimes a bit short, usually a bit longer so that it starts to curl slightly.

— style : he likes black skinny jeans or semi-fitted army green pants that probably get covered in flour too quickly but he wears them to work anyway, and fitted t-shirts in any color. he’s a fan of hoodies, cycling through an old nichols hockey one, an adidas branded one, and a newer nyu sweatshirt he got when he committed to the university. he considers hoodies adequate enough for most of the winter, and hey he’s never really gotten sick from walking to class in just that so why change ?? though he may on occasion throw on a denim jacket over a hoodie. he wears practical boots when it isn’t too hot ( unlike his sister ).  — ref: yes, yes, and yes

— jewelry : nor’s not one for accessories, limited to a couple simple silver necklaces and an analogue watch with a brown leather band that probably takes him a little too long to read.

— scars, tattoos, etc : no tattoos ; a small well-healed scar over his left cheekbone from a hockey accident ( near invisible and most people don’t know it’s there unless they’re close or looking ), several other small scars on his legs and hands that he can’t recall what they’re from ; small birthmark on the outside of his right thigh.

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒:

🎵i wanna ~𝘷𝘪𝘣𝘦~ with somebody🎵 🎵feel the ᶜʰᵉᵐ with someboᵈʸʸʸʸʸʸ🎵

𝐎𝐎𝐂:

         hello everyone !! i’m ollie ( 22, est, they/them pronouns ) one of your admins. i am pretty much always on discord so hmu there pls, thank you so much for joining 66th, and i can’t wait to vibe w you all !!!!

[anemonenemerosa]

Hello hello,

here we go. Thank you for staying with me and thank you @lumosinlove for creating this world =)

This is still dark (but we’re getting a bit better) so please stay safe.

Chapter 10

They stopped in front of a big apartment-building, windows mostly dark, it was almost one in the morning. There was no doorman, no entry hall to the building, just a corridor leading to stairs and a concerningly dingy lift. Ouais, enfin… maybe I pay with my kidneys for this, after all.

The door to the flat opened, Regulus was pushed in and all but froze. He had never seen such a place.

There was no entrance hall in here either, the front door directly opened into a small living room with an open kitchen and a dinner table shoved into a corner, half hidden behind an overloaded laundry rack.

The windowsills were crammed with pot-plants in several states of... health? survival? decay? Books and knickknacks were messily shoved into the tall but sloping shelves lining the walls, which were painted in a soft warm yellow, making the room look sunny and warm, even in the middle of the night.

Nothing, not even the chairs or precariously crooked shelves seemed to belong to the same set of furniture. And was one of the table-legs different from the others?

It was... all over the place, really.

The worn maroon rug in the living area clashed horribly with the big, ugly purple corduroy couch and the mismatched and multicoloured throw pillows.

Posters of 80's movies -Regulus recognised Ghost Busters and Back to the Future- and lots of unframed photographs almost covered the wall behind the couch.

On the far wall were three doors, one closed, one revealing bits of a very messy bedroom, the other ajar, sporting a poster of a rather ancient wooden privy... What. The. Hell.

Regulus did not know what to make of this. He somehow loved it instantly while simultaneously cringing over all the chaos and all the stuff crammed in here. His, stylistically uninspired, mother would probably die of shock at the view and somehow that made the place a little more endearing to him.

However, he always thought of himself as tidy and some part of him died just a bit at the sight of the mismatched socks and shirts littering the part of the bedroom-floor he could see. This place, starkly contrasting the house he grew up in was bursting with life, messy and welcoming instead of an assembly of model rooms resembling what was shown in some posh interior-design magazine. This is what a home looks like, Regulus decided.

He allowed himself to be ushered further inside.

"Leave you shoes here please and put your coat..." Regulus turned around as the sentence did not continue and saw Ben looking at the overflowing coatrack behind the door.

"...Put your coat somewhere you will find it again" he concluded, nodding to himself.

Mateo already went past them into the kitchen and dived headfirst into the fridge. "We have some left-over Minestrone from yesterday, if you want, Reg."

Regulus turned, having disposed of his coat on one of the chairs. As he didn't answer for long enough to be considered impolite, Mateo lifted his head from the fridge, noticing Regulus blank stare

"Is it OK, if we call you Reg? Regulus sounds so stiff..." This warm, infuriatingly disarming, smile. Regulus could only nod.

These people rendered him speechless at a disturbing rate. Usually, he chose not to speak but with them, he often couldn't.

The only one who had ever called him Reg was Sirius and even he stopped that years ago. Could he really be Reg again? Was he allowed to? No, a malicious voice echoed through his head. You do not deserve that comfort. Remember what you did. Regulus felt sick.

"Soooo... Minestrone?" – "I am not hungry, but thank you" Regulus looked at Mateo, hoping he would not call him Reg, regretting his thoughtless agreement.

"When’s the last time you eaten?" Ben asked as he came from the Bedroom in striped Pyjama-bottoms and an old shirt. Regulus tried to remember if he had had lunch today. Not good.

"If you need to think about it, it is too long ago. You eat." The man stated as Mateo chuckled and put a pot on the stove.

"Do never deny again that you are a freaking mother hen", he joked while walking into the bedroom, probably to change, too.

Regulus hovered in the room, wary and utterly confused. He struggled to maintain a safe distance, still trying to fathom what's going on and why these strangers were more welcoming and affectionate than his family ever been.

A quiet but reckless voice in his mind - very different from the sneer that chimed up just a minute ago and sounding suspiciously similar to a younger Sirius- reminded him that he fucked up already and that he might as well go and enjoy his time while the universe and/or his mother were probably already in preparation to take him down.

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

A while later he was seated on the ugly, lumpy couch, nursing a bowl of minestrone. He was clad in a much too small shirt ("this is the biggest shirt we have, you are just a giant") and borrowed underwear (his blood-stained sweatpants were soaking in the sink along with his, also bloody, shirt) and wrapped in a baby blue blanket with pink chickens on it. Why does such an item even exist?  

The TV provided mindless background-noise while Ben and Mateo chattered along about anything and everything. Regulus just sat there in silence and listened intently. He never met people who would just go on and lay out their life in front of a person they just met. Let alone a person they found bleeding in the shower, mid-meltdown... Maybe their life history hinted on why they were so careless with private information.

And they really were. They told him everything and Regulus was confident he could write their memoirs by now.

Apparently, Mateo grew up in Manaus, Brazil So, it was Portuguese, not Spanish. ("That's where Rio Negro and Rio Solimões meet to form the Amazonas" The more you know...) He came to the US to study medicine on a scholarship, is in the last weeks of his training and only stays in Slytherin because-

"One cannot choose their training hospitals on that scholarship. No offense, mate." None taken.

They recounted how they met almost five years ago at an airport.  That, after spending eight hours waiting for their delayed flight, they were joined at the hip. "Metaphorically and literally." Regulus went bright red at the innuendo while Ben patted his back sympathetically, shaking with suppressed laughter. He and Mateo were huddled up together in a yellow blanket with... Flamingos? Where did they even get these bird-themed things?

Ben had a sister, Josephine, who stayed here during semester breaks ("But do call her Jo or she will end you.") After Regulus gave a pointed look to the closed door, he was informed that he did not need to worry about their noise as she slept like the dead and even overslept a fire alarm in the building last summer.

Jo was 18, like Regulus but already in her Sophomore at Boston University as she skipped a year in middle school. "Got herself a scholarship and does computer-sciences, the insufferable nerd and know-it-all."

"She's really great, Reg. Ben is just her brother and thus, bound to think she’s annoying." Mateo interrupted Bens speech about his sister.

Regulus allowed himself a minute of going over the relationship with his own brother. Sirius was annoying. Very annoying, to be exact. But if anyone except him had called him out in the past, Regulus remembered feeling a little surge of protection against the git he was related to... maybe this was a siblings-thing.

He focused back on the conversation in front of him, fascinated by the insight of other people’s relations and upbringing.

The siblings grew up in Bristol, Great Britain, and moved to New York when Ben was seventeen and Jo ten but he did not elaborate on why they came here. That’s why I couldn’t place the accent.

Ben had studied Art History at NYU and actually worked at the Art Gallery in the city-centre. Cleaning the rink in the evenings was his means to save money for a tattoo shop he wanted to open in Boston, where they would move, come February, for Mateo’s new job.

He got informed that a note has been shoved under Jos door, announcing his presence, a spare toothbrush was presented and then, at nearly half past two in the morning, he is left for the night with a hug (!) from both of them. How touchy they are.

Regulus was not cuddly, never had been.

Really? You loved to snuggle up with Sirius in bed. The voice of reckless young Sirius supplied unhelpfully. This whole situation was completely surreal but also comfortingly normal.

This is a dream or, more likely, a godamn fever-trip. C’est pourri! This is shit! Regulus sighed.

These people were mad... hell, they didn't even know him. Yet, they took him in, fed him (very good) soup and freaking hugged him good night. They probably even stayed awake that long, filling the air with their complete life-story to keep him from feeling lonely... Allez savoir pourquoi! God knows why!

Reckless young Sirius suggested again to just roll with it and Regulus began to wonder whether he, instead of them, had gone mad.

This life he had a short glimpse into, this night was not real for him. He couldn't have that, considering the family he was born into and his obligation to live up to their expectations. Not to mention that he absolutely did not deserve being cared for after he de facto kicked his brother in the face ruined and his career.

The tiny voice piped up again, but Regulus silenced it with an exasperated groan. Yep, mad.

He surely would not sleep here on this odd couch. He would sit here, mull over all the shit that happened in just this one day, wait for them to wake up to thank them appropriately, return to the Malfoys and sleep there for a week to recompose himself.

[filthy-reckless-rp]

♛ Spotted on the Upper East Side…

Name: Nathaniel Archibald Pronouns: He/Him Age: 19 years old Hometown: Upper East Side, NY Occupation: Sophomore at NYU Social Status: Insider (or Outsider, depending on who you ask) Faceclaim: Tyler Posey

Who Is Nate?

“The money, the drugs, the privileges, they're just keeping us numb, so we don't notice it's better out there in the real world.”

Nate Archibald, our very own Golden Boy, finally free of your daddy’s expectations. How does it feel? Not the whole ‘public arrest for embezzlement’ thing of course. Oh, or the whole ‘permanently tarnished reputation’ thing. Needless to say but I’ll say it anyway, your life sure has changed since you were St Jude’s pride and joy. Once Dartmouth bound, destined to wed Blair Waldorf and the most popular person since Carter Baizen was one of us- you really had it all. You were never happy though Nate. You’ve always tried to do the right thing, make your family proud and be the person you’ve always been expected to be. You tried to ignore the things you wanted, look away from the person you’d become but it all crumbled in the end. Maybe you’re happier now, knocked off your high horse and starting over as just plain old Nate. Still sweet, kind and decent. Or, you were until I showed up again. Oops.

A Little Extra

Nate Archibald grew up in the lap of luxury. He never had to worry about anything growing up. In fact, he barely even had to think for himself which made it easier for his dad to mold him into the perfect son. Nate could do whatever he wanted, spend however much he wanted and never get in trouble so long as he followed ‘the plan’. All he had to do was play lacrosse, go to Dartmouth, marry Blair Waldorf and follow in his father’s footsteps in the company. All he had to do was be an Archibald. He learned quickly that having everything wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Nate craved freedom. He wanted to make mistakes and have to bail himself out. He wanted to make his own decisions, have his own opinions and love whoever he wanted to love. Although, he did love Blair, of course he did. Still does. Just...not the way he loved Serena van der Woodsen. Who doesn’t know about that messy love triangle, right? The best friend and the boyfriend. Nothing was ever easy no matter how much Nate wished it could be sometimes. Blair, Serena and Chuck were all family he really needed though. The self-dubbed ‘Non-Judging Breakfast Club’ are the most important people to him in the world. Still, Nate had been steadily falling out of love with their world. The Upper East Side, the money, the drugs, the privileges... He wanted to meet new people, hear new ideas and have everything he thought he ever knew challenged. Nate never dreamed he’d be able to. Of course, the price was steep even for the wallet of an Archibald. His father was arrested publicly at the annual Fairchild Ball and from there things spiraled steadily downward. He was the Golden Boy no more. Almost everyone turned their backs on him, he and his mom lost the house (she was in denial, leaving Nate for her Vanderbilt family in California) and he’d never felt so lost. He wanted Serena but didn’t want to hurt Blair. He wanted to run to Chuck but he was too proud. In a twist of fate, Dan Humphrey came along and gave Nate a roof over his head and a new point of view. Things weren’t easy but after Gossip Girl was taken down, well, they started to settle. By the time he was at his chosen college of NYU, dating the girl he’d been in love with for forever, with his NJBC together again, the devastation his father had created was almost forgotten. Almost. Then, before Gossip Girl made that first terrifying post announcing her return, Nate disappeared. He’s been gone a month of summer already with barely an explanation... Who knows when our Golden Boy will come home. And where’s he been? Oh, and why? Hopefully the Upper East Side will have their answers soon.

What Does Gossip Girl Have On Them?

Nate was a part of the original takedown. He’d had enough of GG, especially after his father’s arrest at the very public Fairchild Ball. He was done with her prodding, poking and casually cruel comments. Before the takedown, Nate and Serena had been...secretly dating. Behind Blair’s back (again). It had just sorta happened in an explosion of feelings and bad decisions and longing. They broke up in the middle of the mess that was Nate’s life but once everything had started to settle, they wanted to rekindle things. The NJBC had come back together again like they used to- before the Shepherd Wedding and Serena’s original departure. Blair even gave her reluctant blessing for the couple. Nate had never been happier in his whole, entire life. For a while, things were perfect. Then he received a direct message from Gossip Girl... She was going to expose Nate and Serena’s secret dating from before in a big, hurtful way. After everything they’d been through- especially Serena and Blair- he couldn’t risk it happening. She told him to leave or else the post would be sent immediately so Nate packed up and no one has seen him since.

Connections

Serena van der Woodsen - the love of his life, soulmate with terrible timing and official girlfriend. Well, before he ghosted. Things might be a little complicated now.

Blair Waldorf - his girlfriend from the time they were toddlers. They were supposed to get married, you know? But things changed, they both changed and even though it was hard, they’ve managed to get to a good place now. Nate will always love Blair.

Chuck Bass - his best friend in the world. He loves Chuck no matter what, even when he makes it hard. They’re a forever kind of deal, you know?

Dan Humphrey - Nate always secretly thought Dan was so cool and wanted to be friends with him (Dan...did not feel quite the same). They ended up friends, roommates and confidants.

Nick, Chris, Peter, Juliette and Tripp Vanderbilt - his Vanderbilt (mom’s side of the family) cousins.

Gabriela and Elena Archibald - his Archibald (dad’s side of the family) cousins. Howard (his dad) was one of three brothers.

[fletcherr]

hi ! i’m maren and i’m bad at intros ! and bios ! and things in general ! ... why am i here again ? uhm. anyway ! this is fletcher and uh ... he hates it here askdjfs like i can’t lie i’m so sorry but for the time being it’s ... lowkey the truth ? i’m writing this part of the post first so fingers crossed i manage to keep this short and to the point. if there’s no tldr it’s because this was supposed to be it. ( spoiler ; i failed. it’s so fucking long you literally do not have to read it i am so sorry. ) i’m super excited to be here and cannot wait to get to know you and your muses and be a part of this amazing group !!

THE APP !

˖ °╰ ⌜ [ MUSE TEN, ROBERT PATTINSON, 31, CIS MALE, HE/HIM ] hey, have you seen FLETCHER DUNCAN ? last time i saw them i think they were hanging around THE ROOFTOP. they can kind of be VEHEMENT but can also be pretty HAUGHTY. they’re often caught listening to SUPERSTAR SH*T - DOMINIC FIKE ! they also tend to remind me of cheap cigarettes put out in still half full glasses of rare bourbon, flipping off paparazzi, showing up to important meetings bleary-eyed and twenty minutes late, wearing sunglasses inside and black hoodies on the hottest day of summer, feeling uninspired for months then writing three albums worth of songs in two weeks ! let me know if you’ve seen them around, they’ve been working at the championship around FOUR MONTHS and they’re late for their shift !

THE BASICS !

full name: fletcher ralph duncan ( born fletcher ralph irvine )

nicknames: prefers fletcher, but is okay with fletch or duncan

date of birth: november 18th, 1989

gender: cis male

pronouns: he / him

height: 6′1

tattoos: some stupid ones without any deeper meaning to them on his arms and thighs, for sure

THE ( VERY ) IN - DEPTH ! tw for mentions of abuse of drugs and alcohol, terminal illness, hospitals, and death

after years of marriage, fletcher’s parents had him when they were both about to enter their forties, as one last, final attempt to find back to the love they’d had for each other when they started dating way back in high school. it didn’t work. his father left  when fletcher was four; leaving divorce papers on the kitchen table two weeks before christmas. him and his mother, winnie, moved from one of the suburbs to a smaller, more affordable apartment in brooklyn. they were never quite comfortable, money-wise, but they didn’t struggle either. two years after the move, his mother started seeing a guy she’d been introduced to through friends from work. fletcher adored richard from the first time they met, and as the years went by he came to consider him more of a dad than he ever did the one who left. that’s probably why he didn’t mourn when his father passed suddenly and unexpectedly the summer he turned ten. the following summer, winnie and richard married, and both her and fletcher completely rid themselves of the man who walked out on them when they both changed their last name from his to richard’s - duncan.

when richard moved in, he’d brought an electric guitar and a sparse record collection with him. these were fletcher’s first real introduction to music. he dove in head first. there’s no telling how many evenings they sat in the living room, records playing, or fletcher practicing on the guitar until he was caught up with his dad’s guitar skills. turns out, he was actually a bit of a natural. after he’d mastered his first instrument, he moved onto another. his mother - who’d been a classically trained, lifetimes ago - taught him to the best of her ability on a keyboard they got from a yard sale. he spent hours at a time in record stores. championship vinyl had always been richard’s favorite, and it wasn’t long until it was his favorite too. consuming music wasn’t enough, though. by the time he was in high school, fletcher was writing his own songs; creating his own music. of course - none of it was ever remotely up to par with the songs he kept discovering, but it didn’t matter. him and two kindred spirits he met at school formed a band, performing covers and the stuff he wrote. to afford actual gig gear - not that they ever booked many of those - fletcher applied for a part time job the only place he could think to; championship vinyl. though he'd been a regular for the better part of a decade by that time, he was still in disbelief and awe when he got the job.

fletcher thrived at championship. he took on all the shifts his schedule would allow him, and even skipped class to cover for anyone that asked. even when he was off the clock, he’d hang around. if he wasn’t flicking through new inventory or catching up with the whoever was at work, he’d be sitting on the rooftop with his guitar, a pen and a roll of receipt paper - scratching down song ideas and testing out new material. things were looking up; he was a creatively fulfilled high school senior with a job he loved, parents that supported- and loved him unconditionally, and he’d just been accepted into nyu. therefore, it rocked his world when his dad stopped by during one of his shifts, only to collapse while fletcher had his back turned to find a rare vinyl he’d set aside for him as a surprise. 

the diagnosis was a death sentence. months flew by in the blink of an eye, and he watched the only dad he’d ever truly known wither away before his eyes. weeks shy of a year to the date of the diagnosis, on the day richard duncan passed away, his son brought the old record player and the by now weathered records from the brooklyn apartment to the hospital room. he drew his last breath surrounded by the music and the family he loved.

not recently having gone through the same kind of world crumbling sorrow and the revelation about not wasting away and following your dreams that walks that’s bound to follow, his bandmates weren’t all that keen on the plan fletcher presented them with; movin to la and making it in music. really making it. with one of three members hellbent on leaving, the band broke up. they never could agree on a name, anyway. he turned in his resignation at championship, and jokingly promised james namsen to not come back until he’d won a grammy. winnie, though heartbroken to first lose the love of her life, and now having her son move away, had nothing but support and encouragement to offer when he announced he’d be dropping out of college to pursue music.

the first two years, nothing happened. he was living and working in downtown la; the apartment he shared with four roommates was just shy of being a shoebox, and the franchise record  store he eventually scored a job at lacked the soul and the hum of energy he was used to from championship back in new york. just as ambition and hope was wearing thin, things were starting to look up for him. he was meeting the right people in the right places, at the right times. after opening for a few up and coming acts, he was approached by a manager, who in turn introduced him to a few labels. though he was very aware he wasn’t a strong vocalist, he was confident in himself as a musician and a songwriter, and it seemed so was the internationally renowned label that ended up offering him a contract. his first single dropped not even a year later, soon followed by his debut album.

though his star was slowly rising, the album made only a miniscule splash. he toured it as an opening act and played a handful of shows on each coast. going back into the studio to work on the next album felt different. making the first one hadn’t felt authentic. not the process, nor the result. he’d been too agreeable; too eager to please and too eager to show he was worth everyone’s time and money. this time around, he was more assertive and demanded more control over the creative process. less co-writers were brought in, and he now had a say in which producers he worked with. his sophomore album released to generally positive reviews and ratings, but it seemed that would be it. then, almost over night, his shit was doing numbers. big numbers. 

sure - his label was running some promo for his sophomore album, but it seemed most people were catching wind of his stuff by word of mouth. people were actually buying his albums. both of them. when tickets to his second headline tour went on sale, they sold out in days. dates were added and venues were upgraded to answer the growing demand for tickets as more and more people found his music. he was playing famous venues now; legendary venues. festivals with hundreds of thousands of attendees. all over the country. all over the world. if he didn’t have a microphone or a guitar in his hand, he had a beer. or vodka. maybe whiskey. sometimes a joint, sometimes pills. he was at parties, then he was hosting parties. then he was at parties hosted in his honor. for the first time in his life, he had money. hard, real, fuck you money. he paid off the student loan he’d racked up during his one year stint at nyu, and the mortgage on the apartment he’d grown up in. he bought a house in beverly hills, and a two story apartment in brooklyn - both of which had shelves custom made for the gilded statuettes and trophies declaring him to be the best in a slew of categories. he’d done it. he was twenty-six and on top of the world. invincible. and then his mom's heart gave out.

for the three years that followed, his career suffered as he partied harder. friends he’d known for years disappeared, and were replaced with new faces that all blurred together. there were scandals, but they too were all a blur - leaked pictures and videos; shows he decided last minute he didn’t wanna do; shows he couldn’t do because he showed up too far gone to stand upright. people who got too close to him on one of the bad days, who’s faces he scarred forever. arrests, and settlements made outside of court. the label was getting antsy too, and when it passed the two year mark of the last time he’d set foot in the studio, his team - headed by the same manager that been with him through it all; that’d seen potential and believed in him all those years ago - pleaded with him to get help. begrudgingly, fletcher agreed. after a few months at rehab, he returned - clean, and determined to get back to work. the process was longwinded and intense, but the finished product was, in his eyes, solid gold. and - luckily? surprisingly? - the world at large agreed.

he toured the album with dates booked at relatively smaller venues this time around, but everywhere was packed full to the brim with people. throughout the time working on the album he’d been doing okay; staying sober and surrounding himself with good intentioned people. but being back on the road took a toll on him he hadn’t expected, and it didn’t take long for him to turn to alcohol when it was so easily accessible all around him, at all times. still, things were fine, and he was even relearning to appreciate the electric energy of performing live in front of an audience. to celebrate the last show of the us leg of the tour, the label threw an afterparty for the band, the team, the crew, and their friends. as people were starting to leaving the venue, fletcher sent some members of his band and a couple of their friends ahead with a key to his suite at a hotel nearby, while he thanked the label executives that’d been at the show. when he showed up, a glass was shoved into his hand, and as the party picked back up, someone got out the pills they’d kept at the bottom of their pocket all night. when offered, fletcher - on top of the world once more - accepted. 

someone snitched. and to the media, no less. when confronted by his team, he denied it. after being open about his struggle to overcome addiction, something like this would be damning for the reputation he’d rebuilt over the last two years. which is why he lied through his teeth. but then the videos from the suite appeared online, and his ruse was up. the rest of the tour was cancelled, and after completing a thirty day program, he was back in brooklyn.

it took some convincing, but he eventually went along with the ‘find back to your roots by returning to where it all started’ plan his team had cooked up. he also agreed to let someone else run his social media accounts for the time being. how his manager had gotten him a job at championship, fletcher didn’t know. he suspected a monthly bribe the size of his paycheck and then some was involved. but then again, he’d never known james namsen to be that kind of guy. for the first few weeks, he showed up for his shifts - sometimes on time, sometimes not - kept his head down, tried to engage with as few customers and co-workers as possible, then ditched as soon as he was off the clock. but there’d always been something special about the record store on the corner of bedford and sterling. soon enough, he began occasionally going up to the rooftop once his shift was over. approaching customers to offer his service before they approached him. show up early to catch up with whoever was working the shift before him. if he was having a particularly good day, he’d stop by to hang around even if he wasn’t on the schedule. he was well aware he wasn’t always easy to be around - years of living the high life and putting up walls having made him cynical, and standoffish, and discourteous. even if the boy he’d been when he walked out of there years ago was long gone, championship vinyl had stayed the same. and though fletcher’s yet to admit it, being back felt like being home.